Hold Tight

Have you ever asked God, or really begged God to give you direction in a vitally important situation?

A friend of mine and I were talking about how we've experienced Ah Ha moments just as we were waking in the morning or even during the night. I remembered reading that if you are in a dilemma or need to figure something out that you should think about it just as you fell asleep (not worry--I don't think that counts--that causes night mares more than solutions). For example, when I was up at our cabin this week as I fell asleep I was thinking about how to hang a quilt in one of the bedrooms, and sure enough as I woke the next morning I heard the words "button holes" in my head. My subconscious had worked out a way to hang a difficult quilt.

Thinking about that as I fell asleep last night, I said to the Lord "Lord I am stuck--I need a word as to how to proceed. Thanks."

It was funny, as I began to waken early this morning and repeated that request to the Lord I said to Him (and me) I'll just go back to sleep and I know you will direct my thoughts Lord." I nestled back in ready to go back to sleep when words popped into my head.

"Hold Tight".

Okay, so I asked and He definitely answered. And what did I say to Him? Did I immediately answer in faith with "sure thing God, Thanks." No I said in essence "been there and done that" and used it as an excuse to do nothing, are you sure Lord?" I know, sounds pretty silly. After all, I asked and He answered. I knew what God meant immediately--don't go anywhere--wait on Him. But God, being so very patient with me, in His mercy brought some pictures to mind. The first one made me laugh--it was me with a rope lashing myself to Jesus--I wasn't going anywhere. Then it was of a child clinging around the neck of her daddy--"holding on for dear life" as Daddy swam through water and then coming out of the water began to run with me clinging to His back. Then it was me holding on tight to my Daddy's neck!

Wowzer bowzer! What a trip! At first it was a little scary going through the deep end of the pool grasping so hard I thought I might choke Him and then hanging on even tighter as my Dad ran through the forrest at break neck speed dodging tall trees and leaping over huge boulders. Then I realized, just like a child, if I would hold tight and stay one His back, that I would see some amazing things as I felt the "rush" and giddiness of effortlessly running the race. I felt the gleeful feeling of experiencing this amazing race riding comfortably on the back of my trusted Father.

At first I have to say when God said "hold tight" I wasn't a happy camper. I wanted marching orders, I wanted written directions, I want to KNOW GOD! Instead he was telling me to KNOW GOD, to lash myself to Him with the Word of God, to hold tight to Him, throwing my little arms around His broad shoulders and neck, to bury my face in His neck when the road looked overwhelming ahead of us.

It wasn't the word I expected (is it ever fellow travelers?) but it was certainly a good one.

So, take my word as yours today if you need to. Hold Tight!

Hosea 12:6 "So you,(B) by the help of your God, return,
hold fast to love and justice (God)
and wait continually for your God.




I

Casting and Binding

Like many other people I know life has become anything but easy or comfortable lately. Layers of security have been peeled away form our lives leaving us with less security in the world but causing us to lean on the "core" of our lives security. Graciously God does this in most cases in small layers--one at a time (for He is a God of grace and mercy). He does this for our good, to bring us to complete dependence upon Him.

This morning I woke with an overpowering sense of insecurity. My head knew that I had nothing to fear but my heart quaked with fear. Usually, the Holy Spirit rises up within my spirit to combat this enemy of my soul, but today was different. This fear caused a paralysis in me. I now realize the term paralyzed with fear is very real. The most I could do was sit and pray and finish the baby blanket I am knitting.

It is so amazing to me what God uses to touch our spirits, to bring us back to that peace in Him that is just out of our reach sometimes (or so it seems). Today it was the knitting. Being a new knitter I rely on Youtube for my instruction. Having knit more rows than I can say (note to self--fatter yarn, fatter needles next time) I was ready to finish off the blanket. I looked for the videos and found out that this process is called casting off or binding off.

My spirit saw a glimmer of light and I began to look up scriptures about casting and binding.

Here's what I found

1 Peter 5:6-8
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because[a] your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.


1 John 4:17-19
Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us.

Revelation 4:9-11

9 Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:
11 “ You are worthy, O Lord,[a]
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist[b] and were created.”

on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 18:18-19
18 “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19 “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.

So with those scriptures in mind and without further explanation, I will now cast my burdens at the feet of Jesus, cast out fear by loving my Lord, cast away the enemy who seeks to keep me in this place, worship at the throne of God, bind the enemy from my mind through the power of the Holy Spirit and ask the Holy Spirit to empower me to loose myself to walk in freedom.

I will do all this as I cast off those last stitches. I will remember that I ran the race of painstakingly learning to do those stitches. That I must finish the race by casting and binding. I will cast off and bind up this baby blanket (remembering the bundle of joy that it will cuddle soon) and joyfully finish my day.

