"What Kind of Man Is This?

"The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey Him!" Matthew 8:27 In the last few years, so many things have happened in my life. Both blessings and trials have left me forever changed. But the one thing that has changed my life, has been getting to know God. I had no idea that this God, who I gave my heart to at five years old, wanted a relationship with me; a friendship. I open my Bible now and I feel like I am reading a personal love letter... straight from Him to me. And it all began several years ago with one question in my mind...Who is He? I realized that the person I wanted to spend eternity with, was someone who I didn't even know. I have recognized that other Christians feel this way. This is the very reason for God founding Filling the Gap Ministries. In Matthew Chapter 8, Jesus has just calmed a terrible storm while on the boat with His disciples. I can't imaging their eyes when Jesus simply told the winds and the waves to basically just 'hold up!" (Corrieology for 'be still'!) As God spoke to me through this passage, He pointed out something I had never realized before. The DISCIPLES are the ones who make the statement, "what kind of man is this?" Not people who are strangers and just meeting Jesus for the first time, but the ones who had agreed to follow Him on a daily basis. To me, this is very symbolic of us as Christians. Many of us don't know the one who we accepted salvation from. What about the relationship? If you are a Christian but you don't feel close to God or you don't feel as though you know Him the way He intends or the way you see that other people know Him, please decide to change this. I can guarantee that this relationship will change your life forever. How can you find comfort for grief if you don't know the Comforter? How can you find answers to a broken relationship when you don't know that restoration is one of His specialties? How can He tell you what to do about a job or financial problems when He isn't asked? I feel as though God laid it on my heart to write this today for someone who wants to close distance between them and God. I am finding out that a REAL relationship and REALLY walking with God takes much more than just being 'in the boat'. What kind of man is this?...that is the question. Love, Corrie My prayer for today: Lord, how I praise you for wanting a relationship with me. I can't even believe at times that you would even want to talk to me when I forget about you or ignore you. Yet, you remain the most constant in my life. How wonderful it is to know you have a personality and you want to be my friend...

Mothers' Day

"As for you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands the intention of every thought. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever." 1 Chronicles 28: 9 Sunday is Mothers' Day. While I am very thankful for my mother and honor her on this day, I find myself giving alot of thought as to the mother I am or want to become for my son, Canaan. I feel as though our society causes mothers to sometimes feel that giving birth is the end of our "job" and we are just needed to "find stuff" around the house or bandage up 'boo-boos' or to solve problems quickly. I have met woman who look and feel tired or used and who don't understand their value as a woman or as a mother. I must encourage all of you who read this to know that God considers women and mothers very valuable. In 1 Chronicles, David is getting ready to basically hand over his kingdom to his son, Solomon. As I read David's advice to his son, I was humbled that this great leader's only advice was to KNOW God. David tells Solomon to 'know the God of your father'. This means that David was bold about his faith in God and he gives his son the very key to his success...knowing God and having a relationship with Him. I believe that this is the greatest gift we can ever give to our children. We strive so hard to give our children a "good life". But what does that mean? Will our children remember how we told them that the key to being happy and fulfilled is to know the God who made them? I know alot of moms who work and alot of moms who work at home. Either way, our job is the same: to show our children (young and old) how to know God. David was a man who made mistakes. Many mistakes. He was human. But he is described in the Bible as a man after God's own heart. This, to me, means that he knew God's heart and wanted his heart to mirror God's. That is what I want. And most of all, I want the opportunity to lead my son to Christ one day. Do you? The way I will be the greatest mother is to have a close relationship with God and make it so appealing that my son will want the very same thing... Love, Corrie My prayer for today: Lord, thank you for blessing me as a woman and as a mother. Help me to seek you in raising my child. Even when he is old, I pray that he will remember me as a mother who put God first in her life and tried to teach him your ways. I pray for those mothers who are struggling today. Help them to move close to you. Shield them, comfort them, love them...

