Cielo

Hi friends.
I know it's been a long time since I've posted here.
For those of you who didn't know, we took a 2 week vacation all the way to Bellingham, WA and back with LOTS of stops in between.
I promise, I'll post lots of pictures soon.
It's been so nice to have a break from everything and just rest.

In case you haven't followed Bruce's blog, the winning name for the doll was Ruby.
Bruce has been posting her adventures here if you want to read them.

We got home from our vacation at 2:30 in the morning on Sunday, my good friend, Emily, had her baby on Tuesday and the boys started school today.
The business has definitely resumed!

While we were in Washington, we got to worship with our friends, the Joneses, at their new church.
They had a guest worship leader (who I was familiar with from Saddleback Worship conferences years back), and one of the songs He led us in has stuck with me. I don't exactly have the words to share why. I have sat here writing and rewriting this sentence trying to express what singing this song last Sunday (and as I've listened to it since then) did for my spirit. It was one of those moments where I could sense the presence of the Holy Spirit so strongly and couldn't stop the tears from streaming.
I had to come home and buy it and I can't wait to lead Epic in worship with it.
In the meantime, I'll share a video of Phil Wickham leading Saddleback Community Church in worship with it.
(I posted the lyrics below the song in case you don't have time for the video.)



Cielo
I'm walking through the bright white gates
Breathing in and out Your grace
All around me melodies rise
That echo with the joy inside
So I start to sing

But I can't sing loud enough
I can't sing loud enough
When I'm singing for You my God
I can't sing loud enough
I can't sing loud enough
When I'm singing for You my God

With a thunder roll and a brilliant light
Your glory boasts and the heavens shine
Saints and angels stand in awe
Captured by the beauty of it all
So I fall to my knees

But I can't bow low enough
I can't bow low enough
At the vision of You my God
I can't bow low enough
I can't bow low enough
At the vision of You my God

I can't hold it all inside
I'm reaching for the one
Who brought me out of death and into life

And I can't lift my hands high enough
Lift my hands high enough
When I'm reaching for You my God
I can't lift my hands high enough
Lift my hands high enough
When I'm reaching for You my God

Phil Wickham
© 2009 Seems Like Music | Phil Wickham Music (Admin. by Simpleville Music, Inc.) | (Admin. by Simpleville Music, Inc.)

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More of You God and less of me

The other day I had a friend tell me that she was struggling with sensing God and was struggling with how to get out of the slump.

Don't we all go through seasons like that?
I know I do, but I am starting to realize how my pattern works.
Something happens either physically, emotionally or spiritually that causes me to seek God and lean on Him. I spend QUALITY time with Him MORE than once a day. Eventually, I am at a place where I am sensing His presence everywhere I turn around. I start to get comfortable and start spending less QUALITY time with Him in my day and before I know it, I haven't picked up my Bible just to meet Him in over a week.

And sometimes that week turns into a month.

And then I struggle to find God again because I'm so caught up in ME.

I read this devotion from Charles Spurgeon the other day and wanted to share it with you. I urge you to read it more than once or maybe even read it out loud to yourself.

“The ill favoured and leanfleshed kine did eat up the seven wellfavoured and fat kine” Genesis 41:4

Pharaoh’s dream has too often been my waking experience. My days of sloth have ruinously destroyed all that I had achieved in times of zealous industry; my seasons of coldness have frozen all the genial glow of my periods of fervency and enthusiasm; and my fits of worldliness have thrown me back from my advances in the divine life. I had need to beware of lean prayers, lean praises, lean duties and lean experiences, for these will eat up the fat of my comfort and peace. If I neglect prayer for never so short a time, I lose all the spirituality to which I had attained; if I draw no fresh supplies from heaven, the old corn in my granary is soon consumed by the famine which rages in my soul. When the caterpillars of indifference, the cankerworms of worldliness, and the palmerworms of self-indulgence, lay my heart completely desolate, and make my soul to languish, all my former fruitfulness and growth in grace avails me nothing whatever. How anxious should I be to have no lean-fleshed days, no ill-favoured hours! If every day I journeyed towards the goal of my desires I should soon reach it, but backsliding leaves me still far off from the prize of my high calling, and robs me of the advances which I had so laboriously made. The only way in which all my days can be as the “fat kine” is to feed them in the right meadow, to spend them with the Lord in His service, in His company, in His fear, and in His way. Why should not every year be richer than the past, in love, and usefulness, and joy? I am nearer the celestial hills, I have had more experience of my Lord, and should be more like Him. O Lord, keep far from me the curse of leanness of soul; let me not have to cry, “My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me!”, but may I be well-fed and nourished in thy house, that I may praise thy name.

