Taste and See

"O taste and see that the Lord is good..." Psalm 34:8
If you've been around church very much, you've probably heard this scripture. It's always been one of those that I've heard so many times that I didn't think about it much. About a year ago it really got my attention. How do you "taste" God? Let's think about our senses. The long distance sense, if you will, is sight. As you move a little closer you can hear and smell. You've got to be pretty close to touch. And then there is taste. It's the most intimate of our senses. In fact, it's probably the most guarded of them all. For the most part, you are in complete control of what you choose to taste, and you usually choose what is pleasant to your palette.
So God is suggesting that we bring Him up close and personal and choose to ingest Him. Romans 10:8 says, "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart...” Psalm 119:11 says, "Your word I have hidden in my heart..." John 1:1 says "...and the Word was God." We are meant to be changed from the inside out by inviting Jesus into our heart just like we were told when we were kids.  We must choose to taste before we can truly see that He is good. We "become" and it's who we are, not what we do. Our identity changes.
Kris Vallotton says, "If it's not good yet, it's not the end." If you feel like your vision is lacking, or you're not seeing enough good, you may need to adjust your palette.

I Am Light

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. (Genesis 1:3)

A couple of years ago I was listening to a friend of mine, one of my favorite teachers, Pastor Daryl Boucher. In the middle of message on a different topic he pointed out the fact that God said "let there be light" on day one of creation, but didn't create the sun, moon, and stars until day four. Pretty interesting, huh? It has always stuck with me. And Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." Now we're representing Him on this earth. 1 John 1:5 says, "God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all." So, if I'm created in His image, being Jesus on this earth, then I'm light, too, right? I like to look at it this way... If every source of light is cut off then in the midst of all the darkness we should be the source of light. Like literally. The Divine DNA in me will light the world.

 

Influence. You've got it. How are you using it?

What an interesting time to be alive. Seems like we're surrounded by craziness everywhere we look. Everyone has a voice nowadays due to social media. You have influence whether you realize it or not. Some of us have just a few we reach, or a particular niche. Others of us have the ability to reach masses. No matter which dynamic it is, your voice is important. So, how are you choosing to use it? Many of us have areas that we are extremely passionate about and whether we realize it or not, our influence is not being effective because we're using it wrong. How it that possible? Pressure. No matter how right, true, or noble our cause is, if we have to pressure people to influence them, we're doing it wrong. For example, I'm a "born again" believer who loves God with everything in me, but I absolutely detest "religion." I live the way I do from love and if I put those same expectations on others who aren't "in love" yet, it's just a matter of pressure and rules. It doesn't work. Just a few days ago there was a big uproar about the Super Bowl halftime show. There was a tremendous amount of pressure from both sides. The liberals want to use every platform to voice their opinion while the conservatives want to boycott anything they don't agree with. I want to decide for myself. I was in a group setting where we had the game on, but chose to turn it off during the halftime show. Come to find out, there was no reason for concern. Besides God, I have a love and passion for family and patriotism. I want to stir that in others. Putting pressure on people and forcing them to do things just uses the same tactics as the enemy. Even if we're putting pressure on people to "serve God," the devil loves it cuz he knows it's not productive. If you truly have a love for God, and country, and family, then just live out loud. Don't get in a hurry. Build relationships. Don't pressure people. Be contagious. That's my desire. When you truly love something you'll do anything to lay your life down for it. No pressure needed.

Bungee

My childhood memories are few and far between. One thing that stands out to me now is the fact that when asked in elementary school what I wanted to be when I grow up I said I wanted to be an author and an illustrator. Funny how I hated writing in high school and even though artistic ability runs in my genetics, I always thought my doodles didn't amount to much. Now I'm always trying to figure out how to paint a picture with words and telling myself I need to speed more time "doodling." So, here it goes.
I was reading "God is Good" by Bill Johnson a few days ago. He really speaks my language. He was talking about how God wants us to be on this journey with Him. He said, "The greatest gift we could ever give ourselves is to anchor our intellect and will into the strongest foundation possible - the goodness of God." And he goes on to say, "The voyage is one of faith...Faith is the result of surrender, not self-will...So faith then anchors us into the substance of eternity...His goodness then becomes the real estate that I live on and explore freely." Yes! That's it! I've been saying for years that I feel like I'm connected to a bungee cord that's connected to eternity. Bill's words described that perfectly! So, I doodled for you. Beautiful artwork, huh?

 I live on planet earth, inside linear time, yet I'm anchored in eternity. I've never specifically related it to "faith" before, but I do know that I settled on the fact that God is good a long time ago. It's foundational. I like how he says it's real estate that I live on! My grandson, Xavier, was being silly the other day and said, "Grandma, you scared me, I thought you were an alien!" And of course, I said, "I really am an alien!" His reply was "What?!?" I explained to him how I'm really from heaven, just hanging out on the earth for a while. Told him that he was, too. I wonder how that's going to go over when the story is retold.

Hearing. Listening. Understanding. Knowing.

