Blessed

Last night, while driving around Minneapolis, my radio was tuned into 91.5fm, a great Christian rock station which also plays clean secular music too! (It’s great!) I asked my friend if she’d heard of it before, she said no & I then told her just HOW great it was, and encouraged her to try it sometime! Well, it really didn’t occur to me WHY I was so excited to tell her about it until this morning. I thought…why did I mention it specifically to her & not to my other friend in the car? Well, the one lives downtown Minneapolis, where the station comes in really great! …and the other friend doesn’t…like me, so we can’t tune in the station at all. 😦 I thought it out further and thought it’s like…I really appreciate that station, what it says, who they are, what they do, etc…but because of where I live, I don’t have the opportunity to enjoy or listen to it! Therefore, when I find out someone I care about DOES live in an area where you can hear the station, I feel compelled to tell them about it. Since I can’t hear it, but they can, it’s like aHHHH! Listen for goodness sakes!

This is not just a bunch of ramblings…I do have a point. How many of us live in an area where Christianity is suppressed or banned? I doubt if any of us do. (Maybe suppressed a little, but more by ourselves.) What a great opportunity then, seeing that we HAVE the signal, we can hear the gospel, we can talk about it….but why don’t we? People in other countries or under other governments don’t have the freedoms we do when it comes to our faith. It feels like I hear things from those oppressed people like “don’t take your faith for granted,” or “you don’t understand how good you have it,” or “if I had the life you do, I would be telling all sorts of people about Jesus.” It makes me wonder…why don’t I head that thought, or act on it?

Stand Forever

As I’m working today, the flowers on my desk are all withering away….when I brought back an empty vase, my friend said “Don’t you wish they would last forever?” Then the verse from Isaiah came to me: “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8)

In life, there are things that leave us… beauty, wealth, strength, & power. God’s word survives through it all. Flowers will die off, food will rot, clothes will wear, but God’s word survives through it all. Tragedies happen, relationships fail, warriors are defeated, but God’s word survives through it all.

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10) God’s word will sustain us, guide us, redeem us and heal us. He alone will give us strength to press forward, wisdom to judge clearly, discernment in difficult situations, peace when we are restless, and comfort when fear comes close.

“One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock.” (Psalm 27:4-5) This is my prayer. May you join me in the beauty & love that is our God. He is the sustainer & creator of life. He will be our refuge & our hope. His love abounds to the edges of the earth & the depths of the sea.

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction & faithful in prayer.” (Romans 12:12) Stay close to the father and unlike the flowers, you will not fade away.

Detox

Alright, I know you’re all thinking…..man, she’s going deep with this, and I might by the end, but seriously, I’m just writing to say how incredibly odd my family is! (Though it’s rather endearing!) My mom borrowed a “detox” contraption, where you stick your feet in salt water & add this electric thing in the water….and the color the water turns after 30 minutes, will show you what in your body is really needing detox….in theory, if you do this enough, it’ll “clean you out.” SO….what did we do tonight? Had my aunt, her two kids & all of my fam try it out….while the rest stood around and watched. AH! what a great past time eh? I can’t believe this….we’re serious crazies some nights.

But bringing this around, don’t you wish we had a test like that, where we could stick our feet in the water of life, and depending on the color, we’d know if we needed to really work on pride, lust, envy, greed, or any other thing we are holding above God? It’d be great too if there was something we could do for 30 min. a day, and eventually it’d just be gone! Well, I can say from experience, that God Himself WILL tell you what you need to be growing in or working on, and if you purposefully spend time with Him and His Word, you will see those things working their way out of your life & being replaced with the goodness & purity of Christ himself….AH detox.

Just a note…

So this is not my thought, but took it off a comment of a friend’s post & it really spoke to me….we all have difficult times, times where we think we wont make it through….and if we do we’ll be charred or broken. If it speaks to you too, let me know!

“I looked at one of those Hawaiian “Sugar in the Raw” packets the other day at Starbucks… it says, “volcanic soil” on them… somehow through the havoc volcanic ash imposes, the soil nearby in its rarity is rich and in some ways purified (I guess that means the sugar grows sweeter there?). I like to believe that these moments we have that are ‘uncomfortable and difficult’ in some way make our heart’s soil rich like that. No doubt, what God grows in your life will thrive because of times like the ones you mentioned.”