I Will Also Dance

I am so thankful to be part of Bonnie Gray's launch team for her beautiful - inside and out - new book, Whispers of Rest. It just released yesterday!

I've been reading it for close to four weeks* and it's been like I imagine cups of water feel when handed to marathon runners. This devotional has been poetic, practical, and peaceful relief and refreshment on a daily basis during a time when I have desperately needed it.

Jesus has met me through these pages.

In recent days, God has used Bonnie's words to remind me my hope is in Him. Not doctors or teenagers or myself or anyone else. My hope is in Christ and the Holy Spirit IN me and IN God's people. But even so, clinging to my God of Hope lately has felt like a tug-of-war with desperation and anxiety trying mighty hard to defeat me.

Monday this week I tried to count everything as JOY. Ten years ago I wrote a song called "Count It All Joy", and I dug it out so I could remember the words. What amazed me wasn't the song, but ALL of the songs. I found song after song after song after song I had written 3-10 years ago.

Where had my song gone?

I opened this Monday afternoon. Even the chocolate was preaching at me!

I was so sad to see how grief and stress and other problems in recent years had stolen my joy.

I woke up in the middle of the night and cried a bit. Then I woke up yesterday morning and read these words in Whispers of Rest:

God whispered to me that it was time to PLAY. A couple of pages later, I read this:

"Dare to be renewed. Dare to play. Today. ... Make time to play. Be child-like. Laugh, waste some time, SING, dance, try something new. Renew your spirit with joy."

I cried again, but this time touched by the tenderness of the Holy Spirit. I downloaded a song I'd heard on the radio and made it my anthem for the day. I danced and sang in the morning. I exploded marshmallows in the microwave with the kids in the afternoon. I even took pictures of the dishes when I noticed the colors were all matching each other (and the tile and Bonnie's book!) last night.

Ok, so I did have to add some red and purple and black and brown eventually. But the blues and whites and silvers made me smile. :) 

As I wake up today, the worries are threatening to steal my joy again. I'm choosing this time, however, to remember the things I'm worried about may be real and hard and confusing, but they are not the end of the story or the whole story. There is more to life than the difficulties and a good way to deflate my anxiety is to focus my attention on something else. To count my blessings and remember the Blesser.

I will still grieve when I need to grieve and work when I need to work. This marathon is far from over and I have to keep running this race. So, run I will.

But I will also dance.

(You've GOT to hear this song. Dance with me?)

In His Joy,

Melissa

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 *In order to participate in the Whispers of Rest Launch Team and write a review of the book (which I'll do in full once I've finished it in a few weeks), I was given an advance copy of the book. (Yippee!) Whispers of Rest is a 40 day devotional detox designed to help the reader hear God's voice and enter into His rest. It's now available everywhere books are sold! Check out Bonnie's website for more info and free downloads, and join us June 5 for a 6 week online book club. 

Five Minute Friday on Saturday: Roots

Welcome to my Saturday version of 5 Minute Friday, hosted by the lovely lisajobaker, where people from all over the universe come together to write for 5 minutes on a topic with as little editing as the writers can manage. (In other words, I used the delete button a few times today...)  Here's my 5 minutes on...

ROOTS

Last night I watched A Bug's Life with my kids. I was struck by the little metaphor Flik tells Dot about pretending the rock is a seed which is like her growing up. That she has to be patient because she's still just a seed.

It struck me because after being in Peru for coming up on 11 months now I feel like I should be bearing fruit already. I feel like there isn't enough to show for my being here and wonder what others think. (God showed me the other day that the reason I'm worried about what others think is because it reflects on what I think. Hmmm. Yep.)  So God used a silly little movie about mean grasshoppers and 4 legged ants to remind me (again) to be patient. This season hasn't been one for bearing fruit. It's been one for PLANTING ROOTS. For learning just plain how to live in this country and how to feel at home here. And I feel like I must be nearning the end of the "rooting" season because I have an ache starting - no, growing - to do more.

And I trust that as I continue to trust Him and I remain rooted in Him, eventually there will be fruit.

Making Up My Mind

God and I had an interesting conversation yesterday.  After a FULL week of trying to get settled into our new temporary home, into a new school for the kids, a new job, a new daycare, new roles at home, new weather, a new church, a new city, new country, new friends, a new language (eh?), I was still feeling wiped out.  OK.  So maybe the language isn't completely new, but lots of other stuff has changed dramatically for our family in the last weeks and the transition into life here hasn't gone as smoothly as I dreamed it would.  The kids have done super.  We can tell that Timothy is a bit irritated with all the changes and is testing all the boundaries to see if they're still there, but even he has done remarkably well with his new "school".  His teacher is super sweet and (praise God!) his little daycare class is right across the hall from Toby's class!!! How cool is that?  : )  Mikaela and Toby are enjoying their new school and having tons of fun with the two kids from Paraguay whose parents are in training with us.  Our house is beautiful, our program is going to be rigorous but is off to a great start and the people we're in training with are quickly becoming good friends.

So what was the problem?  Well, that would be me.  I was exhausted when we got here - physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually...  and I haven't felt so unsettled and discombobulated in -- well, ever!  And all week I've been struggling to stay positive and not get discouraged.  I knew I needed to give myself time, but instead of it getting better as the week went on, it was getting worse.  A few things came up this week that left me thinking "I didn't sign up for this!"  And the struggle I was having adjusting left me afraid of how I will do when the adjustment is even more dramatic.  I just plain got scared - but mostly felt sort of depressed.

In His never ending grace, God called me on it yesterday.  I spent some much needed time in His Word and ended up reading Lamentations 3-5 and Revelation 15.  Lamentations is pretty full of... lamenting while Rev. 15 has an amazing section of worship sung by victorious saints with harps.  While I noticed a major contrast between the two passages, I didn't feel very moved while I was reading (though I do want one of those harps someday!), but afterward felt God pretty clearly telling me I needed to make up my mind.

"Do you want to be here or not?"

(Long pause.......)

I knew my answer was going to be "Yes" but I wasn't ready until a few hours later to admit it.  I knew I had to really think through it and choose what I wanted because I had the distinct feeling that if I wanted to go home, He would let me.  And I didn't want to decide what I wanted based on how it would impact all of you or our church back home or our youth group...  this time it was just about deciding for myself what I wanted.

