Up Close & Personal - Rick Fields (Guest Writer)

It's true that God is interested building true intimacy and relationship with his precious children. God wants to be the one with whom we share our dreams, ambitions, fears, vulnerability, desires and longing. I was reading a note that my friend Rick wrote and I was so inspired by it that I wanted to share it with you all.
I pray that it gives you new perspective and encourages you in your relationship with God!
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God is into dealing with us.

He is such an up close and personal God. Not only is He spiritually near to us because He lives in those who have placed faith in Christ, but He is an up close and personal God in the sense that He doesn't want a superficial, "Hi and bye" kind of relationship with us, He wants it to be real, raw, and...I can't think of a 3rd R. Oh well, but That's been a constant theme in my life recently that keeps coming up one way or another, so I thought i'd write on it.

God is an up close and personal God. Though often times, His tugs at our heart, His taps on our shoulder, and His attempts to establish closeness are shrugged off and discounted like a billboard you pass on the way to work. God faithfully deals with us. He is in that "soft whisper" if you look for it.

” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper." (1 Kings 19:11-12)

[27] that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, [28] for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’(Acts 17:27-28 ESV)

And when I say that God deals with us, I don’t mean that God puts up with us, like some annoying co-worker who you can’t stand dealing with. You have to put up with someone when you dislike them. On the contrary, God deals with us because He loves us. Dealing with us means that God is willing and wanting to get up close to us, to get in our business, in our thoughts, He wants to deal on a real, every day level with us, be in the trenches with us, on the court with us, at the table eating with us per se. Completely different concept.

20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (Rev. 3:20)

The way God deals with us is like having your own personal fitness trainer. Often times when you sign up for a gym membership, you get a few free sessions with a personal fitness trainer, generally some ex-football player who looks like he’s on steroids. This guys job is to spend time with you every day, pushing you to grow to be like him! Or at least, the best you you can be (without performance enhancing drugs lol). And despite all the tests and exercises and stretches he puts you through, his job is really not to make your life miserable, though some days your body may feel otherwise! But the personal trainers job, the heart of it, is to get the best in us and from us and out of us, for the sake of our health.

God too is a personal trainer. He’s that involved. He’s not some hands off, distant, far away spectator in the clouds above who can’t be reached. God is hands on, up close, in our minds, in our faces, in our hearts, gently, yet boldly pressing us to be the best us; to make the best career, the best relationships, the best use of our time and money, the best sacrifices for others, the best choices and decisions for ourselves and our loved ones and for our communities. He too, is pushing us to be "Like Him." And it's an intensely personal process.

29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Rom. 8:29)

That’s how God deals with us; on a one-on-one level, with love being His only motive. He is personal, not general. General is something done cookie-cutter style for everybody. Personal is something hand-crafted with you in mind. That's how God deals with us; hand-crafted.

And God is committed to us. Every day, from the time we open our eyes and plant our feet on the ground in the morning, God is jockeying for us to “choose life.” And every evening, when the night has fallen, and you’re slipping back into bed to recharge after a hard day’s work, God is speaking “You are my son, you are my daughter, and I love you.”

Do you hear that? Do you know that? Do you ever stop long enough to listen for it? Are you ever still enough in the midst of all of your appointments and meetings and to-do lists, long enough to hear the Spirit saying these things? Are you getting more than just instructions from God’s book on how to live a purpose driven life, are you also hearing words of inspiration and motivation and comfort from a living God & heavenly Father who’s the greatest champion of your life?

15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!” 16 And the Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God, (Rom. 8:15-16)

I pray that we would not only go to church and read our bibles and have a plan for our finances and marriages and families that follow biblical principles. I pray that we would not only participate in church picnics and Sunday schools and choir rehearsals and dance ministries. I pray that we would learn to recognize and respond to the Living God who is dealing with us faithfully and lovingly every day. I pray that we would grow to talk with God who is living and alive and real and involved intimately with us, as naturally as we talk to ourselves when we’re in the car alone or at the house by ourselves. I pray that talking to God would become as natural as breathing. And I pray that as we begin to talk to God, we would begin to hear from God in a new and energizing way. That we would let Him develop a new level of trust. That we would let Him develop a more deeply rooted faith. That we would hear what He is saying and remember it more than the words of our favorite song. And that in hearing, we would grow in obeying, knowing that we follow a God who died on the cross for us, yet who lives within each one of us.

