FROM: Banbury, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
ABOUT ME: Living the highs and lows of life in the adventurous pursuit of God Himself and of who I'm meant to be as the Bride of Christ.
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Wednesday, April 30, 2008,8:10 p.m.
NOT VICTIMS
I was chatting with someone this morning about the victim mentality and how so much of our culture is consumed by it. We chatted about how it affects our wholeness in Christ and our effectiveness for the Kingdom.
Even the concept that Satan wages war on us is not an actual representation of the truth. We are war, yes, but we are not defenders, we are conquerors. In fact, we are more than conquerors through Christ.
At some point we agreed that through Christ we are not victims, we are victorious. That phrase struck me - it was both catchy and completely true.
Even the concept that Satan wages war on us is not an actual representation of the truth. We are war, yes, but we are not defenders, we are conquerors. In fact, we are more than conquerors through Christ.
At some point we agreed that through Christ we are not victims, we are victorious. That phrase struck me - it was both catchy and completely true.
We are not victims.
We are victorious.
Amen.
But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through
Him who loved us. (Romans 8:37)
Monday, April 28, 2008,6:44 p.m.
THE LORD'S ANTHEM
I had a neat revelation this weekend from some song lyrics that hit me a new way. Do you ever get that? Something so familiar, and then it seems that God is literally opening our eyes to see the truth in a new way.
This weekend it was from Chris Tomlin's "Holy is the Lord", and the lyrics are:
Holy is the Lord indeed. The whole earth is certainly filled with His glory.
Let the fullness of the anthem of the Lord rise up.
This weekend it was from Chris Tomlin's "Holy is the Lord", and the lyrics are:
It's rising up all around. It's the anthem of the Lord's renown.
I have always thought of these words in terms of our own voices being lifted up in an anthem that would fill the earth with the Lord's praise and declaration of His renown. The song also sets to music the scripture from Isaiah 6 that says, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!"
The whole earth being filled with God's glory is something cool to think of - His presence, our anthem declaring His glory - the earth should and will be filled! But all of a sudden a new thought occurred to me. The earth is FULL of God's glory, and not just His presence or the fact that we shout or sing of His fame, but actually all the things that he does, too. The things He does for us in our lives also declare the renown of the Lord, and they speak not with words but just facts. Our salvation, everything He has created, the promises and gifts He gives us, the prayers He answers not with words but with practical actions - these things are all an anthem of the Lord's renown.
I wonder if this is something like what Jesus meant when He told the Pharisees that if His followers quieted their own praise, the rocks themselves would cry out. They would not in words, surely, but certainly their very existence screams of the renown of the Lord and His creative powers. My life screams of the Lord's renown and His healing and generosity. Our very physical existence even screams of the Lord's renown and His mercy, grace and love.
Holy is the Lord indeed. The whole earth is certainly filled with His glory.
Let the fullness of the anthem of the Lord rise up.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008,6:43 p.m.
INCUBATION
Do you ever have one of those moments where someone says something pretty normal but it seems to be God speaking directly to you?
I had one today. Not even a month ago, a parent from the school where I work told me that she believed that, in reference to some things that God has said he's going to do in my life, the "incubation period was almost over." I processed that for a while and then left it to play itself out, as is often wise with prophetic stuff (there wasn't anything to do for this one anyway).
Then today, as one of our teachers was preaching in High School Chapel, he talked about praying for things and asking the Lord for things sometimes for decades. He was talking about the Lord's faithfulness, and then in reference to spending years seeking the Lord for something he said, "Your prayers have been incubating."
I don't know about you, but the word "incubate" in any of its forms is not a word that I ever hear. Quite literally I may not have heard it in years. It seems too much of a coincidence that it all of a sudden would be said twice within a few short weeks of each other.
When I asked God whether that was Him or whether it was simply a coincidence, He said, "Of course it's Me."
Of course.
I love the prophetic voice of the Lord, in all its beautiful forms.
I had one today. Not even a month ago, a parent from the school where I work told me that she believed that, in reference to some things that God has said he's going to do in my life, the "incubation period was almost over." I processed that for a while and then left it to play itself out, as is often wise with prophetic stuff (there wasn't anything to do for this one anyway).
Then today, as one of our teachers was preaching in High School Chapel, he talked about praying for things and asking the Lord for things sometimes for decades. He was talking about the Lord's faithfulness, and then in reference to spending years seeking the Lord for something he said, "Your prayers have been incubating."
I don't know about you, but the word "incubate" in any of its forms is not a word that I ever hear. Quite literally I may not have heard it in years. It seems too much of a coincidence that it all of a sudden would be said twice within a few short weeks of each other.
When I asked God whether that was Him or whether it was simply a coincidence, He said, "Of course it's Me."
Of course.
I love the prophetic voice of the Lord, in all its beautiful forms.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008,6:41 p.m.
INTERIA AND THE WORD
I've been fighting for time in the Word lately. Sometimes I'm fighting my own schedule and sometimes, sadly, I'm fighting my own inclination to do nothing. The scientific property of interia comes into play a lot with spiritual disciplines, I think. OK, not for real, but the concept works in my mind.
Inertia is the property of matter that says that an object will stay in its state of rest or motion unless acted upon by some outside force.
When I'm fired up about the Word, nothing can hold me back from it. I lose sleep if I read it at night, because I get so into it that my mind races and I need to read more. If I'm hooked on a certain book or study within the Word, I need to get back to it and continue reading wherever I was forced to leave off. Like the property of interia, once I'm moving, it takes something outside of me to stop me.