More of You God and less of me.

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How He Loves Us SO

You may have already seen this video.
I just felt it was the right thing for this Worship Wednesday.
It's time to get back to worship Wednesdays here.
HOW HE LOVES US SO!!!!

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An appointment with God in Seattle - the end

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Sunday morning was a little more rushed than Satuday morning for me, because I slept in a little longer.
What can I say? I was tired.

I still left the hotel in time to get to Starbucks and back before the teaching would start.What I wouldn't have the time for was some alone time, sitting and reading my Bible and journaling like I did on Saturday morning (because when we got to the workshop room no one else was there yet.) My roommate opted to stay at the hotel and get some breakfast, so I changed my strategy for getting with God before the workshop as I headed to my rental car. It took 2 clicks on the radio search to find some worship music and because I was alone, I got to pray out loud as I drove. When I got to Starbucks it was closed, but there was another one not far away that was open. Boy was that place hoppin'. The cool thing is, most everyone there had their Bible with them and the conversations I overheard were about God. That completely blessed me!

I got back to the hotel just as everyone was getting settled in for the day's learning.
And the first item on the agenda, was a writing assignment - really it was 10 minutes set aside for journaling.
The only guideline was that it was to be about something that had changed in us since we showed up on Friday evening for the meet and greet.

This is one of the things (among many things) that I LOVE about MeRa Koh.
She gets - and encourages - the fact that what we have to offer others flows from who we are.
Writing is just one tool in that process - one that works great for her that she wanted to share with us.

Here is what I LOVE about God in that moment.
The thing I was most disappointed about in my "sleeping in" was that I didn't get to start my day out in His word and journaling. I got some nuggets from His word on the way back to the hotel from Starbucks. And here was this little gift to me, where journaling was part of our assignment for the moment.

A little of my journal entry:
I stepped off a plane on Thursday anxious and excited about what God had in store for me this weekend. I left dinner last night encouraged and confirmed in what He has been calling me towards. I am confident I am going to step back on the plane Monday afternoon filled because of His mercy and grace, and used for His glory because of obedience.

After a little more instruction, we headed out to the University of Washington campus in Tacoma for another photo shoot, this time of families and high school seniors. Again, the highlight for me was watching MeRa in action.

This day was definitely a little more difficult for me photographically. It was the first time I had ever worked with seniors and I struggled to find the balance with the other photographers I was teamed up with. It's a challenge to work with 3- 4 other photographers like we did. But I had some amazing ladies in my group and went with it.

Ladies, I hope I didn't get in your way too much or take over too much.
Jennifer, I LOVED watching you interact with the models and learned a lot from you.
You have a certain way with people that is amazing.
Thanks!

Here's a few more images from the outing...

You can see some of the images I got from the day here.

We eventually went back to the hotel, had some lunch and got on with the learning.

And at the end of the day, MeRa had us all gather in a circle in the middle of the room and share one word that summed up the weekend for us.

Now let me back up just a little here...

When I was on the airplane on Thursday, one of the things I felt God impressing me to do this weekend was to lay hands on Brian and MeRa and pray for them. I questioned this throughout the day on Saturday.

How could that happen?

Would I have an opportunity to do this with them on Sunday after the workshop was over?

Would they even be receptive to this?

Was that really God asking me to do that?

But after Saturday evening, I knew that God was going to provide the opportunity for it. And when MeRa asked us to get in that circle, I felt that tugging on my heart saying, "this is where I want you to pray for them."

