Fergus, Ontario

This past weekend, a team of 9 people from my church drove up to Fergus, Ontario. We were there to support Tony and Sarah Albano and the vision God has birthed within them for Fergus. It was not only an amazing time in the presence of God, it was also a wonderful time of fellowship with our friends in Canada.

To Fly Again by Gracia Burnham

Gracia Burnham is a popular speaker and the author of In the Presence of My Enemies, the bestselling Gold Medallion Award winner that chronicled the Burnhams' ordeal as hostages of the Abu Sayyaf. She and her late husband, Martin, who was a pilot, served with New Tribes Mission in the Philippines from 1986 to 2001.

"Late at night on December 30, 2003, I was sitting on the couch in my living room thinking about the year wrapping up. The kids were already in bed, the Christmas tree was still glowing in the corner, and the gas fireplace was burning. I had been home from the Phlippines for a little more than eighteen months. What had I accomplished in that length of time?

I started telling myself...

Gracia, you're not spending enough time speaking to groups. You need to be out telling your story. Invitations to churches and other audiences were indeed plentiful.

Gracia, this foundation of yours [which was started to channel money toward mission aviation, tribal mission work, and ministry to Muslims] would really be going places if you'd just put some energry into it. The Christian Community Foundation in Kansas City had done all the legwork, but the public voice for my foundation had to be mine.

Gracia, you're too busy. The kids really need you in these important years. Certainly. Jeff was already a junior in high school, while Mindy was in eighth grade, and Zach in seventh.

Before long I was overwhelmed with the list of what I should be doing. If you are like me, it's easy to get down on yourself for what you haven't done. You look at your recent past, and see one gaping hole after another. You should have taken care of this, and that, and the other...but you didn't. You start to feel like a total waste. Life, one again, is out of control. You are spinning your wheels, going nowhere.

This makes you feel inferior. Your overall impression of yourself plunges. You are just taking up space, consuming food and money, but not making a contribution to your family, your church, your community, your world. A heaviness hangs over your spirit.

For most of us, achievement and the affirmation of others are linked to value. If we don't feel we are accomplishing much, we assume we're not worth much. Considerable numbers of men and women look at their job performance and wince. Doing becomes a measure of being.

What we forget is that God made us with innate value, before we ever did a single thing to prove it. The theologians call this positional truth. Once we have received entrance into God's family, we are totally acceptable to him, even loved by him. We have the right to come boldly into his presence. We have been given eternal life. All of that makes us valuable.

Dozens of times in the New Testament letters we find this somewhat odd phrase: to be "in Christ." It cannot mean a literal insertion into his physical body, of course, like you would say you're living "in Pennsylvania" or swimming "in the lake." It is a metaphor, but a very powerful one, for being enveloped in the essence of Christ and thereby endowed with his attributes. To be "in Christ" includes:

-being alive to God (Romans 6:11)

-being without condemnation (Romans 8:1)

-being loved (Romans 8:39)

-being eligible for resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:22)

-being established (2 Corinthians 1:21)

-being triumphant (2 Corinthians 2:14)

-being a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)

-being free (Galatians 2:4)

-being reconciled with people who are not like you (Ephesians 2:13; 3:6)

-being encouraged and consoled (Philippians 2:1)

-being confident (1 Timothy 3:13)

-in fact...having "every good thing" (Philemon 6, NIV)

These and many more blessings are ours as a result of our association with Christ. They are valuable in their own right. And they set us up to be high achievers in our world. From this base comes the strength to go out into life and be productive.

Just because our value is already established in Christ doesn't mean that we sit back and cease being productive. Instead, we recognize that the key to a Christian's accomplishment is only partly a matter of diligence and initiative and hard work. It is also a matter of being grounded in Christ, of attempting each task "with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need" (Philippians 4:13). This is how we truly achieve.

Even as we rest in the inherent worth that God has given us, we know that someday we will all stand before the Lord for a review of our accomplishments. I think the review will probably be both quantitative (how many things we got done) and qualitative (how well we did them). The Lord will no doubt also ask whether those things were important or trivial. Did our accomplishments matter in the eternal sense?

