Sacred Spaces – Day 70: Light the World, Build the Kingdom
My husband, David Kuhns, joins me to talk about how to find sacred spaces in your life and why they are so important.
How the Challenge Works
Step 1: Ask God each day,“What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”
Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.
Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.
Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.
For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.
Thoughts on God and Man – Days 67-69 Light the World
Day 67
“Sometimes the hardest thing is to step aside and let God do His work.” – David Kuhns
Day 68
The purposes of God and His divine plans cannot be frustrated. Even when we lose our way, if we turn to Him, He can work all things together for our good. He always keeps His promises.
Day 69
“There is an incredible freedom in letting go of worrying about what other people think… in just being real, raw, vulnerable and being yourself.
Interestingly, in doing that, we become very attractive to others who DO believe and feel the way we do. If we are so busy trying to be someone we are not, we won’t connect with the people who would love us the way we are.
God didn’t create us to be the same. He didn’t create us to think, feel, act or believe the same way. The more we stand up and are willing to be ourselves, the more we give others “permission” to do the same. Then we can really unleash our freedom of expression as a society and celebrate true diversity, not one demanded by political correctness.” (From my soon-to-be-released book, “Restoring Liberty: Reclaiming America”)
How the Challenge Works
Step 1: Ask God each day,“What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”
Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.
Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.
Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.
For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.
Featured image copyright: pkruger / BigStockPhoto.com
Stop Over-analyzing – Day 66: Light the World, Build the Kingdom
Those of us who study the laws of attraction and abundance and energy work often come to believe there is a reason behind EVERYTHING that’s happening amiss in our lives. We become convinced that if things aren’t going our way, if angels aren’t running to keep us from stubbing our toes on every rock, that we must be doing something wrong.
The fact is, we’re living in a fallen world. Bad things happen to good people. I think we need to stop over-analyzing everything. You’re doing your best, keep going, have faith that things will work out. God’s got a happy ending in store for you, and every hero by definition must face some opposition to be a hero.
The important thing is to keep trusting in Jesus Christ. Having faith in Jesus Christ is not faith for a specific outcome. All the faith and trust in the world can’t prevent bad things from happening or keep other people from harming you. Things happen and people have their freedom to choose and many times those aren’t good choices. Faith is not a free pass.
Faith in Jesus Christ is trusting that through everything He will stand beside you, lift you, carry you, lighten your load. And that one day after this mortal life all our tears will be wiped away, all the dead will live again, and all our losses will be made up.
(From “Confidence Rising! Trust Your Heart. Be Yourself. Bless Lives,” Marnie Pehrson Kuhns)
How the Challenge Works
Step 1: Ask God each day,“What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”
Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.
Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.
Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.
For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.
Featured Image Copyright: Dean Drobot / BigStockPhoto.com
Shoulder Taps – Day 65: Light the World, Build the Kingdom
You’ve probably heard me talk about Divine Compensation and how when we lose someone or something, the characteristics we love about them are scattered in the world around us and show up in various ways. When we go into observant gratitude, we see them everywhere.
This video by Bill Hart called Shoulder Taps is a perfect illustration of what it means to follow your heart and light the world AND how doing so helps others receive Divine Compensation for the the people and things that have moved out of their lives.
Listen to those heart whispers (as I call them) or the “shoulder taps” as this man calls them. They’re an opportunity for you to be part of God’s heavenly work in this mortal world.
How the Challenge Works
Taking Offense – Day 64: Light the World, Build the Kingdom
In today’s world many become offended. Most of what we hear in the media is about someone being upset about what someone else said or thinks about them. Taking offense has become common place.
There is always going to be someone who doesn’t agree with you, thinks you’re crazy, wrong or foolish for your beliefs or the way you choose to live your life.
At some point we have to realize that all that really matters is what God thinks of us and what we think of ourselves when we look in the mirror. Is the person looking back at you someone you respect? Whom you can trust? Whom you can believe in? Whom you can count on? Most of all is the person looking back at you someone God can trust? Whom God can count on? If so, who else’s opinion matters? When we come to that place of confidence, nothing anyone else can say can harm us. If God be with us, who cares who is against us? Let them say what they will. All is well.