Again, I questioned. I was prepared for Him to provide the opportunity in private after the workshop was over, but I wasn't really prepared for this. What if this would offend some of the ladies here? But I knew I was hearing God, so with my hands shaking from nerves, after everyone was done going around the circle with their one word answer, I asked the ladies and Brian and MeRa if they would mind if we took time to pray for MeRa and Brian. What a God moment that was, for me at least. And how blessed we all were because of obedience. (More than one lady thanked me for that moment.)

We prayed for MeRa and Brian.

We prayed for one of the ladies who was there, who had been diagnosed with cancer just before the workshop AND who was going home to plan a funeral for her father who had died just before the workshop.

We prayed for the Soar recipients who were there with us for the weekend.

I indeed left the workshop full. 

It was called the Confidence Workshop because it was designed so that the attendants would leave being "confident" behind the camera and shooting in manual. And I have to say it definitely does that. I am confident that had I come to the workshop, taking my camera out of the box  for the first time, I would leave with a really great understanding of how to get great images in manual mode - with creative control over the final product. One of the girls there was actually in that position (she just learned how to charge her camera battery the week before the workshop). And she was getting some amazing images (in manual mode) by the time we all said goodbye. 

But for me, the title of the workshop gave new meaning.

I have a deeper Confidence in God -

in trusting His voice as I hear it

in following His leading even when others are trying to discourage me

in trusting His plan and timing

I am incredible grateful for the appointments in Seattle and am excited for what is yet to come as a result of my deeper confidence in Him.

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An appointment with God in Seattle - part 3

Part 1
Part 2

We walked to the Thai food restaurant that we were going to eat dinner at and sat at 2 different long tables - there was a lot of us. I had hoped to get the opportunity to share some of the things I thought God wanted me to share with MeRa about Soar at this dinner, but she sat at the other table. So I figured that sharing would come on Sunday after the workshop was over - if there was time. I knew that if God really did want me to share with her, then He would provide the opportunity.

We ate an amazing dinner and had a GREAT time getting to know each other a little better. And as the evening was winding down, MeRa came and sat next to me to talk to me.
Isn't God so good? I knew what He wanted me to share with MeRa, but I wasn't sure how to make the opportunity happen. The thing is, I didn't have to make it happen, because God worked it all out - just like He always does. I shared all that God wanted me to tell her, but I believe God orchestrated that conversation just as much (if not more so) for me. As she shared some of the details around the things God had laid on my heart to speak to her about, details that I would have never know had she not shared them with me, God spoke to my heart so deeply about trusting His voice as I hear it.
I've doubted His voice a lot in the past year because of what others have said to me.
I've doubted His voice because I've been embarrased to step forward the way He wanted me to.
I've doubted His voice because the things He was telling me seemed silly or insignificant or just plain too hard to handle.
But in that moment God was telling me, "See? That WAS my voice when I asked you to pray for that thing. That WAS my voice when I asked you to step out like that. That IS my voice calling you to the things I am calling you to. Stop letting what others say cause you to doubt my voice and just follow me."

You see, we don't need the details to follow God.
We don't need others to agree with us to follow God - as a matter of fact, if we're not careful, we could unknowingly allow others to quench what the Spirit of God is doing in and through us.
We just need to do our best to nurture our relationship with God so that we KNOW His voice - so we CAN follow Him.

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel to get some sleep for another big day on Sunday.

I'll share the rest of the story tomorrow.
Have a great day!!!

The End

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An Appointment with God in Seattle - part 2

Part 1

After I spent a fabulous afternoon with the Jones family, I headed to the airport to pick up Leslie.
We had spoken on the phone a few times, but had never actually met in person.
She was one of those gifts from God to get me to this workshop.
I had no idea where I would stay in Tacoma.
The hotel that the workshop was being held at was way too expensive for me - even at the special rate we would get. I still had to make reservations at a hotel when we got our first email with instructions to introduce ourselves. After a couple of email exchanges, Leslie had offered to share her room with me and I would be her transportation for the weekend. God is so good.
(And what's even cooler (and I believe another God thing) about that set up is that a couple of weeks before we actually met in Seattle and after we had made our arrangements, Leslie called me to tell me she just realized that I was the Rhonda from Exposing Grace - a blog she had been following for awhile because she saw one of my posts at I Heart Faces. She had even been considering joining us at Through The Lens of Worship.)

