Vitameatavegamin Girl

"Hello, friends, I'm your Vitameatavegamin girl! Are you tired, rundown, listless? Do you poop out at parties? Are you unpopular? The answer to all your problems is in this little bottle, Vitameatavegamin. Vitameatavegamin contains vitamins, meat, vegetables, and minerals. Yes, with Vitameatavegain, you can spoon your way to health. All you have to do is take a tablespoonful after every meal. It's so tasty, too!  It's just like candy! So, why don't you join the thousands of happy, peppy people, and get a great big bottle of Vitameatavegamin tomorrow? That's Vita-meata-vega-min!"

This has to be one of the best episodes from the I Love Lucy Show. All Lucy wants to do is be on TV, and like always it ends up in a mess and she learns her lesson...well until the next time! But that's why we love her.

My question is do you ever feel like that? Rundown and listless? In everyday life and maybe your own religion? Well let me tell you there is this bottle ...no just kidding! Believe it or not, there is someone who has a similar speech:

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” -Matthew 11:28-30 MSG

In this passage Jesus gives us the key to live a free and light life. I know I have sad it before but the key is to come to Him. We can't live life alone, because when we do, we become tired and worn out. Jesus said that He wants to show us real rest! Have you ever experienced real rest? By the looks of it, He has called us to live a life of rest in Him. 

It is achieved by watching Him work. So that means being close to Him.  In my last post I said that we need to be by the Fathers heart.  It's also important to walk right beside Jesus to see how to live life. 

So are you tired, rundown, listless and just plain burned out? Then it's time to go for a walk with Jesus. Take His hand and see how he does it. He will show you how unforced His grace truly is. 

Why don't you join all of the "happy, peppy people" and start today? I promise you will be a lot better off than the Vitameatavegamin Girl! 

Puppy Kisses

After a long hard day I like to sit on the couch with my little poodle Rosie. I love it when she lays on my chest and sleeps next to my heart. When she was a puppy a lady told me that poodles love to hear their mothers heart beat. It clams them and makes them feel safe. Even now that she is a year old she still lays next to my heart and I love it! 

But you know what Rosie loves? Giving kisses. I am totally convinced that Rosie's "love language" is licking...and lots of it! If you give her the chance, she will lick you until it drives you crazy. 

Last week I called Rosie over to get on the couch with me. We got comfortable and started to rest, but then she just started to lick my face. I'm tired...I just want her to take a little nap with me! I tell her no and she stops. But then she started back up! I looked at her very cute face and said "Can you just sit here with me?".

Then the Lord in His sweetness spoke to my heart. He said I am like you, and you are like Rosie. I love it when we are together. But sometimes would you just sit with me and listen to my heart. The licking represents everything you could possibly bring to Me. I love it when we talk, but when was the last time your intentions where set to listen to my heart beat?

This is a beautiful picture and it rocked me! I know it's so important to get so close to the Father that you can hear his heart on what He says about me and others. Because if we don't then we can't properly love ourselves or people. Because that is the whole point of being a Christian, love. 

I double dog dared my youth group to set a time to just listen to the father's heart in the secret place. To not just hear what's on His heart but to actually hear it. When we decide to just let go and let God do Hos thing it's life changing. The supernatural is so much more real than the realm we live in. God invites us to get close, close enough to hear the beating of His heart. That is a overwhelming thought, but oh so wonderful!

So now when I snuggle on the couch with Rosie it's a reminder to go and Listen to His heart. 

"I want to sit at your feet. Drink from the cup in your hand. 

Lay back against you a breathe... feel your heart beat."

The Lowliest of Places

This just happened a week ago! God is moving, I hope this encourages you to be revival wherever you are!

While on a treasure hunt my team went to the County Fair in our town, and we ran into a friend. She asked if we were enjoying the fair, we said yes and that we were on a treasure hunt . After a few minutes we parted ways. Our team continued to look for our treasure. After about 20 minutes this same friend came up to me kind of embarrassed “What is treasure hunting?”

