I am really excited about Christmas this year. Yes, I know we have two other holidays to go through before Christmas but...
"Claus and the King" is going to be produced at the West T. Hill Theatre here in Danville. My daughter Beth works for the theatre and will be directing it. She's directed many plays there so why am I so excited?
One night many years ago when I was the "Story Lady" for Danville community functions, I prayed, "Lord, please give me a new story for Christmas." Within an hour "Claus and the King" was written. I read it for the city recreation events, I read it for schools, I read it for churches, I read it for Senior Citizens. It was my husband's favorite of anything I ever wrote.
Then in 2007 I decided to turn the story into a play- a musical to house the songs that kept springing up into my mind that went along with the story. Songs like "I'm Off To Be A Magician" and "Christmas is Love". I wrote eight others in the process of writing the script.
And now it will be produced and I'm thrilled. There were very few adults who auditioned so we went with an all youth cast, except for the Grandmother who is telling the story.
There were children who opted not to audition for other plays because they wanted so much to be in one that celebrates Jesus. I believe the Lord brought together the cast and the crew. "Claus and the King" will only have a 5 performance run: Dec. 9-13 but I believe it will be an instrument for the Lord to work through and touch lives, not just those involved in the performances but the audiences as well.
It's funny about something like this. You (I) feel a certain amount of 'ownership' and yet you know you couldn't have done it on your own. "Claus and the King", in my opinion, is another parable told by the One who is "the same yesterday, today, and forever." And I am honored to be one part of His Body He tells it through.
For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him. (Col. 1:16)
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Anger Resolution
At church, Sunday before last, I boiled down a 6 hour workshop on Anger Resolution to 30 minutes of sermon. I got more comments on that message than any previous ones in the 11 years I’ve been there. And it occurred to me that if I have a topic that Christians respond to so well, then perhaps I could/should put it on my blog. So we’re going to do something a little different for the next several weeks. I’m going to start off with things I have experienced or learned about anger and then I’d like to get your questions or experiences and we’ll go from there.
Anger is a powerful emotion. And it can have powerful expressions in and through your mind and body.
The first time I was aware of anger was when I was five years old. My best friend was Lucy Schultzman who lived about three houses away from mine and I loved to go to her house to play.
Her older sister had a doll with brown hair that I loved and wanted as my own. She ,the doll, not the sister J, was a little shabby but I loved her.
That Christmas I received a brand new blonde bride doll. It was a Toni doll and you could give her home permanents. I felt empowered. I marched down to Lucy’s house and presented her sister with the trade offer which she immediately agreed to. When I showed my parents my wonderful new doll, I was told I was “stupid and ungrateful” and that I had been taken advantage of. They sent me back to the Schultzman’s to re-trade.
I recall walking slowly down the street and feeling such fury at my parents that it scared me. I knew that if I let the anger out, they would both drop dead on the spot. So I stuffed it down somewhere inside. I later learned that is a typical instance of childhood magical thinking that believes the world revolves around oneself.
I traded back the doll and then came home and wrote my mother a letter. I wanted to tell her that I didn’t want her to die but at age five sometimes spelling can be a little wobbley. What I presented to my mother was a note that said “I hope you do not did.” She read it and laughed. The fury that I had stuffed down earlier threatened to resurface and finish the job. But I stuffed it deeper this time.
It would be over 40 years before I felt anger again. I honestly thought I never had anger at anyone – I felt sadness and emotional pain but never anger.
Then I discovered that anger is a part of our makeup as humans made in the image of God. In Ephesians 4:26 we are told to “be angry and sin not.” I found that anger turned inward manifests as depression. Hmmm. No wonder I spent a lot of years depressed. I found out that sometimes it’s very good to be angry. But always our anger should be resolved. In the next few weeks we’ll look at different ways to resolve anger. I hope you’ll share your stories about anger and how you resolved it…or request prayer and insight to be able to do so.
I hope you’ll tell your friends to join us in this adventure of Anger Resolution. I hope that you will pray for lives to be changed through this journey.
Anger is a powerful emotion. And it can have powerful expressions in and through your mind and body.
The first time I was aware of anger was when I was five years old. My best friend was Lucy Schultzman who lived about three houses away from mine and I loved to go to her house to play.
Her older sister had a doll with brown hair that I loved and wanted as my own. She ,the doll, not the sister J, was a little shabby but I loved her.
That Christmas I received a brand new blonde bride doll. It was a Toni doll and you could give her home permanents. I felt empowered. I marched down to Lucy’s house and presented her sister with the trade offer which she immediately agreed to. When I showed my parents my wonderful new doll, I was told I was “stupid and ungrateful” and that I had been taken advantage of. They sent me back to the Schultzman’s to re-trade.
I recall walking slowly down the street and feeling such fury at my parents that it scared me. I knew that if I let the anger out, they would both drop dead on the spot. So I stuffed it down somewhere inside. I later learned that is a typical instance of childhood magical thinking that believes the world revolves around oneself.
I traded back the doll and then came home and wrote my mother a letter. I wanted to tell her that I didn’t want her to die but at age five sometimes spelling can be a little wobbley. What I presented to my mother was a note that said “I hope you do not did.” She read it and laughed. The fury that I had stuffed down earlier threatened to resurface and finish the job. But I stuffed it deeper this time.
It would be over 40 years before I felt anger again. I honestly thought I never had anger at anyone – I felt sadness and emotional pain but never anger.
Then I discovered that anger is a part of our makeup as humans made in the image of God. In Ephesians 4:26 we are told to “be angry and sin not.” I found that anger turned inward manifests as depression. Hmmm. No wonder I spent a lot of years depressed. I found out that sometimes it’s very good to be angry. But always our anger should be resolved. In the next few weeks we’ll look at different ways to resolve anger. I hope you’ll share your stories about anger and how you resolved it…or request prayer and insight to be able to do so.
I hope you’ll tell your friends to join us in this adventure of Anger Resolution. I hope that you will pray for lives to be changed through this journey.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Rise up, Body of Christ!
I know a man who had a brain stem stroke. His cognitive mind was not damaged at all. His intelligence remains intact but he can’t make any of his limbs or his mouth or his bodily functions do what he wants them to do. It’s very difficult to understand what he is trying to communicate and most people can’t. My heart aches for him.
The Body of Christ in the earth today is like that quadriplegic man. We have the perfect mind of Christ but we are more often than not disconnected, seeing only our own selfish desires, hanging on to our own opinions and doctrines, frustrating His communication and his will coming to pass in the earth.
