An Oldie But A Goodie

The forecast tonight on Long Island is (and I quote), ?Thunder in the vicinity.? I can hear it booming outside my home. I can nearly feel the rain falling on the grass; saturating the trees and bringing spring life to a previously wintered, barren land. My eyes have caught glimpses of electrifying lightning shooting toward the earth with a force I can only imagine as unrivaled. Indeed, there is ?thunder in the vicinity?.

Have you ever felt as if nature has the same emotions as you? Sunny days normally coincide with beachy, fun moods for me. Snowy moments, usher in comforting food and a warm, relaxing blanket and book. The wind always parallels a day of inspiration for me. It is as if with every sweep of hair across my face, the very breath of heaven is ushering me to create.

And then there is the rain. More often than not when it rains I feel as if I have no tears in me left to cry and the earth has felt the need to rally around, carrying out the task for me. Have you ever felt as though you simply had nothing else to give? Have you ever been sure that if one more stream of emotion were to fall off your face, surely you would indeed be dehydrated for the rest of your life?

This has been one of those days for me.

And then I read the words, ?Thunder in the vicinity.?

I am simply sold out for the Word of God. You cannot imagine the depth of promise, purpose, passion and power there is to be found within its pages! Nothing makes me jump up and down like a discovery about Moses. Nothing can make me cry like reading the very syllables that escaped from the lips of my Jesus. No one makes me laugh harder than Jonah. I sympathize with no one else the way I do with Jeremiah. No one encourages me quite like Paul. No one moves me to press on toward change more than Peter. No one has taught me more about love than John.

Let me tell you with eyes that are weary from much Scripture study and hands that are daily cramped from writing my findings: You will never be satisfied fully in Christ without the study and application of His Word! I promise you that. You will not. You can test me on this. I challenge you to! I rest today in the voice of God. And I know His voice well because I am familiar with it, as I hear it everyday through His Word.

Job, the dear man, is written heartbreakingly within the pages of the Bible. We have covered his life before. He is famous for living righteously in one of the most horrific accounts of loss ever recorded. It is in the pieces of this account that we find the following about our God:�

?Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice, to the rumbling that comes from his mouth. He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven and sends it to the ends of the earth. After that comes the sound of his roar; he thunders with his majestic voice. When his voice resounds, he holds nothing back. God's voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth,' and to the rain shower, 'Be a mighty downpour.? So that all men he has made may know his work...?

Such majestic and breathtaking truth to be discovered! Borrowing the words of Elihu, a central figure in Job, ?At this my heart pounds and leaps from its place.? My heart pounds and leaps from its place at the very sound of the thundering voice of God.

I believe the Christian community pushes friendship with Christ and a holy intimacy with much sincerity. I for one can testify that it is the promise of this friendship that keeps me hanging on?but what about the fear; some holy reverence before the Lord Almighty?

This place we are in is a struggle. There are constant let-downs. Disappointments. Health issues. Broken promises. Losses. Sometimes we need to have something more than friendship?and that is where the holy reverence comes in! We serve a powerful King! His voice roars like thunder! And there is nothing in your path this day that He is not fully aware of. Rest in His saving power today. Welcome a little noise. Stand in awe of His earth-shattering glory. Praise Him for His matchless might. You get yourself alone with Him and try to wrap your mind around His incomparable worth. The Word of God tells us that it is this God who will avenge on our behalf; the cries of the afflicted are not lost to Him.

Beloved, no matter what you face at this moment, I know the forecast:

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There is thunder in the vicinity.�

Originally posted at Exemplify on May 2, 2007

Can I just say, "Preach it!"

Deuteronomy 24:5�(The Message)�

"When a man takes a new wife,�

he is not to go out with the army or be given any business or work duties.�

He gets one year off simply to be at home making his wife happy."

And still another version:�

"When a man is newly married,

�he shall not go out with the army or be charged

�with any business; he shall be free at home one year�

and shall cheer his wife�whom he has taken."

