Thursday, August 28, 2008

You Are God's Masterpiece!

God longs for us to be like a well watered garden, flourishing, full of joy, always in blossom. Yet many times, due to situations that are happening in our lives, we don’t necessarily feel like we are in full blossom, rather we feel like we’re in a dry spell.

When this happens, instead of giving up and accepting your present circumstance as your lot in life, decide to praise God more than you ever have. In the Bible, the psalmist said, “I will keep on hoping for You to help me. I will praise You more and more.” When we decide to give God praise, something powerful and supernatural happens. Peace, joy and divine favor begin to rain down over our lives.

By praising God at all times, what happens in the natural with rain, will be the same spiritually over your lives; a cloud can only hold so much condensation, so many vapors, before it releases. In the same way, when you keep sending up praise, you keep singing, “God is good all the time,” that cloud can only hold so much before the blessings come bursting back down. When you stay full of praise, God’s blessing will begin raining down, making sure that you are always in blossom; causing you to bloom where you’re currently planted, even if you’re in a dry spell!



Wanted to share this devotional with you in hopes that it might be of encouragement to someone. I hope everyone has had a good week as it's coming to an end. I have had a whole week off from school and the next semester starts next week. It's been like heaven on earth and the break has been so nice. I don't realize how much I need it until the time comes. It allows me to get rejuvenated, slow down a little (even if it's for a week), spend time with my family and for myself. I hope everyone's week has been a peaceful one :)

xoxo,
Lauren

Monday, August 18, 2008

Beth Moore Experience

***For anyone who has not read this before, it will bless your socks off. May we all be aware of those moments where the Lord is calling us to be obedient***

Enjoy,
Lauren


'Seeking the best in others, We find the best in Ourselves'.

For those of you who do not know Beth Moore, she's an outstanding Bible teacher, writer of Bible studies, and is a married mother of two daughters. This is one of her experiences:

April 20, 2005, at the Airport in Knoxville, waiting to board the plane, I had the Bible on my lap and was very intent upon what I was doing. I'd had a marvelous morning with the Lord. I say this because I want to tell you it is a scary thing to have the Spirit of God really working in you. You could end up doing some things you never would have done otherwise.

Life in the Spirit can be dangerous for a thousand reasons not the least of which is your ego.

I tried to keep from staring, but he was such a strange sight. Humped over in a wheelchair, he was skin and bones, dressed in clothes that obviously fit when he was at least twenty pounds heavier. His knees protruded from his trousers, and his shoulders looked like the coat hanger was still in his shirt. His hands looked like tangled masses of veins and bones. The strangest part of him was his hair and nails. Stringy, gray hair hung well over his shoulders and down part of his back. His fingernails were long, clean but strangely out of place on an old man.

I looked down at my Bible as fast as I could, discomfort burning my face. As I tried to imagine what his story might have been, I found myself wondering if I'd just had a Howard Hughes sighting. Then, I remembered that he was dead. So this man in the airport...an impersonator maybe? Was a camera on us somewhere? There I sat; trying to concentrate on the Word to keep from being concerned about a thin slice of humanity served on a wheelchair only a few seats from me. All the while, my heart was growing more and more overwhelmed with a feeling for him. Let's admit it. Curiosity is a heap more comfortable than true concern and suddenly I was awash with aching emotion for this bizarre-looking old man. I had walked with God long enough to see the handwriting on the wall. I've learned that when I begin to feel what God feels, something so contrary to my natural feelings, something dramatic is bound to happen. And it may be embarrassing.

I immediately began to resist because I could feel God working on my spirit and I started arguing with God in my mind. 'Oh, no, God, please, no.' I looked up at the ceiling as if I could stare stare through it into heaven and said, 'Don't make me witness to this man. Not right here and now. Please. I'll do anything. Put me on the same plane, but don't make me get up here and witness to this man in front of this gawking audience . Please, Lord!'

