Deuteronomy

Today’s Reading: Deuteronomy 9:1-11:32 (don’t forget to pray!)

This is one of the most beautiful versions of the Battle Hymn of the Republic I’ve ever heard! I got tears in my eyes, there’s just something about those beautifully innocent voices that screams my message today! I’m including the lyrics here because there aren’t any in the video, please sing along and vocalize our triumph over the Enemy!

Today is a marching day! (I’ll explain more later.)

So this morning I wake up with the Holy Spirit singing “blood and water flow…” over and over again. Not the entire song mind you, just those four words again and again. Very obviously a message I am to decipher through out my day today, a riddle for me to rejoice in solving, a puzzle to share. Most days I love these riddles, and He knows that, because they always send me deeper into His word, into His truth, into His rapture of discovery. The next thing I do is dig out my copy of Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts and begin the third chapter (I’m reading this one slowly). Where her friend mentions a list… a list? She hasn’t mentioned a list yet, what is she talking about? I read on. A friend posed to her a challenge – write down a list of one thousand gifts, AHA!!!!! I shriek with joy, “GOD YOU ARE SO AWESOME!!!!!” When I picked up this book I had no real idea what it was about I just knew that God had been pointing me to it for a while and that I therefore needed to read it. Only mere days ago I felt so drawn to counting my blessings, perhaps… because that’s what the Spirit spoke to me that morning, maybe that was why I felt drawn to do it! (Ugh! Sometimes I’m such a forgetful goofball!) Anyway, so here I have two pieces to the puzzle, blood and water flowing together and a list of one thousand blessings – or “God sightings” we’ll call them, a list of places where our eyes have SEEN God’s hand at work.

I go to pick up my Bible to do my reading for the morning, a little later than usual but routines are not meant to be set in stone. I read and read and read and finally come across the message that strikes the strings of my heart with a chord that makes me want to sing: “For your eyes have seen all the great work of the LORD that He did.” (11:7) Again, God shining a light on what He is having me do! What was it that I said over and over again in Overflow while I was counting my blessings from the previous week? “My eyes have seen…” Over and over and over again my eyes have witnessed miracles through the lens of my camera, for your benefit and mine. While God called Ann Voskamp to write down a list (I hear she’s a photographer too so there’s a definite chance that she took several pictures along the way), He has called me to capture as many as I can on film and document them through this blog! So now I have been doubly challenged! Read through His word in a year and write about how it has changed me AND take pictures of the journey and catalog the miracles I’ve seen. Because my eyes have seen all the great work of the LORD that HE did! Oh, the things that He does for us every day; those things that all too often we miss, or pass by, without regarding them with the thankfulness that they deserve.

As I sit cross-legged on my bed, Bible in my lap, pondering about how “blood and water” fit into this whole puzzle picture of thankfully counting my blessings, the lyrics of yet another song begin to march through my head “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord…” I immediately begin my computer humming with action as I pull up YouTube and begin a search for the perfect version of this song. I want to SEE the lyrics, I want to chew them up with my eyes and digest them with my soul, hymns are sermons to song – what is the message of this one? How does it line up with my puzzle for the day? I pull up a version with the music but no lyrics that are sung, only typed out in the comment section below. Hmmmmm….. I pull up another, words and music but no typed lyrics, sigh… sometimes the hunt can be exhausting. I try another link on the sidebar, this one looks promising, there’s a picture of Jesus on it. As the clip begins it explains the premise behind the video, an elementary and high school choir singing together along with a few key instruments, patriotism in schools is not dead yet. Hallelujah. As the song begins to ring out with a characteristic marching drum beat the pure innocent beauty of elementary student’s voices rings out the pure truth “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, He is tramping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored, He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword, His truth is marching on…”. We HAVE seen the glory of the Lord, when He squashed those grapes filled with His wrath into the most precious of wines – His Spirit, which He HAS loosed as a fateful lighting through His terrible swift sword – His truth IS marching on. His truth is marching on through US. And the funny thing about this puzzle today is that all these elements, blood, water, blessings, thankfulness they all tie together in this song. The Battle Hymn of the Republic!

They all tie together through the victory that Jesus won for us on the cross. Without that single game-changing moment in history none of these things would be possible. There would be no blessing beyond the curse; there would be no Holy Spirit of Truth for all who believe in His name, there would be no heaven, no forgiveness, no close communion with the God of all creation – only knowing Him from afar. That, I think, is the saddest thought of all. No intimate relationship with the One who created you. No intimate relationship with the One who created it all, it makes me want to weep. I can’t imagine a day where I don’t feel the Holy Spirit’s nudge to speak up or to do the right thing at the right moment. I can’t fathom not feeling His sweet breath upon the flesh of my heart as He whispers “I love you” through the glistening dew on the petals of my favorite flower and its powerful perfume intoxicating my being as I inhale its delicate freshness. I am thankful for the morning praise songs of the birds consuming the air of this crisp spring morning with their cheerful tunes – Good morning Lord, I love You too!

