Seeing

I learned something today.  This morning our church hosted a "seer".  He spoke to us about his experiences in getting to know God better.  I learned that Moses prayed to know God's ways, His face, and His presence, and that God's logic is way different from ours.  For example, fire from heaven does not destroy, but enhances.  In Jeremiah 33:3 the Word says "Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which you do not know (do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and understand)."

Seer can mean "stargazer" or "one who sees the unseen." Isaiah 45: 3 " and I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name."  There is a grab and release factor for a seer.  Colossians 4:4 "That I may proclaim it fully and make it clear [speak boldly and unfold that mystery], as is my duty."  Everything in the heavenly realm is available to us.  It is "beyond the veil", but there is a seer potential in each of us.

Our speaker for the day spent about six months praying in his literal closet, under his clothes, asking God for more of Him and every day God said "I love you."  Then one day he felt something warm and wonderful come over him, like a Comforter, and he understood that he had faith for "seeing".  All fibers of his being felt love, as though he was seated in a luxury vehicle of the highest quality and the seat was adjusted for perfect driving (We are seated in heavenly places far above all principalities and powers.)  He was positioned in the Spirit with the Presence washing over him. An angel came and he heard a harp.  Then fear set in and he was aware that he thought perhaps this could be a set-up for a demonic encounter. Instantly he was aware that he had tested the Holy Spirit and grieved Him and he was back in his earthly body and situation!

The second time he had an encounter in the Spirit realm, he saw himself standing in his own bed, with the bed actually through his torso--he was a spirit.  Then he was back in his body.  He experienced three months of visitations like this.  In Song of Solomon the writer says that he sleeps but his heart is awake--the heart he speaks of is the spirit, which engages with God on a new level.

Life in heaven has a direct impact on life on earth, which should reflect heavenly life.  Think about it.  We are supposed to look just like Jesus.  In the Spirit realm is glory and goodness.  We are citizens. Ambassadors.  An ambassador is  a person who acts as a representative or promoter of a specified activity. We are  now living in a boundary governed by the Kingdom.  There is no restricted flow between us and the Father.  All the names of God, all the formerly unspeakable names, are hidden and manifest in "Jesus"!   The law is a work FOR me.  what I carry in heaven I carry in earth.  Like an avatar!  There is now a constant flow since Jesus became the perfect and complete sacrifice.  Fellowship of the spirit is constant and we are, or should be, presentations of the Father at all times.  We have no reason for boredom.  Our relationship with Him is beyond a gift.  It is abundant life (John 10:10).  We have length and quality of life--excessive life!  


This realm is our entitlement.  And that is what I learned this morning.  

Late summer wedding

This lovely lady, the mother of the bride this evening, is an acquaintance from my Young Audience days a decade ago.  Her oldest daughter married a few years ago and our quartet played for that event. She called early this year to contract our quartet for tonight's wedding as well.  It was a black and white wedding, accented with a few pink flowers.

Elegance--all white flowers in the sanctuary. Subtle colors on the Mom's.  Tuxes and military uniforms on the guys. No other music than what we provided in solid, classical selections. All members of the wedding party were respectful and mature.  Even the program is elegant.

As usual. From my perspective.  May God bless the bride and groom with exactly what the officiate said. Love for the bride as Jesus has loved His Bride. Respect and honor for the groom as Jesus is worthy of the same.

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday my quartet played for a wedding in this beautiful chapel. Before we began the bridesmaids were in their flipflops chatting it up.

This is my usual vantage point for a wedding. Behind the music stand positioned where I can see the bridal party and bride enter from the back.  For some reason we usually play from the bride's side, just to the far left of the bride's family.

This is our church. My friend, L is an artist. This is her current work in progress.  She paints where the congregation can see what she is painting, right up front under one of the lecterns.   She stopped to chat before the service started while some of the younger girls were studying her work. I'm warming up with the praise team.  It was my first official Sunday to play with them and I was SO BLESSED!

