1000 Gifts and Counting

We thank you, O God!!  We give thanks because You are near.

Psalm 75:1

I am so thankful for the big and little things as I clean and box up our belongings.  Here are just a few....

1094.  Large paper drawings that kids have drawn for me over the years that have served as the decoration in my bedroom.  Now they have to be preserved in a photo because the original is in bad condition.

1095.  Reminders on white shirts in my closet that this is real - it's not all in my mind or that all this work is for nothing.

1096. Seeing the boxes begin to stack up....

1097.  Friends who come over to help and work with us....that is a blessing as well...that we can work in the same room instead of working seperately throughout the house.....any time together is a blessing

1098. Pizza & slush to reward hard work!
1099. Blackboard where I can write the reminder for our family that we are bringing shalom into this chaos with our hearts and actions and words

 1100.  More friends!  They played the whole time, but that was a blessing too!

1101.  Handmade gifts that are treasured by us, covered in soot, but we are able to get mostly clean. (this head garland was made by Amy Cooper)

1102.  This rainbow silk was made by Amy Cooper and myself when we lived next to one another on Ash Street.

1103.  Risk frenzy in the midst of chaos....kids having game after game....all precipitated by Nater's constant requests of one and all, "Wanna play Risk with me?"

1104.  Seeing Nater decked out in knight/mosquito protection as he shoots bow.

1105.  Lessons God whispers into our situation as I begin in another room and uncover more soot.  How often we want to deny that there is any sin issue we need to address in our life (similar to Ted's insistance that there was nothing out of the ordinary going on in our house when I would complain of the dirty house or carpets) and also how when we start peeling back and taking spiritual stock of our heart - we begin to see how insidious sin really is and how prevealent it is (just like here in the classroom after I took down our 13 colony timeline).  Only then can we do the work to remove it - first we have to see it!

1106.  Amy B. & KC both supporting, praying, listening to me before I had shalom in this chaos
1107.  Yummy meal that Amy brought that we spread out for days!!
1108.  Sunshine - name and the person behind the name who guides me thru this process

 1109.  Jake's music echoing through the house as I work....makes me smile now! His song about time.

1110.  Natalie letting me borrow more Ray Vander Laan to listen to as I work!  Kids are also listening to him in other rooms.
1111.  Changing my focus off self and onto thankfulness and the reminder that in every circumstance I'm building His church and to be bringing shalom into chaos.

1112.  hearing things like "it's like the sky or heaven", "it's white like us after Jesus washed our sins away", "it's like the color of honey because remember Taste and See that the Lord is good!" coming out of my kid's mouths as they try to convince each other what color they should go with for their rooms

1113.  Time in the Word to refresh my soul....helping me to go to Him for all my needs

Hebrews 4:16 

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God.  

There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

1114.  Boys - amazing helpers anytime I ask!

1115.  Farmers Insurance - each time I start working in a new area of the house and see all the soot, I whisper how thankful I am for the insurance company covering this - without their help we'd be stuck living in it.  Which in turn - spurns me on to thank Christ each time as well, for the price He paid to wash my sins aways.....Where would I be without Him????

1116.  Washer, dryer and dishwasher  to clean things - each day all are loaded many times with sooty items to clean - every time I pull out something I'm blown away with thankfulness.

1117.  Chemical sponges - lifesaving tool to clean pictures!

1118.  Exhaustion at the end of the day

1119.  Soot.....I am thankful for it, for how it has reminded me once again of what truly is important in this life - what is lasting - what I want to focus on - not on things but on those He has put in my life to love and care for and for His Word!!

Ties You In Knots

Lately, I've felt tied up in knots because of all that seems to lay on my shoulders to prepare our home and family for what is just around the bend - a restoration company coming in to clean our home from top to bottom of soot.  The other day, as I was trying to help Isaiah and Ben work in their room, while I was working in Maddie & Nate's room, I could hear Jake in his room singing away and playing his guitar.    At one point, as I was rushing to go downstairs, I stopped at his door to tell him something he could do to help, but I held my tongue and just listened (totally the Holy Spirit at work!).  He was recording the drums for a song that he was creating, so I just laid on his bed and listened to the lyrics.  This is the song that he was working on and I think God is soooo COOL that He had Jake working on this song right at this time, right when I needed it!  When the song was over, I asked if he would just play it for me and sing so I could enjoy watching him and he did and I was overcome with emotions once again by how gifted he is and how beautiful it is to watch him sing and play.  The song is light-hearted and yet powerful - I love the lyrics at the end of the chorus: "She's the queen of your life, you don't wind her up, she ties you in knots."  I don't want to live this next week, this next month, any moment of my life - at the mercy of this lady and full of regrets....I want to live in the center of Christ's peace - the peace He gives me as I focus my heart and mind on Him. That is what Jake's music did for me that day - God reminded me through a child where my focus should be.  Since that day, my heart's been lighter - I randomly burst out the chorus as I'm cleaning and boxing and bless God throughout the day for this process, this mess, this home, these children, His Word and His love.

Enjoy and be blessed as well!

V1

Eight-thirty, stop by the nearby coffee shop.

Nine o'clock, head off to work.

And at ten, run through your hair with your ten fingers, again.

Ten thirty, finish the papers

Eleven, sip your cold mocha,

And twelve wish you were home...

Chorus

Typical days, spend them in the same ways in a different place;

Day after day, after day, after day, they all start to look the same.

Now if you look at the clock, you'll see she never stops,

She's the queen of your life, you don't wind her up,

She ties you in knots.

