Invitation to a LoveFest

I read this verse (again, for-the-first-time) a couple of days ago. 

Mind - Blown 

An invitation given to Perfect Love

A LoveFest that all Love relationships are judged by.

Sheer perfection.

“…the one who loves Me will be loved by my Father. I also will love (Kathy) and will reveal Myself to (her).”   

No - my name isn’t in the original text.

Try it.

Put your name in there.

It’s personal. It’s for me. It’s for you. It’s for our today.

I have had a life-long belief that Jesus loves me. Even when I turned from Him, chose to not love Him in return, I never doubted.

But this!

This brings home so much more. The Father also loves me! I'm part of the conversation ... Again. Blows my mind!

Let’s break it down ...

   the one who loves Me

Me = Jesus the Divine, who freely came to this earth, through a messy birth canal, into a stinky dirty barn, living in all of the physical limitations, emotions, sadness, hormones, grief, loss

(Don’t worry, He never loses His sovereignty - He is God.

Another one of the mysteries of the Almighty)

We need to remember how much He gets us.

Thirst, hunger, passion, and at times, outright exhaustion.

He Gets It!

  will be loved by my Father.

my Father = the One Who created us for the simple fact that He wanted to. 

  Kathy WILL BE loved by my Father!

     It’s a Promise

     And He can’t break promises because He is God

And it keeps on going, my friend

  I (Jesus) will also love Kathy ~sigh~ and will reveal Myself to her

Myself = The Holy Spirit, the Comforter

God the Father, Jesus the Savior, revealed to me (to you)

with me

everywhere

all the time

in all circumstances because He said He would be.

Jesus lived life full, never lost sight of His purpose, the why He came to live among His creation in the first place. And when It was finished, when it was time for Him to go and prepare our Forever Home, He didn't leave us alone. 

“In a little while the world will see Me no longer, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live too. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, you are in Me, and I am in you. The one who has My commands and keeps them is the one who loves Me. And the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father. I also will love him and will reveal Myself to him.” (‭John‬ ‭14‬:‭19-21‬ HCSB)

Faith as small as the lint in my pocket

This week I watched my faith get so tiny.

It was like watching waves get smaller and smaller until there seemed to be no movement.
It's like when you can't even see the ocean, the water, the sand
Can't hear the crashing waves, or smell the salt air.

But like the ever constant ocean, too large to move or wish away
       God is there.
Maybe I take my eyes off of Him because of that bully named fear.
      Ahhh fear, he's always trying to block my path 
          but with just a whisper ... Jesus ... he's gone

Sometimes my attention was diverted by other possibilities or "hopes" or answers, turning my head from The Answer
Often I couldn't see past the tears
   Tears of what-ifs and overwhelming sorrow.

But that ocean never left. And true to it's form there was always movement. 

    faith alone ... powerless
    Faith in God ... powerful enough to move mountains of despair

Silent ripples of ocean water, dappling along the sand, it's there.
He's there!

Just have faith. How irritating is that!

I have lived (am living still) through a week, a month ... well you get the picture
I've been stripped
   stripped of my abilities,
   stripped of my knowing, my grasping what's next.
I've had time to think about Faith. How little of it I have had at times, but mostly how misguided my faith can be. The kind of faith that has left me with heart wrenching fear and out of control panic.
I'm not alone in this. I know you've been there.

Faith, real, live honest, life-changing Faith.

It never stands alone

All by itself? faith is nothing, and potentially dangerous.

Sure, it's such a pretty word. It's even a beautiful name for a cute baby girl.
But what - or who - are we putting our faith in?

I have faith. Period.
Keep the faith. Period.
Just have faith. Period.
Seriously people. You can't stop there!

Because, like I said, faith all by itself is probably just a beautiful name for a sweet little girl.

Misplaced, it is powerless to get the job done, and potentially misguiding and most often, disappointing.

It's just not sustainable on it's own.
The danger comes when we risk entrusting our lives and hearts to things and entities that have no business being in charge. Just have faith is just not enough!

True Faith is a gift. We've all been given it.
Some of us... the Faith-gift is so small it can be hidden away in our pocket, the size of a piece of lint. Others... they haven't even realized it's there's for the taking.
Then there are those who have this seemingly huge, behemoth ocean full of Faith that comes rushing out of them in waves. Soaking everyone in it's path with such thirst-quenching, cool you off in the middle of a hot-flash kind of way. 