Planting

Irises in two colors and pink rosebuds in my garden

On a routine shopping trip for groceries I found hanging baskets full of petunias and begonias for $6.98 each.  Hard to beat when the four inch pots are often $1-2.00 each, add a pot, the hanger, and potting soil, not to mention the planting time.  My Mom gave me a beautiful fancy purplish geranium for my birthday. And another trip to the nursery netted 3 big red geraniums for the mailbox planter along with some herbs and a celosia and  alyssum for another planter.  Wal Mart garden department had these big pots of Crodyline. When I dug them up to transplant there were 3-4 plants per pot. Google sites pictured fields of them growing like corn in bright, hot sunlight.  Hoping mine will do as well as the spring warms to summer.

alyssum |əˈlisəm|
noun ( pl. -sums)a herbaceous Eurasian plant that bears small flowers in a range of colors, typically white or yellow. Several kinds are widely cultivated ingardens. • Genera Alyssum and Lobularia, family Brassicaceae:many species, including sweet alyssum ( L. maritima), with fragrant white flowers.

Not long after Muffin and I returned from the nursery I receive a text message from a recent college graduate who wanted to come over for some comfort and advice.  She experienced a very difficult rehearsal earlier in the day and was struggling with shame and guilt as a direct result of the director's words.  Ugh!  I know that feeling.  We talked and prayed and loved on her and I trust that we planted some life to replace the hurt. 

Still backtracking

Our family was invited to a Good Friday Service on a ranch about 60 miles Southwest of town on top of a hill. Muffin and I, CB, JB and Em and Roo drove there Friday afternoon, taking flashlight, jacket, blanket and chair as instructed in the invitation and directions to the ranch.

After a delicious catered dinner we sat in the Safe Place, constructed of native stones, watching the sunset as we sang and worshipped the Lord Jesus.

After sunset we heard a sermon by Cowboy Preacher, prayed and walked to our cars under the stars (rhyme!) and drove home. It was a lovely way to remember all that He did on that old rugged cross on another hill named Golgotha.

Scale of 1 to 10

I haven't posted for awhile. I have no particular reasons or excuses. Each week is the same in many ways. Mondays include Reunion Group. Tuesday mornings I'm part of a Sozo team in ministry to an individual who has a great ministry, yet needs to be free of many generational bondages. Wednesday morning is Bible study, a.k.a. Sozo ministry training. And Monday-Wednesday are full of students as well. Evenings I go to the health club for Body Flow. Thursdays vary with communications, meetings, and errands.

So the variations in schedule are in the Lord's time, place, and people. For example the ministry day two weeks ago was "unscheduled" by six inches of snow. Three weeks ago it was two hours of intense ministry with three of us praying and following the Holy Spirit. This week two of us met for just an hour and great freedom resulted. When a student is sick or needs to miss for another reason I can spend a few minutes praying or practicing or sorting out music. This week in a break I sat quietly and soaked in the Lord's presence while listening to quiet instrumental music. He showed me some beliefs I had that were simply ingrained in wrong ideas about myself and had been there since I was a child.

We all have those beliefs. For example:

How many sides on a Stop sign?

What color is a Stop sign?

How many sides on a Yield sign?

What color is a Yield sign?

Most of your answers are 8, red, 3--for the first three questions. If you were born before 1988 your answer for question four may have been "yellow". However, Yield signs were changed in the 1990's to red and white. Really! Our perceptions and our thinking are skewed by our circumstances too often. God is better than we think He is, so....

we need to change the way we think!

On a scale of 1-10 I may not be accomplishing on a level of 9-10 every week as far as my schedule appears. But my perceptions are changing and my expectations of daily life are changing as well.

Facts vs. Truth

Fact: K's skin is an unhealthy shade of gold

Fact: K is breathing very shallowly

Fact: K is now in a Hospice hall, which is essentially a place to wait on death to come

Fact: K is unresponsive most of the time due to morphine and muscle relaxers

Truth: K could rise up at any time

Truth: No weapon formed against her will prosper--even cancer

Truth: She is hidden in His feathers and takes refuge in His shadow and under His wings where nothing can harm her

Truth: She is loved by the God whose power raised Jesus from the dead

Truth: K has a hope and a future

Truth: K has the same Spirit dwelling in her that can give life to mortal bodies

Please continue to pray.

