Reflection......

Wow, life has been a little strange and stressful lately. Two of my girls came home from school with head lice this week . Yes I know that is gross! I have frantically worked to kill lice and remove nits in their heads and in the house. It amazes me that we will apply poison to our children's head to make it all go away. Although it did kill the bugs, it left behind these tiny little eggs throughout their hair called nits. During many hours of taking this tiny comb and combing through my girls' hair I thought about when Jesus washes away our sins...no matter how big or ugly our sin is. What would it be like to be forgiven but to wear the sin on us like nits (lice eggs) all over our entire body so everyone could see? No matter how much you washed or scrubbed, the sins (nits) would not come off.
Through this huge inconvenience in our lives I kept asking God, "What is it that you are trying to teach me through this? Is it patience, or is it to be STILL?"
How precious is YOUR TIME? I know my time is precious to me and there is never enough hours in the day for me to get done all that I need to. God only wants to spend time with us. He enjoys your presence. I have not spent the time with him lately that I needed to. Although my heart longs for him, it is very hard to stop and be still with Him.
As I covered a Costco size jar of Mayo onto my children's scalp (because I was scared to death the poison wouldn't be enough) and made them sleep with it on their heads with a shower cap on, my youngest broke down and cried out "Why do I have to go through this? Why would God allow this to happen to me?" It broke my heart. They know that God is so good and they have been taught how much He loves them. She cried for an hour and kept asking "WHY???"
Isn't that how most of us feel on a regular basis? We know God is good but when things in our life don't seem to be going our way we look up and shake our fist and ask "WHY???" Is that our view of God? We use Him like a shopping mall visiting him when we have a special occasion, something big in our lives? Then we leave and never return to Him until we need another new outfit? So why do we continue to repeat this cycle over and over again in our lives? Why is it that so many will never know Him or have a relationship with Him but freely call themselves Christians? We are a chosen generation (people). God has a plan for our lives and we continue to take our lives into our own powerless little hands and live how we want to live. In a world that teaches even our children to let it be all about them. We are forgiven walking around covered by the blood of Jesus (mayo) but still carry the nits of our past inside of us not believing we are forgiven.
As I comforted her through this trial in her life and held her while she cried, I explained how God does love us and sometimes life is just hard. I explained to her that sometimes things are allowed in our life to build our FAITH. God doesn't cause bad things to happen...BUT sometimes He may allow things to happen because He needs to burn off the impurities. We are made in God's likeness. Here's a great illustration:

Look up the verse today in Malachi chapter 3:
"He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver...."
What does this verse mean? What is Refining Silver?
A silversmith will start out by holding a piece of silver in the middle of the fire where the flames are the hottest so the fire will burn away all the impurities.
God holds us sometimes in a very hot spot. Think about this verse again: "HE SHALL SIT AS A REFINER AND A PURIFIER OF SILVER....." A silversmith HAS to not only sit there and hold the silver, but he can't take his eyes off of the silver. If the silver is left in the flames too long, it would be destroyed. The silversmith knows when the silver is fully refined only when he can see his IMAGE REFLECTED IN IT!!! Wow God is amazing! He has to burn away all the impurities in our lives until He can see His reflection in us; we are made in His image. God never takes His eyes off of us when we are in the middle of the hottest fire. He stands with us, never leaving until His reflection is seen. No matter how bad things can get, no matter how hot that FIRE is , even when you can't see Him, feel Him, or touch Him, remember He has not taken his EYES off of you or you would be destroyed.
I hope this speaks to someone today that when things in our life seem to be out of control , try and look to God to see if it is for your own good. I don't want to walk around anymore caring my nits (sins) on my body. I am the daughter of the Most High King and so are you. Stand bold in our Faith, BELIEVE you are forgiven.
I am convinced today that my father allowed this week to be out of my control, I needed to BE STILL and spend some time in His presence. I praise Him that He loves me enough to slow me down to spend some time with Him.
I want more than anything for God to see His reflection in me. Lets try together this week to say "burn it off Father, until you see your reflection in me."
Praise Him today and even when things are bad, instead of saying "WHY ME?" ask Him
"WHAT'S NEXT?"

