Eternity and Everlasting and J. Campbell

Yeah, there's so much to learn..

Here's one of the concepts I just can't get brain around. That Eternity and Everlasting are different. Danny's girlfriend says that maybe there's somethings we're just not supposed to understand yet or can't. I totally agree. But I can feel this one is right and that if J. Campbell can understand it then maybe I can too! check it friendlings pgs 278-ab0ut to the end.

Jesus say eternal life is knowing God. That probably fits in there real good :)

Maybe my heart will get around it better?

Dreams

We talked about dreams all morning. Danny's girlfriend dreamed that he shaved his head. I dreamed that a seal was caught in a fish net and someone was shooting at it.

But the cool thing is that Danny's hair is still long and fluffy. And on our beach walk this morning, I heard a seal then saw him. He was jumping in and out of the fishing nets of some bait catchers. Actually he had a bunch of his friends with him too.

We watched them for a long time. The fisher guys seemed to enjoy them and maybe just maybe the seals were getting some fish to swim into the nets.

And maybe, for sure..everything is just as it should be, here and there, in and out of time, in and out of dreamland. There's so much to learn, and be, and love... at least for me:)

'The One True Myth,' C S Lewis

Pgs. 12 , 13 and a lot of the rest of the chapter Campbell talks about the reoccurring themes in myths throughout the world and throughout time.

Here's a quote from C S Lewis, who like Campbell loves to write about stories, myth and allegory.

"Myth," Lewis wrote, "is the isthmus which connects the peninsular world of thought with the vast continent we really belong to"—indeed, "it was through almost believing in the gods that I came to believe in God." As for other religions, on the great issue of whether deity was real or not, "the whole mass of those who had worshipped—all who had danced and sung and sacrificed and trembled and adored—were clearly right." To declare Christianity true was not to declare all other religions false. Rather, Christianity was true because it was the answer to two vital questions: "Where has religion reached its true maturity? Where, if anywhere, have the hints of all Paganism been fulfilled?"

Myths point to the one true myth. Eventually all his studies and research led Lewis to this conclusion about the myth of Jesus...

"but with this tremendous difference that it really happened.... The dying god really appears—as a historical person, living in a definite time and place." As Lewis later wrote, "By becoming fact [the dying god story] does not cease to be myth: that is the miracle." But "it is God's myth where the others are men's myths: i.e. the Pagan stories are God expressing Himself through the minds of poets, using such images as He found there, while Christianity is God expressing Himself through what we call "real things." "The Christian story of the dying god, in other words, lay at the exact intersection of myth and history."

Do you get that? Like I did some research recently on Bodhisattva, which Buddhists see as the embodiment of all compassion. The more I read, the more I thought, "Sounds like Jesus to me!"
Read pgs 139 and 201 and you'll see it. An immortal one who is boundlessly compassionate, who gives up his high position to suffer.

more later...

Joseph Campbell

Alot of my favorite teens are reading Joseph Campbell's, The Power of Myth right now. These are usually the super-smarty ones who are taking AP English. Teachers like to start with Campbell in this class and I can see why. He really makes you want to know stuff and learn and see what you can find out by exploring other cultures and beliefs and reading and reading which is what they are gonna have to do alot of if they want to pass the AP test:)

But these friends of mine are Christians and want to know how Campbell fits in to their lives.
Colossians 2
2:8
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
2:9
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,
2:10
and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.

Gabriel and I just read this and we talked about how 'captive' is like being a prisoner in the hold of a pirate ship. I used this verse when I was talking to one of my friends the other night about J. Campbell. But I should have kept going... if you keep going you'll see Paul's talking about legalism, ie. doing stuff, keeping laws and rules in order to be saved and right with God. He's not talking about stories but I'll just say, read the stories and ideas Campbell presents, just don't be captive to them.

Gabe said that he thinks it means like thinking the Big Band theory means that there is no God...that would be 'deceit' says Gabe. I love Gabe. He's so cool. Last night he called the passage about Jesus calling the gentile woman a dog, "Bewildering!" But that's for another blog.

Okay, so enjoy Campbell, even get some 'Peace Child' 's from him. (That's another book you smarties really should read:)

Here's a few treasures I've found in his work that could maybe help you in your dicussion groups. Remember if someone offers you a gift, the answer you want is, 'Thank you!' I forgot this.

pg. 6 and on..about marriage, Oh Yeah! He really gets it, you unmarried friendlings of mine! Marriage is a Oneness with another it's all encompassing and it's a beautiful picture (metaphor) of our relationship with Christ. Jesus is the bridgegroom and we are the bride.
'when you make the sacrifice in marriage, you're not sacrificing to each other but to unity in a relationship....You are no longer this one alone; your identity is in a relationship.'

It's not about rules, things you can't do. It's about unity and oneness with the spouse or the Spouse. We love God, we want Him more and more of Him in our lives, and our actions and thoughts follow that desire for relationship with Him and Oneness.


I'm gonna add to this later, my AP English darlings. So keep checking in:) Hope it helps a little.

My sons had a jam session last night. Anyone was welcome. I think more laughing and talking went on than playing music. That's a good thing. Unfettered rejoicing together with a Spirit of happiness.

Rehearsals are a different story. Not everyone is invited. It's work, sometimes repetitive, sometimes it's hard to take. That's a good thing too. Learning, growing, listening to each other, achieving a goal together.

There's so much in my life that mirrors this. Like sometimes I read to enjoy and sometimes to learn, prayer is like that too. There's even some relationships that are all about work, growing, achieving then others that are just fun! What's really great is when you get the learning and listening along with the playing and laughing. That's a little bit of heaven here and now.

I am so thankful for those friends and family, the jamming/rehearsing people. With them I can be me, really me.

I hope your life is full of those kinds of people and even more I hope we have that with God. He is so in love with us that He doesn't just want us to have fun but He wants us to practice, improve, and make beautiful music playing skillfully... Sometimes that takes work. Sometimes it's hard to take the correction. Sometimes it's repetitive. But sometimes, I really need that little hand slap or heart ache. But I trust my Leader of the band. My heart rejoices in His Presence whether it's jam session time or rehearsal time.