Friends in Need

I haven't felt like blogging. We know lots of people with deep needs and mostly I have prayed. Two of my dear sisters in my Reunion Group have had a very difficult week. K's sister went home to be with the Father this week after six years of battling cancer. Peggy's sister entered into a new phase of dementia, unable to swallow, and her sister and brother are making life support decisions. An engineer with whom my husband worked and was in a meeting only a week ago, passed away early in the week. The man who owns the copy shop I use lost his 22 year old daughter to a kidney transplant failure. And in mid week I learned that a sweet student I taught from sixth grade to high school graduation had a great tragedy. Her single mother took her own life, leaving behind two daughters, a son, and two grandchildren, as well as a grieving sister and her family.

Father God, bless these dear ones with peace, with comfort, and with strength and wisdom to move in your kingdom. Speak to their hearts and sing over them in the dark places. May they have the mind of Christ in all things. May they fall in love with you all over again and become your dearest friends. May they hear you speak to them and teach them the Way to go. In Jesus' name.

Bullies and Freedom

When I was in high school I was in a daily situation in an orchestra where I was frequently intimidated by another student or by the director. If I were making a Hollywood movie I would call them "bullies". The technique was simple: tell me whatever was necessary to make me back off as a competitor. Tell me whatever necessary to make me feel less than prepared, adequate, musical, intelligent, acceptable... You get the picture. Intellectually I knew exactly what was happening, but emotionally, I eroded. The result is that I would either freeze up or make mistakes, neither of which would happen when I practiced alone. Amazing, the power of words and intimidating actions!

For a couple of years the symphony orchestra in which I play has used a rotating seating system for all string players behind the front stands of principle players. Last weekend I was seated with a young college student who essentially either ignored me or tried to intimidate me with his unprofessional attitude and actions. Amazingly, I felt like that 15-18 year old high school student again and began making mistakes in passages that I knew I could play--with a metronome--up to performance tempo. It didn't help that the odor of tobacco was so strong that my allergies were flaring. After the third rehearsal in these circumstances, I began to really think. I thought about my reactions. I thought about how I KNEW that I could actually play the music. I thought about how many times I had actually performed this music with this orchestra and other orchestras. I thought about the fact that I had as much right to sit there and to play well as anyone else did.

After some prayer and saying "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" about 50 times, I played a decent concert. More importantly, after yesterday's sermon from our pastor who talked about letting go of past sins and baggage, I did. Let go of the baggage, I mean. Being intimidated by bullies and receiving it as it is intended, is the same as believing a lie. Listening to, and believing lies is the same thing Adam and Eve did, right? So it's a choice, right? So I choose to stop believing that I am less than prepared, less than intelligent, less than musical, and less than what I know God has made me to be. I also choose to ask that I may have a different stand partner for future concerts, because I know that is the correct choice. And I feel free!

Great Gobs of Glue

Every Monday at noon for the past 11 1/2 years I eat lunch with these ladies. Once or twice a year we bring dishes of food and share pot luck and or planned menu together. Most Mondays we bring our own lunch and sit at the generous dining table, always set by our hostess, Precious Peggy, with real (not paper) plates and flatware on place mats purchased as souvenirs from places where she has traveled. I often enjoy my plate of food on Alaska, Washington D.C., or an exotic island. Monday lunch is always an event, and never has a dull moment.

Our purpose for meeting is not a social motive. Each of us has in common our Walk to Emmaus, and this is the oldest reunion group in our city. Two or three of our group have been meeting continuously since Big Country Emmaus began. A Walk to Emmaus is three and a half days of love poured out on the "pilgrims", those who are sponsored on the Walk, by hundreds of God's people. After the closing meeting and ceremony pilgrims are encouraged to become involved with a reunion group to maintain a connection to the Emmaus community and to grow in relation to God. Most of the women in the Monday group, called Acts 29:1 (look it up!), are members at the same church--my church. But we also have representatives from four other churches.

