Some thoughts on God's love that He has been revealing to me this past week...

His love toward us is a love that supercedes our circumstance, it's beyond our understanding. If we are measuring his love in terms of tangible blessings in our lives, our understanding of His love (and Him) is too small.

In Luke, chapters 1 and 2, Mary responds/encounters three distinct, yet related facets of God's love...first, inexpressible joy and singing (Luke 1)...second, pondering in her heart (Luke 2)...and third, heartache (Luke 2:34-35 - 'a sword will pierce your own soul too'). There are times in each of our lives, that we will encounter each of these. Times where we are so wasted on Jesus that we feel like we could reach out and touch Him, times of reflection on who He is and His promises to us, and times of pain and heartache.

If our understanding of God's love doesn't include pain, suffering, and heartache - our understanding of His love is too small.

When troubles come (and we know they will - John 16:33), we can become bitter over them and run from God...or we can run TO Him and learn from Him. Romans 8:15-39 gives us a picture of how we can learn to trust in God's love for us, even when it doesn't seem tangible and close:

We need to rest in our relationship with God (v. 15-16).
We enter into a deep and intimate love relationship with God at salvation, leaning on this is the foundation for our understanding of His love in troubled times.

We need to yearn for the glory and the presence of Jesus (v. 17-23).
Our future reality makes our present suffering pale in comparison. One day we will be reunited with our Bridegroom in Heaven...we should desperately be yearning to be with Him. We yearn for something more because He placed that insatiable longing within our hearts for more of Him. We should be taking comfort in knowing that this life is not all there is...and difficulties in our life can stir this yearning in increasing ways. It's far too easy to fall in love with this world, unfortunately when we do - our yearning for Jesus gets replaced with a yearning for comfort and things. We need to lift our eyes up to Heaven and desperately cry out for His return, and to yearn for His glory and presence to be with us until His return.

We need to trust God's heart (v. 28-30).
Satan's greatest desire is for us to forget who God has shown Himself to be and become angry at Him in difficult circumstances. We must constantly remind ourselves of who we know God to be. Just because we don't understand the situation, doesn't mean God isn't at work. God works for the good of those who love Him, we must not get caught up in our definition of good...His definition of good is Christ - He desires us to become like Christ in all things.

We must desire greater intimacy and union with Jesus - that we might begin to understand the love of the Father, our Abba. And with that understanding comes the knowledge that oftentimes it is His love for us that moves Him to remain silent as we encounter difficulty in this life. But his silence doesn't mean He is not there, surrounding us with His love, and willing us through the craziness. Understanding His love amidst His silence is a picture of our leaning on the character of Him we know to be true, and trusting that He has our best interests at heart according to His purposes.

Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. (Ps. 46:10)

Lynch Wench!!!

Oh sweet bliss!!!

Broncos Sign Lynch to Contract Extension

John Lynch, who just returned from his seventh Pro Bowl, signed a contract extension Tuesday that will keep him in Denver through the 2008 season.
I heart John Lynch!!!!
Super Bowl XLI baby - get ready!!
By J. Michael MooreDenverBroncos.com
Broncos safety John Lynch talked in December about the cohesiveness of his team and how he looked forward to a playoff run.
The team fell short of its goals in 2005 and lost in the AFC Championship but a contract extension for Lynch announced Tuesday will keep him in Denver to make more runs at history with his teammates.
"I love this team," Lynch said in an interview with Broncos Gameday before a Christmas Eve victory over the Raiders. "I think we embody what a team is all about. Mike (Shanahan) is always talking about playing for each other and I think we really understand that and we bring that to the field.
"We do play for each other and I think it shows in the way we prepare and the way we play."
Lynch signed a deal to keep him with the Broncos through the 2008 season. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Lynch is a seven-time Pro Bowler who is entering his 14th NFL season -- his third with the Broncos. He is also a four-time Associated Press All-Pro, with 195 games of experience. His 12 playoff starts mark the second-highest total among active safeties in the NFL.
He started every game for the Broncos in 2005, finishing with four sacks, 69 tackles (47 solo), two interceptions, eight pass breakups and four forced fumbles -- two of which came in the regular-season finale at San Diego
Lynch was also named the team's receipient of the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award for his work with the John Lynch Foundation. The foundation serves youth in Tampa Bay, Denver and his native San Diego.

Something to Think on...

We cannot plot out a future without relinquishing control of our lives to the God who created us, because He alone controls the future....we have to dedicate our lives to God and live wisely - realizing that God holds the key to what lies ahead.

Seeking Approval

I was doing some reading for class last night and came across this quote - it's from a psychologist named Eric Fromm... "The deep need of man is the need to overcome separateness, to leave the prison of his aloneness." Even non-believers recognize that we have a deep need to feel affirmed - the thing we have to get ahold of though, is that conforming to a group, or to what others what from us - will not fully provide the security we are so desparately seeking. ONLY GOD CAN PROVIDE THAT - whether that be through His people, His Word, His Spirit...notice these are all of HIM! Turning to someone else for what ONLY GOD CAN PROVIDE is a direct result of our believing one of Satan's biggest lies - that our self worth (or how we feel about ourselves) is made up of how we act or perform, and how other people feel about us. How sad it is that we buy into this (myself included!) and miss out on experiencing the incredible, accepting, unconditional love of our Father, our Abba!