"And if you do want to be here, do you want to spend the next 3 1/2 months lamenting or worshiping???"

Well, that was an easier question to answer.  But later as I prayed with a friend from home (on the phone) I realized one of the reasons I was struggling with the first question was my fear about what "being here" means.    I'm not just saying "yes" to being here.  I'm saying "yes" to going somewhere further away and far more foreign than this little city.  And I needed to make up my mind again that I still want THAT.

So, I did.  : )  And somewhere in between God asking the question and my finally answering it a few hours later, the fog lifted and the sun came out in my heart and my head.  I'm done with the lamenting and am feeling at peace and more at home than ever... at least for now.  I'm also so grateful for the lesson God taught me because I KNOW that I'm going to have to keep making up my mind every time I discover new challenges.  Every time I think "I didn't sign up for this!" God will likely say again...  "No, you didn't.  So what do you want now?  Make up your mind."

And sometimes, knowing what I want will make all the difference.

"And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and over the number of his name.  They held harps given them by God and sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb:  'Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty.  Just and true are your ways, King of the ages.  Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name?  For you alone are holy.  ALL NATIONS will come and worship before you...'"  -Revelation 15:2-4

Waking Up...

Yeah, so it's been a while since I've posted anything here! It's funny. When I first started blogging I was quite obsessed with what I was going to write about and would think about it ALL THE TIME. I wanted to have a blog that all sorts of people read (roll your eyes with me, please) and I watched my sitemeter stats to see what the average number of hits per day was and tried to write every other day (so people would keep coming back!) and well, it became a bit much! I recall hearing a DJ (do they still call them that?) on the radio say she used to have a blog and I wondered how someone could ever stop once they'd started? Well, I guess now I know! : ) No, I'm not stopping, but I'm sure not thinking about it all the time like I used to! Probably because right now I'm busy thinking about so many other things. But there's another reason my blog has been so quiet lately. I haven't known what to say! I've been going through a season lately that has been a bit hard to describe or explain or understand. I like it when I know what I'm struggling with and can explain it. I love it when I know what God is teaching me and doing in me and I can share it with others. But through most of the last few months, I have known God was doing a lot of work on me but I couldn't even put my finger exactly on what it was. I would have fleeting glimpses of Him but then they'd be gone. Once I had the feeling I was in a spiritual operating room and God was doing surgery on me - which explained why I couldn't see or feel or hear much (I was under anesthesia I guess) as well as why God wasn't talking much. (I don't think surgeons are normally real chatty when they're working.) But I KNEW He was as work doing something deep inside of me. I've felt like I was pushing through some thick darkness - not scary or depressing (Praise God!) just tedious and confusing. I've known that this was one of those journeys that would be easier to explain or understand once I was through it and could look back and say "OH! That's where I was! That's what we just got through!" This song from Sanctus Real explains pretty well what I've been feeling. Chaos and peace, not knowing what God's doing, but knowing still that He's definitely doing something! At other times I've had thoughts about spiritual "seasons" and how this year has brought me through them all. Amazing new fruit (spring and summer), glorious opportunities (fall), and then a time of pulling back and working hard on the roots preparing for future harvests (winter). (That would be now.) But I think my winter is almost over. I've started feeling more and more like I'm wrestling out of a cocoon or trying to wake up from a long nap - not fully asleep or fully awake yet. This week I found Ephesians 5 (as if for the first time) where it talks about living a children of light and the light making things visible and it reminded me of what I was praying about (and wrote about here) about Creation and the light and when I read Ephesians 5:14 it was as if God was whispering in my ear "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you!" Yesterday I listened over and over to a fairly new song by Matt Maher called "Alive Again". (You can watch/listen to Matt explain the story behind the song HERE or you can listen to the song HERE.) It expresses so well what I'm feeling... or what I'm starting to feel... waking up, coming alive again... the light on the horizon when the sun's about to rise... I can hardly wait. And you KNOW that I'm going to be back here to tell you all about it when I finally get the words... because I'm pretty sure Spring is on its way! : ) ~Melissa

God is Still Good

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all...” Psalm 34:18-19 Sigh... This has been a heart-breaking week. I won't explain it all because it isn't my story to tell, but some dear friends of mine have had one of the hardest weeks imaginable - literally... I have been honored enough to sit with them through some of it and as I have prayed for them and cried for them, these words have echoed through my thoughts: "God is still God and God is still good." No matter what happens or how things appear, that Truth will never, ever change. The other night, I wrote the words to a song - for my friends and anyone else who might need it - for me when I need it. I hope they encourage you wherever and whenever you might need it, too.

God is Still Good God says He never changes His promises are Truth Even while the storm still rages And we’re searching for proof As faithful as the sun is to rise And the seasons are to change When all other hope is gone This eternal hope remains God is still God And God is still good When all you see is darkness Though your heart’s been torn in two You will find the strength to believe Walk by faith and not by sight In the middle of the winter And in the darkest night Hold on to what you know with all of your might God is still God And God is still good Even when you don’t understand His ways, His “hows”, His “whys” You can count on His love Don’t you dare listen to the lies God is faithful and He’s loving God’s Word is always true God is able, God is holy God is always, always with you He will hold you, He will help you He will quiet you with His love He will carry you, He will heal you His grace is more than enough God is still God And God is still good The sun is going to rise (and Joy comes in the morning!) And Spring will come anew God will give you strength to believe To walk by faith and not by sight His strong arms will hold you All through the darkest night Hold on to what you know with all of your might God is still God And God is still good You can trust Him because He loves you You can rest in His strength God is still God And God is still good

