SPAM!

What images do you get when you hear the word, Spam? I tend to think of the "loaf of mystery meat" that is packaged in a can that you have stored away somewhere in case of a nuclear war or something. Also spam is a word used for "junk mail" that comes from an outside source without your consent. I have to sift through what is legitamate or not everytime I check my email! I didn't ask for these people to send me anything and how did they get my email address anyway? And let us not get on the subject of the pop up ads.....

Persistent distractions are something that we have to deal with on a daily basis. Just like going through my email I have to be diligent to "unsubscribe" to the things that I don't want to be a part of. I have to change my settings on my computer to make sure that these unwanted and pesky ads do not just "jump out" unwelcome, unwanted and uncensored. My Firewall has to be updated periodically to protect me from new security threats, bugs and viruses that can harm my computer or allow someone to steal identity and personal information that is vital and important to me.

Firewall defined: a system that isolates another in order to prevent unauthorized access.
Like our computers, our firewalls of Faith need a little diagnostic tune up. Of course that doesn't mean we need to be reading the bible for hours at a time. Focusing daily on a scripture, reading a devotional, a moment of quiet prayer or singing your favorite praise song can do a lot of good to adjust your attitude "settings." Daily firewall tune ups are the true secret weapons to winning our everyday battles. 

 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalm 18:2

The enemies pesky spam will try to trip you up, tug on your broken heart or even poke at your deepest insecurity. But we have something that he lacks and it is a firewall of Faith. In fact, our firewall is his Kryptonite. God will protect whom he loves from the unwanted, unwelcome and uncensored if we let Him.

“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble and deliver him and honor him. Psalm 91:14-15

Adjust that Crown, 

Jonna

Goodness and Mercy

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." This is a fact as indisputable as it is encouraging, and therefore a heavenly verily, or "surely" is set as a seal upon it. This sentence may be read, "only goodness and mercy," for there shall be unmingled mercy in our history. These twin guardian angels will always be with me at my back and my beck. Just as when great princes go abroad they must not go unattended, so it is with the believer. Goodness and mercy follow him always "all the days of his life" the black days as well as the bright days, the days of fasting as well as the days of feasting, the dreary days of winter as well as the bright days of summer. Goodness supplies our needs, and mercy blots out our sins. "And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." "A servant abideth not in the house for ever, but the son abideth ever." While I am here I will be a child at home with my God; the whole world shall be his house to me; and when I ascend into the upper chamber, I shall not change my company, nor even change the house; I shall only go to dwell in the upper storey of the house of the Lord for ever." 

 ---Charles Spurgeon regarding Psalms 23

Wow...need I say more? I so love the insight of Charles Spurgeon and love to see his thoughts on various topics and scriptures especially regarding the Psalms. I remember as a child we had a painting of two small children in the dark walking and the atmosphere looked scary and bleak but in the background was a angel with her wings spread out like a mother hen would be protecting her chicks. I always loved to look at that picture and smile. So many times in life we find ourselves in precarious situations and we "feel" so lonely but if only our physical eyes would be opened to what was truly going on in the spiritual world...we would FREAK out.

In this scripture of Psalms 23:6 I so claim the thought of two constant companions...goodness and mercy. If these two are following me all the days of my life...how can I go wrong? I want  the Goodness and the Mercy of God to always be at my "back and my beck". Now I had to look up "beck" and I was thinking it meant the "front" of me but actually it means to be "at my beck and call...at my summoning or beckoning". WOW.  I got excited! So goodness and mercy is just a call away! Not only will they make sure that goodness and mercy is backing me up in all I do but that if I find myself in a quandry needing some help that it is just a call away! Also the word "follow" in Hebrew means to 'pursue as if a hunter tracks his pray'.....this furthers that thought process that we are NEVER EVER going to get very far from HIM...he will always know where we are at! 

Just as royalty is never in a situation "unattended" we the children of the King have protectors who look after us. They make sure that we are safe and experience favor as well as have access to any resource that we need. We have the 'seal' of "surely" that I picture as a big ball of wax that is finalized with a stamping of a ring of royalty...representing an order or a final order! We aren't just inhabitants of a house but we are going to live in the upper chambers of a palace where we DWELL forever as only kings/queens or prince/princess live....peasants and servants would abide in the basement/dungeon areas. 

Short prayer: Father, thank you for forgiving me of my sins and giving me goodness and mercy with a new batch available every morning! Thank you for dying in my place to give me eternal life. Help me to show goodness and mercy to everyone I know and meet and to freely give it away just as it has been given to me. I want to live a life of obedience that makes you smile. Thank you for never giving up on me and having so much confidence in who I am that you have already prepared a place for me. I love you and thank you for the opportunity to represent you.  In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen. 


Adjust that Crown!