I hope to give a good account of myself on that day. I certainly will not have achieved everything I hoped to or could have. I know there will be emberassing gaps. But as I live these years with my feet firmly anchored in Christ, I will achieve more than I ever could otherwise. I can face him with confidence and peace."

Gifts

So, one of the coolest things has happened to me this month. When I was fifteen I did a project for my Econ class. The project was to find a "dream car" that we would like to have and research everything about the car. Well, I chose a Porsche Boxster. I tell you what, I was pretty specific on the fact that it had to be yellow. I don't really know why I wanted that color.
Anyway, I liked the idea of having a sports car or something similar to one. So, I prayed for one and would tell people that the first car I would buy would be a sports car. Knowing how much they cost didn't keep me from wanting one, because I knew that God could do anything. At this point I will tell you that it's OK to ask God for things. I think we get into this religious mode that we can't ask God for stuff even if we really want it. Of course God will only give you what He knows you can handle, but He knows the desires of our hearts. Ever since I was little I had no problem asking God for things. Of course I didn't go around being like "God, I want that hat, those shoes, that cat, that candy..." I didn't do that. But, if I really really wanted something I would ask. You know what? God always answered me. I would either get what I asked for or something better. See, it's ok to bring your requests to God. Just don't abuse that priviledge.

But, anyway, so, I have bought my first car. It's a firebird. Completely wow, right??? I mean, I am still blown away by it. Every time I drive in it I feel like I'm driving inside a gift from God and I just sit there and giggle thinking "my Dad really loves me!" I find myself going out to sit in my car to pray now, because it serves as a reminder that God answers prayer.

Listening

Don't let yourself walk through this day without listening to the Lord's voice. He is continually speaking. You will find that He even has input for your every-day-decisions.

He Sees You

Don't run away,
Don't let yourself fade away,
If you could see yourself the way He sees you now,
You'd see His love,
So don't hide away,
Don't let yourself break away,
His arms are strong enough to hold and lift you up,
You'll feel His love, So don't run away
-Ana Laura-

I have been listening to this new cd that I bought for work and it's by a Christian artist named Ana Laura. There is this particular song that speaks to me every time I listen to it, especially the line in the chorus that reads "If you could see yourself the way He sees you now." So many times we see our weaknesses and scowl, we abuse ourself mentaly for messing up, and we have such a hard time seeing how anyone could even think of us as good Christians. But, God looks at us when we have tears running down our faces when we are hurting and broken and instead of turning away because our eyes are puffy and our face is red, He sighs because He sees beauty. We look at the ashes and He sees the beauty that will be formed there. No matter what we do, we can't change how He feels about us. Those moments when you're driving alone down those back-roads, just taking a cruise away from the hustle and bustle and mess of the day, and you gasp "I can't do this anymore; everything is falling apart, including me..." He is staring at you, looking past the "stuff" you are so focused on and seeing YOU. We just tend to ignore the words "I love you..." that are repeated constantly to us.
Whatever you are facing/going through today, close your eyes to how YOU would see yourself and open your eyes to how HE sees you. The things you thought were so huge may suddenly fade completely away.

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise Him,
my Savior and my God.
(Psalm 42:11)

The Gift of Prophecy - Jack Deere

Here are some main points from this book that I thought you would like to read:



Why does God speak to his people, especially to his prophets, in visionary language? Why not just sit them down in a comfortable chair with a cup of coffee and put the message into their minds?
Because there is more to us than just a mind. We are also spirit and flesh. And we have emotions that powerfully affect our behavior. Sometimes a pictures is worth a thousand words. Where we might ignore a worn-out warning, a graphic dream can shake us out of a complacent state. Or a vision of future joy may cause us to endure a present hardship long after we would have forgotten a prosaic promise.
We also live in a world that is filled with mystery and with other spiritual beings very different from us. And although we are created in God's image, bearing a certain similarity to him, he is infinitely more dissimilar (see Isa. 55:8-9). There are realms of truth and experience that transcend human understanding. God's mysterious visitations and visions allow us to experience these realms.




DISCERNING GOD'S VOICE:


Jesus used stories about everyday life to reveal divine truth. God will illumine anything in the natural world to speak to us if we have trained our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and our hearts to receive.



