Ever Feel Invisible?

 In a world where social media has all but taken over, we have more lonely people than any time in history. FaceBook, Twitter, and all the others, give people, and especially young people, the false idea that they have hundreds of friends.
Addiction is rising among our children, and starting younger than ever.  The average child has tried either an illegal drug or alcohol by the age of 10!
 Last summer my daughter was junior staff at a christian camp during a week for 4-5th graders. She was confronted head on with a camper who was cutting herself. As a mom, this rocks my very world. These girls are still so young.
As a christian woman, who loves young people, I know the message that Jesus loves you, is one that must get through to all of these breaking hearts.
These kids are feeling like they are invisible to the world and everyone around them.
We MUST point these precious souls to the ONE who can rescue them from their loneliness and despair!

And by the way, it is not just young people who feel invisible. We must reach the world with the love of Christ!

Our youth group did this video to help get out the message that there is One to whom you are never invisible. 


Glen Lyn Youth Group

Now, open your eyes and look for those who feel invisible and show them the reflection of Christ!

Chasing After Their Hearts,
Glenda Johnson

It Is MONDAY , AGAIN!

Monday.
You are here again.
Monday.
All day today.

Must I get out of bed?
Only   24 hours long. Praise God!

Need  2 pots of coffee today.
Do I Have to get out of bed?
Attitude check...
Y complain? Monday comes around every 7 days.Time to learn to embrace it.

Chasing After Their Hearts (even on Mondays),
Glenda Johnson

Keeping A Different Kind Of List

<sup>I am thinking a lot about forgiveness today. As I do, I am comforted in the fact that Jesus has forgiven me for many things. I have discomfort today as well. My discomfort come from "List Keepers" You know, those who think it is their "God-Given appointment" to dig up anything wrong you have ever done in your life and "bring it into the light" for all to see. So as I struggle with a battle going on in the earthly realm, God gently reminds me, that the spiritual realm is where my strength come from. 


As I was praying this morning, this is the passage that came to my heart:</sup>

^{Luke 7:36-50}

 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner."

Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."
      "Tell me, teacher," he said.

 "Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"

 Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled."
      "You have judged correctly," Jesus said.

 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."

 Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."

The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"

 Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

 ^{As I read through this passage, a couple of things really jumped out at me.}

"If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner."

^{Really?! Jesus knew exactly who she was. Some say this was the woman who had been caught in adultery, that Jesus forgave. Whomever she is, people knew her sins. Furthermore, in reading this, unless you participated in her sin with her, you knew about it because it was being talked about. By "list keepers".}

Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."

 Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." 

She loved much. That is a powerful statement coming from the one who is the author of love! And Jesus also says she had MANY sins, and that they had ALL been forgiven.

That is comforting to me! Jesus can forgive my many sins. My love for Him matters! My love for other people matters! "List keepers" don't take into account love. That never seems to make it on the list.

  Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

These words spoke right into my soul this morning. I can go in peace knowing my sins have been forgiven and my faith has saved me!

One of the hardest things for Christians to do, is allow others to be forgiven. If Jesus has forgiven someone, do we the right to "keep a list"?

Hebrews 8:12 

For I will forgive their wickedness
      and will remember their sins no more.

To keep a list is to say you have more authority than God. That is a scary place to be. 

But The love thing.......Much love......

I wanted to know just what Jesus defined as love, since He equated her having loved much with forgiveness. Here is what I found:

1 Corinthians 13:1-7

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 

This is a powerful passage. This describes love the kind of love that God has for us. 

  

it keeps no record of wrongs.

  If we want to love like God, we MUST not keep any record of wrongs.

The response to that tends to be, "OK, I'll forgive, but I do not have to trust you!"

always trusts

If we are to love like God, we must trust. There is no love without trust. There is no argument that can be made to this except to choose to disobey God's Word.

I too, can be a "list keeper" of sins. As a matter of fact, I am guilty as charged. But today, I will burn that that list out of my mind, and out of my heart. The only reason I should care about someone's sin, is to lead them back to Jesus! Not to throw them and their sin into the public arena for ridicule. I have the ministry of reconciliation, not humiliation! And if Jesus has already forgiven that sin between the two of them, I am entering a realm that I do not belong in! And I don't know what has gone on between Jesus and another in their private prayer time!

I choose to be forgiven because I have much love.

For Jesus.

For others.

I am thankful Jesus remembers my sin no more!

I think I may become a " list keeper" of a different sort.

I will keep a record of the good I see others do and recognize it.

That is the start to Chasing after God's Heart!

Chasing After Their Hearts,


Glenda Johnson
womanaftergod@gmail.com
http://www.twitter.com/GlendaJohnson63
http://www.facebook.com/BibleBowlGlenda

Desiring Weakness? Never!!!

“ I am 100% sure that you have suffered a stroke in the cerebellum of your brain. It explains why you have such a severe headache, numbness on the left side of your body, and are having trouble speaking. We are going to admit you to the hospital and do some tests to see what caused the stroke and how extensive the damage is.”

The woman stared at the doctor in unbelief. She never expected that this would be where she was at this point in her life.