Jonna

It's ALL about JESUS

One Sunday morning Praise and Worship started up and it was one of my favorite songs....ahhhhh....I am not a great singer at all but I LOVE to sing and especially a GREAT Song! As the song started I heard a very odd sound and I turned a little towards what I thought was the origin but didn't see anything odd. But I continued to hear a very weird-pitched moaning sound and I turned around again to look for the child who was horribly hurt or the animal that was surely dying and then I realized....it was the man directly behind me that I had never seen before! He had his eyes closed and mouth WIDE open showing every tooth and was singing soooooo  LOUD that I couldn't even hear myself. I thought, "My God. Someone stop this madness! The Bible says to make a joyful noise but this is just torture!"

I know that this sounds very selfish. But I couldn't sing at all. All I could think about was this man who had the worst voice that I have EVER heard in my entire life. Surely he could hear himself and know that he was keeping people from entering into worship, right? I mean, the entire song was destroyed and to make matters worse...it was my favorite Jesus Culture song. I even nudged Don, who seemed unphased from the major distraction and he looked at me strangely and shook his head as if to say that he didn't hear it. UGH. I tried to close my eyes and focus on the rest of the worship service but to no avail. My entire head was filled with the man whose voice should be in the Guinness World record book!

Finally worship was over and my ears were ringing and I actually had a headache from the event! But while Don was preaching someone walked up and handed me a note; it was a scrawling hand-written note that was barely legible and in short said,

"Please pray for me. I am going through some stuff. I have had thoughts of not wanting to live. My family and I are are not doing well and my wife has left me and I haven't been able to see my children. Today is hard for me since it is Father's Day and I don't feel like a good dad. I really enjoyed praise and worship at Mercy Gate. It encouraged me more than anything that God loves me and that is really all I needed today. Thank you, _____" 

After getting that note I texted the person who handed it to me and asked who it was from and their response shocked me, "it was from some guy who was sitting right behind you this morning." I quickly texted the person back to find him; after turning to see that he was gone, but they said that he already had left. My heart sank and I felt a cold sweat form on my forehead and for the rest of the service I was in a different world. I just remember looking at Don while he preached and only registering his mouth moving as he spoke but I did not hear a thing.  All I could think about was my horrible selfishness earlier that morning while a person was hurting within my arms reach on the second row of this great church.

Wow...did conviction hit my heart! We forget that it isn't about the music, the words or what our worship even sounds like. It isn't for us at all...it is about our Creator. James 4:6, 10 tells us,"God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up". Our worship to God is a very humble and reverent action and if our minds aren't in that mode then we aren't truly worshipping. We have to get rid of the distractions that WE allow to enter our heads and FOCUS only on Him...that is true worship. We all have different kinds of distractions and everyone's worship looks and sounds so differently. But Frank worshipped that morning with all his being and made a connection with his God and I believe that he came to our church that one Sunday just to teach ME a lesson. (side note: You see...you can be the Pastor's wife of a great church, the Leader of the Year or the seemingly most devout Christian but daily we ALL have issues that need to be dealt with. You just have to be real enough to admit them so other's can learn.)

Short prayer: "God forgive me of my proud attitudes and thoughts. It truly is all about you. Thank you for not giving up on me despite my selfish preferences and opinions. Help my eyes to be open to others and their needs and to have compassion and act in love despite my own comfort. Please continue to create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. Because Father this church thing is really just ALL about you and what you are doing in OTHER'S lives through me."



Don't Judge Meeeeee... Adjust YOUR Crown :))


Jonna

*Lessons from a Pimple

Have you ever had a pimple or blemish on your face and you felt like it was as big as a golf ball? You are so self-conscious about it that everyone you have conversation with you either point it out or draw attention to it inadvertantly by trying to cover it up with your hair or your hand? Ha. Okaaaay.....I am the ONLY vain one! It is really a funny thing how we perceive things sometimes.

One day at work I felt so self conscious about a zit. I had "took care" of before work and could hardly believe that a 43 year old could still break out on a regular basis. UGH. But while I worked I could feel pain and a throbbing sensation on my face and I knew that it was "growing". I was working the trauma area in the emergency room and was no where near a mirror and no time to take a bathroom break!  I would periodically touch it and it felt so huge and I began to visualize in my mind this pulsating and disgusting growth that surely everyone was talking about! I pointed it out to my co-worker and she said, "what blemish? I don't see one. Just a red mark." I was astounded that she would just blatently say that just to be nice and not be HONEST with me when I knew that she had to be mortified to be working next to someone who needed to go fix her face.

