Spurring On........

I don't know about you, but I need to be encouraged and spurred on constantly! I need to be immersed and saturated in all that God has for me daily, hourly and even moment by moment. And if I am not getting happy in the Lord or my fellowship with Him isn't growing deeper and richer, well then something ain't right!! I like how Joseph Prince says it, "If you don't preach grace radically, then your lives won't be radically blessed, radically transformed!" It's so true! I need to be exhorted regularly in the grace of God. All my life was spent learning in a legalistic, what to do for God way! When all along, God just wanted to be in a personal loving intimate relationship with me! He's like okay I can give you a way to live for me, (the Law) but that's not what I want, that's what you want because you are afraid of My Awesome Presence, too afraid to enter in to My Almighty Power! But He knows we can't live for Him, and that's just not the point of our Christian life anyway! So, for me, I want to be taught and encouraged in my friendship with God. My pursuit of His Presence is my # 1 priority! I don't want to know about God, I want to know Him and you know what, He wants to know me too! Awesome! Just this morning I was sitting thinking about all of this, and I sensed a peace wash over me for a few minutes, and I closed my eyes and imagined God standing there, His shadow over me and Him reaching out his hands and caressing my face! Just thinking about it now makes me melt! God you delight in me!!! How can this be!
The more I hear from pulpits about how to live right, and what to do for God, the more it just takes me away from knowing Him a bit, because apart from knowing He loves me and accepts me, I can't live for Him! I want to live in a way that pleases and honors Him, when I am brought to a confidence in Him, and His Amazing Love. His love alters me dramatically, His love invigorates me to love and to live in a way that pleases and honors Him! Knowing I am already absolutely Loved and accepted and that nothing I can do, will do or have done, can EVER change that fact, makes my heart sing and gives me a deep passion and eagerness to be ready to hear His voice and honor Him in all of life!!! Whoa! My faith is deepened when I am in pursuit of Him and He meets me. He touches me tenderly and speaks lovingly to me, reassuringly! Only He can give me what I need to live a life that pleases Him!!!!
That said, let us spur one another on in Love, He is Love....Let's encourage one another in pursuing Him, as we pursue Him and spend time in His Presence, genuine friendship and fellowship with Him, we can then out of the overflow of our hearts bursting with joy from His touch on our lives, speak, encourage, love, do ........all this can bless others only by His transforming Life impacting ours first.....We can love others because of first fostering a love with HIm, all because He is Love and He has loved us since before the foundations of the world.......if you don't understand the Love of the Father, if you aren't so deeply blessed and marveling in His love and Great Grace for you and towards you, how can love flow through you to others, which in essence is the summation of the Law and the Prophets and in the New Covenant the one way we can fully obey Christ, by loving one another! You see it's all by Him, through Him and for Him! How can we think we can do anything for Him apart from Him! We get to take part in what He is doing and that to me is so cool, God loves me and wants me to love others and take part in His glorious plan to spread His love to all the world........
Getting a grip on God's excessive grace and vast Love and continually being drenched in it, has the Power to dramatically alter your life........!!! Don't settle for anything less .......

Spurring On........