Ok - back to the story...
I picked up Leslie, and after driving for an hour and a half for what should have been 30 minutes, we were already have a fun adventure and getting to know each other. (Seattle and Tacoma aren't the easiest cities to drive in. If you miss your turn-off there may not be a way to turn around for quite awhile, especially in rush hour traffic.) We checked in to the hotel and headed out to the meet and greet at MeRa's house.
And that began the appointments with people that God really took me to Seattle for.
Some of those appointments were so that I could minister to others and some of those appointments were so that others could minister to me. God showed me in no uncertain terms, many ways that He has been using me in the lives of some of these women that I hadn't ever met. One of the ladies wasn't even someone I knew of by name from the internet, but she knew me and God had used me in her life.
Can I just tell you what a gift that is?
God didn't have to do that.
Yet he chose to bless me and encourage me.
I am overwhelmed with gratitude.

We left MeRa's house already filled and our workshop hadn't even begun yet.
Leslie and I shared a little more adventure finding a drug store so she didn't have to pay $15 for the hotel toothbrush, because she broke hers that morning. Then we got to the hotel to try to get some sleep and be ready for the morning.
Saturday morning started off with some worship music (there was an ipod player in our hotel room), a cup of Starbucks and an eagerness for what the day would hold.
Really, it doesn't get much better than that!

MeRa and her husband, Brian, are amazing.
They are gifted as photographers and teachers.
They are funny.
And they are humble.
The things they taught about the camera were basic things I mostly already knew, but what they taught in the in-between moments about who God made me as a photographer and dare I say, artist, was priceless.
God used them to teach me to trust Him and let go in these areas.
Don't get me wrong here. This was a photography workshop, not a Christian conference of some kind.
MeRa and Brian didn't talk about God, but God used them to teach me and help me grow as an artist.
Another aspect of my appointment with God.

I just LOVE how God works.
He brings me to Seattle to a photography workshop that focused on a lot of stuff I already know, to teach me things that weren't even the focus of this workshop so that He could get the glory.
Does that make sense to you the way it does to me?
He does things in such a way (if we will let Him) that He will be glorified.
He is showing me this a lot lately.
When I applied for the Soar scholarship and didn't win, God told me that He didn't ever want anyone to say that my opportunities as a photographer were because of that Scholarship.
He wants and deserves all the glory for anything He works in and through me.
And even if I would always point to Him, others wouldn't on my behalf.

So after our morning session on Satuday, we got to actually photograph some beautiful models.
My favorite part of the photo sessions we did was watching MeRa at work -
Watching her see light and work with the model, posing them and interacting with them in such a way that they relax and enjoy their time.

Here she is at work, along with many of the girls I shared the weekend with.

And once she showed us how she goes about setting up the shot, she set us off to take some pictures ourselves.

We finished up the day with a fabulous lunch and some more learning and then headed off to dinner at a fabulous Thai food restaurant, where God had yet another appointment for me.

But that is for another day, as I must get my tired body into bed. 

You can see the Mommy & baby shots I took here.

Part 3
The End

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An appointment with God in Seattle

Have you ever had one of those moments that, although it was planned for one purpose, God intended it for His purposes? That's what last weekend was like for me - an appointment with God.
When I was praying about whether or not I should go to Seattle for this workshop, I knew that God wanted me there and that He had a purpose bigger than the workshop, but I could have never anticipated all that the weekend held for me.

When I got off the plane on Thursday and got in my rental car, I was excited about what God wanted to do that weekend.
I was excited to spend time with friends from Epic that had moved to WA.
I was excited to learn more about photography.
I was excited to spend time with friends that I had met via the internet.
I was excited to meet all together new friends.
But I was mostly excited about the unknown stuff that I knew God had prepared for me.

