News & Blog

“I will carry you”

When I was a little girl, I loved to go on walks with my dad.  I used to tell him all about my hopes and dreams, my aspirations and desires for a future career…which happened to be a ballerina and a scientist, and I’m pretty sure I thought I could be both at the same time—why not?  He would patiently listen and would always encourage me with, “Katie, you can do anything you like.”  He never squashed my dreams, even my childish ones.

On these walks, sometimes I would get tired and ask him to carry me, which he always did.  I knew the extent of his father’s love and I felt confident that if I needed to make that request, I could, and he would meet that need with love and compassion for me, his child.  And today, as I listened to a song on my playlist that I had not listened to in a long time, the chorus sang out, “I will carry you.” 

The Lord reminded me, yet again, of just how deep His Father’s love goes and that He will carry me, and you my friend, with great love and compassion.  Take a look at His words to the Israelites:

“Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob, all the remnant of the people of Israel, you whom I have upheld since your birth, and have carried since you were born.  Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you.  I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”  Isaiah 46:3,4

Isn’t this beautiful?  Though the words were directly written to the Israelites, this is an aspect of the Father’s character and it does not change, which means this is true for us as well.  Until our last day on this Earth, He—who made us—will carry and sustain us and rescue us in our time of need. 

Take a look here at what Moses says to the Israelites about the Father:

“Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them.  The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the wilderness.  There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.’ ”  Deuteronomy 1:29-31

“…as a father carries his son…”  In our most terrifying, daunting, or uncertain times, God will carry us even as a father carries his son…with the same love and compassion, He will hold us close.  Just as He carried the Israelites until they reached the Promised Land, He will carry us on our journey as well, all the way to the end of our days and until we reach our promised Heavenly Home.

Here’s my personal favorite:

“He tends his flock like a shepherd:  He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.”  Isaiah 40:11

My heart is melting as I consider this and as my mind tries to wrap itself around the picture of the Father gathering us in His strong arms and holding us so close to his heart…so close that we can hear the very beating of it.  Such comfort and security there in His arms!

I don’t know what season you may be in—one of difficulties or pain or perhaps one of fulfilled promises and joy.  Regardless, take comfort in the beautiful reminder that Your Father loves you and is carrying you and holding you as you walk out the path He has for you on this Earth, and He will continue to do so until the end of your days.

Katie Botello
FBC Aztec Member

Pursue God

When I was nineteen, revival came to my church in Fort Worth, TX.  Individuals and groups of people spent hours in prayer, praise, intercession, worship, Scripture reading, and the like…and God met us there.  It started with a hunger—a hunger for God’s Word, for His Spirit, for His Presence, and it grew and grew and grew until it became a desperation. 

Lunch hours became times of fasting.  Normal services became times of repentance and weeping over sin.  People prayed for people.  There were bondages broken, hearts were healed, and many received the call to ministry…but none of it came easily.  There was a cost. 

The cost of desperation was sacrifice.  In the pursual of the things of God, it meant that each time we would hear the sweet, firm, and steady voice of the Spirit calling us to pray instead of watch a movie, fast instead of going out to dinner, read scripture instead of reading a book…we would have to make the choice to sacrifice that which was already in the moment, change course, and choose to follow the Spirit’s leading, and…it was worth it.

The intimacy, the freedom, the joy, the adventure of following God was LIFE-CHANGING!  I know, for me, because of that time of revival, I will NEVER be the same.  Learning to know the Presence of God and His miraculous power, learning to lean deeply into an even more personal relationship with Him…it changed me. 

Why do I share this?  I share this because revival is on our radar again.  God is moving powerfully and many of the hearts of the people at First Baptist Church, Aztec, long for what God is currently doing in a university amongst a group of passionate young people to happen here as well.  I’m on that crew, too—because I know first-hand that God can use revival to change individual lives, homes, churches, towns, and an entire region, like San Juan County.

What do we do then?  PURSUE GOD!!  It’s just that simple and just that difficult.  The answer is simple, but it requires effort, sacrifice and obedience.  The real question is…Are we ready?  Think back to the picture Pastor Mike showed us of a child and a mother on a roller coaster (aka us and the Holy Spirit).  Are you ready to take that ride?  My friends, I cannot imagine saying “no” to this kind of adventure.

Isaiah 26:7-9a says, “The path of the righteous is level; you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth.  Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.  My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you.”

