Esther

We have been studying Esther at the bible study I attend for mothers on Thursday morning here in town. The study of Esther is a beautiful story of a girl who is a slave in this Kingdom due to her descent but because of Gods intervention and intricate plan she is moved to the palace and crowned the queen. This is a story that has always intrigued me but this time God opened up heaven to me and showed me the truth of what I believe is why he placed this story in the bible. Although God isn't mentioned here in this book you see nothing but his handprint and I would be bold enough to say his face print all over this book. His Glory shines all over this book.
In this book Haman this evil man has put out a edict to anniahlate all the Jews. The Jews are the lineage from which Jesus was prophesized to come from the savior and this was written in the book. bible
Haman becomes Satans puppet and wants to kill all the jews because of his hatred of Mordecai.
What God showed me is this we live in this world, but we are in the middle of Good vs. Evil. Satan is Evil and wants people to follow him to hell. God is good and wants for us all to go to heaven. In the end there will just be two places heaven and hell.
When we become a christian we make a commitment to Christ to become one with him, as a christian God has a kingdom out there for us. Just as Esther had to save the jews, the lineage of christ we are called as christians to continue that lineage with Christ. and just like haman ruled in Media-Persia. Well Satan rules in this world. And just like haman was after Esthers bloodline, Satan is after our blood line. this showed me why we are accepted through the blood and Christ had to die for our sins. When we accept him as our savior we become his blood line and therefore we have a kigdom to protect. Satan wants to destroy your kingdom God has with your name on it. This revealed something else to me. We have to come to a point where we see we have a kingdom to protect, and that we like esther can not save it alone. But although satan rules here on the Earth. Where satan rules God over rules. Just like Esther knew she had to approach the king (her husband) do you see the parrallel here!!!! in order to over rule hamans evil plan. When we arte christians Jesus is our bride groom and we are one with him. When we realize we have a kingdom and it is under attack, and we go to God because we know he's the only one who can over rule. We come to a point of humility the exact opposite of pride. I believe that satan probably hates humility as much as Jesus hates pride because he knows that humility brings honer and glory to God. God has called us to be humble and he will exalt us. When we like Esther get to that point of If I perish I perish. We like Esther must approach the king and he will over rule and save your kingdom because it his kingdom, and he has the power to over come all evil, seen and unseen, for his glory forever and ever. This truth is summed up in the end of the Lords prayer,that my daughter spoke to me while I was studying this two days ago. For thinme is the kingdom and the power and the Glory forever and ever Amen.
So if your going through a tough time right now God puts trials in our lives to show us our kingdom we have for him. Maybe it's a miscarriage,not being able to have a child ,maybe its a troubled marriage,a single mom, divorce, or an addiction problem. Whatever it is these trials make up the kingdom God has for you to touch. God is trying to do one of two things, He is trying to show you your kingdom he has for you with your name on it and He wants you to see it's under attack, or he wants you to humble yourself before him so that you can appropriate(take in gain) his power and the two of you can bring Glory to him.
So think about the kingdom God has for you Who out there can you touch? and continue the lineage of Christ.You are here!!!

For Such a Time is This.

To live with Christ and to die is gain

Well it's been awhile again since I've written, but trust me God has been at work, and then just today this profound truth hit me. I was praying this morning and in my quiet time God was showing me about how he resurrects situations that look dead and how he also sometimes breaks things down to the point of having no visual return. He showed me in Hebrews 11, how it was by Faith that Noah built an ark, and it was by Faith that Abraham packed his bags and left to a country that only God knew about to build a nation and a heritage only God could see. I t was by Faith that David as a shepherd boy took 3 stones and a sling and faced the Giant because he knew who his God was. And it was by Faith that Jesus went to the cross for us. I had known that he was trying to show me something but it hit me when my counselor said "ya know even a seed of corn must die to live, a kernel must be buried in order to take root and become a plant that bears more seed. I began to ponder this thought thinking about the dream God had given Russell and I to glorify the Lord and how right now it didn't appear to be happening, or even to be alive. But when I heard this it opened a new door and shined a new light on my perspective.

