Peace On Earth

Peace on earth goodwill to men….

Webster's definition of peace; 1. The normal, non-warring condition of a nation, group of nations or the world. 2. A state of mutual harmony between people or groups. 3. The normal freedom from civil commotion and violence of a community. 4. A cessation of freedom from strife or dissension.  If I only look at these definitions to tell me if peace exists, I would have to answer with a resounding, NO! Every one of these statements place peace with the human condition and that just isn't a safe place to base our peace.  I too am guilty of thinking that my peace is tied to the absence of conflict, trials, and hardship in my life. The peace we seek is not earthbound…

I have thought much about peace in the last few days as tragedy and evil ascended on an elementary school, as I visited with a single mom desperately trying to hang on to her home and children, as an abused and weary woman asked for prayer, as I watched a mother who is facing extreme health issues sing praises.  As a little boy, around the age of ten, on his way home from school walked by my house dropping a load of heavy boxes, I asked if I could help him home with them and he cautiously said yes. I helped him pick up the boxes, his books and violin.  I asked him are you wrapping Christmas gifts in all of these boxes?  He hung his head and said, “No, we don’t have any heat at our house, but we have a fireplace and I found these boxes in the trash at school, so I waited until everyone left so I could get them and bring them home to help start a fire.”  I thought of peace when I saw my own grandmother with her Alzheimer induced mind living in anything but.  What about peace for the thousands that live in slavery, abandonment, hunger, and danger everyday?  I asked again of peace last night standing in the cold talking to my new friend Alvin, homeless, alcohol addicted and hungry.  The peace we seek is not earthbound….

The prophet Isaiah prophesied about Jesus coming, saying; “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”  Jesus is the Prince of Peace!  When the angels heralded the birth of Jesus they sang praises saying; “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men, with whom He is well pleased.”  The Prince of Peace, Jesus, stepped into our human existence as a man and Peace the person dwelt among us.  When Jesus had finished His task on earth and was on His way to the cross to secure our victory and peace, He spoke these words, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”  His life here on earth was book-ended with Him as Peace.  This peace is defined as; “rest, the end of striving, this peace is the object of  thedivine and saving promise, and is brought about by God’s mercy, granting deliverance and freedom from all distresses that are a result of sin.”  That is why the message of salvation through Jesus is called the gospel of peace.  The Peace we seek is not earthbound…

This peace we all seek is not found apart from the person of Jesus.  It is not the absence of trials and hardships it is an abiding knowledge of relationship with the Person of Peace, Jesus.  How I live in that…I’m not exactly sure…by faith…  I keep asking the Prince of Peace to show me and to rule over my heart.  This Peace?  It is divine!  The peace we seek is not earthbound….

Praying the Prince of Peace is known this Christmas season and through the coming year.

Merry Christmas!

Kim

Isaiah 9:6, Luke 2:14, Colossians 3:15, John 16:33, John 14:27

Peace on Earth song by Lila Mccann;

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

Wimpy Women

I read John Piper’s words again this morning; “Wimpy theology makes wimpy women.  Wimpy theology simply does not give a woman a God that is big enough, strong enough, wise enough, and good enough to handle the realities of life in a way that magnifies the infinite worth of Jesus Christ.  Wimpy theology is plagued by women-centeredness and man-centeredness.  Wimpy theology doesn't have the granite foundation of God’s sovereignty or the solid steel structure of a great God-centered purpose for all things”

I remember a commercial that aired years ago for Hefty trash bags, at the beginning there would be a chorus of soprano voices saying; wimpy, wimpy, wimpy and about that time the trash bag that the woman was struggling with would bust and trash would spill out creating a terrible mess. Then a chorus of very manly baritone voices would say, “hefty, hefty, hefty, and the woman would effortlessly remove the bag and all the contents would stay put.  What a great word picture! Wimpy theology holds nothing; hefty theology holds me and my circumstances because it is based on the truth of who God is.

