IT'S OVER

It's over!

It's over...all the boxes are unpacked, everything put in its place, pictures hung, former place clean, keys turned over to owner, scouted  the new neighbor for closest store, gas station, pizza hut and taco bell, (those last two are important).  Cooked my first meal in our new place.  If you are one who prayed for me during this move, thank you, thank you.  I think I have come a long way in adjusting to stateside living again, I mean I found the closest Taco Bell within one day?

Last move it took me three or four months to realize God had given me several of my desires.  1. To live surrounded by  mountains.   2. To live close enough to at least one of my children and grand children.  And 3. a fireplace, got that.  Depression causes a blindness that keeps one from seeing how God is not only meeting our needs but giving us some of our desires.

Something has changed for it only took me a couple days before I realized God had answered all my prayers concerning this move.  1.  This place would be cheaper then the last, $55 dollars cheaper, praise Him.  Second for a place with a washer and dryer hookup...got that.  Third, the apartment would be downstairs, got that.  Forth,  it would have a fenced in patio for the grand children to play outside , got that too.

Since my word for this year is, "perspective" God has been helping me see from a different place.  I love it that God gave me some of my hearts desires but what if He hadn't.  What if...it had cost us more, what if there was no hook up and I had to go to a laundry mat to wash clothes.  What if...they only had upstairs available.   What if...there was no patio. 


I love what Jim Elliot wrote in his diary, God I pray to you, light these idol sticks of my life, that I may burn for you. Consume my life God, for it is yours.” And then he said,  “I seek not a long life but a full life, like that of Jesus Christ.” His prayer was answered, his life was not long, he died taking the gospel to the Auka Indians.  His prayer was answered in that his life was full. 


That prayer of Elliot's makes my prayers for my desires look so weak and well, selfish.  You see, they were all about me...what I wanted, not what my Lord wanted.   But as a blogging friend pointed out, God perspective was , "my child needs these things she prayed for."   They will help me lead a more productive life for  Him.  Easy to compare and disvalue the answered prayer.   I have lived a long and full life already but I know there is more to learn about God's perspective for the rest of my  life.   

Facebook

Facebook and I have been friends for a few years.  It drew me in while we were in Papua New Guinea as a way to keep up with family and friends.  In the past I have been hacked with some awful stuff and have even thought about getting off of fb.  Then there are the times I have posted something by accident and reap misunderstanding from those I care deeply about .   I post a lot of Christian quotes that some tell me have encouraged their hearts  which makes all the hackers and misunderstanding worth it. 


Again this may not be your cup of tea in singing but it blesses my heart.  I like singing and messages to get right to the point being, God hates sin, He loves sinner, He sent His son to die for the sinners.  All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3:21-23. 


Charles Spurgeon said:  Jesus died for sinners , cannot we live for sinners?  Where is our tenderness?  Where is our love for Christ if we do not seek His honor in the salvation of sinners? Oh that the Lord would saturate us through and through with an undying zeal for souls. 


These guys have the message and aren't afraid to sing it and thousands of believers have shared this small clip to encouraged.    It's the simple gospel message in simple singing, no frills, no instrument's to cover the kids and even the mistakes in the singing.  Funny I had to listen to it about 10 times before I heard the one spot they were flat.  What my heart heard was someone singing about my Lord who cares for every lost soul out here just as He did mine.  It challenged me...hope it does you to tell someone this week about Jesus before it's too late. 

             I would love to know, when did you get saved, born again , become a believer, a follower of Christ?

Frustration

You don't truly know someone until you see how they react to their bag of chips getting stuck in a vending machine.

I have been known to voice my frustration while kicking,  shaking the machine and trying to run my hand inside the machine to get my bag of chips  which tells you I really like chips and can become frustrated when a machine holds onto them. 

