Dreamlike Realities

Stirrings of what is to come
Hopes, desires rolled up into one
"What abouts" fill my mind
Do not want to waste any time

What is this life all about
Could God really be bringing me out of this drought
Whose to say that it's not real
These dreamlike realities that I feel

My hearts softened to the call
Lord, I long to give you my all
As your presence walks by
Jesus, please don't leave me dry

You breathe life to these dry bones
You know how the spirit within me groans
Longing for Your refreshment
To experience the promises in the New Testament

Will I see your Glory?
To stand before the Lord Most Holy
And dream the dreams of impossibilities
Or experience the joys of living in Your realities

To find that holding your hand
Gives me the strength to stand
Humbled by your Majesty
How is that you chose me.

Your call is my flight
Your Spirit gives me life
I know that it is You that frees

Allowing me to live in these dreamlike realities

Brandy

Snow Day

All winter long there seems to be two words on my wish list to God, "Snow Day". This blessed day lasts just as long as any other day, yet for some reason as it rolls off my tongue, my heart is full of such joy and anticipation. Growing up in Escondido, Ca did not allow for me to experience the bliss of a "Snow Day"; however, after six years of living in Colorado Springs, Co. I definitely can relate to the mysterious excitement that comes with a winter advisory being placed on a city.  

Watching the weather channel, praying that the Lord would bless us with just enough snow to convince whoever "they" are to close District 20, becomes my chief objective for at least 24 hours prior to the unpredictable snow storms here in Colorado. My heart begins to flutter at the thought of being able to avoid my responsibilities for a day and use the weather as my excuse. Anticipating so much extra time to finally catch up on my sleep, favorite TV show, or book completely distracts me from my everyday routine.

So you may be asking yourself, why the rant on these two words? Well, not one of the things I got excited about had to with Christ. As I pulled the covers over my head this morning to enjoy my extra sleep, I couldn't fall back to sleep. I lied there thinking of all kinds of things I'd like to get done today, until I heard a still small voice asking me to spend the extra day focused on reading my bible, journaling, and praying. A whole day focused on the things of God, why hadn't I thought of that? How often do I make excuses for not having time to read my bible, yet when God so graciously gave me a whole day too, I was lying there filling it with a list of things that would probably not lead to my spiritual development at all. 

Since I just finished one of my 600 books on my Amazon wish list, I pulled out one I got from the women's retreat last fall. Feeding Your Soul by Jean Fleming has been sitting on my shelf collecting dust for months and as I sit here beginning to read it I realize that if I was more disciplined and intentional with every opportunity God gave me to dig in and get to know Him, I'd probably find that God has given me more "Snow Days" and opportunities to focus on Him. If I'm honest with myself I have plenty of time to read my bible, spiritual development books, and even pray. It's just that I have to realize that it's not cramming them into my day, rather it's making my day submit to what my priorities are. If growing spiritually is my priority than nothing should distract me from investing my time into activities focused on that. 

My prayer is that for those of us that are blessed with a "Snow Day" that we'd spend it wisely. The one thing in life we will never be able to get back is time. May the blessings and grace of our Lord leave you amazed and in awe as you spend time getting to know Him and growing in your understanding of His love and mercy on your life. 

