Trust in the Next Chapter…

Posted on by stevenlucht1

Everyone has heard someone say that we need to trust in the Lord. It so much easier said than done. Countless times my trust in God crumbles underneath me and I try so hard to take situations into my own hands.

It’s so easy to trust in God through the easy times and when everything seems to be going the way you want. However, once we hit a rough patch, it seems like our trust flies out the window and we grab the wheel of our life in desperation try to save ourselves.

Last week Sunday was a start of a bad week… It began with a few bad conversations with people and a lack of sleep. My frustrations alone made me more frustrated creating a circle of destruction. I looked at areas of my life and lost complete trust in God, even though I know full well that God is working in those areas. By Wednesday, I wrestled with God still in my own frustrations and failing to see that He was continuing to provide, even when I refused to see it. It wasn’t until I realized that I was trying to take control over my life and lost my trust in God that I gave it back to Him. It’s funny how a seven year old little girl at an Awana club can get you out of a bad week.

Something that helped me gain my trust back in God, was looking back at the miracles that He performed in my life. God has intricately placed the most minute details in place that eventually changed my entire life in a different direction. It’s been an amazing ride and in those times that I have trusted most in God, some of the biggest changes came about.

We need to trust in God to move us to where He wants us. You can not trust in God if you are not into your Bible and in constant prayer with God.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.”
~Proverbs 3:5~

“Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.”
~Isaiah 26:4~

The Next Chapter:
I absolutely couldn’t be happier where God has me in life. The biblical teachings and the spiritual leadership that surrounds this area is absolutely amazing. It seems like God is providing more than I can see. This excites me more than anything.

As I keep turning my pages over in life I reach yet another exciting chapter. God has lead me to become summer staff at Living Waters Bible Camp again this summer. My excitement for the day the summer staff has to be down there is heart pounding. Knowing that lives are going to be changed and to be a part of that is an honor and a privilege.

Talking with some other summer staff that will also be down there only increases this excitement. It’s not only the campers lives that will be changed but also our lives. I look forward to having the opportunity to serve side by side with my family in Christ to serve God and grow with our Heavenly Father.

My prayer requests are simple but so important. Please pray that our hearts are prepared to be down to Camp. That we focus completely on why we are down there in doing the Lord’s work. Help us have a strong trust in God in our lives inside and outside of being down at Living Waters. Trust that God will work His miracles, and use us for increasing His kingdom with giving it all to Him.

I thank you so much for the prayers and support.

God is Good!

A Dusty Love Letter

Posted on by stevenlucht1
I could imagine most people have received a letter from a loved one they care very deeply for. Now this loved one could be a significant other to a parent or grandparent. What do you usually do with that letter? Well, you obviously save it either by placing it somewhere safe or possibly carrying it around with you.
I asked my father one time the story of how he met my mother. After a cute story of how God brought them together something really struck out to me. When my father asked my mother what her phone number was, she wrote it down on a piece of paper in which he still carries with him today. I think it’s a great idea and a very cute story. It’s sentimental to him as I know I would be the same way.
When I was younger, my parents always taught us kids that it’s very important to read our Bibles and to bring them to church. We always brought our Bibles to church. I found a couple quotes that I really enjoyed about the Bible.
“Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.”
~Ronald Reagan~
“The Bible will keep you from sin,
or sin will keep you from the Bible.”
~Dwight L. Moody~
I find it quite interesting when I look around churches today and notice that not even half of the people have a bible with them. It’s not required I guess, but don’t you think it’s important to carry with you? At least to church?
The bible is literally a love letter from God to you. It’s God expressing His unfathomable love from Him to us. Personally, I don’t like being apart from my Bible. It comes everywhere with me. I have a larger study Bible and another smaller Bible to fit into my pocket for when I’m working at the police department.
Now, I understand the thought that people would question if I read the Bible and not just carry it around with me. Absolutely! I can’t get enough of the Bible and what God has done.
On duty, I carry different tools with me, pepper spray, baton, handcuffs, firearm, and sometimes a taser. However, the greatest tool that I carry with me is carried in my right leg pocket… my Bible. It’s our sword and when we go into battle (which is our day to day life) we need to have our sword with us.
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.“
~Hebrews 4:12~
Paul talks about picking up our armor of God in Ephesians 6:10-20. He explains that we need to be into the Word of God.
I know of a few people that can memorize more than I could ever dream to. I have never been the greatest when it came to memorization. It’s an area of life that I need to put more effort into. It’s one of the reasons that I carry my Bible everywhere. If I forget how a verse goes I open the Bible up and read it.
We need to start carrying our Bibles more. We need to get into the Word of God. Start carrying the love letter that God has sent to reveal His love toward us. Blow off the dust on your Bible and start carrying it with you. However, don’t just carry the Bible with you, read it.