Finally I was able to take a break and made a mad dash to the mirror. I was SO shocked when what I saw was not a white mountainous pimple of disgust but rather a flat red bump that actually didn't look bad at all! I couldn't believe it! It felt, according to my finger SO very large and I just couldn't understand it. I laughed out loud at myself and about how silly I had been to have worried while I talked to doctors, patients and other staff about urgent matters of life or death while wondering secretly what they might of thought of my blemish and I even thought their eyes had wandered to where it was; when in reality...there was nothing there! How dumb!

My how we "feel" things sometimes and it is just a big distraction. We stress about little things that people may think about and for what? It is a big waste of time and resources. Sometimes we let our feelings blow things out of proportion and it effects our relationships and the way that we feel about ourselves. We perceive that people are talking or looking at us when in fact that is the farthest things from their minds. Our emotions can wreck us. It can get us so side tracked that we miss that someone is needing us or that God is directing us or opening a door for us but we are so consumed with this "thought of ourselves" that we are not able to actually SEE what is truly going on with anyone else.

 “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”     2 Cor 10:5

Don't let silliness get in the way of you being who you are called to be. Get your focus off yourself and what your not or what you think you should be. Maybe it is in our imperfections that He wants to use us the most...because that is when we have to rely on Him more and not lean on our own abilities. 

Short prayer: "God please...I have learned my lesson...no more emotional zit moments for me! I pray that everyday I take my eyes off of SELF and put it where it should be...ON YOU and the people you set in my path. Amen." 

You Are Graciously Adorned!

❤Jonna

Judgement VS Discernment: a delicate balance

When you judge someone, You hurt as well as the person you are judging.  When you judge, it is usually because you feel emotional about someone or something, what they represent or what you feel they have done either to you or someone else. The feelings you posess literally propel your thoughts into action.  Vocalized judgments additionally effect the reality around you, and around others and usually not in a very positive way. 

Now all judgments are not bad.  There is a constructive side to the discrimination that judgments have to offer, and that is what might be called discernment. The primary difference between discernment and judgment is emotion. Judgment holds a frozen emotion based upon a past painful experience and discernment does not.  Discernment lives more in the present and of course is usually guided by the Holy Spirit; whether it be naturally occuring or spiritually occuring.

The need to recognize and celebrate differences is natural and necessary because we are all different! We talk in unique ways and of course look differenct according to our race, backgrounds, socio-economic status and how we were raised. We need to be aware of each other's differences. What I think is totally appropriate; others may not think it is...according to their perspective and culture based on experiences. All pitt bull dogs may not be dangerous, but certainly I will walk on the other side of the road to avoid one...based on my experiences and yes ...judgements.  Where judgement tend to separate, discernments are meant to unify.

Many women get hung up over being "judgemental or critical" and feel really bad about themselves because of it. But what they actually are experiencing is natural discernment. In life most females are really good at this whether christian or not! It is just how we function...we are analytical and that is just how we are made unfortunately. We can size a person up in an instant and by their clothes, how they talk and think we know everything about them! ha. BUT God grants a higher level of discernment that is not physical or natural but spiritual and is given for the sake of protecting the body of Christ. 

God gives us this spiritual gifting of discernment to HELP and PROTECT people and the church as a whole. So how can we know that we are in the natural or in the spirit when we have thoughts or feelings about people or situations? Now that is a great question! 

You can ask yourself these questions: 

1. Do I love the person any less because of what I see? 
2. Do I take any pleasure in seeing this fault?
3. Do I feel superior when I see them?
4. Do I have a desire to point out the fault?
5. Do I feel eager to see God "punish" them?
6. Do I personally "write them off" as being unworthy of any ministry or usefulness?
7. Do I avoid them?
8. Do I look forward to them being exposed?
9. Do I find it hard to pray for them in a positive way?
10. Do I find this revelation about them exciting to me personally?

If you possess two or more of these thoughts then there is a strong indication that you have a judging spirit and are just functioning in the natural. Now the discernment may be correct but the negative attitudes are not and this is what makes the knowledge quite dangerous. The critcal spirit can actually TWIST the truth and make it a negative thing in your life; especially if you share it with others....well....let's just say you could make a REALLY big mess...ask me how I know!

Spiritual discernment is a very powerful thing and we receive this information as a "wake up call" and what we do with it can determine life or death. Discernment should spur us on to a great desire to pray for these people or situations to help them overcome. It is working out in the spirit and using the supernatural gifts as a war for others. It is interceding and loving people WAY beyond ourselves and then seeing it working out in the natural. If God has laid a person on your heart and you have been given divine revelation then you need to stop talking about it to others and start praying. God didn't give it to you to talk about....it is for you to ponder on only in the spirit. Don't try to figure it out...it is just a snippet....a glimpse into the supernatural. What you need to do is war in the spirit with it. Then when it is time the Holy Spirit will aways direct you to an authority figure such as the pastor to talk with him about it. Then with this guidance you can agree together what is to be done with the information given. 

Adjust that Crown!

Jonna