Sweet taste of hunger

Well, where does the time go? God is real good. Since I last posted I have been able to cut back on some hours at work as well as be apart of the SOS clinic that provides free health care to the community. I also got the time off to travel to Turkey Oct 6-20 and minister with some of my favorite people ever.  We will be apart of a five day continual prayer and worship as well as practically helping out and ministering to the team that we will be staying with. I am very excited to see God move over there!

It was a priveledge and honor to be able to share my heart two Sunday's ago with my church family. I have been really stirred up about dwelling in a state of desperation and deep hunger for more of the Lord. It is such a dangerous place to become complacent and numb to the work of the Lord. I know that settling into a job creates a routine and its easy to become scattered and distant from the fresh outpouring of the Hold Spirit. I don't want to miss anything! .

I look at David, and Mary( Jesus' mom) and also Mary of Bethany in the Bible who had such a hunger for more of His presence that they swayed the Father's heart through their desperation.

David tasted of His tangible presence hundreds of years before the Holy Spirit was released but God had compassion because His word says in Matthew 6: 

" Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God."

 It is those who chose to lay it all down every day at His feet deciding once and for all that His presence and His face is way more important and needed than any other thing/person that will sway His heart.

Mary of Bethany poured out 20,000 dollars worth of perfume on the feet of Jesus because she saw His face and knew that was all she wanted. She wanted Him, not her lifetime inheritance that would take care of her for a long time. She decided to waste herself on Jesus...to become spare change in His pocket and please the Father's heart. She was mocked for her acts. They said why didn't she do this instead? Why not give your time or money here? She knew where she wanted to be and she camped out there and because of this our Lord Jesus left that place smelling like she did.. and she smelt like him. The fragrance of her wastefulness went with him to the cross and to be forever talked about as He promised. She knew she was the joy set before him. It was her acts... her heart that brought him to the cross. It wasn't the nails that held him there... it was Mary. It was the Mary in all of us... the desperate heart that will lay it all at his feet. Fully attentive to Him. To learn. To give. To gaze. To become wasted on Jesus is my goal so that after Jesus and I hang out... I smell like him and people know where I have been.

Proverbs 27: 7 says..."but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet". 

For you will not delight in a burnt sacrifice....the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalm 51:16-17 

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; He chose what is weak in the world to shame what is strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are. 1 Corinthians 1:27-28

Coloring outside of the lines

Well, I created this blog as a place to share what God is doing in, through and around me.

He is so ridiculously good. To sum things up a little, I have spent these last few months since being home from Africa learning to understand what this quote means:

"Radical people don't worry about tomorrow...there is no reason in faith that today can't be the best day of your life." - Papa Rolland Baker

I have set out to become radical in everything that I do. What does that really look like day in and out? Well, I don't have all the answers but I do know that when our gaze is on Jesus and our energy is given to becoming like Jesus, we suddenly realize that nothing else really matters. We see that when we see Him each day that our day becomes the best day ever. The Word says we go "from glory to glory"... it only gets better! We will just continue to see more and more of Him if we chose to.

Now, this hasn't been an easy road because I also came home from my three months away in Africa surrounded by radically given people praying something that I knew was dangerous.

I started praying for faith and patience...If we have those two things then we are good to go! We can jump over any mountain and scale any wall.I assumed I was coming home to pack my bags and hit the road around the globe with these crazy laid down lovers. Little did I know that this would bring me into a nursing home looking after 60 confused, lonely and angry people. It is roaming these halls and sitting with these people that I am learning humility, faith, patience, and unconditional love. It is here that I am blinded to the future, feeling the sweet grace and love of the Father and given the choice every night to love despite the fact that I will say the exact same thing the next night answering the exact same questions over and over again.

It is here I face the challenge of finding Him in everything. I believe that is the start to becoming radical. Choosing, despite the circumstances, to find Him in everything and being grateful for that moment that He chose to meet me and making the hard decision to say," You are good.... thank you for where I am at. I know you are good and I know you have the best for me."

Its not about what we know but its about who He is. Embracing this is the start to a life full of joy, peace and unconditional love. I am realizing I don't have to know what tomorrow holds. I am learning to ask, what is the Father saying and doing today? He didn't heal every single sick person, or go out and minister to every single person around the world. He listened and obeyed in the every day life and only moved when the Father moved. He allowed the Father to break his heart for things that breaks the Father's heart.

That to me is being radically given.