Christina Speaks

Today I want to simply remind you that God is bigger than EVERYTHING. “This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭91:2‬ (Read the whole chapter though) ‭ I am praying for each of you. Have a wonderful weekend.

It’s one of those seasons. As I type, I can feel my weariness, but I choose to embrace it. The Lord is still working on me, and that’s no easy task, so I’m thankful He never grows weary. I had dinner with a young friend last night, and she said something that struck me. It’s not a thought that generally occurs in my mind because of where I am in life, but she said, “Sometimes I wonder what the point is.” She was talking about life. You see, she lives in constant chaos. Friends, family, and neighbors die young, and often all around her. She rarely sees the lives around her add up to much. She constantly wonders if that’s all life has to offer. Is that something you have wondered too? I think many of us have at some point. So, I’m going to share what I told her with you, and if you need to hear it, I’m talking to you too. You absolutely have a purpose here. God gave you all of those gifts to use to carry out the plan He has for your life. DO NOT GIVE UP. Keep pushing toward your

Calling all Christians and Christ-followers (I know… but they’re not always the same). Please stop engaging in divisive behavior. Yes, you have an opinion, and you’re entitled to it. Yes, you absolutely have the right to share it, but is it always the best thing to do? Probably not. Now, if you have a relationship with someone, and you want to engage in a healthy, respectful, loving conversation about things you disagree about, then go for it. But let’s keep it real. Most of the people you’re friends with on social media are not people you have genuine relationships with. You will not change their minds by posting those memes, articles, or even actual facts. Telling people that Jesus would or would not wear or not wear, go or not go, will not draw anyone close to Him.  And by the way, when has guilt ever created real heart change? Are we petitioning our Creator about all the crazy in our world, or are we quick to jump up on our high horses as if we are the ones who are omniscient? I ha

  If you know me at all, you probably know how much I dislike crying. . . even in front of myself. But lately, I have shed many tears. They are not tears of sadness, so I don’t mind them. They are tears of gratitude. Each drop is an offering of praise to a God who is good in every circumstance, though it is often difficult to see. Life isn't always what we hoped it would be. However, I believe if we look, if we open our eyes, we will see God in all the details. He is good all the time.  There is so much wrong in the world. The News makes sure we know that. But you know what? This is nothing new. “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9 That brings me comfort. Remember that God is the same today as He was yesterday and will be tomorrow. None of this is unknown to Him. None of it is bigger than He is. He wins. “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them because the one who is in you is grea

About Afghanistan… For many of us, Afghanistan is barely real. Some of us know it’s real because we’ve lost love ones to the country, whether physically or mentally.  Many Christians in this country feel we’ve been “persecuted” because of our beliefs. Those who feel “oppressed” because we’ve been ridiculed for standing up for what we believe to be right.  I can’t adequately express how much that frustrates me.  Most of us have no idea what it feels like to be persecuted. Take a moment to think about the Christ-followers in Afghanistan. The Afghan church is one of the fastest-growing churches in the entire world. What we have seen is that persecution grows the church. That is the opposite of what is happening in our country.  The Taliban has a hit list of many Afghan people they know to be Christians, and they are taking them out one by one. Some have chosen to flee, and others refuse to leave their homes. They refuse to deny Jesus. They would rather die.  Oh, how that convicts my heart

  I’m struggling to give you a message today.  I have so much on my mind, but I’m tired and emotional.  I want to talk to you about Afghanistan, but I’m not ready. I want to tell you how God is doing AH-mazing things in my life and the lives of my sisters in Christ. I want to tell you that even though the world is super scary and seems to get worse every day, our God remains the same today as He was yesterday and will be tomorrow.  I want to remind you to BE the church—A Christ-following, life-giving, people-loving church. We’ve got to stop acting like just because we go to church, we are Christians. Simply going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than sitting in a garage makes you a car.  I want to talk about all of those things today, but I just can’t. Today I ask that you have a serious conversation with God. Ask Him to open the eyes of our hearts and show each of us what He wants us to know. Pray for the Christ-followers of Afghanistan. They are experiencing real pers