My prayer for all of us is that we will seek the approval of God as the basis of our self-worth. That we will overcome Satan's stupid lies and begin to value the CONTSTANT, unwavering approval of GOD over the conditional, changing approval of man!!

LOVE

1 John 4:7-10, 16
v7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
v8 Whoever does not love does not know God,because God is love.
v9 This is how God showed his love among us:He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.
v10 This is love: not that we love God,but that He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
v16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

Verse 7
The only reason we are able to love another person is because God loves us. Our love for others is fueled by Him, by His love for us. Many people claim to know love, but only those who know the Father really know and understand what love is.

Verse 8
God IS love. The root of everything He does is love. To know God is to know love.

Verse 9-10
We can know and understand this love because of Jesus. Because of sin, we were separated from His love. But because of our acceptance of Jesus' sacrifice, we are perfect before God's eyes - we can see His love.

It's not our doing - it's not that we love Him, or we choose Him. He loved us, and He chose us long before we were even born!! We are the responders, not the initiators of love!

Verse 16
Because of God's love - we have hope. It will never change - He has promised it to us. We can rely on it even more than the air that we breathe. Because we have accepted His love and know His love - we can rely on it and know it will never change!

Remember your FIRST LOVE today! The Lord of all creation, the God of the universe, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords - is running after you. He pursues you. He desires YOU!!! Take a minute to really think about that, and as God reveals His love for you - understand that HE LOVED YOU FIRST and say, "I love you, too!"

Please Pray for my Nephew!!

Hey everybody...if you get a few minutes, say a prayer for my nephew, Gage. He is a little over 2 months old and has bronchiolitis/RSV...it's the same thing that his older brother was hospitalized for when he was 11 months old. My sister said he has a nasty cough and you can barely hear him when he cries - almost like he has laryngitis...poor little guy! She took him to the doctor today and his pulse-ox level was good, but he's still breathing really rapidly and he pulls in his sides when he breathes.


Please pray that he will be completely healed, and for strength for my sister and her husband (their names are Lisa & Nate) during this time.


Jesus, I place him in Your hands with complete faith that You will heal his little body. Send your angels to guard over him as he rests, and may his rest bring healing. Comfort Lisa & Nate as they go through this - surround them with your love and peace. Thank You that we can come to You and know that You care. Use this to strengthen our faith in You, Lord.

The Sun Came Up on Monday

I was a little worried about whether or not the world would continue after yesterday...I do find solace in knowing that we did exponentially better than we anticipated at the beginning of the season...and that we lasted a week longer than those darn colts! :-)

The trip was completely worth every cent though - it was so much fun...I have no voice...and I got to have my wench weekend and see my family - can't beat that!!

I don't know if I'm more sad that they lost...or that Kubiak is going to the Texans. At least now I'll get some school work done on the weekends!

So for one last time this season, I say:

I am a Broncos fan - I help create the Mile High Magic - I bring the Rocky Mountain Thunder - and I will forever be a proud citizen of Broncos Country!

Currently Accepting Donations

GO BRONCOS!!!!

Flying home for the game next week - gotta love spontaneous trips to God's Country!!

You can make checks payable to: Denver Broncos - Super Bowl Bound!

New England to see a "NEW" Broncos Team

A new Broncos team, who figured out after blowing a 25-point 3rd quarter lead to the Patriots on October 16th, there actually are 4, not 3 quarters in a football game....

Regardless of the 'heroics' of the second half of the Patriots 2005 season (note the sarcasm in heroics as 4 of them included killer teams such as the Bills and Jets, right...not to mention the beauty against Miami on New Years Day), the fact still remains that the Patriots are 1-2 at Invesco, AND 1-2 on the road in the divisional round of the playoffs. Compare that to Denver's 8-0 home record this season, and winning records for playing at home and overall in the divisional round (7-3 and 6-2 respectively), and it doesn't take much common sense to see that the Broncos will take care of this speed bump in their road to the Super Bowl on Saturday night.

Let's just hope the Pats fans can stay up to see the end of the game, with an 8pm start, the game will likely last into the 11 o'clock hour. Broncos fans however, show once again that Colorado is God's Country (and well, the perfect place to watch football) knowing that the game will be over around 9, just in time to hit the bars to celebrate!

Broncos fan Stacey Wisdom noted, "We are ecstatic that we will have the backing of many Patriots fans as we face the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship next week. It seems Patriots fans hate the Cots even more than the Broncos." Fellow fan Bree Studenka added, "I just hope Nicole can make it through this, but we'll be here to help however we can."

Written as a reply to a friend of mine who thinks that NE has a chance against Denver just because Richard Seymour is back....

So I had a dream last night that Jake Plummer and I were co-managers at the pool I used to manage back in Greeley (Colorado, aka - God's Country). We were BFF - then we got in a fight because I wouldn't cover a shift when he had to be at practice in Denver....then my phone rang and woke me up - so I don't know if we made up or not...

My interpretation: THE BRONCOS ARE GOING TO WIN THE SUPER BOWL!!!!! :-)