Kids Say the Innocentest...? Things

In the process of leaving church yesterday, Dustin was gentlemanly-like and pulled the van up to the side entrance. I loaded Kennedy into her seat and then went on around to get in, on the front passenger side. Dustin was laughing when I got in, and I of course asked him what was so funny. He proceeded to tell me that Clara had gotten upset thinking that he was going to leave Mommy. He assured her that he wasn't going to leave Mommy, but that he was going to pick her up. She then responded with "You can't pick her up, she's too heavy." Oh sweet girl. If only she knew her part in me being "too heavy." That's okay, my chub is a beautiful reminder of the four ornery blessings that God 'knitted' in my womb. I wouldn't trade my chub for the world! :oD

How do we worship God?

This is an excerpt from the booklet to their cd 'Enter the Worship Circle.' All I have to say is...AMEN!!!

How do we worship God?

Worshiping God cannot be borrowed or "faked". Singing christian songs with enthusiasm is not worship, and neither is bowing reverently in a chapel...they are only outward exercises. True worship can never be a rehearsal of someone else's experience or tradition...we must hunger to touch God for ourselves.

So how do we meet God? Jesus sums up the radical message of the whole Bible when he says, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). He also said that He was THE doorway for us to enter the Presence of God (John 14:6). However, Jesus didn't speak of a single, momentary encounter with the Presence of God because it was His heart that we learn to have an ongoing, supernatural relationship with... a continual encounter!

Are you exp0eriencing God? Surely you are not satisfied with only one encounter... one touch!? Through worship we can interact with God" we can ask Him for help to love Him more, we can reflect His passionate pursuit, we can hunger for more of His presence! And when He meets us... and we respond with love... then we can truly call it worship!

I can be guilty of being a copycat. No more, I want to touch you for myself! I am not going to cheat myself any longer!!

In light of Thanksgiving

Okay, I've been on a Waterdeep kick lately. They are a beautifully gifted christian band. Their song ' COme Fall on Us (Psalm 50) ' is currently playing and I just totally kicked up the crazy notch dancing in my living room to it. You Rock God!! Here's the lyrics:

The mighty One, the Lord
Calls to all the Earth
From the rising of the sun
To the place it makes its bed
He calls His people
And we will listen
We will not keep silent
'Till we feel the fire again, oh
'Till we feel the fire again, oh

A thankful heart
Prepares the way
For You, my God
A thankful heart
Prepares the way
For You, my God
Come fall on us
We fall on You
A thankful heart
Will be our rhythm
Come fall on us
We fall on You
A thankful heart
Will be our song

The mighty One, the Lord
Calls to all the Earth
For a heart that would bow down
For a head that he could lift
With eyes of mercy,
A burning passion

We will not keep silent
'Till we feel the fire again, no
'Till we feel the fire again, no

A thankful heart
Prepares the way
For You, my God
A thankful heart
Prepares the way
For You, my God
Come fall on us
We fall on You
A thankful heart
Will be our rhythm
Come fall on us
We fall on You
A thankful heart
Will be our song
(2X)

Call me, Call me
Burn me with fire,
Fall on me
Burn me with fire,
Burn me with fire,
Oh God, Oh God, Oh, oh
Burn me with fire
Burn me, burn me, oh God with fire
Burn me, oh God with holy fire
Burn me, oh God with holy fire
Burn me, oh God with holy fire
Burn me, oh God with holy fire

Tis the Season! To be Garage Saling!

I went to a garage sale yesterday, and boy did I hit the book jackpot! I bet I got 2 dozen books, it didn't help that the woman who lived in the house was, maybe still is, a teacher. I also found three skirts and a dress jacket for me. Plus, I found gifts for Cora and Kelby to give to their teachers for Christmas, and I found the most perfect gift for my brother....unbenounced to me, "Keeping Faith - A Father-Son Story About Love and The United States Marine Corps by John & Frank Schaeffer. I have never even heard of the book, but I just knew that it was for my brother.

