Let us fall more in love with You...

As we continue on this daring adventure of falling more in love with our Father, we are motivated to cherish each moment we have with one another, our children, our family and our friends! It's almost like we have a heightened sense of urgency to extend love to whomever because we're FINALLY understanding, receiving and embracing the authentic love God has for us...He ultimately desires to love on us "lavishly!" WOW!!!

I'm sitting here before the day gets filled with our precious babies running around the house, changing diapers, getting the kids ready for the day...just reflecting on the incredible love we have an opportunity to receive every single day! It's amazing to me that God would love us so much to show us, through the blood of His Son, just HOW MUCH He adores and cherishes us.

"Beautiful Exchange" by Hillsong is playing right now in the background. The songwriter pens this beautifully:

When only love, could make a way

You gave your life

In a Beautiful Exchange...

My burden erased

My life forgiven

There is nothing that could take this life away

My only desire and soul ambition is to love you just the same

Experiencing His Power

So I'm in awe of the power of God! In service yesterday, we had an encounter with God that we haven't had in a while! Service wasn't your traditional program. We didn't have a sermon!! We were actually open to receive whatever God had for us. With that said, I had a chance to pray with one of my sister's who is deaf. She's been praying to God for healing for years...and she was feeling like God couldn't do much for her now, just very discouraged, which is a ridiculous tactic of the enemy. My heart was deeply impacted because she was desperate...desperate for the power of God to open her ears, she just wants to hear! It was kind of like the woman with the issue of blood who knew that if she could only get to touch Him that she would be healed! Now, one thing I admire about my sister is that she's ok either way! Her love for God will not change, her passion will not be moved!

Well this morning I was praying for people and situations and I started reading Acts. After watching the Voice of Apostles, I heard Randy Clark say that a lot of people use 1 Corinthians 14 to explain Acts 1 & 2, when we should be using Acts 1 & 2 to explain 1 Corinthians 14. God followed through on His Promise to send the Comforter!

Today I am praying that the Lord would encourage your heart and reaffirm His promise for your life. You know the promise He tells us in Jeremiah 29:11-14. The Lord tells us that 'He knows the thoughts that He thinks towards us, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Him and go and pray to Him and He will listen to you. And you will seek Him and find Him, when you search for Him with all your heart. He will be found by you...' WOW!!

He knows all about you! He's concerned about you...He hears your prayers! He sees all of your tears! YES HE WILL ANSWER YOU...AND THERE'S SO MUCH HE CAN DO FOR YOU...only if you, like the disciples, 'wait for the Promise of the Father.' I know in Acts 1:4 Jesus is referring to the promise of the Holy Spirit but I believe this holds true with whatever we are believing God for. Each day that goes by we are getting closer and closer to seeing the glory of God be revealed! His power, in us...! At the name of Jesus, all things MUST come under submission. He came to bring complete restoration; not only to our spiritual man...but to our physical as well! If you take the time to read this particular verse continue reading till verse 14. The disciples were eager to know Jesus' plans and Jesus responded "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive POWER when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you shall be my witnesses to Me...to the end of the earth!!"

So God thank you! Thank you for the promise of Your Holy Spirit to fill us and give us YOUR POWER!

May you know the infinite and everlasting Love the Father has for you today! We love you dearly!!

"Change is not a threat, but an adventure"

We're on the wondrous journey to the UNKNOWN! We don't know where it's going to take us but you better believe we're going to have faith & trust that it's where we need to be! We know that there will be open doors for us of countless opportunities to share His love...but where that leads? We have the slightest idea...but again I reemphasize us TRUSTING!

  Below is a recount of our day with Nehemiah yesterday...I'm going to start keeping track of our "adventures" and what we're learning from them in hopes that you may be encouraged. I hope that you understand I'm not afraid to share my heart and the things God speaks to us and shares with us. It's our goal to be transparent and continue to be an open book!

ADVENTURE #1

   Nehemiah started school and he loves it! He's excited about learning and even more he's eager to teach his sister what he learns. We have seen a dramatic change in our big boy since beginning school. We pray for him every day and every night for God to constantly increase his absorption of knowledge and for him to be a beacon of light in his classroom. We would ask that you join us in praying for our children. TJ and I love the area that God has placed us in but not everyone in our town is accepting of us being here. We can take the awkward stares and the condescending tone in conversation but I, as a mothering lioness, refuse to see my babies subjected to people's misunderstandings of who we are. Yesterday at the dinner table my heart just about broke! We were all engaged in our typical conversation with Nehemiah. "How was your day at school?" "What did you learn today?" "What things would you like to work on tonight?" While answering he pauses and emphatically says, "Mommy, I need to turn white." I immediately looked to TJ as to how to respond to this. We were both shocked because we really weren't prepared for this question just yet...not with our three year old! I turned to him and I grabbed his hand and asked him "Sweetie, why do you want to turn white?" And he looks me in my eyes and says "Mommy, I'm too brown." Ah! I smiled and I looked him in his eyes and said "Baby you are beautifully brown! Our skin tone makes us unique and there's nothing to be ashamed about. Mommy and Daddy love your skin color...but we LOVE YOU more, okay?" "Okay mommy!" he agrees, "well, can I turn orange? That's my favorite color!" I erupted in laughter!

