Come like the Rain again...

When Spring hits the forests and fields of Indiana, there is great rejoicing in my soul. I'm learning to see winter with new eyes...but oh how I love the buds and blossoms of Spring. New LIFE! This particular Spring God impressed this verse upon me....

Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;
    his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
    as the spring rains that water the earth.”
                      Hosea 6:3

You see, I have spent the last 6 years in a winter season of my soul. That's half of my walk with Jesus. What are some adjectives that describe winter? Here are some that I found on the internet..
~barren
~biting
~dark
~depressing
~gray
~harsh
~long
~relentless
~bleak
~isolating
~lonely
~unending

When your soul feels barren, dark, isolated...and the season feels unending...you've got no choice but to cling to God and His promises. 

He promises to never leave us. He promises never to forsake us. He promises that we can take heart because he has overcome the world...He promises to refresh and renew those who wait upon Him. He promises to comfort the broken hearted. He promises to bind up our wounds. He promises to give strength to the weary. He promises to gives us beauty for Ashes. He promises to give us a garment of praise, instead of a faint Spirit.

Friends... He promises to come like the Spring rain again to your parched and barren soul that has weathered the long winter.

After days and days of relentless bitter cold, the first warm Spring rain brings PROMISE. Promise to AWAKEN everything that was lying dormant through the  winter.

Dormancy is a state in which a plant exhibits little to no growth. Dormancy is used as a means to to SURVIVE unfavorable conditions. The plants roots are still ALIVE. It's actually a means to protect the plant and keep it alive. 

Oh How Creation Speaks of it's Creator.

So friends, I've moved into a new Season. A season of new life and Spring Rain! If you are still in the Winter season...Hold on! He will come to you like the Rain again....

What does Spring promise...
~abloom
~active
~alive
~blossoming
~energized
~flourishing
~growing
~Rainy
~refreshing

May the Lord come to you as the Fresh Spring Rain!

Do you SEE this woman?

While on vacation I was given an opportunity to share at a Christian Crisis Center for women and children. It was kind of last minute, so I didn't have anything prepared. As I prayed about what to share God strongly impressed Luke 7:36-50, The Sinful Woman. I absolutely LOVE this account! As a new believer,  I had a pastor identify me with the woman in this story, a Sinful woman with a sordid past. He couldn't identify with me, because he didn't see his sin as bad as mine. He had lived an "upright" life.

I was truly taken aback. I thought we had ALL fallen short of the glory of God.That was my understanding of the GOSPEL. That was my first run in with a modern day Pharisee. I reminded him that we are ALL that sinful woman in light of a Holy God. When we see our sin properly in light of who Jesus is, we are broken, we see our need for forgiveness, and our inadequacy.

My heart for the precious women in that center was to point them to El Roi, the God that SEES them. The God that sees past all their walls and pain. The God that sees past their sordid reputations. The God that was broken hearted when they were used and abused. The God that shed his blood for their every sin, however little or great it was.

I love when Jesus asks Simon the Pharisee, "Do you SEE this woman?"
Because all Simon could see was the scarlet of her sin, a prostitute, a label...
He couldn't see her humanity. He saw a lower class woman who sold her body for money. He saw no value in her whatsoever.

It was so neat to see the women come Alive as I shared this with them. It was beautiful to see tears well up in their eyes as they processed how Jesus dealt with this woman. HE SAW HER! HE FREED HER! HE DEFENDED HER! He empowered her. He gave her hope. He loved HER!

I wonder if these women have EVER been SEEN? It was a beautiful sight to watch the Holy Spirit minister God's truth to their hearts and to point them to the ONE who SEES them.

So friends, I gladly identify with The Sinful woman. The true worshipper of Jesus. The broken woman washing Jesus's feet with her tears, kissing the beautiful feet that had brought her freedom. The woman that  poured out expensive oil on Jesus's  feet, unveiling her glory (her hair) and wiping his feet with it, demonstrating that HE ALONE deserves GLORY!!!!

Today...I'll write.

When I was in 2nd grade, I remember getting lost in the art of writing. I loved creating, allowing my imagination to come out on paper. I would sit at my moms type writer and write out short stories. The first story I remember writing was about these silly monsters. They weren't scary at ALL, just very silly. As I reached my teen years, I absolutely fell in love with poetry. There was something so deep about it. Poetry was able to ignite feelings in me that other forms of art couldn't. In my early twenties I finally decided it was okay to let the world around me know that I could SING. My writing morphed into song writing. Little lyrical poems. I found such happiness in putting pen to paper. Hours would go by as I was lost creating something from deep inside of my soul.