Hearing.

Perceiving sound. Our ears work. If there’s a noise, music, a conversation, etc… we have acknowledged that we heard something.

Listening.

Now that we’ve heard something, we give attention to it. We focus to determine what the sound is, or what is being said.

Understanding.

Now you’ve heard a sound in your ears. You’ve given attention to it to the point that you are comprehending what the sound is communicating.  Whether it’s a sound that causes alarm, a piece of music, or a conversation. Comprehension produces a result, or a reaction. You move out of the way of a falling limb, your emotions are moved by lyrics and melody, or you relay your thoughts on the subject to someone.

Knowing.

This is a level accomplished in relationship with an environment, or a person you are familiar with. You’ve listened to a particular piece of machinery long enough that you know when it doesn’t sound right. You can play or sing a piece of music because you know what note is coming next. You hear someone enter a room and can tell who it is just by their footsteps. Your mother’s voice brings you comfort. And often, even though you know this thing, this sound, this voice, beyond a shadow of a doubt, you can’t fully explain it to someone else. Knowing can’t be transferred. It has to be cultivated within.

I encourage you to evaluate. Your environments. Your relationships. Friends, family, God. Do you get stuck in the hearing or listening stage? How often do you move on to the understanding or knowing? Not every place or person needs to be known by everyone. But you have a specific sphere that you’re called to and you should know it and own it. God designed you to do that.

I Still Believe

My goal this year has been to post on my blog at least once a month. Here it is the last day of July. Even down to the last few hours. As I've been praying and contemplating the last few days on what to write about, it has come down to this. I still believe. If you know me personally, you know this has been a difficult month for me. But I want you to know that my faith, my trust in God, my belief in supernatural miracles has not wavered. On June 16 my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer with only 2-4 months to live. On June 18 my husband, Glen, and I prayed with him. We covered a lot of ground in his soul and in his heart before we addressed the cancer. I felt something shift that day. I left believing the cancer was gone. I stood on that every day, praying for the physical manifestation of that miracle in his body, for almost a month. When there were good signs, I stood. When he was still having symptoms, I stood. When family didn't understand, I stood. Until July 12. God told me I had to let him go. So, I did. My dad chose to leave this earth on July 13. He picked the day and he took his last breath surrounded by family as we called the angels to take him home. I can't explain why it happened the way it did, but here's what I do know. God didn't need him in heaven, He didn't need an angel, cancer wasn't too big for God, and I didn't miss it when I felt healing go into him. Dad was changed after we prayed. His last weeks on earth was from a place of freedom that he had never experienced before. Could he have chosen to stay? Maybe. I know my dad was a prayer warrior. I never knew to what extent until I heard all the stories at the end of his life. I know he would encourage me to keep praying the impossible prayers. He's up there now as part of the great cloud of witnesses. He's meeting Pastor Bill from the other side each morning still interceding for his family. If anything has changed through all of this, it is that my faith has actually grown stronger. I will continue to pray the cancer eradicating, life changing, supernatural healing prayers. Every part of me cries out for heaven on earth. It's what we're made for. Love you, Dad!

Position, Posture,and Freedom

Glen and I love spending time riding our motorcycle. Wind therapy. I spend a lot of time while we're out there in prayer or meditation. While riding the other day I was thinking about the current message coming across to the body of Christ. Do we want just enough of Jesus to look good and have fire insurance, or do we really want Him to be Lord in our lives? Or do we preach that He's Lord and in order to keep everyone safe and in line we keep them boxed in with rules? What does true freedom look like? I'd have to say that until you've tasted it, it looks scary. Dangerous. From a biker perspective, it's like riding in a "cage." That's what we call it when you're in a vehicle other than a bike. All boxed in. You can get down the road, but there's no freedom in it. Now, if you're ready for more freedom, you can't just jump on a bike and go. There are some things you need to understand first. The key word is balance. I want to share my perspective with you. I like the back. I enjoy the ride and the scenery. But, that also means I'm not in control. I've got to trust Glen. That's how I view my relationship with God. I have to invite Him to have control, then I trust Him. I enjoy the ride. I don't kick him off when a storm comes and try to take control again. I have to keep Him in that position in my life. Now, although He's steering, I have a huge part to play. I've got to know how to ride and maintain posture. Now matter how skilled my driver is, if I throw my weight around, especially in a curve, we're going down. No one's fault but my own. I think that's where the church has gotten it wrong for so long. They've been in one of two ditches: legalism or hyper grace. We're either using rules to keep us boxed in and safe, or we're crashing and burning because we don't understand how to posture ourselves in freedom. I love how John Bevere brings out holiness in his book, Good or God. We must have it to bring God's presence and be able to posture ourselves correctly to enjoy true freedom. Riding is my passion, but we've got to take this analogy a little farther because as I like to say over and over, we are meant to fly! In an airplane, your posture comes into play in trusting the instruments. You have to completely re-train your senses to do that. Are you ready to position Jesus as Lord and posture yourself to enjoy freedom?