   I love the innocence of little children. He's exploring and discovering so much about himself. And now TJ and I have to reinforce how God sees him and what we see in him to help him cultivate a positive perspective of his true identity! This is the first step to our new adventure in life...fully understanding our children's purpose and being able to effectively communitcate this truth to them!

Burning ones...

We've been listening to a lot of the music produced by the group "Jesus Culture" lately. This particular song "Burning Ones" has been blaring through my heart today. As I'm singing it within my heart this is what I believe needs to be communicated please bear with the flow of this as it's a compilation of a lot of things I've been processing for a while now!



Let me first begin with yesterday's church service. At our church we have an "open communion" table. I love having this because we have the opportunity to take of His sacred communion every single sunday we attend! We look forward to this time and so do our babies. Now there may be some who disagree with this concept and you're free to do and believe whatever you like, but in our family we include our kids in communion. We believe that it's impertative to teach our children now of how important loving God and knowing God is NOW not LATER! We practice this truth at home with our babies and they love it! Nehemiah looks forward to church and Moriyah can't wait to get there to worship...mainly because we are adamant about this at home...it's our lifestyle!

 

During worship Nehemiah was sitting in my lap and he looks in my eyes and tells me, "Mommy, it's time for communion!" I looked at him and responded "Ok, son. Let's go." I think too often we discredit children and their capabilities. Jesus tells us we must become like "children" if we want to enter His Kingdom. We take this literally! We have to have child like faith! We try our best to present opportunities for our children to learn of God, His love and His truth. *And we've learned this from some of the best people in our lives right now* We can't just write kids off and say they don't know anything...sometimes they know more than us!

All that to say when we made it to the communion table my heart broke! I was brought gently to my knees and Nehemiah and Moriyah followed suit. Christ beckons to our hearts and woos us gently back to Himself. See, church to me is so much more than what people are making it out to be. We have an opportunity to fellowship with the Body and that's what it should be about. Coming together, with one common goal, with one heart, with one voice worshipping the GREAT I AM with all out reckless abandonment. Our hearts burn for the Living and True God...we yearn to be in His presence! And we yearn for EVERYONE to experience this
truth!

We looked up the original meaning for 'church' and we found out some really interesting stuff. Church wasn't meant to just be a building or where your membership is...it was meant as an assembly of people coming together to meet about common ideals, beliefs, religion, etc. We could have "church" in our house, at walmart, at Chili's ANYWHERE when we get together with other people because we're coming together for one common thing! We would all be in unity!

UNITY!! That's key! The church today, in my personal opinion, is in shambles because we can't grasp this concept! We're all out striving to have our "own thing" instead of coming together and really STANDING together for the "equipping of the saints" and the "edification of the body." We must ask ourselves what is God's design for His Body? not the church! It's about the Body! We have MANY MEMBERs IN ONE BODY!? Right? Shouldn't this be our motivation? If we have many members in one body, shouldn't we be working together for the good of His Kingdom and not striving for our own personal gain? Jesus should be our focal point, and Him alone! With Him as our foundation we are then able to share His truth with all we come into contact with. Sharing doesn't necessarily have to be in words. We can share with a simple smile, an embrace or a kind gesture.

I'm going to say this and close. Think on this: in John 15 Jesus talks to us about His fruit...and us bearing His fruit so the Father may be glorified. People will come to know Jesus more each day if we truly adopt this principle. Abide in Jesus and allow Jesus to abide in you. We are His lights shinining brightly in the world for all to see. Now if we're not bearing any fruit then we need to check what we're doing and if we're really allowing the Spirit of God to transform every part of who we are. We can bring people closer to God by bearing His fruit. People will ultimately see Him living in us when we allow Him to be fully manifest in our lives. And with this we can add more and more to His Kingdom!

"I ANSWERED YOU..."

While in our quiet time tonight, when the kids are in bed and the house is for a moment in time SILENT, I was led to these particular scriptures. I pray that whoever may take the time to read this will be encouraged and reminded of the faithfulness of God!

"Restore us, O God of hosts,

Cause your face to shine,

And we shall be saved" ~Psalm 80:3, 7, 19

"You called in trouble and I delivered you;

I answered you in the secret place of thunder" ~Psalm 81:7

The phrase italicized JUMPED off the page!

I ANSWERED YOU IN THE SECRET PLACE OF THUNDER!!

WOW!

