Encourage One Another

2008-05-08T15:58:00.000-07:00

I was going to post this picture on my profile. It is a picture I like but does not seem to be me.
I always thought that it could not be me, but I know that it is. It is a glamor picture. It takes two hours of make up time, and style time for my hair, and of course a professional photographer. I know it is me and maybe you might call it me, but the real me is the one inside. The real me is the one that the Holy Spirit is working on. It takes a lot longer than two hours for the makeover inside because I am the one giving the Holy Spirit permission to change me. I need changes because the real me has an old pattern that is tattered and torn.
So, I am trying to let go of my old ways, and learning to be transformed into image of Christ Jesus. Letting go is the important part, asking forgiveness for trying to make myself into the the person I think I should be, and actually allowing the Holy Spirit to make me into the image that He sees-the one that will please my Father. I wonder what I will look like from heaven's point of view.

His Scars

2008-04-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

I have studied His Back for quite a few months. I've thought about His Pain and the goal that was set before Him as He did the Father's will and suffered at the Cross. He chose to exchange His Life for ours. Are we continuing to wound Him by our choices, by our words?
He hears all we say about Him when we call out His Name. He knows our every secret sin, and even every thought. He knows our weakness, and our strengths, and what we do with them. He took our place for the punishment we deserved.

Before the Israelites entered the "Promised Land", Moses requested to see G-d and His Glory.
He was shown G-d's backside. Could this be what Moses saw? All G-d's Glory passed before him as the LORD covered Moses with His hand over the cleft in the Rock. And G-d declared " The LORD, the LORD, a G-d compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to thousands of generations, forgiving iniquity, transgressions and sin."His mercy and justice is still flowing toward us. He is a good G-d. The Glory of the LORD is still shining out from His Scars.

His Scars that were made by His brothers. G-d forgive us. We wound each other by our words and competitve actions. We push and shove each other to claim position at His right or left.

"Who can believe what we have heard?
Upon whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
For he has grown, by His favor, like a tree crown,
Like a tree trunk out of arid ground.
He had no form or beauty, that we should look at him:
No charm, that we should find him pleasing.
He was despised, shunned by men,
A man of suffering, familiar with disease.
As one who hid his face from us,
He was despised, we held him of no account.
Yet it was our sickness that he was bearing,
Our suffering that he endured.
We accounted him plagued,
Smittenand afflicted of G-d;
But he was wounded because of our sin,
Crushed because of our iniquities.
He bore the chastisement that made us whole,
And by his bruises we were healed.
We all went astray like sheep,
Each going his own way;
And the LORD visited upon him
The guilt of all of us." (Isaiah 53: 1-6.)

Thinking about His back

2007-10-25T14:00:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about God's backside. Moses saw it and his face began to shine. He couldn't look at it because of the glory. The Lord actually had to put His hand over the cleft of the rock that Moses was hidden in while God passed by. I wonder if Moses saw the wounds on Jesus back from the beating that He took for our iniquities and diseases. Were the wounds still gaping and open sores. Are we still wounding Him as we beat one another with our words. When we speak negatively about ourselves and others. Jesus took 39 stripes on His back. Some people say it was for each category of disease that we have. How can we not feel compassion for a person when they are wounded for our diseases?

The other day The Lord asked me to "rub His back". I don't know how to do this. I am studying first about what He meant by "His back." Scripture says they plowed long furrows down His back. That sounds like farming. Preparing and planting the soil. What kinds of seed was His back being prepared for? When He took our iniquities (the consequences of our sin) and the diseases (the results of the curse) , was our life exchange complete, or is it still being completed? I need to look at the back as past things. It is behind where I can not see it. I can only look on His back, His past and see how He lived it.

When a person is given a back rub, usually some sort of oil is needed to lubricate the skin. With wounds it would have to be very gentle and most likely the oil would be a sort of a medicated ointment. The touch would need to be made very carefully. I need to have more understanding of the back to give a good back rub. I think I will study some anatomy books to understand more. I am going to try to paint a picture of His back. Maybe I will put it on the blog when I finish. For now I just want to wait on the image to form in my mind of the glory of His exchange. More to come.

Change the Holiday

2007-10-11T16:47:00.000-07:00

It is October the time of year for change. Change in colors, change in seasons, change in clothing, change in temperatures. I have sorted my closets and put away the summer clothing. I have begun to clean the house for the winter. I have changed my decor to the fall colors. I am dreaming of cold winter nights with hot chocolate or hot spiced cider. The smell of pumpkin pie, homemade bread and hot soup bring back memories of comfort.