There ARE so many many many things surrounding us that we can be thankful for!

We need only to open our eyes and see them, take the moment to appreciate them, to allow them to surround us in His glory and see it for what it really is! They may be small in size, but large in worth. God made this creation for me to ENJOY, yet so often I get so busy with the dealings of my life that I walk right past them and miss them entirely. I get so busy and preoccupied with driving the car that I miss the feel of the wind in my hair, caressing my cheek, whispering “I love you!” I get so busy preparing the meal that I miss the arousing aromas wafting through the air tickling my nose with the tempting excitement of the coming culinary treat. I get so busy with the task of cleaning that I miss the pleasure of the feel of the warm water wrapping its silky softness around my hands, I miss the gift of a house that needs cleaning, I miss the sound of a child’s laughter in the bathtub as she plays.

Sometimes the noise of my life drowns out the song of praise that creation is singing all around me and I miss it entirely; I miss the opportunity to sing along.

Oh Papa please help me! I don’t want to miss any more! I don’t want to forget to praise, I don’t want to neglect being thankful, Lord please save me from the noise and deliver me to the song! I want to SING! I want to sing YOUR praises, I want to sing Your victory, You have already won, I am already there with You in victory. It may not seem that way to my eyes, my circumstances may not speak that truth, but Your word does and Your Spirit testifies to that truth. WE have won the victory over the Enemy; he just hasn’t figured it out yet! And that is why I will choose to sing this Battle Hymn of Thankfulness today, that is why I will sing a marching song, because it is through the march of thankfulness that we declare victory over the World and its darkness. It is through counting ourselves blessed that we declare the truth through our actions. Taking the time to notice the “I love you” planted within His creation, is marching against the Enemy it is tramping out those grapes creating the wine of the Spirit of Light and Life. Gratitude conquers all! Because love rejoices in the truth, the truth that God loves you, the truth that He is for you and not against you. Being thankful by enjoying His gifts within creation expresses gratitude toward the giver! When I give my children a gift it is not their verbal thanks that I enjoy the most, they are simply a platitude. What I enjoy and delight in the most is watching them USE their gifts, delighting in them. I love watching them play with the toys that I have given them and I believe that I get that from God – I am made in His image after all! I believe that it brings Him the utmost of joy when we USE the gifts that He has given us, when we USE the freedoms that He died to bring us, when we LIVE in those gifts and freedoms which brings us joy and fulfillment and aids in our ability to express our thankfulness in other forms. Yes my friend, our marching song against the Enemy is living in a constant attitude of thankfulness by enjoying the here and now that we are in, even if the only thing we can find joy in is the wind coursing through our lungs. Be thankful. Life was meant to LIVE.

Today’s Reading: Deuteronomy 5:16-8:20

So yesterday I stood at the crossroads and then watched Deadliest Catch and made the realization that I simply couldn’t be happy in eternity knowing that I had chosen the easy road. Then today I picked a book up that I had set down a long time ago, Secrets of the Vine by Bruce Wilkinson. I flipped it open to where I had left off and low and behold what is it on? Pruning! Wilkinson explains that there are two phases of pruning, the first phase focuses on priorities and activities where the second phase tends to focus on identity and beliefs. This second phase of pruning is more difficult to endure than the first phase because it prunes at the core of who you are and what you believe. I read about Wilkinson’s own experiences of pruning moments like these and realized that that’s been what this last year was all about! My identity has been questioned time and time and time again this year – mostly because I changed my name and it set everyone into an uproar, but also because God was using that to help me root myself deeper into Him and then later on to remind me how deeply rooted I am. My identity now completely exists in Him. Without God and my relationship with Him I would have NO clue who I am! I love that about myself, I am His child, His little princess, His baby girl, without that I have nothing. And it’s amazing to me looking back now, because I’m realizing that He first taught me who I am so that when the time of pruning my beliefs came along I would be able to lean on my identity to answer those questions of belief. For my entire life I’ve relied on my own abilities and knowledge of the workings of God and His kingdom to get me through the battles. I felt like as long as I knew the right scripture to speak back to the Enemy he’ll leave me alone. And while scripture is more powerful than many of us will ever truly understand, there have been moments when I have felt completely helpless to defend myself from the Enemy. There have been moments in this last year where I have felt the beating hooves of the donkey as it has trampled over the grain of my soul and then the violent tossing into the air in order to separate the chaff from my wheat. Sifting is a violent process, but it is extremely effective. And during those times I have come to realize that I have had NO power in the situation, none. I have not had the presence of mind to even remember I needed to speak scripture let alone remember any scripture itself! I have been completely in the hand of GOD. I have been at HIS mercy and under HIS control. I was in the potter’s hand and He was using a cutting tool on me to carve out a design of His choosing upon the tender clay of my spirit. The pruning I have undergone this year has not been a pruning where my flesh has been attacked, it has been my mind! I attempted reading Joyce Meyer’s Battlefield of the Mind but simply haven’t been able to get through it. I’ve read enough to know that I agree with her that our minds are certainly a battlefield! But past that I honestly can’t remember any of it at the moment. Not that it wasn’t a good book, because it is! I just can’t remember any of it… because I was in the midst of the chaos of battle while I read it. I would like to add to the idea that our minds are not just a battlefield, but also a prison. I have learned that I think about things way too much instead of just giving them over to my Daddy and trusting Him to take care of them. He loves me and it is His JOY to take care of me, good care of me.