How the Challenge Works
Step 1: Ask God each day,“What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”
Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.
Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.
Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.
For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.
Featured Image Copyright: dolgachov / BigStockPhoto.com
You Are Not Alone – Day 63: Light the World, Build the Kingdom
A friend shared with me an experience she had while going through chemotherapy. After her treatments she would come home, lie on the couch, unable to do anything but stare at the walls. While she was alone in the room, she felt she was never alone. She felt the clear presence of angels with her. As a result, she never felt afraid. She had a sense that others were there taking care of her.
During my deepest points of loss or crisis, I too never felt alone … when I got still. Whether I was a 17-year-old lying in a ditch after a car wreck waiting for someone to find me, or alone in a hospital after a miscarriage, or after losing my mom and my marriage… I was not alone. I felt the presence of God’s Spirit and more… the presence of angels.
I believe that in our extreme situations, angels are with us. They are probably there all the time, but in those desperate moments the veil between the spirit world and the physical world is paper thin. We feel like if we looked hard enough, we’d see someone sitting in that chair beside us, holding space for our healing, sending us love and light.
The next time you find yourself at the limit of what your body, heart or mind can take… look around and know that you are not alone. Allow yourself to get quiet and feel angels near. Receive what they are offering.
When you truly understand that you are not alone, that God and angels are on your side, you have the confidence – God’s confidence to know that nothing is impossible. (From my soon-to-be-released book, “Confidence Rising! Trust Your Heart. Be Yourself. Bless Lives“)
How the Challenge Works
Step 1: Ask God each day,“What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”
Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.
Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.
Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.
For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.
Featured Image Copyright: Beatricesirinun / BigStockPhoto.com
The Carpenter of Nazareth – Day 62: Light the World, Build the Kingdom
The Carpenter of Nazareth is a poem by George Blair. I’d like to share it with you for Day 62 of the Light the World, Build the Kingdom challenge…
In Nazareth, the narrow road,
That tires the feet and steals the breath,
Passes the place where once abode
The Carpenter of Nazareth.
And up and down the dusty way
The village folk would often wend;
And on the bench, beside Him, lay
Their broken things for Him to mend.
The maiden with the doll she broke,
The woman with the broken chair,
The man with broken plough, or yoke,
Said, “Can you mend it, Carpenter?”
And each received the thing he sought,
In yoke, or plough, or chair, or doll;
The broken thing which each had brought
Returned again a perfect whole.
So, up the hill the long years through,
With heavy step and wistful eye,
The burdened souls their way pursue,
Uttering each the plaintive cry:
“O Carpenter of Nazareth,
This heart, that’s broken past repair,
This life, that’s shattered nigh to death,
Oh, can You mend them, Carpenter?”
And by His kind and ready hand,
His own sweet life is woven through
Our broken lives, until they stand
A New Creation–“all things new.”
“The shattered [substance] of [the] heart,
Desire, ambition, hope, and faith,
Mould Thou into the perfect part,
O, Carpenter of Nazareth!”
How the Challenge Works
Prayer: Finding Answers to Life’s Tough Questions – Day 61: Light the World, Build the Kingdom
If you need answers to tough questions in life, please pray and ask God for those answers. Prayer works. It is a power we can grow into using more effectively with time as we learn to listen and recognize answers.
- Answers may come while reading scriptures.
- They may come as sudden strokes of ideas that feel like truth and/or make you feel joyful or peaceful.
- Answers might come through a dream or a thought that keeps coming to you in various times and/or ways.
- Sometimes answers come as what appears to be coincidences.
There are so many ways that answers may come. But the secret is to ask and then expect an answer.
From there keep your heart open and your eyes peeled. Let go of the outcome and trust the answer will come in God’s time and way. Resist the need to control or make things happen the way you think they should. God is there and He answers prayers.