Seeking

"I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears." Psalm 34:4 I can't believe it is already May. In the post that I wrote the day or so after I resigned my job back in March, I shared how God had led me to quit my job even though, on paper, Shane and I would be at least $300.00 short per month with our finances. April was our first month to go through on one income. I remember telling God how afraid I was to walk away from a job that provided for us. He told me that the job never provided anything--He provided it all. And He would continue to do so. The question was did I really believe He would? God told me to trust Him and I walked away from a 10 year career to begin this new ministry. I couldn't wait to tell you that during the month of April, all our needs were met. He did exactly what He said He would do! I wanted to share that with you to give God the glory for His faithfulness. I also wanted to share how you can also experience that same faithfulness from Him as well... I believe Psalm 34: 4 holds the key to knowing the faithful side of our father. It tells us how David sought God to deliver him from his fears. Seeking God is the first step. How often do we jump on the telephone to our best friend or family member to tell them our fears and our frustrations? I can't imagine what it is like for God to hear that conversation and know that we could have come to Him first. I am trying to do just that. I believe God wants us to seek Him. To come to Him and tell Him the emotions that we feel. If it's anger, sadness, or even fear, He still wants know. He wants us to be "poured out" before Him. We have to be empty before we can ever be filled. I am learning that when I am honest with my God, He begins to deliver me from my fears. I am beginning to know Him. Really know Him. And the more I know Him, the easier it is for me to believe Him. This is the most wonderful thing I have learned in my Christian in walk. Have you come to a place in your life where you believe God instead of just believing IN God? The Bible tells us that even Satan believes IN God. I hope that you will be encouraged to go to your Saviour and tell Him , honestly tell Him, your thoughts. This is seeking Him. And the more you seek Him, you will believe Him to deliver you from everything you don't need in your life. Love, Corrie My prayer for today: Lord, thank you for not ever turning your back on me when I have ran to you. Each time, you gently console me when I am afraid and you pick up my cares and concerns so that I don't have to carry them anymore. Thank you for loving me enough to deliver me from my fears...

Being Content With God's "Back"

The Lord said to Moses: "Here is the place near Me. You are to stand on the rock, and when My glory passes by, I will put you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away, and you will see My back, but My face will not be seen." Exodus 33: 21-23 Don't we all want to hear from God? I mean, everywhere I go, it excites me to see those who are beginning or renewing a relationship with God and are so passionately trying to "hear from Him". I have shared with you before that even though I have been a Christian for over 26 years, I have only learned to "hear" God in the past 5 years. I realized that He had been speaking for the whole 26 but because I didn't know Him intimately, I had no clue what His voice sounded like. How do you hear from God? That is the popular question. For me, God's speaks on many levels. I have recently found that being content with God's voice is crucial to hearing Him again. What good is it for Him to speak to us when we ignore what He says? When I read this passage of scripture with Moses, I can hardly breath. To think what it must have been like to hear God give specific instruction in order to see His glory pass by! But tonight, I realized that God still does this today! But we often do not "hear" Him, nor do we see His glory, because we are not willing to be content with seeing His 'back'. God tells Moses to stand on a particular place in a rock (the crevice) and He will cover Moses with His hand as His glory passes by. Then God says He will move His hand, allowing Moses to see His back. How often have I felt that God has left me or is distant from me only to find that He has carefully hidden me in the crevice of a rock to protect me. I never realized I was seeing "His back". I was so focused and demanding to have it my way. How thankful I am to have seen His back because it meant that He was shielding me. He was standing in front of me. I have begun to focus on being content with details...the details in God's voice. When we pray for direction, God answers and tells us exactly where to stand to see His glory. But if we are not content in just hearing Him or seeing Him in whatever way He chooses, then we miss Him...and the glory. I hope that you will join me in being content with God's voice and with whatever and where ever He leads you and I. And I have found that the crevice of a rock can be a very good view. Love, Corrie My prayer for today: Lord, thank you for loving me. Thank you for wanting to have a relationship with me. Forgive me for ignoring your commands sometimes because I was not content with seeing your "back". You hang on my every word and catch every tear that falls from my face. Help me to be still and trust you when you have me safe in the crevice of the rock...