There I sat in the blue vinyl chair begging His Highness, 'Please don't make me witness to this man. Not now. I'll do it on the plane.' Then I heard it... 'I don't want you to witness to him. I want you to brush his hair.' The words were so clear, my heart leapt into my throat, and mythoughts spun like a top. Do I witness to the man or brush his hair?No-brainer. I looked straight back up at the ceiling and said, 'God, asI live and breathe, I want you to know I am ready to witness to this man. I'm on this Lord. I'm your girl! You've never seen a woman witness to a man faster in your life. What difference does it make if his hair is a mess if he is not redeemed? I am going to witness to this man.'

Again as clearly as I've ever heard an audible word, God seemed to write this statement across the wall of my mind....... 'That is not what I said, Beth. I don't want you to witness to him. I want you to go brush his hair.' I looked up at God and quipped, 'I don't have a hairbrush. It's in my suitcase on the plane. How am I supposed to brush his hair without a hairbrush?' God was so insistent that I almost involuntarily began to walk toward him as these thoughts came to me from God's word:

'I will thoroughly furnish you unto all good works.' (2 Timothy 3:17)

I stumbled over to the wheelchair thinking I could use one myself. Even as I retell this story, my pulse quickens and I feel those same butterflies. I knelt down in front of the man and asked as demurely as possible, 'Sir, may I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?' He looked back at me and said, 'What did you say?' 'May I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?' To which he responded in volume ten, 'Little lady, if you expect me to hear you, you're going to have to talk louder than that.' At this point, I took a deep breath and blurted out, 'SIR, MAY I HAVE THE PLEASURE OF BRUSHING YOUR HAIR?'

At which point every eye in the place darted right at me. I was the only thing in the room looking more peculiar than old Mr. Longlocks. Face crimson and forehead breaking out in a sweat, I watched him look up at me with absolute shock on his face, and say, 'If you really want to.' Are you kidding? Of course I didn't want to. But God didn't seem interested in my personal preference right about then. He pressed on my heart until I could utter the words, 'Yes, sir, I would be pleased. But I have one little problem. I don't have a hairbrush.' 'I have one in my bag,' he responded.

I went around to the back of that wheelchair, and I got on my hands and knees and unzipped the stranger's old carry-on, hardly believing what I was doing. I stood up and started brushing the old man's hair. It was perfectly clean, but it was tangled and matted. I don't do many things well, but must admit I've had notable experience untangling knotted hair mothering two little girls. Like I'd done with either Amanda or Melissa in such a condition, I began brushing at the very bottom of the strands, remembering to take my time not to pull.

A miraculous thing happened to me as I started brushing that old man's hair. Everybody else in the room disappeared. There was no one alive for those moments except that old man and me . I brushed and I brushed and I brushed until every tangle was out of that hair. I know this sounds so strange, but I've never felt that kind of love for another soul in my entire life. I believe with all my heart, I - for that few minutes - felt a portion of the very love of God. ....That He had overtaken my heart for a little while like someone renting a room and was making Himself at home for a short while......The emotions were so strong and so pure that I knew they had to be God's. His hair was finally as soft and smooth as an infant's. I slipped the brush back in the bag and went around the chair to face him...... I got back down on my knees, put my hands on his knees and said, 'Sir, do you know my Jesus?' He said, 'Yes, I do.' Well, that figures, I thought. He explained, 'I've known Him since I married my bride. She wouldn't marry me until I got to know the Savior.' He said, 'You see, the problem is, I haven't seen my bride in months. I've had open-heart surgery, and she's been too ill to come see me. I was sitting here thinking to myself, what a mess I must be for my bride.'

Only God knows how often He allows us to be part of a divine moment when we're completely unaware of the significance. This, on the other hand, was one of those rare encounters when I knew God had intervened in details only He could have known. It was a God moment, and I'll never forget it. Our time came to board,and we were not on the same plane. I was deeply ashamed of how I'd acted earlier and would have been so proud to have accompanied him on that aircraft. I still had a few minutes, and as I gathered my things to board, the airline hostess returned from the corridor, tears reaming down her cheeks. She said, 'That old man's sitting on the plane, sobbing. Why did you do that? What made you do that?' I said, 'Do you know Jesus? He can be the bossiest thing!' And we got to share.