Sometimes when I’ve been through a lot of pain, both physical and/or emotional, I just want to leave this earth. Then the Lord reminds me what I’ve often told others - that when any one of us die, there will be that much less a container for Him in the earth.
Christians are the physical vehicle of Jesus Christ in the world today. He told his first twelve disciples on the night before He died that the bread He broke represented His Body broken for them – and us. They didn’t understand that til later. And I’m not sure that the majority of the Body of Christ today still understands.
That perfect body Jesus had as He walked the earth was broken, killed, dead, so that His spirit could come and live through many members of a Body so large and diverse that we cannot begin to understand in our imaginations.
In October, 2001, shortly after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, my prayer partner and I were praying for this nation and she had a vision. She saw the Bride of Christ lying across the continental United States and she began saying “Rise up, rise up!” She described what she saw and I immediately felt a huge sorrow as He showed me that His Bride, His Body in the earth, was not held down by forces from the outside but was weakened and powerless because of things within: strife and criticisms between doctrinal thinkers and denominations, selfish pursuits of individuals and groups, apathy, and ignorance about who and what the New Creation truly is, and ignorance about our mission in the earth. It reminded me of something the Lord spoke to me back in 1984. “People are building their own kingdoms in My Name.”
For over seven years since that vision, every night my prayer partner and I have prayed for the Body of Christ, that we will rise up and recognize who we are and become completely submitted to the Head so He can work through us to bring “His Kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Recently I went through some very painful health issues and truly wished I could just go on to heaven. But the Lord reminded me “There are two of us in here. I need this part of my Body to work through.” So I threw off the selfishness and self pity and began fighting against the devil’s will for me, the one who comes to kill, steal and destroy, and made a choice to fight against him in cooperation with the one who comes that I may have life and have it in abundance. (John 10:10)
I believe that we are in the last times and that God has a huge work for His Body to do before He totally gives up on the world as it is. That same friend of mine had a vision a few years ago that still brings her to tears when she tells of it. The Christians were all together and she saw a streak off to her left. Then she realized that it was people going to hell, and they were going so fast and there were so many of them that it was just a blur.
We who are inhabited by the Spirit of the Lord are called to proclaim the good news that there is a living God who cares deeply about each person, who took their deserved punishments into His own Body through Jesus, the Savior, and was resurrected to live forever through those who die to self and receive His new life. I know very few people who take that calling seriously. I myself fail miserably in the area of evangelism. Forgive me, Lord.
Lord, forgive us for playing church instead of becoming the warriors You called us to be. Forgive us for disconnecting from you with our selfish desires and stubborn belief systems. Lord, make us one in Love and purpose so that we can rise up and BE Your Body in the earth to the glory of God and the furtherance of the Kingdom. In Jesus Name, Amen.
The Body of Christ in the earth today is like that quadriplegic man. We have the perfect mind of Christ but we are more often than not disconnected, seeing only our own selfish desires, hanging on to our own opinions and doctrines, frustrating His communication and his will coming to pass in the earth.
Sometimes when I’ve been through a lot of pain, both physical and/or emotional, I just want to leave this earth. Then the Lord reminds me what I’ve often told others - that when any one of us die, there will be that much less a container for Him in the earth.
Christians are the physical vehicle of Jesus Christ in the world today. He told his first twelve disciples on the night before He died that the bread He broke represented His Body broken for them – and us. They didn’t understand that til later. And I’m not sure that the majority of the Body of Christ today still understands.
That perfect body Jesus had as He walked the earth was broken, killed, dead, so that His spirit could come and live through many members of a Body so large and diverse that we cannot begin to understand in our imaginations.
In October, 2001, shortly after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, my prayer partner and I were praying for this nation and she had a vision. She saw the Bride of Christ lying across the continental United States and she began saying “Rise up, rise up!” She described what she saw and I immediately felt a huge sorrow as He showed me that His Bride, His Body in the earth, was not held down by forces from the outside but was weakened and powerless because of things within: strife and criticisms between doctrinal thinkers and denominations, selfish pursuits of individuals and groups, apathy, and ignorance about who and what the New Creation truly is, and ignorance about our mission in the earth. It reminded me of something the Lord spoke to me back in 1984. “People are building their own kingdoms in My Name.”
For over seven years since that vision, every night my prayer partner and I have prayed for the Body of Christ, that we will rise up and recognize who we are and become completely submitted to the Head so He can work through us to bring “His Kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Recently I went through some very painful health issues and truly wished I could just go on to heaven. But the Lord reminded me “There are two of us in here. I need this part of my Body to work through.” So I threw off the selfishness and self pity and began fighting against the devil’s will for me, the one who comes to kill, steal and destroy, and made a choice to fight against him in cooperation with the one who comes that I may have life and have it in abundance. (John 10:10)
I believe that we are in the last times and that God has a huge work for His Body to do before He totally gives up on the world as it is. That same friend of mine had a vision a few years ago that still brings her to tears when she tells of it. The Christians were all together and she saw a streak off to her left. Then she realized that it was people going to hell, and they were going so fast and there were so many of them that it was just a blur.
We who are inhabited by the Spirit of the Lord are called to proclaim the good news that there is a living God who cares deeply about each person, who took their deserved punishments into His own Body through Jesus, the Savior, and was resurrected to live forever through those who die to self and receive His new life. I know very few people who take that calling seriously. I myself fail miserably in the area of evangelism. Forgive me, Lord.
Lord, forgive us for playing church instead of becoming the warriors You called us to be. Forgive us for disconnecting from you with our selfish desires and stubborn belief systems. Lord, make us one in Love and purpose so that we can rise up and BE Your Body in the earth to the glory of God and the furtherance of the Kingdom. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Helping God?
I had a shock a few months ago. There was no one to blame but myself: I told the Lord I wanted nothing to stand between Him and me; I asked Him to purge me of anything in me that was displeasing to Him. I asked Him to search my heart and show me any sin I needed to confess and receive forgiveness for.
And He did.
I went off to the cottage at Aldersgate Camp in March and while it was a needed and fruitful visit, it was not my most favorite time alone with Him. He began to show me how I had committed the same sin over and over most of my life and never even saw it as sin.
Have you ever heard the saying “God helps those who help themselves?” That “scripture” is found in First Delusions 1:19. It actually came from Benjamin Franklin, not from God at all.