And for you fellow Tiara Ladies, I will listen to Mary Mary sing Cast the Shackles off my feet so I can dance.

Hugs with prayer for you to have a fear free day.

The King and I: Dancing

Imagine you and the Lord Jesus are walking down the road together. For much of the way, the Lord's footprints go along steadily, consistently, rarely varying the pace. But your footprints are a disorganized stream of zigzags, starts, stops, turnarounds, circles, departures, and returns.For much of the way, it seems to go like this, but gradually your footprints come more in line with the Lord's, soon paralleling His consistently.

You and Jesus are walking as true friends!

This seems perfect, but then an interesting thing happens: Your footprints that once etched the sand next to Jesus' are now walking precisely in His steps.

Inside His larger footprints are your smaller ones; you and Jesus are becoming one.

This goes on for many miles, but gradually you notice another change. The footprints inside the large footprints seem to grow larger. Eventually they disappear altogether.

There is only one set of footprints. They have become one.

This goes on for a long time, but suddenly the second set of footprints is back.

This time it seems even worse! Zigzags all over the place. Stops. Starts. Gashes in the sand. A variable mess of prints.

You are amazed and shocked.

Your dream ends.

Now you pray:
"Lord, I understand the first scene, with zigzags and fits. I was a new Christian; I was just learning. But You walked on through the storm and helped me learn to walk with You."

"That is correct."

"And when the smaller footprints were inside Yours, I was actually learning to walk in Your steps, following You very closely."

"Very good. You have understood everything so far."

“When the smaller footprints grew and filled in Yours, I suppose that I was growing more visibly in your likeness."

"Precisely."

"So, Lord, was there a regression or something? The footprints separated, and this time it was worse than at first." There is a pause as the Lord answers — with a smile in His voice.

"You didn't know? It was then that we danced!"

God's Truth is our Shield and Buckler

Early this morning, as I was in that early morning stage of waking, I felt that creepy, crawly feeling of fear start to niggle at my mind. This has always been the time when the enemy must find me most vulnerable to a fear attack. Fortunately, as I've allowed the Holy Spirit to form and mold me gradually over the years, He rises up within my mind to do battle with the enemy who plays on my weaknesses.

The way that the Holy Spirit usually combats this menace (who seeks to start my day off in fear) is to bring back a specific portion of scripture to my mind. Today that is again what happened. The words of Psalm 91:1-3 came up like a shield against the enemy bringing with it calm and peace--pushing back the arrows of fear.

Many years ago God impressed upon me the desire to memorize His scripture. I would walk and memorize portions of the Bible most every day. Psalm 91 was one that I memorized after hearing a sister in the Lord at our fellowship say that this was the chapter that was getting her through her battle with cancer. Sort of in honor of her fight I chose that scripture to memorize. Although most nights I only hear the first 3 verses, these verses have become my shield against early morning fear attacks.

Today I determined to "refresh" my mind by re-memorizing the rest of the chapter one verse at a time, so Psalm 91:4 is todays refresher verse.

It says,
He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.

Do you ever feel that something you read pops out at you as if it's in neon lights? The words His truth shall be your shield and buckler is that for me.

So I pulled up biblegateway.com to do a little research about the words shield and buckler. I wanted to get a picture in my mind about what that looks like.

A shield and buckler as it turns out is much like it sounds. A protective shield that reflects arrows. As I looked deeper I found out that typically this was a body size shield that completely blocked the body and although it was movable it was quite large and heavy and often stayed stationery during a battle.. A buckler is a small hand held shield that gave the warrior a way to ward off stray arrows.

What an amazing picture! In this chapter of Psalms we have already seen that God is our refuge when we decide to draw close to Him. It is our choice to abide under "the shadow of the Almighty" (verse 1). Then in verse 3 we see what that looks like--God closes his "wings" around us to be our safe refuge. I love this imagery. He covers me and holds me in an embrace that is feather like--sweet and soft.

And yet, the next portion of the verse says that 'His Truth is my shield and buckler". His Truth is a full body shield and a hand held shield. His Truth wards off the arrows of the enemy. His truth protects from the arrows of sin and destruction. His Truth makes sure that we can "abide under the shadow of the Almighty" and be protected from being lead away from the protection of our Lord.

So how do we "abide under the shadow of the Almighty". It's not so difficult. We press in to love God with all our hearts, we lean our heads against his chest and hear His heartbeat. We allow our hearts to beat as one with His. We spend time learning about our precious God just as we would a lover that we are falling in love with for the first time. We put God first in our thoughts and actions because God deserves to be first in our lives. We seek His Truth and we walk in His Way.