How the Challenge Works
I’ll Fly Away – Day 60: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
While in Nicholasville, Kentucky, visiting a friend, we had the opportunity to attend Gospel on the Green. This young woman on the keyboard and vocals singing “I’ll Fly Away” is an amazing musician. Marlana VanHoose (who is blind with cerebral palsy) sang during the inauguration activities of President Trump. She said she told President Trump that the only thing that will make America great again is belief in God and His word.
Come Morning the Darkness Is Gone, Performed by Marlana VanHoose
National Anthem sung by Marlana VanHoose
How the Challenge Works
Why Bad Things Happen to Good People – Day 59: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
Have you ever asked wondered why bad things happen to good people? I’ve spent quite a bit of time pondering that one. I learned something important while writing my very first fiction novel …Character development. Each of us is the hero of our own story and a hero is only as strong as his enemy. Where would Harry Potter be without Voldemort? Where would Dorothy be without the Wicked Witch? Would Colonel Doolittle and his Raiders be the heroes they were without the Japanese?
We only grow through opposition and struggle. I believe we are here to discover the greatness within us and the only chance we have of discovering it is to face the opposition that brings it out. Also, every time we set out to create something bigger and better in our lives, we are attempting to create more order in our world. You can’t take a closet, a home, a life, or a world to a higher level of order without creating some chaos. Chaos is part of the creative cycle.
How the Challenge Works
Step 1: Ask God each day, “What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”
Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.
Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.
Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.
For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.
Copyright: AntonioGuillem / BigStockPhoto.com
Beyond Victimhood – Day 57: Light the World, Build the Kingdom
171 years ago (July 24, 1847) pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley. An extermination order by the governor of Missouri drove members of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (whom Missourians derogatorily called “Mormons”) out of that state.
Their women raped and people tortured and murdered in the wake of this unconstitutional decree, the LDS people fled to build a refuge on the swamp land of Commerce IL. They transformed the malaria-infested marsh into the beautiful city of Nauvoo. By the time they were done, Nauvoo was larger than Chicago of the day.
A few years later, their leader (Joseph Smith Jr) and his brother Hyrum were falsely imprisoned and murderer by a mob in Carthage Jail.
Forced to flee their beautiful Nauvoo as mobs burned their temple, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fled with wagons and handcarts across the nation, traveling 1500 miles to their desert destination. One explorer, having been to Utah, said he’d give them $100 if they could grow even a bushel of corn there.
Through blood, sweat and tears the LDS people transformed the desert into a rose and continue to dot the landscape with gorgeous, glowing temples to their God.
If any people deserved to wallow in victimhood, give up, and abandon hope, these men, women and children did. But they carried on, true to their faith, devoted to their God. Out of their sacrifice, miracles continue to flow.
The LDS pioneers are testaments to the power available to those who understand the Law of Polarity. This universal law states that if something is a little bad, there is a little good in it. If something is catastrophic, there is something phenomenal inside it.
Are you looking for the phenomenal inside your hardships? It is there!
Featured Image: Mary Fielding Smith and Joseph F. Smith Crossing the Plains, by Glen S. Hopkinson (62608); GAK 412; GAB 101; Primary manual 5-49; Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith (1998), xiv, 21–22
A Bell’s Not a Bell – Day 56: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
“A bell’s not a bell ’til you ring it. A song’s not a song ’til you sing it. Love in your heart wasn’t put there to stay. Love isn’t love ’til you give it away!” – Oscar Hammerstein II
We could equally ask: Is faith really faith until we act on it? If we feel impressed to serve, lift and encourage, but we do not, are we really disciples of Christ?
James wrote: “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” (James 2:18)
How many times do we hold back expressing love? Ignoring little nudges to perform random acts of kindness? How many times do thoughts enter our minds to offer a compliment or a word of encouragement, but we feel awkward doing so? So we ignore it. How many times do we keep our mouths shut when we could be an encouragement or a blessing to someone else with a kind word? Or even a smile?