Wow. That last line is really hitting home with this woman. ; )�

Off to tell The- Newly -Married- Should -Be- Cheering -Man...

Meet Roloff

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In Loving Memory of My Murdered Fish

Poor Little Guys

When I arrive at The Pearly Gates and meet my Maker, the first words that are going to escape my lips, after praise of course, are going to be: Eric killed my fish.

Oh, he killed them. He killed 'em good.

There I was newly engaged, eager to begin building a family, when fate landed Eric and I (Starbuck's latte in hand) smack dab in front of PetSmart!

You should never put a newly engaged, caffeinated woman in front of any pet store! Emotions were running high, the coffee beans were doing their job, the idea of forever with Eric was so delightful; all of it coupled together suddenly gave birth to the statement:

"Let's buy some fish."

Only it was squealed, in a rather rare display of pet-excitement for me.

Actually, if you know me personally, you probably are thinking how dead on owning fish as a pet suits me. We are talking things you get to name, build a little home for and stare at sweetly all the while never actually ever having to touch or coddle them!

My goodness, fish and I are a match made in heaven.

Of course, this was all before Eric sent them there prematurely.

We purchased two beautiful fish that fall day, named them Marsuvees and Barsidious after two characters from our favorite books, brought them to Eric's place and began setting up house for them. This was when Jason (Eric's roommate) and I began to think that the rocks Eric was pouring into their newly decorated environment were perhaps not rocks after all.

The rocks were becoming this smoky-substance as they hit the water.

But Eric, the Braveheart that he is, simply shook his head and assured me my new pets would be perfectly fine.

My elation over the little fellas clouded my judgment, leading me to take Eric at his word.

So I continued on in my excitement over my new guys, found my Star Wars C3PO figurine, tossed him into their tank and began snapping pictures!

And for two whole days, C3PO, Marsuvees, Barsidious and I lived in happy tranquility.

Two days later, my water-dwelling creatures were floating atop their residence no doubt souls in the presence of their Maker saying, "Eric killed us."

Oh. It was sad.

Apparently what we thought were rocks, were actually little activated carbon particles.

Aye de mi. (Woe is me!)

All joking aside, may my fishes of gold rest in peace.

Ok, seriously, this time, all joking aside: Aren't you thrilled to know our Father God never messes up like this?

It puts my little heart at ease to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is never going to pour anything harmful into my life!

Not on purpose or by accident.

My God has the best for me.

Sure, the waters get rough in this ocean we swim in but even then He speaks and is more than able to calm the storm.

Borrowing 1 Thessalonians 3:12 as my own today, "May the Master pour on the love so it fills your lives and splashes over on everyone around you, just as it does from [me] to you. May you be infused with strength and purity, filled with confidence in the presence of God our Father when our Master Jesus arrives."

May the One who poured out His blood for you envelope you in His love this day.

And may it fill your life and splash on to everyone around you.

Shots of Marsuvees, Barsidious, C3PO and I.

Let the tears flow, people, let the tears flow.

12 Things You May Not Know About Me...

1.The wind inspires me to write.

2.The rain makes me stop & consider who I want to be.

3.Fall reminds me of heaven.

4.The stars speak to me about True Glory.

5.Clouds often take the shape of my dreams.

6.The ocean waves crashing birth in me an awe-inspired humility.

7.Whenever I see mountains I am surrounded by the whisper of majesty.
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8.The warmth of summer sunbeams urge me to lift my voice in song.

9.The winter cold feeds my desire to go on and learn something new.

10.When night falls, I come alive.

11.The scent of spring flowers rallies melancholy memories I call my own.

12.As the sun rises each morning I am convinced I could not love my husband, Eric, more. The next dawn always proves me wrong.

A Facial Workout

...Kicked My Abs!

