You Are So Beautiful

As you listen to this song.  Just close your eyes and envision God singing this song over you.  He loves us and desires us.  We are His children and we are beautiful to Him!  Now take this a step further and envision God gazing at you with His eyes full of love towards you!

May you be overwhelmed by His great love for you today and always!

What Does Love Look Like (Arms Wide Open)

What does love, real love look like?  Everyone is seeking love, they want to love and be loved.  But as the song says they are "Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places."  Love is sought in what people and the world has to offer.  Both options fall severely short of the love mark.  The world does not offer true and lasting love and people will never perform to our expectations.

A very popular book series, called 50 Shades, was a number one seller for numerous months.  Because of the popularity of this erotica genre other similar books started coming out to capture the insanity of this craze.  There was even an erotica movie released called Magic Mike.  Tons of women, christian women included flocked to these books and the movie and this saddened me.  I realized that these women were looking for love, and not real love at that, in some pretty warped places.

What made this genre so popular?  Were women not happy with what they had?  For those who were married, did they not find love and acceptance from their husbands?  What makes people run after a fantasy type of love?  Could they not accept or feel the love of God and other's in their life so they sought other sources?

I have never read 50 Shades nor seen Magic Mike but I have heard enough about both and have read parts of a manuscript that speaks out against 50 Shades to understand a little about both of these topics.  It is not easy for me to write this because it makes me very sad to know that women would want a man to dominate them, chain and whip them all in the name of love.  God's love is not painful, nor should our love towards each other be painful.  Jesus was beaten, rejected, and crucified on the cross so we could enjoy life and enjoy it to its fullest.

If we fully grasped how deep God's love is for us (Eph 3: 17-19) then I believe we would not seek the love the world has to offer.  We would be able to love ourselves, accept the love God has to offer, and be able to accept the love of others no matter if they do not perform to our expectations.

I went back to a book I have been reading this week, called Pursued by Jud Whilite (sorry it does not come out until Feb 2013).    He stated that "we need to open our hearts and let God love us  and that God's love is a loyal love that points to the future."  If we open our hearts to receive God's love then we will begin to love ourselves and accept the love others have to offer.  When we do this God will begin to reveal His great plans to us as Jer 29:11 states.

Take it from one who knows.  For many years of my life I knew God loved me but I did not realize that love to it's fullest.  Growing up I felt very unwanted and unloved because of my unstable home environment.  The adults in my life were consummed with their own issues and not necessarily to the issues of those around them.  It took many years for me to realize I was really and truly loved, others loved me and God loved me.  It was a lightbulb moment!  Years after that I was able to accept that not only did God love me He chose me!  What an awesome concept.  God not only loved me He wanted me.  The same is true for everyone.  God loves and chooses YOU!

50 Shades and Magic Mike offer a fleshy passionate type of love that does not satisfy and can never satisfy.  Only God's love can ever truly satisfy.  Let us become consumed and overwhelmed by God, let us stop pursuing illicit love affairs with the world and begin a beautiful love affair with the creator of the world.

I know you all would be terribly disappointed if I did share a song to go with what God laid on my heart to blog about.  This blog was not an easy one to find a song for.  I went through a great selection of songs before finally realizing that Arms Wide Open by Misty Edwards was the perfect song for this blog.  May this bless you greatly.

Count it all Joy (Cover Me Mark Condone)

This week has been a very trying one with many distractions.  Even as I work on this blog more distractions continue to occur and I can feel the same emotions and frustrations rising up within me.  Thankfully the emotions and frustrations do not stay around as long as they used to.  It has taken me awhile to learn this but pity parties are really no fun and accomplish nothing.  God created me with emotions and I realize that at times that can be good or bad, thankfully God also gave me self-control.  I do not have to give into the negative emotions when life spins out of control.  I may be frustrated and it may take me a minute or two to get my eyes off the storm and back onto God but praise God the time I spend looking at the storm before looking at God is growing shorter and shorter.

So as I previously stated this week has a crazy one full of many life distrations.  It all began Monday with no hot water and then an announcement at work that made everyone fear for their job and finally ended with discoverying that one of credit card numbers had been stolen.  God was in the midst of every one of these distractions and every one of them was resolved positively but by mid week another event occured I came home to discover I had no AC.  It was okay the first night but the second was torture as my house had heated up more during the day and it made for a long miserable night.  Friday morning I was hot, tired, and frustrated and to borrow from Lysa Terkeurst I came "Unglued".  I had focused on the storm instead of God.  As I turned my eyes back onto Him the situation improved and in the midst of the hot house I began to cool down and peace started to return to me.  And yes if you are wondering the AC situation was resolved Friday.  I came home to a cool house!