Psalms 33
1 Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. 2 Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. 3 Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.

the Secret

That man has begun to be strong who knows that, separated from life essential, he is weakness itself, that, one with his origin, he will be of strength inexhaustible.” from Donal Grant by G. MacDonald
"Whose work is it but your own to open your eyes? But indeed the business of the universe it to make such a fool of you that you will know yourself for one, and so begin to be wise"
said by a raven in Lilith by G. MacDonald
Col. 2:2b..be filled with courage and may be drawn together in love, and so have the full wealth of assurance which true understanding brings. In this way they will know God's secret, which is Christ himself. 3 He is the key that opens all the hidden treasures of God's wisdom and knowledge.

Oh yeah, the Secret...to know and really get that 'it' ain't me, it's not my strength, for surely not my wisdom, or knowledge... but Him.
To be filled with His outrageous courage, drawn to others in His love, and live in that true understanding that all the hidden treasures are found in more of Him and less of me.

I wrote that bit in the morning and now it's afternoon and it's even clearer. His will, not my own, trust Him with all of my heart, lean not on my own understanding. In all my ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct my paths. (Prov 3:5-6) My Grandma gave me that verse before I left for Europe when I was 20. I'd get alone in some garden, field, or street of France, England, Austria wherever I was for those 6 months and say that to Him again. It has been a part of me for so many years yet it's still so fresh and new. The Word of God is like that ... living and active like a double-edged sword...there I go again quoting the Bible. But, wow, what a sword it is, able to divide between the soul and spirit, between what is temporal and what is lasting, between the bone and marrow. I want that marrow to be Him, all Him and His perfect will.

That's the Secret... not me, Him.

Now, let's dance, I've got a Sword :)

Whoa! Whee!

Col. 1:16 For through him God created everything in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen things, including spiritual powers, lords, rulers, and authorities. God created the whole universe through him and for him. 17 Christ existed before all things, and in union with him all things have their proper place.

I read this to my new middle schooler this morning while he was eating his peanutbutter pancakes. Two of my older sons are studying Colossians in a small group they love, so we decided to try it out too.

I asked him what he thought and he said,

"I don't know what to think, that's like, 'whoa!' and it's like, 'whee!'"

You know, I think that's the picture-perfect description of this passage. 'Whoa!' 'Whee!' I love it. It talks about things like 'everything' and 'unseen things' and 'spiritual powers' and the 'whole universe' and then it says that 'in union with him' we can have our 'proper place.'

In union with this amazing Messiah, this embodiment of Love and Creation and Perfection,

'God decided to bring the whole universe back to himself.' (verse 20.)

Like 'Whoa!... Like 'Whee!'

His Mercy Endures Forever

Ps. 136 repeats that phrase over and over again, 'His mercy endures forever.'
Mercy, love, compassion, grace; God is over-flowing with these.

Oh, if we could be like that ever-flowing with mercy and love. But why not? I can expect to find good things in others and thank God for them when I find them.

Matthew 5:43-48
43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? 47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? 48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Well, I'm a ways from being perfect but I can bless...it's fun to bless.
Half my beach walk has been cut off because of 9-11. There's a security guard
waiting, telling me to turn around because I don't have military clearance.
I wave at him with a big smile.
He's gonna remember me and I'm gonna bless him everyday.
J. Campbell says, 'I don't think there is any such thing as an ordinary mortal....because I've never met an ordinary man, woman, or child.'
We can love really love if we are looking for and expecting a blessing in every man, woman, and child.

Are some people 'just mean?' I don't know, I hope not, and I'm gonna try and not be mean myself and try to find the 'pretty, cool, guy' hiding in everyone. If I fill up with 'His mercy which endures forever' then maybe He can rain blessings on others through me.

One Home

A Prayer of Karl Rahner
You who are love itself,
give me the grace of love,
give me yourself,
so that all my days
may finally empty
into the one day
of your eternal life.

Today is not a fun day for me. Everybody is back at school. Gabriel's in middle school. After 15 years of walking sons to school, I am out of a job. But I still get to make pancakes!
and lunchs and Micah will be home for lunch with friends. I will visit and pray and find people who need my love today. and bunny is here :) and in a way... we're all here and together at home out of time and space in the One day of His eternity.

and there will be chocolate chip cookies waiting and smelling wonderful whenever they get here.

Joyful sleep and Wild Sword Dancing

Ps. 149:5

Let God's true people,

the true Lovers rejoice in praise

and sing for joy on their beds,

all the night long!

I love this Psalm! It sings of some of my favorite things, like praising with new songs.

If you've never tried it, try it. Find that song hiding in your heart. Mine are usually way over the top but that's how I roll.

Then there's dancing in this psalm, actually there's dancing in loads of the psalms. Did you know that movement makes a difference in performing art? Studies done, books written on how when musicians, or singers, or actors move, it enhances their performance. It's internal. That external movement influences the emotions and makes it real. Then, we are not just playing notes on a page, or words in script, or words from a hymnal, we are feeling it, baby.

So dance or at least clap or tap your foot a little :)...get into it, even if you are not feeling it,

you will,

you'll get connected to that Grace!

Then there's playing the harp or the drum or whatever. If you don't play, learn! But if that's out, that's okay because one translation, The Message says, lift up your sword in a wild sword dance...

that sounds like a good useful thing to do with a sword to me. (I know my pic's too violent but it is wild!)

So if we're using our brains to write and learn, using our bodies to dance and praise and maybe even doing some wild sword dances...

then heck, yeah, joyful sleep is bound to be the result!

blanket

Lying in bed, I tried to get that awareness of being on the Globe and it happened. Like floating on a blanket that covers everything .. had my sleeze over my eyes, I always sleep with a sleeze over my eyes...or if I don't have an extra one I use my hair. Eyes covered, heart open, floated away on the blanket of Love surrounding us...beautiful.

Joh 10:28
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.