What I saw when God exposed my heart to me was that not only had I helped myself most of my life, I also had attempted to help God. Now that doesn’t sound so bad until you put it up against true wisdom like “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”(Prov. 3:5) or “I will say of the Lord: He is my refuge and my fortress, my God; in Him will I trust.” (Psalm 91:2) And especially “Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, casting all your care on Him for He cares for you.” (I Peter 5:6)
Not only did the Lord show me how much I’d tried to help Him in the past during that week in the cottage, He has very faithfully shown me daily ever since then how much I’m still trying to help Him. It’s embarrassing.
You may try to help Him too.
If you are misunderstood and talked about, you may not wait for Him to clear up the situation but defend yourself to everyone around you instead of following Jesus “who when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judges righteously.” (I Peter 2:23)
When you have to speak to an audience or explain a situation, you may make notes and practice in front of a mirror instead of taking “no thought how or what thing you shall answer, or what you shall say: for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what you ought to say.” (Luke 12:11,12)
You may fret and stew over your financial situation instead of following Jesus’ admonition to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matt. 6:33)
When someone takes something that belongs to you, whether it’s a possession, a role in an organization, your reputation, or credit for something you did, you may believe it is the right thing to do to straighten out the situation instead of believing Jesus when He said “I say to you that you resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” And you may not believe what Paul wrote when He quoted God “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” (Romans 12:19)
Ouch! Are there any among us who have never taken things into our own hands? Any of us who trust the Lord perfectly with the things that are dearest to us?
I go back to Aldersgate shortly to spend time alone with the Lord again. I hope He doesn’t have to show me that I’ve continued to do these things in the past two months. But in case I have, I am so pleased that my favorite scripture is true, “If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive your sin and cleanse you of all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)
Want to pray with me?
Father, I come to you in Jesus Name, part of His Body in the earth. Thank you that you are purging us from all that is unpleasant to you, changing us from glory to glory by your Holy Spirit, as we look to Jesus. This day Lord, we choose to quit helping You with our lives, but instead we choose to make Jesus Lord over every detail of our lives. Help us to humble ourselves under your mighty hand so that you can exalt us in due time. Help us to look only to you as our Provider, Defender, Shepherd, Comforter, and Healer. So be it.
And He did.
I went off to the cottage at Aldersgate Camp in March and while it was a needed and fruitful visit, it was not my most favorite time alone with Him. He began to show me how I had committed the same sin over and over most of my life and never even saw it as sin.
Have you ever heard the saying “God helps those who help themselves?” That “scripture” is found in First Delusions 1:19. It actually came from Benjamin Franklin, not from God at all.
What I saw when God exposed my heart to me was that not only had I helped myself most of my life, I also had attempted to help God. Now that doesn’t sound so bad until you put it up against true wisdom like “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”(Prov. 3:5) or “I will say of the Lord: He is my refuge and my fortress, my God; in Him will I trust.” (Psalm 91:2) And especially “Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, casting all your care on Him for He cares for you.” (I Peter 5:6)
Not only did the Lord show me how much I’d tried to help Him in the past during that week in the cottage, He has very faithfully shown me daily ever since then how much I’m still trying to help Him. It’s embarrassing.
You may try to help Him too.
If you are misunderstood and talked about, you may not wait for Him to clear up the situation but defend yourself to everyone around you instead of following Jesus “who when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judges righteously.” (I Peter 2:23)
When you have to speak to an audience or explain a situation, you may make notes and practice in front of a mirror instead of taking “no thought how or what thing you shall answer, or what you shall say: for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what you ought to say.” (Luke 12:11,12)
You may fret and stew over your financial situation instead of following Jesus’ admonition to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matt. 6:33)
When someone takes something that belongs to you, whether it’s a possession, a role in an organization, your reputation, or credit for something you did, you may believe it is the right thing to do to straighten out the situation instead of believing Jesus when He said “I say to you that you resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” And you may not believe what Paul wrote when He quoted God “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” (Romans 12:19)
Ouch! Are there any among us who have never taken things into our own hands? Any of us who trust the Lord perfectly with the things that are dearest to us?
I go back to Aldersgate shortly to spend time alone with the Lord again. I hope He doesn’t have to show me that I’ve continued to do these things in the past two months. But in case I have, I am so pleased that my favorite scripture is true, “If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive your sin and cleanse you of all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)
Want to pray with me?
Father, I come to you in Jesus Name, part of His Body in the earth. Thank you that you are purging us from all that is unpleasant to you, changing us from glory to glory by your Holy Spirit, as we look to Jesus. This day Lord, we choose to quit helping You with our lives, but instead we choose to make Jesus Lord over every detail of our lives. Help us to humble ourselves under your mighty hand so that you can exalt us in due time. Help us to look only to you as our Provider, Defender, Shepherd, Comforter, and Healer. So be it.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
HAPPY RESURRECTION LIFE
Jesus’ last prayer before He went out to His Passion was for all who would believe on Him down through the ages. It was a prayer for you and me.
He prayed, “that they all may be one; as thou Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou has sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou has loved me.”
(John 17:20-23)
When you recognize that prayer in light of “I am the vine, ye are the branches” (John 15:5) and “By this shall all know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” you begin to get a glimpse of your main purpose in life.
That purpose, your purpose here and now, is to live the Resurrection Life.
Your purpose is to show the love of God to a world that doesn’t know that He exists or that He loves each human being. But you can’t do that alone. It takes all the new creation beings, all who are born again, working together to perfectly reflect the awesome Love of the Creator Redeemer.
Paul’s two prayers for the Body of Christ recorded in Ephesians One and Three are keys to what we need to understand about our calling and purpose.
In Ephesians 1: 16-23, Paul asks the Father that YOU would receive the revelation of the resurrection power and how it works in you and all who believe, that you would understand that you now are part of His Body in the earth, forgiven, empowered, and given authority under Him over all things.
In Ephesians 3:14-19 Paul prays that we receive a revelation of the love of God so that we can be filled with the fullness of God. But he says we can only do that ‘with all saints’. In other words, it takes all of the Body of Christ to perfectly contain and pour forth His Love. Think of that! The fullness of God. Paul states that truth again in his letter to the Colossians “For in Him (Jesus) dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power.” (Col. 2:9 and 10)
My prayer for all of us who are one in Him is that we learn to love purely and wholly, that we reflect Him to all around us, that we understand His authority and let Him exercise it through us.
Go with Him to the Garden and say “Not my will but Thine be done.” Go with Him to the cross and say “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” And “Into Thy hands I commit my spirit.” Then come forth from the empty tomb with Him and say
He is risen.
He is risen indeed!
He is risen.