The Light the World Challenge is about acting on those spiritual nudges. It’s about listening to that still small voice that tells us to love, bless, lift and serve. The rippling impact of those tiny acts can instigate a tidal wave of miracles in this world. If we only knew… if we only knew… the power of one.
How the Challenge Works
Step 1: Ask God each day, “What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”
Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.
Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.
Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.
For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.
Featured Image Copyright: Songquan Deng / BigStockPhoto.com
Your Life Purpose – Day 55: Light the World, Build the Kingdom
Are you looking for that “one thing” you’re supposed to do with your life? Your life purpose? Your mission? Your quest of a lifetime? It’s interesting how many of us feel we have to find that “one thing.” This seems to be exacerbated by the fact that we have so many different interests, possibilities and choices placed before us in life that it’s hard to pick just one.
What if there isn’t just one thing? Dave and I talk about this concept in our Day 55 video of the Light the World, Build the Kingdom 90-day Challenge:
How the Challenge Works
A Small Star – Day 54: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
“The world in which we live continues to grow darker by the day. But against that backdrop of black is light. We are the light, and we shine even brighter against a midnight sky. We can make a difference. As we join together with other men and women who want to light the world, our influence for good will shift the planet.” (Marnie Pehrson Kuhns, Light The World: How Your Brilliance Can Shift The Planet)
This reminds me of the song sung by Jana Stanfield, “A Small Star.” The lyrics are below the video below.
Joyce Johnson Rouse
You don’t have to feel brave to be brave
And I don’t have to feel strong to be strong
We don’t have to feel inspiring to inspire
Remember when your road is rough and long
Chorus
Even a small star shines in the darkness
For someone somewhere to see
It lights the way for those in the distance
That’s what your courage means to me
Maybe there are times you feel lonely
Like no one sees the world the you do
Remember each of us is made uniquely,
And no one ever sees their own magnitude.
[Chorus]
So don’t be afraid to be a little brilliant
Don’t be afraid to shine in someone’s eyes
If we can trust the gifts that sometimes make us different
Then we can all learn to shine, shine shine!
[Chorus]
How the Challenge Works
Step 1: Ask God each day, “What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”
Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.
Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.
Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.
For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.
Featured Image Copyright: Sarah Nicholl / BigStockPhoto.com
Neediness vs Trust – Day 53: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
There is something about losing almost everything and completely releasing a dream that allows you to come back to it with the empowerment of choice rather than neediness. Neediness is never a good energy in which to be.
The biggest lesson I learned from compounding losses was that nothing is ever lost. Matter/energy is neither created nor destroyed. It simply changes forms. What leaves your life re-enters in a different form, perhaps scattered throughout dozens of people, places or things.
When I fully grasped that I had everything I needed in this moment, I knew I’d have everything I’d need in the next, and the next and the next. I finally … FINALLY trusted God. As long as I stay in that place of observant gratitude (seeing everything in this moment), I no longer operate from “neediness” but from contented trust.
With that kind of trust, miracles can happen. And they do.
(This blog post is an excerpt from my soon-to-be-released book, Confidence Rising!)
How the Challenge Works
Step 1: Ask God each day, “What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”
Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.
Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.
Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.
For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.
Featured Image Copyright: Suphatthra China
Redeemer – Day 52: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
I Know That My Redeemer Lives is one of my all-time favorite hymns. I asked for it to be sung at my baptism when I was 9 years old and have loved it ever since. My mother found this variation on the song, arranged by Paul Cardall, several years ago and bought me the sheet music. It’s a gorgeous piece and fun to play on the piano.
I just got a new Yamaha P125 a couple weeks ago and have been playing around with overlaying voices. This is a slow string with a grand piano combination. It gives Paul Cardall’s Redeemer a heavenly feel.