I began to think this is carried out all through nature and the Bible. A plants seed must die and be buried in order to live. Even Christ died and was buried and rose again on the third day, He died for our Salvation. We must die to this life in order to live a life with, for, and through Christ. His picture of Salvation is everywhere even in a kernel of corn, or a mustard seed. So now even though from human perspective I can't see my dream or God's plan flourishing out as I had hoped and believed it would be by now. I know that it too must die so that God can reproduce what he wants to out of my life He can resurrect it as his plan and he alone will be glorified. So should I give up? since God didn't show up on my time? Is my dream dead? No!!! It (like all things with eternal value)must die and be buried so that God alone can resurrect them. To God be the Glory forever!! So now I have a different way of seeing the vs. To live as Christ and to die is Gain. It's not the end only a new beginning.

Judgement Falls, Mercy Reigns.

I know it's been a while since I've been here, for anyone who reads this blog. Even though I haven't blogged in a while God has not and will not cease to work in our lives. I am going through a rather interesting test of faith right now, the father of my children and my fiancee has come back home. it's like finally I see light at the end of this tunnel. God has worked a miracle in his life. I couldn't be happier yet I know I will as we continue to grow in the Lord together. He's become active at our church, helping to coach our oldest sons baseball team, working out daily, we go to marriage counseling, all these good things and then we have to go to court tomorrow to find out what judgment will be, now we've done all the things we should ,gotten letters of recommendation and accountability, gotten jobs, seeked counseling, but still tomorrow will be the judgment and we do not know which way the gavel will fall.
I read tonight about another man in the bible who thought he knew which way the gavel would fall, but God had mercy on him. His name was Barabas, I'm sure you all know the story. He was a sinner the worst, the dirtiest most wanted criminal in the kingdom of all Israel. But I never thought of it like I did tonight as I read a devotion on Mercy. Barabas knew he was sentenced for death, the stench was in the air he breathed. His life was going to come to an abrupt end and rightly so, after all he had the worst record of the whole country. However, God had a plan and it must come to pass. His son had to die for all of our sins, even Barabas's and so was the first person given salvation from the worst of sins. Here on Earth Jesus took Barabas's place so he could free not only Barabas from death but also us eternally. Wow!! I just want to shout Amen because the prophecy that took place there is so apparent that God uses everyone, Christian, not Christian, criminal or not, to do his work, to fulfill his plan. He turns hearts that never thought they'd be turned, he shows mercy to the least of these, he offers salvation and eternal life to all who believe. He's in Control, and He's an awesome God!!!
Tomorrow we go to ct. and we'll stand before a judge. Knowing that what we deserve is jail, but we have God on our side we know he's conquered all sin, and he'll be the judge to serve mercy upon us. He will use the judge to appropriate his will for his purpose to bring about his plan for our future. Even though the judge of that ct room will legally sentence and drop the gavel, the gavel will fall in the way of the Lord. Judgement falls but Mercy will Reign. no matter the outcome it will be the will of the Lord.

I must decrease so that He may increase.

Well this entry comes late but still in due time. The last entry I wrote in January, I did not realize the truth in such a real way until after I wrote it out.

I must decrease so that He may increase

And so God began to clean out my glass, I believe what hurts the most about a cleaning process is first of all we are so content in our dirty state. It's like we have become so used to the comfort of the shape, and hey the water is running through just fine, to us. We don't even realize that we need to be cleaned out. Second thing that is hard, I believe in order to clean the glass out He must close for a while the flood gate of his living water, I believe this is why we as Christians wake up out of the blue and feel as if God has left us even though we know

that it is written:
He will never leave us nor forsake us

It is hard when you feel like God has shut off His living water to you, for me I became anxious of everything you could imagine, I felt how can God get glory out of my life when I am dry and have not enough water for my own self. How am I to give to others? How is his living water to overflow when I am dry? How can I bring glory to God with my life. I began to feel like I was ill having a fast heart rate and pains all over to the point of imagining myself ill thinking surely God is going to bring me back to him through an illness. This sprang up fear in me like you wouldn't believe. I can write myself out a diagnostic list a page long with all the F.E.A.R.s that I had.and God is still continually helping me to overcome them