He is risen in me!
He prayed, “that they all may be one; as thou Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou has sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou has loved me.”
(John 17:20-23)
When you recognize that prayer in light of “I am the vine, ye are the branches” (John 15:5) and “By this shall all know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” you begin to get a glimpse of your main purpose in life.
That purpose, your purpose here and now, is to live the Resurrection Life.
Your purpose is to show the love of God to a world that doesn’t know that He exists or that He loves each human being. But you can’t do that alone. It takes all the new creation beings, all who are born again, working together to perfectly reflect the awesome Love of the Creator Redeemer.
Paul’s two prayers for the Body of Christ recorded in Ephesians One and Three are keys to what we need to understand about our calling and purpose.
In Ephesians 1: 16-23, Paul asks the Father that YOU would receive the revelation of the resurrection power and how it works in you and all who believe, that you would understand that you now are part of His Body in the earth, forgiven, empowered, and given authority under Him over all things.
In Ephesians 3:14-19 Paul prays that we receive a revelation of the love of God so that we can be filled with the fullness of God. But he says we can only do that ‘with all saints’. In other words, it takes all of the Body of Christ to perfectly contain and pour forth His Love. Think of that! The fullness of God. Paul states that truth again in his letter to the Colossians “For in Him (Jesus) dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power.” (Col. 2:9 and 10)
My prayer for all of us who are one in Him is that we learn to love purely and wholly, that we reflect Him to all around us, that we understand His authority and let Him exercise it through us.
Go with Him to the Garden and say “Not my will but Thine be done.” Go with Him to the cross and say “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” And “Into Thy hands I commit my spirit.” Then come forth from the empty tomb with Him and say
He is risen.
He is risen indeed!
He is risen.
He is risen in me!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Daughters/Sisters
I talked in the Valentine week blog about the autobiography I wrote 26 years ago, and this week I want to tell you some stories I was reminded of about my three biological daughters. (I have awesome stepdaughters and awesome God-daughters but they were not in the autobiography.)
My first daughter is Ginny, better known to the public as Virginia Smith, author, speaker, and singer. Ginny was a real trip as a kid. I knew by the time she was eight that she was smarter than I was. She was shoveling snow one day and I watched her while thinking out loud about a decision I needed to make. She stopped, leaned on the shovel and said, “Mom, you’ve done what everyone else wanted you to do all your life – first Granddaddy and then Daddy. You need to decide what you really want and then do it!” What a concept…I was speechless and could only think “out of the mouths of babes!” That moment made up for previous years when she autographed the walls above her bed and her sister’s with crayons, poured a giant bottle of shampoo into a small bathrug, picked flowers out of the neighbor’s gardens and then rang their doorbells and sold them bouquets, and other memorable actions too numerous to list. Well, maybe just the one where she blackmailed her sister Susie for several years because she accidently put a dent in my car while playing with a rock. I discovered it when I told Ginny to do dishes one night and she said “Susie wants to do them” Susie burst into tears and said “I can’t stand it anymore!” And confessed to me about the dent that I had completely forgotten about. Ginny did all the dishes for a month. She came to me one day when she was thirteen and said, "Mom, don't you think it's time I did something about God?" And so we knelt together to pray and her new life began - the one that has blessed everyone that knows her.
Then there was Susie, the Beauty Pageant winner. A study in extremes, she would cry over children at school who got their feelings hurt and make a special effort to be kind to them. But when her baby sister came along, after she had been my baby for eight years, I overheard her telling the little one that she was ugly. I also peeked around the corner and saw her holding her foot over the new baby who was lying on the floor on a blanket. She never touched her sister but said “Squish” in a very threatening way. That evening at the supper table I mentioned to my oldest two children about an interesting article I read - how in adult therapy they often find out that terrible self images began in infancy when most people thought the babies were too young to understand what was being said. After dinner I again peeked around a corner and heard Susie talking to her baby sister in the crib. “Beth, you’re the prettiest baby in the world. Anybody who ever said you were ugly was just jealous.” As a teen, Susie had the special gift of having a boy seated on each side of her at church, two in the pew in front of her, two in the pew in back of her, and each boy thinking they were the one who was most special to her. She turned that gift into making everyone she meets feel that way - and knowing her heart, it's probably true.
Third was Beth – who at age three stared up at her grandfather with serious speculation and said “You got nickels? I got pockets.” Beth - who at age twelve saw the eggs in the catfish her stepfather was cleaning, and offered to sit on them so they would hatch. Once when she was around ten, Beth asked for sheets with butterflies on them. I said no, the plain white ones were within our price range. Shortly afterwards she had a slumber party and came to me in tears the next day. She showed me how someone had taken a pen and written her name all over the new sheet – and they’d misspelled her last name. I felt so sorry for her I bought her the butterfly sheets. When she was twenty-five she confessed that she’d written on the sheets herself, being sure to misspell her name so I’d believe someone else did it. Beth - who resigned a job managing a movie theatre rather than run a documentary film showing true death scenes just for the horror of it. Beth has been in professional and community theatre since she was eleven years old, acting, teaching, directing. She is a home-school liason for the education system. Beth - whose ambition is to work at Disneyworld, as tour guide on the Jungle Cruise. She says it's because there is a new audience every three minutes. But I suspect it's because it would give her new people in whose life to bring joy every three minutes.
Something happened between the sisters that I’d forgotten about until I was reading that autobiography. When Susie was in college she majored in Communications and we all expected her to become a movie or TV star. Then she was in a car wreck which literally ripped her face. At the time they were talking plastic surgery and teeth problems and we didn’t know that she would end up as lovely as ever. But during that time not only was Susie’s faith in Jesus triumphant, both of her sisters taught me the depths of love that resided in them. They also were both beautiful young women but did not plan a career based on their looks. Each said to me, independently of the other,“ Why couldn’t it have been me instead of Susie?” If that isn’t enough to make a mother’s heart swell with pride I don’t know what is. And though Susie could have gone on to have that star career, she chose a helping profession – loving and teaching Special Needs Children.
All three of my daughters are filled with love and integrity. They are all hard workers and hugely fun to be around. They all give of themselves, far beyond the average person, in order to enrich the lives of others. Knowing what a mess I was during their childhood, I am in awe at what they have allowed the only truly Good Parent to do with their lives.
