What's Your Love Language?

What is your “love language”? This is a great question for premarital counseling, roommates, or coworkers you have. Have you ever heard of the 5 Love Languages written by Gary Chapman? He describes how every person has a specific way that they receive love from someone and how they show love to someone. There are five distinct languages: 1) Words of Affirmation, 2) Quality Time, 3) Receiving Gifts, 4) Acts of Service, and 5) Physical Touch.

This morning I was asking myself, how do I show love to Jesus?

Words of Affirmation – I praise Him and thank Him for blessing me.

Quality Time – I (try to) spend time with Him in the mornings.

Acts of Service – I serve Him by helping those around me.

Giving Gifts – I tithe “regularly” and offer myself for His use.  

Physical Touch – This part is kind of difficult when you can’t see Him, but you could go a step farther to remember what he said in Matthew 25, “…whatever you do to the least of these you do for me.” I hope I touch His heart when I love those around me.

Obviously, I am terrible at showing Jesus I love him. Then I began to reflect on how Jesus shows love to me and I was astonished. He covers all of them!

Words of Affirmation – He “inspired” every word in the Bible, His “love letter” to us! It is the best source of encouragement and wisdom.

Quality Time – He is always with us and “never leaves us nor forsakes us.”

Receiving Gifts – He gave the world the greatest gift of all time: His only Son as a way for us to have eternal life with God forever. Wow.

Acts of Service – Not only did He create us, provide for us, protect us, but He blesses us with everything that we have ever needed. There’s no one else on earth that can satisfy our every need.

Physical Touch – This is not even a limitation for Him! He often touches my heart and fills it with peace, He wraps His arms around me in comfort, and He holds my hand throughout the day.

I am in a season of transition. To be honest, sometimes it sucks trying to figure out what your life is about now that school is over and you live in a different place with the same people you grew up around. But in a way, it’s beautiful. The Lord knew I needed a season of rest and to re-center my life around Him and not my circumstances. Originally, I planned on moving to Vancouver in August, but God had other plans. (Also, WHO AM I that I should tell God “Hey I am leaving August 22^nd so I’m gonna need you to give me everything I need by then, okay thanks”?!) The Lord has been so gracious in this season of change by reminding me that I am first called to Him and then what I do. Everything I do comes out of who I am in Him. My dear friend, come back to who you are in Him. It’s not about what you do for Him.

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement through this essential time! If you would like to reach out and hear more about Vancouver or interested in joining my team, email me at brindleyt@hotmail.com. 

The Mission: Should You Choose to Accept It...

My favorite question people ask me is, how do you know God is calling you to go to Canada? Sometimes I start with telling them about my call to the mission field when I was fifteen and how the Lord called me to go to school to better prepare myself for the mission field. Although the biggest thing I learned about the mission field is that I was already living in it. I pass people on a daily basis that need to hear the Gospel, some whom have never even heard the name Jesus except in a curse word. We are all living in a mission field, but only a few are called to live cross culturally.

The most familiar command known to Christians is “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey all I have commanded you and I will always be with you to the very end of the age.” However, many people do not know the very tense of “go”. In this passage, it describes the continuous action, “as you are going,’ and notice it didn’t say where to go. We are all called to make disciples as we are going through life, wherever that takes us. For some of us it is 8,000 miles away in a remote village in Africa or just across the northern border.

Following the call I believed God laid on my heart almost ten years ago, I have been exploring places that God could use me. When I went to Vancouver the first time in 2015, I enjoyed exploring the city but not prepared for the darkness I found. I left with no intention of going back, until a friend approached me with the opportunity to return with a team. Through prayer and lots of preparation, my team of four joined another team of nine people in Vancouver prepared to reach out to the students on campus. Our main objective was to “disrupt the unbelief” within the student body at the University of British Colombia and who better to reach college students than college students themselves!

And on that trip, walking through campus, things started looking differently. I began to see glimmers of hope shining through our team and through me. We were doing all the things I am passionate about: intentionally building relationships by taking students hiking, meeting them for coffee, cooking meals together, running to the grocery store together, and even serving with them. I began to see where the Lord wanted me to get plugged in and how he wanted to use me to link unlikely groups together!

When I got home, I began to ask God what he wanted me to do about this new dream he placed in my heart. I was not actively seeking Canada, but actively seeking the Lord and Canada kept coming up. Doors began to open, incredible connections where being made, friends graciously encouraged me, God kept drawing me. There is not a doubt in my mind that God is calling me to Canada, not because he needs me there, but because he wants me to be a part of what he is already doing!

This is where you come in my dear friend (who has made it through reading this blog!), we were never meant to walk this journey alone. We all have the same mission, fighting the same war. Some of us are meant to be in the Navy or Marines, but some of us are meant to be foot soldiers. God is doing incredible things in Vancouver, Canada, and I want to personally invite you on this mission. You can join this mission in one or both of two ways.