Several women agreed to join me on this journey this fall.  We looked at Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Ruth, David, and Jehoshaphat and asked simple questions, like who does God say He is? And how do we see God’s redemptive history, as every story we visited showed how God is always about rescuing and redemption.  I have constantly confessed that I don’t want to be a woman who learns theology over and over, saying that with each new circumstance or trial, I must learn the same truth over again. But one who learns theology more and more, deeper and deeper.  I want to be a woman that is not passive with knowledge, but confronts life with the theology He has pressed into me.  That all sounds great doesn't it? But the struggle is that it has challenged me in so many areas of life!  I have had to ask myself why I believe the things I believe and why do I respond the way I do?  Leaving me often in a place that I have to honestly say, my reality doesn't match my theology.  But…that is the process….recognizing more quickly…..running more swiftly…..to Him….His truth….His ways…. We made a list of all the theology He revealed about Himself over the past twelve weeks.  It is lengthy, but it is also faith building, truth centered.  And as I seek to not be a “wimpy woman” a list that I will cling to…pressing forward….Kim

God will do what He says He will do.

God is faithful.

God is provider.

God is redeemer.

God initiates, provides for, and completes redemption.

God displays His lovingkindness.

God strives with man.

God changes our name.

God is sovereign.

God is always writing His story of salvation.

God is with us.

God is passionate about His name.

God is the one true God.

God is a God of providence.

God hears us.

God sees us.

God places His people in positions to trust Him.

God has done everything to secure my victory.

God is the living God.

God always keeps covenant.

God is always about restoration.

God seeks us.

God has power and might in His hands.

God is always for His glory and my good.

Under the Wings of God

I have the sweet privilege to be studying God’s word this fall with some amazing women.  We are taking some of the familiar stories of scripture and asking God to teach us about Himself, to teach us theology and to sink it deep into our hearts.  This week we studied and looked at the beautiful love story of Ruth.  I ran again into a truth that the Lord has been pressing into my life for a few years.  When Boaz says to Ruth, “may the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you fully.”  The wings of God…such imagery…such beauty…such rest!  I remember the precious moment that He let me feel the reality of His wings.

We had traveled to a far away land, to a country that is closed to God and to His life rescuing hand.  Yet up in the mountains of this country there is a pocket of many believers, a result of missionaries that 150 years ago invested…and gave their lives for the people of the area.  We were sent to encourage the body.  Jim would meet with the pastors in the area and I would meet with the pastor’s wives in a retreat setting.  They traveled for miles, some of them three and four days for two days of teaching.  The week was hard spiritually and physically with the conditions we were in.  We came to the end of the week totally spent and fragile.  One of the pastors asked if we would please spend our last evening in his home.  It is against the law for foreigners to be in local’s homes so we went there in the cloak of night, in a torrential rain storm and on a motorcycle!  I remember being on the verge of tears when we arrived and having thoughts that I could not muster up one more ounce of energy.  We walked into their home.  It was modest, mats on the floor, four chairs, a dirt floor kitchen, and a wood burning stove in the middle.  It was rainy and cold, the warmth of the stove felt so good on our wet skin.  But nothing compared to the warmth of the couple that we shared the space with.  The pastor/husband could speak English but the wife could only say a few words.  So everything that was said was said with interpretation.  After entering we were served hot tea and seated on two of the four chairs.  Our hostess then scurried out of the room and reappeared.  She unfurled a beautiful shawl, made with traditional colors of deep burgundy and green.  Her husband explained that she was a weaver and had made the shawl herself.  She would later show us her loom as she sat on the floor, the loom securely on her lap and the tension peddles being controlled by her feet. She came over to me offering me the shawl, she then once again unfurled it, came behind me and wrapped me in the bright colored cloth and her arms, whispering some of the only words she knew in my ear, “be blessed Kim”.  I was wrapped in love.  Under the warmth of this woven treasure I was overwhelmed with the sense of belonging, a place of refuge, a place of care. The Lord used it to heal me that stormy night and to teach me the refuge that is found only under His wings. I kept wrapped in the shawl for the rest of the night and even now often I will make a cup of tea and wrap myself in it.  God’s wings are our refuge, shelter, covering, resting place, a place we can sing for joy.  Learning to not look to anyone or any other place for this is the journey.  Even Jesus stood on top of a hillside over looking Jerusalem and said how He longed to gather them under His wings. 

Learning to stay tucked under His wings.

Be Blessed!