As all these situations and others occured James 1:2 continued to come to me.  Consider it all joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds.  I did not consider it all "Joy" in fact I believe during my meltdown Friday I asked God when all the insanity would end.  The next verses help define why we should consider it all joy when we face trials of many kinds.  Verses 3-4 state: because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

So trials actually help me!  God also gave me 2 Cor 4: 17-18, I thought I was being helpful and maybe a little spiritual on Monday when I posted this on Facebook Monday.  Came back to haunt me later in the day.  Thanks Esther for turning my focus back where it needed to be!

2 Cor 4:17:18

¹⁷ For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Another friend, Maribel ,shared a verse in Lametations with me (see below) but on my way there I came across this verse in Isaiah pay attention to the bolded parts.
Isaiah 48:17-18
¹⁷ This is what the Lord says—
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:“I am the Lord your God,
    who teaches you what is best for you,
    who directs you in the way you should go.
¹⁸ If only you had paid attention to my commands,
    your peace would have been like a river,    your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

Lamentations 3:22-24

²² Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
²³ They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”

With so many wonderful promises from God how can I allow my frustrations to get the best of me. So remember as you go through life stuff will happen that is not pleasant and your family will test your patience from time to time but God has it all under control.  I like what Brian Houston said in the podcast I listed to this week.  "It is not all about me!"

There are two songs I wanted to share on this blog.  One was by Casting Crowns I Will Praise You in the Storm and the other by Mark Condon Cover Me.  After praying about it I believe Cover Me is the song that needs to be shared.  The peace of God needs to cover us at ALL TIMES not just during times of testing and trials.

Pursuit

I know you will be shocked to hear from me twice in one week especially two days in a row.   Last week I was introduced to this wonderful worship song called Pursuit.  Every time I listen to this song I get the same urge to share this with everyone.  The song is totally about pursuing the presence of God.  This song resonates with me because I love God's presence and I desire to continually dwell with Him and to have His presence around and on me at all times.

As stated in my Abide blog we need to continually dwell with God and not just visit Him occasionally.  May this song bless you greatly and cause you to desire more of God and more of God's presence in your life.

Thanks for sharing Joanna.  Great news, two days after you shared I discovered our worship team at church is going to start learning this song!  All my Revolution readers get prepared, we are going to experience more of God in our services!!!  Yahoo!!!

The Body (We are the Body)

Romans 12:4-8

The Message (MSG)

 ^4-6In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.  ^6-8If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.

If any of you are like I am you struggle with trying to determine what your part in the body is.  Your gifts and talents may not be obvious.  I know mine were not, yet everyone has something that they are good at. It has taken me many years to discover that I am the hand, I love to help and serve and support those in leadership.  I love to find ways to make their job easier.  Yet this gift while appreciated is not always front and center for everyone to see.  There is not a lot of recognition and glory in being the hand.  Its good to have one and you would miss it if it were gone but not everyone notices.  If you have a gift like that you may also struggle with the fact that sometimes you wish your part in the body was more front and center instead of behind the scenes.

Joyce Meyer provides an awesome illustration for this in one of her older messages.  In the message she used different parts of her body and described how they were jealous of other body parts and wished they could do the same.  Her eye wanted to be able to wear rings like the finger and be pretty and dazzling.  Her hand was jealous of the foot because it did not get to wear shoes.  At the end she is looking up at the ceiling with a ring over one eye and a shoe on one hand.  Basically the parts of the body were doing something they were not designed to do and she could not function.

It is the same with us.  If we are struggling to do something that God has not designed us to do because we want to be seen or we want recognition it will frustrate us and make us want to give up. My secret wish is that I could sing or play a musical instrument but if I tried to do either our worship at church would not be as anointed as it is today.  God gave me a great love of music but He did not give me either of the other abilities.  But it does not end there, because I am the hand, love music, and know a thing or two about computers God has allowed me to be part of the media team at church.  I love that position.  I feel like I am part of the music team even though I do not sing or play and He is has grown me in this area.  I had to learn how to use a Mac, for this PC gal that was a bit intimidating.