Frustration has been  building lately and not because my bag of chips is stuck in the machine.  It's because we have to move again, just when I was really getting settled.  After a few angry outburst  I realized I better start exercising some self control before I end up kicking someone or saying things I shouldn't.  A look at some familiar scriptures brings my frustration to a halt. 

I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me (I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self sufficient in Christ's sufficiency.   AMP

We need to learn this scriptural principle that the Holy Spirit works in us to enable us to live lives pleasing to God.  He does not do the work for us; rather, He enables us to the do the work....As I depend on Him, He enables me to live a life pleasing to Him.  Jerry Bridges.

A frustrating life is not pleasing to Him because it reeks of not trusting Him in all things.  Moving for some may not hold frustration but for me it unsettles me and through the cracks of my feeling unsettled my flesh begins to seep through and spill onto anyone who is near.  Moving is such a small thing in light of issues others are dealing with but if I compare it only drives me deeper into the flesh where condemning self lives,  then I don't deal with my own sin and repent.     God does not look at my frustration over anything and condemn me.  I love the fact in all the versions I read on Philippines 4:13 they all use the words, "all thing."  Everything we become frustrated about fits into the "all things", everything, even that bag of stuck chips. 

 

What is your bag of chips today? 



Until Then

Perception is my word this year so I thought I would pick a song that gives me a Godly perception of this world today.  Nobody knows the time God will call us home so all we can  be is available for use today.   Our perceptions of God, man, sin and the future will affect what we do today.   Just listening to the words of this song and the passion these men of God sing it with gives me courage to live for the only one who counts. 
 So until then I praise Him and use every opportunity that comes my way to life Him up. 

So until then what song motivate your heart to serve Him?

Perspective

This past year I have felt my perspective slip often into the cynical cycle which made me see mud and not stars.  Or maybe it's the other way around, I have viewed the mud of life and it made me cynical.  Either way my perspective from behind the prison bars of life has taken a hit and left me sometimes discouraged and depressed.  Our circumstance is not everything but our perspective on our circumstances is everything.   So I have been thinking of ways to change my view inside my life. 

Become more thankful...even when I don't feel thankful...find something as simple such as breathing to be thankful for.  Mix mud with a few seeds,  some sunshine and flowers will grow.

Become more others minded even when I don't want to think about others, do something kind, on purpose for  someone else.    Help them build a mud pie. 

Add more laughter to my life, either at myself  or with others  but laugh more.  Enjoy a mud fight and a dance in the rain with some friends. 

Cry more...tears  not only refresh the eyes but wash the mud from my  soul  so I   can see more clearly which will change my  perspective.

Have a treasure hunt in the mud instead of just  wallowing in it.  

From my perspective this is the cutest picture.  But for some of you a cute dog picture would work better.  Remember I said I was looking for ways to change my perspective and since I love cats this picture works for me.  What works for you? 

Jesus

Our  Christmas was filled with family, friends, gifts, food, a great sermon at church and good holiday music.  Yet I am glad the language of Christmas is over.  I said Merry Christmas a lot more then I talked about Jesus. I thought more about what to buy for others then I thought about Jesus.  I got caught up in the holiday spirit more then I was filled with His Spirit.  Truthfully I am just glad to have Christmas behind me so I can get back to worshipping Jesus. 

                           Any thoughts on your Christmas? 

Selfie

 

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Sometimes others say it much better then I ever could. Such is the case with this post written by a young courageous wise hearted women, Abbi Jean Short.                                                

                                                  The age of the selfie

"Selfie" is a pretty good description of what's on most of our minds.
Oxford Dictionaries named "selfie" the 2013 "word of the year."*
While we're taking pictures of ourselves, there are 870 million* people in the world who are hungry.
While we're buying a venti at Starbucks for $4.45,almost half the world, over three billion people*, are living on less than $2.50 a day.

While we're deciding which of the 52 churches in our community we'd like to attend, 2.9 billion people in the world have no idea that they have a Creator who has a Son.  There's some balance that's clearly a little off.