“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD....” (Jeremiah 29:12-14 ESV)

Why are YOU here??!

I have recently been overwhelmed with conversation and conviction about purpose. Humans, we get so caught in the routine of normal living, living within the standards that are predetermined by our culture and environment. We are taught from a young age to go to school, do well, network, get a good job, get married, have kids, make a lot of money, get a promotion, a nice car, get a nice house, go to dinner parties and drink wine while discussing politics and at that point, ”You have arrived”. The problem with that type of “life curriculum” is that it does not allow for you to really be in tune with discovering why God created you.

I will submit to you that the only reason that you and I still have breath in our bodies is because there is work that God has for YOU to do on this earth. YOUR life was created to push God’s agenda forward. The beauty in this is that God literally wants to give you the assignment for your life. It’s not a secret, neither is it something that you have to stress about finding. You only have to have a sincere desire to live for Him! Purpose is what you do daily, how you live your life, not a single instant that you are working towards. I’ll give you the greatest hint to determining God’s will for your life…ready? Here it is….the bible. The bible gives us the revealed will of God that applies to all of humanity. While chasing after righteousness and being transformed by the renewing of the mind through Christ Jesus…THEN will God began to unfold the purpose/ his will that is specific to you! It’s just that simple. Let me rephrase that…As we chase after righteousness, knowing that we are nothing without God but everything with God with a pure heart, is the point which God will take our lives and do more with it than we could have ever hoped. Don’t worry about changing first, don’t worry about fixing the problems in your life first, just choose God and He will do the rest.

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all other things will be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33

One thing is for sure, if you are reading this…God is calling you. What will you do with the call? Pursue his presence and He will tell you who you are, tell you why he created you and transform your life. God created your life…why try to figure out details without the wisdom in HIS knowledge.  Free will allows for you to submit to God and that same free will allows you to ignore his calling. You are at a crossroad and your decision means everything…choose wisely. That my friends, is 7 Degrees North.

Lord Jesus, help us to know you better. Give us a heart to service you, a heart to live for you. Lord download your heart in ours so that we will be concerned about the things that concern you. It’s getting real out here Lord, be our protection, drown us in your grace and help us to live unapologetically for you!

Grace and Peace,

Kris

Nature Speaks

My dad is very jovial and that is typically the tone of our daily conversations. However, while conversing with him via phone about a year ago he said, out of the blue with a very serious tone, “Kris I want you to listen for God.  You have to be intentional about it. Listen in nature, listen when you are sitting alone, listen when you are talking to people, listen when you are going through trials, always be listening for God”.  I wrote that conversation down in my journal because I knew that although my dad was speaking, God put it on his heart to say that specifically to me.   Since that day I have been extremely intentional about listening to God, thirsty for God to share his heart with me and hungry to experience more of the presence of God.  Since I began pursing God in that way, I have experienced His presence in such a profound fashion.

Growing up on a farm in Tuskegee, Alabama, nature is nothing new to me but it wasn’t until I truly connected to God that I became mesmerized with the mighty works of His hands. The clouds, the trees, flowers, water, sand, dirt (from which man was formed), humans, animals, the sky, stars, etc. all attest to the loving kindness of God. It’s almost as if God is audibly speaking to me as I drive to work and look up at the vastness of the sky.  I wonder how God decide on cumulus clouds today and stratus clouds yesterday. Just as I get caught up in analyzing God and His decisions I am reminded that the things that my finite mind obsesses over, God in his infinite wisdom made provisions for those things long ago. God didn’t wake up this morning and decide if it would rain or not. The details of life, my life and yours and the way the earth and nature responds was pre-determined before the foundation of the earth. If God would take so much consideration into the sky, the trees, vibrant flowers, unique animals with stripes, dots, and in an array of colors…how much MORE thought did he put into planning the details of your life?

Psalms 139:16 has added so much clarity to my life. It says “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed”. If we live life with a pure heart to honor God with our lives there is absolutely nothing to worry about. Yes, life presents us with many obstacles but one thing we can find comfort in is that God has already made provisions for us. God is not pacing back and forth trying to decide how to solve our problems…he is simply watching our lives unfold according to his plan and drawing us closer to him. Satan would love to throw us off track and keep you from living in God’s perfect will but if it is truly your hearts intention to live for Christ, I promise you that God will grace you with His love, peace, joy, and provision. The next time you start to obsess about your life, your future, your problems…take a moment to allow God to speak to you through nature.