This is beyond profound. One of the revealed mysteries of His word. I believe we get so focused on "answered prayer" being so obvious and blunt that we forget that God speaks constantly. The problem rests in our ability to hear him clearly. God is faithful to respond to our cry, to our prayers, to our requests. Even in the most tumultuous moments in our lives, God is faithful and His affections are set on hearing and responding to His children's call! Life can be a little rocky at times, and the storms of our lives may rage on a DAILY basis yet in still there rests in between the crackling and rolling thunder, a stillness, a quiet confidence and secure strength that God is God.

Papa! I praise You! For You are God, You reign supreme...beyond our storms, beyond our circumstances! You are greater, you are stronger...God you are higher than any other. For even in the thunder of our storms Your still small voice beckons to the depths of our spirit, calling us, captivating us and inspiring us to come...close!

~ AMEN ~ 



Oh...Milk & Cookies!!

You know during the summer time it's almost commonplace to let the kids just "hang out." (even if they're 3 and 2 years old) I love having these "chill" moments with our babies. Tonight was especially unique because we took an evening nap, went to the gym as family and shot some hoops and then had a late dinner and finished it off with "milk and cookies!" YUMMY!!


While at the gym we got out four basketballs and two soccer balls just in case "shooting" didn't go over to well with Zi and Moriyah. Josiah, with his lusciously chunky self just sat peacefully in his car seat and observed intently on his active brother and sister. We had a blast at the gym! Zi made his first basket (while on TJ's shoulders) and Moriyah was entertained by throwing the basketball at my legs and yelling at the top of her lungs "DEFENSE!" Definitely priceless moments as a family.


Once home we warmed up "leftovers" and my babies DEVOURED their food...which TJ and decided we're going to go the gym more often with them because they worked up an appetite and ate all of their food without us having to persuade them to eat their food! We had an awesome dinner time...even Josiah was excited about his oh so tasteless baby food.


After they washed up I decided to treat them to some cookies. No, no I didn't make them myself! Thank the Lord for Pillsbury cookies by the bucket! My kids love them (AND SO DO WE!) Nehemiah loves for me to turn the oven light on so he can watch his cookies "go down, down" as he likes to sing. While we were waiting I turned on some worship music to just wind down before we all retired for the evening...


Here's a verse to the song we started off with: "WE WILL DANCE, WE WILL DANCE FOR YOUR GLORY! WE WILL DANCE, WE WILL DANCE FOR YOUR GLORY! WE WILL DANCE, FOR YOUR GLORY LORD!"


Moriyah ERUPTED in a dance! Spinning and twirling around, marching in place, jumping up and down. She instantly created her own worship dance and insisted we joined in. Her and Nehemiah worshipped before the Lord together tonight and it was amazing to witness their enthusiasm to just "dance!"


After this song we took a break because the cookies were done! I took them out of the oven, let them cool down a bit and then dished them out to everyone. Poured the milk in the favorite cups and let them sit down at the table. Nehemiah came instantly to the table but I think Moriyah was distracted with trying to come up with a new dance. All I know is as I was walking out to take TJ his cookies and milk (he had Josiah) Moriyah snuck her way into the kitchen and was dipping her cookie in her milk with exuberant joy!


When I sat down to enjoy my cookie (**cookies :)!!) I exhaled a bit and relaxed soaking in the moment. Ahh...all Jesus wants to do is chill out with us. Just to take the time to enjoy him and enjoy the moments he places before us. He wants the chance to come to go to the gym, have a late dinner and then enjoy the simplest dessert of cookies and milk with us! In every way, every day he wants to be apart of your life, apart of our lives! My friend at class last night made the statement of how awesome it is to have the holy spirit consuming her every single moment of every day! how awesome is that? To be totally aware of His presence ALL THE TIME?! I am so thankful for the moments we share as a family and the way God lavishly loves on us moment to moment, minute by minute, second by second...so take some time...bake some cookies...drink some milk and enjoy your time with Jesus!!


"THIS IS WHAT YOU DO, THIS IS WHAT YOU DO...YOU MAKE ME COME ALIVE! THIS IS WHAT YOU DO, THIS IS WHAT YOU DO...YOU MAKE ME COME ALIVE!"

The waiting room...again

We are in process...process of waiting. But now we are waiting with an expectant hope that things can only get better for us. Life is new, exciting, challenging and oh so very hopeful . My mind races constantly on different ways to "fix" things for our family. But I can't even begin to imagine what great things our Daddy has in store for us...we just have to realize what gifts He has placed inside of us, own it and run with it. I think for too long in my life I have always had a passion to strive to do so much and quite frankly I don't do it. I am so fed up with living that way. I don't want to be a wife, mom, woman who just wanders meaninglessly...I want to be a woman of purpose, vision..His purpose, His vision and then execute that with the utmost precision!
It is almost exhausting thinking about all of the thoughts, plans and ideas I have spinning so frequently in my mind. TJ always knows when I'm way too deep in thought and shows me so much grace when I am unable to verbalize what's really going on. This is almost like my outlet...writing...I know at times it doesn't make one bit of sense...but it's my thoughts, it's how I feel and how I need God to speak to me so desperately... to be continued