Written by M. E. 5.1.09

A Tree, A Curtain & A Stone

Once upon a time, a couple thousand years ago, a seed was planted… surely by the very hands of God. The Father, Son and Spirit must have formed this seed carefully, intently watching it fall to the ground, to be covered with earth and die so that it could live and grow. For this would be no ordinary tree. It would grow straight and strong and someday be cut down… to be raised up again so that the Son of Man could die upon it for you and me. It must have been a holy moment when the seed first opened beneath the ground, beginning to reach for the sun and the sky… And to this day it still points to the Son. I wonder. Did Jesus know? Did he ever walk by that tree and know it was the one? Was it already growing the night the angels appeared to the shepherds singing “Glory to God in the highest!”? Did it grow like a silent keeper of the time that was passing, of the time that was coming when Jesus would fulfill the prophecies and shed His blood so that we could be forgiven and one with the Father? For long before the seed was planted, a curtain was hung in the temple. Woven under the watchful eye of God by skilled hands, it stood as a symbol of the separation between God and man. Sacrifices were offered. Blood was shed. The merciful Father forgave, but knew that one day, the curtain would be torn! Not by human hands bent on destruction or even the passing of time, but by the mighty hands of God as Jesus cried “It is finished!” God reached down from heaven and tore the curtain in two from top to bottom! How He must have longed for that day to come! How all of heaven and hell must have been awestruck at the death of Christ giving way to this! The removal of the separation between God and man! The price was paid for all! Hallelujah!!! But those who loved Him didn’t understand. They didn’t know. And they came searching. Grieving. Mourning. They didn’t know that when the foundations of the world were laid, a stone was formed... a stone that would seal the tomb of its Creator, only to be rolled away on the 3rd day! The beloved women and astonished disciples came and saw that huge stone, rolled away to reveal the empty tomb and the fulfilled promise that Jesus would rise again. And they believed! The stone was rolled away. The curtain was torn. The tree had served its purpose. It was finished. And Jesus was alive!

The Matthew 27: 50-54

"And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, 'Surely he was the Son of God!' "

I Think I'm Back (& I Have a Disease)

Well, I think I'm back... But I'm not making any promises! : ) What I DO know is that I miss blogging and am feeling ready to start talking to you all again! (Even though I'm still not really sure who some of you are... Feel free to delurk anytime!) I do expect there will be some changes around here, though. For one thing, I don't expect to be talking so much about adoption quite so often. While I'm still a HUGE FAN of adoption and how our family has been blessed by being allowed to adopt Timothy, at this point it's not the huge focus of my life that it was a few months ago. As of tomorrow, Timothy will have been home for 2 months (wow!) and in many ways it feels like so much longer. He belongs with us as much as any of the rest of us do. I'm sure I'll still be talking about adoption some, because I definitely do still think about it, BUT I'm hoping that I will be thinking about a lot of other things, too. Especially about God and Truth and the Truths I'm learning from God. For example... Yesterday I determined & declared that I HAVE A DISEASE. I'm still attempting to diagnose it, but I know that the symptoms are: selfishness, self-pity, grumbling & complaining, woe-is-me-ing, whining (OH, the WHINING that goes on in my head!), sighing, depression, blah, blah & blah. Your basic ungratefulness, I suppose. I've tried praising God and counting and thanking Him for all the uncountable blessings in my life. But it doesn't really fix how I'm feeling when I'm feeling bad. It often actually makes me feel worse, because on top of the selfishness, self-pity, etc. (see list above!) I then add GUILT & CONDEMNATION for feeling that way when there are SO many people in the world and even in my neighborhood with REAL problems and not just laundry piles and hungry children and sticky kitchen floors. There are so many people who are really suffering in the world. I AM NOT ONE OF THEM. I HAVE NO EXCUSE. SO. Yesterday, I discovered it was 3 weeks before Thanksgiving and I asked God to PLEASE HELP ME learn how to be thankful and show me what in the world is going on in my heart that is causing me to be so ungrateful. And He has already been showing me that it's even worse than I thought. It's like a cancer that has been effecting decisions I make and how I feel even about having to make decisions (wah!). And you know what? Surprisingly, I am already feeling more thankful and praising God because I've been in places like this before. Often, when I get to a place where I'm feeling the grossness of something in my heart that I hadn't really noticed before, it means 2 things: 1. God is exposing it because, 2. God wants to deal with it and free me from it! Hallelujah! So if you decide to come back and visit me again, hopefully you'll hear more (among other things) about what I'm learning about being thankful. Actually, I'm sure you will. Because God very strongly desires that I be thankful and I know that since I'm asking and it's something He agrees with, HE WILL DO IT. And I'm gonna thank Him when He does!!! See ya again soon. (It's nice to be back.) : ) Y, Melissa

Getting Over Myself (Step One)

As I was doing the dishes the other night God told me to try posting some music online. (Are you sure God???) Well, a few weeks ago I wrote a song that I titled "Yours" and in part of the song it says that "the song I sing" is God's... so when He told me to post it somehow, I think He was in a way testing to see if I meant that. Was it really His? Would I do whatever He said with it? It so happens that I had already played around with recording the song, so all I had to do was figure out how/where to upload it and post it. I still have some kinks to work out, but I did it... and if you click on the title of the song down there, it will take you somewhere where you can play my song! (And no, I'm not singing, playing guitar, singing harmony and shaking a shaker-egg all at the same time... the computer program lets you/me record different "tracks". It's sort of like time-travelling or the movie Groundhog Day. But different.) To be honest with myself, God and you... I'll tell you that this is scary and I'm very tempted to tell you everything I hear wrong with the recording (my playing, singing, etc.) and would fix if I wanted to take the time. I have major issues with comparing myself to other musicians and caring about the fact that I'm not as good or entertaining or whatever. And God is telling me loudly and clearly to GET OVER MYSELF! This is NOT about me. It never has been and never will be. I have always known that all the glory belongs to God and I don't want to draw attention to myself, so I go to great lengths to avoid that. But in doing so, I also sometimes avoid opportunities to use the gifts God has given me. I get scared and end up chickening out for a variety of wrong reasons. So I find it very appropriate that the first song God is challenging me to put out there for anybody to listen to is about everything being His. It's His to give me, to take away, to use, to share, to encourage with, to challenge with. I have to stop comparing my gifts with other people's gifts and I have to remember it's all His. I'm all His. And you are too... And every single moment of our lives is meant to bring Him glory as we offer up and lay down our hearts to Him. Lord, it's all Yours. YOURS (CLICK HERE! and then click "play") This moment is Yours... let it bring You glory Before it is gone (this moment is Yours) let it bring You praise This moment is Yours... I offer it to You I will trust You and thank You in this moment This day is Yours... let it bring You honor Before the sun sets (this day is Yours) let it bring You fame This day is Yours... I lay it down before You I will serve You and thank You for this day My days and nights My past and my future The ground beneath my feet Everything I can see is Yours The air I breathe This heart that beats The song I sing Everything I am is Yours I am Yours... let me bring You glory I am Yours (with all I am) let me bring You praise I am Yours... I owe You my life I will love You, thankful that I am Yours and You are mine I love You I’m Yours Written by M. E. 5.27.08 Y, Melissa

