No Ear Has Heard, No Eye Has Seen. . .

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First, let me say “thank you!” for your responses and questions surrounding the blogs.  It is really nice to know that when you send something out in the big internet cosmos there is someone live to catch it. And in answer to a one of those responses, I want to encourage us all that journeying with God is not “doing better,” but trusting, waiting, asking for more. Then believing when God begins to answer our frail prayers. The change to come is not on our shoulders, but on His mighty, loving, transforming shoulders.

Our job is to believe. His job is to transform.

Second, I finally found that verse that the Lord had been poking me about. It goes along with this hope of growth, change and transformation. It is in 1 Corinthians 2.

However, as it is written:
“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him”— but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

What God has prepared for those love him…When you think about your 2010, ask the Lord to show you what He has prepared for you. And then claim the promise for Ephesians 2: 10. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Did you catch the subtle nuance?  God has already prepared these good works, as in, past tense, done, completed. So that we can walk in them. Not run, panic, scramble, but walk. Walk with Him in the goings of our day to day life. There is a resting here, a peace.

Want me to really blow your mind?  We are God’s good works.

You and me, right now. All of heaven looks at us and sees who we are, who we are becoming and looks back to the Father and declares, “Good job. Well done. Nice work.”

Resolve to love Him more. Everything else will follow this one thing.

A Note from Laura Jones: New Year’s Revelation

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For most of my life, I’ve avoided New Year’s Resolutions. I hate them. Who needs one more hampster wheel to burn out on, right? I certainly don’t need another way to fail.

However, the Lord’s been up to something new in me.  Since I’ve been in Jana’s class and John Dee’s class, they’ve taught me to ask for New Year’s Revelation: to ask the Lord to reveal Himself to me more, to show me the desires He put my heart, to give me His word over the coming year.

You know what’s amazing? He’ll actually answer.

For example, in 2008, I asked the Lord to give me a new song (Psalm 40:3). I meant metaphorically. All I wanted was a fresh start. But He took me literally! He gave me lyrics to six songs that year, each one verbalizing some of His love He’d been teaching me about. Love that gave me the fresh start I longed for.

In 2009, He pressed on my heart, “Be ready.” Didn’t even have a verse for that one. I had no idea what I was getting ready for. Just a sense that I was to prepare and be watching for what He had next, whatever that was. Sure enough, 2009 has been about weeding out. Setting boundaries. Learning about how He wired me. All things that have prepared me to walk through new doors that He’s opening like working with Women Getting Real and going back to school – things I was not ready for last year!

The fabulous thing about asking for New Year’s Revelation is it takes all the pressure off.  It’s not about performance.  It’s looking at Jesus and listening for His answer.  It’s reaching up to put my hand in His as He leads me through the New Year.

Why don’t we ask Him together? Ask Him to give you more of Himself. Ask Him to show you the desires He put in your heart and His desires for you. Ask Him to give you a word for the year. And as we have this dialog together, post back here when you hear His answer!
 
In His Love,
Laura

Looking Beyond

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I have a lot of BIG things on the horizon for 2010. But I told dear friends of mine last night, “When I look out, it starts getting very dark and fuzzy; I can’t see very far right now.”

Funny how God does that. He calls things forth in dreams and Scripture. He confirms what He has said many times in many ways. But then when I go to look at the map of “how to get there,” it turns kind of gray and dim. I think God is brilliant for doing it like that, because if I had my way, I would grab the map out of His hand and take off down the road. Without Him.

But, if I know where we are going yet don’t know the way, we HAVE to go together.  Which is honestly what my soul longs for anyway. To journey with Him into crazy adventures.

So for today, soak on the incredible quote another friend sent to me:
“Never be afraid of an unknown future to a known God.”  ~Corrie Ten Boom

Just because we don’t know the future doesn’t mean that God doesn’t know. He knows the plan for our hope and future. We don’t have to be afraid; He knows, He cares. Here is the song He woke me up with:

“Since The World Began” – Matt Maher, Amy Grant, Ed Cash, Mac Powell
Isaiah 64:1-9 (NLT)

Verse 1:

Oh, that You would burst from the heavens
And how the mountains would quake
But You would make the nations tremble
All Your enemies would learn from Your fame

How then shall we be saved?
How can we be saved?

Since the world began,
No ear has heard, no eye has seen a God like You
Since the world began,
No ear has heard, no eye has seen a God like You

Like autumn leaves, we all wither
Swept away by the wind
Oh, have mercy on us Father!
Please don’t remember our sins!

How then shall we be saved?
How can we be saved?

