A hug from God

Last week, my husband and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. Every year, we go out on a dinner date and then come home and watch our wedding video. Keep in mind, we got married in St. Lucia, on the beach at a Sandal's Resort. Needless to say, it was a short and sweet wedding and the video is only about 15 minutes long. The video ends with Tony and I dancing to a song at our "reception" there at the resort.

We decided this year to start a new tradition of watching the video with our children, as a family. They just loved it!! My daughter, Loren, is extremely imaginative and is always asking to try on my wedding dress and "act out" the wedding pictures she sees of mommy and daddy around the house. So, during the video, she put on my wedding dress and had little brother Luke put on Tony's "wedding" suit jacket that he also saved. They pretended like they were the bride and groom and did their wedding "dance." It was so precious to see them so excited to be a part of our wedding day. I can see that they totally "get it" already. Despite our every day short-comings as parents, our children are so secure in their family! They are so secure in our marriage and the love that Tony and I have for each other. At that sweet moment, I felt a huge "hug from God!" He just reminded me that in spite of the mistakes I made in my past, He has gifted me with a wonderful husband and marriage and absolutely beautiful children. I was overwhelmed with the fact that everything good we have, comes from Him, right down to the air we breathe!

Wow, thank you Lord that you love me that much!

2 Corinthians 9:15
"Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words!"

We live in the shelter of the Most High

Don't worry about ANYTHING, instead, pray about EVERYTHING!! The Lord is our protector, our shield - nothing can ever separate us from His love and His total protection! As believers in Jesus Christ, we live in the shelter of the Most High!!

Psalm 91

1 Those who live in the shelter of the Most High
will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 This I declare about the Lord:
He alone is my refuge, my place of safety;
he is my God, and I trust him.
3 For he will rescue you from every trap
and protect you from deadly disease.
4 He will cover you with his feathers.
He will shelter you with his wings.
His faithful promises are your armor and protection.
5 Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night,
nor the arrow that flies in the day.
6 Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness,
nor the disaster that strikes at midday.
7 Though a thousand fall at your side,
though ten thousand are dying around you,
these evils will not touch you.
8 Just open your eyes,
and see how the wicked are punished.

9 If you make the Lord your refuge,
if you make the Most High your shelter,
10 no evil will conquer you;
no plague will come near your home.
11 For he will order his angels
to protect you wherever you go.
12 They will hold you up with their hands
so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.
13 You will trample upon lions and cobras;
you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!

14 The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me.
I will protect those who trust in my name.
15 When they call on me, I will answer;
I will be with them in trouble.
I will rescue and honor them.
16 I will reward them with a long life
and give them my salvation.”

RAISE THE ROOF!!!

Psalm 32 - (The Message)

1 Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be—
you get a fresh start,
your slate's wiped clean.

2 Count yourself lucky—
God holds nothing against you
and you're holding nothing back from him.

3 When I kept it all inside,
my bones turned to powder,
my words became daylong groans.

4 The pressure never let up;
all the juices of my life dried up.

5 Then I let it all out;
I said, "I'll make a clean breast of my failures to God."

Suddenly the pressure was gone—
my guilt dissolved,
my sin disappeared.

6 These things add up. Every one of us needs to pray;
when all hell breaks loose and the dam bursts
we'll be on high ground, untouched.

7 God's my island hideaway,
keeps danger far from the shore,
throws garlands of hosannas around my neck.

8 Let me give you some good advice;
I'm looking you in the eye
and giving it to you straight:

9 "Don't be ornery like a horse or mule
that needs bit and bridle
to stay on track."

10 God-defiers are always in trouble;
God-affirmers find themselves loved
every time they turn around.

11 Celebrate God.
Sing together—everyone!
All you honest hearts, raise the roof!

I had an opportunity on Friday night to "raise the roof" at my church for a night of worship. It was an incredible 2 hours - pouring our hearts out to God, singing His praises, surrendering our wills (once again) to Him! Surely He was blessed!

I've been studying David lately! What a life! No wonder David was a great worshiper!! God was always faithful to him, no matter what! He is also faithful to us, no matter what!

Praise Him!!

What would you do?

What would you do if you weren't afraid?

Think about that for a while.................

The ministry of reconciliation

2 Corinthians 5:11-21

We Are God’s Ambassadors
"Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ."

Martha, Martha.................

Luke 10:41-42
"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

How precious it is to spend alone time with our Lord and Savior and how even sweeter it is to know that He longs to spend time with us! This hammock hangs in my beautiful backyard and it is a place where I often spend quiet time with God. I find that it is in these times when He will so often speak to me. I've never heard his audible voice but He comes to me in a deep feeling in my spirit and I know that I know it is Him. He comes sometimes in a very authoritative way, letting me know that I MUST be obedient to Him. He comes through His Word when a passage of scripture speaks to my circumstances so loudly and clearly that I know, beyond a doubt that it is no coincidence!