I don't like the bugs coming in or spiders on the walls. Halloween expressions throughout the stores or in the restaurants are not appealing to me. Why do people want to dress up in scary costumes of gory evil things? Why is it fun to scare children and think about goblins and ghosts? These things creep into our lives without us considering the consequences of our speaking, thinking or actions. They take away good thoughts and replace them with evil thoughts. Why do we do this to ourselves?

I understand some countries do not have the holiday of Halloween. They are probably better for it. Why not have a holiday to replace it, like "Only Good Day " where you could only do good works for the day. You could only say good things about people or the world and you would fast all negative thinking. I wonder how that holiday might be celebrated. Only the truth would be able to be said by politicians. Maybe the news would only be good news. How could we replace the idea of hiding behind masks with being open and honest with everyone we meet. It might be cause for change. Maybe the colors would change in our view. Maybe people would not feel rejected for a day at least. It could be a day of new beginnings. It could be a day where everyone sees everyone in a new light. It could be a warm and wonderful day. It could be.:)

Like a Child

2007-10-07T17:07:00.000-07:00

This week we received pictures of our grandson. We think he is quite smart and fun to have around. He visited with us last weekend. See the picture above.

Today, (Sunday), during worship, The Lord gave me a picture. He showed me how much children love to be carried high up in the arms of their Grandpa's or Fathers. I remembered as Caden would hold his arms up to be lifted up. He would smile his broad grin and poke at Grandpa's beard. I thought about how Chester and Willie, our great nephews, love to be held up so high that they can almost touch the ceiling. "Higher, Pop- Pop, lift me up."The squeals of delight and the giggles keep coming. "Over, Pop-Pop, again." This picture of our children's delight came to me as we worshiped. How awesome!

God our Father loves to lift us up too. We enjoy the lift. We want more. We cry out and laugh as we sense the security of His arms. If we fall, learning to walk, He picks us up and encourages us to continue. If we can't quite reach the high calling of Holiness, He lifts us up higher and we know it is His strength and not our own. We can rest in His arms and trust Him like a child. We can ask to try again and not be afraid of failure. He is a wonderful Pop-Pop. He is the source of our giggles and silliness sometimes. He is the one we call Father God. And He is the love of our life. He loves us so much. He enjoys our attempts to reach the ceiling. He enjoys our arms open wide to reach out and touch Him. We are like a child in our understanding of eternity:in our life of the wonders of His presence,in the delight of our eyes at His surprises. What a wonderful Savior; what an awesome God! Let's never forget what it is like to be like a child.

Thinking About the Glory

2007-09-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about The Glory today. It is in the transfiguration. Peter, James and John saw it, The Glory as a cloud that overshadowed Jesus and even themselves. The Father"s Voice came out of the cloud and identified Jesus as His Son in whom He was well pleased. But, Peter and his friends wanted to make tabernacles for Moses, Elijah and Jesus making Jesus equivalent to the giver of the law and the major prophet of their thinking. The Father call Jesus His Son. So that makes Jesus the Son of God; however, Jesus identified Himself as the Son of Man. Father God wanted the focus to be on Jesus, not the law or the prophets, those signs were pointing to Jesus. Moses and Elijah spoke with Jesus. Their focus was on Him. Our focus should be on Him too. Jesus' garment and face glistened with pure light, brighter than our eyes can see clearly. If we sty in the Glory we will hear the Voice of our Father tell us what to do. Even if we do not always comprehend what is said, The Holy Spirit is faithful to teach us what He means. I want to get to know the Holy Spirit better, I want to hear His voice as He teaches me about the Glory cloud that overshadows us. I want to move with that cloud, I want to stay in the cloud so that my face glistens with the Light of His presence. I don't want to be foolish and try to build Tabernacles to contain His presence. I want Him to build the tabernacles in me, and the room that He has made for me in His Heart. I want the whole house(me) to be filled with His Glory as the temple of His Holy Spirit abides in me and me in Him. I want the Glory to shine out of me in that garment of praise. Glory is the crown of the King. Let me be part of that crown. Yielded to His hands moving the direction He turns. If I have crowns let me lay them at His feet in worship as the Glory fills the whole earth. Glory is suppose to cover the earth as the water covers the seas. That seems to me to be in fullness. Let it be even as He says so that all that we are is well pleasing unto the Father. Our life is in his life as pure and holy unto God.