(Piano arrangement based on I Know That My Redeemer Lives) Lewis D Edwards, Arrangement by Paul Cardall)
How the Challenge Works
Featured Image Copyright: paul shuang / BigStockPhoto.com
Light Bearer Defined – Day 51: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
In my book, “Light the World: How Your Brilliance Can Shift the Planet” I define a Light Bearer as,
“A Light Bearer is a wise, intuitive inspired creative who lovingly lights the way for others. A light bearer is passionate about assisting people in breaking free from bondage to attain ultimate freedom (whether the chains are of one’s own making, generational, or inflicted by others). Light Bearers are courageous leaders for not only the rising generation but also for lifelong learners of any age.”
When Jesus started His mortal ministry, he read this passage from Isaiah in the synagogue:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” (Luke 4:18-21)
As the leader of all Light Bearers, Jesus articulated this mission of Light Bearers – to heal, to preach deliverance to the captives, to bring sight to the blind (literally and metaphorically) and to set at liberty.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is always liberty. In a nutshell, what we are here to do is to follow in Christ’s footsteps and lift, heal and liberate those around us.
How do you feel led to heal and to liberate?
How the Challenge Works
All In Your Perspective: Day 50 – Light the World, Build the Kingdom
The nature of circumstances are all in your perspective. Things are neither good or bad, but what thinking makes them so. You can be in what you feel is a place of lack (lack of answers, lack of necessities, or lack of the things you want) and a shift in perspective can change everything.
My husband David Kuhns joins me in this video to talk about our experience picking blackberries. We thought we’d found all the ripe wild blackberries there were, but when we came at the bushes from down below and looked up, we found more. And when we looked at them in a different light, we found even more.
It’s kind of funny, because after I watched the video we’d recorded, I noticed we talk about how we found “a bunch” more blackberries. Then, we hold up this little container that’s half full. When we were picking, it felt like we found a lot of blackberries. When you’re foraging… “a lot” is relative. It’s all in your perspective.
When you’re going through a time of lack, you’re more likely to fall to your knees, looking up for answers. When you do, and you find the peace or answers you seek, you tend to be a lot more thankful for those answers. Someone else may look at what you found, or hear about what you found, and say, “That’s not much.” But it sure meant a lot to you in your moment of need!
How the Challenge Works
Live Your Legacy Today! Day 49: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
Do you long to make an impact for good in the world? Would you like to leave a legacy? Then, live your legacy today! It may be that until you step into your message now, living it with people God places in your life each day, you won’t be ready to share your message on a larger scale.
The first step to making the impact you’d like to make is gratefully acknowledging the opportunities you are given right now to serve in small and simple ways. Your impact isn’t out in the future. It’s now!
How the Challenge Works
Step 1: Ask God each day, “What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”
Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.
Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.
Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.
For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.
Featured Image Copyright: Yacobchuk / BigStockPhoto.com
Child of God – Day 48: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
You are a child of God – a son or daughter of the Creator of the Universe. Have you even begun to absorb the magnitude of that statement? Imagine the untapped creative power within you. Imagine the force for good you are capable of being. Try to fathom the healing influence you can have on the people and the world around you.
C.S. Lewis articulated it this way…
“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which,if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship… There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” (from “The Weight of Glory)
How the Challenge Works
Step 1: Ask God each day, “What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”
Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.
Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.
Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.
For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.
Featured Image Copyright: Jozef Klopacka / BigStockPhoto.com
Spiritual Light – Day 47: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
“Spiritual light rarely comes to those who merely sit in darkness waiting for someone to flip a switch.” – Dieter F Uchtdorf
What are you doing today to move your feet in the direction of the light? Tuning into inspiration is sort of like finding an analog radio station in the desert. It is something we have to work at. The clearer our own channels, the clearer the inspiration.
Some ways you can flip the light switch in your life include
- Random acts of kindness – follow little nudges you feel to reach out and serve others. The more you act swiftly upon inspiration, the more inspiration you receive.
- Study scriptures – the Word of God teaches you the language of the Spirit. The more you exposure yourself to the language of the Spirit, the more you will recognize the still small voice in your life.