Everything about her future was uncertain. And she was frightened.

The next morning as she lay awake, preparing to go for the MRI, she was screaming in her mind, “ I am only 48 years old! I should not be lying here, having had a stroke.” The nursing tech came in and began to bathe the woman. Her anger turned to humiliation as she wondered if others would be bathing her from now on. The humiliation and anger returned as she was tethered to a tech just to walk. “Has my life become nothing more than that of a dog? To be walked on a leash and lead everywhere?”

Then the real questions started pouring out of her pounding head:

“ Will I ever be able to speak again? Will I be able to care for my family? Will I ever write again?”

A once confident, people loving person, was shying away from all people because she was embarrassed of her weakness. She did not desire to have her husband watch her. She did not take calls from her closest friend; she avoided all contact with others.

I can relate to the woman whose story I have been sharing. Actually, it is my story; my walk of uncertainty, and God used it to teach me a very important lesson.

As God used no less than 500 prayer warriors from across the United States and in several foreign countries to petition for my healing, God spoke to me, through my anger with this:

2 Corinthians 12:10

That is why for Christ’s' sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.

My strength came when I released my uncertain future and laid it at God's throne. I rested in His strength, and stopped trying to be strong on my own.

The diagnosis was not a stroke. The symptoms resolved after several days. I either had a migraine with neurological manifestations or a TIA. I am, by the grace of God, in His strength, healing and finding life just a little more certain these days.

What is uncertain? Everything about life is uncertain. 

What IS certain, is the ONE in whom I TRUST, and HIS strength that gets me through each moment.

Where will you choose to lay your uncertain journey today?

The heart of God waits to use your weakness as a powerful tool to show His strength!

Chase After His Heart today!!!

Chasing Their Hearts,

Glenda Johnson

Two Funerals and A Birthday

Two different churches.
Two different women .
Two different funerals.
One powerful message.

As I sat in the funerals services for two women I did not know personally over the last two weeks, I was moved in a very unexpected way.
One was 92, and the other 89. The both lived a long life.
As the women were remembered by family, friends, ministers, it occurred to me that their lives made a phenomenal difference in uncountable numbers of people.
Eternal difference.
I was moved to my very core as listened to the purpose with which each of these ladies lived out everyday.
And I began to wonder,
what is my life leaving behind?
Each day, as I am walking through my daily activities, what am I leaving in the wake of my life?
Is how I am living changing the lives around me for all eternity?

Yesterday I walked through my 48th birthday.
I realized something.
Unless I live to be 96 years old,
my life, here on earth, is more than half over.
I have already lived out, at least, half of the years I have to live.

This thought created a new sense of urgency in my heart for those around me.
Are they being pointed to Jesus by what is said and done?
I don't have a guarantee of  10 more years
to serve my family,
to point my neighbors to Jesus,
to be generous with the resources I have been entrusted with by God,
to remember to be filled with thankfulness.

This verse I believe was God's birthday present to me;


Colossians 4 
² Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. ³ And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. ⁴ Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. ⁵ Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. ⁶ Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

I am praying for open doors, opportunities, and grace and wisdom to serve people.
The rest of my life, no matter how few, or how many years, needs to be dedicated 100% to serving others like Jesus.
How about you?
Are you making the most of the very limited time you have?

I invite you to choose with me today, to chase after the hearts of all those around you for God.
After all, people are God's #1 priority, and He proved that when Jesus, His son, hung on that cross.

Chasing After Hearts,
Glenda Johnson

Today has been a day of:

Striving
To
Remember
Endless
Savior's
Security

As I went through the day struggling to hold on to the promises God has made in His Word, this very scripture the Holy Spirit lead me to:

1 Thessalonians 3:7

Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁷Brethren, for this reason, in [spite of all] our stress and crushing difficulties we have been filled with comfort and cheer about you [because of] your faith (the leaning of your whole personality on God in complete trust and confidence).

Stress comes and stress goes. 
It is good to know that leaning on God is the way for comfort during the stressful and crushing times in our lives.

God's Word; the true stress-buster!

Chasing After Hearts,
Glenda

A Place To Go

Every have a day when you just need someone who knows what you are are going through?
Someone to talk talk to?
Someone you can trust?
Me too. It can be very hard to find.
As listen and as I talk to people, I see a very common trend.
When you begin to share your story, some one will interject, " Well at least you don't have....yada yada yada, like I did".
I just want to scream! But I don't, I know people have lost the art of being a good listener. If I am part of this conversation as a third person, I try to re-direct it back to the person who is hurting and looking for compassion.
So where can we go, when we just need someone who completely understands and won't make our issue seem insignificant?

Hebrews 4
¹⁴Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. ¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Jesus knows what you and I are going through.
Everything, we are going through.
He has been there. He has walked through it.
And He conquered it. For us.

Today when you need someone who will listen, love you, and give you their undivided attention, go to the One I am choosing to turn to:
¹⁶ Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

You will never be interrupted, and you will be enveloped in a warm hug of mercy and grace.

What will you choose today?

Chasing After Hearts,
Glenda Johnson