Some of you understand this and some of you are wondering how I knew that God wanted me there.
I just want to share a little about that.
I had been praying about going to one of these workshops for over a year. For one reason or another there was just no way I could get there. And when it came up this time I wondered if it was even a wise use of my resources. I mean, a trip and workshop like this isn't cheap. But I couldn't get over the nagging feeling that I had to be there. I even sensed God telling me that He would provide the money if I would just sign up. So I did. I signed up on the payment plan (to give God time to provide.)
I don't know why I had any doubt. God is so good and came through in ways that I could never have conjured up myself. Half of the cost came from a job in which I still don't even know how they got my number. He not only provided for the workshop, He provided the airfare, the rental car, the hotel room.
He had a purpose for me being there.

I didn't have to be in Tacoma until Friday so I drove to Bellingham to spend the night at the Jones' house.
They had other company in town and were already planning to visit Seattle on Friday, which was perfect for me. I not only got to hang out with some of the coolest people I know, but I got to experience Seattle with them. AND I got to meet their cool family members that still live in Hanford and are considering coming to Epic. Yay!

On the way to Seattle, I drove alone because I had to leave them early to pick up a new friend (my room mate for the weekend) at the airport and get to the meet and greet for my workshop. The drive to Seattle was a little over an hour and a half and I had the sweetest time of worship during that drive.
(God even gave me a new worship song that I might share with you some time.)
God was meeting me there in that rental car and preparing me for what was still to come.

I'll share more tomorrow.

Part 2
Part 3
The End

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More

I spent last weekend with an AMAZING group of women.
(more on that in my next post)

Friday was the first day I met some of those women, and some of them I met via the internet a while ago.
I believe the internet can be a tool of the enemy, but I also KNOW that God uses the internet for His purposes as well. And this past weekend was such a confirmation of that for me.
I don't even have words to express the extreme gratitude I have towards God for the gift He gave me last weekend.

Ladies, it was an EXTREME pleasure and blessing.
Thank you!

MeRa and Brian, you two are such a gift!
Thank you!

There is a song that God brings to my mind often and I want to share it with you ladies.
(If you just want to read the lyrics, I posted them below the video)



MORE
© copyright 2001 Brian Ray, Crystal Lewis
Dirty devices, divide and devise
A plan to diminish our creative minds
Distorting our views, of ourselves and our minds
Destructive dirty devices; destructive dirty devices


We are more than we know
We are more than we know
We are meant for more than this world would suppose
We are more than we know


I believe in all things spiritual
That God is in this place
Always watching, guiding, knowing what the look on my face means
Knowing every thought before I think it and it's gone
Knowing each word I'm gonna say before it rolls off my tongue
Knowing each word I'm gonna say before it rolls off my tongue


We are more than we know
We are more than we know
We are meant for more than this world would suppose
We are more than we know


Listen and let go, You will hear and know
You'll see and believe, You can walk on water

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Good Friday

Today has been a busy day.
But as I get ready to share in the Passover meal with my family at Epic,
here is where my heart is meditating...

He was despised and rejected -

a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.

We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way.

He was despised, and we did not care.

Yet it was OUR weaknesses He carried;

It was OUR sorrows that weighed Him down.

And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God,

a punishement for His own sins!

But He was pierced for OUR rebellion,

crushed for OUR sins.

He was beaten so we could be whole.

He was whipped so we could be healed.

All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.

We have left God's paths to follow our own.

Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all.

He was oppressed and treated harshly,

yet He never said a word.

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.

And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,

He did not open His mouth.

Unjustly condemned, He was led away.

No one cared that He died without descendants,

that His life was cut short in midstream.

But He was struck down for the rebellion of my people.

He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone.

But He was buried like a criminal;

He was put in a rich man's grave.

But it was the Lord's good plan to crush Him and cause Him grief.

Yet when His life is made an offering for sin,

He will have many descendants.

He will enjoy a long life,

and the Lord's good plan will prosper in His hands.

When He sees all that is accomplished by His anguish,

He will be satisfied.

And because of His experience,

my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous,

for He will bear all their sins.

Isaiah 53:3-11

May God bless you this good Friday!

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HE IS AMAZING!!!

Yikes!
It's already Thursday - again.
Baseball season has started and with both boys playing in different divisions, it is practically 6 days a week with double duty on some nights.
Add that to Life Group, Worship Practice, Ballet class, not to mention homework, dinner, baths for the kids - it makes the days FLY by!
(I'll post some baseball pictures as soon as I can get them off the camera.)