If I Am in Heaven Now, Now What?

2007-09-12T12:14:00.000-07:00

If I am in Heaven now, I should feel different about what I am doing. Scripture says that when Jesus returned to His Father's house He would send the Holy Spirit so that we could have our Counselor and Teacher in us. That we could do what He did while He was on earth, and we would do even greater works than He did. We haven't totally done even the first works that He did.

I have not seen many people multiply bread or heal the lame, or open blind eyes(at least not here in America). I think it is because, in America, we have conveniences and prosperity where we don't feel we have need of Jesus' miracles. We don't even think about raising people from the dead. We have not seen the Bible in terms of miracles today, because we have thought of the real miracles happening when we die and go to heaven.

Pastors and people seem to be afraid of praying for the miraculous (just in case it doesn't happen). I have been wondering about the scriptures that say that we will be taught the doctrines of Christ but deny the power. We will know and quote the scriptures but justify the lack of power by spiritualizing everything. We will actually be deceived by the cunning craftiness of the Anti-Christ spirit (the anti-anointing spirit). We could be fooled by an Angel of light (angels are beings that reflect the Glory of God); but, they do not contain the Spirit of God. The Holy One, the Anointed One, the One who is the Glory of God, The Holy Spirit is the One who brings the anointing. He is the One who speaks to us. He never contradicts The Word of God, because He is the Rhema Word, as well as the Logos, in us. He lights our path and shows us the way. He does the works through us.

What a great thing has happened to us. We do not even fully comprehend it. We have come into a place of freedom that is more than the peace that the world offers. We can see through our Father's eyes, hear through our Father's ears and understand by receiving our Father's thoughts. We can understand His passion for us. His compassion for the weak and weary. When He shows us things through His eyes, we begin to feel as He does. Holy Spirit teaches us His ways. Scriptures show us the pictures of His kindness and His heart. He gives us His name and authority to use in this world we live in now, not later.

I love it. I want to know more and learn more about how His kingdom business runs. What a wonderful world He created for us. What a great place to learn His principles. He is a great God and worthy of our praise.

Thoughts about Heaven on Earth

2007-09-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about heaven a lot lately. A few of my friends have gone there before most people expected it. It is funny the way people revert to cultural thinking immediately upon the death of a person. I feel that most people I know believe in heaven. I do. But when people are asked about it they make statements concerning it that cause me to question my understanding and theirs. For instance, questions like, "How many heavens are there?" 7, 3, 2, 1 or none? "Why does everyone want to go there if they don't know what it is?" "Heaven has every person who was good on earth in it, right?" "We will know all the answers to all our questions when we get there."

Where do we get our answers about heaven? As a Christian, I get my answers from the Bible. It says there will be no more sickness or sorrow or pain. We will meet Jesus there and understand the complete fullness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How we see heaven might affect our life here on earth if we think about it much.

The Bible says Jesus taught the disciples to pray "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Many people who are Christians pray this prayer. The "Our Father" is memorized and repeated over and over again; but, we don't think about what we are saying much. We are asking that God's will would be done on earth (as it is in Heaven). What is God's will in heaven? So what would be His will on earth? Since God is King in heaven, then His will is to be King of earth, right? How is He King on earth? Why is His will not being done on earth? Why is there still sickness, pain and death?

The King has a Kingdom. A domain of the King is established by rights. God has a right to the earth since He created it. But many people have different views of how the earth was created and who created it. It seems these views change over time and by the imagination of the ones explaining it. We try to understand our existence and we come up with theories and call it fact. When the first Being who created the earth, or the One who existed before time began, created this planet that we live on, we were not there. Or were we? We were not able to watch creation. Or could we and did we? So since the Bible says God created the heavens and the earth, we make assumptions according to our understanding of the Bible. Many people have different views of the Bible and different understandings of how to interpret it, we have different opinions of creation.