Believing God loves me with Unfailing, Limitless, All-sufficient, All-Forgiving, Transforming Love

(This is what I shared at our Women's Retreat a couple weeks ago. You'll just have to imagine the hand-gestures and dramatic pauses.) Maybe next weekend or sometime I'll get the song I ended with on here too. Yes... It's very long!!! Don't feel bad if you don't want to read it all. : )

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If I were to ask you what you know about God's love, I bet you all could tell me a lot. If you were looking in the book of Psalms, you might quote Ps. 57:10 "for great is Your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness to the skies." Or Psalm 36:7 "How priceless is your unfailing love." Or Psalm 32:10 "the Lord's unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him." Or maybe Psalm 136 where it repeats 26 times "His love endures forever! But what I really want to ask you right now is do you really believe it? Are you experiencing God's love to be unfailing and enduring and priceless? John 8:31 says "To the Jews who had BELIEVED HIM, Jesus said, 'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'" The truth will set you free—if you know it, and hold onto it and believe it! Just like a key is of no use if you don't use it, truth is of no use if you don't believe it and act on it! Will you join me in praying? Lord, we agree with the Psalmist who wrote Psalm 63 and we say "O God, you are our God! Earnestly we seek you. Our souls thirst for you, our bodies long for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water. We have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because Your love is better than life, our lips will glorify You. We will praise You as long as we live, and in Your name we will lift up our hands. Our souls WILL BE SATISFIED as with the richest of foods; with singing lips our mouths will praise You." Reveal your love to us today! We also recognize this is a battle, Lord. And in Jesus powerful name, we say that the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish – even right now – arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God – against the knowledge of God's love – and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. We say satan, you have no power or authority in this place to keep anyone here blinded to the truth and command now that everyone here be released to believe, know and experience the love God has for them. In Jesus Name, amen! Life here on earth, walking with God, is a journey (or a series of journeys at least!) And in taking any kind of trip, it's really helpful to have a map! A map, however, isn't very helpful if you don't know where you want to go. And once you know where you want to go, you still need to know where you are to start with. Once you have those two points figured out, you can determine how to get from where you are to where you want to be. The problem for most of us is we aren't very good navigators. We often aren't sure where we're going or where we are and even if we know those 2 things, we often have no clue how to get where we want to be. Do any of you have one of those fancy cars w/a GPS system or onstar? I am so grateful that on this journey we are on, we aren't travelling alone. God is actually the one showing us on the map where He wants to take us and He can tell us exactly where we are AND He will even lead us and walk with us as we head toward where He wants us to go. So where do we want to be? Where does God want us to be? What would it look like if we really believed God loves us as much as He does? Loving someone can be nice… but knowing the one you love loves you back is a totally different thing! Think of someone you had a crush on when you were younger (maybe even a movie star or singer) and how it would have made you feel and behave if you knew that he loved you, too. I worked at McDonald's in high school and would occasionally get flirtatious boys coming through the drive-through. I was actually pretty shy about boys (I hardly dated at all) but once got a note from a guy (who was in college no less!) through the drive through saying I had pretty eyes or a pretty smile or something like that. I don't even remember exactly what it said, but I remember how it made me feel! That same year I did actually for brief period of time have a boyfriend, but I realized not long into the relationship that I wasn't in love with Joe. I was in love with the idea of having a boyfriend. I realize now I was in love with the idea of somebody loving me. Now, think about getting a love note from the King of the Universe, the real Prince Charming who IS coming back on a white horse to get His Bride someday. Imagine that it said He loved you with an eternal, undying love… that You are beautiful and priceless to Him… that He would do anything & has done everything to make you His. That should fill us with an incredible, profound confidence and peace! It should give us strength and patience and kindness and humility and joy knowing we are always protected, filled with hope. It should set us free to love other people! Sisters, WE WERE CREATED FOR LOVE. Knowing and experiencing that very real, powerful, transforming love that God does have for us is where God longs for us to be. And if we're honest with ourselves, it's where we long to be too. (Turn in your Bibles to….) Ephesians 3:16-19 says this: "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." If we look at this passage a little bit at a time, we'll see it all starts with Christ dwelling in our hearts through faith – which we receive as God (out of his glorious riches) strengthens us with power. We cannot come to Christ in our own power. But once we receive Him, we are then rooted and established in LOVE. And the Word says no one can pluck us out of His hand! Once we are established, we are established! But next, we need more of His power to help us really understand and grasp how wide and long and high and deep his love is… and then to KNOW it: to believe and EXPERIENCE it and LIVE it, so that then we can be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God! So where are we now? Let's take a look for just a minute at where we end up when we "know God loves us" but we don't really believe it. We get confused. We worry. We get anxious and afraid and feel guilty and ashamed. We compare ourselves to others and we beat ourselves up for not being good enough or trying hard enough. We end up tired and disappointed and feel like we're a disappointment to everyone else, too. We try to love others, but it's hard! We try to break free from our sin, but can't seem to figure out the right combination on the lock. We get discouraged and not sure that things can or will ever change. Am I the only one who has ever felt this way? Why does this happen? (Holy Spirit, I ask You to show us right now the truth about why it's sometimes so hard for us to receive Your love. And no power of darkness can keep the truth from being known in Jesus' Name!) The problem is SIN. But you need to understand something very, very important. Before we surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives, our sin separates us from God. If you have never given your heart to Jesus, you are still separated from Him. But once we have accepted God's gift of forgiveness, offered to us through the blood of Jesus, OUR SIN CANNOT SEPARATE US FROM GOD ANYMORE. And even when our sin separated us from God, HE STILL LOVED US. Romans 5:8 says "But God demonstrated his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 8:38 says "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Nothing can separate us from His love. But sin is still a problem because it can keep us from experiencing the love of God. It can keep us from accepting His love. When we have done something wrong or failed even though we've tried so hard to do everything right, we feel guilt and shame and like we aren't