vunerability

Have you noticed that when someone is telling all the stuff they do and are, "puffing" themselves up, you find reasons NOT to like them?

Have you ever had someone tell you, honestly and humbly, that they are human and make mistakes and somehow you find that you like them? 

Why is that?

If we told people we are only human, how would they respond?  What if we "displayed our trophies" in front of them?

Before I dated my husband (my only boyfriend), we talked on the phone every night for hours.  I wanted to know if he was serious about marriage like I was.  I told him everything about me, good and bad, to see if he was going to stick around. 

Why is it that when we come to God we think we have to tell Him all our good deeds?  To make Him like us?  To get on His side?  We already are!  He wouldn't have died a bloody, disgusting death (He was unrecognizable as a man!) for us if He didn't love us!  It would've been for nothing.

Be vunerable.  He was.  Naked, cold, totally torn apart.  And He said, "Father, forgive them.  They don't know.  They don't understand."  That is love.

more of Jesus

A guy at our church (part of the apostolic counsel) is teaching Sunday School.  He had a 'small' side note regarding pre-destination.  If you know deep stuff of Christianity, pre-destination gets thrust into theological debates ALL the time.  I hate talking about it because it's just means for a fight. 

Anyway, he gave us his viewpoint and I, for one, think it's great!  Wanna know what it is? 

1.God is love.

2. Man is made in God's image.  (This does not mean Man is Love because that means that Man is God.  It just means he Looks like God.)

3.  God made man so that He could love him.  And wants us to love Him back.

4.  God gave man free will.

5.  God predestined (before time) mankind to live with Him in heaven.

6.  God still gives man, on an individual basis, the choice to accept or reject Him. 

You see, it is His Perfect Will that every human on the face of earth throughout time to be with Him in heaven.  BUT  He gives us the choice. 

He has knocked on every door.  In Revelation it says He knocks on the door, if the door opens, He will come in.  He has knocked on every door, in some way or fashion. 

If you have loved ones who still aren't saved yet, or you want a deeper relationship with your Creator, pray

"Jesus, I want to know YOU.  (I want ______to know You.)  You know me better than I know myself.  You created me."  And just tell Him what's going on in your life.  Yes, He already knows, but eavesdropping doesn't make it a relationship.  It has to come out of your mouth.  (Plus, you feel better when you get it out in the open, whatever it is-happy or sad.)  If you get emotional doing it, that's ok.  Let it happen.  If you feel numb, find out why.  If it feels weird, that's ok, too.  Just keep doing it.  You will find freedom in doing this.  It will happen.

P.S. By no means, is this polished.  This is very raw and coming from my heart.

a little bit

I haven't written all week and I know I should.  I spent Monday and half of Tuesday helping my parents do counseling (actually I sat in) on someone my age. 

My dad went in for surgery on Wednesday.  They were working on his hearing, and if you know anything about where your hearing is on your head, you will know that it's near, VERY near, the brain.  So, yeah, he has some majorly gross looking staples above his ear.  I will spare you the details, but it's nasty.

Plus, with it being beautiful outside, I just wanna go play!

I've had a week of constant thoughts.  And I've had to return them to Jesus every time.  It's like the thoughts want me to carry burdens, idols, things that AREN'T mine to carry.  The bible says not to worry, not to bow to idols.

I REALLY would like to have my best friend back.  She lives in Germany right now.  Her husband got a job out there.  So we Skype, but it's not the same as going places together.  No more Starbucks and chats.  Her evening is my morning so coffee is definitely out.  No more thrift store runs for "buried treasures".

Jesus, I need you to be my Comforter and Friend.  Touch the places where I lack and bless all the others.  When I am weak, You are strong.  Amen.

P.S.  If you want to see the painting from this week, there you go.

This one is for the person that was counseled.  Zephaniah 3:17

And this one is from last week, it's in an altered book, that's why it's lumpy.  (Haven't learned how to do that yet.)

Enjoy!

struggle

I'm going through a time of struggling.  I have been here a couple of days.  I'm not sure what it is.  Sad in my heart.  Things touch me and I cry, even though they have nothing to do with me, not really.  A large part of me is crying out, "God change this, please!"  But He just told me something this morning that gave me faith in Him.  It's about how to pray.

