Losing All

So Today is really day one of our 4 week journey my Mom & I started. I think its going to be really important to focus on Christ throughout this process because He is the only one who will give us the strength for a new day & to keep on going. So today's verse is going to be:

Philippians 3:7-8
"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things."

I think this verse is perfect for the journey we've just started....losing all for the sake of Christ. Isn't that what this whole thing is about anyway? About Him? How we can do this life for Him & serve & love like Him? It takes a lot of 'losing of self' to continue on a journey of being healthy. Its a sacrifice daily to say...OK Lord, I'm going to lose ALL for the sake of you, even if that means giving up an old way of eating, or an old routine, or a routine not filled with physical exercise. Its a NEW life, a life of losing all for the SAKE OF CHRIST. Whatever was to my profit (insert whatever filled you up) I now consider a loss for the the sake of Christ.

Stake your claim now! Claim that you ARE different because of Christ. Claim that you no longer have to live like a prisoner to self! He has changed you from the inside out & HE is making you into a new person.
What will you "lose for the sake of Christ" today?

A Life of Honor

So as most of you know the Lord has had me on a journey of honoring him with ALL of me. This was a journey that started back in 2004 & has manifested itself all throughout my life the last 5 years. One consistent theme though has been the area of Honoring Him with my physical health. The Lord has challenged me & pushed me to get up at 4:50 every morning (m-f) and work out at 5:30-6:30 as an act of worship to Him. Since July 21, 2008 I have been going consistently, apart from the vacations & the occasional 3 or 4 day work out weeks. But all in all I would say with 90% certainty I have been honoring him with my health. I started the Body For Life program on January 2, 2009 to serve as the way I base my meals. I have come to a plateau and I'm ready for the next challenge. I think the Lord is so sweet in how He knows where we are & knows what we need right when we need it.
Enter the phone call from my Mom today. She asked me to pray for her because she had just got done working out & asked that I would pray that she continues this journey.
So for the next 4 weeks I am going to partner with her in this journey. Praying, working out, and eating healthy I am going to do this with her! I have included our goals in this blog, see below.

Philippians 4:13 will be our theme!
13I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

__________________________________________________________________________

Janna & Joan’s Work out Plan
May 26, 2009 – June 29th 2009

For the next 4 weeks we will stick to our plan, we will be accountable to each other. We WILL NOT cheat (except on our cheat day) & we will call in every Monday to do a summary of our week.

Janna’s Goals:
To pray every morning that I give this over to God & that ultimately it is HE who is in control of my weight loss. As long as I honor Him with the goals I set, I will not be a disappointment.
To lose 2 lbs a week
To work out 5/6 times a week for one hour sessions
To continue eating 5 times a day, one carb, one protein & 2 veggies mixed in there
To have a cheat day or meal at least one time during my week

Joan’s Goals:
· Give workout/weight/food to God every morning! Say a prayer that he would help you to be mindful of what you put in your mouth & that everything would Honor HIM.
Work out a minimum of 3 times a week
Eat healthy every day
Don't forget your cheat day!!

Fruitful branch-life

"The God who has chosen me and planted me in Chirst as a branch has ensured that I will in every way be worhty of Jesus Christ." Andrew Murray

The Promise

So for some reason I woke up wide awake at about 4:30 this morning, not really normal for me especially since I was up at 11, and then 1 again...normally I would be dragging myself out of bed when the alarm went off at 4:50. After much time in prayer and in the word I now know why.

I had met with a friend last night & there are some huge life changes happening with her, changes that would and could change the rest of her life. Ultimately what we confirmed in our 4 hour talk last night was that there is a disconnect with her & the position God has in her life. She has allowed other things to be number one...and He has to be number one.
No matter what.

So...as I'm awake at 4:30 I am prompted to pray & pray & pray earnestly for her & the people currently in her life. (This is a new thing for me, I've always wanted to be a prayer warrior, and I believe this was that first step in that journey...) I was broken for her and the people in her life, ultimately with out God in the #1 spot in our hearts & lives we are living a dangerous life.
Its scary.
Its lonely.
So as I continued pray I am prompted to get in the word. I asked the Lord to reveal something to me. "Show me Lord why you have me up an hour earlier than normal, and why you have me here." He brought me to Galatians 3. This chapter talks about the law & how we no longer have to live under the law since the Seed, that which is Christ, came & did away with the law. It says in Gal 3:24-25 "So the law was put in charge to LEAD US TO CHRIST that we might be justified through FAITH. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. (Here's the kicker...) v29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and HEIRS according to the promise."
So as I read that; I am prompted to remind myself of that promise God gave to Abraham...so I read Genesis 12:1-3