V2

Nine o'clock at night, fighting another fight.

Ten-thirty again, throw off the covers and head for the kitchen

After taking a drink, You head for the sink,

Where you look in the mirror again

Wondering if he'll ever be your friend?

Repeat Chorus~

Bridge:

Cut the days in half and you'll get 12 hours

Cut to the chase 'cause life isn't a race

So stop runnin' off the clock again

Time is a'chasin' we all know it

Twenty-seven thousand two hundred and five days

That's all it takes before you're 75 and still looking at the time

You wonder where did it go

You can let that old clock rule you with it's iron hands

Or you can take a stand

Just be a man

Repeat Chorus~

What Road are You On?

Francis Chan challenges, in a good way, those of us that justify our Middle Road journey, instead of walking just like Jesus walked.

Blessings

These past couple of days have held some really sad and scary events for our family and those we love.  A kind and giving man, who we had the privilege to know for a short time, gave into the enemy's lies, leaving behind so many who miss him and one of our dearest friend's was in a serious accident while on the job and could've died, but instead lives!!  Tonight I couldn't sleep, so I'm praying for our friend, Jeff, and his family and I'm praying for the Bailers and for all those whose lives have been touched by these tragedies and wonder where God is in these circumstances.  My heart is heavy for our church body as well.

I find myself drawn, compelled, to bless God...to bless Him for everything...each day...whether it holds joy or tragedy...He does love us.  This song has been on constant repeat in our home.  Blessings by Laura Story.

We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering

All the while You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near?

What if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise?

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough

And all the while You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near?

And what if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise?

When friends betray us, when darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears?
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You're near?

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst
This world can't satisfy?

And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise?

We Can't Afford to Get It Wrong

The idea that we can understand God's ways or God's thoughts is so humbling, because we cannot...we don't even come close.  The idea that God would not judge anyone to an eternal hell is man's attempt to blind our eyes and close our ears.  Listen to Francis Chan all the way to the end - here is a teacher who humbly encourages everyone to seek the Holy Spirit's guidance through scripture - God's Word...God's thoughts.  This man is a talmid of Jesus.

  

Savoring God's Goodness to Me

Sometimes I feel like I can savor God's goodness to me...like I savor bacon ranch breadsticks from Tom's Pizza...or a Hersey Kiss as it melts in my mouth...or a much needed hug from my husband that just engulfs me.  Last night was one of those nights.  I did my BSF lesson and no "lightening bolts" or epiphanies occurred, went to BSF with my kids and went into my discussion group.  We were studying Isaiah 58 and 59...and came to the question about these verses...

v6 No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free and remove the chains that bind people.  Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and no not hide from relatives who need your help. 

And the Holy Spirit set to work on my heart, removing the scales from my eyes to see more.....if I had to describe it in words, it would be like magic in movies....how the words "imprisoned" "burden" "remove the chains" "hungry" "food" "homeless" "shelter" "hide" "need help" leapt off the page in brilliance and became more than the simple eye sees.  I began to think of those around me that are imprisoned and burdened by chains not visibly, but spiritually.  I thought of those around me who are soo hungry, not for tangible food necessarily but the food I was feasting on - God's Word.  I thought of those around me who are homeless, who don't seem to fit in at church like me and who need God's shelter so desperately.  I thought of how I "hide" from people who need my help - need me to be His LOVE.  I began to jot down those things next to those verses, so as to not let the Holy Spirit's teaching be lost in my daily life.....

Then we went into lecture and again, it was nothing spectacular that Vonnie said (even though she is an awesome teacher), but it was the spectacular work of the Holy Spirit, God's Word and a teachable spirit.  Isaiah 59 went on to say,

"It's your sins that have cut you off from God", 

and where my eyes had been blind before, the scales fell off and I just sat there while Vonnie lectured and pondered the truth of those words in my life.   Do I want to EVER be separated from God or cut off from Him?  Where do I fool myself in not recognizing that every aspect of my life AFFECTS my relationship with God?  Then I took a hard look at my life and all the "relationships" in my life that my sin (my hurt, my anger, my insecurity, my envy, my jealousy, my offense) slips into, which then cause me to react usually by withdrawing and then a rift starts to grow not only in those relationships but also in my relationship with God!  I sat there and filled out a whole notebook page listing areas where my sin creates chasms and then just sat there and wanted to cry at all the distance I was blind to between me and God.  It was a visual of vs 12

"For our sins are piled up before God and testify against us."  

My head (this world...the deceiver) tells me that in those human relationships, I'm doing the best I can and more readily acquiese to the consequences - the distance from people, but when I see them in the light of what it causes between me and God I cannot continue on the same path - I cannot - will not let the Deceiver blind me to the whole truth.

I couldn't wait to get in the car, to hear how God spoke to my kids this night, to share with them how He spoke to me and to seek their forgiveness for spewing poison within their hearing so many times....in my critical comments of others.  In the end I told them, "I love BSF and I think it's a great TOOL, but IT's not the GREAT thing....GOD is the GREAT thing....seeing how the HOLY SPIRIT TEACHES this stubborn heart takes my breath away....experiencing the WORD of GOD coming ALIVE and jumping off the page in brilliant light is the thing that makes me want to shout from the nearest hilltop and tell everyone I see how GREAT HE IS!!!!!"

Is This How the Unchurched see Christians??

I've never understood the whole push to invite people to church on Easter or Christmas....to me the story of God's love relationship with us is so amazing, every Sunday is an amazing opportunity to share with others. But this video is funny!