It is a fact that what happens at PP's house, stays at her house from those Monday meetings. After thanking God for our food and asking the Holy Spirit to come be with us, we share our very deepest needs, joys, feelings, and longings with one another. During the first months of Muffin's job 200 miles from our home, this group of ladies prayed for our adjustment to the circumstance. In the years with three of our daughters in college simultaneously, they prayed for direction, peace, safety in travel, good health, good roommates, godly spouses for our girls, financial blessings, and more. During the years when I was the "home parent" for our youngest while Muffin was away during the work week, they prayed for wisdom, grace, steadfastness, wise counsel, revelation in parenting, and more good health and safety. When I was hit by a run away driver on my way to the Monday meeting in my brand new car, they prayed, called, wrote, and held my hand. When our youngest went away to college--far away--and faced very trying circumstances academically and socially, they prayed more and held both my hands. When my Daddy began to decline and subsequently was hospitalized, then placed in the nursing home and died one year later, just last summer, they were right there with me. They prayed, they brought food, they wrote notes and made calls that will forever be etched in my mind and heart.

The photo may appear to be a bunch of ladies having Christmas fun, but this is a photo of Glue. Great Gobs of Glue, which is the love of the Father, expressed through 12 women--the glue that holds me together when life would pull me apart. The glue that mends my brokenness when the tyrannies of time and people shatter me. The glue that sticks to me when I begin to unravel and fall off the page where my life is written by God. The glue that stiffens my backbone when it is eroded by illness or pressure or false responsibility.

Acts 29:1--the story of the Church that is the foundation on which the Bride is being built for our Bridegroom.

Confessions of a Marmee

While Pioneer Woman is confessing her true feelings about the Dominican Republic trip, I should probably confess my true feelings too. When the Rowdy Girls mom, my beautiful oldest daughter, first mentioned the plight of the Ike folks in Austin, I was horrified. But I didn't do anything. My own cousin, her husband, and my Aunt were here, taking refuge from the storm. They didn't have electricity for about 2 weeks, and on the TX coast, that's very uncomfortable. But over time, as my family recovered and found most of their property intact, I began to pray for those in Austin. Thinking about these little babies and young families, who could be my own grandchildren or children, just broke my heart. Finally, on Nov. 1 I knew God was telling me to get involved personally. I'm a little slow sometimes. But my biggest problems are too much--eat too much, work too much, too many clothes, too much stuff. How could I sit here and think about those who have no job, are living on food stamps and FEMA extensions in hotels, are in Austin in November and own no winter clothing?

So, last week after emailing people from ten different churches, I collected funds and gift cards and we were able to make a difference. Two of my daughters are involved now. "L" still does all the leg work for the evacuees, and she succeeded in getting FEMA to extend through Thanksgiving. Two families have returned to Galveston. Two families intend to remain in Austin and are actively looking for jobs. We are now looking for a donated computer set up so one of the moms of a medcially fragile baby can work from home.

My whole family is arriving next week for Thanksgiving and I need to be purchasing and wrapping some Christmas gifts to return with them, but I'm having so much fun coordinating fund raisers and depositing money in a special account! This will be a holiday full of Thanks Giving.

Dubbie too...

Today I received this message from our oldest, the Rowdy Girls Momma.
Every night, for the last several weeks, as we say prayers, Roo has done this sweet
thing. We ask the Lord to bless Nannie and then Nana and then move on to the grandparents. And she always interrupts to say,
"Dubbie, too."
She never forgets him.
I strongly suspect that Dubbie knows this and gets the biggest blessing from hearing it from his current vantage point.

I'm really missing him this week for some reason.
Maybe it's because Candy's 87 year old mom died last week and she has been talking about
her 92 year old Dad and that makes me miss Dubbie.
Maybe it's because Laura wanted to play all fiddle tunes at her lesson and one of them was
Rubber Dolly, which he used to play for me.
Maybe it's because I still feel quite pointless in the evenings after Body Flow class is finished and I'm not driving to the nursing home to see him.
Maybe it's because I got the tax bill in the mail for the property that I don't really own since
Daddy died, but now have 2% of instead of 1%.
Maybe it's because Lea had a stroke in September and she gets around just fine, coming to Wednesday morning Bible study, but when she talks, her speech patterns are much like Dubbie’s after the 2nd or 3rd stroke.