Where is Your Identity?

Posted on by stevenlucht1

As a Law Enforcement Officer, whenever I go up to a vehicle I first ask for the person’s license, registration, and then proof of insurance. Most of the time when I ask the driver where they are coming from it’s either going to work, or coming from work. They usually tell me where they work and that they are running late for some reason.

I was thinking about this for a while. Our Identity… Where do we put our identity. I’m going to go through each piece of paper that you would hand an officer and relate it to our relationship with God. It’ll be a little different than the actual paper, but for the past week this is what I believe God has been putting on my heart.

License:
What is our license? Well, it obviously tells us who we are. It gives a nice little picture that most people don’t like. Then if gives a few other pieces of information that explains more about us. Some of that other information includes where we live, height, weight, sex, color of eyes, color of hair and our date of birth. This tiny little card is packed with all kinds of information about us. It’s our identification…

Don’t you find it interesting when someone is asked to tell about themselves, one of the first things they start talking about is what job they have. We identify ourselves as what we do for a living and our families. When I was asked one time to describe myself, I never even mentioned that I am a born again believer. THAT SUPPOSE TO BE MY LIFE!!! I thought about it for a while and it struck me…

Why don’t we identify ourselves as a follower of Christ FIRST???

Now I know that some people are going to say, “Well, you don’t want the other person to feel uncomfortable or if they are not a Christian you might offend them.” Honestly? That’s a pretty pathetic excuse of denying Christ. I’ve had people tell me that it’s not that we deny Christ it’s just respectful not to throw it on them. I feel that is absolutely ridiculous. When we accept Christ into our lives we are asking God to come into our life and to lead us in our lives. That being said God shouldn’t just be our number one but our everything. He is our identity and what we need to live for.

“From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake be made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
~II Corinthians 5:16-21~

We are not our own. We are Christ’s. We were bought with a price. The verses explain that we are a new creation in Christ. Christ has made us righteous through himself. I strongly feel that if you are a believer this is something that should be in our daily walk and should be showing not only in our actions but in our words when we say that we are a child of God.

When we pull out our identity when asked it should
always include that we are a child of God
and a follower of Christ.

So, when asked, tell others who you really are through the blood of Christ. Tell others in a bold way that you are a follower of Christ. It’s your true identity.

Registration:
Another piece of information that I usually ask for is someone’s registration to their vehicle. The registration shows that you own that vehicle. Now, I’m going to change it up a little bit. Let’s look at this with the eyes of your registration to life. Who are you registered to? Where are you registered to?

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.”
~Philippians 3:20-4:1~

When I die I know that I am going to go to heaven. My registration is with God in heaven. When you accept Christ into your life, your registration or citizenship belongs in heaven with our amazing Savior! What a beautiful thought!!!

Proof of Insurance:
When I have pulled people over, so many people have either forgotten their insurance card or they actually don’t have insurance on their vehicle. The excuses of not having their insurance cards sometimes gets a bit ridiculous.

Now lets take a bit different look at this. Do you have proof that you have your citizenship in heaven? When other people see you do they see Christ within you? It’s an amazing challenge on my own life and how I walk in my day to day routine.