FEAR
False Evidence About Reality

Although this seems like a long process, and I guess it is as Gods children, we will constantly be being molded into the image of Christ which is Gods finished product for us. as vessels we will constantly be emptied out scraped clean and refilled. The glorious part of it is every time that God scrapes us out we become larger on the inside, able to hold more of his living water and able to overflow at a greater distance. I imagine that when he scrapes the inside clean and the livingwater has cleaned the clay . He begins to shape the clay changing the shape of our vessel into a larger more glorious piece that he can use to fill with living water that overflows. I can picture God taking vessels turning them into pitchers because we are but a piece of clay in the potters hand. And using these pitchers to pour his living water which saves and washes away sin all over the world.

This to me is a picture of his grace and his Glory, and how he uses ordinary people to do his extraordinary work

For me He is cleaning me out of pride: showing me that anything he does in my life is by His Grace and for His glory , not anything I deserve from all the hell I've lived through which by grace he brought me through anyways, not because I had a strong faith not because he wants to show anyone who I am, It's not about me, or for me. It's by his grace and for his glory.
He also dealt personally with me on time I get very overwhelmed with time so many good things I want to do or just normal everyday things like eat shower feed kids teach Christopher cook clean exercise go to dr. apmts. the list goes on and on. I began to think How is God going to find time to use me. I don't have time to be used. Here's what he showed me. not only if we are walking with him he is constantly using us even if we neither feel nor realize it. But he made this world this whole world out of nothing in a matter of seconds by the sound of his voice. If he can do that who am I to doubt he can't turn out his work through me or anyone else in a matter of a life time. However I do find it interesting that although he spoke the world into existence in a matter of seconds, he chose to marvel gaze and enjoy it for a whole day before making the next step.

For me God is still working because all I am is a sinner saved only by his grace. He will constantly be working on me until the day of Christ Jesus.

Heres a verse I have been declaring over my life that has brought me Joy

Philippians 1:6

Being confident of this that,He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus

Living water flows......

Yesterday Christopher and I did a project for homeschool with some friends. We are studying weather so we decided to make a storm in a bottle. It looks like a tornado if you do it rite, but we won't go there. Let's put it this way, I have a 2 liter of nice green soap now haha.. I had to use a 2 liter bottle. Well we don't drink out of two liters at our house so I had to go buy one and empty it because I needed just the empty bottle. All I needed was the container. I poured the contents out into another container so we didn't waste anything and we had an empty container that we could use.
Having just had a conversation about how God is more interested on us cleaning out the inside of us than the outside God began to show me something I found interesting, I only needed the container for my project, the shell of what held the original contents. God only needs our container, the shell of who we are so he can fill us up. Think about it if his Living water is forever flowing but has nowhere to land we cant catch it. It's like if someone asked you for a drink but there cup was filled with concrete and the water just flowed all over the floor there would be nowhere to catch it and no way to get it into their body for refreshment and enjoyment.
However if we look into our life and try to empty the filth out of our life ,the jealousy, anger resentment, fear,and sins we carry. And give them to God,whom they belong to anyway, He can use our emptied container. He can fill us up with "His Living Water" The Holy Spirit.
God says his Living Water flows eternally it has no beginning and it has no end. It will land somewhere.....

Will you be one to catch it???

