Beyond Measure

I'm sitting here engrossed in the song Beyond Measure by Jeremy Camp. It's so personal like it's being played just for me through the little ear buds attached to my ipod. I'm amazed at how right the words are for me right now.

"I know that I've been given more than beyond measure,
I come alive when I see beyond my fears,
I know that I've been given more than earthly treasure
I come alive when I'm broken down and giving you control"

Here's the direct application to my life...

Even though I know that I grow discontent quite easily with things in my life like the small size of my house, the distance that separates me and my friends or me and my family and many other things, when I'm serious about life and my spiritual walk, I am painfully aware that I have much more than many and more than enough at that. Currently, I am going through a wrestling match with God about what His plan is for our future. For many, many reasons that seem so obvious to me (and what I'm certain must be the same for God--showing my human-ness as I know full well that God does not think as I do) there is another place for us than here. In many ways, the thing that seems to be keeping us here is fear. And so I think, indeed, as the line says, I would come alive if I could see beyond my fear. And so in response, I wrestle with God... being broken down only to give Him control. Because, let's face it, any other way would only lead to destruction and failure. We must be obedient to The Almighty.

Part of my daily struggle, especially when I'm dealing with something so specific, is all of the outside noise that creeps in. It's difficult to discern what is the Voice of God. I confess that much of the outside noise actually comes from within... in other words, my flesh. I have so many desires that are not currently being fulfilled and yet it's almost as if I can see them just over the hill. In the book Believing God by Beth Moore she describes a scene tht she saw during a walk where two ducks splashed around in a mud puddle when there was a big, beautiful pond well within sight. How much like those ducks I feel.

The good news is that I am working really hard on believing God and believing truth. And this is the truth:
"Trust in the Lord and do good;
Dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."
Psalm 37:3&4

I claimed this verse when I was still single, but had a desire to be married. God's faithfulness to fulfill his promise brought me a man who I couldn't imagine was possible. Surely His promise will be fulfilled again.

To close I am encouraged by this Word from Ephesians 3:20
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine; according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

Glory!

An Unexpected Word

What I love about the Word of God is that the best insights can be drawn from the most unexpected places, especially when you are sensative to the voice of God. The place in the Bible where I think most modern day Christians exect to draw insight is from the New Testament and even more from the Epistles as opposed to the Gospels. This has been true quite often in my life. Obviously there is nothing at all wrong with drawing wisdom from Paul's or others letters, afterall they were challenging and encouraging what was to become the modern Church. What's just awesome though is that there is so much to be learned from "The Beginning." The Old Testament. God can speak to us volumes of wisdom by just opening His Word, if only we are sensative the Spirit's lead.

Here's how I ended up inspired by Exodus-- the most unlikely of books, for me. I was recently challenged to fast my Friends habit (if you are unfamiliar with my Friends habit, see post "Chandler, Monical, Joey, Phoebe, Rachel, Ross") Accepting the challenge, believing that it was a confirmation for a Holy Spirit stir that I already had, I pulled my recently purchased, "Believing God" by Beth Moore, off the shelf and began reading. The first chapter is dedicated to discovering our personal Promised Land, which Beth Moore believes (and I happen to agree) existes for each individual person. I was inspired to read about the original Promised Land that God gave to the Isrealites by way of Moses' divine leadership.

I have read Exodus before, notebly in my Pentateuch class at Johnson Bible College (which incidently, Kristen and I were just reminscing about--recalling our attempt at osmosis [sleeping with our heads on our Bibles] in order to get through the class). I've never noticed how many modern day lessons there are to be learned about God's soveriegnty-- and I've only read the first 2 chapters. I'm eager to continue through the Isrealites journey to the Promised Land.

The first considerable insight that I had was when Moses, who should have been killed according to Pharoah's current law and rule, was saved and actually returned to his mother for a time. I believe that this was God's divine gift to her for being obedient to Him and not succombing to her fear of the consequence. That in and of itself is layered with wisdom.

The next insight, I certainly don't claim as my own original idea, but credit the footnotes of my Life App Bible. I never would have considered the amount of courage that it took for the Hebrew woman and the Princess (Pharoah's daughter) to come together to save this baby boy. Courage on behalf of the Princess to interact with someone considered a slave and even more courage on behalf of Miriam, the Hebrew girl, to suggest something that is life sustaining for a baby boy to a blood relative of the one who made the law that he should be killed. The life application here is, "Don't let the fear of what might happen cause you to miss an opportunity. Be alert for the opportunities God gives you and take full advantage of them."

Again, I will say, this insight is layers deep with wisdom for me.

A Full Tank

When I go for a period of time without people that I love around me to fill me up and encourage me, I start to feel like maybe I don't NEED that type of fuel for my tank, but then in an instant I am reminded that this is exactly the type of thing that leaves me feeling fulfilled.

Eric took 2 vacation days in order to make a trip to visit our friends in Fort Wayne, IN. At first we joked that we were taking vacation to go to Fort Wayne, where as most people take vacation days to visit somelplace exotic. We even endured a day of snow in the middle of April. It was worth it though for the amount of edificaiton we felt at the end.

How often do you leave vacation feeling challenged spiritually? As it turns out this was more than just a vacation. This was a trip that I truly believe was divinely appointed by God.

Who ever would have known or guessed that my very first pot luck college roommate would end up being one of my dearest friends? Or that our lives would end up being so similar. Outside of our respective carreer choices, our lives are so similar. She and her amazing husband have three precious boys very close in age. The other family that we had a chance to spend time with is one we consider an equal blessing in our lives.

A friend of Eric's from the time we spent at Purdue has remained as steadfast of a friend that there could be. He and his beautiful wife have three wonderful kids as well. I must say, what a relief to visit not one, but two families who get us. We don't have to explain ourselves and our kids to them. Not to mention that just being around people who are like us is something that you can't put a price on.

At the end of the weekend, I asked myself, "Why wouldn't I want to surround myslef with people like this?" The answer is that I really, really do!