worthy of God's love… so we refuse it. Other times we are hurt by others when their sin affects us and we end up wounded and angry and we refuse love because we don't want it. Love hurts too much and we aren't interested, thank you! We end up wearing masks that make it look like we're fine and we're trying really hard OR that we don't really care what God or anybody else thinks anyway, while underneath the mask we're hurting. What's the problem with not experiencing love? WE NEED IT. We need love when we are born and we never outgrow the need to be loved by God and by others. (God created another person for Adam because it wasn't good for Adam to be alone. We were not created to love God and be loved by God alone.) We were created for LOVE – to receive it and to give it. We were created to breathe love in and breathe it back out freely and effortlessly… to love God with all our hearts and souls and minds and to love our neighbors and ourselves. So what do we do? According to the authors of this book (called Truefaced that I truly wish every one of you could read b/c it is amazing) Love is the process of meeting needs. God promises to supply all of our needs and even before Adam and Eve sinned, they needed God to meet their needs. We are all created with needs and as God supplies those needs, we feel loved. We experience love. Some of the needs that God's love supplies for us are: Attention – met through God's servant love (John 13:5-20) Salvation – met through God's sacrificial love (John 3:16) Forgiveness & Acceptance – met through God's unearned love (Romans 5:5-8) Comfort – met through God's committed love (Zephaniah 3:17) Security – met through God's faithful love (Lamentations 3:32-33) Guidance – met through God's loving discipline (Hebrews 12:6) Truth – met through God's instructional love (Psalm 33:4-5) Protection – met through God's jealous love (Exodus 34:14-15, Hosea 11:1-2) Significance – met through God's affirming love (1 Timothy 1:12) Identity – met through God's adoptive love (I John 3:1) The list could go on about the ways God's love meets our needs. (And if we aren't getting these needs met by God, how can we?) The authors make these points. 1. If we can't identify our needs, we cannot know love. I wasn't so sure about this at first… thinking a baby can't identify their needs… did this mean they couldn't know love? That wouldn't make sense. Then I recalled babies DO know what they need and they try very vocally to communicate those needs to us… we just often don't know what they need! But when we figure it out, if we are able to meet the need, they feel love and that's how bonding happens. So similarly, we need to know what we need or we won't know love. 2. If we deny we have needs, we won't experience love. If we say we don't have any needs and don't let God or anyone else meet them, we won't know love. 3. If we withhold our needs, we can't receive the love others have for us. God wants to meet our needs, and often through His children, but if we won't let Him or others love us—if we hide behind the walls we have built to protect our hearts—we won't know love. (Share example of previous night when I needed food (especially b/c I had been sick)… I asked and the need was met. If I had withheld my need, who knows what would have happened.) 4. If we don't know love, our wounds won't heal. I Peter 4:8 says to love each other deeply because love covers a multitude of sins. The Greek word for "covers" means more than concealing or hiding something. The word is related to the Greek word for "steal." Love steals away and removes the effect of sin in our lives! So, how do we move from knowing about God's love but not fully accepting and trusting in it to grasping the vastness of it and experiencing it and being filled to overflowing with it? 1. Let God show us what we need. 2. Realize that having these needs met is experiencing love. 3. Admit that we desire to be loved. 4. Ask God to teach us how to receive love and how to love others – not out of guilt or obligation, but out of love and obedience. As much as I didn't want it to be true, the more I studied about love, the more I discovered that love and obedience cannot be separated. They are intertwined in the Bible (John 15, I John 4) making it clear that if we love God, we will obey Him and we will love others. As I asked God to help me understand it, I believe He showed me it is because loving others completes the process of loving – just like exhaling completes the process of breathing. We will naturally obey God if we trust Him and believe He loves us. And the more we let God love us, the more we will obey and it will be much, much easier to love others. But we have to let God love us first. 1 John 4:19 says "We love because He first loved us!" Finally, how do we take the next step on our journey into God's love? God doesn't want us to "know" He loves us. He wants us to receive and experience and LIVE in His love. He wants us to be rooted and established in love – and from there He will show us what we need. He wants us to have power to grasp how long and high and deep and wide His love is – and know that His love will supply all of our needs. He wants us to KNOW this love that surpasses knowledge – as we admit we desire to be loved and accept the love He has for us. So we can be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God – when we will experience His love transforming us and freely overflowing to everyone around us. In a minute, I'm going to play a song, but first I want to read the words to you. It's called "I Need You to Love Me." Why? Why are you still here with me? Didn't You see what I've done? In my shame I want to run and hide myself But it's here I see the truth I don't deserve You But I need You to love me And I, I won't keep my heart from You this time And I'll stop this pretending that I can Somehow deserve what I already have I need You to love me I, I have wasted so much time Pushing You away from me I just never saw how You could cherish me 'Cause You're a God who has all things And still You want me! But I need You to love me And I, I won't keep my heart from You this time And I'll stop this pretending that I can Somehow deserve what I already have Your love makes me forget what I have been Your love makes me see who I really am I need You to love me I want to give you the opportunity right now to tell God that you need to and want to experience more of His love. Ask Him to heal your wounds of shame and set you free from the bondage of trying to deserve His love. We will never be able to earn or deserve His love. Yet He freely offers it to us anyway! If you have been pushing Him away because you think you aren't good enough yet for His love, He wants you to stop! And even if you already are experiencing lots of God's love, then you know that He always has more. God's love is like an ocean and He is longing to share it with you. He might want to take some of you to snorkel in the coral reefs, or sailing on the open sea, or surfing in Hawaii or scuba diving in the ocean depths. Or He might be waiting to take you to some safe and peaceful and secluded island where you can just REST. I don't know where His love will take you – but I do know you have to be willing to TRUST HIM and get into the boat. I am just like everyone else on the planet. I need God's love to keep healing me in the places of my heart where I'm still hurting. I am really just learning how to accept God's love. So as I play this song, I want to invite you to join me up here where I'm going to be on my knees before my Father telling Him I need His love. And I know what He does when His children ask for what He longs to give them. He answers. So if you want to join me, this is just a time for you and God. Nobody is going to ask you any questions or attack you up here. But after we're done, if you want to pray with or talk to any of us up here, we would love to do that as well.

