a hodge podge

I recieved an email late last night from our landlord. The owners have decided that they want to sell the house…What?!? (We’ve only been here three months…I’ve not even posted pictures of my cute little house for you all). My first response was to panic and think of all the work that we’d have to do. Then I heard the Holy Spirit question, “Will you trust?”. We will choose to trust.

I shared the exciting news with Daniel, we prayed together and visited Proverbs for some wisdom. Here is what we were met with:

Are you confused about life, don’t know what’s going on?…Leave your impoverished confusion and live! Walk up the street to a life with meaning. (Prov 9)

Talk about a word in due season.

We do have a great peace in this odd time. God has been doing something in our hearts - a course correcting, a calling to a more disciplined, focused life. On our way home from Chicago, we developed an “Anti-Suck Plan”. It’s good. And then this…I think God is working something real good. We will be spending a lot of time praying in the Spirit to get this right. We are really determined to hear and follow. Exciting, no?

We were reading this book to the girls last night and had our faith strengthened! Here’s what we read:

I watch and wait for my seed to keep it’s promise.

Mmmm. These are some seeds I’ve been planting lately:

My son, do not forget my law…

   Fear the LORD and depart from evil. 
        It will be health to your flesh,
      And strength to your bones… 
 Happy is the man who finds wisdom,
      And the man who gains understanding; 
       For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver,
      And her gain than fine gold. 
      She is more precious than rubies,
      And all the things you may desire cannot compare with her. 
      Length of days is in her right hand,
      In her left hand riches and honor. 
       Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
      And all her paths are peace. 
      She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her,
      And happy are all who retain her.

From Proverbs 3.

What Word have you been thinking about this week?

It’s obvious that I am huge fan of Shane and Shane. Here’s one reason why:

Vision of You

Awaken what’s inside of me
Tune my heart to all You are in me
Even though You’re here God come
And may the vision of You
Be the death of me
And even though you’ve given everything
Jesus come

Come free us, King Jesus
It’s the only way that freedom’s given
From You and You alone
In the work You’ve already done
For all we have are songs,
Unless You come

Here we are, Lord
In this place
Crying out for
Your embrace
To hear Your voice
More than songs
Please come
Jesus come

Note: Due to a lack of color on WordPress I will, from now on, be changing the color of my text and adding pictures with each post that may or may not be relevant to my writing…but is relevant to the addition of color. This one, unfortunately, is black and white but is too appropriate to not use.

I’ve allowed myself to lose my joy over the past couple of years. Overall, I have been fine day to day but every so often it would hit me and I would have a mini-crisis. I would be overwhelmed by the fact that I don’t have any close friends locally (closer than 45 minutes), that I didn’t have a car and I felt stuck at home, that I felt like we didn’t have a clear direction for our future but knowing it was something important.

As of late, it seems that I have been on a God-ordained, outside of my control, course of discovering what happiness really is. Some or most of this maybe seem silly, immature or plain old ridiculous, but I wanted to put this out there because it is real and because I am thankful. I thought that when I got a car I would be able to go places, have variety, see friends and thus solve my problems. Don’t get me wrong, having this car is great, but it has only reminded me of the friends that are not there. (It also reminded me of how much work it is to take two babies out to do anything!)

This is where I will sound shallow and misguided: With or without realizing, I would like to shop if I was feeling blue. (Disclaimer: I do not have piles of new items and hidden credit card bills…I’m not that far off center!). I recently became aware of this tendency and also of the lack of any lasting satisfaction (no kidding, right?).

I was flipping through a book today and read these powerful words spoken by Abraham Lincoln:

Happiness is a journey, not a destination. Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

 I read these words and thought to myself:

Snap out of it!

I have a wonderful family, a loving and supportive extended family, incredible friends, a great church, many, many physical blessings…and Jesus who has given me salvation, peace and has promised promises that are more than I could dream up. There is nothing in my life to be unhappy about.

The other part of this quote really has my wheels turning as well: Happiness is not a destination. I, of course, know this. Although, I seemed to have forgotten. Happiness will not be when we are in full time ministry, more involved with missions or have the greatest friends living next door. I was suffering from severe greener grass syndrome. I remembered today the blessings from God. My girls will never be these amazing ages again. We will never have this chapter of our lives back…so we need to live this chapter with fullness.

I’ve been on this journey before to differing degrees but am so thankful that Jesus desired to guide my journey of happiness and do a deeper work in my heart.

Have you heard this song? Right now, this is my song.

Man. Singing it in worship is so…right. The song lyrics and our singing it acknowledges that God is God and HE is mighty to save. It seems that when we focus on Him and how great He is that He is pleased. (NayJ, not how grey He is! he he) Last night I could not not sing it as a prayer for nations, for my brother who is battling with Chrons, for the 17 month old daughter of a friend of a friend who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, for people I love that need healing in their hearts…He is mighty to save.

Everyone needs compassion
Love thats never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Everyone needs forgiveness
The kindness of a Saviour
The hope of nations

Saviour He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave…

So take me as you find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in
Now I Surrender
I Surrender…

Emma was playing with play dough and her nose was running. I was feeding Anna so I asked Emma to get down, get a tissue from the bathroom and wipe her nose.

She promptly got down and returned with a wiped nose, tissue in hand and proudly proclaiming, “I did it!”.

I knelt down to her eye level so she could get my important message, “Thank you for obeying. It makes Momma very happy when you obey” (positive reinforcement).

“I love you, Momma” she replied.

Without thinking, I said, “I know you do. When you obey me, it shows me that you love me”.

