The sun is shining today!!! (Thunderous applause, hooting, hollering, and general merry making ensues...)
That may not seem like the biggest deal for many, but we have just gone through the longest, darkest, coldest, cloudiest bout of winter weather. At the moment there are lovely splashes of sunshine and light reflecting off my mirrors and onto my walls. My beloved bedroom is glowing with the warmth of afternoon sunlight and I can see blue sky and white clouds outside my window. It is helpful that I could turn the heat up and warm up my little wheat bags to enhance the illusion of warmth on this sunny January day. Outside the temperatures are hovering somewhere around minus 10, but I will not complain!! The sun is shining and I will rejoice in this day that the Lord has made!
I bundled myself off to church this morning and was engaged in glorious worship and surrounded by the loveliest people. All of us on this strange sojourn, trying to make sense of our lives and our various pains and disappointments and bravely trying to keep believing that this will all be worth it one day...
The message came straight from the throne of God and poured over us like fresh water on desperately thirsty ground. Allastair Petrie spoke of the great power that is unleashed when God's people admit their helplessness and hopelessness and finally lift up their eyes declaring that we can't but GOD CAN!!!! He actually had us bow our heads while those of us who felt hopeless in different areas of our lives raised our hands. (Getting rid of the whole religious bondage that would even keep us from admitting that!!) 90% of us admitted to hopelessness and it felt so good to do it!
I have felt so weary and have found it difficult to even know how to pray. There is such need and such apathy. The church slumbers on and I don't even know how to rouse myself. So the message from Isaiah 57 was about obtaining, humility, holiness, hunger for God that trumps over every other hunger we have and admitting hopelessness. All this so that we can allow God to reign in and through us, bringing transformation.
I can't even begin to do the message justice here, but I can surely say that God had a good reason to tell us not to "forsake gathering together". There is the manifest presence of God that is released when saints gather in humility to worship their Creator and to be reminded of His promises through the spoken Word.
I'm so glad that I could admit to hopelessness. What a tremendous relief not to have to try to fix my broken self nor my broken world. I can't, but God can. And God will. As His people, humble themselves, turn from their wicked ways and pray.
Apparently there are amazing miracles of transformation taking place in areas all around the world. Where children stand and pray for their countries for hours every day, where prisoners accept the Lord en masse, where societies are turned around by a sovereign move of God on behalf of the prayers of His people.
So I will continue to lift up these hands and pray.
THY KINGDOM COME,
THY WILL BE DONE, HERE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN...
Yes Lord, You can and You will!!
Showing posts with label Hope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hope. Show all posts
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Friday, September 26, 2008
Butterfly Extravaganza
Sweet gathering of friends to celebrate a miracle.
Gift bags in hand, we enter with smiles and anticipation.
One in our midst is experiencing a dream come true and we are hovering excitedly about, laughing, loving, rejoicing.
Posing in pajamas,
Admiring wedding attire,
BLING!
Lovely Lingerie,
LEOPARD PRINT & ZEBRA!!
Modeling... giggles
Chocolate fondu with white wine,
CREAM PUFFS!
More pictures and laughter,
Ticking TIMERS!
A journey revealed in a journal
Prayers of thankfulness
Gifts for all
Painted BUTTERFLY rocks!
Symbols of HOPE
Answered prayers...
"Write down the revelation
and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.
For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
It speaks of the end and will not prove false,
Though it tarry, wait for it.
It will certainly come and not delay."
Habakkuk 2:2,3
Thursday, July 5, 2007
something new
I'm holding it carefully...daring to hope and believe. Something has fallen into my lap. Just like that. Out of the blue - a surprise from heaven it seems.
A vision. A future and a hope...
The last three years have been hard - physically and emotionally and in a lot of ways. Many things were pushed off my plate as I contemplated what I should, and could do with my limitations. Limitations which increased following that botched surgery I underwent in April 2004.