I don't know about you, but I need to be encouraged and spurred on constantly! I need to be immersed and saturated in all that God has for me daily, hourly and even moment by moment. And if I am not getting happy in the Lord or my fellowship with Him isn't growing deeper and richer, well then something ain't right!! I like how Joseph Prince says it, "If you don't preach grace radically, then your lives won't be radically blessed, radically transformed!" It's so true! I need to be exhorted regularly in the grace of God. All my life was spent learning in a legalistic, what to do for God way! When all along, God just wanted to be in a personal loving intimate relationship with me! He's like okay I can give you a way to live for me, (the Law) but that's not what I want, that's what you want because you are afraid of My Awesome Presence, too afraid to enter in to My Almighty Power! But He knows we can't live for Him, and that's just not the point of our Christian life anyway! So, for me, I want to be taught and encouraged in my friendship with God. My pursuit of His Presence is my # 1 priority! I don't want to know about God, I want to know Him and you know what, He wants to know me too! Awesome! Just this morning I was sitting thinking about all of this, and I sensed a peace wash over me for a few minutes, and I closed my eyes and imagined God standing there, His shadow over me and Him reaching out his hands and caressing my face! Just thinking about it now makes me melt! God you delight in me!!! How can this be!
The more I hear from pulpits about how to live right, and what to do for God, the more it just takes me away from knowing Him a bit, because apart from knowing He loves me and accepts me, I can't live for Him! I want to live in a way that pleases and honors Him, when I am brought to a confidence in Him, and His Amazing Love. His love alters me dramatically, His love invigorates me to love and to live in a way that pleases and honors Him! Knowing I am already absolutely Loved and accepted and that nothing I can do, will do or have done, can EVER change that fact, makes my heart sing and gives me a deep passion and eagerness to be ready to hear His voice and honor Him in all of life!!! Whoa! My faith is deepened when I am in pursuit of Him and He meets me. He touches me tenderly and speaks lovingly to me, reassuringly! Only He can give me what I need to live a life that pleases Him!!!!
That said, let us spur one another on in Love, He is Love....Let's encourage one another in pursuing Him, as we pursue Him and spend time in His Presence, genuine friendship and fellowship with Him, we can then out of the overflow of our hearts bursting with joy from His touch on our lives, speak, encourage, love, do ........all this can bless others only by His transforming Life impacting ours first.....We can love others because of first fostering a love with HIm, all because He is Love and He has loved us since before the foundations of the world.......if you don't understand the Love of the Father, if you aren't so deeply blessed and marveling in His love and Great Grace for you and towards you, how can love flow through you to others, which in essence is the summation of the Law and the Prophets and in the New Covenant the one way we can fully obey Christ, by loving one another! You see it's all by Him, through Him and for Him! How can we think we can do anything for Him apart from Him! We get to take part in what He is doing and that to me is so cool, God loves me and wants me to love others and take part in His glorious plan to spread His love to all the world........
Getting a grip on God's excessive grace and vast Love and continually being drenched in it, has the Power to dramatically alter your life........!!! Don't settle for anything less .......

a testimony of His Grace....

So, today I was reflecting on this past year and remembering where my family and I were at a year ago this time. Last year this time we were going through a really difficult time(what seemed like hell to me) in our marriage, as well as job, home and other issues. I had left my husband in one state and moved to another with my kids, and was very pregnant!  Our finances were scary and we needed to sell our house! I struggled greatly with fear for our future. I was convinced there was no way my husband would change and I would end up a single mom with 4 kids to feed!! (actually that was my emotions talking to me, in my heart of hearts I knew God could triumph over our situation!) I was an emotional wreck!  I wouldn't even speak to my husband because every time we spoke we just got in a fight! Part of the problem became me laying a ton of expectations on him as a sort of list of remedies, so to speak. The more he tried the more I wanted of him and he eventually became very overwhelmed and depressed, as did I. I realize now, how self-righteous I had been with him in many ways. I was holding up a bar to high for him to reach, and honestly it wasn't at all what God wanted from him......He just wanted his heart, and mine so he could have a relationship with us. Instead of us trying to "be" a certain way, or acheive certain "godly" attributes in our marriage relationship.

I remember at some point we had a break through and began to relate and talk over some Scriptures we were reading independently of each other, but they were the same Scriptures. We were so encouraged by what we were learning and that the Lord was showing us the same things at the same time. I think that was the beginning of us communicating again and we eventually worked our way toward living together again and going to counciling. (which by the way did not help at all!)

Anyway, this is an abbreviated version of what fully happened, but I share it only to boast in God's goodness, faithfulness and Awesome Grace! I believe it was this time last year he planted a seed of His Love in our heart that began to grow over the course of the year and has now become a good sized plant, if you ask me! We did not do one single thing in our own effort that got us to this place of peace, joy and restoration! In fact when we did try to make things better, we only made things worse and failed miserably! Now we just continue to bask in His Grace and let it do the work in our hearts which eventually flows out through our actions and speech! We are in a Great place compared to a year ago! We are the best we have ever been! It's quite amazing actually. Freeing! To just rest in God knowing He will live His life through us and we just allow it and cooperate with the Spirit! How cool is that!!!! God is way too COOL! 