Children are a gift from God. They are His reward. Psalm 127:3
My first daughter is Ginny, better known to the public as Virginia Smith, author, speaker, and singer. Ginny was a real trip as a kid. I knew by the time she was eight that she was smarter than I was. She was shoveling snow one day and I watched her while thinking out loud about a decision I needed to make. She stopped, leaned on the shovel and said, “Mom, you’ve done what everyone else wanted you to do all your life – first Granddaddy and then Daddy. You need to decide what you really want and then do it!” What a concept…I was speechless and could only think “out of the mouths of babes!” That moment made up for previous years when she autographed the walls above her bed and her sister’s with crayons, poured a giant bottle of shampoo into a small bathrug, picked flowers out of the neighbor’s gardens and then rang their doorbells and sold them bouquets, and other memorable actions too numerous to list. Well, maybe just the one where she blackmailed her sister Susie for several years because she accidently put a dent in my car while playing with a rock. I discovered it when I told Ginny to do dishes one night and she said “Susie wants to do them” Susie burst into tears and said “I can’t stand it anymore!” And confessed to me about the dent that I had completely forgotten about. Ginny did all the dishes for a month. She came to me one day when she was thirteen and said, "Mom, don't you think it's time I did something about God?" And so we knelt together to pray and her new life began - the one that has blessed everyone that knows her.
Then there was Susie, the Beauty Pageant winner. A study in extremes, she would cry over children at school who got their feelings hurt and make a special effort to be kind to them. But when her baby sister came along, after she had been my baby for eight years, I overheard her telling the little one that she was ugly. I also peeked around the corner and saw her holding her foot over the new baby who was lying on the floor on a blanket. She never touched her sister but said “Squish” in a very threatening way. That evening at the supper table I mentioned to my oldest two children about an interesting article I read - how in adult therapy they often find out that terrible self images began in infancy when most people thought the babies were too young to understand what was being said. After dinner I again peeked around a corner and heard Susie talking to her baby sister in the crib. “Beth, you’re the prettiest baby in the world. Anybody who ever said you were ugly was just jealous.” As a teen, Susie had the special gift of having a boy seated on each side of her at church, two in the pew in front of her, two in the pew in back of her, and each boy thinking they were the one who was most special to her. She turned that gift into making everyone she meets feel that way - and knowing her heart, it's probably true.
Third was Beth – who at age three stared up at her grandfather with serious speculation and said “You got nickels? I got pockets.” Beth - who at age twelve saw the eggs in the catfish her stepfather was cleaning, and offered to sit on them so they would hatch. Once when she was around ten, Beth asked for sheets with butterflies on them. I said no, the plain white ones were within our price range. Shortly afterwards she had a slumber party and came to me in tears the next day. She showed me how someone had taken a pen and written her name all over the new sheet – and they’d misspelled her last name. I felt so sorry for her I bought her the butterfly sheets. When she was twenty-five she confessed that she’d written on the sheets herself, being sure to misspell her name so I’d believe someone else did it. Beth - who resigned a job managing a movie theatre rather than run a documentary film showing true death scenes just for the horror of it. Beth has been in professional and community theatre since she was eleven years old, acting, teaching, directing. She is a home-school liason for the education system. Beth - whose ambition is to work at Disneyworld, as tour guide on the Jungle Cruise. She says it's because there is a new audience every three minutes. But I suspect it's because it would give her new people in whose life to bring joy every three minutes.
Something happened between the sisters that I’d forgotten about until I was reading that autobiography. When Susie was in college she majored in Communications and we all expected her to become a movie or TV star. Then she was in a car wreck which literally ripped her face. At the time they were talking plastic surgery and teeth problems and we didn’t know that she would end up as lovely as ever. But during that time not only was Susie’s faith in Jesus triumphant, both of her sisters taught me the depths of love that resided in them. They also were both beautiful young women but did not plan a career based on their looks. Each said to me, independently of the other,“ Why couldn’t it have been me instead of Susie?” If that isn’t enough to make a mother’s heart swell with pride I don’t know what is. And though Susie could have gone on to have that star career, she chose a helping profession – loving and teaching Special Needs Children.
All three of my daughters are filled with love and integrity. They are all hard workers and hugely fun to be around. They all give of themselves, far beyond the average person, in order to enrich the lives of others. Knowing what a mess I was during their childhood, I am in awe at what they have allowed the only truly Good Parent to do with their lives.
Children are a gift from God. They are His reward. Psalm 127:3
Monday, February 16, 2009
New Book Reaches Out to Every Female, No Matter Her Age
Virginia Smith has done an amazing job of blending humor and pathos, self-assurance and fear, modern female business sense and ancient maternal instinct in the character and story of Allie Harrod. This second book of the “sister-to-sister” series AGE BEFORE BEAUTY reaches down and finds corresponding emotions in the hearts of every female, no matter what her age. I loved STUCK IN THE MIDDLE and this book leads us deeper into understanding how the home life of a child affects his or her emotions and choices throughout life. She shows us very beautifully, as Jesus did in His stories, that trust in the love of our heavenly Father is the only solid rock on which we can stand.
Desperate to stay home with her baby, Allie Harrod launches a new career. Sure, she dropped out of Girl Scouts because she was lousy at cookie sales, but makeup is different, right? She'll do anything to make enough money to cover her share of the household bills, but how can she focus on her business when her list of problems is growing? None of her pre-baby clothes fit, her checking account is dwindling, and her mother-in-law has decided to move in! To top it off, her husband's attractive coworker suddenly needs his help every weekend. Middle sister Joan insists that God has the answers to all her problems, but Allie isn't so sure. Can she really trust him?
About the author:
Virginia Smith left her job as a corporate director to become a full time writer and speaker with the release of her first novel Just As I Am. Since then she has contracted ten novels and published numerous articles and short stories. She writes contemporary humorous novels for the Christian market, including Murder by Mushroom, Stuck in the Middle, and her newest releases, A Taste of Murder and Age before Beauty.
In March of 2008 she was named "Writer of the Year" at Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. An energetic speaker, Virginia loves to exemplify God's truth by comparing real-life situations to well-known works of fiction, such as her popular talk, "Biblical Truths in Star Trek."
Visit Ginny's Web site.
Ginny's book is on a "blog tour." You can visit the other blogs participating in the tour:
Desperate to stay home with her baby, Allie Harrod launches a new career. Sure, she dropped out of Girl Scouts because she was lousy at cookie sales, but makeup is different, right? She'll do anything to make enough money to cover her share of the household bills, but how can she focus on her business when her list of problems is growing? None of her pre-baby clothes fit, her checking account is dwindling, and her mother-in-law has decided to move in! To top it off, her husband's attractive coworker suddenly needs his help every weekend. Middle sister Joan insists that God has the answers to all her problems, but Allie isn't so sure. Can she really trust him?You can view a book trailer at Ginny's Web site.