1 The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.
2 "I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."

Then I read the commentary:
"God promises to bless Abram and make him great, but there was one condition. Abram had to do what God wanted him to do. This meant leaving his home & his friends and traveling to a NEW land where God promised to build a great nation from Abram's family. Abram obeyed, walking away from his home for God's promise of even greater blessings in the future.
God may be trying to lead you to a place of greater service and usefulness for him. Don't let the comfort and security of your present position make you miss God's plan for you."

And wow.
I sit.
And I know,
This was for my friend. I don't know what that looks like for her. I don't know if that just means a new place is putting the Lord first in her life. I don't know if that is a literal "get up and move" somewhere.
All I do know is that God is calling her to move with Him leading her.
She, as are all of us, HEIRS of this promise!! He WILL make us great, He WILL bless us, he WILL make our name great, and we WILL be a blessing to HIM....if we pick up and move.

So now, I ask you as I'm asking myself too....Will you allow God to fulfill this promise in YOUR life too? Will you allow him to make you great, even if it means losing everything?

Year Six

This Sunday, April 26th, marks the sixth year I've been married! I am so excited to be married for six years. It is such an accomplishment these days! I think the thing that defines my happiness so much, is the of marking how far my husband & I have come! Thinking back to our first couple years of marriage & the way we communicated & how we functioned as a family is vastly different then the way we operate to this day. The Lord has been our strength & is who we look to when we don't feel like getting through another day, but he also another part of our success can be attributed to the book: Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs.
This book transformed how we work through conflict & how we function as a married couple. The main principles that we took from this book was that the man needs Respect & the woman needs to be Loved. Plain & simple. Sounds pretty elementary to me too....but it is truth. Once we understood the concept of him showing me love & me showing him respect our conflicts are dissolved very quickly.
Its been an amazing journey filled with ups & down, hills & valleys, lows & highs, but we have learned so much & have gleaned so much from these past 6 years, that I can't wait till the next 20 to see what we learn in that time!!

Freedom!

So over the past 5 years, my husband & I have been on a journey of learning what it means to honor God with our finances. A huge catalyst for our change was when we read the book Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey: www.daveramsey.com
This book revolutionized how we pay our bills & structure our budget. He talks about paying off the smaller bills first & working your way up to the bigger ones. He also touches on the fact that not only is this an area of discipline, but God needs to be involved as well. Making prayer be the first thing you do before you jump into your next financial purchase. That was huge for us because we never had really let God into our financial lives. And now, today....because of the principles we learned from Ramsey we have become a family that is in control of our money, not controlled by it! Today is proof of that, we are paying off one of our biggest debts that we had incurred over the years!!! Praise GOD!!! He has changed us from the inside out & we have learned a lesson that has changed how we operate financially! This is a day to remember & celebrate!!! Thank you Lord!!

April Fools Day...but this is no joke!

I have been so blown away at the impact the Lord is allowing my little life to have on people! See...five years ago he started a work in my heart, one the required me to Love God will ALL of me...which meant giving him just that -->ALL of me. So through out that process he has exposed some of the deepest darkest depths of my heart & brought it to light. Another area he has brought to life was my weight. For as long as I can remember weight has been an issue in my life (I was on a diet in 2nd grade! not kidding!). Over the past 5 years the Lord has been requiring me to give Him all of me, including my weight. I thought this was an absurd idea, I mean really who does that! But the short story is, is that slowly he has been changing me from the inside out & molding me and shaping me into who He wants me to be...all He asked of me, was that I was faithful & followed. He had to completely change my paradigm & change my idea of "losing weight" to a view of "Honoring God with my body" It hasn't been easy but over the past 4-6 months he has allowed me to see the effects of my obedience! One being the health aspect, but the biggest one is seeing how my story has affected other people! I have seen people become encouraged & inspired to press on when its hard because of my example...which is ONLY because of the work the Lord did in my heart. ALL the glory is his for sure. So as I write this my prayer is that if in this small way he would allow me to keep encouraging people, to keep pressing on toward health, keep running this race he has me on, and keep pointing & encouraging people toward Christ! I am nothing with out him!