Perspective

Ugandan Missionary Katie Davis

This girl is awesome. What else can I say?  See for yourself.

http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/2007/11/someone-asked-me-other-day-really-is-it.html

A Garden’s Renewal

A glorious garden, God's restoration principle in nature: Tulips only bloom after a hard winter!

Jesus says, “Judy, I will cause all your pain and wounding to melt like wax.”

He continues to speak directly into my life. “I want to confirm what you have already sensed. Out of the ruins of the flood will come a beautiful garden! It will be a resting place for you and I unlike anything we have enjoyed before. You are right to think the flood represents Satan’s plans and the River represents your body. He seeks to wreak havoc and you are torn up in your body. But I can mend you. I can restore you. I can bring forth beauty that was not there before. I have come to give you life and give it to you in abundance. LIFE – not stuff – as some would think – LIFE!” In this I knew He was saying that He would bring His purpose out of destruction.

It is like when Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery; he stated that though they had meant him harm, God had used it for good. My body represents the Body of Christ and His promises are for the whole of His Body, not just for one. His promises are for you. We know that though we may be struck down, we are not destroyed. 

Judy Bauman

The Church of Low Expectations

Today Pastor Dan Gore of Destiny’s House Church (www.destinyshouse.com), my dear friend, wrote this.  It blew me away!  What a commitment he has to the Lord.  God will show up and honor commitment like this!  Besitos, Summer

THE CHURCH OF LOW EXPECTATIONS

II CORINTHIANS 12:9-10 “SO THAT CHRIST’S POWER MAY REST UPON ME… FOR WHEN I AM WEAK, THEN I AM STRONG”
 
More and more of us have gotten a taste of heavenly encounters & supernatural things. Those defining moments are so powerful we may talk about them for the rest of our lives. How often they occur for us can depend. But when they happen, it is nothing short of life changing. And oh how we are gloriously ruined – only wets our appetite for more!!
 
But soon after we begin to ask the question: Why are they not happening more? Why are some of the greatest miracles happening outside of the USA?  Many churches are great on preaching God’s love but weak on demonstrating any deliverance or spiritual power. We can cry out for His blessing & power night & day, but the truth is: He will not place His power and glory on unrepentant, flesh/comfort-addicted, selfish, spoiled, bratty little children who only want to play church.  There is a pretense/dignity and fake-ness in needing to appear “together” in front of peers that is hindering the churches. Some of us may need to take the lead and shock the congregation/system by demonstrating undignified brokenness.  Determine to lay prostrate and get down and dirty in the mud and blood at the foot of the cross for the next few weeks and wait for instructions. 
 
WHAT IF: We are the first to put on the garment of unashamed brokenness & weakness in our church.  And if others followed suite, would not the tidal wave of His glory hit the church like never before?   What if we really engage this Holy calling by doing more hard things in order to be weak for God…that His power might rest upon us?  What if we began to embrace the spiritual disciplines of regular fasting, all-night prayer, sharing our faith with outsiders, giving up hours time blocks to seek His specific word for the here and now?  What if we exchanged our comfort for His power?  Oh, surely something good would happen!  How could He not respond to that level of hunger by pouring it on us?
 
Our American culture is very driven, busy, efficient, practical, disciplined, family & work oriented, productive and focused.  These are great strengths.  But they also hinder us from walking more in the miraculous.  Because anytime we feel a prompting to go do something difficult for God, our “flesh” tells us it is an interruption to our efficient lives.  
For example, when I want to go on a fast, my mind is arguing with the Spirit that that would be an impractical thing to do. God wants me to work hard and be effective in this down economy.  If I fast, my blood sugar will be off and I will be tired and slow around clients which I need to serve effectively.  Therefore regular fasting is impractical. Right?
 
WHAT IF: We start exercising faith to believe that God will make up in the natural what we lose by venturing out into the sacrificial/supernatural. What if we first demonstrate brokenness to those we have been trying to impress?  What if we lose in order to gain?

Low Expectations are all around us.  Have we stopped requiring anything of the saints? Have we made it too easy – promising a crown without a cross?  Where are the Peter, Paul & Mary of our day?  8-)  Thus says the Lord: You have next! You are up now. It is your turn to be miraculous; to become one of the rare ones – the Elijah generation.

Beauty from Ashes

Here’s something beautiful the Lord spoke to Judy Bauman, a godly lady here in Georgia, who emailed this out recently:

You know, Judy, a lot of new beginnings start from ruins. Fires, floods, earthquakes, even accidents can be the end of one thing, but the beginning of another. This all looks bad now, but we will work to clean it up and when you see it in the next season, you will see the growth. This is much like your pruning, child.” (Many things and even people have been pruned from my life. I have learned that once the Lord trims back a branch in our life, trying to stick it back is futile.)

And from Isaiah 63:

And He became their Savior.  In all their suffering He also suffered, and He personally rescued them.  In His love and mercy He redeemed them.  He lifted them up and carried them through all the years. 