The Two Baskets of Figs

“I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.” Jeremiah 24:7 I was very amazed how God spoke to me through this passage in Jeremiah and wanted to share it with you. During the exile from Babylon, The Lord spoke to Jeremiah and showed him two baskets of figs. One basket was filled with good, early ripened figs (which were considered to be a delicacy). The other basket was filled with bad figs, which were rotten and of no use. God then uses the figs to symbolize what is to come for Israel and His love for them. God promises to watch over them, to bring them back, and to build them up and not tear them down. And then God says this: “I will give them a heart to know me.” That is my favorite part. Over the past few years, God has shown me that we all were created with a hole in our lives that was deliberately designed by Him. This hole can never be filled with anything or anyone but God himself. I have seen people search and search only to find who was there at the beginning-God. The only thing that will fill this gap in our lives is the relationship with God. He wants the relationship so bad with us that He gives us a head start…a heart to know Him. He knows that if we begin to know Him, we will eventually know and love Him wholeheartedly. I am learning to love Him with my whole heart. To Jeremiah, the basket of good figs represents those who God loved and wanted to be near. To me, it represents the same thing today. God’s promise in Jeremiah is so moving and shows the depth He is willing to go just to have a relationship with His children… those who have accepted Him as Lord and Savior of their lives and actually open the door to that relationship. My ministry is solely dedicated to helping others know God the way He wants to be known. We must ask God to help us to love Him with our whole hearts. To give everything to Him…our time, devotion, love, honor, worship, tithes. I want to be in the basket of figs that God considers valuable. I have spent years knowing about God and of God, and I have returned because I now know God and am learning what loving Him whole heartily is really about. It is about faith in my Lord that takes my breath away; it is about sacrificing my health if it brings Him glory; it is forgiving and being humble even when it hurts. I have so much more to learn. If you have invited Christ into your life but are struggling to know who God really is, begin by asking Him to help you love Him whole heartily…and believe me…He will. Love, Corrie My prayer for today: Lord, help me to love you with my whole heart. I desire to be close to you…to feel your very breath. You are so holy and I am so unworthy. Yet, you continue to want me…even when I fail. Thank you for loving me.

Update

Hey everyone! Just a note to request your prayers. I have had a bad case of the stomach virus over the past few days. I am better but still feel very weak. Because of the virus, I was unable to take my medicine for the past 3 days or so. Please pray that this will not cause a relapse of my disease. I am going to try to take my shots Sunday. Thank you all so much for your comments and emails on the posts for the blog. You encourage me to keep listening to God to continue writing. I hope you know that I don’t just “sling the posts” up on the blog, but spend much time in prayer to find out what God wants to say to those who read it. Also, my ministry website (designed by Adam Hyche–who is awesome and who I love very much!!!) now has my blog and website combined. We will eventually be using this only. So please take a look at it and sign in. The address is www.fillingthegapministries.com (or .net). Thank you for all your encouragement and prayers for this ministry… Love, Corrie

The Women of Bethel

“So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” 1 Corinthians 4:1-2

What an honor and privilege it was to speak at Spa Day at Bethel Baptist Church! The Women of Bethel put much time and effort in creating a day of relaxation and pampering for the ladies of that community and beyond. But I must say that I was humbled to see such servant hood among them. As I drove home from the conference, I cried when I thought about what had taken place that day. I thought back to seeing women sitting or standing for hours just to serve others. I noticed that every manicure, haircut, facial, or massage, allowed the Women of Bethel to minister by listening, laughing, and just conversing with women who needed to be lifted up. I ,too, was one of those women who were ministered to. Tears filled my eyes when a lady knelt beside me just to rub lotion on my arms and put something under my feet to relax. I saw Jesus in those women. I saw the ultimate call God has for us as His children…to serve. This perhaps is the most difficult characteristic we are asked to do in order to mirror Christ. Spa Day showed me that becoming a servant is not solely about doing for others, but it begins in the heart so that you can do for others. That Spa Day would have been time wasted had those women not prepared their hearts first. I want God to give me the heart of a servant. I want to be humble and loving to those who are not loved or who lash out to hurt me. I want to see them the way God does. I believe that the reason this is difficult at times is because we want recognition of our service or to be apologized to by those who hurt us. None of this is owed to us. To take on the identity of Christ, we must go where we do not want to go, be silent when we want to scream, and love those who make us cry. This is His heart. This is why He came. The scripture says that ‘those who have been given a trust must prove faithful’. I value someone’s trust very much and when I read this scripture, I realized how very little I valued the trust God has placed in me to prove faithful. I fall so short. But today, I have set my eyes upon Him to help me to be the very servant He designed me to be. Again, I am so thankful for the opportunity to speak at Spa Day and for bringing servant hood to my heart’s attention. I will never forget that day because I saw my Lord in the Women of Bethel.

Love, Corrie

My prayer for today: Lord, I ask that you forgive me for taking what you have entrusted me to do for granted. Help me to have the heart of a servant. Help me to continue what you came to do on earth. Use me to minister to those who need you. Remove my pride and burden my heart for those who are crying inside and feel empty. Love them through me.