some more thoughts on Malachi

I was reading some study notes on Malachi this morning and came across a list of three purposes for the book of Malachi. The first one is my favorite.

Appeal to encourage (the people of God) to repent and serve the God who loves her with righteousness and vigor.

My favorite part of that is "The God who loves her with righteousness and vigor." I think I'll just meditate on that today ....my God who loves me with righteousness and vigor!!!

I like the sound of that don't you?

My God who loves me with righteousness and vigor!

xoxo
g

Some Thoughts on Malachi

We've been talking alot about going through the process to get to the prophetic promise. Alot. We've been talking ALOT about going through the process to get to the prophetic promise. So I was a little confused when Pastor Randy asked us to read Malachi every day until he got back. Let me just tell you the first three days of reading this book I struggled. It wasn't the happy, joyful, sort of read I was looking for. I didn't know what I was missing but I knew I must be missing something. So this morning I decided to dig a little deeper and I came across this little gem:

Although the Jews had been allowed to return from exile and rebuild the temple, several discouraging factors brought about a general religious malaise: (1) Their land remained but a small province in the backwaters of the Persian empire, (2) the glorious future announced by the prophets (including the other postexilic prophets, Haggai and Zechariah) had not (yet) been realized, and (3) their God had not (yet) come to his temple (3:1) with majesty and power (as celebrated in Ps 68) to exalt his kingdom in the sight of the nations. Doubting God’s covenant love (1:2) and no longer trusting his justice (2:17; 3:14–15), the Jews of the restored community began to lose hope. So their worship degenerated into a listless perpetuation of mere forms, and they no longer took the law seriously.*

Apparently they had gotten stuck in the process and had lost sight of the promise. We do not need to doubt God's covenant love and he will fulfill his promises. We need to continue through the process, God is not a man so he doesn't lie, the prophetic promise is coming!

xoxo
g

* http://biblica.com/niv/study-bible/malachi/

Some Thoughts On Esther

I was listening to Show Me Your Glory by Kim Walker and I started to think about Esther. Esther fasted and prayed for three days before she went to the king. The king had just signed anedict that was to have all the Jews killed in his country and all their lands and possesions taken by those who killed them. Esther was a Jew. In that time if you entered the king's presence without being summoned you could be killed. He had not summoned her. So she fasted and prayed hoping for mercy and grace, but I don't doubt that in the middle of the night she probably wondered if he knew that she was a jew. If he wanted her dead. Would he stretch forth his sceptor and welcome her in? How different those three day and nights would have been for her if she had been assured that he loved her and found her lovely. That the king was willing to grant her request, above and beyond whatever she would ask up to half his kingdom.
How often we spend time in prayer and fasting, afraid to enter into The King's presence. He hates sin and we see our sin. If we knew, if we really really knew that He sees us as lovely and loves us how different would those days and nights be. He wants us to come into His presence. He did everything to make that way open and safe. We, however, are afraid. He is so holy, He is so capable of destroying us. What we need to know is that we are assured of His love and that He, our King, is more that willing to grant our requests above and beyond whatever we could ask, and he wants to give us his kingdom.

Wake up

What if God woke you up in the middle of the night and told you your time was almost up? How would that change how you lived? In the strangest of convergences yesterday that very question was brought to the forefront of my life. I was attending a women's conference called leave your mark.

I had been reading a book earlier in the day about Henrietta Lacks - long story short though she lived and died more than 50 years ago her cells are alive and reproducing in labs all around the world.

The final piece to this "convergence" was a discussion at lifegroup last evening about leaving a 100 year legacy....

gives you something to think about - doesn't it?

and then a group of cranky guys show up

David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there. 2 All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him. 1 Samuel 22:1-2

So here's the backstory: Samuel shows up at David's dad's house and after rejecting all of David's brothers anoints David as God's man to be king. Only problem the previous king is still there and he was also anointed by Samuel as God's man to be king. So in honoring God David refuses to harm the king and serves him instead. Oh and he also goes back to tending the sheep instead of packing his bags for the palace. The king is being tormented by evil spirits so they send for David. He calms the king with his music. The king throws spears at him. David kills Goliath. The king's jealousy continues to grow and he plots many ways to kill David. So now David is on the run from the king and his henchmen and they are hot on his trial. Finally David runs from Gath to hide in the caves of Adullum.... and then the cranky guys show up.