I have always enjoyed the analogy (I don’t quite remember where or who made this) that if we were to stand trial in front of  a judge and jury would we have enough evidence  to convict us of being a follower of Christ. Do you have that proof?

Honestly we shouldn’t have to pull out a card that shows that we have proof that we are a Christian. People should be able to see our walk and how we live our lives to know that we are followers of God and love God.

Eventually, some day we are going to go home to be with God. I want all my paperwork to show that I was living for God and that I truly made a point to serve Him and never be embarrassed to tell others that I am a follower of Christ. I want God to be able to see me in the end of my life and be proud of the way I lived. So, let’s start living our lives truly for Christ and actually be proclaiming that we are a child of God! Let’s stop sitting back and let other people do the work! It’s time we actually showed what it means to follow Christ, not just by our identification but also our actions.

God has this unfathomable love toward us. Let us be the ones to share this love toward others. Lets prove to others that God loves them through our actions. God’s love should be our motivation.

“For I am sure that neither death nor life,
nor angels nor  rulers,
nor things present nor things to come,
nor powers,
nor height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord”~Romans 8:38-39

A Begging Prayer

Posted on by stevenlucht1

An incredible challenge came to me this evening. I was sitting in a Bible Study at the church doing an inductive study on Philippians 4:1-9. For the purposes of what I’m going to talk about are verses four through seven which states:

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. and the peace of God. which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
~Philippians 4:4-7~

These verses completely blow my mind… First off, lets focus on the the rejoicing part. How often do we get up out of bed and rejoice? How often do I rejoice in the hard times not knowing whats the next turn? It’s so easy to rejoice in the good times of life. Those times when you know that God is all around you and taking care of you… quite frankly when life just seems plain simple. Recently, I’ve very much come to the more falling deeply in Love with God. It’s been an amazing journey becoming closer and closer to God, but do I truly rejoice ALWAYS?

That was my first mind blower and challenge in my own life.

Second, how often do I spend in genuine prayer? Now, I am very much of a person that likes to talk with God all throughout my day. It’s truly a wonderful feeling… To be constantly talking with God.

I was in my car the other day and I talked with God about something that has been on my mind a lot lately. So, I sit down in my car and start out with, “alright God you know what’s on my heart, but now I really want to talk to you and pray about this to you.” Within a minute I’m completely distracted and thinking about some random topic and lose track of my prayer. I started getting frustrated with myself because I know what I need to talk to God about is a serious matter yet I’m getting myself distracted from praying about it. This happened several times during that car ride until I finally got home and distracted myself again with other things.

Supplication. In verse six it says that we should be in prayer AND supplication. I’ve always partially known what supplication was but out of curiosity I looked on google what a definition of supplication was. This is what I found:

sup·pli·ca·tion
noun: supplication; plural noun: supplications
  1. the action of asking or begging for something earnestly or humbly.
    “he fell to his knees in supplication”

(Google definition)

Typically when I think of begging I don’t usually think about me sitting there praying in my head. When I think of someone that is begging its usually in a kneeing form, or even on their hands and knees! When do I get on my knees, let alone my hands and knees, to pray to God? Now, in my own life I need to get on my knees more especially what’s been going on in life and my future.

Is there something in your own life that needs prayer. I’m not talking about the “praying while driving and get distracted” kind of prayer. I’m talking about the “It’s time to get on my hands and knees” kind of praying. I know I do.