Through the Storm

This morning when I awoke it was pouring down rain. The lightning struck and the thunder rolled. I honestly thought, "I'll just lay here and not get up today"my bed was so comfortable, then I remembered my daughter had to be at school, and there were many things I needed to do. So I got up to get her out of bed and ready for school. It was so dark outside it still looked like night and when I woke her up of course she wanted to stay in bed. The lightning was still striking and the thunder was roaring and the rain continued to pour. I went outside to warm-up the car and let it run for a second while she got everything in her backpack and got her shoes and coat. I gave her an umbrella and we got into the car.
As we were driving to get in the car drop off line at the school which was three times as long as it is normally, I thought about how I didn't want to continue the normal ways of life this morning getting the children up, ready, and to school on time, due to the storm we were having. I thought about the storms of life and how God wants us to continue "normalcy"or "consistency" even through the storms of our uncertain circumstances. How he wants us to have Faith in Him alone, and find our strength and hope to go on in Him. Because it is when the storms are the hardest that we really experience Gods Peace. If you are going through a storm in life remember we serve a God who brings Peace in the midst of storms. He spoke and the storm died.
So I dropped my daughter off at school, and another one of my worries had been she'll get soaked when she gets out of the car. In first grade it takes kids forever to open an umbrella with thier backpack, coat,and all they take to school. But when we pulled up one of her principals held an umbrella over her until she popped hers out and I watched her walk "dryly" into the school. I know that man was just helping kids this morning, but that just showed me how God provides us shelter from the storm. I really believe God wants to see us depend on him for our normal everyday life challenges despite our circumstances and once we do He will calm the Storm

"Peace, be Still"

Mingling in the trash

I know it's not still Christmas as a matter of a fact it is farther away now than it ever will be for 2008. My sweet 7 yr. old daughter said today talking to her 4 yr old brother, " Joey Christmas is 11 mos and 1/2 a year away. Well she almost got it right I guess to her it's just a long time away.
So you may ask what do trash and Christmas have in common? Well I'd like to say I saw this without actually digging through the trashcan on Christmas day, but I can't.
I guess it just can't be Christmas without mingling with the trash. This is how it always starts. We have three kids nine,seven and four, they sort the presents out from under the tree. "Here's yours papaw." "Mimi this ones for you." "Mama you've got something." Then they sort out all of their presents and can't wait to open them. I try so hard to keep all their presents sorted and unopened until I can get alone with each of them explore the directions, take off every little tie and dispose of only the box. But inevitably every year at least one very important piece will make it to the garbage can with out my "permission" . And here I go diving into the big green garbage can mingling with the trash to try to find that one piece that the entire toy will not work without.
This year as I dug through the trash, I laughed and mummered "It can't be Christmas without mingling with the trash"I paused a second, as if to hear myself say it again and then I realized That's right there would be No Christmas if God his self had not chosen to come and mingle with the trash. Our holy God came down heaven sent in holy form to be placed on this sinful, stingy stinking oder smelling gross compared to heaven earth to mingle with the trash. I know thats a different twist on Christmas but it's true and he mingled with the trash for 33 yrs. But not once complained, or screamed I don't belong here. And he hung on a cross you know the story so God would accept us we would be purified and God would see us not as the trash we are but as the clean purified one washed in the blood of his son. He sent down to mingle with the trash on Christmas day over 2000 yrs ago.
Today my Sunday school class went down town Memphis to witness to the homeless people of Memphis. We took them food drinks and some clothes, but most of all we offered them Jesus Christ. Some of them listened and some were already Christians, some just wanted the food.
now some would say we were mingling in the "trash"I personally would never call someone else trash because that is not nice and we should not judge, but leaving our big huge church on Appling Rd. Going and sitting on planks propped up by trusty orange Homer Buckets from Home Depot. You realize Jesus shed blood for them just as he did for me and you. And thank the good Lord I have been purified and washed in the blood of Jesus, so it is my job to mingle in the trash not only at Christmas time but all year round. and let others know why God came on Christmas morning 2000+ yrs. ago to a dirty sinful world so one day I and they too can live a clean and perfect life.

For God says
"What you have done to the least of these you have done also for me"

Keep working for God, God came to mingle in the trash because he loved you,we should mingle becuase we love him.
Keep mingling in the "trash"
Merry Christmas in your heart all year long!!!