About the author:
Virginia Smith left her job as a corporate director to become a full time writer and speaker with the release of her first novel Just As I Am. Since then she has contracted ten novels and published numerous articles and short stories. She writes contemporary humorous novels for the Christian market, including Murder by Mushroom, Stuck in the Middle, and her newest releases, A Taste of Murder and Age before Beauty. In March of 2008 she was named "Writer of the Year" at Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. An energetic speaker, Virginia loves to exemplify God's truth by comparing real-life situations to well-known works of fiction, such as her popular talk, "Biblical Truths in Star Trek."
Visit Ginny's Web site.
Ginny's book is on a "blog tour." You can visit the other blogs participating in the tour:
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
MY VALENTINE
This week I found a humorous spiritual autobiography I wrote several decades ago when Gary and I had been married a little over a year. Re-reading the stories made me laugh sometimes and sometimes made me cry.
Gary Barkman is my third husband. I was his third wife and we both were afraid to ruin our friendship by getting married. But that was 27 years ago next month and we’re not worried anymore.
I used to think that the only differences between men and women were physical ones. Boy was I wrong! Gary was greatly relieved when he took a course that taught us some basic differences. He attributes to that course the fact that he is my last husband instead of just the present one. The first breakthrough we had was that “men think in headlines and women think in fine print.”
Think about it:
Her: How was your day?
Him: Fine.
Her: What did you do?
Him: Work.
Her: What did you have for lunch?
Him: Food.
Her: What kind of food?
Him: A sandwich.
If the occasion arose the other way around:
Him: How was your day?
Her: Great! Helen and I are becoming good friends. You know, she’s the one at the office who (explanation of Helen). And then I met Anne for lunch. We went to the Chinese restaurant and I had (description of food). And I did twice as much work as this time last month; I think I’m really catching on to this new job (explanation of new job as opposed to old job.)
But that occasion would probably never arise – well, the monologue by her will most likely be given but not the question, because he can tell by looking that her day was ‘fine’ and that’s all that is important.
I have made several observations about men over the years and still believe most of what I wrote 25 years ago – at least for my generation of males.
Men assume that drink carrying (coffee, tea, cola, etc) is a favorite pastime of wives.
When they stay home alone with their children it is babysitting.
When they run the vacuum cleaner, it is ‘helping’ the female.
When they cook a meal it is on Valentine’s Day.
They like to buy presents for females.
They like to look at females.
They fear females are a superior race and spend a lot of energy pretending that fear does not exist.
There is something I have not figured out about being female.
Him: Do we have anything to drink?
Me: (determined not to move out of my chair) Yes.
Him: What?
Me: (gripping the edges of my chair) Pepsi, tea…
Him: No coffee made?
Me: No. (digging my heels into the floor. )
Heavy silence permeates the room for several minutes.
Me: (feeling like a traitor to my very self) Would you like me to make some coffee?
Him: If you want.
I don’t want. But the invisible rope drags me into the kitchen. What is it? Cultural conditioning? Hormones? Lack of iron? When I hand him the cup, he says “Thank you, Sweetheart.” And I feel some strange sort of satisfaction inside. Is it just me or part of the mystery of femaleness?
I appreciate Gary because I never had to earn his approval by being a good housekeeper or having a perfect figure. One morning during a period when I didn’t work outside the home and he worked hard everyday, I noticed him picking up a pair of dirty socks and putting them on. When I asked why, he looked uncomfortable and confessed he hadn’t had any clean ones for three days.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked with tears of remorse.
“I know you had more important things to think about.”
How can you respond to a husband like that except to love washing his socks?
When he was a volunteer fireman, he came home one day after he and another of the crew held phone duty. He relayed their discussion about God. At the end of the conversation, the man said, “You sound like you’ve got it all together.” Gary answered, “No, when you think you’ve got it all together, you’re in trouble. You’ve got to stay like a little child, always ready to learn something new.”
That’s about as ‘all together’ as most of us humans ever get.
Gary and I had some pretty rough times in our relationship from marriage year 3 until marriage year 23 when he got on his knees and asked me to marry him again on our 25th wedding anniversary in 2007. I said “Yes.” And for two years he courted me and restored the love and respect I started out with.
I’m more proud of my husband than ever. Since his paralysis over a year ago, he has had a wonderful positive attitude, determined to find things to joke about, and made sure everybody knows “God didn’t cause this; the devil did. But one way or another God is going to get some glory out of it!”
I just thought he was great 27 years ago. Now he is my hero.
I dedicated that never published autobiography “to my husband because - of all the mistakes I’ve made in life, marrying you was not one of them.” How true that was!
On our first anniversary Gary, who mostly communicated in grunts, pointed fingers, and held out coffee cups wrote me a letter. In it he told me what our year of marriage had taught him about love.
"Love is not a state of mind. Love is giving of yourself.
Love is caring. Love is letting the other person speak when you want to talk. Love is helping someone learn how to love again. Love is giving, a giving that comes from the heart. It is the opening of the heart to someone and leaving yourself wide open to them. Love is a beautiful, precious, and wonderful Gift."
Happy Valentine’s Day!
May God bless us all with the gift of His Love that allows us to love others.
Gary Barkman is my third husband. I was his third wife and we both were afraid to ruin our friendship by getting married. But that was 27 years ago next month and we’re not worried anymore.
I used to think that the only differences between men and women were physical ones. Boy was I wrong! Gary was greatly relieved when he took a course that taught us some basic differences. He attributes to that course the fact that he is my last husband instead of just the present one. The first breakthrough we had was that “men think in headlines and women think in fine print.”
Think about it:
Her: How was your day?
Him: Fine.
Her: What did you do?
Him: Work.
Her: What did you have for lunch?
Him: Food.
Her: What kind of food?
Him: A sandwich.
If the occasion arose the other way around:
Him: How was your day?
Her: Great! Helen and I are becoming good friends. You know, she’s the one at the office who (explanation of Helen). And then I met Anne for lunch. We went to the Chinese restaurant and I had (description of food). And I did twice as much work as this time last month; I think I’m really catching on to this new job (explanation of new job as opposed to old job.)
But that occasion would probably never arise – well, the monologue by her will most likely be given but not the question, because he can tell by looking that her day was ‘fine’ and that’s all that is important.
I have made several observations about men over the years and still believe most of what I wrote 25 years ago – at least for my generation of males.