I have been in awe of the beauty of the sky. I find myself making comments about it daily and recently I realized that the sky has always been beautiful…I just couldn’t see it. Just as Your life…you may see it as insignificant, dull, painful, etc. But thank God that he has good thoughts towards us. Thank God that his thoughts include us having abundance, a hope and a future.  God wants to reveal himself to you through his creation; all you have to do is open your eyes. That my friends, is 7 Degrees North.

*Note The pictures here were taken with my camera. The first picture was taken on a clear day in North Augusta, SC. The second one was taken in Atlanta, GA and the last one was taken in the Mountains of North Carolina. These pictures indicate instances where I heard God clearly speak to me through nature. Happy to share them with you!

Grace and Peace,

Kris

Foodie PenPals Love

This month I participated in a great program called Foodie Penpal. Foodie Penpal was started by Lindsay with the blog site “The Lean Green Bean”. The program works like this:

-On the 5th of the month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you can choose to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.

This month my Foodie Penpal was Carmie with “The Single Nester” . I was so excited to receive my package from Carmie and I was excited about the treats that were accompanied by a sweet note and a recipe. Check out what I got below:

What I enjoy most about Foodie Penpal is the love that is exchanged amongst strangers. It’s so funny how even in imple things like Food Penpal, the love of God is demonstrated. Sharing your story and interest with others is essential to fulfillment. Food Penpal is 7 Degrees North. Thank you Lindsay for the opportunity to participate and thank you Carmie for my wonderful box of goodies!

With Love,

Kris

The Greatness in You!

You hear this all the time and as cliché as it might be….there is GREATNESS in each and every individual. The people who achieve it and those who don’t are only divided by one critical element and that is Faith. Yes, that’s right, faith! Let me tell you a quick story about Elephants in the Circus.

When elephants are being trained in the circus the trainer ties a chain to their ankle as a baby to keep them from getting away. The elephant struggles to get away over and over again and after a while, once they feel defeated, they stop attempting to escape.  At that point, the trainer has full control and could actually remove the chain without being concerned about the elephant trying to escape. When the elephant is an adult it could easily break away from the chain but because mentally it feels defeated, it doesn’t even attempt to escape.

This is exactly what has happened to many individuals. As a child we have dreams and ambitions. Take notice of the things that kids draw pictures of, things like families (love), hearts (love), the sun and trees(God),all things that are greater than them. Also, ask a kid what they want to be when they grow up and many of them will tell you 6 or 7 different things….then at some point the world blinds us and tells us that we cannot achieve those things. The world tells us that true love doesn’t exist, owning a business is not possible and living a life in submission to God is impossible. The world (Satan) tells us that God doesn’t care THAT much about us and the abundance that God speaks about in the bible is just a theory. These my friends are all tricks that the devil (he is quite clever) uses to keep us from accomplishing the things for which God created us to accomplish.  It is the exact same thing that happens to the elephants in training.

The key to having faith is to scope out who God says that you are and His promises to you and allow those things to take root in your heart. At that point God will start to build your confidence in Him for your life. Friends, God didn’t put you on this earth because he was bored. God put gifts inside of each of us for us to operate in on a high level to HIS glory. Imagine if we all tuned in to our purpose and chased after it. Just imagine how we could change the world.

Would you like to determine more about God’s promises and your purpose? Stay tuned. I’m praying for each of you. God has a plan…Trust and Believe!

With love,

Kris

You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. Psalms 139:16 (NLT)

Just Keep Straight!

Unfortunately, I have the tendency to be easily distracted! So I was driving home after work in a hurry so that I could make it to the gym for a class and as I was approaching the street where Target was (Target is one of my favorite stores and I can ALWAYS find something to buy there) and pulled over into the turning lane, it was almost automatic. After about 15 seconds of sitting in the turning lane with my left turning signal on I realized that I was NOT planning on going to Target and by doing so I would miss the class that I planned to attend.  So, I turned my right turning signal on to get back on the main street and to my dismay it was extremely heavy traffic and NO One would let me over. In my frustration God spoke to me with such clarity and this is what he said…

