Itchy Scars

Burning, nagging, random itch, where do you come from? Anyone who has broken a bone or had a deep wound knows that randomly the scars itch. Sometimes the area is over worked, other times it's the weather, or maybe nothing at all - but years later, long after the wound is completely healed, it still itches. So it is with emotional scars. Today, a heart scar which the Lord healed, itched. I was ticked! What was this? Why? The Lord brought peace and healing to this area of my life, where did this come from & why was this bothering me? I was SO over this! He had healed that wound.

The refrain from a Point of Grace song started running through my head -

"Heal the wound but leave the scar, a reminder of how merciful You are..."

It's funny how He heals, yet leaves the scar! I realized, when I look at my itchy scars - I'm tempted to remember the pain, and dwell there- not remember His mercy and healing! The scars are supposed to be our memorial stones of His goodness- what He brought us through and taught us! They are part of His "working all things together for good".

The "itch" also keeps us real, and keeps us seeking His face!

Thank you Lord for the mercy in my scars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sXt3RU_1do&feature=related

Half a Glass of God

Why is it that we only want a just a half a glass of God? Or maybe only $3 worth? We only want enough of God to save us, and enough to make us comfortable. Not enough of Him to make our cup run over. Just enough of God, so we can control Him. Perhaps just enough to get into Heaven 'by the skin of our teeth'? Wilbur Reese depics it well:

"I'd like to buy $3 worth of God please.

Not enough to explode my soul or distrub my sleep.

But just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine

I don't want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant.

I want ecstasy not transformation.

I want the warmth of a womb not a new birth.

I want a pound of eternal in a paper bag please.

I'd like to buy $3 worth of God, please!"

Why is this? We only let Him into parts of our lives, but not all? Why do we all want to settle for the least bit of God we can? At least I know I do. Or I did. I did until I started praying stupid prayers. They were stupid prayers (from a selfish perspective) because they moved me out of my comfort zone and changed my life! For me they sounded like "God make me hungry for You", "Please give me the will to want to serve and follow You not just the,' Lord help me do' ", "Please let me see this person or situation through Your eyes, and love them with your unconditional love...", "Use me" ... These most certaintly brought a lot of DIScomfort to my life and they will to yours too! But they were SO worth it! It may be uncortable but you feel ALIVE and you get to see God move! He becomes real. $3 of God is not enough to satisfy anymore. Aren't we supposed to hunger and thirst after righteousness?

I don't know about you, but when I'm comfortable in what I know of God, I stop seeking Him and I get sleepy! Sleepy and content people are exactly where the devil wants us. The Lord calls us to an abundant life. If His words are life shouldn't we be seeking them/Him with every bit of energy we have?

There is also another kind of stupid prayers, we say and sing them all the time in church. "Lord please let Your glory rain down..." What do you think would happen if God's glory rained down on a typical sunday morning service? Do we mean these words or grasp what the impication of them would be in our lives?

I've been praying a lot of stupid prayers lately. Sometimes I feel the Lord doing so much in my heart; my brain can't keep up and it's only making me want more of Him. It's like having spiritual growing pains. Well any miserly loves company; so I dare you to come on this journey with me! If you're brave, pray a stupid prayer and mean it! Watch God move and work in your life like never before.

I think if any of us are honest with ourselves for just a minute we'll realize there is so much more than the life we are living. Or at least in some area's of our lives. If you are living the abundant life, than you know everytime God shows you something, you realize there is so much more to learn. This trully becomes the adventure of a life time!

So I dare you - pray a stupid prayer with me today!

Falling in love with - JESUS ?!??

Crazy idea, right? At least I thought so! This blog is for my girls specifically, but I’d love to get guys feed back as well! A few weeks ago I gave a talk on modesty and purity to a group of wonderful teen and pre teen girls. During the talk I briefly mentioned something about how before they found husbands and boyfriends, my prayer for them was to fall in love with Jesus first. Well what does falling in love with Jesus entail exactly?

I think I was around 15 when I first heard of the concept of falling in love with Jesus. I was very skeptical at first. Jesus was God, not some guy for you have a crush on. But it sounded good to want to love Jesus first before I truly loved a guy so I started praying that it would happen for me.

Ok, well what does that look like? I knew you could have a deep Philo (brotherly love) for the Lord, but an Eros (romantic) love? Nah! I didn’t really like emotional stuff and much preferred knowing the Lord on an intellectual level. I wasn’t at all convinced until it happened to me! I knew there were scriptures about the Lord being my husband, and that was cool and all, but um, I sorta wanted a man with skin on. You know?