I proceeded to tell her and after I was done I could see that she wanted to be a treasure. Because we are all God's treasure! I started looking at our maps and saw that her son’s name was on the list! Her son didn't need healing but she did in her knees. I then got a word of knowledge about back pain which she had as well.

We stared praying for her back and nothing happened. I then felt like her son was supposed to pray. He was really shy and barley whispered a prayer. Once he was done the mother's face was full of surprise and amazement! She felt something like oil going down her spine! She tested it out and all of the pain was gone!

I had her daughter pray for her knees, she prayed and the pain went down, but not all the way so we had her pray again. She felt the same oil in her knees! She tested it out by kneeling down in the gravel. She felt no pain!

My dad had been having pain in His foot and had so we had our friend pray for his foot. That was totally healed too!  Next one of our team members eyes felt funny. So we asked who had eye problems. The daughter couldn't see clearly far away. They prayed and her eyes were totally healed! Then the daughter prayed for the girl on our team that had eye problems and she was healed!

By this time we have gotten kinda excited and a lady who was sitting on the bleachers in the barn we were in turned around and said that she wanted prayer too! She climbed down and said she had sciatic pain. Our friend knew this lady so I had her pray, and her friend was healed instantly! Then a lady in our team said that she had the same problem. So we had the lady who was just healed pray for our team member and she was healed!  

Then we noticed the lady who had been on the bleachers had glasses on. We asked if we could pray about that too! We prayed two times and then she was healed! So she the glasses on her head like a head band! She was so excited! 

God wants to use you wherever you are! Step out across the "chicken" line and start living a supernatural life! And the greatest part is you don't have to wait until you are at church! This healing bomb went off in a barn full of pigs, goats and cows behind the bleachers next to a dumpster! God can work even in the lowliest places! 

Do you need healing or prayer? There is no distance in prayer! Nothing is impossible with God. Comment below or just receive healing in your body right now! 

Love...What An Novel Idea

This summer I pulled out one of my favorite books. I hadn't read it in 3 years, and was excited to read the heart gripping story again. As I read the story I was struck by the level of love one of it's characters lived in. Whenever something happened, she responded with love. Even when it came to facing someone who tried to have her killed she saw it as a opportunity to love once again.

I sat there convicted in my own heart as I remembered the John 13:34-35 MSG:

“Let me give you a new command: Love one another. 

In the same way I loved you, you love one another. 

This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”

Jesus said that our love for one another is how everyone will know we follow Him..... Everyone! How spectacular is that? The entire world will know. It's not our good works, the healing's or anything of that nature. It's love. There is so much in that word. There is so much depth. 

It's easy to love when nothing is going wrong. But when things come and hit you in the face, love, a lot of times becomes an after thought. 

I looked back at the book, what if a story was written about me? What would I see? Would I love unconditionally? Even unto death?  

This is something that I want to live everyday. Even when I all I want to do is not love! One thing is certain, we can't love people with that kind of love by ourselves. We can't even come close to producing that kind of love. It takes the love of God to love people with everything that we are. 


Photo credit: http://artsymumof5.tumblr.com

Never Ending Fire

Camping in the mountains was something Roxanne had always wanted to do and now her dream was coming true. Life had seemed to be going great, but little by little, it began to fall apart. She started distancing herself from her family, going off on her own. Now Roxanne was aimlessly walking through a thick wood. The sounds of the night began and an uneasy feeling crept over her. Hearing the sounds move closer made her heart race. Walking a little faster, but unsure of where to go, the sounds became more intense. It was close...too close. Running, Roxanne searched for a way out of the woods. Coming to a halt she noticed the sound had stopped, she listened. Nothing. Just the sound of her heavy breathing. Maybe it was gone. She turned, straining her eyes and then she saw it, a mountain lion. Fear gripped her heart. This was it. She was going to die.