I got a movie for Easter that I’ve been really looking forward to watching, Annie. It has always been one of my favorites and last night I got to share it with my kids. I wasn’t sure that they would both sit and watch a non-animated movie or not but they did! And as I sat there simply enjoying sharing something I’ve always loved with my family when Annie walked into that gigantic mansion and started singing “I think I’m gonna like it here…” I began to silently weep. I wept because the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to what He was showing me, He is Daddy Warbucks and I am Annie. We begin life as orphans, parentless until we choose Jesus, and that’s when we move into the mansion with Daddy Warbucks. He has all the wealth in the world and we have none, when we live in Him all those things get added to our account too! When we live in His house we have access to all the things and people within His house. As the maids and housekeepers and butlers and gardeners and cooks sang in Annie, “Your wish is our command” I was reminded of the angels and their service to our Father. They live to serve Him by serving us. When we find our identity in Him we are like little orphan Annie who has just been plucked from servitude and abuse and plopped directly into the lap of luxury! Daddy has deep pockets, so not only does He have the ability to buy out the eight o’ clock show at Radio City Music Hall, He also has the desire; because He would love to sit and watch a movie with His precious child. YOU!

Today’s Reading: Deuteronomy 3:1-5:15

You know it’s interesting how God can use ANYTHING to speak to us. The night I stood at the crossroads I came home, finished writing for the day and then spent the rest of the evening with the family. After the kids went to bed my husband and I sat down and watched a show on the Discovery channel called Deadliest Catch. This particular episode was all about the most dangerous moments the ships had had during the previous seasons. You see, this show is all about fishermen! These men perform what has got to be one of the most dangerous jobs known to man. They spend months out in the Bering Strait risking their lives to catch crab and bring them back for us to eat. And what’s amazing to me is the way in which God structured my steps throughout the past few days where He had me counting my blessings and expressing my excitement about having been called to be a fisher of men with my husband by passing out Bibles. Then has me stand in a literal crossroads and tells me that I am at a crossroads in my path of life where I can choose which path to take. OK, no biggie right? I’m following You Lord, lead the way! But then He brings me home and shows me this show where these fishermen are fighting everyday just to stand up let alone fish! They fight the wind, they fight the bitter cold, they risk falling overboard and dying from hypothermia. But at the same time, their rewards are huge! These crab that they are fishing for are worth an amazing sum, and they love what they’re doing, they can’t even imagine doing anything else despite the risk. By the middle of the show I turned to Sean and asked him to pause the TV so I could explain to him what the Holy Spirit was telling me through all of this. I started by telling him about the crossroads, I hadn’t had a chance to share that with him yet and then I pointed to the TV “God is showing us what is in store. He’s showing us that the road of ministry is dangerous and scary… but very rewarding. We have to decide if this is what we really want to do. How much is it worth to us?” He didn’t really say much at the time and neither did I, we finished the show. Toward the end, as I was sitting on the couch, almost in the fetal position, wide eyed and thinking “can I really do this?” when the Holy Spirit whispered through my soul, “eternity”. And I thought about looking back at this critical crossroad in my life from my after-life, talking about it with my friends and wondered how would I feel about saying to them “Yeah, I chose to take the easy road”. God had me make this very same choice last year at about this same time. He had me sit behind the steering wheel of an RV and told me to tell Him whether I really wanted to keep going down this path or change course. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. I started saying “Lord, I’ll follow You where ever You want to lead me, I trust You.” But He was insistent, saying “Make me believe that you really want to keep going.” I knew that the path ahead would be hard, that the testing would be difficult, but I also knew that He would be with me through it all; that I would be safe in the Shepherd’s arms the entire time. So I chose to keep going down the path of ministry. And I’ll admit, standing at the crossroads this year and looking back over the last year, there have been some really really tough dark moments where I really wanted to quit, but they were brief and very productive moments. In those times I was sifted, or pruned depending on which parable you’re looking at, and by the end of them I was a different person, a much lighter person. I knew who I was and what I was doing this for. I knew more and had a much better perspective of life. Yes, there were some really dark low moments in this past year… but God was with me every second of the way, more in those sifting moments than any other moments it felt like.