It’s possible for even skeptics to fall in love! For each of you, it’s going to look different. We don’t all fall for the same type of guys; neither will you fall for the same things about the Lord. I like dark, clean-cut guys with a sense of humor; my friend goes for the skateboarding, or slightly disheveled, artsy types. So it’s like with the Lord (well I have no idea if he’s clean cut or artsy) but you know what I mean! I think I first started falling in Love with the Lord, when I realized what a unique sense of humor He had (aside from the fact that He created me). His faithfulness to me also draws me to Him. What is it for you? What character trait do you love about the Lord?

So where does the Eros (romantic) love come in? It comes in when I see the most beautiful waterfall and my heart skips a beat, as I thank Him for it. Or when I’m praying and telling the Lord, I just need a re assurance of His love and I drive around the corner and there is the biggest sand dune I have ever seen and the words from Psalms pop into my head – ‘How great are Your thoughts to me oh God, how great is the sum of them, if I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand…” It’s all about the personal relationship with Him. If you let the Lord, He will literally woo (romance) you to Himself.

Love is the feeling, which bubbles up in your heart as you worship, or the restless, unease you feel when you haven’t spent time with Him. It’s the need to carve out time for “Date nights with Jesus” in my schedule.

Girls, I didn’t understand what love meant in human romantic relationships until the Lord, showed me what it meant by falling in love with Him first! It’s a lot easier to recognize “true love” when you’ve been taught how to love by the Creator of true love! Do I still want a man with skin on? Absolutely! But now that I know what love means, I’m a whole lot more ‘picky’ and the waiting is so much easier.

Don’t hold out for a perfect man. They don’t exist; they are just as much of sinners as we are! But hold out for a man that loves Jesus more than you do and will try his best to love you the same way the Lord loves you!

God created men and woman to complement each other, not complete each other. Our culture has that mixed up! Asking a guy to complete you and fill that need in your life to be unquestionably, accepted and loved, is a lot of pressure for guys! & Very unfair of us to ask them to fill an area of our heart that only the Lord can!

If you’re already in a relationship, you know relationships take work. Well so does a relationship with the Lord. It must be cultivated. He will woo you, but you in turn must respond and spend the time getting to know Him. The awesome part about falling in love with Jesus is, there is always another side or depth of Him to experience and know. You’ll never be bored! Once you experience His love, you can then love other people completely in return!

May you know what it feels like to fall in love with Jesus, before you fall in love with a man!

'Da Funk'

Ever have just “one of those days”? I call them the 'da funk' days. You wake up and sometimes for no reason you’re in a bad funk. Just feelin off. Well today is one of those days for me. I woke up in a funk! Not just a little funk but a big ole FUNK. I woke up questioning/complaining/arguing with the Lord about a certain area of my life. Not a great way to start the day FYI! And I’m not supposed have funk days! Especially not funk days when I’m apart of the ministry team at Creation Fest. Knowing that this especially was not the time to have ‘da funk’, only made ‘da funk’ worse!

I'm so glad that our God is still Lord of ‘da funk’ days too! I’m writing this blog sitting on a hillside watching several thousand people worship below me. Kinda hard to have a pity party with that happening. I claimed a spot of grass and the Lord and I began talking. Well it’s more like I’ve been repenting and listening! I’m at a point in my life where I have way more questions than I do answers. I want to know the why behind everything not just the what. I see God moving in my life and I want to know why He’s doing it or not doing it. The last few weeks the Lord’s been asking me to just seek Him. Not seek the answers. All my prayers have been- Lord, please give me wisdom and discernment here! But rather than the answers He’s asked me ‘ Katie, am I not wisdom? Am I not discernment? Seek Me’. But Lord, I want PRACTICAL answers! I want things I can physically DO! Tangible things, not just seeking You!

Wow, I’ve realized that somewhere inside of me there is still an argumentative, spoiled 2 year old! The Lord wants me to seek His face and leave the why’s and what’s to Him; and my response is complaining and getting into a funk over it? - insert dirty rotten sinner here –

The Lord’s patience with me astounds me! The goodness of the Lord, truly does lead men to repentance. This is the scripture I opened up to this morning:

“Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this:He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him….” Psalm 37:2-7

The bolded words leapt off the page at me, as the Lord once again reminded me to seek Him first. I wanted something tangible to do... waiting on the Lord is definitely an action!

Even in ‘da funk’ the Lord reminded me to once again to lay the questions down and seek His face, along with the gentle promises of granting the desires of my heart, as my desires morph into His. What a loving personal God we serve! Once I surrender, repent and seek His face ‘da funk’ is suddenly gone!