1.  You can contribute financially, following the Lord’s guidance to the amount and frequency. I am specifically looking for monthly partners who will contribute once a month to ministry expenses necessary to stay on the field, such as housing. However, if the Lord leads you to give a one-time gift, I will graciously count you on my team! (Email me at brindleyt@hotmail.com for details on how to give.)
2. You can join my team through prayer. Prayer is a supernatural way to uniquely connect the Lord with his followers. If ministry is not bathed in prayer, surrendering to God who and what he wishes, it is in vain. I am marching on the battle field and I need faithful prayer warriors to be holding the ropes as I march on. I promise you will be blessed by your faithful partnership in this! 

Will you do me a favor? Would you pray about joining my Grace Team? My Grace Team is made up of prayer and financial partners who take the opportunity to invest and be a part of this ministry, not just giving money toward a mission trip. I am asking you to consider being on this team as a rope holder. Come be a part of what God is doing!

Grace So Undeserved

Grace. A word I don’t often understand. Grace that causes others to forgive so freely when clearly the person was in the wrong. This week I have experienced so much grace from my professors that I don’t deserve any of it. Grace from my professor about an assignment that should have been turned in two weeks ago. Grace from another professor about a topic switch for my term paper and grace from yet another professor who extended the due date for another 12-page research paper. Blessings upon blessings! I am now praying to be more intentional and productive as if not to waste this opportunity.

The ultimate example of Grace this week, I don’t know if I will ever understand it. This kind of Grace is ruthless, unwavering, constant, and abundant. This kind of Grace, doesn’t only exist in the natural world. It’s so abundant, it can’t! This kind of Grace some when the hero dies for the villain. This kind of Grace looks his persecutors in the eyes and says, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” This Grace takes his last breath in place of killing His enemies. Only this kind of Grace could exist in Jesus.

I was standing in a church last week and we were singing about God’s love for us. Tear s welled up in my eyes and I whispered,

God, I don’t understand this kind of love. I don’t understand how you love and could even die for those terrorists that kill your children. In reality, we are all terrorist against you, bound by the laws of sin/disobedience and death. How could you love us enough to give your life for them? And even after we accept that, you still help us love you even when we don’t feel like it. Please help me understand this kind of Grace and help me to love you more.

My dear friend, this Grace is calling out to you. Let Him show you what He has done for YOU.  He craves an intimate relationship with you. This Easter is all about reflecting on His sacrifice that took your place and to thank Him. Draw near to Him!

The Raw Me

I have wrestled and fought the thought about writing this post. I know it will cost me a lot of things and maybe even relationships with people or at least change their perspective about what they think of me.

I feel the need to be vulnerable.

I have been struggling a lot. I have been struggling with keeping my reputation up to par, scared other’s perception of me. I am scared to let down walls because I have been burnt by people before. (Part of it being the preacher’s kid with the reputation of “I have to have it all together or at least look like it”, and the other part is just the tough layer of skin I have developed because of the things life has thrown at me.)

It bothers me that some people think I am “perfect”, when in reality I am perfectly human and I fail daily. Compared to the world’s standards I am a good person; I go to church every week, I volunteer and do community outreach, I read the Bible and pray every day (or close to it), I am kind to people, I obey my parents, I don’t drink, smoke, or try anything else that lets me escape pain. However, I don’t live by the world’s standards, I live by God’s standards and it reveals how much I am missing.

Over the last few weeks, I have been praying for conviction of the things that I feel like have been blocking me from experiencing God on an intimate level. (For those of you that have had an experience with God like this, you know what I am talking about). However, as I have been seeking that conviction, I have been frustrated with myself that I can’t find out what I am doing wrong. I am HUMAN, which means I do things wrong all the time, but I have become desensitized to it. (You know like when you hear someone cussing for the first time and it makes you cringe, but the more you hear it the more immune to it you become? Yeah, that.) Being desensitized to sin is terrifying because it breeds apathy. My wise mother asked me, “Brindley, do you not think that the Holy Spirit, that is living and breathing inside of you, has the power to convict you of the sin that is in your life?” She was right. I was limiting God with what he could do in my life because I was trying to control the way I was acting instead of wholeheartedly seeking HIM. All he wanted was ME. He created me to have a relationship with him.

God was teaching me that worship is full surrender, not just a song you sing. In order to truly worship Him for who He is, I had to surrender everything. My wants, my desires (for the future and for the present), my dreams, my routine, my diet, my friends, my family, the things I love (my car, ice cream… come on, you knew it was coming!) my resources, EVERYTHING. Giving everything with complete abandonment without holding back, just so I could be near Jesus. HE IS WORTH IT.