His brothers come out to him. You remember the brothers right? They taunted him and mocked him just before the whole Goliath thing. So we've got mockers, those in distress, those in debt, and those who were discontent, and not just one or two but 400 of them. I can tell you honestly I have been in the midst of those. I have been a mocker, I've been in distress, I have been in debt (way in debt)and I have been discontented. I was not a happy girl and I wasn't hiding in a cave. I've also been amongst people in that circumstance and they are not happy people.

Also if you are a reader of books about self improvment and growth, they tell you to surround yourself with "up people". You know the glass is half full kind of folk. These were not them.

I love this story because it doesn't end with cranky guys in a cave. As hopeless as it looked - running for their lives, running from sorrow, pain, misfortune, bad mistakes, wrong choices, and running from the belief that they were complete failures - God comes into their chaos and somehow these broken and defeated cave dwellers become a mighty king and his mighty men. Individaully and united they become God's men - they will still fall and fail in areas of their lives, not perfect - but their names forever recorded in a book that will not disappear even after this world is gone that they were mighty men of THE KING.

I don't know who needs to hear this today but I wanted to encourage others with this story - it might be dark, you may be running from a spear throwing king or have made some bad choices or are buried in debt, you might feel like you have utterly and completely failed. The platitudes are not working and you can barely pick your head up but God is mighty and this circumstance will change... God is in the midst of your chaos and it may not feel like it, you might not even know it but he's starting to change you and your circumstance so that your name will appear in a book that will remain long after this world is gone.

He is not angry with you. He is not disappointed with you, your failures, poor choices, out and out rebellion have not caused him to turn his back on you or give up on you. He is unchanging and he has always loved you and always will. He calls you his delight... he's unchanging so you still are no matter what, no matter where you are his child and he loves you more than you know or can imagine.

Wait I think there may be the faintest glimmer, a small light in a dark cave... It Feels Like It Might Be Hope!

faith or foolishness

Are you looking for wisdom? yea me too. We received some money last week and an opportunity to get a house to rent for less than we are paying now for the "department".... here's the problem .... after paying for some things we needed to pay we don't really seem to have enough to pay all the deposits and first and last months rent and the hit for breaking our lease and our bills ....so the question is what to do - what to do - is it faith or foolishness to streeeeeetttch it to the enth degree and then possibly find ourselves without enough funds (and not alot of chance of more money coming in without another miracle)
What I know:
God's arm is not short and he is my Jehovah Jireh
His plans for me are good and whether or not we get this house that doesn't change.
He knows what I have need of before I even and ask and I have been asking.
A man should count the the cost before building his house (or renting it)
I don't know the answer but I'll keep asking and I'm sure he will show me! Keep praying for us and we will let you know when we know

Do What's In Your Heart!

So much for consistency - things got busy here and I missed a day and then another .... then of course the condemnation and lies began and I haven't been back .... well ... I'm back

We are called to awesome things!

Do what's in your heart! Do it! Don't believe the untruths that say its too late, you've missed your chance, you've gone to far? Do what's in your heart? Don't fall prey to the "if onlys" and the self condemntaion. That insurmountable wall between who we are and who we'd like to be is merely a veil, gossamer thin.

The beautiful dreams, the adventerous schemes - go for it!!!

We are not porcelain dolls sitting high on the shelves of life. We are warrior princesses and we have a place that has been opened for us by the King of Kings. Step into whatever it is you want to do, step out of the fear that is holding you back. Do what is in your heart! God is for you, so you just can't fail! Go for it!

You Are So Much More

I tried to post this yesterday but Blogger was not cooperating...

