Dear Heavenly Father

1/27/18

Dear Heavenly Father

You are the creator, the one and only I AM, the beginning and the end. Thank you Father for sending your son to bring us back into your family. Thank you Jesus for being willing to give it all up and lay your rights down so that we, in all our selfishness and pride, could be reunited with our father. Thank you that you don’t hold our accounts against us, that we can walk in forgiveness simply in saying yes to your gift of life,turning away from sin and  believing in your son’s sufficiency to cover our debts. Help us to walk more fully in your truth , Holy spirit help us to see the lies we have believed, where we have made agreements with the enemy and denied Our fathers words. Lord open our hearts up, the tight spaces that have difficulty in receiving your love and pouring it back out. Lord we invite you to come and overwhelm us with your presence. We surrender our fear that we are not enough and that you are not enough, and we say come and have your way. We are a broken people grafted into the body, being made whole by your blood and your spirit. We are children of God, beloved of the savior. Help us at RCC to know with a deep knowing our identity in you. Lord, stir up our desires to want more understanding of your word, your love and your desire for us to go  set others free and make disciples. Forgive us for elevating things, people and ideas, above the knowledge of you.

Teach us to be humble before you yet so intimately connected that we can see, taste and touch your goodness, carrying your aroma wherever we go.

Thank you that you declare we are your children and you are our God.

We say yes and Amen .

The Big and the little

Big things and the little,

The masses and the individual,

The busted pipes and water heater,

All who have lost and are beleaguered,

Our Father cares about it all.

He cares enough to point out hard to find treats,

Or sending a messenger with word that brings relief.

He cares about the little scrapes and dinged up parts,

And all of our beat up, lost and shattered hearts.

Jesus cares about it all.

With body broken he gives righteousness,

 And under his wings he shelters us.

He reconciles nations to himself

And for the orphan supplies comfort and help.

The Lord cares about it all.

He hates racism and  addiction,

And desires to give dreams and visions.

 Every part of  His earthly creation,

The young girl caught in an abusive situation,

The Lord God cares about it all.

He brings holy conviction

And gives our lives definition.

  The body at large

The impoverished inner city church

He cares about it all.

Psalm 91:4-13The Message (MSG)

91 ^1-13 You who sit down in the High God’s presence,
    spend the night in Shaddai’s shadow,
Say this: “God, you’re my refuge.
    I trust in you and I’m safe!”
That’s right—he rescues you from hidden traps,
    shields you from deadly hazards.
His huge outstretched arms protect you—
    under them you’re perfectly safe;
    his arms fend off all harm.
Fear nothing—not wild wolves in the night,
    not flying arrows in the day,
Not disease that prowls through the darkness,
    not disaster that erupts at high noon.
Even though others succumb all around,
    drop like flies right and left,
    no harm will even graze you.
You’ll stand untouched, watch it all from a distance,
    watch the wicked turn into corpses.
Yes, because God’s your refuge,
    the High God your very own home,
Evil can’t get close to you,
    harm can’t get through the door.
He ordered his angels
    to guard you wherever you go.
If you stumble, they’ll catch you;
    their job is to keep you from falling.
You’ll walk unharmed among lions and snakes,
    and kick young lions and serpents from the path.

His choice of housing

Housing Gods’ spirit is a big job, and so far I’d give myself a solid D+ if grades were given for taking care of his  physical temple. But the good news is I have a built in life coach, if I so choose to listen and obey. The decision making and the info I need to live well is readily  available and so is the strength to follow through. BUT will I choose, can I over ride my habits of old, change course from the well worn path of poor choices? That is the question. Somewhere in the words penned long ago by the power of the spirit is the answers and so my strategy is to dig in and allow heavenly words to have their way and God willing not have my own way.

1 Corinthians 10:13 (MSG) No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV)  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.