"May the God of green hope fill you up with joy,

fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives,

filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit,

will brim over with hope!"
Romans 15:13

Pilates kicked my abs today.

I should have known that is what was going to happen, considering last week I was sore from my powerhouse workout for about five days! This morning as I was getting ready to put my muscles to the test, my abs were begging me to put them into early retirement.

Every single Pilates movement and exercise targets the abs - your "core" or "powerhouse".
The whole workout I listened to the instructor say, "Keep breathing. Focus on your core. Focus on your powerhouse. Focus, focus, focus!"

Today I found myself mumbling back, much like the people of Israel as they wandered through the wilderness.

"You are doing this ab-focus-thing to kill me aren't you?"

"I'm going to die here- sure, my "core" will be hard as rock, but my blood will no longer be pumping through my veins!"

"I see a bright light...I think Jesus is here for me. Jesus, is that you?"

All of this was said as I engaged my powerhouse during The Hundred, The Single Leg Stretch, The Plank, The Saw, The Spine Stretch...and the list goes on. Yes, that is right. My Pilates work out went on and on and on today. I must have engaged my core for seven solid hours.

Ok, in reality it was exactly one hour.

I did have on my cute sweatpants- which in my opinion makes a workout a real workout and worth it. You can ask my Mom, I consider 90% of the fun of staying in shape, to be the workout gear. I have warm, feather vests for outdoor winter walks, Pilates pants for Spring, cute sneakers that make stretching to your toes worth the three foot trip.

If I am going to have to exercise my powerhouse, I might as well look good doing it.

All of this core-strength talk got me thinking today.

In our spiritual walks, abs are not our powerhouse.

The Holy Spirit is.

Are we engaging Him constantly? Are we working Him into our every movement? Are we led by His direction and shaped by His knowledge?

I hope we will begin to work our Christ-given Powerhouse!

Rock hard abs would be nice but it is a strengthened faith I desire.

Let us be filled continually with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit.

Ok, I need to go ice my entire body. And eat a cookie. All of the working out has made me hungry!

Teagan The Terrible - *Update*

Quick update on the status of my problem-cat, Teagan.

In the past 48 hours she has managed to grow in both feline strength and deviousness. Our water filter has been dismantled, for the fifth and final time, due to her ability to plot the demise of ANY thing she sets her mind to.

She clawed so far into my head, CSI could make a show out of it.

She has licked half the fur off of two of my faux fur blankets!

She has attempted to try her hand at the balcony, somehow managing to get out of the closed screen door!

She has hurled, and I do mean HURLED, herself full force at the window screen in our bedroom at every chance she gets.

Honest to blog, we don't know what to do with her!

Mom, if you do not hear from me in the next few days and I go missing: it was most certainly the cat.

Teagan in her younger days - we should've known then.

(The small Irishman's hat in the background is, indeed, a leprechaun she mauled

and later dropped at my feet in threat. )

Do her eyes not declare, "Be afraid! Be very afraid!"?

Miracle Mercy

We are living in fear in my house. It is the kind of terror that keeps me awake at night and makes me look behind the door when I enter a room. Before I close my eyes for the night, I am confident the angels set around me (to protect my life!) are yielding their swords and standing tall.

Our cat, Teagan, is out to get me.

Had it not been for my angels, last night she would have ended my life. She came running at me with the speed and weight of a Safari lion and pounced on her kill: my head.

I bear the marks of clawed flesh and the look of fright 24 hours a day.

Today alone she has managed to attack me mercilessly, chew through my husband?s internet connection cable and dismantle her water bowl filter.

This is a cat that starves herself in protest of any cat food that is not the most expensive cuisine available. And if you think I am joking, I wish you could see my face. I am severely serious.

This is a cat that travels at the speed of light every, single night to the dinner table right before we sit down and quickly licks ALL of the food on the table, and takes a sip from every glass.

Again, not joking!

Listen, you know you have a problem cat when your Mom suggests praying Psalm 51:10 over it: ?Create in my a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.?