Unfortunately, also like interia, if I'm standing still in my time in the Word (i.e. doing almost nothing), my inclination is to remain that way. Oh, my desire is that I read more. I see the fruit of it in my life, my walk with the Lord, and my ability to lead others and teach. I want to sit down and read, but somehow absolutely anything can distract me from actually doing it.
Until I clue in and ask the Lord to help me - to revive in me again that passion for reading His Word and learning more about Him from the greatest revelation we have had of Him outside of Jesus in the flesh.
Since recently asking the Lord to help me, I've been reading and thinking about Psalm 119, which is all about delighting the law and words of the Lord. (Seems logical, eh?) Two things have really struck me so far:
When I fix my eyes on Him, my own situations, though not necessarily changing, take on a different priority and power.
When I considered meditating on His commands, I had to think about what commands I should meditate on. One scripture leaped to mind:
Love the Lord.
All in the Word. Nice.
Inertia is the property of matter that says that an object will stay in its state of rest or motion unless acted upon by some outside force.
When I'm fired up about the Word, nothing can hold me back from it. I lose sleep if I read it at night, because I get so into it that my mind races and I need to read more. If I'm hooked on a certain book or study within the Word, I need to get back to it and continue reading wherever I was forced to leave off. Like the property of interia, once I'm moving, it takes something outside of me to stop me.
Unfortunately, also like interia, if I'm standing still in my time in the Word (i.e. doing almost nothing), my inclination is to remain that way. Oh, my desire is that I read more. I see the fruit of it in my life, my walk with the Lord, and my ability to lead others and teach. I want to sit down and read, but somehow absolutely anything can distract me from actually doing it.
Until I clue in and ask the Lord to help me - to revive in me again that passion for reading His Word and learning more about Him from the greatest revelation we have had of Him outside of Jesus in the flesh.
Since recently asking the Lord to help me, I've been reading and thinking about Psalm 119, which is all about delighting the law and words of the Lord. (Seems logical, eh?) Two things have really struck me so far:
That I am to fix my eyes on God
That I am to meditate on His commands
When I fix my eyes on Him, my own situations, though not necessarily changing, take on a different priority and power.
When I considered meditating on His commands, I had to think about what commands I should meditate on. One scripture leaped to mind:
"And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
(Mark 12:28-31)
Love the Lord.
Love others.
All in the Word. Nice.
Monday, April 21, 2008,6:29 p.m.
HUNGRY
Today in worship class we touched on a bunch of different topics, including:
Sex
Cloning
Sibling relationships
Invitro fertilization
Abortion
Adoption
Rejection
Emotional healing
Physical healing
Theophonies (God sightings)
Visions
All in 45 minutes. Interestingly, we didn't specifically talk about worship. (But in my opinion, a true worshipper is zealous to know everything about everything to do with God. Worship is a response to revelation.)
Don't ever tell me that teenagers are lesser versions of Christians just because of their age. Sometimes, it is exactly the opposite. Hunger is one of the things that produces maturity - a hunger for the knowledge and the righteousness of God.
I don't think we will ever reach the end of everything we can know about God until we get to heaven. We can remain hungry and always find things to fill us up. I hope my kids never get full. I hope I never think I'm full. If I do it will be at the exact moment that I am truly empty.
Sex
Cloning
Sibling relationships
Invitro fertilization
Abortion
Adoption
Rejection
Emotional healing
Physical healing
Theophonies (God sightings)
Visions
All in 45 minutes. Interestingly, we didn't specifically talk about worship. (But in my opinion, a true worshipper is zealous to know everything about everything to do with God. Worship is a response to revelation.)
Don't ever tell me that teenagers are lesser versions of Christians just because of their age. Sometimes, it is exactly the opposite. Hunger is one of the things that produces maturity - a hunger for the knowledge and the righteousness of God.
I don't think we will ever reach the end of everything we can know about God until we get to heaven. We can remain hungry and always find things to fill us up. I hope my kids never get full. I hope I never think I'm full. If I do it will be at the exact moment that I am truly empty.
Sunday, April 20, 2008,6:39 p.m.
FULLNESS 2008 - THIS COMING WEEKEND!
WELL WORTH COMING TO !!
*Click on the poster for a larger view.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008,9:38 p.m.
A BRIEF FOLLOW-UP
Just as a brief follow-up to the last post about eagles: I decided to count how many I've seen recently, just out of curiosity. It turns out that in the last 45 days, I have seen 45 eagles.
Incredible.
Incredible.
Monday, April 14, 2008,9:55 p.m.
EAGLES - GOD IS FAITHFUL
Some of you may remember about a year ago that I talked a lot about eagles, and especially at that time, I was seeing a lot of bald eagles. In fact, in the course of three weeks, I saw 22 eagles, which is a disproportionate amount to see in Vancouver outside of eagle season (which I gather is more in January).
The highlight last year of the eagle sightings was the day that I saw seven eagles in one day. Seven. Seven in the scriptures speaks of completeness, fullness. It spoke to me of the Lord's faithfulness to complete the things that He has promised for my life, both in the scriptures and to me personally.
After those three weeks the eagles sightings stopped. About a month ago, they started again, and I felt that God was reminding me again of how faithful a God He is. I again had a seven-eagle day - amazing! And then, just over a week ago, I saw eight eagles in one day. Needless to say I was overwhelmed. As I studied it out a little, eight seems to be the number in scripture that represents new beginnings.
I thought that was cool until the very next day when I saw sixteen in one day. SIXTEEN. I'm not even kidding. Twenty-four eagles in two days. I am utterly overwhelmed. And I think that is the message that God is trying to get across - He will not only be faithful, but He will overwhelm me with His faithfulness. He is doing just that even now.
I am almost at a loss for words with which to respond except for one thing:
God is good; His steadfast
love endures forever!