Life....to the Fullest

Just wanted to send you an update on my trip status. Joni and Friends purchased our team's ticket this week so we are officially going! We leave July 11 and our flight from the US to Beijing will be 13 hrs long. So far I have reached 16% of my goal within two weeks. I am very thankful for those gifts. I just completed my third week working with an Allergist in his family practice that began in January. I knew the allergist and his family from a church small group I attended last year. The Lord unexpectedly and timely put the job offer in my lap three weeks. Now between that job and care-giving two days of the weeks, I have a little extra income to put towards this internship. Jesus takes care of his birds. God isn't like a watering bucket; buckets run dry needing to be filled before they can be useful. Jesus is a spring, because springs are self replenishing, they  constantly overflow and supply others.  And h ow do you serve a spring? How do you magnify a ...

“Come, everyone who thirsts,  come to the waters;  and he who has no money,  come, buy and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk  without money and without price.  Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,  and your labor for that which does not satisfy?  Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, a nd delight yourselves in rich food.  Incline your ear, and come to me;  hear, that your soul may live;  and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,  my steadfast, sure love for David," Isaiah 55:1-3 I am excited to be participating in the Joni and Friends internship to China from July 11-August 1. Joni and Friends is a ministry dedicated to extending the love and message of Christ to people affected by disability around the world. After a diving accident at age 17 that left her a quadriplegic, Joni Earekson Tada devoted her life to serving people affected by disability and equipping the Church to do so. T...

Been feeling alienated today. "Self, your home is with Jesus...in Jesus." Ephesians 2:12,19 , "... remember  that you were at that time separated from Christ,  alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to  the covenants of promise,  having no hope and without God in the world... So then you are no longer strangers and   aliens , but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God." I didn't know the meaning of what Paul was talking about in Ephesians until I left the US to live in Colombia.  Truth is every man is an alien, until he makes his home in God. Below is a re-post from  Gleanings From the Field  that someone shared with me when I returned to the States from Colombia. Strangers and aliens this is for you; you have a special place in my heart, because I haven't recovered from "alienation" on this planet. You and I have a special place in the heart of God too...   Leviticus 19:34 , "Y ou...

Matthew 10:29-31 29  Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.   30  But  even the hairs of your head are all numbered.   31  Fear not, therefore;  you are of more value than many sparrows. Was driving home late from work this past week on a country road. It was around 9:00pm, so it was dark and it was also storming. Nearly home, I passed a couple of set of small glowing eyes...Thought I briefly saw the figures of kittens. I drove on a little way debating whether to go back or not since it was storming and on a dark and lonely country road. I couldn't stand the thought of it actually being kittens and them there in the storm by the road, so I turned around.  Nearly back where I thought I saw them, I had to stop. A raccoon ran off the road into the woods. I didn't see anything else within my head light span. Butt sure that I had seen more than one pair of eyes, I went on. Approxima...

                             Understanding that there is an enemy behind temptation who has a strategy and purpose to destroy and devour, has helped me awaken to be more watchful for his schemes. Scripture itself says that this is a reason to know the truth of God’s Word and to be walking in the Spirit. Pray is an important element of intimacy with God…Where we find grace and mercy.  Ultimately, I am able to overcome only because Christ did so. Temptation is not sin. It is the enticing or daring to sin. Sin occurs when the desire (already there) that was alluring me is conceived.  It is the offense given to God. Knowing what I ought to do and but don’t and knowing what I ought not to do but do. It is faithlessness- I forget this most of the time.                            ...

There was a question that I had last week that really made me dig. It was, “Why did Satan question Eve first and not Adam? Why does he make Eve the target of his assault on humanity? The answer I have heard most often is that it is because Eve was the weaker of the two. I think that is partially true, but knowing that helper(azar) means to surround, aid, and protect, hence defend I wanted to know more. “Satan was first named Lucifer, or Son of the Morning (Isaiah 14:12). It infers a glory, a brightness or radiance unique to him. In the days of his former glory he was appointed a cherub who covers aka a guardian angel. The word cover there meant to fence in or defend. A cherub was placed to guard the tree of life and cherubs were on the Ark covering the mercy seat where God’s presence dwelt. The guardian of the glory of the Lord. In Ezekiel 28:12-14 says that Lucifer (or the King of Tyre) was the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Perfect in beauty. But...

Word studies are my favorite hands down. I traced back to all the Hebrew roots this week. The primitive root of “Man” in Gen 2:33 anash, meaning ‘to be frail, feeble, melancholy, desperate, incurable, sick and woeful.’ I thought this amazing taking into account that this was before the fall. This one was awesome too: male, zakar, in Gen 1:27 is meant ‘the remembering one; to be mindful of; to bring, call, come, keep, put to remembrance’. It was good to remember who I was created to be this week. It is healing. The last couple of months I had been awakened to my soul’s longing for Eden and realized I am striving to be the Eve before the fall in vain. Sin has marred me. But thanks be to God that in Christ He sees me for the unashamed, spotless Eve! Observing man and woman made me pull out the books Wild at Heart and Captivating by John Eldredge. It grieves me to see that so many women today are uncertain of what it means to be feminine. Our culture’s portrait of femininity seem...