If she could, Teagan would be the bully at school. Throw sand in your eyes at the beach. ?Accidentally? knock your ice cream off your cone. Drop your favorite mascara in the t

oilet.

Are you following me here?

Oh, the methods we have tried. Clapping our hands loud to let her know who is boss; using the squirt bottle to teach her a lesson; crying for her to please stop; yelling we don?t deserve this; threatening to de-claw her; and the list goes on.

This morning, as Teagan attacked me for the ump-teenth time, my husband timidly spoke, ?We could get rid of her and get a new one?if you want??

He has said this before but this time I could tell he wasn?t speaking out of anger; he was speaking out of hope. Life is beginning to look rather promising without this femme fatale of a feline we call our own.

Aren?t you relieved to know that no matter where you?ve been, what you?ve done or how horribly you screwed up today your Father God is not going to send you to the nearest pound?

Psalm 107 is one of my favorite Psalms simply because of how personally I can relate to the people of Israel in these verses?and I am left in awe of God?s mercy shed on them and me?and you.

10-16 ?Some of you were locked in a dark cell,

cruelly confined behind bars,

Punished for defying God's Word,

for turning your back on the High God's counsel?

A hard sentence, and your hearts so heavy,

and not a soul in sight to help.

Then you called out to God in your desperate condition;

he got you out in the nick of time.

He led you out of your dark, dark cell,

broke open the jail and led you out.

So thank God for his marvelous love,

for his miracle mercy to the children he loves;

He shattered the heavy jailhouse doors,

he snapped the prison bars like matchsticks!?

?So thank God?for his miracle mercy.?

I forgot to mention both my Mom and my husband have compared Teagan?s stubborn personality to my own. Sometimes I look at her, jumping on the kitchen table, drinking my unsweetened iced tea and I see myself.

And in those moments, God?s miracle mercy fills the room.

Go on, friend, today appreciate God?s deep love for you and thank Him for his miracle mercy on your behalf.

Let Psalm 107:1 be your anthem this day.

?Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For his mercy endures forever.

A Fine Feast

Can I get an ?Amen!??!?!?

Ok, that amen-calling may have been a bit premature. �I?m just feeling passionate about this one!

I have not yet been married for ninety days and Houston, we?ve got a problem: my husband just doesn?t share the same enthusiasm as me for dessert. As a matter of shocking fact, I am honestly embarrassed to admit, some nights he forgoes a night-time snack all together!

He often says, ?I?ve just eaten enough today.?

Or

?I am full.?

Who? Says? That?

I stare at the computer screen tonight and think, ?This is the man who when I suggested we play the ?I-am-going-on-a-picnic-game? said he was bringing a sandwich, which is fine if we were at the letter ?S?, but he was supposed to be bringing something that started with a ?B?!? I mean, surely, all of heaven is aware I am the brain of this operation!

How is it then that he houses enough self-restraint to opt out of the dessert meal of the day?

And you see, when he doesn?t eat a delicious treat?it makes it hard for me to. When he orders a small ice cream cone, I have to follow suit! Because what woman wants to be seen eating an ice cream cone that puts the tower of Babel to shame as her husband enjoys a dainty sampling of the newest ?cream at Coldstone?!?!?! Tell me! Who!

When the Starbuck?s barista asked him for his latte size a few weeks ago and he dared to utter the word, ?Tall,? ladies, I about lost it.

You can cross me in many ways before I speak up: decide not to partake in some popcorn, decline the fruit smoothie, simply shake your head ?no? to a vanilla pudding offer ? but DON?T YOU EVER ORDER ANY SIZE LESS THAN A GRANDE AT STARBUCKS. �<Insert earlier, premature amen-calling here!>

Dear me. My heart nearly gave out. And that was when I knew things were bad.

?I am full.?

� Now, now, ladies. Before you go telling me we need marital counseling because something is clearly wrong with the Man, bear with me.