 I needed that tonight.  I needed to know He’s been with me through the pain.  Thank You Lord for Your footprints in the sand beside me, for not forsaking me in the darkest hours but for carrying me through.

* Confessions of a [Recovering] People Pleaser *

I’ve watched many friendships die because of a competitive spirit. 

Why?

Because sometime after college, a lot of friendships changed from openness to “Show and Tell”.  The distance between us made close friends into acquaintances.  Our lives became busier, with fewer phone calls and less “face time”. 

With passing time, Facebook confirmed our suspicions: old friends are taking separate roads.  Alternate lifestyles, divergent career paths, new interests, weddings and childbirth.  Former strong believers fell off the wagon and God haters jumped on.  The reality of our friendships became clear: many were merely circumstantial, conditional. 

This rude awakening hurts.  Maybe that’s why we call the shift from school years to work life the ‘real world’.  During this shift, the reaction of many is to withdraw in isolation or shallowness.  Other people cling to dead relationships, in denial.  Still others muster up all their strength and ‘discipline’ to becoming the best they can be.  They hope in the process of proving themselves, that they will earn love.  No one I know goes through this period of time with a fully-intact heart.   

Scripture talks about this.  It says that in the last days, the love of many will grow cold.  Why?

Because of ever-increasing wickedness.

Is that what we’re experiencing?  Do people begin lashing out, shutting down, or changing from caring to competitive because our world’s becoming more wicked and self-centered? 

As we collect years, love seems to be in shorter supply.  We experience hurt with people, so we resort to competitive tactics to satisfy our hunger to be loved.  Many disguise these tactics in career pursuits, a great marriage, wonderful ‘obedient’ children, the perfect pie, impressive amounts of money, church attendance and abstaining from pleasures, looking beautiful 24/7 – all in an attempt to earn love. 

But by definition, love isn’t acquired by earning.  It isn’t had by how outstanding your performance at work is or how toned your abs are.  Ladies — it isn’t because you’re effortlessly beautiful (is anyone?) or because you don’t have cellulite (that they know of ) ;).  

Those who don’t fall into the competitive trap are in one of two categories: those who believe they can’t measure up so they stop trying to prove they can… and the few who rest in the assurance they are loved already.  Loved already?  But by who, if not someone in the world?       

Whether we step up to the plate and compete with others for love or believe we’ll never hit the mark and give up, both instances indicate our love is growing cold.  We are more concerned about earning love than giving it.  And so we go round and round.  The cycle perpetuates itself. 

But what we fail to grasp is that there isn’t a limited supply of love!  There is BOUNTIFUL love, overflowing from the rafters.  However, this love isn’t found in the world.  When we seek the world’s applause, we must compete because the world only likes winners.  And to win, someone must lose.  Actually, many someones. 

But in God’s world, love knows no limits.  Our faults only position us to receive more of His love!  We’d never fear that we’re unlovable unless we recognize that we have unlovable parts, so embracing our failure can lead us to discovering true love in God! 

The truth is, love can only come from two places: inside the world or outside it.  Our life experience looks like this: We see our failures.  We experience the world’s rejection because of them.  We then have a choice: to stay on the world’s never-ending treadmill, to withdraw in despair at never measuring up, or to seek another Source of love outside the applause of man. 

Once we stop going to the world as our source of confidence and affirmation, we can truly begin living.  Freely!  And our love will not grow cold.  It will thrive regardless — shining in an otherwise hate-filled world. 

Jesus, thank You for saving us!!  From our common enemy, from our dark and cold world, from each other, and from ourselves.  You are our only hope for love, and the only way we can love others without condition.  Thank You for what You’ve done! 

Be Here Now

This song perfectly suits the moment.  In the midst of ‘never-ending’ unemployment and other lengthy struggles, my heart’s heavy.   I need this. 

BE HERE NOW ~ Ray LaMontagne

Don’t let your mind get weary and confused
Your will be still, don’t try
Don’t let your heart get heavy child
Inside you there’s a strength that lies

Don’t let your soul get lonely child
It’s only time, it will go by
Don’t look for love in faces, places
It’s in you, that’s where you’ll find kindness

Be here now, here now
Be here now, here now

Don’t lose your faith in me
And I will try not to lose faith in you
Don’t put your trust in walls
‘Cause walls will only crush you when they fall

Be here now, here now
Be here now, here now

Life in Lights

LIGHTS

Awesome quote from a beautiful girl named Lights:

“Every time I thought about something I wanted to do, like rock-climbing or snowboarding or be in a band or start playing a certain instrument, I would just up and make myself go do it.  I wanted to learn cello once, so I rented a cello for four months and taught myself how to play it… if you do enough things, you’re going to eventually narrow it down to the things that really make you happy.”

What a fabulous approach to life.  Face your fears, go for it and keep at it.  Along the way, you’ll discover yourself and what you were created for :)