Joh 17:3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

Less of me, more of You. Teach me to be that blanket of Your Love for others.

earth riding

Sometimes I get this thought, well, maybe it's more of a feeling and maybe it sounds kind of dumb but it's so real to me. I'm usually outside but not always, but always on solid ground. I get this feeling of being on the earth, on this warm, round, golden-blue ball sailing through space. I'm never looking for it when it happens but it's such a beautiful, comforting sensation. I just stop and ride for a few moments, feeling connected to everything that's connected to this lovely globe. :)

“Rain Down” by Delirious.

Looks like tonight, the sky is heavy

Feels like the winds are gonna change

Beneath my feet, the earth is ready

I know its time for heaven’s rain, it’s gonna rain

It’s gonna rain, again
Cos it’s living water we desire

To flood out hearts with holy fire

Rain down all around the world we’re singing

Rain down can you hear the earth is singing

Rain down my heart is dry but still I’m singing

Rain down rain it down on me.

Back to the start, my heart is heavy

Feels like it’s time, to dream again

I see the clouds, and yes I’m ready

To dance upon this barren land

Hope in my hands
Do not shut,

Do not shut,

Do not shut the heavens

But open up, open up, open up our hearts

I love dancing to this song, maybe someday we'll dance to it outside in the rain!

More on Seal...

'I believe I can fly.'
No, not that Seal. But that Seal had a message for me once too.
It involved a meteor and laughter...

But yesterday's sea lion carries messages just as much as any song.
He lets the water carry him, making it his friend. His small ears reminds us to listen
to that still, small voice that speaks within us.

Elijah heard God's voice in...

1Kings 19:12...a gentle whisper.

and I love his reaction....

13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face ...

Was he listening for more? Was he hiding his face in the Presence? I don't know but sometimes it's good to pull our cloak over our face and listen to that sweet, gentle whisper assuring us that God is sovereign and trust that the waters surrounding us will carry us to where we need to be.

Listen to the world, whispering to you,
Listen and learn something new.

Found

I found the sea lion. He was there waiting for me. Diving, splashing, looking out of the waves at me. Did I find him or did he find me? Lots of people on the beach but no one else seems to notice him or even care to look for him. But for me, he's a treasure. First I heard his song, so I knew to go and look. Then there he was...'I found you!'

Listen, Someone is singing to you today. Be ready to hear and respond to that song. Does he find you or do you find him? Open hearts will hear the Song and find everlasting treasure.

Mt 6:21
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Last line of Mere Christianity by C S Lewis,

'Look for Christ you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.'

Awaken the Spirit ...and a seal.

Eph. 5:14...Awaken you that sleepeth!...
18...keep on being filled with the Spirit - 19 sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to each other; sing to the Lord and make music in your heart to him; 20 always give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

How can we awaken the Spirit? How can we enlighten the mind and stay in His presence? How can we give thanks for everything?

Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord!

Thank You for music!

I'm blocks away but guess what sound just floated in through my window... a Calif. sea lion's song... beautiful, ..thanks again my sweet Lord.

Better get dressed and go see if I can find him.

clean turban, hallow bone, pure vessel

I had a terrible dream..I was trying to show someone my blog, (this is the someone I dream about whenever I feel inadequate and like a failure.) I couldn't get to my blog, it was humiliating. Later I discover the name of my blog had been changed to Filthiness. That' s why I couldn't get to it.
Isaiah 64:6-12
6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. 7 No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins. 8 Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.


All our righteous acts are like filthy rags. Let's face it, there's not a one of us utterly pure and not a one of us who doesn't have some pride and yuckiness tainting our good works. Yet we are His workmanship, His creation, His responsibility. Wrong motives will keep us from being the pure vessel or the clean, new, hallow bone that God can work through. But He is the potter, we the clay, the work of His hands.

Like Joshua in the following text, our clothes are filthy. We need a clean turban for our heads.


Zech 3:1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. 2 The Lord said to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?" 3 Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4 The angel said to those who were standing before him, "Take off his filthy clothes." Then he said to Joshua, "See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you." 5 Then I said, "Put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood by. 6 The angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua: 7 "This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.
8 "'Listen, O high priest Joshua and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. 9 See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day. 10 "'In that day each of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and fig tree,' declares the Lord Almighty."


I love this! God takes responsibilty for us. He removes our filthiness by the servant, the Branch, the one stone. By the Branch, our sins are removed in a single day and we can sit under the fruits of His blessing!
'Nazarite' in English would be Branch, the Shamash, the servant candle brings light, and oh the stone that the workers rejected became the Cornerstone. Oh yeah, I see Jesus in all these 'symbolic things'...
Sometimes I can feel that beautiful, clean turban on my head, I didn't do anything to deserve it. Well, maybe there's one thing that helps me to keep it clean and that's realizing that any good thing that pours through this earthern vessel, through this hallow bone is not my doing but His. I can be a conduit of His Love if I let Him. I can let His help flow through me to others. I can walk in his ways and invite my neighbors to sit under his vine.

The Art of Losing Myself & Knowing Him

'The art of losing myself' is a line from a song my son's band (I think they are currently, 'Fishers of Men' ) played tonight. I just grabbed it with my mind thinking, 'I know that, I want more of that!' Then I came home and read a really great poem about the same thing:)

But here's the worship song by Hillsong

Your will above all else
My purpose remains
The art of losing myself
In bringing You praise
Everlasting Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending Your glory goes beyond all fame
In my heart and my soul
Lord I give You control
Consume me from the inside out
Lord let justice and praise
Become my embrace
To love you from the inside out

I want that Light that makes all the 'dark black clouds hide'.
'Dedicating your life to fully knowing the oneness of God
in order to be so selfless that everything you do is aimed
at ending the suffering of all beings everywhere'...
giving over control to such an embrace
to be so consumed with Love that all else fades...

That's what I want, God and I guess that's just saying I want You.

Hosea 6:1
"Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn, that he may heal us; he has stricken, and he will bind us up.
6:2
After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.
6:3
Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD; his going forth is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth."