What if we lived our spiritual lives like this?

What if when temptation came knocking, smelling sweet and looking fine, we simply shook our heads and said, ?I am full.?

Oh, how I pray when we find ourselves faced with that shiny, red apple being dangled before our eyes we will remember the words of Hosea, ?All that party food won?t fill you up. You?ll end up hungrier than ever?you?ll be starved for God.? (Hosea 9, TM)

In those moments I ask on our behalf that we will say, ?I am full.?

Because, friend, that is what we are offered in Christ Jesus. Lives that are full. Hungry stomachs that are fed. There is nothing wrong with being hungry ? it is when we abuse the hunger that we begin to see problems.

Psalm 81:8-10 speaks to us today, ?If my people would but listen to me, if Israel would follow my ways, how quickly I would subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes! Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever, but you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.?

So often we look to all of these others things to bring us satisfaction. We are ?hungry? but don?t realize Who we are starving for.

I want to challenge us this week to tell the world ?we?ve eaten enough? of it and bring our hungry selves to the feet of Christ.

There is nothing He would like more than to fill your hungry stomach.

I hope as you drink your Grande (or larger!) Starbuck?s coffee, you will ask Him to meet whatever need you feel is going unmet at the moment.�

Feast on His words and be fed!

Banana Bread Incident of '00

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�� Some lessons are learned the hard way. And while we may learn them well, living them down can be a story in and of itself. I have had such a lesson. The Banana Bread Incident of ?00 has been hard to live down.

� I believe Christ has humorously seen fit to wire me with the deep desire to be a chef. All of my life I have longed to create masterpieces in the kitchen. I adore aprons. Wire whisks bring me such joy; they should name a line of them after me. Cookie cutters could not fascinate me more. I am telling you; by the age of sixteen I was convinced baking could possibly be my spiritual gift.� I don?t need Paul to tell me it is not. My brothers can testify to that fact.

� It all started with the simple idea to bake banana bread one winter night. It was a project fit for a cold, long New York evening. I found a recipe in one of my Mother?s many cookbooks, located all the ingredients in our kitchen cabinets and ventured forth into measurements of oil, vanilla, crushed bananas, sugar and butter.

� Notice I did not list flour. Do you see where I am going with this? After three and a half hours of my baking bread, the reality that it still looked more like soup than bread began to hit home.

� What could I have done wrong? I had used all of the ingredients on the table, I was sure! Mentally going over my checklist I realized one main constituent, the main ingredient, was missing: the flour.

�� Needless to say, my banana soup was rather delicious. The rest of my family, however, would beg to disagree. Can you imagine the horrified looks on each of their faces every time I present a new culinary creation? Every time I suggest I bake, cook or even order out they practically duck for cover!

�� My brothers are convinced my one go at baking forever marks my capability in an apron. I am someone to be feared; certainly not someone who presents deliciously baked treats.

� I have laughed often over this incident and am looking forward to Biblical prophecy finding its final fulfillment in this life of mine ? specifically Zechariah 14:21, ?Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the LORD Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them??

�� I cannot wait to get my hands on the holy pots of heaven! I tell you, friend, Christ?s coming is going to be most scrumptious by the time I am settled in one of those many mansions!

�� In all seriousness ? my one faux pas has terminally defined my future kitchen contributions. No matter how skilled I become, I know one of my siblings is going to point out my past. A past lacking all but one measurement!

�� I wonder, today, does your heart relate?

� It blesses me to so to know Christ does not hold our past failures over our heads! Colossians 1:21-23 speaks so profoundly to us, ?You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got. But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God's side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence. You don't walk away from a gift like that! ? Colossians 2 goes on to say, ?All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ's cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.?

�� What a loss it would be if we continued on in our ?banana bread? moments, never experiencing freedom to its fullest.

� I wonder today, in what areas Christ has set you free?

Do share.