I have discovered a new favorite after dinner treat, Ghiridelli dark chocolate squares filled with salted carmel… sigh…. they’re simply heavenly! The chocolate is just the right amount of bitter and crispy while the caramel is just the right balance of sweet smoothness to go along and balance the crispy bitterness. But then the salt comes in and pushes it all over the top in flavor. Oh! They are simply amazing! I discovered them with my new friend Jeanette the other day on our way to the Winter Jam concert and we both have been hooked ever since. This week we were spending some quality time at the BMV together (with another mom and four kids under five – we know, we’re crazy) when we started discussing these squares of heaven. She told me about how even her son in second grade is amazed and commented on the perfect balance between all the ingredients and how they go together so well. I’m realizing that God does that with our lives too. There are those bitter moments in life that are just hard, but then He adds the sweet moments that make us smile and laugh and make living worthwhile. You know those kinds of moments that smooth out the rough edges of the hard moments. But then there’s the sea salt that just sends everything over the top. Those people that you share life with that make life just wonderful. Those people in your life that are the salt of the earth, that when you’re down they lift you up. Your husband who knows just what to say when you’re blue, or may have just the right scripture that applies perfectly at just the moment you need to hear it. The friends that will tell you when you’re doing something they don’t approve of, where they will catch you saying something self-defeating and will call you on it. Those are salt of the earth people that make everything in life work together for the good of those who love the LORD and are called according to His purposes.

Ya know, I get that the road ahead is going to have bitter moments, moments that I’m not going to enjoy and don’t look forward to experiencing. But I don’t want to look back on my life and say “I took the easy road”, that’s not me and it’s not something that I would be proud of. Because of the gift of salvation and justification I can look at the future from the viewpoint of eternity and realize, this is only a phase, it’s a brief wisp in the wind compared to eternity. Because I know that it will NOT last forever and because I know that GOD will be with me hand in hand every step of the way, I know that I CAN do anything through Christ. I can endure further testing, further pruning, further dark and bitter moments because I know He is there; that I am SAFE in the Shepherd’s arms. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength! I may not know all the options, I may not know all the consequences, but You know me Lord, I can’t choose the easy way. I don’t want to be like the Israelites when they heard the report from the spies who had just entered the Promised Land and seen the “giants” and got scared and said “let’s go back to Egypt!” I don’t want to do that, I know the battle for the Promised Land won’t be easy; it certainly hasn’t been to this point! But I do know that with God ALL things are possible, I know that He is with me. And if God is with me then WHO, or what, can be against me??? The LORD has been with me thus far and I know that He will be with me from this point forward as well. Because He has promised that for every believer, and I believe that He fulfills every promise. I trust that God will be with me in the future battles just like He’s been with me in the previous ones. God has led me out of darkness and into the freedom of the Light, and like an ant who has found a treasure trove of food at a local picnic I will go back into that darkness and tell me friends about the Light that I have found, I will bring them out into the Light to feast on God’s picnic – His abundant Grace. That’s another thing I could never be happy with in eternity, accepting my own freedom and leaving it at that by allowing everyone around me to continue living in darkness and death. I’ve experienced God’s marvelous Light, I’ve tasted the sweet smooth creaminess of His goodness and His pure grace how could I not share that with EVERYONE? Not just a few select people who I know will accept it, but EVERYONE.

Lord, I will do my best not to cling to the shore line, but rather to cast my lines into Your hands to allow You to guide my boat into the sea, into Your grace, into Your keeping. I know that with You I am safe from ALL harm. I know that in life there will be tribulation, but I will not be afraid because You have overcome the world! I believe that You will keep me safe from everything that will harm me eternally, that You will keep me from losing the thing that matters the most in this life and the afterlife – YOU. Without You nothing is possible, with You EVERYTHING is possible. Lord, I agree with Beth Moore, I believe that You are who You say You are, I believe that You can do what You say You can do, I believe that I am who You say I am, I believe I can do all things through Christ, I believe that Your word is alive and active in me, I’m believing YOU! (From Believing God the Bible Study.)