(oh and a side effect, we can't stop talking about God, and all that He is teaching us and we enjoy being together sharing our hearts with each other, it is so rich!) Praise God for His faithful pursuit of us, for capturing our hearts so fully with His Lavish, wonderful, amazing, sweet, fabulous, totally GREAT GRACE!!!!!  Thank You LORD!!!

a testimony of His Grace....

So, today I was reflecting on this past year and remembering where my family and I were at a year ago this time. Last year this time we were going through a really difficult time(what seemed like hell to me) in our marriage, as well as job, home and other issues. I had left my husband in one state and moved to another with my kids, and was very pregnant!  Our finances were scary and we needed to sell our house! I struggled greatly with fear for our future. I was convinced there was no way my husband would change and I would end up a single mom with 4 kids to feed!! (actually that was my emotions talking to me, in my heart of hearts I knew God could triumph over our situation!) I was an emotional wreck!  I wouldn't even speak to my husband because every time we spoke we just got in a fight! Part of the problem became me laying a ton of expectations on him as a sort of list of remedies, so to speak. The more he tried the more I wanted of him and he eventually became very overwhelmed and depressed, as did I. I realize now, how self-righteous I had been with him in many ways. I was holding up a bar to high for him to reach, and honestly it wasn't at all what God wanted from him......He just wanted his heart, and mine so he could have a relationship with us. Instead of us trying to "be" a certain way, or acheive certain "godly" attributes in our marriage relationship.

I remember at some point we had a break through and began to relate and talk over some Scriptures we were reading independently of each other, but they were the same Scriptures. We were so encouraged by what we were learning and that the Lord was showing us the same things at the same time. I think that was the beginning of us communicating again and we eventually worked our way toward living together again and going to counciling. (which by the way did not help at all!)

Anyway, this is an abbreviated version of what fully happened, but I share it only to boast in God's goodness, faithfulness and Awesome Grace! I believe it was this time last year he planted a seed of His Love in our heart that began to grow over the course of the year and has now become a good sized plant, if you ask me! We did not do one single thing in our own effort that got us to this place of peace, joy and restoration! In fact when we did try to make things better, we only made things worse and failed miserably! Now we just continue to bask in His Grace and let it do the work in our hearts which eventually flows out through our actions and speech! We are in a Great place compared to a year ago! We are the best we have ever been! It's quite amazing actually. Freeing! To just rest in God knowing He will live His life through us and we just allow it and cooperate with the Spirit! How cool is that!!!! God is way too COOL! 

(oh and a side effect, we can't stop talking about God, and all that He is teaching us and we enjoy being together sharing our hearts with each other, it is so rich!) Praise God for His faithful pursuit of us, for capturing our hearts so fully with His Lavish, wonderful, amazing, sweet, fabulous, totally GREAT GRACE!!!!!  Thank You LORD!!!

Revelation begins.......