Kim

Psalm 17:8, Psalm 36:7, Psalm 57:1, Psalm 61:4, Psalm 63:7, Psalm 91:4, Duet. 32:11, Matt. 23:37

A beautiful song written based on Ruth 2:12 by a gifted singer/song writer, Mandy Mapes.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OciO_9hk6fA

Wrestling and Walking With A Limp

We gathered this week, these brave women and me.  These women who are pulling up their chairs, opening up God’s book and questioning their theology and it’s relationship to their own dailies. This road is not easy, this asking God to show Himself.  Because He does, He delights in answering that plea…and then…what do you do with that?  God I mean?  When He reveals Himself and truth that is so real that it wrestles you to the ground?

We planted our lives in Genesis 32…

God?

He is full of loving-kindness and faithfulness.

He is the only source of true blessing.

He sometimes has to dislocate us to get us to the blessing.

He is quite big enough to handle our wrestling things out with Him.

He is the one, after all, who initiates the wrestling match.

Jacob?

After wrestling through the night and in excruciating pain from his hip being dislocated is asked to let go.  But could he?  I imagine him clinging, using God just to stay upright and saying, “No! I will not let you go until you bless me.”  What a picture to stay in a clinging position and say No, I will not let you go in the midst of great pain and complete uncertainty.  When asked, “what is your name”, what went though his mind?  His father had asked him that same question some twenty years earlier and he lied!  His name, Jacob, means supplanter, one who takes what he wants using whatever means necessary to get it, by force and or deception.  He had lived up to his name when God found him alone and cloaked in the darkness of night.  In his mind did he attach his answer to what he had done in the past or what he had become in the present?  Don’t we?  How often do I indentify myself with my past mistakes or what I do, or even successes?  Jacob was given a new name, a name that would identify him with God.  His life was preserved, snatched, delivered, and forever changed.  Ours too upon the first encounter with God and multiple days and wrestling encounters along the way. He is constantly wrestling the old out of us so that we can embrace Him and our new name. Oh teach me to live in His identification alone!  Jacob would walk the rest of his life with a limp as a result of the wrestling. A constant reminder, step by step, of what God did on that day.  What’s so wrong with a limp?  I think we are so concerned that everyone thinks we have it all together that we could never let someone see us limp.  Truth?  What we really need to see is each other walking this thing called life, this road full of joys, sorrows, pain, highs and lows, with a limp!

One step at a time.

Blessings,

Kim

Genesis 32, Isaiah 43:1, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

  

The Question

I don’t even remember when I was first confronted with the question.  All I remember is that it messed with my Christian box that I had everything neatly packed into, along with my expectations and my own perceptions.  There was a time that I had it on a 3X5 card and the time that I had it written on a chalkboard in our home all with the attempts to be sincere in my searching and then it would slip again out of my consciousness.  What is the question?  It is this…Does my reality match my theology?  Even typing it makes me uneasy, because all too often I know the answer.

I have the sweet privilege this fall to study God’s word with a group of ladies that are willing to ask the same question.  We are jumping into scripture together asking to see God more clearly, know Him more fully and to allow Him to form His theology in us. Desiring to not just have more knowledge about God, but to actually know God.  We looked at Genesis 22:1-18 this week, where Abraham is asked to take Isaac and sacrifice him to God.  It is such a hard and brutal story.  And yet, just like our God, beauty flows from something that is unimaginable. 

We grappled with how Abraham loved Isaac and that the word love is the same word in Deuteronomy 6:5, where we are told to love the Lord our God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your might. A love that is directed to and reserved for God, a love that says, “You have all of me”.  We rejoiced with a ram caught in the thicket by it’s horns and recognized that our redemption has been accomplished because a horn of salvation has been raised up for us…Thank You Jesus! (Luke 1:68-69) We squirmed as we wondered why Abraham’s confession that, “they would worship and return”, knowing what Hebrews 11:17-19 tells us about his faith, wasn’t enough to stop what was in play.  Why did they have to walk up the mountain, build an alter, and get to the point of a knife being positioned to plunge into Isaac’s body?   Only to admit that we too have a disconnect between what we say and think and how we respond.  So when life starts to crumble or a circumstance brings us to our knees we don’t confront it with the truth of who God is and our knowledge is passive and not active.   Then, the disconnect remains between my reality and my theology.  Life requires action and not just words.