Unending Love, Amazing Grace

OK. I'm having more trouble than ever writing this post. I just asked the Lord WHY and He said it's because I'm trying to describe something more profound and vast than the Grand Canyon… on a blog… in one post. (Well, one post for starters anyway!) Ah. No wonder. So I'm going to simplify by sharing some things I've read lately that have spoken to my heart.

"I will love God because he first loved me. I will obey God because I love God. But if I cannot accept God's love, I cannot love Him in return, and I cannot obey Him. Self-discipline will never make us feel righteous or clean; accepting God's love will. The ability to accept God's unconditional grace and ferocious love is all the fuel we need to obey Him in return." (from Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller, p. 86)

(Would you do me a favor and read that again?)

"You may be surprised to learn that this gift of love is not about 'learning to love more' or 'learning to love better.' In God's world, receiving love comes before giving love." (from TrueFaced, p. 84.)

You might remember I talked a while back about leading worship for a Celebrate Recovery group our church was going to be starting. It has started and I am going through the study like everyone else because God has a lot He wants to teach me through it. What we're talking about there ties in amazingly with the other stuff I'm reading. We're talking about being powerless to solve our problems on our own and how we have to rely on God's power and grace to transform us. When I was going through the last week's study, I read Romans 3:21-24. I have heard verse 23 hundreds of times ("For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.) and it has always felt sort of… depressing. BUT! In the context of the verses before and after it, in light of what God's teaching me about relying on His grace to change me instead of my efforts, it seems profoundly different than when it's alone. Look at this:

"But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, AND ARE JUSTIFIED FREELY BY HIS GRACE through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ."

So here's what it boils down to for me. For as long as I can remember I have wanted to do what was right and to love and obey God... to be righteous. But I have been reluctant to really accept God's love and to believe I am really all He says I am, because I've never been good enough. But God says that my efforts will never be enough (I was right!) BUT that I am justified freely by God's grace! According to John 15, loving God and obeying Him are inseparable… but we love because He first loved us. I will never be able to love Him until I let Him love me. Until I accept His truth and forgiveness and grace. And you know what else I've discovered? Self-control—that pesky discipline thing we're all chasing—is a FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT that grows in me as I REMAIN IN HIS LOVE. God's love for me. Why Jesus died for me. No wonder Paul prayed this:

"I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:17b-19

"The ability to accept God's unconditional grace and ferocious love is all the fuel we need to obey Him in return." Amazing.

Y, Melissa

With Much Love

Well, I'm not sure exactly how to start this post. Especially after what I wrote last time... : ) But here's the deal. I've decided I'm going to take a break from blogging (and blog-reading) until at least the end of the year. (I even just deleted ALL of the blogs in my favorites file--that's how serious I am about this! If I left them there, I would be way too easily tempted!) I have too many things to do in the next weeks to spend a lot of time online and as I thought about this yesterday, I was surprised at how relieved I felt. There are quite a few reasons for this decision and contrary to my usual manner of doing things, I'm not going to try to explain them all here. (Well, I actually did try, but it didn't make any sense, so I'm not going to try anymore!) If you are somebody I see, feel free to ask me about it. I'd love to chat with you in real life. : ) As for the rest of you, you can still leave comments... they'll still get to me and I'll write you back if you leave me an email address. You can all feel free to come back in January and see if I've started blogging again. I honestly don't know if I will or not. It could be this was just a season and has served its purpose and needs to die now. Or maybe it just needs to be dormant a while so it can come back to life again in the future, maybe even in a whole new form. God knows and I trust Him to get me where He wants me... even when I don't know He's moving me at all. : ) I'm ending this year in Blogland with the words to my newest song. I just want them to be at the top because they express where I am with God right now. I'm learning to trust Him and remembering how much He loves me. And I love Him too. : ) I hope and pray your Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year are more special and meaningful than ever. I also pray for each of you that God will show you more and more and more and that you will believe and know more and more just how incredibly much He loves you. And to join with Paul in Ephesians 3:17b-21, "I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." With Much Love, Melissa

I love Sundays!

This started out to be a really long post, but I'm cutting some stuff out and will add it in another post tomorrow. What I mostly wanted to tell you was... Church this morning was a joy! Before the service started, I was talking to a great guy who (with his wife) is getting ready to start/lead a Celebrate Recovery group at our church. Earlier in the morning I had felt led/free to tell him that if he would ever like me to come and do any music for them at any of their meetings, that I would love to. He broke into a laugh and said they usually start with some worship and that he and his wife had been praying for God to put it on somebody's heart to help in that area. : ) Is that sweet or what? Especially since I had been choosing to TRUST GOD to lead me to opportunities to share and sing. And even though I won't be doing it every week, I am totally excited about the opportunity to be a part of what God is going to do through this new ministry at our church. Yay! And to top it all off, I learned something new this morning! : ) What was especially cool about that (because yes, I learn stuff at church all the time) was that it was from a passage I am so very familiar with. Our associate/resident/almost-planting-his-own-church-pastor Gary was preaching about God giving us unlimited mulligans in life (unlike what you get in golf!) He talked about Peter denying Christ and read the passage where Christ restored Peter. (Where Jesus asks Peter 3 times "Do you love me?") You know what I noticed for the first time ever? That Jesus didn't just restore Peter to a right relationship with Him. He restored him to MINISTRY. Perhaps because of what God has taught me this year, that seems huge to me. When Peter responded to Jesus' questions saying "Yes, I love you" and "You know I love you!" Jesus said, "Feed my lambs" and "Take care of my sheep." He was telling Peter that he wasn't only forgiven, HE WAS STILL THE ROCK ON WHOM CHRIST'S CHURCH WOULD BE BUILT. God still chose to trust Peter with the enormous task of leading The Church. And the result? Peter wasn't just restored, he was transformed. If that's not miraculous, amazing mercy and forgiveness and grace, I don't know what is. How could I not love & follow & sing about that Jesus?????