On that note. I spoke with my brother for the first time since he's gone back out to CA for schooling. OH yeah, um, my brother is a Marine, that may be a little important to mention for those who don't know ;o). Okay, back to the phone call, well, let me preface it with; my brother has been dating a girl for almost three years and he proposed to her last Christmas, and they had set a date over the summer - Dec. 27. So, everybody in our family, except Kennedy, had a role in the wedding. What a blessing to able to be a little more involved with a special day than just sitting on the sidelines. When Zack called last, wait, two Tuesdays ago, we were just getting ready to put the kids to bed and Zack called Dustin's cell phone first. When we didn't answer Dustin's phone Zack called my cell phone. Dustin went ahead and answered it and told Zack that we'd give him a call back in just a minute, we were praying with the kids. Zack was like "Well, let me just tell you one thing You can stop looking for dresses." Okay, well that didn't sound like joyful news. Zack and Linnea's wedding is...postponed...? I mean it's cancelled and all, but not necessarily totally out of the picture. They are wanting to work on their friendship and build that first, and if they both feel like each other is the one that want to spend the rest of their life with, then they will pursue the next level of the friendship. In the meantime, they've agreed to date other people. Can I just say that I'm so proud of them!!!

Along with the whole relationship Zack was getting a horrible case of homesickness. I mean he was ready to just up and leave Monday night (the night before we talked to him). Praise be to God that there are wise, Godly men surrounding him out there on campus. And Zack was in a very vulnerable spot in which Godwas able to use to give Zack the nudge he needed to to search and ask for their wise counsel. Zack now is undoubtedly confident in his calling to be a part of the United States Marine Corps, and not only does he not want to come home, but is excited at his new found direction in life.

God has a funny way of letting us know what he wants us to do. And don't be fooled, He is very much a gentleman and does not force us to do anything we don't want to do, but child, your Heavenly Father knows and WANTS what's best for you! It's just that we think that what we WANT is what we NEED, and totter on the fence between destruction and blessing. He is not going to give you anything that you can't handle, except that which we cannot do on our own. Call Christ a crutch is you may, but in case you haven't evaluated this world lately, we're a pretty broken people. Oh, there are plenty of things that we can do, but there are plenty more things that God CAN do through us. He CAN DO what He SAYS that He can do! And I haven't known God to be much of a promise breaker, in fact, there is not a single promise that he has left unkept. Praise and Glory be to Him, the Maker of the heavens and the earth, and the Potter who saw purpose in me before I was even a thought to my parents, despite my cracks and my faded, warn out color. Thank you Jesus!!!

"No Small Affair"

This article is one that I subscribe to from Crosswalk.com - Encouragement for Today. Wow! I am SO guilty of placing these 'love expectations' onto my husband. It's SO NOT FAIR to him! He's never going to be exactly what I need when I need it - ALL the time. Dustin, I'm SO SORRY!! I caught a glimpse of this truth a while back, but it didn't stick as much as it needed to. I pray that the LORD will take hold of my heart. I need to do my part and remind myself of this truth EVERY day - saying it OUT LOUD - proclaiming it, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. As Lysa sheds light onto this scripture passage...a perspective I had never even contemplated, that this passage is speaking of CHRIST'S LOVE for US! I am able to grow deeper in love with my Bridegroom, and release the unfair expectations on my husband. Now, of course that doesn't give the Hubby a free pass, but it allows me to get out of the way of what Christ is trying to grow in Dustin. Wives, we can be a stumbling block (well, even a mountain) to our husbands and not even know it! We NEED to take hold of the truth that God has given us in His Word, that only He can satisfy us, perfectly and completely. And let go of our husbands, or whoever we may have these unfair expectations on, so that they can experience God's perfect and complete love for them!

Thank you Lysa, for sharing what God has shown to you.

No Small Affair

Lysa TerKeurst

"Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth."

1 Corinthians 13:6 (NIV)

Devotion:

A few years ago, I sat with a beautiful young woman and watched the tears stream down her face. Six months before our meeting, her world was filled with so much -- a loving husband, a healthy toddler, and fun friends.

Life was full.

But some part of her heart still felt restless, unsettled, and a little empty.

She started to feel detached from her husband and disappointed in their relationship. Why couldn't he make her feel loved? Wasn't he supposed to right her wrongs, fill up her insecurities, and give her a lasting feeling of love?

Then one day she met a man who said things she'd longed to hear her husband say. He made her feel pretty and witty. Soon, she rationalized that she'd never really loved her husband in the first place. A web of lies was spun. She fell into the arms of the other man.

She had not wanted to come to the women's retreat. She knew it might make her feel guilty and she was past having any guilty feelings. She was just waiting for the right time to leave her husband and start over with the new love of her life. But her friends had started to grow suspicious of her pulling back from so many church activities. So, to appease them, she went.

