I am not worthy.

I have heard that a lot in the past few weeks. Satan has whispered it in my ear. Friends that God has put into my path, people that are hurting or have made mistakes, stumbled and even fallen, they too cry out, “I am not worthy of God.”
And they are right.

None of us are worthy of God. Not one.

Mother Theresa was not worthy of God. Billy Graham was not worthy of God. John the Baptist, the 12 disciples, Mary or Moses, none were worthy.

(25As John was completing his work, he said: 'Who do you think I am? I am not that one. No, but he is coming after me, whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. Acts 13:25)

No matter how great, no matter how small. No matter if we cure cancer, fix the national deficit and balance the budget, feed every mouth, shelter every body, and adopt every orphan.

It still won’t matter; we won’t be good enough.

How good we are makes no difference because we cannot be good enough. We will always mess up. We will always fall short. Which is why we need Jesus.

I have a debt I owe. It’s more then I can ever repay but Jesus has paid it in full. There are so many people walking around who cannot put their head around that. They doubt their salvation, they doubt that God could love them, they don’t believe that He could love them. But this is a lie that Satan has planted in our heads.

It is impossible to grasp the enormity of our God because we believe that God views us as we view each other. God doesn’t work that way. You need to take Him out of the box, break down the walls and open up the door to your heart.

Think with me for a minute about a person in your life that you love. Just picture that person standing in front of you. It could be someone living or dead, a child, a parent, a spouse, but just one person. Think about how your heart fills when you think of that person. Think about how much you miss that person if they are gone, how your heart hurts if they have passed. Taking this journey right now might be painful, but it’s important, because my friend, no matter how much you love that person you are thinking about, GOD LOVES YOU MORE.

Think about that for a minute.

And then accept it.

It is simple, but it’s not easy, but I promise, it is worth it, and so are you, through Jesus.

FIVE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

Sunday, December 20, 2009.

Contest business: The winner of the I-Tunes gift card was…

Leslie Pennington!

Leslie if you will email me at leigh at leighfrance dot com I will get that in the mail to you this week. I promise it will get there before my Christmas card does. Thanks to everyone who signed up to follow my blog. Will have more contest just for my “followers” throughout the coming year. LOL, membership has its privileges.

Five days until Christmas and my list of things to do is feels like it’s longer then Santa’s and I will certainly be checking it more then twice to make sure I get everything taken care of this week.

Each year I tell myself, “Self, you need to start Christmas shopping in January, you need to put aside a certain amount of money each paycheck, you need to take a family picture in August so you can send out Christmas cards, etc...” And every Christmas I still find myself scrambling to know what to buy, never getting out Christmas cards, and getting bogged down, overwhelmed and frustrated during what should be a time of joy, praise, thanksgiving, and celebration.

This morning I am making out two lists. I will be listing the things I need to get done by Friday and asking WH and DD to help where they can, but my second list will be something I can do daily with my family or alone.

To think about this week for Mary and Joseph and what it meant to them. To imagine what they were experiencing 2,000 years ago this week. There was no Christmas. But there was a journey, a young woman traveling on a donkey. A woman who was very pregnant and far away from home. Far away from her mother and other women to help her. A woman who would deliver the Savior.

In the song, “Mary Did You Know,” the most powerful lyric to me is, “Mary did you know that the child that you delivered would soon deliver you?”



I don’t believe that Mary or Joseph had any idea of what was to come. If you knew what God’s ultimate plan was for your life do you think you could wrap your head around it? I know I never thought 10 years ago, 5 years ago, even 1 year ago I would be doing what I am now for my God.

I am going to make my two lists and become very intentional with making sure Christ is at the beginning, middle and end of every single day. I will go look at Christmas lights and remember the light of the world that came down and how the beauty of a Christmas tree will pale beside the light of my Jesus.

I will wrap my gifts and pray for each person that will receive it that not only will they know how much I care for them, but also that the gift I have given them pales in comparison to the gift from our heavenly Father.

I will slow down, way down, and realize that satan would love nothing more then for me to rush through all this and miss the real meaning. A birthday is a celebration and a chance to show love and appreciation to someone. But with Jesus’ birth a life was begun that became a gift beyond compare. Love came down and walked among men.

So, Mary did you know and my friend, do you know as well what the true meaning of this week. How are you going to slow down this week? What are you going to do? I would love to hear from you and in case I forget it on the list, have a wonderful and wonder filled Merry Christmas.

Friends and Contest Winners!!!!

It was so much fun having the contest but what was even more fun for me was seeing what happens when friends come together. Stop for a minute and just think about the friends that God has brought into your life. Over the last few weeks my friends have been surrounding me from my group of God’s Girls Growing (G3) to friends that I serve with, to friends that hold me accountable, to friends that speak the truth in love and help me to see Him when sometimes all I see is me. True friends. We weren’t meant to go through this life alone. Jesus knew this and picked 12 men to follow him and they became his friends. Did they all agree, no, did they let Jesus down along the way, yes, did they love each other, most of the time, and did they, through the power of One man, change the entire world…yes. All by word of mouth too I might add. Before the age of twitter, facebook, blogs and the internet. Society has existed on word of mouth. I got to see that over the past few days first hand. People spreading the word about the blog, telling their friends, and people stopping by from all over, California, Canada and even overseas. How cool. Because a friend suggested they come by. Friendships are powerful. They can lift us up by speaking honestly but with love, they can hold us accountable by showing us where we stumble before we have a chance to fall, and they can hold us when we are too scared to hold on. My friends have all done that and more.

This will be brief this morning, well as brief as I can make it, I’d like to challenge you to think and pray for your friends today. Send someone a note on FB to let them know you are thinking of them, send them a card online if you want, just stop a few minutes and give a little bit of the love away. It’s free, it multiplies, never divides, and when you give a little bit you get so much more in return.

And the winners of the Blog Brain Contest are:

Amy New won the “What Happens..” book. She was picked via the Random Number Generator website.

And

Tammy Marquess won the “Becoming More…” book. Tammy sent more then 25 different people by the blog. Now that’s the wonder of word of mouth and sharing with our friends.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by. Ladies if you will email me your mailing address to leigh at leighfrance dot com. I will send out your books!

Thanks for playing everyone!!!!