Sometimes I wonder if I even should be posting this blog because others have already said what I want to say to you so much more eloquently.

So without any further introduction:

I Am Not Abandoned!

One of the lies we believe so often is that we have been abandoned. That we are alone in the midst of messes and troubles and hurts and problems too overwhelming for us to deal with on our own. When our hearts are breaking, our finances insufficient, our abilities less than what is needed for the task at hand and no matter how hard we try to manipulate things on our own - push, pull, struggle, work harder, devise, plan or scheme we just can not do it. If only we had someone, anyone, to help us. But the enemy of our soul comes in and whispers "You are alone, you have been abandoned,"

I have good news - you have not been abandoned. You are not an orphan. You have a father who has everything you will ever need to do anything. You have a brother to whom nothing is impossible. You have a friend who will never leave you. You have a groom who is waiting for his beautiful bride and he is faithful, he is true, he knows you for who you are and loves you now even if you never get cleaned up, fixed up or changed, he will still love you.

I heard this song this holiday season and it quickly became my new favorite
because of this line in the chorus that keeps repeating

You could of left me on my own.
But you're here.
You're here.
Hallelujah, you're here.

You are not abandoned. You are not alone. You are loved! He is Here!

I am 100% loved!!!

Did you know God has favorites? No really he does. They are not who you think they are though. There's that pregnant teenage one .... no not just the one in the nativity scene .... every pregnant teenage girl - tattooed and pierced or not - they are his favorites. The goodie-two-shoes and the never gonna be good enough. The young and thin and beautiful, the not. The broken and the hurting and the ones who seemingly got it all together. The ones who were forced into sinful situations and the ones who walked in willingly. His favorites include all of us. Wait a minute - How can everyone be his favorite? I dunno, but he's God so he can have everyone his favorite if he wants.

He takes the broken, bitter and bad and makes them beautiful. You can fight him if you want but he loves you just the same. "I know the plans I have for you," He whispers as you fight him to get your own way. "I love you and I have called you mine. I have good plans for you that are not for destruction but for good." Don't run away, don't push past, only believe that his love covers it all (and all means all) and he loves you now. He is not put off by your mess, its funny that a perfect God is not hung up by your imperfectness.

Because of Jesus I am - and you are - 100% loved and worthy to receive all of God's blessing.

What If We Believed...

Today is the start of a brand new year! We have the opportunity now to step into truth like never before! Every single place we have walked, labored, laughed, cried, sang, crawled or leapt up to this moment has led us to here, to this very now. Not to live lives of aching despair, ugly bitterness, or some sort of meager survival, but rather to step into all the joy, grandeaur, passion, hope and love that God would want us to experience!
In 1999 I heard Alicia Chole, speak at a Women's Retreat. She shared the story of getting ready to adopt her son and just when it looked like it was all coming together the adoption agency calls to tell her that there will be fees in excess of any amount they could possibly come up with. She shared that she hung up the phone and thought well that settles that - it just wasn't going to happen. In the midst of her brokeness God spoke to her and said "What if you truly believed that I was who I said I was? What would it look like if you believed that I could do what I said I could do? What would it mean if what I said was true, was really truly true?"
What would that look like to you or me? If we truly believed that what God has said to us about who we are, who we really are, in His sight is true, how freeing would that be? How amazing could that be?
Before you awoke this morning God was singing over you, excited and anticipating spending this day with you! That is truth. You are loved by Him, longed for by Him, found blameless (for everything - for all of it - yes even for that) before Him,
He created you and looks upon you and smiles! You are His and His fingerprints are all over you!
Dare to believe that it is true - that he finds his good pleasure in you. He is not disappointed with you! He is so happy to call you his! The enemy has been able to lie to you for far too long. The whispers that have caused you to believe that you are any less than all God believes about you are untruths.
My prayer for you today is that you will be able to fully believe and embrace all the truth that you are all that God says that you are and that every lie that you have believed will be broken off one by one and you will see that you are the beautiful beloved one of a most faithful God!