cool contest!

Quick! They're having a Dyson vacuum giveaway over at 5 Minutes for Mom! Go enter! It's a 500 dollar vac!

grace.

The Lord has been showing me a lot about grace lately. It is so much more than anything I ever thought.

The more I learn about the grace of God, the less I know, and the bigger the mystery.

The more challenges I overcome, the more feeble I sense myself to be.

The more I am favored, the smaller I feel.

I say that because the grace of God is so grand a thing, I feel as if I could drown in it sometimes. Drown isn't the proper word, I know, but for lack of a better one at the moment, it is the one I will use.

I don't mean drown in a negative sense; on the contrary, if grace were an ocean, I would want to go under and stay under for good. I would want to be swept under by the strongest current, and plunged into the deepest depths. Unfortunately, I've experienced almost drowning in the natural sense, and being taken under is probably the most frightening thing I have experienced in my life. Sensing the grace of God in my life is akin to that same experience, just without the terror.

Facing different trials at times has been frightening, but I have been overwhelmed by the Lord's willingness to bail me out on a dime. And in those times when he has not bailed me out, seeing what he chose to do instead is just as overwhelming. These trials have been things that I don't think I could have faced a few years ago. I was too feeble-minded, and by that I mean too dependent on my own wits and wisdom, of which I had very little. It really is true that a man's ways seem right to him, but in the end they lead to death. I was at death's door spiritually, and had no clue. I loved the Lord, but I was completely bound by religion and all of my ways (doctrines) that seemed right to me.

When most of those doctrines began to be proven wrong one by one, I felt completely lost. It was then that I began to experience grace and what it truly means. However, even with all of my sacred cows being totally skewered and my entire picture of the Lord being erased and re-painted, I wasn't quite prepared for the sight of grace in action that I witnessed last Sunday.

In the midst of incredible miracles being wrought through his hands, Pastor Edouard in the Congo experienced the kind of loss that no parent ever wishes to experience. His three month-old son, John Wesley, fell ill suddenly with pneumonia and died. He had faith to raise John Wesley from the dead, as did the four men from our church who were there with him, and fought valiantly just for the opportunity to pray for his baby after he had been taken to the morgue. After overcoming several obstacles to get to him, in the end, John Wesley was not raised.

Pastor Edouard faced intense persecution from his own wife and family, but that did not discourage him. Even after putting his son in the ground, the same faith that he used to open blind eyes, cast out demons, and heal countless afflicted people was not the least bit weakened. He continued to worship the Lord with all of his might, and went right back out that same evening to preach the Gospel in the villages. He even prayed for our four men before they left to come home, with the same joy and peaceful countenance that he had when they arrived a week before. Now that's grace.

The cool thing is, that is the same grace that the Lord wants to pour out on all of us, all of the time.

Hearing the testimony of what happened in the Congo and seeing Pastor Edouard's videotaped greeting for our church changed all of us who were there. It was truly powerful. Our associate pastor, Ryan, has posted it in several parts on his blog. I posted the link to the first part the other day. You can go here to read the rest. (The picture on Ryan's blog is a photo of him and Pastor Edouard.)

no einstein.

I guess I would have been smarter if I had been breastfed as a child...

nostalgia tuesday.

Ooh my gosh, I almost forgot!

Here are three songs from yesteryear, the year 1993 to be exact. Do you know these?

• "I Will Always Love You," Whitney Houston
• "Whoomp! (There It Is)," Tag Team
• "Can't Help Falling in Love," UB40
  

messed up.

I am forever messed up.

After Sunday, that is.

Our church had a group of four travel to the Congo on a small mission trip of sorts, and they arrived home last Tuesday. On Sunday, they gave the full testimony of the trip. You can read some of the story here, and I would encourage you to do so. It was a hard, amazing, gut-wrenching, inspiring story. I'm still trying to process it all, and am kind of at a loss for words. Maybe in a few more days I can fully express how I feel about what we saw and heard. All I know is, I got a brand new lesson on what true worship is. It is truly a sacrifice, and it is a beautiful fragrance to the Lord.