But that's the thing about Faith. It's powerful, life-changing, hope-giving
   When it's Faith in the One, the Creator
                   Faith in the One worthy of it
                   Faith, whether lint-sized or ocean-huge, in the One
                     Who gets done what needs to be done
                              when it needs to happen!
Faith is definitely not passive. I mean, it can't just sit there as a word. It can't just be a statement without action. Yet, ironically, the action is often in doing the nothing.
         Stay with me here.
Sometimes the action is in purposely surrendering a circumstance or a situation into the hands of the One in whom you've placed your Faith-gift in.

It doesn't mean I'll know what's going to happen next.
It doesn't necessarily mean I'll even know what to do next, how to help, what it will take to fix it, or survive it. 

But I've discovered this past month, and many others before this
    I don't want to live this life without purposely putting my Faith in God.
I've tried it. It stinks. It fails.

So here it is
     no matter how shaky I feel,
     no matter how lint-small my Faith seems,

I trust you Father, to heal a mind, to protect my child, to make all of it make sense. I trust You. You do know what is best for me. You do love me and mine more than I do. I have Faith in You to guide us, to stop us, to carry us. Even when my Faith is miniscule, I give it to You. 

So no thanks ... I won't Just have faith 
       in myself or in you
       in a doctor or my family or technology or money...
Jesus ... my Faith is in You!

I give you Jesus ...

You might live in an apartment in Shanghai, or in a village in Rwanda. Maybe you live in a tropical climate, like in Malaysia, a humid, hot, very hot community on a beach in El Salvador; or it might be pouring when you look out the window in your flat in Great Britain. You may be snowed in in Finland, or without power so you went to an internet cafe in the Ukraine or Russia, and found this blog.

The remarkable thing about all of our differences is the similarities that we share.

We need.

I need.
       ... a Savior
I need.
       … forgiveness every day

I've discovered that I crave His love, and can breathe only because He loves me

I have been,
     and continue to be
restored and comforted in very dark moments of my life.

If you're reading this, then please understand, the only thing,
                the only One I want you to know about me
          is my God.
He is a God that is not to be hoarded.
He is a God who is not to be kept hidden from others, or worshiped only in the private places.
He is a Savior,
     One who forgives
     One who loves, restores and comforts.
So this blog is written with the purpose of sharing
           with you …. my friends around the world
I give you  Jesus

FREAK OUT or ... pray

peace the warrior

A few years ago I was reading a really good book, the kind of really good book that you read over and over again.
I came across a couple of paragraphs
       -- I'd read them before, in fact many befores --
but this time they stopped me in my tracks
Life-changing-words
    changed my life, or maybe it was my perception of my life and how to handle it
Let's just say it gave me options on how to work through this life that I've been gifted with

As I've made perfectly clear in my blog, I most certainly don't have it all together

     Sure my life is beautiful 

          It's even beautiful when it's not beautiful (stick with me here ...)

And  those times of  not so beautiful
 .... that's when those options kick in

Here .. let me paraphrase that "something" from that book 

Don't be anxious or freaked out about anything {at least not for too long}
   ~~~ don't leave me here, it gets better ~~~

Instead of melting down in all of those beautiful and not so beautiful moments
  try something new
Pray...
That's it ... really pray about the ugly, the scary, the unknown
And there's more
While you're at that Praying - Thank Him

        Thank God He's there for you,
        Thank God He knows you
  if all you can do is thank Him you're breathing...then
        Thank Him for breath
And that Praying ... really spell it out to God. He can handle it.
Tell Him what you need,
    tell Him what's wrong
        how screwed up it is
        how terrifying it is
        how absolutely impossible to is to understand what to do next
                 or live with what might come next
     the possibilities are freaking you out!!!
Don't over think it
   Don't over analyze it
Just give Him your order,
    Give Him your request
   ~~~ Told you it gets better ~~~
Then you know what happens next???
 ... while you're listening
   {prayer=conversation ... talking AND listening}
Peace...
{You do realize this whole praying, petitioning, thanking, begging is not usually a  five-minute Hail Mary moment - This is serious talking to God about serious stuff so slow down a bit - breathe - listen}
Peace...
Heart-soothing, blood-pressure calming
    sometimes slamming
    other times drizzling
        over your body - through your soul - Peace
This Peace - it won't make sense - it just doesn't make sense - not supposed to make sense
You won't understand this warrior
peace the warrior
   Protector of your Heart, the Guardian of your Soul
It will cover your very being, will keep your mind, your heart
Peace will shield you from despair,
   protect you from that beast called anxiety that is able to consume our very being.
Peace will guard your mind and your heart, in Jesus, the Christ

You're welcome ...