Now that I knew it started with surrendered, the Holy Spirit surprised me by convicting me of something I didn’t know I was caught in. The chains wrapped around my feet which were stopping me from running to Jesus was the fear of what people think about me. Like when the Lord asks me to do something crazy and I just stand there like, “Lord that is inappropriate for the situation I am in right now, people are watching, what are they going to think, they already think I am an awesome Christian and this is going to look like I am throwing it in their face.” (Annnnd the list of excused keep on going…)

His response? “Who cares? Who cares about what they think about? Who do YOU say that I am? If you say I am Jesus your Lord, and yet you live to please someone else you are worshiping with your mind, but not your flesh.” Those words stung. I read Romans 7:7-8:17. I was undone.

It was so clear, how could I have missed that before?! I felt shame, guilt, and condemnation. A dear friend and prayer warrior pointed out, “Condemnation is not of God, because it produces guilt and shame. Conviction produces change.” I did not realize that I was bringing condemnation on myself searching for what I was doing wrong. My loving friend reminded me, “There is NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” I was not condemned because of this fear of people’s opinions. But if I was allowing that fear to dictate my obedience, I was sinfully living in the flesh. Right there, in my “war room” under my bed, where I daily pour my heart out to God and tell Satan to take a hike, I surrendered this fear over and declared freedom. “I DECLARE FREEDOM IN JESUS’ NAME” I kept saying over and over, each time getting louder. About the tenth time of hearing myself saying it, a huge smile appeared on my face as the weight began to fall from my shoulders. I no longer live to please people or even care about what they think about me.

What does living in that freedom look like now? A change of attitude, routine, and mindset throughout the day. When the Lord asks me to do something crazy that may not make sense to other people, like hanging out with someone who no one likes to hang out with, or spend hours listening to someone who just needs to talk, or even lifting my hands in worship when I sit on the first row, I obey. No hesitation, no retreat, no worries, no judgment or second thought. Keeping my eyes on Jesus and what he wants me to do.

And just to see how the Lord has a sense of humor, later that day I was running SUPER late to class, still had to print something off, so I ran to my car and drove to the office printed my paper in less than a minute, drove across campus to class. I walked inside DURING the prayer in nothing but leggings, a hoodie, hair in a bun and glasses on my face, and the professor asked, “Well, did the Lord just wake you up?” I laughed and said, “yeah I guess you can say that,” still conscience of the whole class staring at me, but today it didn’t even matter, because I AM FREE.

“There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1

"Seeing" the Future

Emotional, that’s how I would describe the year of 2016. Anxiety, sorrow, fear, frustration, apathy, and pure joy inhabited my mind and my heart as I watched my childhood best friend graduate and move out, witnessed some dear friends make a lifelong commitment to each other, grieved the change in my amazing community of friends, facing the fear and anxiety of losing beloved family members, and finished a frustrating but rewarding semester.

How would you describe your 2016?

While I was running today, something I haven’t taken time to do so far this year, I had an epiphany. (Do you ever have those moments when you are doing something normal and suddenly it turns into a teaching moment?) It is Saturday, which being a weekly “chill day” I decided not to put my contacts in so I just stuck with wearing my glasses. I went to the gym with some friends, which was probably a bad idea since sweat and glasses don’t mix. For a differentiation in my routine, I went for a run outside after. (Now imagine: sweat + glasses + active movement = bad idea).

After a while, I slowed down for a walk and started talking with God about 2017. This year is starting a new life chapter and lots of change. Graduation in May, which means learning to say goodbye to what I have been used to the past three years. Preparing to witness childhood friends get married, moving out, moving back in, finding a job, ministry, church, friends, etc. It can be a bit overwhelming if I think about it… But the conversation on my heart today was about the Lord’s plan for my life.

Many of you know, I have spent a couple weeks in Canada over the last two summers. The last time I was in Canada, something looked and felt different. I started looking at things with familiarity, aside from the fact I have been there before of course. I began to see God in a bigger way. I saw Him move, I saw a glimmer of hope in the lives of the people we talked to. I began envisioning myself there, investing in the students’ lives, and mobilizing others to tune into what I was seeing. It was weird.

I remember the words of Henry Blackaby in his book, “Experiencing God” when he challenged his readers to “find out where God is working and ask to be a part of it.” Since I saw God working in Canada, I craved to be a part of what He is doing there. I started praying about it when I returned from my two-week trip. However, I was not actively seeking Canada, I was actively seeking the Lord and Canada kept coming up. In scriptures, I read, to learning different attributes of God, to heart prayers, it was an all-consuming thought.

Last week I received a list of all the things I would need to get in order before I were to join the team in Canada. It was overwhelming! So many things to do, on top of everything else I am already involved with this semester. I keep running to God for relief from this anxiety, which was the topic of my walk with the Lord today.