Over the course of the weekend, the walls she'd so carefully constructed to keep everyone at a distance and her secret safe started to crumble. By Saturday night, she sat down with me and confessed her affair. She desperately wanted to know how I felt so full of God's love. She was now convinced it wasn't the love of another man her heart craved; it was the love of God.

Chasing love outside the will of God invites the exact opposite of love into our lives. 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 is picture of God's perfect love. It is patient. It is kind. It does not envy... it is not self-seeking... it does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth... it always protects... it always perseveres. Love never fails. The things we chase in this world are opposite from God's love. False attempts at love will make us impatient, unkind, envious, self-seeking, resistant to the truth, reckless and temporary.

1 Corinthians 13 is not a description of what is inherently ours when we fall in love with another person. It is a description of God's love. This kind of love can be ours as we become more Christ-like. It is never focused inwardly. It is never about what I'm going to get from another person. It is deciding that this is the kind of love I will give away.

I am challenged by this. Because our souls were designed for God's fulfilling love, if we aren't staying closely connected to Him everyday, our hearts will start to feel empty. Restless. Unfulfilled.

Let us never get to the place where we think we are strong enough to not be tempted in this way. If we are all completely honest, we are only a few bad decisions away from the same kind of mess my sweet friend is now trying to untangle herself from. While I have complete hope in God's ability to restore her, the consequences of her chase for love will be severe on many levels.

The kind of love our souls crave will never be found in the things of this world. Lasting and perfectly satisfying love will only be found when we stop chasing the wrong kind of love and start living out the truths of God.

Dear Lord, help me rest in the security of Your love. Make me wise in how I guard my heart. May I never get lured into any kind of worldly, fake love. But if I ever start to get drawn away, God surround me with people who are bold enough to speak truth into my life. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Transgender?

Apparently I clicked on the 'male' circle instead of the 'female' one when choosing my gender in my profile. Well, I must say, being a male wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be. But to be honest, I really didn't give it a fair chance ;o).

On a side note, Nick and Willy's pizza is pretty stinkin good. That's what we had for dinner at church tonight. Oh yeah, and that oh so wonderful strawberry applesauce. The kind where you just add the strawberry jell-o powder to regular applesauce. Mmmm, one of my kids' favorites too.

Two words, Beth Moore.

What an amazing woman of God! She has a fire for God that is, to say the least, contagious. The class that I am going through on Wednesday nights is one of Beth Moore's bible studies - Believing God. Beth explains what it means to really, truly believe God - it is a present-active-participle verb. It doesn't just involve our minds and hearts, but our hands and mouths as well. God is using Beth and this study to do some major reconstructing in my life - enter the chaos mentioned in my previous entry. Yes, 'fall cleaning' has commenced. God is cleaning, organizing, getting rid of and restoring pieces of my life. And oh man, is there some dust flying. Not to mention the areas of my life that are needing to be restored, and sometimes you have to tare down before you can build it back up. Taring down doesn't exactly promote warm fuzzy feelings. But I know and trust that whatever I have to go through will be worth going through because the ends will justify the means. God is in control and He always wants what's best for me, no matter if I understand why He has to do it the way He does.

Peace amongst the chaos

How about that for a first entry. It's the simplest way I can explain what is going on with me, currently. Better yet, let me share with you the words to a song that goes beyond the simple words in the title of this entry.

Whatever You're Doing by Sanctus Real

It�s time for healing, time to move on,
it�s time to fix what�s been broken too long
Time to make right what has been wrong;
it�s time to find my way to where I belong

Chorus:
There�s a wave that�s crashing over me, and all I can do is surrender
Whatever You�re doing inside of me
It feels like chaos, but somehow there�s peace
And it�s hard to surrender to what I can�t see, but I�m giving in to something heavenly

Time for a milestone, time to begin again, re-evaluate who I really am
Am I doing everything to follow Your will or just climbing aimlessly over these hills?
So show me what it is You want from me
I give everything � I surrender

Chorus:

Time to face up, clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out that I�ve wanted to say for so many years
Time to release all my held back tears

Whatever You�re doing inside of me
It feels like chaos, but I believe �
You�re up to something bigger than me
Larger than life, something heavenly

Whatever You�re doing inside of me
It feels like chaos, but now I can see
This is something bigger than me
Larger than life
Something heavenly, something heavenly

Time to face up, clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out

You can watch the youtube video here.