Isaiah 40:29 (NIV)He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20  Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,  for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Do you not know that you^[a] are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?  If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Romans 12:1-2  I appeal to you therefore, brothers,^[a] by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.^[b]  Do not be conformed to this world,^[c]but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.^[d]

To Pause

To Pause, stop

1. To cease or suspend an action temporarily.

2. To hesitate:.

3. To linger; tarry

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved

I feel like this upcoming season The Lord is impressing upon me to learn to Pause… Wait and Ask. When the hamster wheel of my brain starts turning, or worrying or just plain old getting too busy, I am to pause and seek God. Similar to some behavioral learning techniques but the emphasis is to ask after pausing. Ask the God of the universe what he thinks or has to say on a particular matter. No, not an audible ask or answer but a deep within communication from spirit to God, a seeking to know Gods heart. The place where my own thoughts or worldly thoughts surrender to the Truth, the living word, the eternal one. The challenge comes in remembering the Pause part, as rushing in without thinking tends to be my specialty. This is also my plan when it comes to my food challenges, pause and ask first for direction in finding “safe” food and  then try not  to become overwhelmed. There is something peaceful in the words to pause, linger, to tarry, leaving me hopeful that in that space comes answers.

Come Blurb with me

According to the Urban Dictionary A blurb is just a short written piece about something.

So I am inviting all to come and Blurb this year, come and write a short something or blog a longer something but come and write. Several years ago a dear friend invited me to come along on her journey to blog 365 days. It was both confining and freeing all at the same time. The permission or invitation to write and place your thoughts "out" in the inter-web is daunting yet we have all been given unique voices and so this is the gift of social media, to listen in to each other’s voices. Yes abuse of social media exists and edit ourselves we must but being willing to share, be vulnerable or exhort one another can  also  be beautiful.  Will I be consistent, probably not? Relevant? Hopefully some times.  Willing to put myself out there? Yeah. Come, to all who this is niggling at, that think oh maybe, but are too afraid…Your voice is wanted and needed. The Gauntlet has been cast...will you pick it up?

Corn Challenged

 2018, another new year and chance for change. New mercies each day to be gathered and sometimes fresh hurdles to overcome. This season brings with it a different kind of obstacle. I have discovered that not only am I glutarded (gluten issues) I am corn Challenged.  I have a corn intolerance. Easy just avoid corn right?...NOT! Much to my dismay corn is invasive and  in much of what we eat and in too many forms to even list.(although a friend did send me a list with over 200 corn derivatives!) This seems to be sort of what I prayed for..cleaning up my eating but not so sure this is how I expected it to look...Eczema and rashes around my eyes and neck, chronic headaches and fatigue.. Fun! The good news is I am pretty sure that all that is from corn so now to become a detective. Did you know that many cheeses are dusted with corn starch,  citric acid is most often derived from corn as well as baking powder? ex off most canned goods.  And even white vinegar is polluted!  

This then will be a year with slowing down and looking closer at what goes in my mouth and hopefully equally important what comes out of it. My prayer is that it will, God willingly, be a year with increasing thankfulness for what I can eat and do have rather than what I cannot.

2017 in a nutshell

2017 in a nutshell

2017 was the beginning of a new season for our family with lots of shifting numbers… First there were 6, then there were 5 and then 4, then 5 again. One of our tribe flew across country to fight injustice, then another birdy got married leaving 4 but then we had a 6 week visitor making us temporarily 5. The numbers not all that important but the people and comings and goings made meal planning this year a definite challenge. Some days there were just 2, giving us glimpses of the empty nest life but just as quickly we could end up with a household looking for their next meal.

 It was a season of adding and subtracting. We gained a permanent plus one in our daughter in law. We added a driver, lost a car in a crash and another car just died. One vehicle went with the married-off child but somehow we still came out with an extra. 

2017 was also a season of simplifying, moving out junk, taking out couches and adding some cool factor.  It was a year of increase, at least in hours worked for John. My increase came in the form of volunteering outside the home. A year filled with new ventures in meeting people and getting to know new batches of friends including drop in center ladies, prayer time ladies, porch ladies and Sunday morning ladies. 2017 was also a year of digging down deeper, growing more roots, gaining more understanding of my mountain moving God and, gaining more understanding what it means to love.