“If life gets too hard to stand, kneel.”
~Tony Evans~

“Sometimes I think …
I just prayed …
and God just LISTENED to me …
and He just ANSWERED me!
Is there anything more amazing,
anything greater than that?!?”
~Francis Chan~
“We ought to see the face of God every morning before we see the face of man.”
~D. L. Moody~
Thirdly, in verse six it also talks about thanksgiving. God is teaching me so much about being in constant thanksgiving to Him. The little things in life I take way too much for granted. It’s been a great challenge in the past couple weeks to constantly be thankful for all the big things God has placed in my life all the way to the most minute thing in life.
I was watching a sermon with Francis Chan and when the video started there was cheering and clapping. Francis was praying and thanking God for a great worship time. He finished and told the congregation of a gentleman that was cured of cancer. At that moment I heard a shout, “THANK YOU GOD, PRAISE GOD!!!” I’ve really never heard someone genuinely cry out to God at the top of their lungs in praise like that before. When’s the last time that we truly cried out thanking God for all the things He as done in my life, not worrying about what other people think about us?
Finally, at the end of verse six it states:
“…let your requests be made known to God.”
Philippians 4:6
What was an amazing reminder that an all knowing God wants to know what we need and want. He already knows so why should be telling him what he already knows? The only reason that I could think of (and they’re might be others) is that He wants to hear us talk to Him. Now I may not be in a relationship here on earth with anyone, but I know that if I had an attraction for someone I would want them to talk to me. I would want to hear their voice. Taking that a step further… If someone was married and knew absolutely everything about their spouse and what they were thinking, yet still wanted their spouse to tell them what they need want could only be a picture of genuine love to their spouse.
This thought is nearly overwhelming to me. GOD, The Almighty, wants to know what’s on my heart and my requests even though He already knows them!! That is an amazing picture of His love for us!
Once again, I am completely overwhelmed by the love that God has for us and what He has in store for our lives. It shows more and more that we just need to trust Him and to invest our lives into this relationship that we have in Christ.
It’s time to get on our knees and truly be in prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving to God.

Head Over Heals in Love

Posted on by stevenlucht1

Honestly, I really don’t even know where to begin with this… this is focused more on the single men and women struggling to find what’s already waiting for them.

My disappointment and frustrations with people who call themselves “Christians” is beyond me. I’m sure I’ll get some criticism with this, but hear me out. I’m using examples throughout my day to day life and what I have been reading a lot of on social media.

Since when is it okay?? Since when is it okay to be in a relationship with Christ and think you need more. If you are truly and completely in love with Christ then you don’t need anything else.

Yes, I am definitely in favor of being married as God has given me that passion within me. However, why would I focus my being on finding a future wife when I could be growing in my relationship with God? We rush into relationships with people but don’t push to have a relationship with God Himself!

We are losing this emotion of falling in love with GOD! I want nothing else in this world besides Him.

I really enjoy asking young people how much they get into the bible. Most of the answers I get are “not too much” or “a couple times a week”. How is it okay if we are suppose to have a personal relationship with God, yet neglect reading his love letter to us!?! It blows my mind!

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am far from being perfect. However, I have finally understood that I am already in a relationship. And if I truly want to be a man of God I best get in His book and be in CONSTANT prayer to Him.

“pray without ceasing”
~1 Thessalonians 5:17

Did you know that if you have accepted the love of God into your life and are a follower of Him you are dead to sin and alive in Christ?

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight.”
~Ephesians 1:7-8~

Look up the word lavished in the English dictionary… yeah it’s pretty amazing. Skip down a little bit:

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
~Ephesians 2:4-6~

These verses aren’t in the Bible so that you can just underline them and look at them once in a  while! There actually meant to live out! We should be challenged daily to have a BURNING passion to live for Christ.

Now I am no relationship expert, but I can see pretty well that when we truly follow Christ and keep Him (and only Him) at our center and to call in love with him on a daily basis He will provide a future spouse for us. So why fret over wanting to be in a relationship when you are already in one!?

Now I have nothing against this certain individual, but I saw this post on facebook where it quoted one of my favorite chapters in the bible:

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude/ It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all tings, endures all things.”
~1 Corinthians 13:4-7~

With this post the individual posted that they wanted a love like this. Well, we already do! God has lavished His love upon us.

I always liked looking at our hearts as having a hole in it. Now we can fill this hole with a lot of different worldly desires such as alcohol, drugs, pornography and relationships. Now for a very short time these instant gratifying desires satisfy this hole but will never fill it. The only thing that could ever fill that hole is the love of God. He desires to fill it and fill it with passion and love we could never imagine on our own.