We saw God this morning in all His glory; His desire to pull us into a closer relationship with Himself, through the harshness.  His beautiful provision, His name is Provider! His desire to rescue, which has always been His plan.  We heard the name Jesus whispered, well shouted loudly really, in an only son being offered, in a ram caught in a thicket, and in a substitute sacrifice.

There has been a paragraph on a page in a book that intersected my life a couple of years ago.  I have it highlighted in bright pink and I have read it multiple times in the past year of life.  In speaking about great women theologians it reads; “They were serious about knowing Him and studied the Scriptures with that intention.  They nurtured their faith on the truth of God’s character so that, instead of starting over from scratch in each new situation, wondering if God’s goodness had expired or if He had somehow lost control, these women fixed their eyes on Him and actually put their weight down on the truth.  No matter what the challenge or the adversity their ironclad conviction was that He is always good, is always on His throne, is always working, always knows what He is doing, and that His love for them never stops.  They were not passive with their knowledge but consciously took it up and confronted life with it.  Their hearts were strong because they were sure of God.  It made a difference in their running, and what is more because their eyes were fixed on Jesus, they were better wives, mother, daughters, and friends.” From: When Life and Beliefs Collide by Carolyn Custis James

I want to be that kind of woman!

To those that I’m walking this out with….thanks for journeying with me and I’m sorry that it doesn’t always look pretty! To those who are reading this and are on the same quest….hey sister!

Learning what it means to put my weight down on truth.

Blessings,

Kim

Walking Upright

    The place had to be crowded that day! After all it was the Sabbath, the day that all devout people…religious people…came to the synagogue…the church house. Why did she come? What possessed her to be there? Did she come every week? Was she looking for relief or was she simply doing the thing that you are supposed to do? I want the inside scoop! I can’t even imagine her surprise when the man who was teaching that day, called over to her, across the crowd, to come to him. What made her different from everyone else that day? She was a woman that had been dealing with a sickness for eighteen long years. This sickness was unusual to be sure; she was bent over and unable to straighten up. Everyone must have known this woman around town; we tend to focus on oddities as human beings. This sickness, this oddity, was caused by a spirit and kept her in a position of being bent, held down, unable to stand up straight and walk erect. Jesus spoke to her that day, with the same voice that spoke the world into existence, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness”. He then laid His hands on her and immediately she was made erect!

     Jesus called her a daughter of Abraham, that was WHO she was! Because I am "in Christ", my position is secure! There is nothing that the enemy of my soul can do about my position in Christ, so his attempts are always to keep me bent over so that I can’t walk upright in the fullness of who I am in Christ. I have been this woman! Multiple times I have recognized that I was living bent over, carrying around guilt, shame, past hurts and bitterness on my back; all the while talking to myself, “just straighten up and get it together, Kim!” I was completely unable to talk or will myself into walking upright. In the past year Jesus has been lovingly showing me the things that have kept me bent over and touching those places so that I can walk upright. I have been known to do my Braveheart impression of screaming F-R-E-E-D-O-M at the top of my lungs!! I do it in the privacy of my home, but Jesus hears it and I know the full meaning of it! How often do we keep doing the things we are supposed to do, walking bent, while Jesus wants us to hear Him speak and rest in His completed action of the cross…our salvation….our redemption…our freedom.

      Even in this His Sovereignty shines through. Had I never walked bent over, I would never know the goodness of walking upright!