- Live in harmony with God’s laws. Some people think God’s commandments are old fashioned and controlling. In fact, God’s commandments are a guide to living a happy life – a recipe for happiness. As we live in harmony with God’s commandments, we put ourselves on a channel to receive more and more revelation, inspiration and illumination.
- Ask – ask for illumination. Ask to be able to see your life through God’s eyes. A world of opportunities and insights await.
As Neal A. Maxwell once said, “To those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, it is clear that the Father and the Son are giving away the secrets of the universe.”
How the Challenge Works
Copyright: Sarah Nicholl / BigStockPhoto.com
Be Not Weary in Well Doing – Day 46: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
Have you ever felt like no matter what you do, it’s not making a difference? If you’ve participated in this Light the World Build the Kingdom Challenge for even a few days, you probably know what I mean. You act when you feel prompted to do something, and sometimes you see immediate positive results. Yet, many other times you have no idea when or if what you said or did will make an impact for good. When you have a lot of those days in a row, you begin to feel like you’re wasting your time. Why bother?
Nobody’s listening. Nobody sees. Nobody cares. Nobody responds.
And then every so often, you get to see how something you said or did 5 years ago affected someone’s life in a profound way. It’ll be some little thing, some small interaction with you that flipped a railway switch that sent someone’s life onto a better track.
A friend reminded me today that it is important that we live our lives in the highest and best way because we’re not doing it just for today, or this decade. We’re doing it for eternity. When we act in the highest and best way consistently over time, someone else will be affected down the line — perhaps when we aren’t here physically.
So keep going, keep trying, keep putting good into the world. Even when you can’t see you’re making the least bit of ripple in the pond. Somewhere, someway, you are making a difference. As Paul said, “Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Galatians 6:9-10)
How the Challenge Works
Step 1: Ask God each day, “What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”
Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.
Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.
Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.
For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.
Featured Image Copyright: PHOTOCREO Michal Bednarek / BigStockPhoto.com
When It’s All Been Said And Done – Day 45: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
My parents made this recording of my Uncle Bob singing When It’s All Been Said and Done. I love this song. I think it says it all about what lighting the world is all about. I’m so grateful for my parents and people like my Uncle Bob who model what it means to live your life for truth. Thanks to my sister for putting this up on YouTube.
When It’s All Been Said and Done
Don Moen Lyrics
When it’s all been said and done
There is just one thing that matters
Did I do my best to live for truth?
Did I live my life for you?
When it’s all been said and done
All my treasures will mean nothing
Only what I’ve done for love’s reward
Will stand the test of time
Lord, your mercy is so great
That you look beyond our weakness
And find purest gold in miry clay
Turning sinners into saints.
Hallelujah
And I will always sing your praise
Here on earth and ever after
For you’ve shown me heavens, my true home
When it’s all been said and done
You’re my life when life is gone…
How the Challenge Works
Step 1: Ask God each day, “What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”
Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.
Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.
Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.
For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.
Featured Image Copyright: sandramatic / BigStockPhoto.com
People Will Talk – Day 44: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
Are you being called to speak up? To share a message? Do you have something that can impact lives for good, but you’re concerned about what other people might think if you do? People will talk. Anyone who sets out to make a difference tends to be spoken ill of at some point.
Maybe your family members won’t like you sharing that incriminating story. Or maybe they’re afraid your story will make them look bad or embarrass them. Or maybe you’re worried what your customers will think if you start speaking out on certain topics. If this is you, today’s message in the Light the World Challenge is for you.
How the Challenge Works
Featured Image Copyright: AndreyPopov / Bigstockphoto.com
Nothing Is Impossible – Day 43: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
We sometimes here people say, “I was born this way” or “I have this birth defect” as if either of those mean that is that… you’re just stuck with whatever you were born with. Yet, we also know that with God, nothing is impossible. In John 9 Jesus heals a man who was born blind. The shock of it ripples through the community until the man is brought before the Pharisees and questioned about Jesus and his methods.