Oh, I’ve been so guilty of judging whether or not someone deserved something they had, and it’s exhausting. I know I’m not alone because you all are humans too. We get so caught up in our own version of what is fair or not that we often lose focus of what God has for us. It’s especially difficult if we haven’t been invited to “the table” when we feel we should have been.  But seriously, sometimes I have to ask myself, “What would you do if you were at that table? Do you really think you belong there, or is it your pride that says you should be invited? Is that the path God has you on?” Oof. Then familiar words begin to run through my head. “Check yourself before you wreck yourself.” I wonder how many times I have missed what amazing thing God had waiting for me or how beautiful what I already had right in front of me was. And doesn’t watching the “highlight reels” of others on social media make it that much harder? Friends, what God has given to others is irrelevant to what He has for

Yesterday I sang with my church praise team for the first time in a really long time. In fact, it may have been the second time in a year and a half or two. I used to do it all the time, and was always relatively confident in what I was doing, and exercised my vocal instrument regularly. But like I said, it’s been a long time, and I don’t even really sing that much when listening to music because I’m usually listening so hard to the words in the message that I often forget to. Needless to say, I was a hot mess. I didn’t get all the notes right and went off-key because I was nervous. It was rough. I hadn’t practiced enough, hadn’t prepared adequately, and wasn’t connected to the songs. It made me think about my life—our lives. When we are not in the Word, connected to the power of Christ each day, when we are not engaged in conversation and relationship with Him, messing up becomes a given. And if you’re like me, when you mess up, you’re looking around wondering what people are saying a

I felt a bit heavy-hearted yesterday as I was made aware of so many struggles many of you are going through. I’m sorry it’s like that. However, I want to remind you today, that this place is temporary. The Lord never intended for us to live in such chaos. There is a war raging all around us. I’m not going to give the evil one credit for all bad things that happen because sometimes it’s simply the consequences of our fallen world or the free will of evil people. But ultimately, evil comes from one place, and it helps to remember that. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” John 10:10 When we are going through difficult things, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and defeated. Sometimes when we know we are under spiritual attack, we forget that Satan does not have power over us. Though he is quite clever and knows to start within our minds to make us think we are powerless. We are not powerless! There is no reason ever

I’ve shared this before, but I’m having to bring the same issue before the Lord again, so I thought I’d share it with you as well. I know I’m not alone in this struggle. Even though God gives me the answers to these problems, I still struggle once in a while. Do you have someone in your life who you tend to see through a specific lens that brings you to a place of anger, frustration, or resentment? It doesn’t matter what they do. You are bothered by it. You find yourself seeing the worst in them in any given situation. I understand that because I do it too. I found myself in that toxic place recently and had to petition God to help me through it. It’s a bad feeling, and it’s counterproductive. I figured I might as well work it out right here with you. What I realized is that it’s not really about that person. It’s my own heart issue. It doesn’t matter what I think their reasons are for doing things. It doesn’t matter if they have real problems. What matters is my heart and if I am acti

Many of our lives are very different than we had planned them to be. Many of us have shattered dreams. It’s hard. It’s okay to grieve your loss or what you hoped would be. Your Creator understands. He made you to feel deeply. He weeps with you.  Some of those shattered dreams leave us feeling broken as if we could never be what we were before.  But friends, we’re not supposed to be what we were before. God works through broken people. The Lord can do amazing things through our circumstances. I do not believe God makes bad things happen, but He does allow them, and as He picks up and rearranges the pieces of our difficult circumstances, the picture changes. They/we become something more beautiful than we ever could imagine.    Our Creator is creative, after all.   Though God saved my son Isaiah from death almost six years ago, He did not heal him the way I prayed He would. However, through his brokenness, I see a beautiful picture of God’s sovereignty. Through his difficult story, Isaia

Yesterday I was thinking about how hard it is to stay motivated to do what I’ve been called to do when I don’t always know how I’m going to do it. I thought back to a student I had last semester, I watched him have a temper tantrum when I told him to do an English essay he had been assigned. Yep. He sure did. A 16-yr-old tempter tantrum. All he could focus on was how long it was going to take him to type the words onto the screen of his chrome book. He told me it was too hard, he was a bad writer, and his teacher was “trippin’”  I had him sit down next to me as I explained to him that if he keeps telling himself that something is too hard, then he’s not going to be able to do it. I told him to change his words to, “This is a lot of work, but I can do it!” He sat next to me the whole time he worked. He only needed a little help, but not only that, he needed my presence and encouragement which seemed to empower him to complete the assignment. Sometimes our words, our language changes eve