Blessings,
Robbie

Psalms 27:7-14
This psalm is one of my favorite psalms. I often open this page up in my bible and with my face on the ground, I pray this psalm to God. I ask Him to hear my voice. I am confident in the Lord and the knowing that one day I will see the Father face to face and all of the things of this world will be erased...all sickness, all meanness, all hurt, all pain, all filth, all anger, all pride, all disrespect, all division, all things that are not of Him will be gone and we will stand with the Father in all of His glory. The very last verse of this chapter has brought me through some very hard times in my life. "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." If it is mentioned twice in 1 verse then it needs attention paid to it. "WAIT FOR THE LORD".
"Hear my voice when I call, Lord;
be merciful to me and answer me.
My heart says of you, "Seek his face!"
Your face, Lord, I will seek.
Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
God my Savior.
Though my father and mother forsake me,
the Lord will receive me.
Teach me your way, Lord;
lead me in a straight path
because of my oppressors.
Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
spouting malicious accusations.
I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord."
As we steadily seek God's face and not what He can DO for us, we have to be strong and wait for Him to move. Remember....His timing is different from ours...Wait for Him.

Jennifer

Read the Psalms today. Open the word of God and read it over your life and over your situation. Read through until you find one that ministers to you.

Psalms 26:2 says to "test me, Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind;"
Be ready and open to hear God speak to you.

In Christ
Jennifer

I'm stealing this story from someone dear to me but it really was a good illustration and wanted to share (hope you don't mind Cheryl).
She told her son (under the age of 2 I think) that they were going to the park. So her son got excited as she gathered up all of the stuff to go. Of course, her son no more knew what the "park" was....he just thought they were going outside to play. So as they walked outside, her son was fine UNTIL she went to put him in the car. He then started pitching a fit. He didn't understand why they were going bye bye instead of playing outside. He didn't know that mommy had something so much more for him than just playing outside.
God showed her that we are like that. He has big plans for our lives and we get ready to go "outside" and play but God wants to take us down the road to this big "park" so we can run and swing and play. When He goes to take us, we squirm a little, arching our backs, getting uncomfortable, asking, "why don't we just stay here and play Lord?". We have no idea what God has planned for us and yet we decide we don't like it before we even get there.
What if God has a huge field up ahead that He wants you to be in where you can play and learn and grow and minister to the hurting? And yet we choose to stay in our own backyard and play in the dirt and ride our bikes in circles. Will we get to experience the true glory of God?
The bible says to "Go into all of the world and preach the good news to all creation" (Mark 16:15).
We have to stop pitching grown up fits when God tells us He has something for us to do today. We have to stop arching our backs when He puts us in our carseats. We have to stop kicking and screaming when He shuts the door and gets in the driver seat to take us where He wants us to go.
God has a plan for your life. God has a destiny for you. God wants to take you somewhere so big with Him. We just have to stop what we are doing, take a deep breathe, admit that it may not look like what we expected or it doesn't look like where He said He was taking us, and just BELIEVE that God will take us somewhere so much better than where we may be at right now.
Submit to the calling. Submit to the voice of God speaking to you even right now.
And open your eyes to see the most beautiful "park" in the world.
God Bless You Today,

Jennifer

As I study the word tonight God takes me to Philippians. There are so many scriptures in this book that speak to me, but God keeps taking me back to Philippians 1:9-11.
"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God."
Paul is speaking to the church in Philippi and all the followers of Jesus.
Lord, I pray that our love abounds more and more, that you consume us like a burning fire for you and for that closeness with you. Father, those that have never experienced that closeness with the Father, I pray that you come to them where they are at and visit with them. Hold them, let them feel you, and as they seek you more I pray that they find you there waiting on them.
We ask for the knowledge of the word to come alive to us. Are we studying God's word and asking the Holy Spirit to speak to us through it? It is alive. It is here to minister to us and give us insight on our destiny, our future.
To know Christ is our ultimate goal. To know the Father, to truly KNOW Him, to get so inlove with His word that we study it and actually Know Him. How can we know our friends if we don't spend time with them, if we don't talk to them, read about their life?
We must fall inlove with God and let that love bring us into that closeness with the Father so that the knowledge of Him abounds in us and so that we can in turn "discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ" (1:10).
I desire to know God more than ever before in my walk, and I have been saved for 13 years now. The season that God has me in right now is so different from any other season.
God will bestow more on us as we learn more about Him and as we take what He gives us and cherish it, holding it dear to our heart. As we draw closer to Him, we learn His ways and His actions, we feel with His heart and see with His eyes. Our loving becomes more like His. Am I there yet? No, not in all things, but I desire to be.
Surrender to the Father every ounce of your being. Give yourself wholly to Him and study His word daily. Meditate on it, even when it doesn't make sense. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you through it. God's love will abound more and more in knowledge.
You will feel Him in your life, you will see Him in your life, others will start to see Him in your life.
Surrender to the Father.