God sometimes speaks through "fleeces" (see Judg. 6:36-40). I think it can be appropriate to lay out a fleece when we have to make a decision, especially when we have come to an impasse. We have prayed and waited, but we are still uncertain.
I have three cautions regarding this method of proving God's will. First, make sure the fleece is supernatural and cannot be manipulated by anyone concerned in the decision. Second, use fleeces sparingly and as a last resort. Excessive use of fleeces indicates a view of God that makes him more like a personal genie than a sovereign, almighty God. If we succumb to that view of God, it will lead to a loss of intimacy with him. Third, remember that fleeces are a lower, less personal form of revelation. When we use a fleece, we are confessing either that God has not spoken to us, or that we could not hear him with our hearts, or that what he did say to us has not given us the confidence to act.



There is no spiritual experience that will eliminate our need to walk by faith every single day.



Since it is the Father's holy love that lies behind all revelation, sending it, protecting it, and interpreting it, we must become immersed in that love. For God will trust his secrets and the secrets of others to those who love him and all that he has created.




1)The Bible is the first test through which our subjective experience must pass. If my impression contradicts the Bible, then I discard it.
2)Although the voice of God may contradict one or our interpretations of Scripture, it will never contradict the Bible, no matter what our hearts tell us.
3)His words bring Hope, not Despair.
4)We must learn to recognize the character of the Lord's voice.
5)If we read the Bible with the illumination of the Holy Spirit, we will learn to recognize the character of the Lord's voice.
6)If we are following the voice of God, we can expect to experiance the fruit of the Spirit, especially peace (see Phil. 4:9).



If God's thoughts and acts differ enormously from ours, two indisputable facts follow. First, the most important things in life can only be understood by divine revelation. The unaided human intellect, no matter how brilliant, will not be able to penetrate the ways of God. Second, when the divine revelation comes, it may seem wrong to us initially.



These four tests of the voice (that is speaking to us)-Scripture, its character, its fruit, and its content-help us to recognize God's voice. But perhaps you've already noticed these tests have a fatal flaw. That flaw lies in the human heart that tries to use these tests for its own benefit.




EMBRACING OUR WEAKNESS:

A current-day prophet: "The Lord put the gift (of prophecy) into a plain vessel so the people would never confuse the two, never be tempted to give the glory to me instead of to God.""The price I pay for my gift is living with the disappointment of people and enduring the embarrassment of being deserted by the anointing." (This was said to Jack Deere when Paul Cain was explaining to him why God doesn't always use him.)



1)Paul Cain had learned the same secret as the apostle Paul-the power of Christ rests on the people who embrace their weaknesses (see 2 Cor. 12:9-10).
2)Many of us are distressed by our weaknesses, viewing them as permanent liabilities. But humble people see their weaknesses as opportunities for the power of Christ to rest on them.
3)The Scripture declares that the humble hear and understand the voice of God.
4)Humility is one of the main character qualities of all great prophets. Humility is the pathway to intimacy with God.
5)If we are humble, God will "look" on us, that is, be intimate with us. If we are proud, we will not hear his voice. He will deal with us at a distance.
6)Humility is not the denial of our attributes. It is believing in our hearts that our best qualities are not good enough to cause us to deserve God's attention, or even to gain us the lowest position of service to him.
7)Humility is seeing ourselves not in comparison with one another but in the light of God's greatness.
8)Humility is almost always acquired in the desert. The desert is the cure for both personal and prophetic pride. The greater the prophetic gifting, the greater and more severe the time in the desrt will be. Welcome the desert. It means the gift of humility is being imparted and that promotion or restoration is on the way.

Encouragement

I was thinking about what to write today and all I keep remembering is a conversation I had the other day. I was telling someone how I tend to get really emotional when I see someone living their dream/call/within their gifting. It's so wonderful seeing a friend lead worship for the first time, dance after a long break from dancing, and just doing what they have always wanted to do and are annointed to do. I know that God has called me to encourage people. I love doing it, because cheering people on has the greatest rewards. I can stand back and holding back my tears of joy for them and silently shouting "YES, your living it!" in my spirit for my friends. We are all called to encourage each other. Find apportunities today to lift up someone whether in person or in prayer.