Pressing on to fully know the LORD, means a constant returning to Him for healing and for strength. I am very thankful for Hosea 6:2 in the verses above. 'On the third day' is a reoccuring theme in the Bible. When I lived on a kibbutz in Israel, the kibbutz choir sang a song whose continuing refrain was, 'on the third day.'

There's one on the third day that stands out for me, and that was Jesus' promise to rise from the dead 'on the third day.' Jesus' defeat of death, his conquering sin, means He will raise us up that we may live before Him. His coming forth as sure as the dawn, a shower of blessing to us means that we can press on to know Him and He will respond to us.

You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world,but when you’re finished,you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird…So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing - that’s what counts.I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something. ~Nobel Laureate Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988)

dreams and feet

Never concede to doing something so small that it could be accomplished entirely in your lifetime. Dr. Ralph Winter

This is the email signature of a friend of mine... I never really liked it. Maybe it's 'cause I don't really understand it. Does that include making cookies? but i read a quote that maybe explains it a bit for me...

Your dreams must be bigger than your feet.

Why do I make the cookies? Oh that is big :) It involves tons of Love and happiness giving and happiness receiving Joy and Yeah! there's no finishing that in my lifetime!

Thanks, I get it now. Happy heart, beautiful feet.

Grains of Sand

Ps 139:17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God! They are innumerable! 18 I can't even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up in the morning, you are still with me!

David, beautiful David...Shepherd and king, songwriter and warrior, hero and outcast. and oh how he loved God. God even called him, 'a man after my own heart!'

His passion for God was evident in his writing. Sometimes I'll watch people singing his words and I'm amazed at how they don't seem to hear them. Like when he has stripped down to a linen garment and dances through the streets of Jerusalem, praising God. His wife, Ex-king Saul's daughter, Michal calls him, 'undignified.' David replies:

2 Samuel 6:21--I will celebrate before the Lord. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes.

Sometimes, I go to the beach and just hold a handful of sand. God's thoughts about me outnumber the grains of sand in my hand. They outnumber the grains on the beach or even on the earth. God loves me. and I want to dance.

and it's not just me He's thinking about, He's thinking about you too. His Love stretches limitlessly to every creature. Let His mind be in you. That mind is a mind of humility, of looking out for others first, of 'having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.' (Phil 2)

We're all in this amazing sand sea of Love so let's dance.

how to eat thin mint cookies

I don't like thin mint cookies. You can't dunk 'em! What good are cookies that you can't dunk in milk? I've heard people say that you can break them in half and dunk them but it doesn't work, not really.
Did you know that God's word is compared to milk? 1Peter 2:2 says;

crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Sometimes I think we are like thin mint cookies. Maybe we splash around in God's word a bit or listen to a teacher or read a good book but did the milk soak in?

Paul says in Romans12:2b Let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind.

I like this. I like that it's God's job to transform us inwardly, we just have to let Him. In the verse before, Paul says;
Romans 12:1 Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to His service and pleasing to Him.

Offer ourselves...be willing to be used totally by Him.

There is a way to eat thin mint cookies with milk all soaked inside. My friend, Alan taught me. You bite off a little piece from the opposite edges of the cookie making a fat, round straw. Stick one end in the milk and suck the milk in with the other end. It's genius!

Romans 11:36
For all things were created by Him, and all things exist through Him and for Him.

You weren't meant to be a dry cookie. You were created by God, you exist through Him and you were meant to live for Him. Romans 12:2 also says that if you get all soaky inside with His mind...'you will be able to know the will of God-what is good, and is pleasing to Him, and is perfect.'

What's a dry cookie to do? Let God transform you daily. Offer yourself as a big, fat cookie straw that He can use. Spend time in the Milk but let the Spirit suck into you so that you won't be 'conformed outwardly to the standards of this world' but be transformed inwardly by a complete change of your mind.

The coolest thing is that it's all 'God's gracious gift' freely given to those who offer themselves to accept it. Be the soaky cookie. :)

multiverse theory

How much do I love Multiverse theory! I recently went to a conference where a classically dry and monotone professor spoke on Multiverse. He talked about the stages leading up to the inevitable theory. All these different theory stages were reached because of the ridiculously perfect universe we live in. The perfection, and fine tuning are so apparent that Multiverse is the result.
I won't give you his definition, I'll give you mine:) Basically, our universe is so perfect that it must be just one little tiny, tiny, tiny, universe in the giant, giant, giant, sea of universes in which everything, absolutely everything, and every possibility happens. If I go back to bed right now, in another universe somebody who's me doesn't....
Don't ya just love that! Talk about needing a giant leap of faith. and if you think about it, then if that theory is correct then in each universe every possible religious theory is right too! Wow!

Well, the first time I heard this theory, I was intrigued. Went on my beach walk and asked my Best Friend, God about it. I got a really clear answer. Multiple verses didn't pop into my head only one...

Deuteronomy 6:4-16
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.


The Lord is One.

Just a simple immediate answer, yet so deep and rich. Thanks, Moses!

and Jesus quotes him...

Mark 12:28-34
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" 29 "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.

and like Moses, he talks about love in connection with it:

Deuteronomy 6:4-16
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.


Mark 12:30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31 The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

At Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication Jesus reveals the greatest Miracle of all, the Miracle that hold the universe together...

John 10:30 I and the Father are One."

Somehow this One and Love are connected and that connection is revealed in Jesus.

John 14:10
Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.

Then Jesus speaks of the upcoming Shavuot and the giving of the Spirit...
14:20
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.

Oh it's a beautiful thing this amazing promise, this mystery being revealed in our lives.
Read John 14... keep going to John 17, there's not multi-verses there's only
One!

One Love holds All things together

THE BOND OF THE UNIVERSE, the chain that holds it together, the one active unity, the harmony of things, is the devotion of the Son to the Father. It is the life of the universe.

"I AND THE FATHER ARE ONE," is the center-truth of the universe. And the encircling truth is, "That they also may be one in us."

George MacDonald

treasure

Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The most precious thing

to a human soul is every other human soul.