I love America, I love Americans, I love having plenty of food to eat, I love churches.
God bless developed nations.

What I do not love, however, is that while many of us Americans come up with new extra things to burn our money on to make our lives a little more comfortable, our faces a little bit less flawed, our appetites a little more satisfied, other people are drawing their last breath because they don't have food to eat, without having ever heard the name of Jesus.

What are we going to do?

The One I'm serving, Jesus is His Name, told me that the way things are right now is how He knew they'd get.
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,…-2 Timothy 3:1-3

Aren't we all a bunch of lovers of ourselves? Lord, help us.

If American young people spent as much time praying for the nations as they did taking pictures of themselves, the 2.9 billion who have not heard the Gospel would probably have already heard it.

When is the last time you spent an entire day thinking about things that really mattered?  It's possible that you have never had such a day. Let's ask Jesus to give us more days like that and less days staring at our selfish selves.  Let's put down the cameras that we're holding up in front of our faces and get down on our knees before our Holy God.

He's got some things He wants us to accomplish on the earth, and some people He wants us to love.
When we listen, He guides us. I believe He will always guide us away from "selfie

 

 Posted by abbiejean 

What say you?

Standing In The Need of Prayer

It's me, it's me oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer. 

I don't think I have ever written something  as "fresh" as this is. 

The condo we rent is up for sale as of two weeks ago.  It's been a constant stream of real estate agents with their clients passing through. 
This morning I was in the bedroom still in my bed clothes heard people coming up our steps then heard them in our hallway.   Thanks God I was able to get the door closed and start reaching for clothes.    My husband heard them too,  went to see what the noise was when the door opens and about eight  real estate agents just came walking through right past him without even ringing the door bell first.  Of course they apologized, well sort of.  Within a  hour our door bell rang and there stood another agent with her clients wanting to go through the place.  All I could think was, the bathroom is a mess.  They went on and on how cute and warm the place looked and why were we not buying it? 

I have written a lot about control since it's a major struggle for me.  A lack of control makes me depressed, grouchy and hard to get along with.  Looking at circumstances through the words, "lack of control" makes me think I need to do something to get the control back.  But if I look through the lens of "lack of trust" I realize only God can build trust in me.  It's not something I can do naturally especially in the middle of the trial. 

God's timing is always perfect for I just started reading "The Fires of Delayed Answers"  by Bob Sorge.  Two months ago I bought this book for my kindle but just got around to reading it during the Thanksgiving week.  We were flying standby to Minnesota and back to California which holds a lot of unknowns, thing I cannot control.   We just made it out of Fargo, North Dakota before the hard snow storm hit, Chicago was a mess due to the front moving in.  We sit all afternoon through about four flights trying to get back west...finally after last flight of the night left  full we  got a hotel for the night.  The next afternoon we had to fly viva Las Vegas to Los Angeles through some pretty rough turbulent, you know the kind you grip your seat mate hand real hard.   Thanks God it was my husbands hand.  I tried hard to "lean in" to Jesus waiting for rough weather to pass, it did when we landed, only to have to go back through it on the next flight west.   

It has been encouraging to read how those bible character struggled with bad attitudes, worry, anger, depression and countless other negative feelings.  I know God is going to bring me through another move, His did it twenty seven times before and His grace and mercy will do it again.  I am just having a little trouble keeping that perspective at this point.   So that's why I am standing in the need of prayer.  Not prayer that our condo won't sell or an investor  will buy and we  can continue to rent it. Not even prayer for the next place we will move to.  Not even for the money it would take to buy this place ourselves.  Well maybe that would be my second prayer.  My first would be to trust Him so much so that I am a good testimony to those around me, my husband, our son, family, friends. 

It's been a couple of hours since the last restate agent left and we just found out in Simi Valley, Fridays are open days for realtors to come by...without calling first.   Totally out of my control.  

 Will you pray for me?  And is there something I can pray for you?