Words echo in my mind..."limited, but not restricted". They were spoken over me back in 1995 by someone in YWAM. I figured that was a no brainer. But they come back to me now and again. I haven't easily been held back in my life. I've got one of those strong independent personalities. But when a hammer hits you enough times, you begin to draw back and go into hiding. You begin to believe that you are more restricted than just limited and hope seeps out. You get really tired.
I knew I couldn't endure another lonely long winter like this last one was. Too much time, too little to do and too much "aloneness". By my own choice, strangely enough. But when you've struggled for so long on so many levels there's not tons of extra energy to go out and pursue relationships that you've let slide. Or to enter into the world of meetings and involvement and possible leadership again. It's become a strange world for me and in some ways I've felt more invisible and "unimportant" than I have for a long time. Maybe ever. It's not a bad thing to realize that you're somewhat dispensible and it's all God anyhow. It's just tough... and humbling.
So I thought about volunteering next fall at the school my daughter attends. I found out from my cousin that I could actually help kids with dyslexia and reading lag by taking a course this summer. It sounded pretty do-able. And it would give me something to focus on this summer as my daughter does her days of babysitting and other activities. Plus, I'd rather have an actual skill to go to the school with, rather than just be a body listening to kids read or recite. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just in me to want to do more. That part of me that worked hard to become a nurse to help others. That part of me that loves to teach kids how incredibly loved they are by God and how important and powerful His Word is for them.
I got the phone number of the woman in charge of the reading program and our conversations have been amazing. The woman who designed this course has captured my heart with her broad vision and her incredible love for God and people. I am amazed at her ability to look at life through this spiritual lens that sees much more broadly than learning something to teach others. Her perspective goes right to the vision of seeing the cycle of poverty in Canada broken for many through what she offers. Wow. I don't usually think like that but it inspires me immensely. So much so that I'm getting excited to get on board. In a bigger sense than just learning the course. She's inviting me in at a whole different level than I had initially anticipated.
Somehow, as we spoke our hearts connected and I felt like I had met a kindred spirit. The very same verse that I love to teach my Sunday School girls to give them a life vision, she began to expound on, and right there something clicked.
"For We are God's WORKMANSHIP, created in Christ Jesus,
To do good works, which God prepared, IN ADVANCE for us to do.
EPHESIANS 2:10
Another level of this verse, to lift kids out of traps and prisons they've been labeled into. To give them a future and a hope. To practically show them that they are a masterpiece, created to excell and to capture a vision of what they can do and be. To do something with the talents that God has given us. It's our responsibility to use those talents to their fullest. I was reminded by this incredible woman of that as well.
So, all this to say that I'm thinking, really thinking about what has been offered to me and offering it back up to God. It seemingly fell out of heaven, this opportunity to do what I love and to teach others to do the same.
If it's you God, I ask you to keep this vision stirring brightly in my heart. It's been a long time since I've felt a passion like this. It's been a long time since I've felt a hope for my future.
I'm excited! What does this mean for me?
And God says..."Behold I make all things new".
A vision. A future and a hope...
The last three years have been hard - physically and emotionally and in a lot of ways. Many things were pushed off my plate as I contemplated what I should, and could do with my limitations. Limitations which increased following that botched surgery I underwent in April 2004.
Words echo in my mind..."limited, but not restricted". They were spoken over me back in 1995 by someone in YWAM. I figured that was a no brainer. But they come back to me now and again. I haven't easily been held back in my life. I've got one of those strong independent personalities. But when a hammer hits you enough times, you begin to draw back and go into hiding. You begin to believe that you are more restricted than just limited and hope seeps out. You get really tired.
I knew I couldn't endure another lonely long winter like this last one was. Too much time, too little to do and too much "aloneness". By my own choice, strangely enough. But when you've struggled for so long on so many levels there's not tons of extra energy to go out and pursue relationships that you've let slide. Or to enter into the world of meetings and involvement and possible leadership again. It's become a strange world for me and in some ways I've felt more invisible and "unimportant" than I have for a long time. Maybe ever. It's not a bad thing to realize that you're somewhat dispensible and it's all God anyhow. It's just tough... and humbling.