And in the midst of all that, I'm still working on simplifying.
I've been working on cleaning up the computer hard drives, sorting out kids clothes that don't fit anymore, sorting out my clothes that don't fit anymore (ouch!), and organizing so much that needs organizing. I'm not done, but I'm working on this necessary step.
Clutter is such a distraction for me.
And sometimes it feels suffocating.

But as I simplify, I'm trying to hear God better.
And I want to share something He's done in the past month or so that has overwhelmed me with how amazing He is.
As I share this story, I know it probably won't have the same effect on you as it did on me, but try to imagine how you might have felt if you walked through this. And please don't think I am sharing this to tell you what I did. I'm sharing this to shout praise to God for what He did.

HE IS AMAZING!!!!

There is a family I know of because of the internet.
I don't know them personally. I don't even know their family or friends.
I happened upon their blog in my search to learn more about photography.
In the beginning of February they left Seattle for an almost 2 month vacation in Thailand. Its the place they go to get away from the hussle and bustle and be renewed by God. When I first read on FB that they were going again (they went last summer) I sensed God asking me to commit to pray for them every day while they were gone. I agreed, but I have to admit that I didn't do the best job of it. I often prayed as I was falling asleep, "oh yeah God, please be with Brian, MeRa and their kids and bless their time in Thailand."
That was a lame copout for what I felt God was really asking of me.
During their first week in Thailand, they were ill.
The second week they went to Cambodia to help out in an orphanage (which was a God thing). While they were there, they had a very scary moment being chased by apes in the jungle as they tried to navigate their way back to their hut.
When they returned to Thailand they were ill again.
By last week they were diagnosed with Dengue Fever.

Now let me take a break in their story to share where I was in the midst of this story and my commitment to pray for them...
On Wednesday, March 10, I woke up with a real burden for this family.
I knew I hadn't been praying the right way for them.
Yes, I had prayed, but only because I said I would, with the obligatory prayer above.
I was convicted about this and spent a good amount of time interceding the way I knew I was supposed to.
I got my prayer partner to join me in this and decided to fast and pray on their behalf on Sunday, the 14th.
This was posted on her blog on the 15th. And this was posted on the 16th.
But the post this last Tuesday was where God's glory shone so brightly for me as He revealed why He wanted me to pray, and how He was there in the midst of their suffering.
Here is an excerpt from a letter MeRa wrote to her brother...

Pascaline is about two days behind me. She is still suffering on and off. She has been such a trooper. I sat and cried in the doctor’s office and told him that we felt like our bones were breaking, and he told me the fever’s street name “The Bone Breaker”. It was comforting in a very disturbing but relieving way. I have never felt pain like this Shauni—ever. I have been in and out of delirium with faint memories of Brian putting cold washcloths all over me, trying to bring my body temp down to no avail. I have seen his eyes scared. It’s hard to see it in his eyes, and at the same time feel like the fever has taken me a hundred miles away. Yesterday morning Pascaline woke up screaming. She was screaming that her nose broke off. Her whole body was twisting and turning in pain. I had just been through it all night, and I held her and wept. There is no medicine. There is no immunization. Your body must simply let go. Everything in you wants to fight the pain away, but this only makes it worse. Brian sat above her, as he sat above me the last five nights, and whispered instructions to her as he gently held her legs down. “Pascaline, the fever has already lost. Don’t fight the pain. Let go and focus on this spot.” He laid his hand over her collar bone. “There is no pain there, and that is where God is resting. Rest with Him, and let the fever swallow you b/c I won’t let it take you. I will be on the other side.” To stop fighting the pain and let it pull you under like the sea’s undertow is overwhelming…but to feel like you won’t ever surface, to see the sheer fear in my baby’s eyes… As I held her, I couldn’t help but cry with a feeling of such helplessness. Our Thai housekeeper came up behind me. Her name is Cha, and she has the most beautiful smile in all of Thailand. She laid her hands gently on my shoulders and whispered words to me in Thai, comforting words that I couldn’t understand, but I knew she was speaking from one mother to another. And then something magical happened that I must back up to tell you about… We have monkeys here, as you remember. There are two kinds of monkeys, and then we also have Gibbon Apes. The Gibbon Apes are high up in the trees and give off a beautiful call in the morning. It’s like a whirling, siren noise that washes over you, repeating itself, with different apes joining in at different octaves, and the whole jungle is quiet as these beasts sing. They never come down to our house level, but you can see them with binoculars. And yet the other day, Pascaline was mimicking their sound off the back deck. And FIVE of them came down to the trees off our deck and watched us, mimicking back to her, swinging through the trees with such speed and fierce ability, your mouth dropped open. That morning, Blaze was fevering his worst. Yesterday, when Pascaline was screaming with pain, the Gibbons started singing. I didn’t notice at first until someone said something. Except they weren’t high up in the hills, they were all around the outside of our bedroom and back deck—watching from the trees. They were in the low trees and whooping their call so loud and so divine, it swallowed Pascaline’s screaming. It was then that she actually smiled with her eyes closed from the pain. “Can you hear them mom? They’ve come back down. I think they’re singing to me.” And so they were. I can’t explain how magical the moment felt with Cha whispering faith into my ear in an unfamiliar tongue, and Gibbons singing to my daughter, but I felt held by the jungle, held and not shunned by this fever any longer.

