35 Days to Go

It amazing how as you walk the journey and circumstances present themselves, you see how God knowing the big picture as He is orchestrating events at His will, He is also preparing us for what He knows is upcoming in our lives. So when this happens and we take our eyes off of Him, we can easily become distracted and lose our focus on Him.

My family loves to vacation at the beach. It’s been a yearly tradition for as long as I can remember. I love the beach because it’s so easy to see His majesty by watching the ocean. Waves are the most amazing to watch . . . the power in His hand that makes the tide of the whole ocean rise and fall . . . the power that’s in His fingers which causes the waves to crash onto the beach. I used to love standing on the shore about knee high or waist deep and try to time the rhythm of the waves to be able to jump them. If you watch the picture of the ocean, it’s fairly easy to feel the rhythm and timing but you have to stay focused. But sometimes, I would become distracted and turn my back and lose focus. And before I knew it, a wave would come out of nowhere and knock me off my feet. Whenever this happened, I became focused on the waves and completely lose sight of the One who makes the waves and His majesty.

Circumstances can be like those waves if you aren’t watching and keeping your focus on Him. Distractions of life can easily make you turn your back. Then a tsunami-sized circumstance can knock you down. My church body is there right now. The waves have been building for years. We’ve become distracted and lost sight of His majesty. There is a remnant who is trying to see beyond the waves and looking for His glory. But the waves just seem to get bigger and bigger and it’s harder and harder to focus on anything but the waves.

Psalm 95:3-6 For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. In His hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are His also. The sea is His for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker. (ESV)

Here the writer declares who He is. I wonder if the waves were overwhelming him when he wrote this. Then as He refocuses off the waves that are crashing down on him onto the big picture of who the Lord is, he demands his soul to worship the Maker of the earth and the mountains and the sea. He's getting an attitude adjustment from the crashing waves to the big picture. May we be found as faithful.

40 Day to Go

It's becoming more real the closer time gets for me to leave for Israel. It's almost here. It was so far away for so long. As I've been praying to prepare for this trip, I thought about possibly fasting to prepare. As I counted back, I realized Sept 23 would be 40 days. Not going into the details of the fast but God has confirmed that is what He's calling me to. Thank You for being faithful to speak.

These may not be posted everyday or actaully on the day that I'm blogging about. But this opportunity to journal about the journey is exciting and I want to be able to tell of His mercies! So I'm taking my laptop home and journaling during the process. Then when I come into the office, I'll post the blog. (since I don't have cable or internet access at home :-)

DAY 40
Today is Sunday. I need to be at the church in a few minutes, but just felt like I needed to get some feelings out on paper. Thank You for Your new mercies today. I'm anxious to see what today holds as I enter Your house. Please go before us.

In my quiet time, God took me to Psalm 32 and 33. And of course, something jumped out at me that I had not noticed before. And, again, of course, God used it later that morning during our worship time before service.

Psalm 32: 7 You are a hiding place for me; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with shouts of deliverance.

Then a few verses later and into chapter 33...

Psalm 32: 11 Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

Psalm 33:1 Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright.

I've never noticed that God SHOUTS deliverance over us. On my behalf, He decides that an "inside voice" is not adequate enough to surround me with Himself as shelter. When you are shouting, the sound takes up the whole room because you want to be heard. Your "inside voice" just won't do. You have to shout. God shouting? Can you imagine?

Then after He shouts for us (not at us... but for us and over us), He commands us to shout back to Him in joy. Well, of course, it's in joy. He just surrounded us with His shouts to deliver us. Why wouldn't we shout back in joy?!? I LOVE the last part of 33:1... Praise befits the upright. http://www.dictionary.com/ defines 'befit': to be suitable to or appropriate for. So first, He shouts to surround us as we're being delivered. Then we shout back our joy in Him. Then we praise. Praise befits the upright. The appropriate response... the only response really. Praise.

Could She Be Any Cuter??

Kim and Mom took Kayla for her first "professional" pictures. She's 8 months old. Where does the time go?

We'll just let the pictures speak for themselves because there's absolutely nothing I could add.

Did You Listen to Your Mother?

Ok. I'll warn you. This is a rant. I've just pulled a muscle in my back because of stupid men who obviously didn't have a mother who raised them properly or they didn't listen to their mother as manners were discussed. Or maybe the Womens Movement has finally arrived in Nashville Tennessee. Take your pick!

But can someone please explain to me when a woman is walking off the elevator with a box in her office chair (because apparently people in this building didn't listen in Sunday School either about "Thou Shalt Not Steal" and think it's okay to steal a dollie but not return it!)... anyway, how is it possible that as I'm walking off the elevator, this OBVIOUSLY heavy box falls off my chair onto the floor with a very loud thump, that FOUR, yes FOUR! men walk around me and proceed to get on the elevator while I'm standing over the box that is STILL sitting on the floor.
Surely the mothers of these men didn't neglect to teach them simple manners. But then that would imply that these men feel they are too good to be bothered with being a gentlemen.

For. the. love.