Reckless Trust

There has been lots going on in my heart lately, but much of it has been really hard to put into words, which is why you haven't heard about most of it!  : )  I have mentioned a few times about how God is teaching me how to trust Him more completely.  One of the things He has shown me in the last few weeks is just how much I worry!  I honestly had no idea how much I worried--normally not about the big stuff, but about the little things like keeping my house clean, which ministries to pursue at church, how my kids are doing and what I'm going to make for dinner and whether or not Lowell will like it and that my van is a mess...  whatever it is, I can probably figure out a way to worry about it.

 

I always used to think I was just "thinking" too much.  And I always wanted God to tell me exactly what to do, because I knew He knew what was best and I desperately wanted Him to lead me.  I didn't have a problem with surrendering to Him, but I realize now I did have a problem trusting that He would lead me.  I'm learning, though, that trusting Him means not worrying or thinking too much and trusting He will lead me (in His way and in His timing) even when I don't realize I'm being led.  It's like walking with Him through a huge flat desert with no landmarks to be seen in any direction and no road or signs and just walking with Him even when He doesn't say where to go…  trusting that He is leading me even when I am not even aware of it.

 

What's funny is that it feels sort of reckless and irresponsible to not figure everything out (=worry) and just to trust Him, but there is already fruit coming from it and it is so good!  I'm already feeling relieved from a lot of stress and am so thankful God is teaching me this now because I know I'm going to have much to trust Him with in the future...   (But I'm not going to worry about that just now.)  : )

 

Thanks for letting me share some of this journey with you.  : )

 

Blessings to you!

~Melissa

 

"Balance"

Well, you'll see at the bottom of this a reference to a Women of Faith copyright and all of their rights being reserved.  I don't really know exactly what that means, but I'm hoping it means that as long as I acknowledge that's where this came from and I don't make any money off it, that they won't mind me sharing it here.  My good friend Paula emailed this to me tonight and I loved it, so I thought I'd share it with you all hoping it will encourage you like it encouraged me.  I believe it is written by Anita Renfroe, who I just discovered, tours with Women of Faith (they do big women's conferences, in case you aren't familiar with them) and she is the same Anita Renfroe who has become a huge youtube star because of her mom version of William Tell's overture which, is you haven't seen yet, you have to see!!!

 

Blessings! 

 

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Hello, Girlfriends!

 We're home off the road for a few days and I am once again faced with scaling the heights of the mounds of dirty clothes we have all unceremoniously dumped from our suitcases. After all the sorting and pre-treating we crank up the washer and dryer and wonder why our "large capacity" machines can't handle "more" of "Mount Washmore". I have been tempted to cram it full (I know, I know: the clothes don't get as clean when you overload…) until I hear that familiar "ka-thunk, ka-thunk, ka-THUNK," alerting me that something is out of balance and, if I don't go take care of it (pronto!), my washing machine may walk its unbalanced self into the next county.

 I understand my washer because I feel unbalanced a lot of the time. This is not something that's easy for me to admit because I have spent a goodly portion of my adult life chasing this lofty and elusive concept called "balance". I have read books about it. I've listened to Bible studies about it. I have heard lots of talks at women's events concerning it. I have GIVEN talks at women's events outlining the "seven steps to achieving it". I even know a couple of women who seem to have mastered it.

 But here's the absolute truth about it:
 I'm giving up on it.

 Really.

 In fact, I'm not so sure that it was ever that great of a spiritual pursuit to begin with. There seems to be a lot of Scriptures you could interpret to be in support of it, but nothing that says, "Verily, verily, be ye balanced, sayeth the Lord." What we do find in God's word is a lot of Scripture concerning the subject of seasons. (planting, waiting, watering, working, weeding, harvesting, letting the ground rest ― then
 starting the whole cycle over again). Some of those seasons require lots of  work (planting, harvesting), some of them require less physical labor and more patience (weeding, watering, waiting), and some of them require periods of no visible activity at all (letting the ground rest so that it can be ready to plant again).

 When you are in the middle of any one of those seasons it doesn't seem very "balanced." If you are in the week when you have to get the crops in or they will rot, you have to put in some strenuous days and nights because the window of opportunity is so small. If you took a snapshot of people feverishly working during that week, one might correctly say, "Well, that's not balanced at all!" Or if you look at a farmer resting by the fire in the dead of January you might think, "No balance there!" But it's a season.

 Not all seasons carry the same work load or rest opportunities. They do all have their unique rhythms and it is up to us to recognize the beauty of each season and to know that it will, over the course of a lifetime, add up to something akin to "balance" – although we are unlikely to find it in a single day, or even a single week or month.

 So I am praying for you, as I pray for my own self, the ability to recognize your season you are in and to stop beating yourself up because you can't quite get to the place of perfect balance every day. As the writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us, "To everything there is a season and a purpose for everything under Heaven."

 Enjoying this season in my life,

 Anita

 Copyright 2007 Women of Faith. All Rights Reserved.
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Take My Life and Let It Be

Take my life and let it be

Consecrated, Lord, to Thee

Take my moments and my days

Let them flow in ceaseless praise

Take my hands and let them move

At the impulse of Thy love

Take my feet and let them be

Swift and beautiful for Thee

Take my voice and let me sing

Always, only for my King

Take my lips and let them be

Filled with messages from Thee

Take my silver and my gold

Not a mite would I withhold

Take my intellect and use

Every power as Thou shalt choose

Take my will and make it Thine

It shall be no longer mine

Take my heart, it is Thine own

It shall be Thy royal throne

Take my love, my Lord I pour

At Thy feet its treasure store

Take myself and I will be ever, only, all for Thee

These words were written by Frances Havergal in 1874. She was 36 and had just experienced God using her in an amazing way after having recently fully surrendered her all to Christ. I read them this morning (the song is on the Passion Hymns CD) and it was as if I'd really heard them for the first time. I'm not sure what else to say but that they truly express the desire of my heart... that God would use every part of me for His glory. And I know it's out of joy and love that He wants me to serve Him and others, not out of obligation or guilt or fear or duty. And that is perhaps one of the most freeing, glorious thoughts of all.

Take me Lord, and I will be, ever, only all for Thee!