Feeling panic rise in her, the lion lowered ready to strike. She heard a cracking sound. The lion heard it too. Their attention was drawn to the right. She stood only a few feet away from a clearing and past that was someone’s camp site! She had to make a move if she was going to live. Roxanne ran with everything she had. The lion jerked its head back, seeing her take off and followed. Screaming for help, Roxanne saw a man by a fire.

~~~

Caden grabbed a long log out of the fire and ran toward the girl. Where did she come from? The lion closed in, ready to take its prey. It clawed at the runner, teasing her, but hitting its mark. The girl cried out in pain, but kept running.  Caden was just a few feet from them. The lion clawed again, this time sending her to the ground. Yelling at the lion, Caden waved the fire in the big cat’s direction. The animal had been so focused it didn’t see the man and stopped sensing danger. Caden stepped in-between the girl and the mountain lion still waving the flame. The lion looked at the girl on the ground then back at the fire. Knowing loss, it retreated back into the dark wood.

~~~

Life can be a weird thing. We can feel on top of the world one day and then underneath it the next. I find this exceptionally frustrating whenever it happens in my spiritual life. Imagine you have just gotten back from camp, missions trip, or conference and you are on top of the world! You tell everyone around you that you are “on fire”. This “on fire” thing can last a few days or a few weeks but in the end it seems like we “lost our fire” or “the fire went out”. Then we wait for the next camp, mission trip, or conference to get back “on fire”. 

I have said this before…many times really. In our culture, it’s almost expected! This happened to me this last week. I had really been “on fire” for a good 3 weeks. It was awesome! But then life knocked and I answered. And then little by little my fire was going out. Or so I thought…

But what does the above story have to do with anything?

I was talking with God the other day “I was so on fire, seeing people get healed and everything! What happened?! It seems my fire has gone out! Did I need to put more “wood” on it?”

And you know what? He gave me the answer! We walk around taking credit for the fire when really, God is the fire. The bible says He is an all consuming fire. His eyes burn like fire. God said that He was the fire. Then he showed me some things through pictures, almost like a movie:

I’m sitting at a camp fire with Jesus, He was wearing jeans, there is a guitar leaning against the log bench and all the fixings for s’mores were on a table behind him. I looked around and saw we were in a beautiful clearing and I see the woods far off, looking dark and mysterious…

God is the fire, He never goes out. When we feel that feeling of “my fire feels like it’s going out” what has happened is that we have taken a step away from the fire. When you are camping, at night you want to be near the fire. It provides warmth, light and protection. But if we step away the warmth, light, and the protection, we feel less of what we did when we were standing right in front of it. But so many times we let things distracted us and we step away just a little bit. And if we wonder far enough, we will end up in the woods, alone where predators have the upper hand.

How silly of us to think that the fire of God could go out? He is unchanging, He isn't fickle like man. He is always burning! It is up to us to stay by the fire, stay close to God. In Him is everything we could ever need, want and desire. But we have to choose to stay in His warmth…His presence. Every day we have to choose. Roxanne (a Christian) was with her family (the body of Christ), but decided to wander in the woods (the world) which lead her to a dangerous place. But in the end when she called out to the man (Jesus) for help he was there to save her and bring her back to safety...near the fire (His presence). To maintain a powerful Christian life we have to stay in His presence. Cause if we don’t we will lose the warmth, not because it has gone out but because we walked away.

Photo credit: crossfitfire.com

                                                          

Love Deeply

I think that if we were to take this seriously, we would see such a change in our lives and the lives of others. To love no matter what, in every situation! Once we love people with the love of Christ, we must keep diving. Go deep and never go turn back. This kind of love can change a nation, the world. Cool thing is, this love already changed the world...when Jesus died. So if we can do greater things than Christ did, then we can love with the same kind of intensity! Make it you mission to love deeply...and never come back up. 

(Photo credit @Karijobe)