I read something this week. God puts heavenly deposits inside us for a time that we need them. We think they leave, as they are forgotten, or not necessary for the moment, but they are still there. Think about the things you wondered, thought about, realized, saw or heard as a child, or at church camp, or on a retreat. Things that seemed very real at the time, but faded away. They are still there. That is why we are admonished to
"stir up the gifts within us" (2 Tim. 1:6).
God wants to awaken these treasures that are in us all. I think Roo has a treasure, a memory
of Dubbie that is real, and the Holy Spirit stirs up that gift in her when praying at night.That's really special.


Just returned from Mulberry St. I took Nannie a CD, Music from God. Nannie
had a set back with her eye today. It started hurting at 2 a.m. and hurt for 2 hours. RN encouraged her to call the doctor. She was urged to come to the office at 10:30. He dilated
the eye and looked closely. The sensation she is having is caused by the new drops, the ones that replaced the steroids to which she had the violent reaction. He told her this medication is harsh and she needs to use more artificial tears with it and stop using it all together on Sunday. He will see her again next week to follow up on the healing process.

Unity

Beth Moore is praying this for the San Antonio meetings:
Eph. 2:21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Excellent prayer! That is the spirit in which we prayed last Saturday in Washington, DC.

In small groups.

In the congregation.

As individuals. May we pray As One, in Jesus' name.

More about The Call

The man on the right is Dr. Nigel Bigpond, whose ministry and prayer at The Call, DC 2008 was very powerful. He prayed for all Native Americans and for repentance for the sins of our nation against them. He broke bondages off the tribes, naming them by name, and praying for each one. After his prayers, other ministers prayed for him, for our nation, for forgiveness.
And then, on his knees before thousands of people on the Mall near the Capitol of the United States, Dr. Bigpond let his hair down and freed it from his braid, signifying that "it is finished". This work is done. Just as the sacrifices in the temple are finished. Just as the shedding of blood to cover sin is finished. Just as Jesus finished His work.

It is a moment I will not forget.

Way Cute Wednesday

Since I can't begin to tell you, even using several languages if I knew more than one, how very cute my Grands are, you may view them for yourselves. Rowdy Girls are dancing. Jbear is throwing a picnic for Gracie. And I'm really needing to see them all!

My time today was spent with my Bible study ladies and in frustration with technology (internet, email, FOX station KVXA--a total green screen during So You Think You Can Dance, and interrupted telephone service 3 times during one phone call). After a great morning of study and discussion, I progressed (regressed?) to an afternoon and evening of head-banging due to technology that refuses to techno. Head-banging before and after gym class. Usually I stop hitting my head after chilling out at the gym class. It's healthier. Class and not hitting the head. But I digress.

Bible study is getting into the meddling area. Today we talked about knowing that you have an idol in your life when you begin to hide something--objects, food, meds, facts, make excuses. The final discussion question was based on John 2, when Mary is at the wedding with Jesus and she just tells the hosts, who ran out of wine, the facts. Then tells them to pay attention to her son, Jesus, and do whatever he tells them to do. That's all. Just listen to Him and do what He tells you. Oh Lord, may I ever remember that all you need is the facts and not my interpretation of them.

Wingless Wonders

I once heard a preacher's wife who said she formerly had wings until the backbiters chewed them off. Ouch!
I think, in the past 6 weeks or so, I've heard 4 sermons on the subject of grumbling, and did some Bible study on it my own self, too. To sum up what I learned: God really hates it! He hates it so much that the Hebrews who grumbled against Him and then against Moses, did not enter into the Promised Land. Then when Moses grumbled against the grumblers, he was denied entrance himself. An entire generation of grumblers was left to die in the desert, just miles from the Promised Land. Plus that, they wandered for 40 years trying to accomplish the goal! God provided water, food, shade, and fire, their clothing never wore out, but they wanted the Food Channel, with the gourmet stuff and were big fans of What Not to Wear and wanted makeovers.
Galatians 5:14-16—For the whole Law concerning human relationships is complied with in the one precept, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another in partisan strife, be careful that you and your whole fellowship are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk and live habitually in the Holy Spirit—responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh—of human nature without God. (The Amplified Bible)

May God forgive us for grumbling and teach us how to walk and live habitually in the Holy Spirit. That’s real living!