Oh how important this is to find the peace that we are offered by God. Tomorrow I will explore verse 5 and why Truth is so important.

May this day be the day when you abide under HIs shadow.

Grow old with me, the best is yet to be....

There are moments in life that God uses to validate and encourage us. Last night was one of those times for me.

John and I decided to spend some time together regularly discussing the vision we believe God has given us for a new business. We are excited because this seems to be the culmination of all the things God has worked into us over almost 37 years of marriage. We look back and see that as pastors encouraging individuals to really know and love God, franchise consultants helping others find the right match in a franchise, life purpose coaches who come along side others to find purpose, and co-business owners, we have been given a unique combination of experiences that have brought us to this point in our lives. Our passions have intersected at a place where our deepest desire is to to encourage individuals to live the life that God has designed them to live and in so doing bring glory to a loving Father God and peace and joy to their lives. We want each individual that God brings into our lives to understand this and help them take steps in the direction of God's purpose for their lives.

So, as we've done several times this week, we got away from the house--computer and books in hand. We'd decided to once again read Tom Patterson's book Living the Life Your were meant to Live which was Katie Brazelton's inspiration for the founding of Life Purpose Coaching Centers where we have our certification as Life Purpose Coaches and Life Plan facilitators.

We had a nice dinner at Liberty Market and then settled on their patio, with books in hand to finish the second chapter of the book. We sat comfortably, each of us quietly finishing the chapters, and then began an enthusiastic discussion about the chapters. We discussed many points in the book that validated what God was already saying to us. What a beautiful thing that we are each a creation of God--unique in our talents, personalities and passions--all given to us by a loving creator who delights in his creation. We chatted about how each individual is designed to have a "calling" to live a joyous life of loving God and through that overflow of love, serve and love others using their "specialness".

As we chatted, the patio emptied of people and a nice young man began to clean up around the patio area and to stack up chairs over to one side. Feeling that we may be hampering his work, and coming to a concluding point in our discussion, we packed up our things to go. The young man insisted that we could stay but we smiled at him and told him thanks but we were ready to go.

The young man stopped us as we started to walk away and asked if we were reading the same book and then discussing what we read. He asked if we often did that. We said yes that was what we were enjoying together and had for 37 years. He then said something sweet "oh I really like that, I want to have that too someday." It made us smile as we walked away. We knew that he didn't just mean reading a book with someone and discussing it.

Early this morning as I woke in the wonderful cool of the early morning I felt the sweet peace of God's blessing. As a couple we have had our ups and some pretty low downs but somehow have stuck together. I guess that's the reward for staying on the roller coaster of life. As John puts it, we can finally see that we are "being conformed to the image of God" in a meaningful way. This morning God reminded me what a huge difference it is making in our lives as we love God more, we love each other more and out of that overflow we love others with an intensity that we've never known before. That's where our "intersecting" passion is these days.

I believe our desires as a couple truly intersect with God's passion that each of his children know him, love Him as he loves them, and realize how he delights in seeing them enjoy their unique design. In so doing, how marvelous it is to be conformed to His image and be a caught up in God's glory.

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!" Robert Browning.

The Church Today in America

Wow! While doing a youtube.com search for Forgotten God by Francis Chan, I ran across this teaching. I am so convicted and very worried by this. Worried for so many people in our American churches. Please watch this all the way through. If you see yourself in anything Pastor Chan says, please spend time with God today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBhqrtMqrv8

Mustard Seed Faith

As I was seeking God in His Word today, I was reminded of Matthew 17:20.

for truly I say to you,if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

This is a topic that we've heard preached quite often in many churches. We all know that the mustard seed is one of the smallest seeds on earth. We also understand that this means that even if we only have a very small amount of faith God will do great things through us.

Here's what popped out at me today. It doesn't say "if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you CAN say to the mountain". It says If you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, you WILL say to the mountain.

Now as they say in The Wizard of Oz, "now that's a horse of a different color."

It is not telling us to muster up faith so that when we want to we can tell a mountain to move. It is saying that if we have that wee little bit of REAL faith in God, then we will exercise that faith to do great things. We won't even stop to think about it, we will feel that gentle prodding (or Holy Spirit shouting in our ears if we've been slow to respond in the past) knowing that God wants to use us to do the miraculous--every day miracles--not necessarily moving a mountain every day, but doing what God has called us to do--be vessels that touch lives DAILY. Yes--we may have to fight through the fear of taking a risk or two--but we will be amazed when we do it.

That speaks to me in a very real way--if I really believe God, if I really trust Him, I will believe what He says. I will believe, have faith, take a risk, and obey what He tells me to do.

Amen and Amen!