I learned something about God that day. He knows if you're exhausted, you're hungry, you're serving in the wrong place or it is time to move on but you feel too responsible to budge. He knows if you're hurting or feeling rejected. He knows if you're sick or drowning under a wave of temptation. Or, He knows if you just need your hair brushed. He sees you as an individual. Tell Him your need! I got on my own flight, sobs choking my throat, wondering how many opportunities just like that one had I missed along the way. . . all because I didn't want people to think I was strange. God didn't send me to that old man. He sent that old man to me.

John 1:14 'The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We Have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

'Life shouldn't be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving; safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather, to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly shouting, 'Wow! What a ride! Thank You, Lord!'

Be Blessed! If HE brings you to it, HE will see you through it. In certain places, at certain times, whether you've got a voice or not, the only thing to do is take the stage and sing your heart out.

When I die, I shall then have my greatest grief and my greatest joy -my greatest grief that I have done so little for Jesus, and my greatest joy that Jesus has done so much for me
....William Grimshaw

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Lessons to be learned through the aches and pains

Okay… I’m going to give you a funny visual. Before I left for my Maine trip my cousin Melissa and I had the bright idea that we were going to join the local wellness center and this week we started working out three days a week at the ungodly hour of 5:30am and now at the age of 24 I’m hobbling around like a 90 year old. The first day we worked on legs and so it took about a day for that to start hurting and then Wednesday we worked out the arms, and so now today, those are hurting. So now the whole body is hurting, from the head, straight down to the ankles, lol… and we’re suppose to go tomorrow morning and work out again, lol. I have no excuse to be this sore, and goes to show that I need to keep this up because the body was seriously lacking exercise, and now it’s screaming at me saying “see”, I told you so!! LOL!!

I’m really hoping I can stick this out because I know how important exercise is and it’s something I don’t get enough of. The problem with me is I’ve always needed accountability when it comes to this and it’s so nice to be able to have somebody to work out with, especially, Mel, who is like my best friend, so now we get to see each other a lot more, even if it’s us being together glued to our IPODS, lol, just us simply being together is nice.

I tell you all this because it’s amazing to me how you can relate anything to God. Sometimes what God may have us walking through causes us some aches and pains, discomfort, and you wish you could take a pain pill to make it all go away, but he has us walk it out, press through, and the longer we’re in the circumstance the stronger he is making us to get to the other side. Make sense?

There’s always pain to go through and lessons to be learned…

Saturday, August 9, 2008

~Back from Maine~

One last picture before we leave...


All the kids and Mom, plus a niece who doesn't want to look at the camera, ha...


Lexi and I playing in the water...


The sand queen...


My brother and his cute little family...


The lake again...


Mar Mar (Lexi's name for her) and Lexi...


Lake...


The Sis and I


Lexi and her Momma...


My beautiful Mom and I...


I love her...


All the girls...


Me...


The beach babes...


And off we go...


I thought this was a precious picture of my niece...


We found Snow White at the airport...


The two most important ladies in my life...my Mom and Sister...


Off to the airport...



It's late in the evening and I can't sleep, so I thought I would share my trip with you. Sorry sooooo many pictures, I just had so many I wanted to share. We had a wonderful time in Maine, despite the weather. It was nice to spend a whole week with the family. Unfortunately we had more rain then sunshine. It has been a very long time since the whole family has been together on vacation, so I felt incredibly blessed that we were all together. Maine is a beautiful state, and the resort we stayed at was so nice, when it wasn't raining, ha! Enjoy the pics and hope this finds everyone well. Enjoy the rest of your weekend :)

Love,
Lauren