JOY JOY JOY

As children, we learn in Sunday School the true meaning of joy using the letters to the word.

J-Jesus first

O-Others second

Y- Yourself last

Then, as we grow older and experience "life" we gradually and ever-so-slightly begin to be mesmerized into the message that society all around us is subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) speaking to us... look out for #1!

He came to earth to example to us how we are to live our lives. We don't always want to hear it though... because He said we must first be a servant. Matthew 20:27 "And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.

Now... His example: "But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." (Phil 2:7)

By definition a servant is one who expresses submission, recognizance, or debt to another, or a person in the service of another. We always think we have to be so strong, so "together". If we are truly servants, then we also recognize that we all need each other... the ground is level! No big "I's" and litte "you's"!

Sometimes accepting help from someone can be so much harder than giving it. And why? I think it's pride! I saw this in our lives a few months ago during hurricane season. We had been without power all week and were staying with family and making the hour drive back for church. In Sunday School class that Sunday they had asked who was still without power or needed something, etc. After class, there was a sweet couple that wanted to bring us a generator and window a/c unit so we could come back home and the kids could start school the next day. We kept declining their offer but they called us that afternoon and were insistent that we let them do this. When I got off the phone with them, I told Bryan... we are denying them a blessing. They came and it was such a blessing, but how prideful of us NOT to accept the blessing God was sending out way! We are a body fitly joined together. To ever think we don't need or shouldn't accept help from our family of God is so prideful of us!

Time...

Time, time, time... there never seems to be enough of it! The best time management tool we can have is to give Him the firstfruits of every day. He multiplies everything we give Him... good measure, pressed down, shaken together... we need to let Him multiply our time as well.

If we will be about His business, He will take care of everything that concerns us. I feel I've been saying this a lot lately, but He keeps stirring it up in me... maybe I'm not "getting it" like I should. We need His direction for each day. EVERY day must be covered in prayer! I've noticed that when my "to do list" is so overwhelming and it doesn't seem like I can possibly tackle it all, He miraculously blesses my efforts when I first seek Him for my day.

Psalm 37:5 from The Message: "Open up before God, keep nothing back; he'll do whatever needs to be done: He'll validate your life in the clear light of day and stamp you with approval at high noon."

Life will always bring pressure. It will build until it explodes unless we bring it to Him every day and let it boil over and pour out onto the altar. Offer it up to Him. He's the only one who can relieve the pressure that builds around and in us.

Howz our "Faith-o-meter"?

Matthew 9:29 "Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you."

According to your faith... hmmm... this makes me think that we sometimes "tie" the hands of God when we don't trust and believe. We are all given a "measure of faith" according to Romans 12:13. "...God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." It's up to us what we do with that "measure". I want to increase mine!

Matthew 21:21-22 in the Amplified says "And Jesus answered them, Truly I say to you, if you have faith (a firm relying trust) and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, Be taken up and cast into the sea, it will be done. And whatever you ask for in prayer, having faith and [really] believing, you will receive."

If we know there's nothing too hard for Him, why do we even give a moment of thought to the question, "will He"? He is our Father and longs to supply all our needs and care for every aspect of our lives. I pray I can forever grasp this and allow Him to work on my behalf!

Preserved

Psalm 145: 18-20 (Amp) "The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him sincerely and in truth. He will fulfill the desires of those who reverently and worshipfully fear Him; He also will hear their cry and will save them. The Lord preserves all those who love Him, but all the wicked will He destroy."

I was thinking about how we preserve food to keep it fresh and give it better "shelf life" so that it's still available when we're ready to use it. God preserves those who love Him... He needs us to be ready at all times to fulfill the purpose for which He's called us. It's not the same for every person. We all have different talents, abilities and callings. We must not be discouraged during our "shelf life"...those times when we feel we aren't really serving a purpose in His Kingdom. Just stay ready and willing...He WILL reveal His purpose in our lives!

Titus 3:1 (Amp) "REMIND PEOPLE to be submissive to [their] magistrates and authorities, to be obedient, to be prepared and willing to do any upright and honorable work." And I love how The Message interprets this verse: "Remind the people to respect the government and be law-abiding, always ready to lend a helping hand. No insults, no fights. God's people should be bighearted and courteous."

Afterthought... another definition for preserve is "to maintain and reserve for private use"... how cool is that?! It's comforting to know that He will maintain all things in our lives and actually set aside a specific, private use for each one of us! We should never question our strengths and weaknesses... they all have a designed purpose if we will let Him use them for the purpose He has intended!

Some of our favorite people in the WHOLE WORLD!

Monday nights are proclaimed "Family Night" at POA and these are some of our "other family" that we get to hang out with on most Monday nights... some of the greatest people you will ever meet!

Favor--Part II

Just feeling highly favored today... this morning I was reading back a few pages (or shall we call them chapters...) of my prayer journal. I love to look back at what God has done. This year I really have become an advocate of journaling... we have to remind ourselves of all He has done in us, around us, through us, on our behalf...