Today, let’s pursue God.  Let’s pursue righteousness and holiness and walk in His ways.  Let’s allow a holy desperation to begin taking over; let’s wait for Him, yearn for Him, long for Him.  Let’s allow the desire of our hearts to be His renown that His name might be made famous and that others may also come to know Him through the word of our testimony. 

Katie Botello
FBC Aztec Member

His Grace is Sufficient for You 

I bought a new planner for the year a couple of weeks ago.  It took me forever to find just the right one—it had to be the perfect size, have a whole month view and sections for individual days, enough room to write notes and plans, a comfortable fit for my colorful sticky notes, and of course it had to have a pretty cover.  

As I set it up so that I could start using it this past week, I heard very clearly in my spirit to write this scripture at the top of the page, “My grace is sufficient for you…”  I admit I was a little blasé about it and didn’t really see what it had to do with anything at the time, but I’ve learned not to question the Lord and just obey, so I wrote it and moved on.

“Ironically”, this phrase was my lifeline this past week.  In the ebbs and flows of each day, as subtle feelings of failure, frustration, tiredness, and discontent would sneak in, the jotted note at the top of the page would catch my eye and the deepest most perfect sense of relief and mercy would come flooding over me and electrify my soul.  The truth of this scripture would wash over me and suddenly the cares of the moment or the day would be replaced by this pulsating truth beating loudly in my heart. 

Admittedly, the kindness in the words made me cringe because there was always this feeling each time of, “I don’t deserve that right now…I took my eyes off of You and let myself get distracted, weighed down and bogged down AGAIN.  What’s wrong with me…”  But with a gentle and steady rhythm the words would softly but firmly repeat:  “My grace is sufficient for you…”

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:7b-10, “Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

God is not afraid of our weakness—we may be afraid of our own weakness, but He is not.  His promise again and again in Scripture is that He will never leave us nor forsake us.  He will be with us wherever we go.  He is the One who is able to keep us and there is no place that we can go that is beyond His reach or His infinite love.

Where do you find yourself today?  Wherever you are, His grace is sufficient for you…His power is made perfect in weakness—your weakness.  Sometimes (if not all of the time) our self-reliance and arrogance—trying to “fix it” or say, “I got this God.”—is a road block in what God is able to do in us and through us and in our circumstances but when our weakness has humbled us yet again, God can (yet again) have the room to do His work.

Today, rely on the Lord and His infinite GRACE.  It is more than enough for you.

Katie Botello
FBC Aztec Member

Hope in Him all Day Long

I cannot seem to get past the message of Hope lately.  The Lord keeps reminding me not to lose hope, and I keep feeling the need to share this message with you, which to me means that there are those of you who need to hear this, too…that there are circumstances or mindsets that keep bringing us to the precipice of losing hope.  I don’t necessarily mean in some extreme sense per se but that our trust in the Lord may be waning in certain areas of our lives…not our faith in the Lord but our trust that things will turn out for the good in certain situations.

One morning this week during my time with the Lord, He took me on a detour—to a different book of the Bible than where I had been reading, and I ended up in Psalm 25.  I’m familiar with Psalm 25 and have probably written about it here before, but it was significant for different reasons this time.  I won’t burden you with its applications to my personal situations, but I will tell you that there it was again…that message—Don’t lose Hope:

“In you, Lord my God, I put my trust.  I trust in you; do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.  No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame…” (vs 1-3)  and, “Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths.  Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” (vs 4,5)

That last part really got me, “…my hope is in you all day long.”  ALL day long—not just for a moment, not just for an hour but ALL day long.  Wow…that shook me a little.  In order to have hope in the Lord ALL day long, I would actually have to turn to Him, talk to Him, think about Him, give my burdens to Him, praise Him, sing to Him, meditate on His Word, ask Him for wisdom and guidance…again and again and again—from the time I woke up in the morning until I lay my head on my pillow at night.  But how?

I think the answer may be found in the following verses:  “Guard my life and rescue me; do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.  May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope, Lord, is in you.” (vs 20, 21)   In verse 20, David says, “…I take refuge in you.”  Refuge is a place of protection, sure, but it also becomes a dwelling place, at least for a period of time but if God is our constant refuge, then that means we are to dwell in Him—in His Presence, in His Word.

In order to hope in Him all day long, we must LIVE in Him all day long, abide with Him, dwell with Him, find our living space and habitation in Him.  And in each of the verses above, David says that His hope is in the Lord.  His hope as He lives and dwells in the Lord is not in his own abilities, analytical skills, reasoning, interventions, and so on, but His Hope in the Lord…the one with whom He abides in ALL day long.