Men assume that drink carrying (coffee, tea, cola, etc) is a favorite pastime of wives.
When they stay home alone with their children it is babysitting.
When they run the vacuum cleaner, it is ‘helping’ the female.
When they cook a meal it is on Valentine’s Day.
They like to buy presents for females.
They like to look at females.
They fear females are a superior race and spend a lot of energy pretending that fear does not exist.
There is something I have not figured out about being female.
Him: Do we have anything to drink?
Me: (determined not to move out of my chair) Yes.
Him: What?
Me: (gripping the edges of my chair) Pepsi, tea…
Him: No coffee made?
Me: No. (digging my heels into the floor. )
Heavy silence permeates the room for several minutes.
Me: (feeling like a traitor to my very self) Would you like me to make some coffee?
Him: If you want.
I don’t want. But the invisible rope drags me into the kitchen. What is it? Cultural conditioning? Hormones? Lack of iron? When I hand him the cup, he says “Thank you, Sweetheart.” And I feel some strange sort of satisfaction inside. Is it just me or part of the mystery of femaleness?
I appreciate Gary because I never had to earn his approval by being a good housekeeper or having a perfect figure. One morning during a period when I didn’t work outside the home and he worked hard everyday, I noticed him picking up a pair of dirty socks and putting them on. When I asked why, he looked uncomfortable and confessed he hadn’t had any clean ones for three days.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked with tears of remorse.
“I know you had more important things to think about.”
How can you respond to a husband like that except to love washing his socks?
When he was a volunteer fireman, he came home one day after he and another of the crew held phone duty. He relayed their discussion about God. At the end of the conversation, the man said, “You sound like you’ve got it all together.” Gary answered, “No, when you think you’ve got it all together, you’re in trouble. You’ve got to stay like a little child, always ready to learn something new.”
That’s about as ‘all together’ as most of us humans ever get.
Gary and I had some pretty rough times in our relationship from marriage year 3 until marriage year 23 when he got on his knees and asked me to marry him again on our 25th wedding anniversary in 2007. I said “Yes.” And for two years he courted me and restored the love and respect I started out with.
I’m more proud of my husband than ever. Since his paralysis over a year ago, he has had a wonderful positive attitude, determined to find things to joke about, and made sure everybody knows “God didn’t cause this; the devil did. But one way or another God is going to get some glory out of it!”
I just thought he was great 27 years ago. Now he is my hero.
I dedicated that never published autobiography “to my husband because - of all the mistakes I’ve made in life, marrying you was not one of them.” How true that was!
On our first anniversary Gary, who mostly communicated in grunts, pointed fingers, and held out coffee cups wrote me a letter. In it he told me what our year of marriage had taught him about love.
"Love is not a state of mind. Love is giving of yourself.
Love is caring. Love is letting the other person speak when you want to talk. Love is helping someone learn how to love again. Love is giving, a giving that comes from the heart. It is the opening of the heart to someone and leaving yourself wide open to them. Love is a beautiful, precious, and wonderful Gift."
Happy Valentine’s Day!
May God bless us all with the gift of His Love that allows us to love others.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
LIVING PARABLES
It is interesting to me that last week I wrote about what being Colonists in the Kingdom was all about because immediately after that post, I saw the Kingdom Colony in action here in my own community. The very next day an ice storm hit and most of the area had no electricity for days. That meant no heat for the majority of families. We lost water for over a day and when it came back on, it was not drinkable. We lost phone lines. After six days electricity was restored to my home, after seven we got phone – and internet – back, and after eight days water was declared safe to drink.
I have to admit that I kind of enjoyed the challenge of learning to cook on a gas grill while dressed in many layers out on my porch. (Especially when it resulted in things like perfect scrambled eggs and homemade potato salad). Reading by candlelight made me admire my pioneer ancestors. Being woken up by the cold and forcing myself to stay awake until the propane heater brought the two rooms we had blocked off livable again made me appreciate heat that one can sleep through without fear of dangerous fumes. We were very blessed by having a propane heater, a gas grill, lots of propane – and a generator for the last three days.
But the thing I loved most about our crisis was seeing the Kingdom Colonists in action. Neighbors on our street came and cleared away the tree limbs and ice that blocked what would be an escape route if we needed one. Neighbors from another town came and chopped down dangerous limbs over our yard and driveway – and hauled them away. Those neighbors were not employees paid by anyone to do that, just volunteers we’d never seen before that would take no pay for their help. Neighbors from other states called on our cell phones to make sure we were okay. Neighbors from our church brought drinkable water from their well. We found out that neighbors we still have not met told our children they would come to our town to check on their parents if needed. Neighbors that are our children brought in food and fuel supplies. And a neighbor who happens to be my sister sent money to cover the extra costs incurred.
I was sorry that the training event where I was to present a ninety minute power point presentation on “Become A Living Parable” had to be cancelled. BUT I was thrilled to see Living Parables in action all around me.
On our local radio station here in Danville, KY and on the radio station in nearby Stanford (and probably others that I just haven’t heard about) the personnel not only kept the public informed about progress and shelters and available help; they took calls of people with needs and calls of people saying they were on the way to meet those needs. They too calls from the lonely, and they calmed the anxious and depressed, and asked that people who lived nearby visit and comfort and share with them. I never heard so many “God bless you’s” and “Keep praying’s” on public communication vehicles (and these were not “Christian” radio stations). I didn’t hear the call where a woman phoned in with complaints – but I did hear the call when she phoned in to apologize for her previous impatience and expressed her gratitude for all the crews working 24/7 to help restore her losses. That and many other calls including other thank you's and prayers for work crews brought tears to my eyes.
Many people who had generators or alternate heat sources took others into their homes. I heard of one lady who worked at a bank in Frankfort and saw an elderly woman of another race looking sad and shivering. On questioning, she discovered that the woman and her husband were without heat or electricity or propane heaters or any alternate shelter. The bank employee, who lived alone, took that elderly couple into her own home for two days until their power was restored.
When Jesus and a lawyer agreed that the great law is ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,” the lawyer asked “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus answered by telling the parable that we know as “The Good Samaritan” where a Jewish man was in trouble and two people of his own race passed by without helping him before a Samaritan provided all he needed. Then Jesus asked the lawyer, “Which of the three was neighbor to him?” and the lawyer answered “He that showed mercy on him.” Jesus said “Go and do thou likewise.”
That was the parable that I saw come alive in my community and region recently; that was the Kingdom Colony at work. I hope I never forget it and am at some time in a position to also become a Living Parable to many.