Since the world began,
No ear has heard, no eye has seen a God like You
Since the world began,
No ear has heard, no eye has seen a God like You

O Lord, You are our Father,
We are clay, You are the Potter
We are all formed by Your hand
According to Your plan

Since the world began,
No ear has heard, no eye has seen a God like You
Since the world began,
No ear has heard, no eye has seen a God like You

For the Sheer Pleasure. . .

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I was brewing on a question my friend asked me about writing a few months ago.  It surfaces in my thoughts every couple of weeks when I get a quiet moment. She asked, “Do you write for some teaching purpose or just because you enjoy it?” I still hate that question because I continue to look for the right answer, as if there is one.

But here is an even crazier question that God posed to me yesterday: “What do you do for the sheer pleasure of doing it?”

It really took me aback because like all good grown-ups, my to-do lists are filled with obligations, duties and responsibilities.

But for the pleasure of doing something? Not just fun or relaxing or worse, coping. But “pleasure.” Webster’s dictionary defines it as “fulfilling desire, gratification, pleasing in the utmost way.”  And then to make things worse, I thought of the passage out of Psalm 16 where it says that God has eternal pleasures in His right hand.

Does this mess with your mind like it does mine?  Not service. Not missions. Not work with purpose. Not should’s and ought’s.

But pleasures. Eternal pleasures.  Do you ever even think of the word “pleasure” and “God” in the same sentence?

So what do you do just for the pleasure of doing it?  I’ll get back to you later when I have an answer myself.

Eye on the Prize

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“Count them happy who for their faith and their courage endured a great fight.”

This was inscribed on a Charleston statue in honor of the Confederate defenders of Ft. Sumter 1861-1865. But when I read it, I didn’t only think about blue and gray uniforms, or redcoats and colonists, or Yanks and Brits against Nazis.

I thought about being “surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses” as we endure this great fight of faith. It is a battle. It does require courage and faith. And, if rightly grounded in truth, it does make us happy, even when it costs us our lives. But what are we fighting for?

Hebrews 11:1 says faith is believing in things hoped for, and evidence of things yet seen. So we do well to KNOW what we are “faithing.” What is it that we are hoping for, what unseen thing are we banking our whole lives on?

Sure the church answer is, “heaven.” But that sounds almost a little too scrubbed clean. Too far off. We need something that is up close and personal. As close as a bullet whizzing past your head. Certainly in those sweat-soaked, heart-pounding moments, you have to KNOW what it is you’re risking your whole existence fighting for.

“I have come that they might have life to the full,” Jesus declared. And when He said it, the impact was as rousing as a mud-soaked soldier lifting a tattered flag and yelling, “FREEDOM!” What we battle for is Freedom. Freedom to live in Christ in all His fullness. Unhindered. Not one day, but Today. His power revealed in us to love, to heal, to live as He did. Christ in us is truly the hope of glory that we live and die for.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles,
and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2

A Good Reminder

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Just finished watching the classic movie, It’s a Wonderful Life. How many times will I cry when I see it?

Hopefully every time. I need to be reminded of how much we are interconnected. I need God to continually show me how much He has authored this time in all our lives. He has purposely set each of us in this place, at this time because we are building and helping each other.

George Bailey is the main character of this movie, but each of us has experienced the sacrifice, disappointment, frustration and even hopelessness that he did.  Yet in the end, what George needed, what we need, is the perspective that our lives matter.

We all need to know that our story is not over or insignificant. Regardless of what we see when we look back over this past year or look forward to the prospects of 2010, we need to know that God is still working and writing and creating the story of our lives. And that those stories matter.

Our life story matters to the people around us. And it matters to God.  He is so pleased to reveal Himself in the day to day victories and defeats of our lives. Be encouraged.

Yours truly is a wonderful life. Today it is. Right now with all the unknowns and what-ifs and could-be’s. Let us finally come to the point of surrender that we cry out to God like George Bailey did, “God, I want to live. I want my life back. Please God, I want to live.”

“No man is a failure who has friends.”

Mary Did You Know? ~ by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene

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Mary Did You Know?

“Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you’ve delivered, will soon deliver you.

Mary did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God.

The blind will see, the deaf will hear and the dead will live again.
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak, the praises of the lamb.

Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy is heaven’s perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you’re holding is the great I AM.”

May each of us know Him more closely.  Merry Christmas!

~Jana

Shared Traditions

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In the spirit of passing down traditions from generation to generation, the Women Getting Real class shared our own family traditions with each other.  Now we want to share the list with you. 