George MacDonald

Your First Love

Recently my husband and I found the time and occasion to be together a lot! I stopped doing housework or making cookies etc. He stopped playing computer games or fishing with friends.

We do stuff together! We play music, listen to music, eat together, talk to together, walk the beach, ride bikes, watch for meteors, even visit with friends together. and guess what happened ...
We fell in love again.

It seems to me that being together makes the heart grow together.

It's not that we weren't in love. It's just that we had let that passion for each other fade and spending time together brought it back.

and you know what? It works that way with our love for God too!

Rev. 2:4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.

In this chapter of Revelations, Jesus is talking to a group of believers who love God and do good things but they have left that , "first love." They have abandoned the passion and attachment they had at first for the Lord. When they first understood how much God loves them and desires them and all that He has done for them, they were passionately in love with God. But then they 'got comfortable' and let that love fade.

Why does this happen?
I think there are a couple of reasons, maybe even lots of reasons.

Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

This verse is usually used to tell people to give money. But I think it stretches throughout our lives. Time is so precious. What do you give your time too? and what about your heart? Where are you pouring out your affections? Check out this verse from Solomon's proverbs:

Proverbs 5:15-23 15 Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. 16 Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? 17 Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. 18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. 19 A loving doe, a graceful deer-- may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love.

Wow! He's saying you can choose where you put your affections. Are you looking over the fence or to your First Love?

Are we preferring and renewing and being captivated by our 'First Love'? Whether I'm speaking of your spouse or the Lord, or both, time given to the Beloved will bring an overflow of rejoicing!


'You can't get tired of a thing before you have it.' This quote from George MacDonald's, 'The Princess and the Goblin, refers to a little princess who is surrounded by toys but is so weary of them. She misses her King Papa, she longs to be outside with the flowers. The author is telling us that those toys might look enticing but they aren't what we need. They aren't what this daughter of the King needs. She wants her King Papa!

We need our First Love. God knows this. He isn't satisfied with leaving us comfortably in 'like' with Him. He wants us to be overflowing with passion for our King Papa!

Remember my friend from my last blog who just wasn't sure about God. She was looking at other toys, taking her eyes off the Beloved. Her passion had grow cold. Cold passion is a breeding ground for doubts, and cold hearts.

Spend time with Your Beloved, may your heart always be captivated by him, may your spring overflow in the fountain of your First Love! Rejoice and be satisfied always with His never ending Love.

PS...there something else about being in passionate Love...without saying a word other people notice! One of my sons said recently, " Wow, Dad really loves you!"
So if you are longing to share your Love of God with others... make sure you really are in Love with God. If you are, it will be announced for all to see without you saying a word!

delight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNy9jTeolUk

Life, Discontent, Fullness

I was talking with someone last night. She said she has a hard time believing that all this god-stuff isn't just something made up to make people happy. I won't go into what I told her last night but I want to use her as an example of not reaching quite far enough. She is reaching out for life and love but she was stopping at doubt and discontent.

We all have cracks and distress in our goblets. But that doesn't mean it's time to pour out the wine, nope it just means it's time to pour up to the brim.
We need more...more sweet hugs from babies, more little girls on the beach who smile up at me seeing my smile and say, "Hi!" as if we were friends forever! We need to dance more and sing more, paint and see, and Love more.

When hopelessness comes, when doubts, and oppression sneak in or roar in, we need to live. Let discontent spur us on to seek more strength to fight, more of God in us. God has an unlimited bounty for those who seek Him. He can fill us to overflowing despite the cracks and shortcomings of our being. He can give us moments in life, in worship, in dreams, fill us with possibilities of wonder and the incredible joy of His Presence. God's desire is to lift us up as his own little children and fill us with the amazing Ecstasy of Oneness with Him.

This is what we were made for, to abide with the Eternal, with the Author of Life and Love. That Life, that true Eternal life is knowing God, being One with His Fullness. Finding that what we called life, what we called love, was a small step towards this unspeakable, universal, Love. There can be no unbelief in His Presence, once found there is fullness that floods our hearts with Delight.


My friend looked at me with confusion as a spoke to her of Delight. She wanted facts, I spoke to her of a Person. The facts are there, they can be found and digested, and forgotten when the next time of doubting and discontent comes. But this Love, this amazing Presence, this Joy that exceeds all earthly ecstasy, fills the heart and overflows with life and love to others. That is what I urged her to seek.



Here's a sermon from George MacDonald that I sort of paraphrased to write this blog. I wanted to really understand it and make it my own. C. S. Lewis said he never wrote anything that he didn't take something from MacDonald....