Ah-ha! My own words sounded so familiar and I understood a little more.

last week we started Bible school…for the third time. we started by correspondence in ‘02 taking authority of the believer, then in ‘03 we moved to tulsa for vbi and then last week our church launched bethel Bible institute. we felt that even though we’ve taken these classes several times it would be good to stay sharp and get involved with the school. we are taking old testament (taught by our pastors) and authority (taught by my mom & dad).

bunny trail: i love learning about the new testament - especially the history of the new testament and the life and times of Jesus and the early church. (angie, have you seen this book?) back in college all in one semester i took pauline lit, the book of acts and the holy spirit & the church. it was a fun semester!

ok, all that to say, that as much as i love the new testament i often have a hard time processing paul’s writings. it is so power packed that i feel like i can’t even process one phrase, let alone one [long] sentence or chapter.

part of the assignment from my parents is to read the book of Ephesians. i decided to read in the Message Bible and i’m learning so much and having so much life given to my heart. i have to share!

from Ephesians 1

every time I prayed, I’d think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!

All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.

from Ephesians 2

immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! (my note: He still wants us to rely on Him!)

I went through and underlined any time it said God, His, Him and the verb that God did for me. How’s that for a nugget?! I hope it encourages your heart as it did mine.

ps - anna is getting too wiggly to hold while typing.

I have severve “greener grass” syndrome. I keep thinking that things will calm down once school ends, once we are no longer leading youth, once Daniel is done working 19 hour days…. :)I’m not so sure, maybe I am gladly decieving myself to get through this time of craziness. But we’re still having fun. I like what one of my friends posted today, “Setting your hand to the plow is done not only by those who live on foreign soil. You can be engaged in this honorable and important work in your hometown, as you go about your daily life of mothering, working, or serving in a church. Keep your hand to the plow; don’t look back; fix your eyes on the promises of God; expect great things from the Lord and attempt great things for Him!”

This is an assignment I wrote for school tonight. I liked it, so here it is

The captive Jews by edict of Cyrus were released from Babylon / Persia to return to their homes in Judah and Israel. The people had begun the work of rebuilding the Lord’s temple, but had allowed it to remain unfinished for sixteen years having found it “easier stop building than to fight their neighbors”[1]. “So the LORD sent this message through the prophet Haggai: ‘Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins?’[2]”. The Jews had allowed their personal lives take precedent and left the house of the Lord as a less than last priority. God was expecting their personal and corporate priorities to be Him and that would be visibly manifested as a completed Temple. The Everyday Guide to the Bible logically explains, “The problem all along with the Jewish people, in fact, the reason they lost their homes to begin with, was a lack of priority on worship”[3]. The House of the Lord was in ruins and the people of God, “the remnant”, could not be blessed while they neglected the Lord and His House.

I think there is a parallel found in Christianity today. In some parts (this is not a universal statement) the Church is in crisis. The Church may not know it, but it is. Each year the population of “Snoozers” (Christians that are asleep to the harvest and the “signs of the times”) grows. In fact, two out of every ten people in the world are “Snoozers”[4]. Furthermore, of the money that is given to Christian ministries only 1/20 of that is allocated to reaching those who have never heard the Good News of Jesus[5]. To me, this seems like parts of the House of God is in ruins. Jesus made clear that He came for the “sick” and not just the healthy. It would seem that the Church, if focused no more than internally (only on itself) would be a modernized mirror image of the House of the Lord that was demoted to a low priority in the time of Haggai.

Of course, the Church today does not meet the presence of the Lord in an earthly building. Additionally, we are in a new Covenant. These are just two major elements that separate the modern Church to the Jews of ancient Israel. Therefore, these words of the prophet cannot be applied verbatim to the contemporary Church. We must be aware of these gaps while studying, interpreting and applying, in this case, words of an Old Testament prophet.

Personally, I feel that I can relate somewhat to the situation of the Jews. My church, the church we love, is closing this Easter. It feels like locally the “house of the Lord is in ruins”. Yet, this time it is not because of neglect. I was offered hope in many passages of Haggai as I felt that I really could relate. “You have planted much but harvested little…. Take courage and work, for I am with you, says the LORD Almighty. My Spirit remains among you, just as I promised … So do not be afraid… I will fill this place with glory… From this day onward I will bless you”.[6] These words all through the book of Haggai brought comfort, peace and strength to me today. Although I know the situations are different the Lord and His character remain the same. He still desires to see His House glorious through His Son.

1 Bruce Wilkinson & Kenneth Boa. Talk Thru the Bible. Pg. 283
2 Haggai 1:3-4 NLT
3 Carol Smith. The Everyday Guide to the Bible. Pg. 170
4 Hal & Lisa Boehm (instructors: World Missions Class, Victory Bible Institute, Tulsa, Ok)
5 Hal & Lisa Boehm (instructors: World Missions Class, Victory Bible Institute, Tulsa, Ok)
6 Haggai 1:6, 2:4-5, 2:7, 2:19

How amazing is this?…

Mary Rumsey was baptized in the Holy Spirit in 1907 at the Azusa Street revival. She felt called to Japan and Korea. She did not land in Korea until 1928. (So she kept her dream alive for 21 years). She planted eight churches before she was forced to leave the country.

The Assemblies of God then took leadership of these churches and started a Bible school in Seoul. One of the first students to enroll was Paul Yonggi Cho. His church today now has (at least) 730,000 members.

Wow. What a legacy.

If we want to get really technical and look back further…Azusa St. started with William Seymour who heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit after Charles Parham preached this to a small group of Bible school students. Among them was Agnes Ozman, a young woman, who recieved the baptism of the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues January 1, 1901. She was the first pentecostal of the 20th century. A young lady responded to the Word of God….