When I became a christian, this art was set to the side. I needed to get to know the CREATOR, THE ONE who made me in His image. Slowly, as I grew in Understanding His word, I began to write songs about Him. As I grew spiritually, I found it hard to enjoy writing. I wondered why. Maybe its because I was insecure, Maybe it was because it FELT much deeper than anything I had ever experienced while in the world, Maybe it's because I couldn't find the words to describe Him. All the adjectives, and experiences that I had, just seems mediocre when I penned them. There was just something missing. I felt much more careful with my thoughts. Maybe it's because I'm afraid of rejection. I'm sure its a cocktail of ALL of these things, intermingling, like a Dam in my soul.

Two of my favorite writers are, Novelist Francine Rivers, and Song Writer John Mark McMillan. They've got it!!!! When I read their writing, It's SOUL shaking! They've broken the levy and living waters flow from them. When I read through the Psalms, I desire to be honest and emotional, pouring out everything inside. But it's like a levy that just won't break.

So, I've committed to writing daily. I've committed to posting weekly.

I wonder if its been a long dry season because writing is something that I have not fully surrendered to Jesus. Like it was something that was just ALL mine...I've prayed for the last 12 years for God to open up the floodgates. Today I'm surrendering this gift to Him, may He use me and grow me...Like a whittled arrow, In His hands.

An Invitation to die...

On December 7th, the anniversary of the day I gave my life to Christ 11 years ago, I saw a youtube video on a friends facebook  titled, "Why does a God of love allow suffering." I was intrigued, so I clicked on the video. I was not prepared for the testimony that was unwoven before me. Helen Roseveare was a medical missionary in The Congo. She was kidnapped, beaten, and raped. If anyone was qualified to teach on the topic of suffering, she certainly had the credentials.

She shared something that hit me in the heart. She said God asked her after she had been through all of that suffering, "AM I worthy? Am I worthy to suffer for?" What a question coming from the ONE who paid the price for our sins, and suffered for us. 

By the end of the video I was in tears. Her heart was so tender and yielded to Jesus. I wanted to be like her...but I'm not even close. I was CHALLENGED by her ability to let go of the things that had happened to her. The world teaches us a different philosophy...but what I realized is that she was trusting the God of Redemption, Resurrection, and Revelation. I asked myself...Do I really trust GOD in this area of my life? The answer was no. But I wanted to. 

As New Years approached I began praying about what God would be working on in my life in the year to come. I Kept hearing Him say 3 words Death, Obedience, and Consecration. HEAVY!!! Certainly He must have something much lighter for me...RIGHT? I was sharing with a friend some personal things I was going through. She suggested that I read Romans 12:1.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

It was like a twinge of light bursting forth into an area of darkness. It reminds me of the verse in Psalm 119...Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light upon my path. A few days later I ordered one of Helen Roseveare's books, Living Sacrifice, based on Romans 12:1. Thanks to Amazon Prime I had it my hands two days later! 

As she shares the lessons that God taught her on the mission field, one particular story stood out above the rest to me. She had promised to help a missionary family bring their first baby into the world. As the time approached she was struck with illness (MALARIA AND JAUNDICE). She reached out to the couple and asked them to please come to her. She explained that she had been sick and that she was not up to traveling. She was met with the couples annoyance and they demanded that she fulfill her original agreement. She agreed that she would travel to them...but she was angry. Why didn't they care about her, why were they only thinking of themselves...

Her leader who had been watching her wrestle through this shared his very discerning observation with her. He said, "Helen, you need to learn that what God teaches you in your own circumstances about yourself, is to help you to understand others and to see things from their points of view." He went on to encourage her to let go of the grievance and DIE to herself and allow the Lord to bless her.

She struggled with this because she had been misunderstood and judged. 

As I read it even I thought it was UNFAIR....

Unfair...what a word. The Lord started replaying different memories in my life where I felt people had been unfair. Times that I had been mistreated or hurt and He gave me an invitation to die. He gave me an invitation to give up my RIGHTS. As a Woman living in America in the 21st century I have been raised to understand my RIGHTS. But as a CHRISTIAN who belongs to an Eternal Kingdom...do I understand that God has THE RIGHT to ask me to sacrifice and suffer (how little or how much is up to HIM) for His name? 

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Philippians 3:10

As I sit in my home filled with luxuries and comforts and enjoy my health, marriage, friendships, and freedom I am being met with the Holy Spirit asking me, "Am I worthy?"

I'm not sure what sacrifices he will ask me to make. But as Corrie Ten Boom said "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known GOD."