Questions from the Spirit late in the night

1 Kings 19:8-13
8 So he got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God, 9 where he lived in a cave.
But the Lord said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
10 He replied, "I have worked very hard for the Lord God of the heavens; but the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you and torn down your altars and killed your prophets, and only I am left; and now they are trying to kill me too."
11 "Go out and stand before me on the mountain," the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain; it was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, there was the sound of a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his scarf and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.
And a voice said, "Why are you here, Elijah?" TLB

Why am I here?
Why do I desire the fire and power of God to be shown to me in all His might and miraculous glory when He shows me so often that he speaks softly?

Isa 30:21-221 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." NIV

Blessing of Faith

Romans 12:3 For by the grace given me I say to everyone of you: Do not think of yourself more highly that you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

I've started writing down verses that I want to commit to memory on a large dry erase board. The verse quoted above is the last one on the board, perfectly positioned so that I caught the words "God has given you" as I got up from my computer to feed my son Gideon. God has given you. I was suddenly caught, holding a child that I love so much, a gift from God, surrounded by blessings. I read the rest of the verse and further realized that even my faith in the source of my blessings comes from the Father.

66. Thank you Lord for my faith. For the renewal you offer of my faith in the evidence of your creation and in the inspiration of your word. Thank you for the reminder of your gift this day.

Little blessings

60. My son's new thomas the train shirt. Well not the shirt per se, but the way he reacted to it. His new shirt has a little button that when pressed makes the train whistles and chugga chugga sound. Alden put on that shirt, pressed the button, and ran around for five minutes shouting that he was a train, chugga chuggin everywhere.
61. How when you tickle babies, they kinda scrunch up and their face is a mix of laughter and 'what is this!'.
62. My nineteen month old trying to pronounce her brothers name. Gideon. Gi-da-ohh. She's getting there.
63. How my five month old twins already cant stand for the other one to have the toy when they want it. It's funny to see a five month old steal.
64. The angel that protects my daughter. She is such a climber!
65. Bringing my son a flower, the funny way he tries to sniff it, and his exclamation, "that tastes beautiful, mama!"

6 degrees

Ever heard of that six degrees of separation rule? Sure you have, you probably heard about it from your husband, who heard about it from his boss, who heard about it from their best friend, who heard about it from their mother-in-law who heard about it from their choir leader who heard about it from their barber, the same one who cuts (insert famous person) hair. Its the rule that says everyone is connected to everyone else by six people. You are only six people away from the Pope, the President, the CEO of Microsoft, and Billy Graham. Isn't that amazing?
Now think what that means for us as Christians. We as a body of Christ are all only six people away from each other. What a great design plan by God. Now factor in the Holy Spirit and be awed at how connected we are. In fact, instead of six degrees of separation, I'll call it the six degrees of God connection. I know that I've experienced this connectedness, in fact, I was inspired to write this blog because of something that happened to me today. Just yesterday I was on my myspace page where one of my friends is Jesus. Now I know some people think that someone is being really irreverent to make a myspace page in Jesus's name, but the author of it in no way involves himself as an entity or pretends to be Jesus. As he explains in his blog on his page, he just wanted to give a space to Jesus for evangelistic purposes and to be able to give people, like me, the chance to have Jesus in their friends list. And I love having Jesus in my number one friend spot.
Anyway, I saw that Jesus had updated his page and went to go look at what he had done. I clicked over to his page and saw a video called just stop and think, which turned out to be just about the best evangelistic video I've ever seen, done by Pastor Francis Chan of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California. I wondered if he'd done any other videos and watched some sermons of his on youtube. Just fantastic stuff. I loved his lukewarm and loving it sermon. The way he described how when we are lukewarm and love the things of this world more than God it makes Jesus want to gag will stick with me the next time I think something material can ever compare to the things of God. I wanted to hear more of his sermons so I went to the website of his church, found their sermons page and started listening to his Intimacy with God series that he did back in 2005. It's just an amazing series, especially since it echoes alot of where the Spirit has been leading my studies these past few months. It's a call to love God intensly, to be in love with God. In my own life, I've felt so led to learn more and more about His nature, His Son, His Sacrifice, and His Spirit and to live as he commands. To see a Pastor have such an obvious love relationship with our creator and to have him communicate it so well is a blessing to his church and to the body of believers. So what does this have to do with the rule of six degrees? I'll get there.
I spent the morning listening to Pastor Chan's stuff. In the evening I went to one of my favorite websites, Holy Experience, Ann Voskamps blog. And guess what is on her blog, published there as of today? A clip of one of Pastor Chans sermons from youtube! Ok, so a skeptic could say "So? Its possible that she's known about Pastor Chan for a long time, that doesnt have to be from the some sorta intra-body connectedness thing." It's not just a coincidence. Because she linked two clips from Pastor Chan. The other clip she linked is from his Intimacy with God series done all the way back in 2005! The clip was used on her A Childs Geography Website and guess what, it also was posted just today. I was blown away. How cool is that?! That screams God to me, about how interconnected the body is, and how He designed it to be that way. Because of a Christian I found the pastor. A fellow Christian and I both watched the Pastor on the same day. The Sister in Christ lives in Canada and I live in Massachusetts and the Pastor is in Southern California. I love the internet. And I really love what God does through the internet.
And I love it when God talks to me or does nifty stuff in my life. And then I was thinking on the 'coincidence' and how cool it was when I remembered about the six degrees of separation. And I realized that God had pointed out the connections that can happen to me for a reason. He was pointing out to me how I'm a member of the body of Christ, even when I'm seperate from having an actual place of worship. The story of why my husband and I dont have a chuch to call our own is long and will probably be another blog. Or a book. But I've been praying and asking God to make me a part of the larger body again. To give us a place to worship with other believers and a way to get there. And God went and showed me how I'm connected to the body in a spiritual sense. The six degrees of God connection works through the internet too!
Another really cool aspect of being six people away from everyone is that it means that unbelievers are only six people away from a Christian. I think thats comforting and proves to me that if a person desires to know God, then God can easily open the door for knowledge to get to him. All some unbeliever in Laos or China or Algeria has to do is acknowledge the great and awesome Creator that made nature and desire to know more. God is then faithful to get that knowledge to them, He says that His voice goes to the ends of the earth.
So what am I saying. I'm saying that the world is really small. And everyone on it is connected to each other. But unlike the Hippies and communications experts, I'm saying that our connections are designed and fostered by God. Thanks God for showing me how awesome your plan is and how we are all interconnected for your glory.