We are vessels of life, not yet full of the wine of life; where the wine does not reach, there the clay cracks, and aches, and is distressed. Who would therefore pour out the wine that is there, instead of filling to the brim with more wine! All the being must partake of essential being; life must be assisted, upheld, comforted, every part, with life. Life is the law, the food, the necessity of life. Life is everything.Let us in all the troubles of life remember-that our one lack is life-that what we need is more life-more of the life-making presence in us making us more, and more largely, alive. When most oppressed, when most weary of life, as our unbelief would phrase it, let us bethink ourselves that it is in truth the inroad and presence of death we are weary of. When most inclined to sleep, let us rouse ourselves to live. Of all things let us avoid the false refuge of a weary collapse, a hopeless yielding to things as they are. It is the life in us that is discontented; we need more of what is discontented, not more of the cause of its discontent. Discontent, I repeat, is the life in us that has not enough of itself, is not enough to itself, so calls for more. He has the victory who, in the midst of pain and weakness, cries out, not for death, not for the repose of forgetfulness, but for strength to fight; for more power, more consciousness of being, more God in him.If we will but let our God and Father work his will with us, there can be no limit to his enlargement of our existence, to the flood of life with which he will overflow our consciousness. We have no conception of what life might be, of how vast the consciousness of which we could be made capable. Many can recall some moment in which life seemed richer and fuller than ever before; to some, such moments arrive mostly in dreams: shall soul, awake or asleep, infold a bliss greater than its Life, the living God, can seal, perpetuate, enlarge? Can the human twilight of a dream be capable of generating or holding a fuller life than the morning of divine activity? Surely God could at any moment give to a soul, by a word to that soul, by breathing afresh into the secret caves of its being, a sense of life before which the most exultant ecstasy of earthly triumph would pale to ashes! If ever sunlit, sail-crowded sea, under blue heaven flecked with wind-chased white, filled your soul as with a new gift of life, think what sense of existence must be yours, if he whose thought has but fringed its garment with the outburst of such a show, take his abode with you, and while thinking the gladness of a God inside your being, let you know and feel that he is carrying you as a father in his bosom!There is nothing for man worthy to be called life, but the life eternal-God's life, that is, after his degree shared by the man made to be eternal also. For he is in the image of God, intended to partake of the life of the most high, to be alive as he is alive. Of this life the outcome and the light is righteousness, love, grace, truth; but the life itself is a thing that will not be defined, even as God will not be defined.This life, this eternal life, consists for man in absolute oneness with God and all divine modes of being, oneness with every phase of right and harmony. It consists in a love as deep as it is universal, as conscious as it is unspeakable; a love that can no more be reasoned about than life itself-a love whose presence is its all-sufficing proof and justification, whose absence is an annihilating defect: he who has it not cannot believe in it: how should death believe in life, though all the birds of God are singing jubilant over the empty tomb! The delight of such a being, the splendour of a consciousness rushing from the wide open doors of the fountain of existence, the ecstasy of the spiritual sense into which the surge of life essential, immortal, increate, flows in silent fullness from the heart of hearts-what may it, what must it not be, in the great day of God and the individual soul!

fire and loss

The smell of fire woke me up in the night. A neighbor's condo was burning. Everyone was safe but they lost so much. We talked alot the next day about what we would take if we got that alarm in the night. Valuables or keepsakes, practical items or memorials...

I read this passage in one of my favorite books by George MacDonald just before I slept that night. A grandmother gives her granddaughter a ball of gossemer thread but then takes it and sets in a cabinet. The granddaughter asks why...

"..no one ever gives anything to another properly and really without keeping it. That ball is yours."

The grandmother explains that the beautiful ball is attached to her ring and that if she kept it, it would be of no use at all. Now it is a link between them. A thread that always keeps them together.

The grandmother tells her to "follow the thread wherever it leads you."
"Oh how delightful! It will lead me to you, grandmother, I know!"
"Yes, But, remember, it may seem to you a very roundabout way indeed, and you must not doubt the thread. Of one thing you may be sure, that while you hold it I hold it too."

When we seem to lose things in a fire or computer crash or someone takes them from us, it is heart rending. Especially the precious things and memories of love... but those things we have given away those things intrusted to another are still with us. We get to keep them, no matter what. Hope and love are alive and remain!

The Author of Love, our Creator speaks through that once 'Pharasee of Pharasees' that Jewish leader turned outcast and renagade. He had lost so much in his life, position, contacts, high hopes and dreams. Paul gave and these and his very life to another and in doing so he truly kept it.

2 Cor. 6:4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. 12 We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. 13 As a fair exchange--I speak as to my children--open wide your hearts also.

Oh yeah, Paul gave it all away. Most especially his heart and what does he get in return... he says, 'and yet posessing everything' ! He had this unheard of fulness of heart by losing and giving, he was full.

He encourages us to do the same...
Romans 12:1-21
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.

'in view of God's mercy' Paul points to the reason that he gladly gave all that he had. God's mercy, His freely given, undeserved pardon and forgiveness. The gift given for each of us, the greatest loss in all Eternity is also the greatest gain. Jesus' gift, his very life laid down to gain Everything back to Perfection.

The granddaughter goes on to trust in the thread holding them together, she trusts and follows where it leads. Sometimes our lives have difficult ways to follow. But we can trust that the Author will leads us if we set our hearts to follow Him.


...

meteors

Guess what I saw 107 of this morning???

Beautiful, beautiful meteors...yes, I've heard that they are just dust and pebbles entering the atmospere and burning up. But I don't believe it.

Psalm 19
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

They speak to me. They speak to me of love and light, of wonder and that Everything is as it should be. They tell me to keep on trusting and having faith. They show an eternal Creator who has my life in His hands. They encourage me to keep on singing and keep on dancing, to join them in declaring the glory of God.

I feel connected with the Eternal when I join them. There's this spider's web thread, an umbilical cord to the Creator and maybe to all that is created too.

107 meteors, beautiful dust! What voice are you hearing today?

Be the Bunny!

wrote this for middle school youth group I'm teaching at tonight:)

Be the Bunny... Anyone know what my bunny's name is???
You got it,....BUNNY! and she is such a bunny...
my bunny loves to sit cradled in my lap and let me stroke her whiskers.It took her awhile to trust me enough to do this.Her bunny head is tuned to the prey side of the animal mind set, which means being held is not good.Her natural reaction should be KICK, SCRATCH, Run!
But her trust in me and the pleasure of being petted overcomes.We have a choice like my bunny when situations arise. We can choose to trust in the Lord's care or we can kick, scratch, and run out of the situation.
While I was working on this message, I was texting Jaime,I was getting kind of stuck with what to say and I asked him if I should really teach tonight and he texted me...'
Be Strong and Courageous'
It's was so perfect cause there I was thinking, 'oh I'm such a girl I can't do anything,this is gonna be bad..'
When I'm trying to teach you guys that you should, trust!
Be like my bunny not like a normal bunny.My bunny trusts me,,,
she knows I want what's best for her!
She follows me around like a puppy dog, she'd rather spend time with me than eat!
She knows she's safe 'cause I'm there.
Then Jaime texts me those perfect words..
well I looked them up at Crosswalk.com...which is such a great site cause you can enter words and it will show everywhere in the bible that those words are..