Today, let’s find our rest in Jesus; let’s dwell in Him today.  Let’s put our Hope in Him again and again and again ALL day long.  Let’s not rely on ourselves or the things or people around us to give us Hope but in the Father, His Son, and in His promised Holy Spirit.

Katie Botello
FBC Aztec Member

Do not Seek the Approval of Others

I think a majority of my life I’ve sought the approval of others.  I suppose many of us do.  Thankfully, with age, this has waned.  Somehow the approval of others seems much less important.  Approval indicates (at least according to the dictionary) that in those times I’ve sought approval from others that I was actually seeking permission…but permission for what?

Permission to breathe, to exist?  Permission to have a favorite color, a favorite type of food?  Permission to have my own thoughts, my own point of view?  We all do it, don’t we?  We all at some point—or at many points in our lives—look for permission from another that we are indeed “okay”.  We are looking for that feeling of validation, I believe,…or perhaps there’s other motivating factors, like fear.

But that’s a slippery slope, isn’t it?  Few of us enjoy conflict or the disapproval of another, so sometimes we compromise the integrity of our convictions, we shut up the voice of reason in our heart or mind, we even forsake basic things that are individual to us, like our favorite flavor of ice cream, because we want to please another and in doing so garner their approval, even their love.  But the Bible has a very different view about where approval should come from. 

Proverbs 29:25 says, “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.”  And it is so easy to get entangled with various forms of seeking approval.  Paul does say in Romans 14:19, “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification,” but that is different than attempting to obtain approval.  This speaks to respecting one another.

The apostle Paul makes it very clear in Galatians 5:1,7, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery…You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?”  Our freedom is found in Christ, and our approval comes through Him and from Him alone; He is the one who validates us.  But it is possible in our walk with the Lord to be burdened again by many things, including seeking the approval of others.

This does not mean that we are not to be accountable to one another, but there should be no bondage in this; no seeking of another’s approval or trying to please them.  Paul says in Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters…”

I like the way Paul sums it up in this statement:  “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”  Galatians 1:10   He says that he wouldn’t even be a follower of Christ if he was trying to please others because being a follower of Christ isn’t even popular.

It is impossible to truly please others and obtain their approval.  Even if we manage to gain their approval for a period of time, it will not last.

Today, remember:  our Father in Heaven loves us.  This is not something we have to “work” for.  We already have His approval through Christ.  Yes, He will grow us, mold us, and shape us, bring conviction and repentance and much more, but we already have His unconditional love.  Rest in His love today.

Katie Botello
FBC Aztec Member

There is Hope

I was watching a movie recently, and there was a line that struck me:  “Where there is life, there is hope.”  It reminded me that where there is Jesus, there is hope.  Jesus is life (John 1:1-5) and if our life is found in him (Romans 6:4,8), we have hope…a hope that will not die.

This time of year often awakens within me pictures of this same hope.  God has placed this hope all around us.  Though winter is frigid and biting and brings with it a type of death, in just a short time, it will give way to spring.  That which seems to be dead will actually give way to a resurrection, if you will.  That which is buried deep in the trees and their roots, that which is hidden under the frozen soil of the ground, is being washed and baptized by the rain and snow.  And in the spring, it will come to life again with a breath-taking vibrancy and beauty that will speak nothing of its apparent death but everything of its life—a life that could NOT have happened of its own doing.

Within the very framework of the nature God has put all around us, He prophetically placed the message of hope that He would one day fulfill in Christ, and has now already done so through the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus.  Now, it is a constant reminder of what He has done for us and in us and what He can continue to do for us in our circumstances.

We are never without hope because we are never without Him.  And I feel as if lately, it has been on His heart and on His mind to revive in us this message of hope…to remind us that He is here with us and He can still do the impossible—bring new life to that which seems dead.

On more than one occasion lately, the Father has caused the following scriptures, and the ideas found there, to stand out:  “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.  The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.”  Isaiah 43:18-21

And I feel as if the message here is this:  Though the last few years have been like a winter, or like a dry desert, we have hope.  God is doing a new thing.  HE is causing the season in our lives to change.  God is making a way in our spiritual wilderness.  He’s bringing refreshing.  And He is bringing new life.

It would be easy to dwell on the difficulties, but God says “no”.  It is time to move on.  And we are not just to move on into an unknown, vast, and uncertain future, but we are moving on into His promise, a promise that says God is making a way in our circumstances.

Today, grasp onto this HOPE.  Don’t let go of it.  God is doing a new thing.  Don’t let go.

Katie Botello
FBC Aztec Member