Now maybe you’re sitting here reading this and saying to yourself “well duh, I already know all this stuff” but are you TRULY living it in your day to day life. It’s a constant challenge for myself. Is the last thought I go to bed to and the first thought that I wake up to showing my desire to be closer to God and want to strengthen my relationship with Him?

It’s time we fell in love with our Savior all over again.

When’s the last time you felt completely in love with God? When’s the last time that you couldn’t go to bed without reading the Bible or having a long conversation with God? When’s the last time you actually took time out of your day to have some personal time with God?

I’m not talking about ten or fifteen minutes. I’m talking about taking an hour out of your day and truly spend alone time with God. If the first thought that came through your mind was “I don’t have that kind of time” then you need to make that kind of time. He’s waiting…

I sit here and I can feel this overwhelming feeling as if someone is wrapping their arms around me. I feel God’s love flowing through my veins. I would never write this to condemn people but to want people to feel these same feelings. It’s that head over heals in love for Christ. I couldn’t be happier.

Let’s strive to love God with our entire being. I can guarantee that job that you can’t stand and the person that drives you nuts will dwindle away once you truly engulf your life with sharing Christ’s love.

 

Stuck in the Mud

Posted on by stevenlucht1

When is the last time you went for a walk? I really enjoy going for a nice long walk. Usually, I go out for a couple hours to spend time with God and think about my direction in life. The other day I was walking along and I noticed something quite interesting. What do you usually do when you go for a long walk? I caught myself several times looking down at my feet. Here I am, in a beautiful area, walking along and I’m looking down at my feet. I might as well walk on a treadmill. I found that a lot of us do that when we are going for a walk.

I thought about this for a while (as I was still looking down at my feet.)  Along the walk, I walked right into a muddy spot and tripped over several roots in the ground. I thought it was a great way of looking at life! We are so concerned about what we are doing in our exact location that we completely forget to look around at what God has for us. I know in my own life that I have “looked down at the ground” way too much. We miss so much of what’s around us and neglect to get involved. We are so concerned about what is going to happen and what we are going to step in that we don’t take amazing opportunities that are right in front of us.

I’ve learned to stop saying “no” to different opportunities in life because I was too concerned about my “free time”. The more I get involved and surrender my time to others, the more rewarding life seems.

I so often have those days that I get “stuck in the mud.” So many difficult situations happen during the day and it seems like the whole day is ruined. I keep “looking down at my feet” on where I am that day that I forget to look up and see some amazing things that God has so incredibly blessed me with. We stay so focused on on the bad things that are happening during a certain period of time that we forget to look up and see how much God has blessed us.

Most people that know me are familiar with my passion to work with youth and young kids. I long for the day to make that a daily reality in youth ministry. My passion is to tell kids about Christ and to be in the ministry somewhere. However, I am not on that direct path right now. As some people know, I am a law enforcement officer for two agencies. I don’t really get the opportunity to see the good side of people and to tell them about Christ in that field. Don’t get me wrong, I have had some amazing experiences being an officer, but it’s not where God has called me and put this burning passion inside my heart.

This being said, I could be quite discouraged and keep looking down at were I am in life and lose hope in what I want to do in the future. God has taught me so much in looking up at Him that it’s been a blessing to where he has me. I recently was offered and accepted a job as being a sort of tutor for a boy in the fourth grade. The family that offered this job to me is a good Christian family that I attend church with. Now, I’ve only worked with the boy two days, but I absolutely love it. I praise God every day for such an incredible opportunity that he placed in front of me that if I was so focused on looking down in my life, I would have never noticed this!

“Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
~Psalms 37:4~

I don’t believe that looking down at our feet is delighting ourselves in the Lord. It’s focusing too much in what’s going to happen to us and worrying about tripping over some root or stepping in mud instead of focusing on Christ and what He has placed in front of us. So, lets pick up our heads and focus on Christ and give thank to God for whatever we step in.

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
~1 Thessalonians 5:16-18~