I am not saying that I think there are many stories of creation that are correct; but, I am saying that there are many theories. There is only One Truth. So I am trying to understand the part about heaven on earth that is truth and not theory. God with us the hope of glory. Jesus, the Son of man, Son of God, on earth as He is in heaven. Jesus the Truth, the Way, the Life on earth as He is in heaven. Jesus, the express image of God, on earth as He is in heaven. Jesus, who was in God and God was in Him on earth as He is in heaven. Jesus, who sent His Holy Spirit to be with us and in us on earth as He is in heaven. Jesus, the King of the Jews, on earth as He is in heaven. Jesus, our King, here on earth as He is in heaven. How do we acknowledge this truth? How do we act in His Kingdom? On earth, now, before we get to heaven, we should be accepting and doing His will. We should want His Kingdom to be here on earth as it is in heaven. If we pray the "Our Father" do we understand what we are praying. Are we praying that Jesus will come on earth as He is in heaven now? Or is He on earth as He is in heaven, now? I'm still thinking. I'm still trying to understand the Kingdom. I've been in it a long time, but I am not sure I have truly understood it. I wonder if we ever will fully understand it? Heaven on earth?

Continuation of last blog

2007-08-08T13:03:00.000-07:00

Speaking about ruts:

Ruts can be good or bad depending on your perspective. Ruts can be bad if they are deep. Because, for starters, you can't see very far when you are in a ditch. It is possible that you could get stuck and not be able to get out. You only have one track to ride in making it an incomplete view. It is better to see from a perspective above. You could see where the rut will take you and the curves or crashes that may come in the future.

For instance, when I cross county ski, I liked the ruts. The tracks are already packed down and the gliding is smooth. I feel secure when the paths are straight with a gradual down hill slope. But, I learned about the danger of the rut too. When I first began, my skiing adventures were with my husband. We took lessons at the same time, but he was better than me. My first experience was a smashing success. I enjoyed the views, the trees, the crisp wind in my face. I liked the birds singing and the sound of the swish of the skis on the snow. As I came around a corner and began a steeper down hill run, I noticed the evidence of crashes on the tracks below. Because of the momentum of my run, I was unable to get out of the tracks before I too was taking the direction of the crash victim.
I found myself lying spread eagle on the ground totally disoriented. That is not a good place to be when people are following you. Help! I rolled off the trail and quickly tried to return to the upright position so I could continue my decent just as another more experienced skier came behind me. He passed through the crash site with no problems. I decided that the best way to navigate in a rut was to follow experienced skiers. That meant I really needed to know the person who was ahead of me. I prefer that to be my husband. He rarely falls and has way more experience than me because he has skied more often and on different kinds of trails. He convinced me to follow him on another ocassion. The trail was labeled EXPERT, I did not like the sound of that. I was anything but an expert. I had only just begun my rut navigating. I was glad the snow was soft (better for crash landings). But due to my trust in my husband's assessment of skiing trails I consented. I was able to navigate the climb to the top of a ridge and ski smoothly along behind him, until he began the down hill run. The trail became wide and flat with no tracks. I started decending very fast and tried to slow down by snow plowing.(that is where your skis point like an arrow downward and the back of your skis are spread wider than the front) In this case my arrow became and X and I was continuing to go down hill faster than desired. I tried to uncross my skis and in the process stuck the back part of the skis in the snow behind me. This managed to stop the decent of the skis, but not me. I suddenly fell forward and then back with my skis spread apart and my knees making the point of the arrow. Ouch! I saw the sky and trees but I couldn't get up. My husband was at the bottom of the slope wondering what happened. He climbed back up the hill and helped me get up on two feet. I was able to ski down the rest of the way,(because I had to). I was very glad when I made it to the car and could sit down. Today I have a knee that tells me the weather, mostly because I got out of the ruts too soon for my experience. The moral of this story is that ruts are good when you are inexperienced just don't get stuck in them.

Vacations for life

2007-08-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

We've been vacationing, with family, (my daughter, my son, his wife and our grand baby) for a week. It was a great time, but I am glad we are home. It is funny how much we want to get away for a vacation only to be ready to come back sooner than we think. Home is always familiar, even if it has its little problems (our air-conditioner was leaking water all over our hallway while we were gone-a repair call was needed). Such are the joys of home ownership. We get into routines easily- more like ruts, sometimes. Schedules get overloaded; life gets overloaded. That is when we need a break again. This week my husband made arrangements for a weekend at Wallowa Lake for our anniversary. It will be 35 years. Sometimes it seems just like yesterday, sometimes it feels like forever. It too can seem like we get in ruts, but it is comfortable. Life is an adventure. I just like it to be a comfortable adventure.

Add to Each Other

2007-08-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

This is a new adventure in togetherness

Each a part of a larger picture

Thinking thoughts about each other

Waiting to discover sameness and uniqueness

Am i sure i am my own

Together touching life and space

Downloading characters and signs

Reloading life