I was tired of my glasses sliding down my nose, so I took them off and held them in my hand as I walked. I looked up at the path and stopped dead in my tracks. I felt the Spirit reveal to me what journey I was on. Walking down that path with bad blurry vision, I just had to focus on the step right in front of me. I couldn’t tell where the trail was taking me, because my vision wouldn’t allow me to. However, it was like the Lord was beckoning me just to walk in faith and He would direct me.
As I walk through the future of uncertainty, I was reminded to finish the race strong and not focus on where I have been, but just the next step in front of me.

I know not many people will read this, but if you have, Thank you. I hope this encourages you that no matter what you are facing in life right now, no matter what bills you need to pay, no matter what decisions you face, the Lord only asks you to take the step in front of you.

(Picture taken from Google images)

"The heart of man plans his way,

but the LORD establishes his steps." -Proverbs 16:9

What is Rest?

Rest. I don't know the meaning of this word. In my mind, it means sleep, but that's not always true. Rest is essential to life, you cannot survive without it. A lot of times I think, "Oh, I got six to nine hours of sleep last night I have rested plenty!" But in reality, my mind and was not resting even though my body was. Rest effects your whole self - physical, emotional, and spiritual health. 
Physical rest = sleep. Check!
Emotional/ mental health = releasing stress through watching movies or doing something fun. Check!
Spirit Rest = sitting, not standing, in the presence of God is the only place you will find true rest. 
What does that look like? Jesus even made a habit to completely get alone and spend 1 on 1 time with God. He would pray and commune with God. That was so important! Yes, Jesus must have disappointed people when he left and didn't stay to help them. He was human, he needed time alone with his Father. I am no better! I am not stronger than him! I need to rest. I need to make time to rest. (Just like I make time to eat, sleep, and workout.) 
Matthew 11:28-30 says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
For the first time, I finally realized it says, "COME to me and I will GIVE you rest." He doesn't ask us to do anything except COME and receive his gift of rest. When we rest in him,  we give him compete control and show we trust him for what is best for us.  I want to encourage you to find something you enjoy doing by yourself and make time to sit still and know that he is God and that he has everything under control.  Last week after a long couple of weeks,  I finally took time at the end of the day to go for a run.  After my run,  I sat on the swing set of a local playground.  It was late I  the evening and no one was there. I was so emotional and spiritually exhausted I couldnt think of what to say or where to start.  It's hard to explain,  but the Holy Spirit knew exactly what to say for me.  He gave me peace and rest I needed.  It was as if he was talking to God on behalf of me,  crying out everything I wanted to scream and let go of. Then if felt like God was saying, "Brindley,  I know you are tired, and worn out,  but I will give you the strength,  but for now just be still and know I have everything under control." 

That is the best run I have had in a while, all because I finally MADE time in my schedule to get alone to be with God.  I challenge you to do the same and "He will give you rest." 

Life Decisions

I have had to make a lot of decisions lately. Decisions about daily tasks, (To do or not to do homework, THAT is the question….) and decisions about life, (relationships of every kind: with guys, friends, roommates, and family.) As I have been praying for wisdom, I started to read Proverbs last week. It keeps going on and on about “...treasure my commands, keep my commandments and live, do not forget your father’s teachings…” But then it encourages you to find wisdom and understanding, and I’m thinking, YES! I need wisdom and understanding! Lord, speak to me and show me what that is!

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight,” says Proverbs 9:10.

What does it mean when it says “fear?” In the first nine chapters, fear is referred to as a “reverential  awe and admiring, submissive fear.” Essentially, it is to really know God for who he is. He is the Great I Am who takes care of his children. He is the Provider, Creator, and Savior. He knows EVERYTHING about us, down to how many hairs are on our head (WOW, because I have a head FULL of long thick brown hair…) He knows my every thought, word, and action. He know how much sleep I get (or don’t get!) each night. He knows every worry, every emotion, and every concern I have ever had. Wow. I am in Awe of who he is and what he is doing. THAT is the beginning of wisdom, of knowing who God really is. If we really know who God is and what he can do, why do we worry about our daily life decisions? Don’t you think the One who created you to have needs will provide for those needs and desires? 

However, the fear of the Lord is only the “beginning of wisdom!” We must actively seek wisdom by seeking God is every aspect of our daily lives. Do you actively seek him on a daily basis? I am not talking about do you have a “quiet time” every day, or pray over your meal. I am talking about hardcore pursuing to know God and what he wants for you? (CLEARLY this is the Holy Spirit typing this, because I can honestly say I have not been doing this…) God craves a relationship with you and wants to show you his amazing plan for your life. Have you decided to write your own story instead?

He is there through life's decisions, not matter how big or small. Seek Him. 

Think on these things… If you have questions, or would like for me to pray for you, please email me.