Kristin, you were on the right path and you got distracted. How often you have done this with me.  You let me in, I was giving you what you needed, and giving you the fullness of my love and grace and then you saw something shiny in the world and put distance between us. I have work for you to do, I have souls for you to win for my kingdom and when you get off track for even 15 seconds it causes you to miss an opportunity that I had for you.  You are special to me and I love you and it hurts me to see you live below the place that I have designed for you. You know I want to give you the desires of your heart, I want to give you more than anything that you can ever hope for or imagine.  I am still going to get you to your destination but as long as you continue to get distracted you will encounter stress and trials along the way. I will keep you in my permissive will because I know you need my grace but I want you in my perfect will. I love you! Next time keep straight!

As I turned left into the target parking lot only to turn around to get back on the main street I sat humbled by what God has taught me in that moment. How often do we start off with good intentions and get distracted? Maybe you got sucked into the world’s system of fun and entertainment (gossip, drugs, alcohol, sex (outside of marriage), music that professes things opposite of what God says, etc.), maybe a trial or situation completely threw you off track in your walk with God, maybe you entertained a relationship that was not right for you, etc.  Whatever “it” is that distracted you from the path that God had for you, God is speaking the same words to you today. “You were on the right path and you got distracted. I have work for you to do. I love you!”   I know we like to blame many situations on the devil and I do agree that the devil is busy…as he is the one that presents us with the “shiny” things in life that lead to our destruction or lack of productivity.  HOWEVER, the thing that makes humans so beautiful is free will. Free will is one of the most critical aspects that put us in the image of God. That said, when WE make decisions to yield to the temptations of the world, we then ultimately we say to God “I don’t want to be in your perfect will”. And while God’s love for us is unchanging…we have to deal with the consequences of our actions. Just as I was late to my gym class because I got distracted and had to do damage control is the same way  while we are distracted with trying to repair our lives from the problems that were created by us we are missing the things that God has in store for us.

I encourage you to keep your eyes on the prize. God promised that if we seek first his kingdom and its righteousness ALL other things will be added to us (Matthew 6:33).  God is PERFECT! Don’t believe this in theory but believe this with your whole heart. Meditate on it. Ask God to strengthen your faith in him and I promise he will. I encourage you all (myself included) to keep straight! God has something great in store for you!

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” Ephesians 3:20  Imagine that! Trust God and see what happens!

With Love,

Kris

Culmination of Grace: 5K Run

On Saturday morning I ran a (my first) 5k in support of Orphans in Kenya through an organization called Invest (www.choosetoinvest.org). Invest is a global discipleship organization aimed at spreading the knowledge of the Power of Jesus Christ and empower people around the world to know who they are in Christ. They do a great deal of their work at Orphanages in Kenya and the funds used from the race will support that mission.  The experience was great for all of the obvious reasons (great cause, health, excitement, cheering, etc.) but it was extremely significant to me because it was a testament to God’s grace over my life and the Culmination of that Grace specifically over my health.

You know my story…I was very sick as a child, the doctors said that I would not live and sent me on a trip that grants one final wish to terminally ill kids. After I lived they said that I would never be able to walk, when I walked they said that I would never run, when I ran they said that I would need to have treatment for the rest of my life. But God…!!

With that in my mind, back to my initial statement….I RAN a 5k! As I crossed the finish line I saw people cheering and the only thing on my mind was “Thank You Lord”. I wanted to take all of those claps and cheers that were for me and reflect them to God because if it had not been for GRACE, I would have never ran this race, and furthermore, I would have been 6 feet under. This race was the culmination of the provision that God has made for me. As I drove home I was in tears in awe of God. Many people were told that they would not live and they did not live. Many people were told that they wouldn’t walk and they didn’t walk. Many people were told that they would be restricted to medical treatment for their lives and they were restricted. Yet God saw fit to allow me to overcome all barriers.

I truly am an overcomer in Christ. I truly do boast in my confidence in Christ. Excuse me if sometimes I seem “too passionate” or “take this Christian thing too seriously” but please know that I do not apologize, God has been beyond good to me and my whole goal in life is to share the goodness of God with others. I want others to be empowered to experience the love of Christ. Sometimes circumstances prevent us from seeing it but it’s definitely there. Jesus loves you more than you know. I am resilient in Christ….and so are you!

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. 1 Corinthians 9:24

With Love,

Kris