More on all of this later.

found.

Here's another good one. I love photography, spend way too much time on Flickr, and wish I had more time to spend taking pictures. I love looking at blogs with beautiful photos in them. This one is not exactly that, but it is dedicated to photography and gives tips on doing really cool things with your photos. It's called Photojojo. Check it out.

photojojo

found.

Okay, this one is just plain cute. I smile gleefully every time I visit this blog, due to all of the warm and fuzzy feelings it provides. Plus, I love fashion, and Fifi looks great in EVERYTHING. She's definitely up on all of the trends. Go pay her a visit.

fifi

nostalgia tuesday.

It's the return of Nostalgia Tuesday!

Since I'm getting back into the swing of things and posting regularly, it's time to take you back to yesteryear again with some good (or not good, if you hated it) music. The last Nostalgia Tuesday post had songs from the 70s, so I think I'll jog your memory tonight with songs from the 80s (yay!) All three are from 1983, a vintage year in music. Visit the music service of your choice, do a search, and be transported:

• "Every Breath You Take," The Police
• "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," Eurythmics
• "She Blinded Me With Science," Thomas Dolby
  

off the chain.

That's the word I would use to describe the day at church today. We had an awesome Spanish service in the afternoon. We've been having them for five weeks now, and being able to share the Kingdom with people in this way is amazing. We've been able to teach them the Word of God and speak into their lives, and it's been awesome.

The Spanish service was just the cherry on top of a huge Sunday sundae. We had a guest speaker in the morning. His name is Julius Oyet, and he is a pastor from Uganda. He was visiting our church before leaving the country to return home. In Uganda he has seen countless miracles in his churches. The title of his message to us today was: "10 Secrets for Miracles." Great title, isn't it? I've decided to transcribe all of my notes out of my trusty little Moleskine onto this post. Keep in mind, most of this is verbatim.

A miracle is a supernatural intervention in the ordinary course of nature; a temporary suspension of the accustomed orders through the Spirit of God.

1. Natural miracles: occurences that marvel our understanding but they do not temporarily alter the course of nature (flowers, sunrise with color rays, childbirth)
2. Healing miracles: repairment of a damaged part of the body
3. Supernatural miracles: This is done as the result of the gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:10). In this the law of nature is temporarily suspended as the supernatural intervention takes place.

10 Secrets for Miracles

1. Bless the Lord. Psalm 103:1-6
2. Remember His benefits. Psalm 103:2-6. Forgiveness, Healing, Provisions, Salvation, Families
3. Believe it is God's will for you to receive a miracle. Matthew 8:2, Matthew 7:7-8, Numbers 23:19
4. Name your desired miracle. Mark 10:51-52, Matthew 18:18-19
   
5. Turn away from doubters. 2 Timothy 3:5
6. Ask for your miracle in faith. Matthew 7:7-8. Make a demand on the ability of God. Reach for your miracle. Do not waver. James 1:6-7 (He gave examples of people in the Bible who did this, such as Jacob and blind Bartimaus.)
   
7. Make an effort to catch your miracle. 2 Kings 4:21-30. Don't just sit there; do something!
8. Talk power talk daily. Mark 9:23. (Basically don't defeat yourself and your faith by speaking negatively.)
9. Turn your faith loose. Acts 14:8-10, Luke 17:13-14
10. Never never never quit! Miracles are for those who persist on the promise of God. Mark 7:25-30, 2 Kings 4:30

He gave a lot of other juicy nuggets, such as:

• As long as you don't embarass sin (confess it out loud), it will be your master.
• Grace doesn't consider or measure. It is not fair.
• When you turn to God in faith, He comes to you in power. When faith is your diet, miracles become your lifestyle.

For each of the ten steps, he had several testimonies and pictures of miracles that have taken place in his church. It was quite the faith-encourager. There's no way that I could write all of that stuff down too, so for those from my church that were not able to make it, get the CDs!

don't get shipwrecked: part two.