I am overwhelmed by how amazing our God is.
How amazingly He met this family.
How He burdened someone to pray for them, even though I don't know them.
How He taught me more about prayer and obedience in the midst of this.

HE IS AMAZING!!!

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Simplicity

One needs to be dispossessed of the possessions that possess – before one can be possessed of God.
~Ann Voscamp

I have been overwhelmed with a feeling of clutter in my life lately.
I need to clean out my closets and spare room
and let's not mention the garage.
It even goes beyond the physical stuff to things like my computer hard drive, which is nearly at capacity and desperately needs to be cleaned up and organized.
I'm ready to purge so much stuff.
Over the past 6 months, God has been opening my eyes to what I really need.

We have been studying Matthew chapter 6 in our life group
and this is exactly the discussion that entailed last week -
God knows what we need and He WILL provide for those needs
The problems come with how OUR definition of need meets up with God's definition.
How often I call wants needs.

We don't need to increase our goods nearly as much as we need to scale down our wants. Not wanting something is as good as possessing it. ~Donald Horban

So we've committed this week to the spiritual discipline of simplicity -
only spending money on sincere needs.
And for me it means some purging.
And most importantly, praying for God to change my definition of need -
to align my desires with His desires.

Because simplicity starts from within.

Its easy to deny oneself for a week or maybe even a month if you know that, eventually, your commitment to denying that thing will be over and you can have it again.
I don't want just a week long or month long change though -
I want my desires to be in line with God's desires.

What if I started praying this prayer...

O God, I beg two favors from you; let me have them before I die.
First, help me never to tell a lie.
Second, give me neither poverty nor riches!
Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.
For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?”
And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.
Proverbs 30:7-9

What if you started praying that prayer?
Give me neither poverty nor riches. Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.
That is SIMPLICITY.

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Unredeemed by Selah

This song really ministered to me so I wanted to share it with you.
Enjoy...
(for those of you that would rather just read the lyrics, I posted them below the player.)

Unredeemed

(written by by Chad Cates, Tony Wood, Brian Petak)

The cruelest words, the coldest heart

The deepest wounds, the endless dark

The lonely ache, the burning tears

The bitter night, the wasted years

Life breaks and falls apart, but we know these are…

Places where grace is

Soon to be so amazing

They may be unfulfilled

They may be unrestored

But when anything that’s shattered

Is laid before the Lord

Just watch and see

It will not be Unredeemed

For every choice that led to shame

And all the love that never came

For every vow that someone broke

And every life that gave up hope

We live in the shadow of the fall

But the cross says these are all

Places where grace is

Soon to be so amazing

They may be unfulfilled

They may be unrestored

But when anything that’s shattered

Is laid before the Lord

Just watch and see

It will not be Unredeemed

Places where grace is

Soon to be so amazing

They may be unfulfilled

They may be unrestored

but You never know the miracles

The father has in store

Just watch and see

It will not be Unredeemed

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