Fresh Rain

So on Monday I'm heading to Queenstown. I'll be heading up there to feel God's soft breath on me and to rest my tired head on his loving chest.  There will be mixes of the familiar with the fresh unexpectedness of a leaf in the the hands of its loving Creator. I look forward to clearing my thoughts and getting out from the fog that has been threatening to storm rainclouds over me. I look forward to seeing faces of other Burning Ones and see what moves of God are happening in the Emerald in the Crown of this beautiful country. Queenstown is the tourist hub of New Zealand, and seeing throngs of people again will undoubtedly warm my heart. It is sometimes too quiet, too desolate, where I am now. I long for the bustle of a community again. Queenstown is flanked by mountains on all sides, with the majestic Remarkables stealing the limelight in the foreground. I know God is calling me there to seek His face, His direction for my life. Will you pray for me during this time? This will be a journey entirely of me on my own with my Heavenly Dad.

"The potter destroys one vessel that He may shape a new one." -Jeremiah 18:4

"The Lord will bless you,

and He will keep you.

The Lord will make His face to shine upon you,

and He will be gracious to you.

The Lord will lift His countenance to you

and He will establish you in His Shalom."

~Numbers 6:24-26, the real translated Aaronic blessing

Pasa Doble

A mi me parece que el ritmo en cuerpo reflecta el movimiento del sangre, la vida completa, el amor que desean y la esperanza de las cosas mejores que vienen. Lo descubre la pelicula "Strictly Ballroom"; y la parte cuando el hombre dice que conoces La Pasa Doble, pero es una broma, un fracion de la verdad, y todos le reian. Hasta que la vieja lo ensena, el baile es como un vaso medida de agua. 

To me it seems the rhythm of the body should reflect the movement in the blood, and that the life we are meant to live in its fullness and the love that we should aspire to, and the ultimate hope and expectancy of the better things to come. (It shall be good.)

I only just discovered this mesmerizing movie and am riveted by the scene by the traintracks when the young man says he knows the dance but as he steps out, it's clear that the movements are not from his heart. To the rest is is a fraction and a joke, and he is the laughingstock. Until the old woman shows him where the pulse of life rests as unresolved kinetic energy, his dance is only a glass dimly lit. His reluctant love for the ugly-duckling-turned-swan-woman is kept at safe distance by twenty years of hesitant heartbeats, a halflife of a watermark man. When he at once and finally gives in to the rhythm the old woman teaches him, his life is unstopped as a dusty bottle of wine. He and the young woman dance from their hearts, unsure but pursuing. He no longer moves by his two feet. He leads her, twirls her--two flowers folding together on the drunk vine. It no longer matters what others think. This is the Pasa Doble. This is the fullness of la vida completa.

Live as if this was your last day. For some day that it shall be.  
Love is the whisper in your heart and the rhythm of your pulse.

The power of suggestion

 Why is it everyone wants to take a nap this afternoon in this house? Perhaps it's the sign we just made to bring to the A&P Expo this weekend. Looks like my marketing days aren't quite over.

L O V E . L O V E .

We bring the love of God in a loveless world.
John was the one disciple who was so comfortable and intimate with Jesus that he reclined against Jesus at the passover meal, as they sat around the table. His head was on the heartbeat of Jesus. He was called "The Beloved Disciple". He was Jesus' close friend. He was the only disciple to whom Jesus confidentially revealed the name of his betrayer. And, in the book of 1 John, John writes to you and me to peel back layers of revelation of what REAL LOVE should look like. John's motives for writing us are threefold~
   -to make our joy complete (1:4)
   -so that we will not sin (2:1)
   -to inform us about those who are trying to lead us astray (2:26)

But then he adds a few more reasons, as if three just weren't enough...
~because our sins have been forgiven on account of Jesus' name (2:12)
~because we have known Jesus who is from the beginning (v 13)
~because those among us who are young men have overcome the evil one (v 13)
~because those among us who are young children have known the Father  (v 13)
~because those among us who are fathers have known Him who is from the beginning (v 14)
~because those among us who are young men are strong (v 14)
~because the word of God lives in us (v 14)
~because we have overcome the evil one (v 14)

"And this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like wicked men who are jealous of each other and commit murder in action or in thought like Cain. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him??"

John writes to those of us who are young in faith, "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: we know it by the Spirit he gave us."