This is one of those "whispers" I heard a couple of months ago...
"My favor is unmerited. You don't earn it... just walk in it. Fear, self doubt, and condemnation have no part in my place of favor. I ordain it. I order the steps. I open the doors. Just trust me. Go boldly through every open door. Speak My words. I place those in your path that need the words I give you."

Psalm 30:5 "For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

Psalm 81:10 "...open thy mouth wide and I will fill it."

2 Samuel 22:20 "He brought me forth also into a large place: he delivered me because he delighteth in me."

This was the 2nd time this verse has stood out to me... I don't know the full meaning of it, but to me it speaks of a place of favor... "a large place". That's how I'm receiving it anyway! I want to walk in your favor, Lord!

Our Little Samuel

We had the most incredible Christmas Concert last night! If you weren't there, you just have to get the dvd... that's all I can say! At the end we sang "He loves us, Oh how He loves us..." such an incredible, moving song! They had cardboard testimonies during the song... again I say... incredible! We've been listening to the cd over the past few weeks in preparation for the concert and Cam (who is 7) has just really been drawn to this song. He asked me the other day if I would write all the words down for him. He loves the guitar and is alway trying to pick out songs... he's actually succeeded at some! Last night he was sitting with my parents during the concert and when they got to that song they told me that tears were just streaming down his face. He said, "how do they do that? That song make tears shoot out of my eyes!" What an incredible move of God!

I wasn't going to blog about this, but I was reading from my prayer journal from the end of last week (since I haven't been blogging...sorry!). Friday I had felt led to I Samuel 3:10 which tells the story of when God called Samuel. He kept going back to Eli because he thought it was him calling. After this happened several times, Eli instructed him to answer, "speak, Lord for thy servant heareth". Thank God for the Eli's in our lives that helps us learn to hear the voice of God! The reason I named this entry "Our Little Samuel" is because this is Cam's favorite story. I hope that has spiritual significance. He has always gone to a private Christian school, and he has more than once gotten out his Bible and told me he wanted to read the story of how God called Samuel. He knows right where it is!

Now on to what I had planned to blog about: "Favor"

1 Samuel 2:26 says "And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the LORD, and also with men. "

In prayer Friday I felt so strongly these words: "When favor with man is not your aim and your goal, I will bring it. Only seek favor with me... I will take care of the rest. I speak continually. It's you who aren't listening. As you die to self, you'll hear me in things great and in things that seem very small to you but are necessary in comfirming my Word."

Ouch! Normally I wouldn't share something so personal, but I get emails so often from you who are anonymously following this blog and who knows? Maybe you're meant to hear these words too. :) I want to walk in His favor and be pliable to his will! What a process... Lord, help me!

God of the Closed Doors

He is definitely the God of the closed doors... we only want to see Him as God of the open door. In prayer I was reminded about a time early in our marriage right after Tanner was born. We were very young and very poor. We paid our tithes first and the rest just worked out. Young love! I was still on maternity leave and at the end of my paid portion. I'll never forget that morning when Bryan came right back after leaving for work. He is the most honest, hard-working man I know and prides himself on always doing the right thing. That's why this was so hard to take. He had been fired for not properly reprimanding an employee for waiving late charges. The owners didn't feel he had been harsh enough. It was so bizarre and unwarranted. He had been such a great manager... had articles written about him in the local paper... numerous awards... and yet, here he was... coming home wrongfully fired.

Here's the rest of the story... God allowed it! He wanted to show us that He is our source and not any job. He had such a better job for Bryan that would start him on the path to the career that he now has. He knew that we were new parents and needed him to be home in the evenings, on weekends and holidays (which wasn't the case at the other job). He would have never just gone out and searched for this job if he was still in his comfort zone. When he walked into the new job God had orchestrated, they said, "Where have you been? We've been interviewing for months and haven't found one candidate! You are the perfect person for this job!".

We mustn't be afraid of our circumstances and must always recognize that God is in control of it all... even the bad things could be that part of the tapestry that is necessary for the beauty of the bigger picture of our lives! Sometimes in the midst of what seems to be our darkest hour, He is working out the details of the biggest miracle that will blow our minds! I could write BOOKS about all the doors that continued to open after that day. Proverbs 3 became a banner around our hearts... especially verses 5-6 "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." He didn't say we had to be super spiritual or overflowing with knowledge and wisdom (or even half-way understand what He's up to), but just "acknowledge" him in all our ways and he orders the steps!

Seasons...

Ecclesiastes 3:1 "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven..."

We're in the process of a lot of changes at POA and it's made me think about all the seasons in our lives. Change is necessary if we are to grow and become all God has planned for us. When we don't recognize Him changing the seasons in our lives, we become stagnant. There's no growth... which can allow seeds of bitterness, fault-finding, discouragement... we must always be ready to flow with the changes He brings into our lives. They are for our better good... to develop us and give us growth.