“Go and do thou likewise!” (Luke 10:25-37)
Monday, January 26, 2009
THINK KINGDOM
THINK KINGDOM !
If you are a Christian, you are a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, a COLONIST of that Kingdom in whatever country on earth you happen to live.
Your loyalty is to the Kingdom of God. Your rules and principles are to be His rules and principles.
The following definitions of a Colonist are taken from Myles Munroe’s book “Kingdom Principles.” The words in italics are mine.
1. A colony is a group of citizens established in a foreign territory to influence that domain for their home government. YOU are here as part of a group to influence wherever you are and who ever you are with - for God’s will and purpose.
2. A colony is a foreign territory inhabited by citizens charged to influence that domain with the culture and values of their government. THIS WORLD is the foreign territory – the whole world, not just our own nation. Colonies are everywhere that the citizens of the kingdom are living. You are charged with influencing the world around you with Kingdom values.
3. A colony is the presence of a distinct cultural citizenry in a foreign territory governed by the laws and culture of their home government. The country you live in may say it’s legal to do many things that your home government, the Kingdom of God, says are not legal. You are a presence here and now to BE GOVERNED BY THE KINGDOM laws and culture.
The apostle Peter says we are strangers and pilgrims on the earth, a holy nation and royal priesthood. Paul said that the world was crucified to him and he to the world. (I Peter 2:9-11; Galatians 6:14)
Jesus said He came to preach the Kingdom and that those who sought it first would find everything else they need provided for them. John says it’s God’s will that we prosper and are healthy even as our souls prosper. Hmm, wonder if our souls not seeing ourselves as Kingdom citizens first of all is a clue to why we’re not receiving everything we need? (Matt. 4:17,23; 6:33; III John 2)
Citizenship in any country is automatic if you are born there. You were born into the Kingdom of God when you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, and received the new life He died to give you. You are first and foremost a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.
It is time for the Body of Christ to stop seeing themselves as separated by nationality, race, gender, doctrines, or politics and recognize their common citizenship in the Kingdom of God. Time to recognize that we are Colonists of the Kingdom of Heaven. Time to recognize it and act like it!
Ask our Heavenly Father to help you see the Body of Christ the way He does…one nation inhabiting many places all over the globe. Start thinking about what we’ll look at next – your part in the responsibility of the Royal Family.
Think KINGDOM!
If you are a Christian, you are a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, a COLONIST of that Kingdom in whatever country on earth you happen to live.
Your loyalty is to the Kingdom of God. Your rules and principles are to be His rules and principles.
The following definitions of a Colonist are taken from Myles Munroe’s book “Kingdom Principles.” The words in italics are mine.
1. A colony is a group of citizens established in a foreign territory to influence that domain for their home government. YOU are here as part of a group to influence wherever you are and who ever you are with - for God’s will and purpose.
2. A colony is a foreign territory inhabited by citizens charged to influence that domain with the culture and values of their government. THIS WORLD is the foreign territory – the whole world, not just our own nation. Colonies are everywhere that the citizens of the kingdom are living. You are charged with influencing the world around you with Kingdom values.
3. A colony is the presence of a distinct cultural citizenry in a foreign territory governed by the laws and culture of their home government. The country you live in may say it’s legal to do many things that your home government, the Kingdom of God, says are not legal. You are a presence here and now to BE GOVERNED BY THE KINGDOM laws and culture.
The apostle Peter says we are strangers and pilgrims on the earth, a holy nation and royal priesthood. Paul said that the world was crucified to him and he to the world. (I Peter 2:9-11; Galatians 6:14)
Jesus said He came to preach the Kingdom and that those who sought it first would find everything else they need provided for them. John says it’s God’s will that we prosper and are healthy even as our souls prosper. Hmm, wonder if our souls not seeing ourselves as Kingdom citizens first of all is a clue to why we’re not receiving everything we need? (Matt. 4:17,23; 6:33; III John 2)
Citizenship in any country is automatic if you are born there. You were born into the Kingdom of God when you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, and received the new life He died to give you. You are first and foremost a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.
It is time for the Body of Christ to stop seeing themselves as separated by nationality, race, gender, doctrines, or politics and recognize their common citizenship in the Kingdom of God. Time to recognize that we are Colonists of the Kingdom of Heaven. Time to recognize it and act like it!
Ask our Heavenly Father to help you see the Body of Christ the way He does…one nation inhabiting many places all over the globe. Start thinking about what we’ll look at next – your part in the responsibility of the Royal Family.
Think KINGDOM!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
New Year's Resolutions
My New Year's resolution made shortly after midnight on January 1, 2009, was to update my blog weekly. It is now January 17 and I am finally updating it for the first time since November.
Perfect opportunity to feel like a failure, right?
Recently I recognized that I've been engaging in the ministry of the devil. You probably are going down a mental list of obvious sins of the flesh or sins against others and wondering which I've committed. But those things are not the main ministry of the devil.
We see that ministry exposed in Revelation 12: 10 & 11: And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven 'Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony...'
The main ministry of the devil is accusation against the believer. If he can get you to believe yourself to be incompetent, you will be. If he can make you feel unworthy to receive from God, you won't receive. If he can make you believe you are outside of God's love, you won't experience it.
My engaging in the ministry of the devil has not been accusing others but listening to his accusations against me - and repeating them to my self and others.
Right now, I repent. I am a new creation in Christ Jesus and since His mercies are renewed every morning - each day can begin a New Year for each of us.
Isn't our God awesome?
Here are my New Year's resolutions:
1. I will NOT say demeaning things about myself.
2. I will write on my blog and anywhere else no more and no less than our Lord gives me wisdom and direction to write - when He says to write it.
3. I will continue to trust Him for healing, finances, and direction because I believe He IS my Shepherd - my healer, caregiver, provider, and leader.
4. I will remind myself how important prayer is...it is meeting with God to show Him love and respect, to receive reminders of His love for me, to formally put my faith in His promises, and to allow Him to use me as a bridge for Him to walk into the lives of others.
5. I will continue to trust the One who is Love Himself to work through me, who am part of His Body in the earth, to touch others and work miracles in their lives.
6. I will praise Him for Who He is as often as I can.
7. I will believe His Word instead of the world, the flesh, and the devil. I'd love to hear your resolutions. Pray for me to receive strength from Him to keep mine and I'll pray for strength from Him for you to keep yours.
HAPPY NEW YEAR IN HIS LOVE
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