Longing for Light

Luke 11:34 34 “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when it is bad, your body is filled with darkness. 35 Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. 36 If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light.”

I really want to know what those verses mean. I am wondering if they are about how we look at situations and people in our lives? If we see them in God's light or not? In the light of His love or not? In the light of His truth or not?

I want my whole life to be radiant!

Here's my hope: Psalm 18:28 You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. Yay!

Time's A-flyin'

Whew, I can't believe it has been a week since Retreat already. It went by so fast. I am still observing the changes that God has made in my heart. I feel stronger in a quiet, peaceful way. And that is good because crazy things started happening before we even left Camp Bradley!

I think my favorite thing about the Retreat was seeing the women relate to each other. I have never seen them appear so comfortable and open with each other. My prayer is always that they would minister to one another because that is what the Church is all about. This year, they did. The baptisms were unforgettable and will be special to me for eternity, I believe.

Today the weather is beautiful, my husband is patiently (yes, a small miracle) teaching Devin how to mow the lawn and I am about to go get groceries and then we are going to go to my brothers and eat the small number of morel mushrooms that we gathered from our all-day search in the sunshine yesterday.

I love Spring. I love God. I love it when everything feels good and right. I have learned to enjoy those times...

My prayer at the moment, thanks Tammy!

"O Lord, work powerfully, creatively; move in majesty. Send the Divine communication of knowledge, send the impelling mental force of the Holy Spirit acting within us to overshadow our intellect and personalities. Come in power, for Jesus' sake. Amen" ~A.W. Tozer

Kinda strange but I like it!

I have been running very hot and cold with the blogging lately. Sorry about that. Our Women's Retreat is in a week and a half and I have been super busy. I wanted to get on here this morning and write about a verse I can't quit thinking about though.

Psalm 85:10Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.

I have been on a quest for peace the last month or so and I keep thinking about this verse. What does it mean Lord? The only thing I have come up with is that from His unfailing love and faithfulness, He gives us His righteousness and His peace, if we are His. It may mean more, but that is what I have been thinking about.

I keep picturing righteousness and peace being strong enough and comfortable enough to kiss in my soul. And yes, I do find that a little weird but what a wonderful thing to think about. For so long, I did not understand that Jesus gives us His righteousness and I was in despair, knowing I would never have any of my own. And as far as peace goes, that would be just as impossible without Him. If you know me at all you know I am not a peaceful person on my own.

I LOVE how He gives us what we are so desperate for! And that is after He makes us desperate for the truly good stuff in the first place...

Philippians 2:13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

Everything We Need

Saturday morning, the sun was streaming into my living room and kitchen and it made me so happy. I was talking to my kids about it and Laney says, "Mom, we don't like the sun as much as you do." And I said, "What???" She said, "I like the sun, but you are like a sun freak!" And Gabe says, "Yeah Mom, the sun sorta hurts my eyes." First of all, I was surprised because I thought everyone loves the sun like I do and then I thought it was funny that my daughter put it the way she did. But it was really neat because when we went to church on Sunday, I think every worship song we sang said something about the sun. We sang that "Glorious One" song that says, "Light of the world, You outshine the sun." This morning, I read Psalms 84:11 which says, "For the LORD God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The LORD will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right." I love that He can warm up our soul the way the sun can warm up our bodies. That we need Him to grow and flourish in any way that matters. I love that He shines His face upon us and it is all we need. Since, you know, He is also the Living Water and Bread of Life. ♥

First Correction of Last Post

I don't believe Jesus was saying we shouldn't want food and clothes and laughter and riches. In speaking of these things as often as he did, he was more saying he knows those are the things we will want. But he is telling us, "There is something better than those things, don't focus on what you don't have on this earth, don't work and strive for these temporary things, live for the Kingdom of Heaven. You won't be sorry if you give up your life and wants and wishes, for my will."

He is so wonderful and wise. My heart is singing to Him right now. But my sick, whiny kids are about to get up, don't know how long it will last. Because, you know, I haven't learned to live beyond my circumstances very well yet. :)

Do we live like we believe this?

So, I just finished reading Luke 6 and realized how much I am not living this out. To think this is what we are supposed to desire is shocking to my system. Kinda turns everything all upside down:

20Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. (I always thought this was for poor people, not for me, so they could feel better about their circumstances, very embarrassing admission.) 21Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. (I hate being hungry and find it very annoying and painful) Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. (I much prefer laughter to weeping) 22Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man (I thought we were supposed to live in such a way that no one can find any fault with us, let alone call us evil! ) 23"Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, (I more picture myself bawling on the floor under these circumstances) because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.

24"But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. 25Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. 26Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets. (This is more how I see American Christian, myself included, living our "lives of faith")

It seems to me that we pray for the direct opposite of what Jesus was saying here. And I don't think we need to whip ourselves and start wearing hair shirts, life has many opportunities for suffering. I just realized how much of my time and energy and focus is on having all these things that Jesus tells us we should do without. Whoa. Scary moment!

Wonderful Wirlwind Weekend

This weekend was so fun. It was Delayna's 11th Bday party. The kids went rollerskating and spent the night at Julene's since it was also Riley's 11th Bday party. And I farmed the rest of the kids out, so Jason and I had our (I think) 4th night/day alone in 14 years! Kala also unexpectedly came to town and surprised everyone which was so great because we have been missing her so much since she moved up to Timbuktu (Wallawa County). So we all went to Porters and spent way too much money but it was yummy and it was so wonderful to all be together again. AND Jason and I finally got cell phones, so make sure you get my number if you want it. Incoming calls are free. So I may be able to stay under my minutes. :)

More from John Franklin (slightly re-arranged by Tawny)

I have wanted a good definition of this for years, I think I finally have one.

Walking with God:
Paying the price in time, prayer, and sacrifice to understand God's perspective of our life and work. Once understanding it, diligently setting about our Father's business. As we pour out our lives in rolled-up sleeves, sweat (tears!) and service for His purposes, we will feel God's power course through us. When this pattern of seeing as God sees and working with Him become a day-in, day-out lifestyle, the Bible calls it "walking with God."

In the book of Acts the entire church demonstrated this kind of relationship with God and consequently the power of God flowed through the whole church.

Doesn't that sound amazing??!

The Importance of Corporate Prayer

I am reading a book one of my friends gave me called, "And the Place Was Shaken" by John Franklin. I only read the first couple of chapters but I LOVED it and wanted to share. He studied Jesus' teachings on prayer and according to him, "Out of those thirty-seven verses [from the Gospels] the word you was plural in thirty-three of the thirty-seven verses. You can be either singular or plural in English, but there is a difference in the Greek. Given the individualistic nature of American society, most people tend to read it as a singular even when the opposite is true."

So far, this guy's point is that God moves much more powerfully when two or three are met together in His name, asking for His will. The author says that in the Old Testament God moved much more often when just one person prayed, (and He still can and will) but in the New Testament, under the New Covenant, God is more often moved by His people asking for something together. He also says that God's people were never described as His Body until the New Testament and that is part of the reason the author believes God wants His people to pray together. It is part of our inter-dependence.

This rings so true to me. I see God's people LOVING to pray together in the New Testament. I have also walked in late by to a prayer meeting before and been overwhelmed by the beauty of God's people praying together. I didn't realize that my heart was so moved because His heart is. I have also received shockingly clear answers when I pray with other people about something that I don't normally receive when I just pray by myself.

I am very excited to pray with His people tonight!