Brandy

My only hope

August 5, 2000 while sitting in a small church I bowed my head, prayed that I would learn what it meant to live my life for this Jesus guy the pastor had been talking about for four days. 11 years later thats still my prayer; however, that Jesus guy has not only revealed himself to me, but has proven to be more loving, merciful, and glorious than I could have ever imagined. My road was not one that would be classified as a Damascus one. Unlike Paul, I did not have years of biblical knowledge; in fact, I can remember a friend offering to give me her children's bible with all the books tagged and essential verses highlighted.
As the years pasted my knowledge and understanding expanded, but my prayer remained the same. Constantly praying that Jesus would become more real to me and that I would reflect who He was to others, lead me to bible study after bible study. I am grateful for the youth leaders that invested their lives into us youth, as we dedicated our time and energy to several Beth Moore bible studies and even to forming a worship team. The church became my home. If I wasn't at the church practicing for worship, I was sitting at Starbucks with friends from church talking about the bible.
Those first few years were full of tremendous excitement and growth. All the while my heart struggled to understand and grasp God's need for Jesus to die as my Savior. Actually, it wasn't that I didn't know it or believe it but rather I had little appreciation for what it meant in my life and others. I had been a good kid my whole life, not really committing any "major" sins and growing up Jehovah's Witness only added flame to my tendency to try to prove myself before God. Earning my salvation was a natural reaction for me as I continued to "play" church those first few years.
Heading off to college, I found myself surrounded by tons of people that called themselves Christians but slept around, got drunk, did drugs, and were all together not concerned with the things of Christ. Yet they seemed to comprehend a side of Jesus that I had never known. His grace and mercy on their lives was always acknowledge and yet their hearts refused to be softened to his commandments to stop sinning. Caught between my desire to know Jesus and yet somehow still earn my salvation, my whole understanding of what it meant to be a Christian was in jeopardy. In January 2006 I decided to go into missions. I am not sure if it was to solidify all of this or to run away from it, but either way God used it to transform my heart.
With mixed motives, I'd like to say that I wanted to share Jesus with others because I understood their deep spiritual need for His blood for salvation, but it was more as a way to once again earn my salvation. Wasn't I suppose to go door to door and proclaim the good news... Jehovah's Witness thinking kept creeping. As we studied who God was and each aspect of our triune God, I was brought to my knees in repentance. Not as dramatically as Paul but in the exact way that God knew I needed to approach it. I had spent 6 years studying and living in a tower built with my own walls of self effort and understanding, it was during those years in YWAM that God destroyed my towers and began teaching me, building with me walls made out of His love, grace, and true salvation.
Like Paul my worldview needed to shift and as Jesus revealed how wretched and truly sinful I was, my heart softened and began to point me towards my only true hope, Jesus Christ. Not that I have obtained a complete understanding of all of this, but I continue to press on towards the goal. My prayer still remains the same, that I would get know this Jesus guy. Without that, I truly have no hope.

May the God of this universe bring you to a deeper understanding of how much His salvation truly does mean to your eternal hope.

Brandy

After the resurrection

The book of Matthew seems to give a detailed account of each part of Jesus linage, birth, ministry, entry into Jerusalem, passover preparation, arrest, crucifixion, and even burial; however, once Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the grave the whole ton of the book speeds up. I find myself reading along completely caught off guard at how certain aspects of this aspect of Matthew's account are recounted. 

Take for instance verses 2-7....

"And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing a white as snow. The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come see the place where He was lying."

Okay, did anyone else stop and think to themselves, "A severe earthquake, an angel of the Lord that was strong enough to break the special Roman sealed tomb, who also happened to look like lightning and dressed in all white... o AND was scary enough that the guards feared him enough to become like dead men, DEAD MEN. That's right just the appearance of the angel was scary enough to do that! Wait and if the story wasn't full of tons of crazy "WHAT?!?!?!" moments, the angel talks to the women, saying what to me are the most critical words ever spoken by any angel. "He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said." Seriously, how does Matthew cram all of that into five verses. I'm not asking for him to include the weather information but at least a little more information than that. 

O but to continue on this journey of complete astonishment... verses 8-10

"And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. They came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see me."

Umm, Jesus appears, talks, and gives instructions in 3 verses, enough said.

Verse 11-15

"Now while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that happened. And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, and said, "You are to say, 'His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.' And if this should come to the governor's ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble." And they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day." 

Now, I know this is important to the story but truthfully, Matthew just told us about Jesus appearing, talking, and giving instructions. Why the interlude? Get on with the Jesus stuff. 

Verse 16-20

"But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Whatever you say boss, you just rose from the dead. 

See what I mean, Matthew took 19 verses to give us a detailed description of who begot who and only gives us 20 verses on the resurrection of our King? Not even 20, five of them are talking about the soldiers plot to lie to the whole world. Really? Does it sounds bad that I find myself grateful for the other three gospels. At least this book doesn't end as choppy as the book of Acts. Acts always leaves me with this since of what? I was just getting into the story? Where's the next 600 pages. 

Moving onto Mark. Pray that your bible reading for the year is going well. FRAC family, I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

Grateful for His grace, 

Brandy