But, this wonderful world of going deeper with God involves action on my part. I've heard it said that it is a miracle in itself that the God of Heaven even speaks to us, individually. Like all the other miracles that Jesus performed in the Bible, they all required some effort on the part of the recipient. He did not just zap them with their miracle. They were almost always commanded by Jesus to take some sort of action, some step toward receiving what He had for them. Like those people, if I did not make the choice to spend one-on-one, quiet time with God, I wonder what I would be missing out on. Actually, I know what I'd be missing out on - sweet fellowship with the one who created the universe and yet knows my name!

The world we live in is absolutely full of distractions. There are things coming at us constantly ranging from jobs to family obligations to hobbies to technology to ministries to our schedules and the "to-do" list goes on. Not that any of these things are bad things, but if we choose to fill every free moment of our lives with the "stuff" of life, we will miss out on the only true meaning of life, the whole reason we are here in the first place. I want to be so intimate with God that every step I take, I ask Him about it first. I want His opinion on absolutely everything. So how can I clearly hear His voice if I, like Martha, busy myself so much with all of this "stuff" that I don't set aside enough time, each day to spend with Jesus? He longs to spend time with me and I believe He is heartbroken when we don't make time for him. If He truly is our "Everything" then why would we not want to give Him our time, our attention, our affection? Remember that teenage boyfriend you could not get enough of? You know, the one your mother, deep down, could not stand because you wanted to spend every waking moment with him and if the two of you weren't together, you were talking on the phone?!?!?

James 4:8 says, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." This clearly means that if we want to get close to God, we must choose to draw near to Him. I have found this to be impossible without first getting alone with Him. How often, during play-dates with my "mommy" friends, do we try to have "adult conversation" but find ourselves being constantly interrupted and distracted by the voices of our little happy children. We joke and say we only have "half" conversations because we have one eye on each other and the other eye on our kids. A half conversation really is the most we can hope for during these play dates. We don't go into them expecting any more than that. If our time with God takes place amongst other distractions, how can we really give Him our undivided attention? But God wants both of our eyes focused on Him. He wants us at his feet listening, praising, adoring and worshiping Him. He wants to reveal Himself to us in such a mighty way that we will be shocked at just how real and present He feels to us. Sometimes I sense Him wanting to grab our cheeks and turn our faces toward as he says, "Listen to me, my precious child! I've got something awesome for you but you must tune in, in order to get it! So, drop the TV, drop the yacking on the cell phone, drop the e-mails, drop the fiction book, drop the thing that you are so tightly hanging onto. Let go of it long enough for you to grab onto my hand, I want to take you somewhere incredible!!"

In my personal experience, this has involved making sacrifices to make sure I don't give God the short end of the stick. I am in the season of life of pre-school aged children. I have a particularly early rising 3-year old who is up by 6:00 a.m. - regardless of what time he goes to bed. Therefore, I must rise up much earlier than him if I am to get my time in with God. For me, if I don't spend my quiet time at the very start of my day, I won't get it in. As soon as life starts coming at me it is so much harder to grab onto that uninterrupted quality time with God. I also believe He wants our first fruits, the best of us, before we fail and sin later in the day. We can start with a clean slate every morning and ask Him to create in us a clean heart and pour out His new mercies on us that day. We can ask him to fill our day and stay near to us all day. Of course, it is not easy getting up very early and I'll admit, there are some mornings when it just doesn't happen! I mean, in our human flesh, who wouldn't rather stay asleep, all cozy in a warm bed? But the more I consistently stick to it, the more God speaks to me. I find myself not wanting to miss my time because I am so anxious to hear what He has for me that day. It is certainly true that, not every morning involves a grand, huge revelation from God. There are some days when I can just sit back and thank Him for all the ways He has blessed me. I cannot tell you how much better my day goes when I start off praising God for it! I believe that when we start our day with Him, we are inviting Him to stick around with us the rest of the day!

By all means, we can be in His presence anytime, all day, all the time, not just during the one-on-one time. I am learning more and more how to stay with Him all day - just to talk to Him off and on, all day long. He never leaves us!! I believe both ways of being with Him are essential - the bottom line is He wants us - ALL of us!!

I guess it's just like anything else, you get out of it what you put into it. But, unlike other things in life worth spending time on, the benefits of spending time in the presence of the King of Kings, our Abba Father, our Daddy is something we simply cannot put a price tag on! Nothing compares to it!!