Please know that no matter how you feel God has given you gifts and talents.  He has created you for a purpose and He has great plans for you (Jer 29:11).  You may still be at a lose on what your part in the body is, just ask Him.  God is great to answer all our questions and He will lead you and direct you but be prepared to step outside of your comfort zone.  I have determined that if what God calls us to do is within our own abilities then we will try to take all the glory for what we did instead of giving Him the glory.  Trust me on this.  God has branched me out in more ways than the media team and many of the areas He has positioned me in require me to rely heavily on Him.

Please know when I first received this message from God, I did not have a song in mind.  Shocking I know!  But this morning God brought this song to mind and I believe it fits in perfectly with this.  If we all become who we were designed to be in God and in the body then imagine how great a witness the body would be for God.  How well we would represent His kingdom on earth.

Blessings
Stephanie

I'm Not Ashamed - Free Chapel

Today as I was cleaning and praying I was reminded that this blog was birthed from a book and not a song.
As I was reading Francis Chan's book Crazy Love it hit me that we celebrate many forms of love.  We celebrate love between a man and women, married and dating .   We celebrate the love between a parent and child.   We even have cards now that celebrate the love between an owner and their pet.   But how often do we celebrate the love between us and God?  Yes I know we have two holiday's; Christmas and Easter, but God's love is bigger than this.  I think every day we wake up we should celebrate God's love for us. 

As I was listening to the song by Free Chapel today called I'm Not Ashamed I thought the words were awesome.  We should dance and sing to God as if no one is watching!  We should praise him and pour out our love for Him with such extravagance!  We tend to give God our left overs and while He is satisfied with this His desire is for our first fruits.  When you wake up each morning before you get out of bed tell God you love Him.  In fact don't even wait for tomorrow morning tell Him you love him right now!  Just three little words I Love You!  Sometimes I am so overwhelmed by my love for God these words do not feel adequate.  I want to just wrap my arms around Him and never let go. 

Now that you have danced and sang like no one is watching and have poured out your love for God onto Him.  Start pouring out your love for God on others, especially those in the family of God.

Abide (Shekinah)

The time is coming when watchmen will call out from the hilltops of Epraim: on your feet! Let's go to Zion, go to meet our God. Jer 31:6

One of the responsibilities God has requested of me is to be His watchman.  I love standing in the gap for those He has called me to serve,as the watchmen did while the workers were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, but there is more to this responsibility then just protecting the workers as Jeremiah states the watchmen are to also to lead the way for people to meet with God.

In my own walk I am  learning to become more intimate with God.  I love it when He speaks to me and shows me who I am and the plans He has for me.  I love to sit in His presence and just feel Him.  Recently at church during a time of worship we experienced more of His presence then ever before and as great as that was I still desire more and more of Him.  I want to walk in the continual power and glory that only His Holy Spirit can provide.  Dear ones don't you just want what Moses experienced on the mountain top, to radiate His glory so much that those around us are affected?  I know I do.

The first step towards intimacy with God is learning to abide with Him.  Awhile back I learned that to worship is to abide.  When we worship God He comes to dwell among us and to abide with us.  When you look at the definition to abide in the dictionary you will see that you can sojourn or you can dwell.  To sojourn is a temporary stay while to dwell is to take up permanent residence.  Which would you have?  Would you temporarily stay with Him and only worship Him once a week at church or would you take up permanent residence with Him and worship Him continually?

Worship is not always about the music but about the attitude of the heart.  Below is what God gave me awhile back when He first began to speak the word abide to me.

We must learn to honor God with more than our mouths (give Him lip service).  We need to learn to permanently dwell with Him to await in eager expectations for Him to come and dwell with us as He did with Adam and Eve in the garden.  Worship is more than music, although music is a good conduit of worship we must learn to give our hearts fully to God.  To dwell with Him until our faces radiate His glory.

Which would you have?  Would you continue to temporarily stay in His presence or will you take up permanent residence?  The choice for me is not a hard one, I want more and more of God.  He is so good and until I typed the last part of this I realized last night He gave me the desire of my heart.  He came and walked among us as He did with Adam and Eve in the garden and it was so glorious.

When I first began this blog over a week ago I went one way with this but as I prayed and typed this is what God brought to me.  I believe the song that I have chosen speaks to what God is doing in our midst individually and corporatly at church.  I am praying that this will become your hearts desire.  If you just take that first step towards Him, give Him the little time that you have and He will muliple it greatly.