MOVIES

It’s a Wonderful Life

The Grinch

Nativity Story  (Side funny – when Chuck called Blockbuster about renting the Nativity Story, Charis overheard the clerk ask, “Who’s in it?” Without skipping a beat, she replied, “Mary and Joseph!”)

FOOD

Have a “Happy Birthday Jesus” cake.

Institute pizza and milkshake night on Christmas Eve – it keeps things simple!

Have a family cookie bake.

GIFTS

We give of our kids three gifts – just like the wise men gave three gifts to Jesus.

Make handmade gifts for important family members – we want to teach them to use their hands to bless others. 

EVENTS

Find a Christmas event to go to – for example, the Living Christmas Tree, the Nativity Pageant, your church’s program.

Attend the Christmas parade.

Decorate with friends or family.

SERVICE

Find a way to serve – a soup kitchen, the angel tree, Operation Christmas Child.

Take cookies to the office or your local police or fire station.

Sing at or take stuffed animals to a nursing home.

ADVENT and CHRISTMAS DAY

Use an advent wreath or advent calendar.

Give Christmas blessings to each family member (see Birthday posts for how this works).

Act out part of the Christmas story. 

” Before the kids get up, we go into their room while it is dark and dress them like the shepherds.  Then Dad comes in as the angel and tells them that a Savior has been born! We all run down to see the nativity scene and read the Christmas story before we open our presents.”

Spend time at home and putter quietly before you hurry and scurry over to family festivities. This is especially great for singles.

Sing carols around the piano as a family.

Make it it an all night affair. 

“Our family goes to church around 6 or 7, then we go to the biggest house we can and have worship – we play the guitar, pray, sing.  At midnight, we all exchange gifts and we eat.  Then we worship some more until dawn.”

 

May God shine brightly on you and through you this Christmas.

~Jana and the Women Getting Real Team

Traditions and Blessings

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I am sitting in Starbucks on the eve of Christmas Eve. You can feel the tingle in the air. It is the feel of hope, the expectancy of gifts, family, friends, familiar foods, new beginnings.

But in the midst of the tingle, I have a challenge for you this year. Celebrate with intention. Invest more of your heart than swiping a card.

What I am thinking involves two words: tradition and blessing.

The word tradition means “the handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another without written instruction.” Beliefs passed from one generation to another without written instruction…. This is a tall order to me, but I am going to go for it.  I want the loved ones in my life to know WHY we do WHAT we do.

So this Christmas focus on passing down the truths of God to those around you. Don’t worry about their reactions, just cast out seeds of truth.  Be creative, either through game, song, food, decoration, or reading aloud, just tell the wonderful story of God come to dwell among us.

In like manner, the word blessing means “to communicate encouragement or approval, to give thanks for, or to ask favor to be poured out upon.” We talked about this in conjunction with birthday blessings, but my challenge to myself, the WGR class, and now you, is for you to bless your family and friends. Consciously, purposely speak words of thanks, encouragement and blessing on those you love. It may be a card or face to face, but let the words of blessing flow.

Again, don’t worry about the reactions. Jesus was ever blessing people, even those who rejected Him. But Jesus trusted his Father to take care of the seeds He cast out. Just like with Him, some of our kinds words may fall to the ground, rejected. But what joy we have when some of our seeds are planted in the hearts of those who desperately need a loving word.

Speak the truths of God. Bless those around you. May this be our Christmas gift to our loving Father.

“From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.” John 1:6

Not as the World Gives

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Have you ever noticed how the Lord will direct your attention to something, and then He repeats the message again and again?  I love that about Him.  He is so insistent that I “get it” that He doesn’t mind repeating Himself.

I mentioned in a previous blog about God’s deposit of supernatural peace. Jesus said in John 14:26-27:

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.

The phrase, “not as the world gives,”  has been rumbling around in my head. Peace in God’s economy is radically different than the world’s. I have been thinking about how we look, strive, long for peace through the world’s ways but are always frustrated and denied. Why? The world’s peace usually comes by way of consumption. Think food, sex, power, money. We think if we have “enough” of one of those things we will have peace. Or we escape to one those places because we lack peace. There is no relationship, no intimacy, no trust. No God.

Jesus didn’t stutter when He said that what He gives is altogether unlike the world’s version. The peace that Jesus gives is rooted in truth. Earlier in this conversation, Jesus has just told them that He is “the way, the truth and the life.”

This whole passage is loaded, but for today, I notice that I am most at peace when I am at peace with God; when I am  conscious, connected and dependent on Him. For everything. I am most at rest when I am most leaning back on the God of Truth. His way, His truth, His life.

You can’t buy that in a store. Hear again what the angels declared, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.” Luke 2:14