Dear friends, let's love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This Son is an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him. In this way love is made complete (finished, full) among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John 2, 4, excerpts)

Get rid of our stuff (hangups, hesitations, selfish ambitions, fears, insecurities, unresolved hurts, jealousy, bitterness, offenses, rejection) by pursuing LOVE for our brother and sister and pressing in to help THEM with their stuff. Dive into 1 John. Walk in a second commandment lifestyle. Could it be that God is moving us into a greater degree of the 2nd Commandment lifestyle?  (Remember, the first command is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength. The second command is to love your neighbor as yourself.) On the 2nd Commandment, if we are fighting for the breakthrough of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and if we are practicing random acts of kindness, mercy, love....then all of our own hangups melt away. (As Jesus increases in us, our flesh decreases. Isn't that cool?) We fix our eyes of Jesus because he is the author and the perfector of our faith. And, Jesus releases authority of an unprecedented increase to come (John 17) for us as his brothers and sisters! He prays that we would be made one in glorious unity. "Glory that they may be one as we are one."

We can do this, friends. Don't let your past shape your expectations, but call each other out and into raw, gutty unity--real raw love. We should be in love with one another. (thanks to Andy Byrd and to my dear friend Samwise for reminding me of this.)

Be Blessed, My Friends. You Are Greatly Loved.

Not with a bang but a whimper

Why is it so hard to write this book?

God has put on my heart to write a book about Revelation 12:11 and yet I feel like I'm in college again, grasping at any opportunity to distract myself. In college I vacuumed my ceiling on a regular basis, I think I even cleaned the common showers... telling myself I was thinking and processing, keeping my hands busy and my mind uncluttered. But here I am again, with no excuses. 

I'm in the quietest part of the entire planet. The South Island of New Zealand, with nothing but sheep and mountains and green fields and farms all around me. Me, the girl from New York, it looks like I have finally got my peace and quiet. A house to reclude to, a car to get around in, a laptop the local church has lent to me, a phone I didn't have before...all of these things totally provided by Abba for me. 

Such abundant favour I'm feeling....  

and such amazing demonic attack.    If my thoughts are focused for two combined minutes on "the book", I toss it back and forth in my hands like a hot potato. I find my mind drifting on tangents. I find anything to busy myself. A movie, gardening, painting, evangelising, connecting with friends online.  Nothing bad, just not exactly plumbline with my marching orders. Kinda like Jonah. The hardest thing to do these last few weeks is to...write. After just completing an intense and awesome 6-month discipleship practicum with an unbelievably great Christian missions training organization, right now I really just need to hear Daddy God and, well, I need to do what He asked me to. My friend Sam reminded me of that, and it snapped me into focus.

So what do I do? I identify the problem, and that's simply that I'm supposed to be doing what God asked me to do, and I need to trust Him that the words will come. I can't revert to my old ways of thinking, that it's up to me to devise a killer book for me. That's my old self, my old way of being. I used to struggle with that. I need to hold firmly to the truth that I can do nothing apart from God and that if He's asked me to do this, then He's gonna show me how. My old ways, my vacuuming the ceiling ways, are crucified and I can't let my mind go back there.

With God's strength and help, I will set my mind to do what He's asked of me. I will write, because it'll do me a whole lotta good to practice the fine art of follow through. Obedience. Focus. And trust. Tis best to follow the ax-head principle, as Elijah did. When you're not hearing God's voice, go back to the last thing He asked you to do, and do it.

I value your prayers, and I leave you with this provoking thought, as I'm reminded of it, yet again-

"Wherever you go, 

there you are."

That phrase has followed me for years. You can't get away from yourself. While this may seem sometimes depressing in light of the depravity of the flesh, there is a brilliant light at the end of a sidewinding tunnel.

You can't get away from your Loving Father! That is the most beautiful thing ever. Where can I go, that You won't seek me there? In the depths you are there, in the heights you are there, Lord!

I'm a little teapot

Here I am.... writing in Southland, New Zealand. Wondering why I'm still awake at midnight after pulling an all-nighter with God last night and then doing a full day of manual labour today. Man I'm hungry right now. So, I'm new to this whole blogging thing. I used to think they were pretentious, the whole idea of even thinking the world might care about anyone's deep profound thoughts, like, what I had for breakfast. I mean, why am I doing this? 

How 'real' do I want to be? I think I want to be transparent enough to provoke you to deep meditative thoughts over a well-loved bible and a huge cup of joe. I think it'll be a journal of verses, thoughts, revelations from God that I think might have some benefit of sharing with the great big world. The real reason I've decided to do this is that I put my flag on one particular bible verse lately, and that is

Revelation 12:11, which reads...

"They will overcome [the enemy] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony."

This means that we need to be transparent enough to the world to let people know they are not alone, they can encourage others, and that everyone has a story. And that it's worth sharing. Because you never know who you just might be encouraging from a dark place, and pointing them to the brilliant light of the Saviour of the World. Because, let's face it, he's worth it all.

Be blessed today and know that no matter what you are facing, you do not have to face it alone. Jesus dealt with it all so you don't have to.

On that note, as it is now 12:11 and I take that as a prophetic sign that I should go to sleep, I am signing off for now.