Here are more notes from that "Things that people do to shipwreck their faith" sermon.

1. Choose, by default, the easy way. Acts 14:22. It takes a lot of difficulty or trouble to get to where you're going sometimes, but it's totally worth it. The Kingdom of God is worth the price. Romans 6:16. The easy way is not necessarily the God way. The easier way is to just DIE [to your will]. Relinquish all control to God.
2. Announce their intentions. Foolish people announce their intentions or plans. Wise people ask counsel. Fools keep their own counsel. Proverbs 12:15, Proverbs 20:18
3. Don't confront their problems. 1 Samuel 17:24. Most shipwreck begins as a trial, problem, or conflict that goes unsolved or unresolved. What you don't confront will dominate you.

Again, well said Ryan.

don't get shipwrecked: part one.

Several weeks ago, the Associate Pastor at my church taught a good lesson on things that shipwreck one's faith. When our faith gets shipwrecked, our destiny can be aborted. We can be stuck in a place of inaction for years and not even realize it. I've been going over the notes of what he said quite often. We get lots of good lessons at church. The wonderful thing is each message points us toward Jesus (so many sermons today don't actually do that) and motivate us to seek first his kingdom and righteousness. I'm amazed at how easy that has become, probably because I don't do some of these shipwrecking things anymore...

1. Blameshift. Just as Adam did with Eve in the Garden of Eden. Many of us are afraid of failure. We can also be ashamed of failure. What we, ironically, often FAIL to realize or remember is that failure in life is inevitable. Not everyone rides smoothly on the bike the first time out, or displays impeccable penmanship at the first attempt at cursive. There is nothing wrong with failure; it is what compels us to KEEP TRYING. As long as we don't QUIT, we can succeed. Failure is a great teacher; it is an opportunity to repent and embrace responsibility. All authority comes from embracing responsibility. Authority never comes from side-stepping responsibility.
2. Shoot the messenger. Who hasn't done this, and often? God corrects his people in a myriad of ways, and one of the ways he brings correction is through people. We tend, however, to miss the opportunity to embrace the truth and grow because we don't like the package the truth was wrapped in. We don't like someone's "tone," we think they have a lot of "nerve" because of where we think they are in their walk, or we simply don't like them. None of that has to do with the message itself. Instead of accepting the truth of what is said to us, we throw it out, and shoot the messenger. A sign of maturity is when we can embrace the truth, no matter what the package is from which it comes.
3. Live every day on an open-door policy. Many Christians live in such a way that their lives and destinies are dictated by circumstances. That is a dangerous, highly unwise way to live. Being led by the Spirit is essential to stay in the will of God and have peace. Being led by the Spirit is NOT being led by circumstances, feelings, or situations.

Well said, Ryan.

I'll post more on this tomorrow.

"Between the promise and the Promised Land is a desert that is the exact opposite of what the Lord has called you to."--R. Joyner

found.

Now that I am returning to a regular blogging routine, it's time to continue adding to the blogroll. New on the found list is DesignSponge.

You may not have noticed (yet), but I love beautiful things. I'm into design, interiors, making one's home look super-dope (although mine has got a LONG way to go), letterpress (I am a slight paper-addict), colorful housewares, and just anything in general that helps to make the simple life fabulous. This blog contributes to all of the aforementioned things, and it's worth a look-see. Lurk away!

Design*Sponge

ch-ch-ch-changes.

It's been a month since I've posted here. It's been quite a month. We've gone through a few personal trials and changes, not the least of which is my husband being laid off last week. The good news is, he had a new job the next day, and started yesterday. The not-so-great news is we have to go the next three weeks without any income. Fun fun fun!

I have no doubt that the Lord will provide everything we need. He always has. It's just scary sometimes going through it.

There should be more consistency to my posts here now that we've come through this difficult month. My goal is to get back to posting twice a week, then eventually every day if I can. Hope all is well out there in the blogosphere.