Blessings

51. the book of proverbs

52. my knowledge that bad days are a gift from God too. I need to be refined by fire.

53. how Jesus always knew what to say and do. He never has goofs or whoopsies. He always treats people in the best manner possible.

54. Pastors who never charge for their teachings. And not just because that makes alot of stuff available to me for free. I love when you can see the fruit of faith and it's benefit to the body.

55. comfy chairs.

56. news organizations like Compass Direct, Missions News Network, and the Baptist Press.

57. my kids have so many toys.

58. my pantry is full of things I can feed my kids.

59. they have well put together, cute clothes that I love to take pictures of them in

60. I marvel at how blessed my babies are when I think of the poverty so many other children live in. I'm glad God has taught me the proper viewpoint to be able to teach them about their abundant blessings.

A shining light in a small container

I was reading an article from Compass Direct about a young girl, only 13, who was dragged away from her house and raped by five men in the middle of the night in Bangladesh. She was then left for her Father, a local pastor responsible for bringing 25o souls to Christ, and family to find the next morning on their lawn. It's not just because I have two daughters that tears sprang to my eyes. It's not just because of the horrible tragedy of innocence and purity lost. A sentence leaped out at me when I was reading.
"Elina Das has identified two of the rapists and could identify the others if she saw them or their pictures, said Das[the father]."
Young Elina had the courage to identify who attacked her. Her courage is amazing when you consider that she is so young, just went through something horrific, and her family is in danger. The police, authorities that we teach our young people to trust, even went and heaped insult onto that small hurting soul.
“Police told me that it was a false case,” Das said. “They also said that it was a fabricated drama. Police spoke with my daughter in filthy language and showed prurient interest in the details of the incident in front of us rather than filing the case quickly.”
And she still spoke out to who did this too her. I see the strength only God can bring in this girl. It is only because of God that when we are weak, we can be strong. To have such trust in the Lord when so young is beautiful.
Lord, may I raise my children to know you and stand firm in your strength in the harshest of tragedies. I pray that you will encourage, heal, and strengthen Elina Das and her family that they may continue to show your light.
This story can be found at http://www.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=news&lang=en&length=long&idelement=5368
Stacy L. Harp at the Voice of the Martyrs blog wrote also about this tragedy. You can read her blog at http://www.persecutionblog.com/2008/05/muslims-gang-ra.html.

Busy Blessings!

It feels like its been ages since I last posted instead of just a week or so. How quickly did this become a part of my life that I missed putting down my thoughts so much? I had a whole ton of life happen lately though, thank God, all of it abundantly good! My mom and grandparents came up to visit, my son had his third birthday, and my husband recieved a job offer that will move us to Pennsylvania. I'm busy today with moving plans but feel inspired to add to my blessings list the wonderful gifts God has showered me and my family with.

41. How much fun we had at Alden's birthday party.
42. Birthday streamers I didnt pull down for days because they were so 'festive'!
43. Moving six hours closer to my family.
44. Corportate moves! That means I can hire packers! I love packers!
45. Mercy Me's song I'll Worship You, my new favorite song (good to dance to w/ babies!)

I've been waking with a big grin

Singing with my eyes closed

Lifting up my hands

I've been lost in the moment

Sending up praises

Now I think I understand

When i open up and let it flow

I fell your touch and then I know

[chorus] I can never live without it And I'm never gonna doubt it Everyday is new, yeah There's nothing any better I'll be singing it forever I worship you

I'm standing on the edge now

Looking for a new place

Going deeper still

The feeling is electric

The power and the glory

Just move me where you will

Cause you take a song and make it fly

Into my soul and that is why

[chorus]

I just want to dive into your grace

I want to feel your presence, seek your face

I just want to be where you are

I can never live without it

And i'm never gonna doubt it

Everyday is new, yeah (repeat) [chorus]

46. Watching my son enjoy his trains.
47. God opening doors
48. My husbands excitement
49. My daughter's love of streaking. I cant keep her clothed! She gets out of every outfit I put on her. Then goes the diaper. This leads to blessing...
50. My Bissell steamcleaner