The Challenge

So, I have been taking classes this semester and I am still getting used to my new schedule and learning to balance work, classes, homework, church and so on. For the past two weeks I have felt my mind being stretched and for some reason it's just about wearing me out. When I am tired I tend to act really spacy. Someone can say something to me and I will just start laughing and they'll ask me what I am laughing at when what they said wasn't meant to be funny. That's always emberassing. The best is when you are in the middle of a conversation and something in your brain just sort of shuts down and you are pretty much sitting there sleeping with your eyes open.
I'm pretty much induring my business class. I know when I am called into certain things and I KNOW I am not called to be in business. I know it's not meant to be boring, but for me...it goes above and beyond boring. Listening about trade & tariffs, business ethics, economy & politics for long periods of time just doesn't really interest me. It may interest you and all power to you, but it just sort of hits a wall in my brain.
Something that really cracks me up is the fact that I really enjoy my accounting class (bizzare as it sounds) and even though my professor is adament about assigning at least 5hrs. worth of homework every class I actually look foward to the moment when something clicks in my head and seriously I get up from the dining room table all excited, taking a bow after figuring out yet another long night's homework, thanking the invisible audience for putting up with my frustrated sighs, tapping pencil and calculator. It feels great after hours of work and about 5 cups of hot green tea to grin down at the completed worksheets, knowing that everything is balanced and in right order. Yes, I find odd things thrilling. Hey, at least I am enjoying this stuff. I seriously doubt I could make it through the next few semesters if I didn't like accounting. In fact, I KNOW I wouldn't make it if I didn't hold some odd fascination for it. The great part is that when I start getting into something I REALLY get into it and I am not satisfied until I know it backwards and forwards. I like a challenge!

My Vacation

My Uncle Mark and My Grandfather

This Crazy Goose Who Was Sitting In It's Water Bowl At The Petting Zoo

The Bamboo Forest and My Cousin Noah

The Crazy Goose Again...And The Petting Zoo...Some Petting Zoo...There's Nothing To Pet

My Grandmother In The Gardens

I Love Random Pictures

I Don't Know Who This Little Girl Was But She Was So Cute, So I Took A Picture

My Grandfather and Myself Standing Beside The Breechway That Leads Out To The Ocean

My Grandmother and Myself By The Breechway Again

I Think My Grandmother Was Saying Something....

The Other Two People Are My Aunt Aggie and Uncle Billie...They Were Always Like Grandparents To Me...They Called Me Princess...Look What It's Done To Me - Gone To My Head!!!!

The Few Nights That We Spent At The Breechway (We Slept In A New Camper/RV) Were Beautiful With Amazing Sunsets Every Night

I Loved Taking Pictures Of My Cousin and I Think He Really Liked It Too!


My Aunt Susan

My Cousin, Noah, Only Has One Arm, But If You Met Him You Would See That He Doesn't Let That Stop Him From Being A Wonderful Five-Year-Old Boy Who Plays Soccer On His School Team, Swims Like A Fish (He Had Me Swimming With Him For Hours And He Never Gets Tired!!!), And He Is Really Strong
The River Fires On A Saturday Night In Providence
I Bought Noah A Light Saber At A Booth...I Think He Fancied Himself To Be A Jedi
The State Capitol Building In Rhode Island
Playing Pirates!!! Arrrrrrrr!!!

Noah Couldn't Stop Hugging Me! I Told Him That I Don't Think I Have Ever Been Hugged So Much In My Life and He Asked "Why?" Like It Was The Saddest Thing He Had Ever Heard



My Frog Friend...I Saved His Life!!! We Swam Together For A Little While, But He Could Have Died If He Stayed In That Water


Sorry, I Did NOT Kiss The Frog....I'm Not Looking For A Prince....I Like the Regular Guys!

Questions

Do you ever have those moments when "what in the world was I thinking?" runs through your head like a blinking neon sign? Today I had one of those moments. But, instead of initially asking myself that, I instead asked God, "What in the world were you thinking? I wasn't ready for that! Didn't you know that?" Of course asking God those types of questions is like asking a wall if it's a wall or a rock why it doesn't walk around. Those are silly questions to ask when you know the obvious answers, but those moments saying out loud what you are thinking in your head make you see how silly those types of questions really are.