Mid-days With Lauree

I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but so often as I'm going about my day, I forget God. Though the ebbs and flows of every day life I'd be lying if I said I was always thinking about God. Maybe I'm not alone in this. But here's what I'm totally humbled and encouraged by: because Jesus died on the cross for you and me, God will never forget us.

Have you ever wondered how valuable your soul is?The answer lies within this quote from Charles Spurgeon: "Consider how precious a soul must be, when both God and the devil are after it."

A huge part of KCBI Artist Big Daddy Weave is Jay Weaver and people around the world have been praying for Jay as he spent some time in the ICU this past week. Good news, Jay Weaver is back home! Jay was admitted to the ICU last week due to some complications with his dialysis treatments.The band and their families are thanking everyone for praying through a statement from Jay's wife, Emily:Big Daddy Weave has released this statement through Jay Weaver’s wife, Emily:"JAY IS HOME!!!!! Thank you for all of your prayers! God has been so gracious and kind during these past few days. Yesterday when I left the hospital, we didn’t know when Jay would come home. The doctors and nurses were concerned about all the things we asked for you to lift up in prayer. The Lord heard all your requests and surpassed them! We still have a journey. Jay did not have to have another finger amputated at this time. We have follow-ups with doctors these next two weeks. There may be changes in medical treatments. We are trusting complet

I have to own something I do in my life, maybe I'm not alone in this. When God shows up in a situation in my life, I'll just assume that he's going to fix my problems. It doesn't take much life being lived to figure out that's not really how it works. We always have God has never promised to just show up and take away all the hard stuff from our circumstances. But here's what God will do: instead of busting down the door and fixing all our problems, God will use his presence to fix our perspective. Instead of taking that problems away, he changes the way we view those problems. At the end of the day, that gift might be better. Whether the problems are there or not, we're seeing the God that always is.

There's a wonderful article on the 1517.org today from a pastor named Scott Davis.He says, "We are all familiar with the story of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” In this famous tale from Aesop’s Fables, a shepherd boy repeatedly lies to the townspeople. He tells them that a wolf is attacking the village sheep. But when the townspeople investigate, they learn that there never was a wolf. The boy was “sounding the alarm” dishonestly and whipping the people into a false panic when there was no wolf and the sheep weren’t really in danger. After a few rounds of this ruse, a real wolf does appear. The boy cries, “Wolf!” But, the townspeople no longer believe the boy. He’s ruined his credibility with them. This time they don’t take his cry seriously. The sheep are slaughtered and even the boy is eaten by the wolf. The moral of the story is simple: tell the truth. If you lie too often, eventually people won’t listen to you. They won’t believe you when you are honest.Is God like the townspeople in this fable? Does he eventu

Today I thought I'd go straight to scripture to pass along encouragement to you today!Isaiah 40:8 "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” His love, his word, his mercy. God is forever.

I've been reading this book from one of my absolute favorite bible scholars Chad Bird and he created this really awesome mental picture about God's grace in one quote.He said "List all of the things that you think can separate you from the love of God and then add them all up as if they had numerical value. Take that number and multiply it by God's merciful zero. Here's what you get: All of your sins X God's merciful 0 = 0."That is the math of mercy.

In case you we're believing otherwise, you won't find a single place in the Bible where Jesus is disappointed with you. Doubts may comes, failure will happen, but none of that results in Jesus being disappointed in you or him deciding to take his presence away from you. That just won't happen. His love is unconditional.

You might already know this, but "do not be afraid" is the most repeated command in the Bible. The reason that is such an encouragement is not because it's a command to get over an emotion. At the heart of it, it's truly an invitation to see Jesus and know that his presence and his love shrink our fears.

I'm not sure what's lurking around the corner in your life that has you worried today, but this much I do know for certain. God will fulfill every promise that he has made to you. You may be asking, "How do you know for certain?" I know because God is a promise keeper. If he's said he'll do it, you can believe it. God doesn't break promises, he's not us.

The failure and disappointment of today has a chance to ruin our tomorrow if we're not proactive about realizing it. Tomorrow truly is a gift and it's given to us by a God of endless possibility. Why allow a bad today to ruin what could be an amazing tomorrow?Everyday, we have the choice to focus our attention the purpose and the power and the promise and the plan of our mighty God. Let's make that choice today.

There's this part of the Bible where Jesus talks about the "narrow path". In my life, I've always taken that to mean that fewer will choose the narrow, more difficult path while most of the world will choose the easier, wider path. While all of that may be true, when Jesus talks about the narrow path, he's telling us that the path is only wide enough for one: him. This is what Jesus meant in John 14:6 when he says “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Jesus is the only one worthy enough to walk that narrow path to righteousness, but good news for us, God has gifted us the way to eternal life through Jesus.

At one point or another, we've all found ourselves in a frustrating time of waiting, and that's about as frustrating of a time as it can get. We talk ourselves into the idea that it would just be easier if we could rip off the proverbial band-aid and just get the outcome now, even if the outcome isn't what we're hoping for, at least we'd have some clarity. I've learned over time and painful waiting that even when I don't see God working and think that God is on his lunch break, he's always working behind the scenes on our behalf to accomplish his greater purpose.

Probably a lot of us, maybe you, could recite the Lord's Prayer if we had to. There's the line in there "Give us this day, our daily bread."That's not for next week, next year, or even tomorrow. Just enough for today. God is enough for us every single day. He's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He will take care of you each day. He is our daily bread.

Not sure if you need to hear this today, but if you need to rest, it's okay. Whether that physically or spiritually, you can rest. God will handle the rest.

What is it that you need today? Do you need:-significance?-love?-acceptance?-purpose?-peace?-satisfaction?-calm in the storm?-a friend that sticks close?Well, Jesus fulfills all of those needs and more. If you've got Jesus, you've got it all.

There are times in our lives when we're faced with what feels like a mountain of a problem, and by God's grace, he moves it for us. But there are other times where God chooses not to move that obstacle. This doesn't mean that God is somehow no longer good, quite the opposite actually. God joins you right where you are to climb over that problem, no matter how long it takes. God is with us in our struggles. His goodness isn't based on our circumstance, he is always good.

The reach of God's grace is as deep and as far reaching as sin. There is no sin and no shame that God's grace hasn't already erased.

Here's the truth: We will never learn so much and become so mature in our faith that we'll no longer need to rely upon the grace and wisdom of God. It's just not possible. We're not that smart. We're not that wise. We're not that independent. We will never not need God and I don't know about you, but I'm thankful for that today.

If you're hearing an old piece of advice, it's probably because it withstands the test of time. This one from Saint Francis De Sales.“Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself...do not be disheartened by your imperfections, there's no better way of growing in the spiritual life than to be always starting over again.” Lean on God today. If you've fallen, don't worry. He's always there to pick you back up.