That's My girl

This story of her own son, written by Joanna Weaver in her book, "Having A Mary Spirit" touched me so deeply today. God spoke to me through this story and answered a burning question and gave me some much needed confirmation. He has asked me to do something for Him. Something difficult for me. Something way, way out of my comfort zone. Our of fear, I've been telling myself it would be too hard, too weird, too awkward, but God keeps replying: "Obey, I am faithful and you can do ALL things through me!" I hope you will be encouraged by this story as much as I am:

"When baby Joshua joined our family nearly four years ago, he brought more joy than I ever thought possible. Which is saying a lot. At forty years of age and with two nearly grown teenagers, I never expected to be shopping for cribs and colleges at the same time. (Although a friend did point out it could be worse - I could have been shopping for diapers and Depends.)

But more than joy, Joshua brought me a new understanding of God's love that I'd never considered before.

After Josh was born a month early, the doctors immediately knew something wasn't quite right. Eliminating more serious conditions, they diagnosed him with hypotonia. Low muscle tone. Rather than the tight little bundle of baby I was used to holding, Joshua felt more like a rag doll, loose and limp in my arms. He was slow to nurse, slow to roll over, slow to sit up, slow to do many things. Rather than doing movements natural for most babies, Josh's muscles had to be taught, even awakened, through physical therapy. At three-and-a-half years of age, he still has delays in motor skills as well as speech development.

But do you know what? It doesn't matter. I don't bother comparing Josh to other kids because Josh isn't like other kids. Josh is Josh. I don't keep a list of things babies should do at one or two or three years of age. It's all immaterial. Josh will do it when Josh can. And we'll do - and are doing - everything possible to help him. After being an uptight mom the first time around, constantly comparing to see how my kids measured up to others their age, I can't tell you how freeing this has been.

In some ways, these four years with Josh have been the most enjoyable years of my life. Why? Because we celebrate everything! Every little advance is met with great joy and applause. And I've recently realized that loving Josh has taught me a wonderful lesson about how God loves me.

That realization came three years ago in Gold Beach, Oregon. My sister Linda, had some along to watch Josh while I spoke at a women's retreat. When I went back to the hotel room after the first evening session, Linda was so excited.

"You won't believe what Joshua did!"she said dragging me to where he sat playing with some toys. That in itself was a miracle, for Josh had only recently mastered the art of sitting up. But my sister had something new to show me. "Watch this!" Linda cleared the space around him, then took his favorite toy and placed it in front of him, just out of reach. Josh looked at her, then at me. Then with a little smile, he bent forward and stretched out nearly flat to grab the toy that rested beyond his toes. I was amazed. He'd never done that before. But that was only the beginning. There was more to come.

Little by little, grunting and groaning, my sweet boy slowly worked his hands back toward his body. Beads of perspiration broke out on his forehead as he, still grasping the toy, worked himself back into a sitting position. The whole process took at least thirty seconds, ten times the amount of time another child would have required. But rather than being disappointed, Linda and I whooped and hollered and cried our eyes out.

"Woohoo! That's my boy!" I said, hugging Josh. It was amazing. It was wonderful. It was a milestone, a moment of pure joy I'll never forget. And with it came a revelation from the Lord that has changed my life. As I lay in bed that night still rejoicing over Joshua's accomplishment, I felt God whisper to my spirit"

"That's how I feel, you know.
"What do you mean, Lord?" I asked.
"The joy you feel watching Joshua do something you know is difficult - that's how I feel when I see you stretch beyond what you've tried before. When you believe Me for something that seems impossible...trust Me in the midst of difficulties...do what I ask even though you don't feel able...that's how I feel."

My heart swelled with the thought and caught in my throat. That I could bring that much joy to the Lord had never occurred to me.

With the sounds of waves outside echoing the waves of gratitude in my heart, I wept quietly, mouthing words of praise to the One who knew me so intimately and yet loved me so completely.

It wasn't until I shared the thought with the women the next morning that a fuller revelation of the truth finally hit me. The women nodded and smiled through the story, and many even wept. But I suddenly realized that they could never understand the immensity of it all. Neither could Linda. Not really. No one could.

Why? Because Joshua belongs to me. He BELONGS to me.

That's why God rejoices over our every little step. That's why He tirelessly spends time exercising our faith and stretching us in order to expand our limits. That's why, when we fall, He helps us, picks us up, and encourages us to try again.

He doesn't compare us to anyone else. He doesn't have a list of what Christians should be and do at certain phases of their Christian walk. He accepts us individually and works with us where we are. Yet He constantly challenges us to go beyond what we are. And He throws a great big party whenever we reach a milestone or make a spiritual breakthrough.

Why? Because we belong to Him. We BELONG to Him.

"Woohoo! That's My girl!" He says.

"Did you see that?" He asks, turning to the angels and pointing to earth. Pointing to you and to me.

"That's My girl."