So I thought about volunteering next fall at the school my daughter attends. I found out from my cousin that I could actually help kids with dyslexia and reading lag by taking a course this summer. It sounded pretty do-able. And it would give me something to focus on this summer as my daughter does her days of babysitting and other activities. Plus, I'd rather have an actual skill to go to the school with, rather than just be a body listening to kids read or recite. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just in me to want to do more. That part of me that worked hard to become a nurse to help others. That part of me that loves to teach kids how incredibly loved they are by God and how important and powerful His Word is for them.
I got the phone number of the woman in charge of the reading program and our conversations have been amazing. The woman who designed this course has captured my heart with her broad vision and her incredible love for God and people. I am amazed at her ability to look at life through this spiritual lens that sees much more broadly than learning something to teach others. Her perspective goes right to the vision of seeing the cycle of poverty in Canada broken for many through what she offers. Wow. I don't usually think like that but it inspires me immensely. So much so that I'm getting excited to get on board. In a bigger sense than just learning the course. She's inviting me in at a whole different level than I had initially anticipated.
Somehow, as we spoke our hearts connected and I felt like I had met a kindred spirit. The very same verse that I love to teach my Sunday School girls to give them a life vision, she began to expound on, and right there something clicked.
"For We are God's WORKMANSHIP, created in Christ Jesus,
To do good works, which God prepared, IN ADVANCE for us to do.
EPHESIANS 2:10
Another level of this verse, to lift kids out of traps and prisons they've been labeled into. To give them a future and a hope. To practically show them that they are a masterpiece, created to excell and to capture a vision of what they can do and be. To do something with the talents that God has given us. It's our responsibility to use those talents to their fullest. I was reminded by this incredible woman of that as well.
So, all this to say that I'm thinking, really thinking about what has been offered to me and offering it back up to God. It seemingly fell out of heaven, this opportunity to do what I love and to teach others to do the same.
If it's you God, I ask you to keep this vision stirring brightly in my heart. It's been a long time since I've felt a passion like this. It's been a long time since I've felt a hope for my future.
I'm excited! What does this mean for me?
And God says..."Behold I make all things new".
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Fun in the SUN
Summer is most definitely here - hot, sunny days....YEEHAW!! I love the warmth, I love how the earth responds, with colors and sounds and growth galore. I've been planting flowers!!! So glad that the desire to do so even came back to me. I had felt so much winter in my bones & in my soul that I didn't know when I'd finally get the urge to shop for pretty flowers and dig around in the earth planting again.
...But it's here!! The joy of digging holes, soaking them with water and popping the sweet little plants in - eager for the explosion of growth that is sure to come. (That is, if Jewel will leave the flowers where they are!! I've already had to replant several of my petunias due to Jewel's desire to sleep in my flower bed. Sheesh.) I must say I am glad she is well enough to be digging and isn't laying around looking half dead anymore. Now that I know she has arthritis I have arranged her little bottles of supplements and I am administering them to her with her breakfast. Glucosamine, Cod Liver Oil and enteric coated Aspirin. I NEVER thought I'd be doing this with an animal, but it sure beats watching her in agony.
I have my little vegetable garden arranged - oh so cute. It's going to turn into a jungle most likely because I squished so many plants into such a small area but that's okay. It's just so much fun. My little cucumber plant has a trellis to climb on, my strawberries are waiting to ripen, raspberries have blossomed and are doing something... two tomato plants, chives, and basil are happily basking in the warmth and I am keeping them moist. (Dragging that heavy hose around again and hurting my elbow in the process but I just can't seem to help myself!!)
Tonight Becci came over with her two little people and we had great fun. Niko running through the sprinkler in his sweet nakedness, Alexia riding on the mower on Patrice's lap, Jewel and Mr. Tumness happy to have our company outside. The heat was intense today and the sun sets as I sit here typing. A pretty pinky purple glow has settled on the mountains and the earth breaths a sigh of relief to have some hours of reprieve from the heat.
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