Thank You Beth!

Beth Moore and her daughter have a blog over at Living Proof Ministries and I love it. Today in particular she wrote something and I think she was talking to me. So rather than write anything today I'm just gonna send you on over to her place so maybe you can be blessed to. CLICK HERE. Cuz I'm sure I'm not the only one God was talking to. : ) Blessings to you Friends! ~Melissa

God is Good

Lowell and I came home yesterday from our Annual Marriage Immunity Booster Conference. (It's actually Hume Lake's Fall Couples Conference #1, but my name for it is so much more descriptive, don't you think?) It did rain most of Saturday afternoon, which meant we didn't get to shoot shotguns or go on the GPS Adventure (follow GPS coordinates to get to the prize) and we skipped the rainy extreme Bocce tournament b/c taking a nap was just a lot more enticing. But the most important pieces were all there... A really good speaker (I'll talk more about him in a minute), awesome worship, lots and lots of good food and meals shared with a lot of neat couples we'd never met before and time for Lowell and I to be together and learning and thinking about our marriage. It might not be a cheap weekend, but we've determined that our marriage is absolutely worth investing in and this is a great place for that to happen. Unfortunately, I don't have any great pictures to show you b/c we left our camera at home and Lowell's phone wouldn't work. Oh well. The speaker was Pete McKenzie from Southern California and he was so good. Our favorite quote from his sessions was this: "Life is difficult. But it's more difficult if you're stupid." Nice, huh??? But the thing he said that hit me the hardest was that we have to choose between the path to Pleasing God and the path to Trusting God. I wasn't sure where he was going with that at first, because I've always tried to do both. But he explained that STRIVING to PLEASE God depends on our own efforts and focuses on our failures and trying to fix our sin and do everything right. But TRUSTING God starts with humility and repentance and lets God do the work of changing us and changing those around us. It says "I'm standing with God and my sin is before me and we're working on it together" instead of "I'm working on it..." He also mentioned that to "Be Still" means to "Cease Striving" which means so much to me especially since I wrote a song back in July called "Be Still". So, I'm going to be learning for a while about how to trust God without the striving. Striving to be better and do everything right is as natural to me as breathing so it's going to be a hard habit to break, but I'm trusting God to do it because I know I can't do it on my own. And I can trust Him. God is good and life is good when I'm walking with and waiting on God. Even when it's difficult.

GREAT will be your children's peace!

What a promise! This morning I read in Isaiah 54:13 "All your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be your children's peace." It reminded me of something Keith Martens said yesterday at a seminar I attended... That the Bible alone cannot save us. (What??? It almost seems heretical, doesn't it?) He went on to talk about the Pharisees who knew the Words of God better than anyone (maybe ever) and yet they didn't recognize God in the flesh when He was standing right in front of them. Their knowledge of the Word didn't save them. It takes the Holy Spirit of God opening our eyes so that we can KNOW with experiential knowledge (not intellectual belief alone) the Truth so the Truth can set us free. The combination of the Spirit of Truth and the Word of Truth is powerful, dynamic and life-transforming! So back to the verse, I was reminded of how much my kids need to learn to be taught by the Lord--to hear His voice and to know the Word, so they can know His peace now and all the days of their lives. I know they will have struggles, much as my mother's heart wishes they didn't have to. But I know that they too can learn to find God's peace even in the struggles and that peace is the most profound peace I have experienced. Just a bit of what God's speaking to me about today... Blessings to you! ~Melissa

New Seasons

I wrote this in my journal yesterday and thought I'd share with some pictures. Have a blessed weekend!

~Melissa

8:15 am I was just sitting in the kitchen and noticed that there are tiny new leaves growing on the redbud tree where the red-humped caterpillars devoured the old leaves. (There were hundreds of them!!! So gross...)



Already new growth is pushing out, apparently determined and undaunted by what appeared so devastating.



It's encouraging to me. Even right now when I feel so blah about my spiritual life, I know that my relationship with God is secure and this is just a season. It's good to be hungry for God again. It's good to know He is changing my life again and that He knows what He's doing. "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise." Isa. 43:18-21 I know God is recreating me to be a praise-er, And I know I can praise Him in this season because I have no reason not to. He is still Who He has always been and I am who I am in Him regardless of how I feel. I will keep searching and resting in the security of knowing He will not let me go and that someday the little leaves that are starting to shoot out from the barren little branches in my heart will be bigger and more beautiful than even before. SO I WILL PRAISE HIM NO MATTER WHAT because even when I don't know what to pray, I can still praise Him.

Talk about Wild!

I just watched an incredible AMAZING video.  If you have 8 minutes and 23 seconds to watch it (and you aren't my poor sister who lives out in the country with only dial-up internet access) you can click here and watch it BUT read below first...   

 

I think this video powerfully captures what happens in some people's lives when they are suffering.  Whether they've been attacked by people or taken advantage of by the enemy, they are trapped and it seems easier to write them off as lost than to believe they can be rescued.  Yet when the sufferer truly wants God to rescue them and is willing to submit to God AND when the body of Christ is willing to surround them with love and to fight the enemy on their behalf, the enemy flees!  God, of course, is the rescuer, but WE are His body on earth and He wants us to fight on behalf of the lost and abandoned and lonely and hurt and wounded and trapped.  Knowing how to do that can be so complicated sometimes, I know, but wow.  If a herd of buffalo can be willing to fight for their calf, can't we be willing to fight for the minds, hearts and souls of those around us???  Sure, it can absolutely be possible for people to find freedom with only God and the Bible, but I believe wholeheartedly that in the vast majority of cases, GOD WANTS THE BODY OF CHRIST TO BE A PART OF THE PROCESS.

 

And just like the lions know the buffalo are stronger, demons know WE  as Believers in Jesus are stronger than they are because we are filled with the Holy Spirit of the Lord God Almighty.  (They just don't want us to know that.)

 

James 4:7  "Submit yourselves, then, to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (!)

 

1 Peter 5:8-9  "Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings."

 

Ephesians 6:10-12, 18b  "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.....  With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."

 

Stand firm brothers and sisters!  May God give us wisdom to know how to fight for those around us who need our help.

 

Blessings...

   ~Melissa