Jennifer

I sat in church today and as I listened to the message I asked myself, "why is it so hard to trust God?" What is it in our lives that makes us not believe that our God CAN do all things, that He can and will do the impossibilites in our lives? God has or will (at some point in your life) speak to you about something He is calling you to do, and in the fleshly, earthly self it does not seem possible. It makes no sense. Even if you get excited about it and start to plan it out, you come back to reality at some point and dismiss the idea because of the lack of knowledge in that area, fear, lack of financial support, distraction, or many other things that our mind likes to fill us with. But, when you have that burning desire deep down in your gut and you cannot let it go, then you HAVE to believe that even if it sounds crazy to your family, or crazy to your friends, or crazy to you, it still must be done.
As many of my facebook friends know, I will be leaving for Guatemala the end of March. I have been faced with a huge distraction the past few weeks that could, no it does, make me want to turn and walk away from this trip. But, as I sat in church I realized that God planted this in me, He created me to do this, He opened this door for me to walk through, and who am I to say no to the King of Kings and Lord of all Lords? The obstacles that arise with a trip like this are usually to be expected, but when they come it is hard to face. We have to believe and know that God will do the impossibilites in our lives. God is in the business of doing the impossible. He makes a way where there seems to be no way at all. He provides when there seems to be no provision. He heals when there seems to be death all around. Our God, who spoke this trip into my heart, will make a way. I cannot let the things of this earth pull me away from my destiny.
As a Yahweh sister, doing this medical missions trip is part of our ministry. I am called by the Most High God to go and I cannot say no to Him.
Maybe God is speaking to you about something that doesn't seem possible on this earth. It seems absolutely crazy and bizarre to imagine, but God can do this beloved one. He can and He will. Trust Him. Ask Him. Then believe Him for it.
In God's Timing
Jennifer

This is my first entry. I am the third Yahweh sister, one of the cords from a strand that is not easily broken. One of my " New Years resolutions" is to read the bible through. Already behind, I race to get caught up. God gently says to me, "slow down and hear what I have to say". How often do we get on our knees and cry out to God, begging Him to speak to us and to show us the way. Then we wait, going on with our frustrated and busy lives, but still not truly listening. God's answers and all the help we need are in His word. Are we taking the time to spend time with Him in His word? As said in one of my daily bible readings, " It is not life and its difficulties you have to conquer, only the self in you." Wow, how true. Often God has answered our prayers and has forgiven our sins, but it is us, our flesh, that will hold on to something. Today lets move on. Once we pray for forgiveness or lay our burdens at the cross.. Get up and go. Read your bible daily, pray without ceasing, and surround yourself with christian friends and family. Spend time with Him. Have you ever had a problem or something exciting to share? You call everyone you know and the phone is busy or they will not pick up the phone. I know when this happens to me I get mad or pout, "why can't my friends be there for me?". And then my heart softens as I hear God saying to me, "child I'm here. I want to know you and what makes you sad or happy. I am here for you". When you feel all alone, please know that you are not. God is there and believe it or not he wants our companionship. He loves us, unconditionally. Reach out to him today. I am. Right now. Father God, thank you for being there for me and allowing your son to die on the cross for me. I am important to you. I will go now and serve you. Keep me strong and focused on you. Amen.
Amy