All my life, I've begged God to do things, thinking this is how to pray.  But He showed me this morning that my viewpoint is wrong.  The way I've been coming to Him is not because I know He'll do it but that He won't.  Hence the sadness of heart.  He told me this morning, "Pray like I've already done it.  And He showed me the end result."  What do you think my prayer was then?  "Thank you, God.  You changed it."  Funny thing is, this morning I found the same verse in 2 different things I was reading this morning and it struck me as kinda odd.  They had nothing to do with each other, at all.  Here's the verse, Hebrews 4:16  "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."

Think about the 2 heart positions...One being "Oh God please" and the other "Thank You."  These are VERY different.  What happened was, as I was talking to God "please, please, please" with sadness, He told me that I didn't trust Him.  Trust, Rest and Expectancy = Faith.  I had no faith in this area.  I wasn't expecting Him to fix it, and I certainly wasn't resting.  No Faith.

Then He said, "Don't despise small beginnings." This is the latest thing He's been showing me.  And my mind flashed to pictures of people.  David the shepherd boy, Samuel the 4 year old learning alongside priests, Joshua, one of the 12 spies checking out Canaan, Gideon, the youngest in his family, smallest clan in Israel.  "Don't despise small beginnings."  What a concept.  And my faith felt strong for a brief moment.

I know why I'm sad now.  I know I am carrying someone in my heart.  It's called intercession.  Praying for someone on their behalf.  It's all okay.  Right now, it's what I'm called to do.  And I know the outcome is good.  Why?  Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."And that we can stand on.  FAITH.

JJ Heller:  All I Need

God is Artistic and GLORIOUS

I love this.

Quote from "Crazy Love" written by Francis Chan.

"Have you ever thought about how diverse and creative God is?  He didn't have to make hundreds of different kinds of bananas, but He did.  He didn't hav eto put 3,000 different species of trees within one square mile in the Amazon jungle, but He did.  God didn't have to create so many kinds of laughter.  Think about the different sounds of your friends' laughs-wheezes, snorts, silent, loud, obnoxious.
How about the way plants defy gravity by drawing water upward from the ground into their stems and veins? Or did you know that spiders produce 3 kinds of silk? When they build their webs, they create sixty feet of silk in one hour, simultaneously producing special oil on their feet that prevents them from sticking to their own web.  (Most of us hate spiders, but sixty feet an hour deserves some respect!)  Coral plants are so sensitive that they can die if the water temperature varies by even 1 or 2 degrees.
It's a wild thing to think that the galaxies have been discovered only in the last few years, thanks to the Hubble telescope.  They have been in the universe for thousands of years without humans even knowing about them.
Why would God create more than 350,000,000,000 galaxies (and this is a conservative estimate) that generations of people never saw or even knew existed?  Do you think maybe it was to make us say, "Wow, God is unfathomably big"?  Or perhaps God wanted us to see these and and respond with, "Who do I think I am"?"

R.C. Sproul: "Men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God.

"Whatever God's reasons for such diversity, creativity and sophistication in the universe, on earth, and in our own bodies, the point of it all is HIS GLORY.  God's art speaks of Himself, reflecting who He is and what He is like."

Psalm 19:1-4: The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the works of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.  There is no speech or language where their voices is not heard.  Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

"This is why we are called to worship Him.  His art, His handiwork, and His creation all echo TRUTH THAT HE IS GLORIOUS.  There is no other like Him.  He is the King of Kings, the Beginning and the End, the One who was and is and is to come.  I know you've heard this before, but I don't want you to miss it."

I added all the gold lettering to the parts that spoke to me (and added the caps).  I love how he puts all this into words.

To add a finishing touch...."I receive" by Israel Houghton  Click on the link to listen to a GREAT song about receiving love by Jesus/God.

what is real?

Quoted from Velveteen Rabbit:

The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive.

But the Skin Horse only smiled. 

Soooo Good....

projects: completed

This is my latest project.  Done. So glad too because it's a bother to have something stuck in the back of your head and it can't come out.  If you don't give birth to it, you'll be in labor pains until it does!  No kidding!  Anyway.  It is a 3 dimensional piece.  We have metal window screen, metal scissors covered in gold, 3D paper mache heart, black puff paint, and black and red acrylic paints.  I plan on showing it this weekend at a church that's putting on an art show.  What do you think?

I am currently taking an online art class called "She Art" and it's by Christy Tomlinson.  There is so much involved in putting on an e-course.  I never knew!  It appears very complicated.  But I was reassured by Christy that it's not as involved as one might think.  Yay for that.  Maybe I'll do one someday?  Who knows.