Oceans Will Part

About two weeks ago I was woken up at 3 am with this weighing heavily on my heart. After some wonderful conversation with a friend yesterday I feel it may be time to share.

Two waves of Christianity stirring. 

The first is being lifted and washed up higher and farther away. Taken out to sea by the doctrines of relativism and mediocrity. Swimming in water that is even less than luke-warm. Splashing in tepid toilet water Christianity, so far diluted it is no longer nourishing to the soul whatsoever. It is an easy Christianity that is kind to the ego and allows a person to believe they are Christ-like by wading in ankle-deep authenticity. 

The second is a low, rooted people worshiping in dimly lit rooms. Where the presence of God is so heavy you can feel it on your skin like a humid August day. Slow, steady rumbles that are quiet at first, but grow in volume, confidence, and power. Waves of people yearning and calling out for the Kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven. A people than might not necessarily notice their friends being swept away, because they are so caught up in the Presence of the Lord.

Both waves alive and moving gradually further apart. And the Enemy using this to further pull people away. We must be keen to what our surroundings are. We must throw out ropes to pull people back to their roots.  And we must plant our feet deep and wide into the ground so we too don't get pulled away to half-heartedness. Not Christ-like, but Christ-FULL. Not 'politically correct Christianity', but fully saturated, unrestrained, Kingdom focussed Glory.

l   Post title inspiration: "Oceans Will Part"  -Hillsong United l

When All Else Fades

The Hope Of What Is Yet To Come

Just the other night
One hand reaching up to You
My heart skips with joy

Brilliant radiance
My face, warm from Your presence
Basks in the moment

My soul secretly
Yearns for You to take me now
To be nearest You

Because, that minute
Life and everything else fades
Drenched in Your sweet love

On a night like that
Forever can't come soon enough
So I will await

The beauty that ensues
To be made complete in You
And desire nothing else.

You Look Like The Songs

At this very moment I am so completely blown away by my God's decision to pour out favor upon my life, despite the absolute crappy job I've done serving Him. 

I mean, as a person I need serious work. I always tend towards pessimism and impatience. My polite friends say I'm a realist, but I know what I am. I'm sarcastic, crabby, and ill-tempered. 

The majority of the time I get absorbed with self-pity, self-centerdness, self-loathing, and self-righteousness. My eyes stray from the Prize so very often. Just look at me now, I'm happy and excited when things are going well for me. 

And yet 

LOOK AT WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE IN MY LIFE!

Why?!?!??! One reason alone: I am His. 

With as weak as my heart has been at times, I know the God I serve, and I clung to this hope, which I will repeat one more time: 

Sometimes what comes easily for others, God reserves and holds back for a supernatural revelation of His glory. Hallelujah!!!! Would I ever wish to trade this testimony? Never!!!

Our Father delights in pouring out His favor on His children. There is nothing any of us can do to earn it. It is a gift. And if this is how much He loves me, with the darkest parts of my heart completely exposed to Him, He must be aching to see His love be made complete. To see as many of His children as possible rejoicing in His name. He wants to see you abounding and overwhelmed with joy. 

OUR GOD WANTS US TO ENJOY HIM!!!! To enjoy the blessings He gives us. To enjoy our time on Earth, and then have a rad party when we go home. 

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"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." 

                              ---John Piper

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I've been belting this song out all day:

Dreams Don't Turn To Dust

I want to be...

Kind instead of harsh

Loving instead of judgmental

Passionate instead of passive

Resolute instead of vagrant

Generous instead of greedy

Secure instead of vain

Hopeful instead of bleak

Tender instead of brash

Open instead of closed off

Steadfast instead of fickle

l   Post title inspiration: "Dreams Don't Turn To Dust"  -Owl City  l

Some days my heart just aches for people. People who need to know they are loved beyond comprehensible measure. People who are so close, yet so far from freedom. People who think they know what it's all about, but still miss the mark.

And that gets me wondering, does God think that about me? Does He mourn who I could be. Or is He satisfied with what I am now? Since I am redeemed, does He see me as spotless? Am I viewed as the final me, or as the work-in-progress me? 

Ripped And Torn At The Seams

The Heiress, The Liar, and The True Story

Beaten, battered, broken.

Dress torn, innocence lost, dreams stolen.

The Cinderella story is make believe,

But this is real, unrelenting deceit.  

She seems to recall being told that she was special, that she was priceless.

But everywhere she turns she hears the word 'worthless.'

He said that it's because she was His that she would be so viciously hated.

But someone else says it's her own fault that she's insulted and berated. 

There's that truth manipulated with a lie again. 

On her own there is nothing but a helpless, shell of a woman. 

And that's where the Liar would like to leave the story.

But grace brings restoration which transforms the broken into glory.

When the necklace was pulled and the pearls hit the floor

He wept with you, and promised you'd be restored. 

Bring you into wholeness, and adorn your head with a crown.

You'll kneel at His feet and lay it all down. 

That's the beauty of the reward. 

When it's given, it will be ignored.

Thrown aside by the wonder of His presence. 

Which completely overshadows the sufferings of the present. 

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." Romans 8:18

l   Post title inspiration: "Pendulum"  -Embodyment  l

We Share a Name, We Share a Wonder

I've had a bit of a mini-revelation start forming in my mind over the last few days/weeks. There's a book I really want to start reading called Sacred Marriage, and the tag line sums up exactly what I've been thinking/feeling for a while now:

The idea started to bloom in my mind when I was in a worship service several weeks ago now. Our marriage had been at a really rough point for a few months, and to be honest I was completely at the end of my rope. I had been sick and I was exhausted emotionally and physically. Both Steve and I had really been struggling with sin problems and were fighting constantly. 

I literally heard the Lord speak these words directly into my heart:

"Your marriage isn't about your loyalty to your husband.  

It's about your loyalty to ME." 

Man alive---that changed my entire attitude. Taking that a step further, any opposition to that is directly caused by sin nature and the influence of the Enemy.  

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." John 10:10

Satan wants to steal the joy out of my life and my marriage. He wants to kill the love and destroy the hope for a future. And more than anything, He wants to separate me from intimacy with the Lord. This makes me angry. Bloody angry. 

When I consider that everything marriage-related is directly related to my relationship with the Lord it makes me want to selflessly submit to my husband with love, respect, and ((most of all)) kindness. 

I have a feeling I'm not done with this revelation. 

Stay tuned for a possible sequel. 

l   Post title inspiration: "Colors"  -The Rocket Summer   l

We Live and We Learn, Crash and We Burn

-- Questions concerning beauty and what it is. --

I wonder if you're pretty when you're not all done up?

Beneath the makeup and the pinned up hair?

Without the heals and the high fashion,

Is there really anything beautiful there?

Do you have a heart of gold? 

Do you care for the widow, the orphan, the voiceless?

Or has virtue grown old?

Is compassion a trend that is so last year?

Do I really believe that beauty is a matter of the soul?

Or have I let myself be defined by this plastic world?

If charm is deceptive am I the biggest fraud of them all?

Why do we grasp at straws to hold onto something that is so quickly fleeting?

Is what I see the mirror the same picture 

That the Lord sees when He looks at my heart? Or worse? 

How long have I allowed vanity to reign as victor?

Where to start cutting through the vines?

If I come to you Lord, will You weed through them for me?

Can I come to you broken and be made into something glorious?

Is it possible to move past all this intentional injury?

To forsake all others and find worth in You alone? 

l   Post title inspiration: "Hide Nothing"  -Further Seems Foreverl