Jos 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."
Bunny knows if I'm there she is safe...we've got to be like her! God is there and we are safe...He can totally be trusted

But there is a time when she doesn't feel quite safe around me
Can you guess when???
When she's bad,
when she's up on the couch she knows perfectly well she shouldn't be there and she'll look at me and wait.
She never seems to jump down on her own until I say something like"BUNNY!" or clap my hands at her, she'll shake her little rabbit ears and skip away quick...
Sometimes we're my bunny. We know that we are messing up and instead of trusting God or being strong and courageous,
we run away from Him maybe even shaking our bunny ears so we can't hear Him calling...

Solomon's Dad, David, tells him to be strong and courageous twice before he died,

1Ch 22:13 - Then you will have success if you are careful to observe the decrees and laws that the Lord gave Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged.

Notice that David tells S. 'be good, follow all the laws then you will be okay.' well this wouldn't be very comforting to me..I'm like bunny I mess up but look what else David tells him

1Ch 28:20 - He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished. Be strong and courageous.

Okay so then he might be thinking, 'yikes what will happen when it's finished..will God still be with me even though I can't be good all the time??'

Well, let me tell you when the work was finally finished..

on the cross.

Joh 19:30 - When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

So we don't have to be afraid of God anymore because Jesus died for us, He finished the perfect work of the temple of God!
Because of what He did we don't have to run and hide from God. We don't have to be separated from God. He loves us so much he took care of those times when we mess up.

We can be like my bunny trusting Him all the time.

The words we say are strong, they bring reality.

Words and Reality

"I just know I'm gonna lose today!""I'm so afraid,that I'm gonna blow it!"
"There's no way I can do that!"

Do our words make reality? Is 'what you say, what you get?'

The words we use are strong and they do shape our reality but let's look at what the bible says
about our words.

James 3:2 We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

... 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

James explains that our words are powerful. They shape the most important reality of our lives and that is the every core of our being, our hearts. If we can keep our words in check, a fire of evil in our lives will also be kept under control. James even says that if we can control our tongue, that we will be perfect in the rest of our actions. Sounds like words are very powerful!

But do they actually make reality? Will saying over and over. "i'm gonna win today," bring the victory about?

I think Solomon has an answer for us.

Pr 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he

It's not so much the outward reality that is really important as the inward reality.

Once my sons were on a soccer team, and we were playing a team who had never been scored against, the Pitbulls. This was even boasted about in our local paper! Soon we were losing, 17-0. But the coach, my husband told those kids, "We can do it, we can win this game...all we have to do is win one goal." Those kids heard those words, didn't see the score, or the other team's sneers, what they saw was just one goal. and when they scored that goal against that 'perfect' team, the roar that went up by the crowd could be heard soccer fields away. The amazing thing was that the Pitbulls went home as losers. Wailing and crying despite that fact that they had won by double digits! While we went home cheering and uplifted.

Our words shape reality by shaping our thoughts and our thoughts show us reality.

So how can we keep our thoughts in a beautiful reality?... for that let's turn to song, the Psalms.

Ps 19:7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. 8 The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.

What can bring this 'joy to the heart' and 'light to the eyes,' 'reviving the soul' ?

The words of God, or the 'law' ...the Bible... but there's something else here too...

as it say earlier in this same Psalm 19:
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

His creation also speaks and those words are worth much:
10 They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.

Better than gold or sweet food...words from the Lord. Listen to them daily, hide them in your heart, and your heart will be transformed and your words will bring a beautiful realty into your life.

14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Swimming in Stars

August 9, 2008

I'm swimming in the stars tonight.
'...you can't swim in stars, they'd burn you up....and
in space there's nothing to push off of.....'
but i'm swimming in the stars tonight they welcome me to come on in, the water's fine.
There's plenty of room for me. I can twist and turn and circle and splash around each star.
I can feel them swimming in me too. Around and through, we swim and play and dance,
until exhausted,
we float and gaze at each other,
the Stars and I.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord!

August 8, 2008

"My heart will choose to say, 'Blessed be the NAME!' " Joy and peace despite the most turmoil I can remember ever having. There is this confident assurance that All things work together for Good. Like my husband said last night, "God is orchestrating it all. Nations rise, kings fall. He does it all." God is sovereign. But I have total responsibility too...paradox time:) I can choose. Do I take this trust He provides and fill my heart thoughts with it and utterly trust Him or do I struggle and fight?
Oh the peace of picking His Will. Sometimes there is pain, deep pain. But even the pain can bring a Oneness of His Spirit communion with His suffering... and suffer He did. Not just physical pain....
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" It was spiritual pain. That amazing True Oneness being severed by our sins. Ps. 22 talks about the suffering Messiah and Jesus quotes it from the cross. He had know it was coming, this separation from the One, from the Father. We have never had that complete communion of Spirit that was present in their 'One'. "I and the Father are One, " Jesus told Philip in the book of John. That wall was put up by Jesus' willingness to take the spiritual disease that separates us from the Father upon Himself. This meant our separation was now His. But it could not hold Him!
His perfect Love, His willingness to suffer, and serve others, His perfect faith meant that the wall would fall. The veil of our separation would be and was torn, completely! No longer would separation have to win out. Jesus defeated that separation with His perfect Love.
When we feel that separation in our lives, from those we love, from God, from the person you were really created to be, understand He felt it too, only much more intensely!
He had perfect harmony and gave it up for us. Why?
To provide a Way for us to be in perfect communion with the One that Jesus spoke of to Philip.
I don't pretend to know what that complete communion will be like. But I've had tastes of it in this life and it is sweeter than can be imagined. I think my experiences were only baby steps or maybe ant steps towards the Perfection that awaits.
The marriage supper of the Lamb awaits me 'My heart will choose to say, 'Blessed be the Name!'
I will trust that this time of separation and heart rending turmoil which has been made joyous and peace filled, will bring more Oneness into Life. I will say with Job, "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the Name of the Lord!"
Or as Jesus put it before his suffering, "if it be possible, let this cup pass away, but your Will and not my own." If there was any other way to restore this broken heart to Him, Jesus asked the Father, do not allow this to happen. But there was no other way, no other path to make my separated heart whole again. No other way to make the walls of separation fall. "it pleased the Lord to bruise Him ..." said the prophet Isaiah and so much more in his 53rd chapter.