Just like the brook dried up for Elijah when God sent him to the widow in I Kings 17. The word from God was... " I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee." It was time to move on to a new level of trust (for him and for the widow woman--but that's a whole other story!).

2 Corinthians 5:10:(Amplified) "For we must all appear and be revealed as we are before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive [his pay] according to what he has done in the body, whether good or evil [considering what his purpose and motive have been, and what he has achieved, been busy with, and given himself and his attention to accomplishing].

My prayer is that I will ever be Kingdom minded--busy with and giving my attention to accomplishing His work... things that are eternal!

Our Words

We had an incredible weekend... busy, as usual. My boys have still been a little sick so with that comes a lot of grouchiness, bickering and "mean words". I guess that was somewhere in my subconscious when praying this morning... I wasn't seeking out this verse, but in a round-about way, ended up here...

James 3:10 "Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing..."

Oh... the power of our words! We can stir up a lot of stuff with them... determine how our day will actually be. This is an incredible chapter. Verse 6 talks about how the tongue is a fire...a world of wickedness set among our members--being itself ignited by hell--yikes! Verse 8 talks about how the human tongue can be tamed by no man. ... a restless evil full of deadly poison. Then, verse 9... "with it we bless the Lord & Father and with it we curse men who were made in God's likeness..." I need to remind my boys of that... when we are lashing out at that person who is under our skin... that person was made in the image of God...wow! That should shut our mouths!

The rest of the chapter goes on to say that where there's jealousy/envy & rivalry & selfish ambition, there'll be confusion--unrest, disharmony, rebellion... Lord, help us not to have selfish ambitions--no envy of other's gifts, talents, blessings! Because, yes, the enemy can have us be selfish over spiritual things as much as carnal things! He has given us all different talents, giftings, duties... no single one can disqualify or have more significance than another. We must, as a body, all work in harmony as one unit.

I can speak blessings or curses over every person that I come in contact with in a given day. Lord, let the words of my mouth & the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight! (Psalm 91:14)

Abiding

God's been dealing with me lately about "abiding" in Him. John 15:4 "Abide in me and I in you..."

In definition, abide is to dwell, reside, remain, continue, stay... I want to do all those things.

The Message says it this way: "Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me."

Then John tell us in I John 2:6 "He that abideth in him ought himself also to walk, even as he walked".

OK...not too much pressure! We are to walk as the "One" who knew no sin! I'm so thankful that He knows we are flesh and need His grace every moment as we are striving to do what He's asked of us. Lord, I want to find my dwelling in You, rest in You, have my identity from You, continue in this journey with You, and simply "stay" with You... no matter what life brings my way, let me "stay".

Did He really mean early?

I don't claim to be a morning person. As a matter of fact, Bryan & I have this understood deal that we don't really talk the first 10 to 15 minutes of the morning... we may pass by and pat each other on the back... or maybe a grunt... you get the picture! I said all that to say... it was not in my nature to decide to seek the Lord early. A couple of years ago He started dealing with me about this, so I started making the sacrifice. It has been very rewarding (and has gotten easier). There's something to be said about that quiet time before everyone else is awake.

Proverbs 8:17 "I love them that love me and those that seek me early shall find me".

It seems that His presence is so rich and sweet when I come to Him before my day gets crowded with my never ending "to do" list. I want to always give Him the "firstfruits" of my day. It's so much easier to hear Him before the busyness and hustle and bustle of the day begins.

Sweet Surrender

It's been a crazy and wonderful past few days... I love the holidays... LOVE Thanksgiving... had a wonderful time with our families... lots of them! Now it's time to get back to my schedule. I kind of missed the rhythmn of life that we all get used to... back to blogging! Since I'm not having any real "bloggy thoughts" today, I thought I'd share from my prayer journal this past summer. It's always neat to look back at things God has done and spoken when you were in different circumstances. This journal entry was just before God did some really miraculous things in our lives...

Quoting from my journal...
"There was such an unbelievable lingering presence of God in prayer today--this is what I received from Him today: I speak to those with no hidden agenda--those who don't want credit. My way is the way of the lowly. I made myself of "no reputation". Will you work for me for nothing? No glory, no credit, no monetary gain? The spiritual ear must be trained to hear my voice to the point that you won't question it but flow in it freely. It's no mistake that you are in this trial right now that you can't control. You are getting to the place I ordained--a place where you recognize that only I have the answer you need. I long for your complete dependance on me then I can bless and trust you with all I have for you. I so long to dialogue with my people like I did with Job but my people are so crowded in their lives that they can't be silent before me to listen."

Maybe one of you blog readers needed to read this today. I know that shortly after this entry I feel like we stepped into the overflow of God's favor. I'm believing that for "whosoever will"!