I have really been counting my blessings lately. Remembering where we were over the years and thanking God for the miracle he's done in our lives. The most recent thing that has really impacted me is remembering the last extreme "wilderness" we went through in 2007. We were attacked all the way around. We contemplated whether we needed to move away from Lamar, and we were hit extremely hard in our marriage. You'd think after 18 years together we would have been past that. But it got us. After realizing what was happening, we didn't tolerate it and we gave it to God and we made it through stronger than we were before. We have some friends that got hit pretty hard around the same time frame, and they didn't make it. Every time we visit with one of them it brings tears to my eyes knowing that could have been us. Thank you Jesus for saving us!
Okay...here's my most recent "revelation." The day before Thanksgiving Glen and I were talking about healing and miracles. Discussing the difference between healings that happen from someone operating with a "gift of healing" or "gift of miracles," and those that we just pray for and have to be "walked out." We were also discussing all the miracles we saw growing up in church, trying to determine what the difference was from then and now. We grew up in a somewhat strict, non-denominational/pentecostal church that preached a lot of law and not grace and God's love. But, we saw so many miracles. Nowadays, we have really learned to understand God's grace and done away with "unnecessary" law. There are still people praying and fasting...why aren't we seeing what we used to see? I believe it's a level of purity and how much we completely allow God to saturate our lives without "junk" being in the way. That is the main thing I see...the "junk." Back in the 70's and 80's they didn't have the teaching all right....but they didn't have to filter out all the junk. They didn't live in a world overwhelmed by media at every turn of the eyes or ears. Their "rules" for no tvs or movies, were not "lawful" but it truly did help keep the junk out.
Okay...that part wasn't my "big revelation." It came Friday morning as I was waking up, after having watched "Kung Fu Panda" the night before. I'm a little behind....had never seen the movie before. LOL! So, as I was waking up I was remembering, "there is no secret ingredient" from the movie. And as I saw Panda seeing his reflection in the scroll....I remembered the verse I've been dwelling on that we've learned in our "Excellencies of Christ" class...2 Corinthians 3:18. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.And here is what "The Message" says in verses 16-18: Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him. So, I believe the key is that there is "no secret ingredient," in other words...no particular religious hoop that we have to jump through, or no formula to follow....we have to believe...and allow ourselves to be fascinated with God and as we're gazing on Him that is what changes us and therefore changes our "output" so to speak in our lives. I hope that makes sense to those of you reading this...and I hope it becomes a transforming revelation for you, too!