Oh thank you Lord God for giving us glimpses of what our Messiah Jesus suffered for us. Thank you that the wall has been toppled, that You have defeated sin and separation by the Blood of the Perfect Risen Lamb, our Jesus, our Salvation, because of Him, we can be One with You forever.

Everything belongs to Me!

Picked an apple and pears off some trees today. I love picking fruit right off a tree or from Boney's. I love fruit. It's beautiful and healthy and tastes sweet and it just grows! I used the fruit for a pressure point massage on my back and neck, so fruit even feels good, then I drew it with my water color pencils....fun fruit!
It also made me think. I remembered when I was a kid and I'd think ..."Why am I not a tree? I could just stand there and eat sunlight, drink from my roots, lift my arms up to heaven and bear fruit. " I could help birds, and bugs, and picnicers... I wanta be a tree!

Well I don't get to be a tree, no matter how perfect I think they are. But did you know that they all belong to me. I don't really know exactly what this means but somehow, someway Everything belongs to little me.

1Cor. 3:21b Actually everything belongs to you: 22 Paul, Apollos, and Peter; this world, life and death, the present and the future—all these are yours, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

It's cool that I found this verse today, I've never noticed it before although I've probably read it a thousand times or at least more than a hundred times. It fits in so well with my thoughts about trees. Well I think that's actually the point. Everything fits together very well. God has these unseen connections everywhere.
Maybe when I was a kid and now too that sense that it's all so perfect, is symbolized by a beautiful, useful fruit tree. All this perfection is ours if we belong to Messiah who is in God. Successful people, the whole world, life and death, even time is ours! The Lord our God the Lord is One ..it's all together in Him as One.

free

Freedom! not from want or suffering but from something
far more eternal, a pain deeper than anything of this world
...the guilt of knowing one has done wrong, and done wrong
to another ,,,oh the freedom that comes fromknowing that my
sins are swept clean and someday even the dust from them
will be gone all weight and injury will dissipate into His
glorious redemption His dedication of the temple of my
heart .I will be able to see him because he will give me my
new name i will decrease He will be my all in alland never
again will i act outside of his wishes and will. My only
life will be glorifying my Beloved !

Spiritual Intimacy

I've experienced it with the Holy Spirit.
But it can also happen between people. David had it with Jonathan, Jesus with John, Elijah with Elisha.
I think Ruth and Naomi had it too.There's three aspects of SI that you can see in their relationships; trust, love and fruit. It's root is trust. It's trunk, Love and it's fruit is oil of the Spirit, olives pressed, dripping down Aaron's beard (Ps 133.)
Trust is at its root because to really open up in Spiritual Intimacy, there's faith in the other. The unveiling of the true self to another is like diving into an unseen depth. Faith in another is the key. Ruth gave herself completely to Naomi's direction, her people, her God. She trusted Naomi. Oh how Jonathan trusted David, willing to even give up his kingship to him.

Then Love holds up the relationship, acceptance with joy of this gift from God. Imperfections are the brush strokes of growth and possibilities. As each lover draws closer to the Author of Love, an overflowing of that rapturous reality is produced. There's this feeling of living within the heart of Love and it spills out everywhere. Boaz saw it in Ruth, John felt it and referred to himself as, 'the disciple who Jesus loved,' Jonathan's father couldn't stand it because of his own rebellious spirit. It poured out of Elijah as he was separated from his Master, Elisha. This pressing ever closer to the Author of Love creates a Oneness of Spirit, a Unity, (Ps 133.)

That Pressing produces the Oil of the Spirit overflowing in the lover's lives. Oil is a balm for healing, a preservative, nourishing, soothing, and fuel for Light. Spiritual Intimacy is like putting a shortcut to intimacy with God on your desktop. The healing, light-giving food produced is like the richest oil. Dip in your bread and get every drop of the oil dripping down Aaron's beard.

Oh, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in Unity.
It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down Aaron's beard.
For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore. from Ps 133

Tents

'Where are you pitching your tent?'

Have you ever slept in a tent?
What's it like?
(light , moveable, not permanent, see nature /sky)

What if there's a tent right next to yours?
It's not like a house is it... you can hear everything in the other tent and
you can hear them and even talk to them...

Danny throwing up story ..(I could help him right away 'cause even in my tent I knew what was
happening in the boy's tent)

Where are you pitching your tent?
Think about that question while I tell you this story
of a guy who lived in a tent.
His name was Lot and his uncle was Abraham, not
A. lincoln but the A. in the bible the one that God says
He is the God of A. He was a really righteous dude.

Well his nephew Lot decided it was time to move his tent away from U. Abe.

We all have to leave home someday but we have to make careful choices.
Lot made a bad decision..
Read Gen.13:10-13

Genesis 13
13:10
Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)
13:11
So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company:
13:12
Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.
13:13
Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord
He made the choice to move away from his Godly Uncle A and pitch his tent near the wicked city.
This really turned out horrible for him and his whole family.

We to have to make this kind of choices too...I know one guy right here in Big 5 Youth Group
who told his coach, 'I will never miss practise except for youth group.'
He knows the good choice for himself that being with believers in Jesus that want to
worship Him and learn more about Him is important.
Middle school is tough but having friends that value God and try to follow Him is
like pitching your tent in the right place.




The best place to pitch your tent is near God's heart...
the best way to do that is to get to know the One God sent


John 1
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.
That word 'dwell' there in hebrew really means pitched his tent with us! And that ONe who it's talking about is Jesus!
He came to pitch his tent with us.

Now we can choose whether or not we pitch our tent next to Him.
One way is to read the Bible...if you do read the the Gospels that's
the first 4 books of the New T. I'd start with John or maybe Mark
actually Luke is full of great stories and Matt. is wonderful.
Read them this summer...get to know Jesus and
talk to Him too about anything, make time to enjoy God.
Maybe even pitch your tent in the backyard get a flashlight
and spend the night out there with Him.








1:18
No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.