In the midst of my crisis of this past summer, I was able to get away and have peace, quiet and rest!!! I traveled to our home in NY with my children and my mom to relax, enjoy the country and think. I was so grateful our home hadn't sold yet, it was an opportunity for solice in a way I never experienced before. I remembered being given the impression earlier in the year that our home wouldn't sell until September, and secretly hoping I was right, but not exactly sure why. Over the course of the year God had been revealing His grace to me in a way I had never understood before. I had read the book, "Love That Walked Among Us", and was blown away by Jesus! I fell in love with Jesus like never before! This only awakened my genuine hunger for more of God! I then read a book by Terry Virgo, given to me by a friend, entitled "God's Lavish Grace." This really caught my attention! I wanted more, I wanted to fully understand grace, not just in my head, but with my whole being. Anyway, during the first few days in N.Y., I had much angst to expel and God just soothed me into his peace and rest by the end of the first week or so. One day I remember reading a portion of "God's Lavish Grace", and something struck me, my eyes grew wide and my heart opened wide and I felt my whole body just sigh with relief. I smiled with joy and great peace for the first time in a long time.
What I read was the story of Elijah, when he ran away into the wilderness in desperation and fear. He asked the Lord to let him die! What blew me away was how God cared for him! How God first met his humanly physical needs, and gave him rest, and fed him by his hand. He tenderly cared for him, he knew Elijah's limitations and met him where he was at, and not until he was fully strengthened again did God speak up. He simply said, "Elijah, what are you doing here?" He wasn't angry at him, nor was he disappointed. He is God, he knew why Elijah was there, but he gave him his ear, he extended much grace, instead of being disappointed in him, or telling him he hadn't made the best decision. Can I just tell you how relieved I was? I was so fearful I was wrong for running away, or in sin, or not trusting God enough. But, I felt God telling me, "It's okay, I know you need a break, I know you need to rest and experience some peace for a change." What a revelation for me to experience, I was so grateful to begin to understand God's love. To know that He in fact was not unhappy with me at all. He wanted to give me rest! I had been so sin conscious, so driven to do the "right" things for so many years, I honestly didn't believe God would be okay with my latest decision to essentially escape. I had too many voices trying to get me to stay and stick it out. But God knew what I needed in my most dire hour and he granted it and ordained it to come to pass. How awesome and how kind of him!
So this is just the beginnings of His revelation of His Awesome Grace to me...actually I believe he had started opening my eyes a year and a half before and slowly, slowly in the midst of all this turmoil, little by little, I began to desire to be all about Grace...but it wasn't until this summer that I truly began to have a heart transformation and come to grasp these awesome truths fully......!!!

..there's more, so stay tuned! (It just gets better!)

Revelation begins.......

In the midst of my crisis of this past summer, I was able to get away and have peace, quiet and rest!!! I traveled to our home in NY with my children and my mom to relax, enjoy the country and think. I was so grateful our home hadn't sold yet, it was an opportunity for solice in a way I never experienced before. I remembered being given the impression earlier in the year that our home wouldn't sell until September, and secretly hoping I was right, but not exactly sure why. Over the course of the year God had been revealing His grace to me in a way I had never understood before. I had read the book, "Love That Walked Among Us", and was blown away by Jesus! I fell in love with Jesus like never before! This only awakened my genuine hunger for more of God! I then read a book by Terry Virgo, given to me by a friend, entitled "God's Lavish Grace." This really caught my attention! I wanted more, I wanted to fully understand grace, not just in my head, but with my whole being. Anyway, during the first few days in N.Y., I had much angst to expel and God just soothed me into his peace and rest by the end of the first week or so. One day I remember reading a portion of "God's Lavish Grace", and something struck me, my eyes grew wide and my heart opened wide and I felt my whole body just sigh with relief. I smiled with joy and great peace for the first time in a long time.
What I read was the story of Elijah, when he ran away into the wilderness in desperation and fear. He asked the Lord to let him die! What blew me away was how God cared for him! How God first met his humanly physical needs, and gave him rest, and fed him by his hand. He tenderly cared for him, he knew Elijah's limitations and met him where he was at, and not until he was fully strengthened again did God speak up. He simply said, "Elijah, what are you doing here?" He wasn't angry at him, nor was he disappointed. He is God, he knew why Elijah was there, but he gave him his ear, he extended much grace, instead of being disappointed in him, or telling him he hadn't made the best decision. Can I just tell you how relieved I was? I was so fearful I was wrong for running away, or in sin, or not trusting God enough. But, I felt God telling me, "It's okay, I know you need a break, I know you need to rest and experience some peace for a change." What a revelation for me to experience, I was so grateful to begin to understand God's love. To know that He in fact was not unhappy with me at all. He wanted to give me rest! I had been so sin conscious, so driven to do the "right" things for so many years, I honestly didn't believe God would be okay with my latest decision to essentially escape. I had too many voices trying to get me to stay and stick it out. But God knew what I needed in my most dire hour and he granted it and ordained it to come to pass. How awesome and how kind of him!
So this is just the beginnings of His revelation of His Awesome Grace to me...actually I believe he had started opening my eyes a year and a half before and slowly, slowly in the midst of all this turmoil, little by little, I began to desire to be all about Grace...but it wasn't until this summer that I truly began to have a heart transformation and come to grasp these awesome truths fully......!!!

..there's more, so stay tuned! (It just gets better!)