In this account, we learn that nothing is impossible for God. Even being born with a problem is no reason to assume a challenge cannot be overcome or a defect cannot be corrected. How many times do we think to pray for God to correct a chromosomal problem? A genetic defect? A birth defect? I’d wager to guess we rarely ask for something so fundamental as the root cause to be corrected. Perhaps we assume those things are too much to ask. But why not? Why not ask? You don’t receive if you don’t ask.
Sure, it may be your lot in life to deal with a problem or challenge that came here with you from birth, but it may not. You’ll never know until you ask. In this session I talk about a couple issues that I have that were birth defects. One has been surgically corrected and the other, God led me to work-arounds that have made the defect a non-issue.
Remember, anything is impossible with God and to those who believe.
How the Challenge Works
America – The Light of Liberty Shines – Day 42: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
As lost as sometimes Americans feel or as at odds we may be with one another, America … the idea of the United States of America and the foundations principles for which it stands … are of Divine origin. Those ideas and principles stand as a beacon of light to all people who seek liberty.
“Where the Spirit is the Lord is, there is liberty.” And the converse is true… where there is liberty, the Spirit of the Lord is present. Let us actively seek to live close to that Divine Spirit and continue to be a beacon of light and liberty to all within our influence.
How the Challenge Works
I Know that My Redeemer Lives – Day 41: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
Today, I decided to play one of my favorite hymns, “I Know that My Redeemer Lives” on Yamaha with Guitar Setting. This is an extemporaneous arrangement of the popular hymn.
I Know That My Redeemer Lives Lyrics
1. I know that my Redeemer lives.
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, he lives, who once was dead.
He lives, my ever-living Head.
He lives to bless me with his love.
He lives to plead for me above.
He lives my hungry soul to feed.
He lives to bless in time of need.
2. He lives to grant me rich supply.
He lives to guide me with his eye.
He lives to comfort me when faint.
He lives to hear my soul’s complaint.
He lives to silence all my fears.
He lives to wipe away my tears.
He lives to calm my troubled heart.
He lives all blessings to impart.
3. He lives, my kind, wise heav’nly Friend.
He lives and loves me to the end.
He lives, and while he lives, I’ll sing.
He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King.
He lives and grants me daily breath.
He lives, and I shall conquer death.
He lives my mansion to prepare.
He lives to bring me safely there.
4. He lives! All glory to his name!
He lives, my Savior, still the same.
Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:
“I know that my Redeemer lives!”
He lives! All glory to his name!
He lives, my Savior, still the same.
Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:
“I know that my Redeemer lives!”
Text: Samuel Medley, 1738-1799.
Music: Lewis D. Edwards, 1858-1921
How the Challenge Works
Featured Image: © 2015 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
Angels On Earth: Day 40 – Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
Time and Season – Day 39: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
There is a time and season for every purpose. We don’t harvest in the same season that we plant. Every dream or goal has a gestation period.
Back in August of 2010, God gave me an understanding that my life was going to change. A year later, this feeling that things could be better and would be better became a clear big vision that propelled me forward.
But, honestly, all my working toward that vision for several years looked fruitless. At one point, it all fell apart and seemed impossible. Then in the middle of 2017, it started falling into place FAST — like the monster zucchini showing up in my garden.
God’s timing is rarely our timing. I wanted all of this to happen a lot earlier, yet as much as it has taken shape and is falling together, the full picture still is yet to unfold. Rarely does the fruition of a big vision occur simultaneously with the inception of the vision or the goal. It takes time, like planting a garden. Everything has a gestation period and a season.
How the Challenge Works
Featured Image Copyright: amenic181 / BigStockPhoto.com
Healing Through Christ – Day 38: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)
Are you seeking healing? Healing through Christ is not like modern medicine. His methods for healing seemed to be as unique as the individual. He put mud on one blind man’s eyes, but did not on another. He touched some people, yet others He simply healed from afar. The methods and means of healing through Christ are diverse, but there is one common component. That’s the topic of today’s Light the World: Build the Kingdom episode.
How the Challenge Works
Featured Image © 2018 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.