His truth, my good, 
Kim 

 Luke 13:10-17, Galatians 5:1

His Goodness

Life is full! We have spent the last few months transitioning from one life event to another. God's goodness to us has overwhelmed us and caused our cups to overflow. There is no way a fragile human container can hold the goodness of a God so abundant and big. And yet, He so freely pours Himself...His sweetness...His goodness, into our earthen vessel lives. His goodness.... We spent two weeks walking in Asia. Oh how I love you Asia, your lands, your people are forever knitted into my heart. We worshiped with brothers and sisters in Spirit and truth, where no interpreter was needed. We saw His light and we saw darkness that has not yet experienced the Light of the World. Once again my heart was wrecked...my cup overflows... His goodness... I watched as the son of my youth put on a cap and gown and said goodbye to college days. His walk across the stage to receive his diploma was more of a walk further into manhood. A man who is following,a man so much like his daddy, a man who desires to be a man after God's own heart. My cup overflows... His goodness... I had the privilege to intercede as our sweet daughter and the son-in-love traveled to foreign lands to seek God's direction for their lives. We played, giggled, and experienced God in running through sprinklers, tea parties, fishing, swinging on the porch swing, picking apricots and moments in a rocking chair before bedtime prayers with our two "grand-girls". My cup overflows... His goodness... We experienced a river side turned into an outdoor sanctuary as God met us and watched as Garrett and Blair said, "I Do". Entering into covenant and sealing it with a kiss. He was there and we sensed His pleasure. We delighted ourselves to His goodness under a west Texas starry sky and a canopy of lights. We tasted His goodness as we indulged in peach and cherry cobbler with homemade ice cream. His presence was known as the bride and groom looked at each other and made their promise for all time, as family and friend's laughter filled the air and as a gentle breeze drifted through, seeming almost like His approving sigh. My cup overflows... As I ponder and process, the words of David roll around in my remembrance; "Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family that You have brought me, (us) this far?" Truly a question to ponder. There is only one answer....His goodness...ALL really is grace! My cup overflows, Kim

Red Lights to Redemption

As I rounded the corner on my walk this morning, I saw her. She was one of many that I saw this morning. It is spring break this week in our town and my usually quiet, sleepy neighborhood walk has been alive with children riding bikes, boys playing army, and her. She was dressed in a pink fluffy dress and was twirling round and round in her driveway. She leaped and lunged like she was performing a dance for an unknown audience. As I got closer to her, I saw that she had a dazzling tiara on her head; you know the kind with large plastic pink stones and in her hand a scepter, also with matching pink stones. No princess is complete without matching dress, tiara and scepter! She saw me as I finally walked past her house…her stage…her private kingdom. I smiled and waved. Embarrassed that I had been a witness of her play, she shyly cocked her head, smiled and ran for her front door. I giggled and continued on my route. As I traveled, I thought that is how every little girl’s life should be. Secure, safe, so carefree that twirling around in the driveway in your princess attire is the top priority of the day.

Sadly, it is not. Many little girls and women around the world don’t know the freedom of the little girl I saw today. Their lives are anything but free. They are trapped and enslaved by those that know only how to exploit and profit off of the lives of others. In Thailand her name may be Banjit, in India, Daya, in Indonesia, Melati, in China, Jing, in America, Jenny. Their locations and names may be different but their stories are very much the same. Some are promised jobs, some are promised wealth and some are promised provision for their families. Some have no where else to turn because they have no mother or father and have to provide for themselves. They are the girls and women that are trafficked and sold into slavery in the sex trade. There is said to be 12.3 million adults and children in forced labor, bonded labor and forced prostitution around the world today. Human slavery on every level. Forced prostitution,"the sex trade business" generates 32 billion dollars world wide annually. It is so easy for us to read statistics and click off, isn’t it? My mind can’t wrap around such largeness, so it is easy for me to ignore until I see a face or hear a story of one little girl.

It is hard to look at. But aren’t we called to take notice, to consider the helpless, those that are poor, weak and oppressed? In the days that we were walking in Thailand, the reality of this depravity would often hit me square in the face when I was in the market and saw an older man, usually with a white face, holding the hand of a young 12 to 14 year old Thai girl. My stomach would turn and disgust would fill my thoughts. To my shame, I wish I could tell you that I rescued that little girl or that I interjected something into the situation that changed the outcome of what I witnessed…but I did not. God has kept this stirring in my heart. Like only God can do, He has orchestrated details with an upcoming trip, that if He wills, I may interject into the lives of some of the above described. The only thing that I have worth interjecting is Him. Until the time that my eyes see their faces, He has me pleading for their freedom before His throne. The prayer He has laid on my heart is Psalm 82:3-4, Oh God, vindicate the weak and the fatherless, do justice to the afflicted, the tired, the trapped, the sick and the destitute. Rescue the weak, the enslaved and the needy; Deliver them, snatch them out of the hand of the wicked and those that exploit and enslave for personal gain.

These girls and women who live within the shadows of red lights need advocates; People who will stand in the gap and those who will go and take the Truth of Jesus to them. Oh that those who are defined as “Red Light Girls” would no longer be so! That God’s story would be written over their lives and they would only have one defining word attached to their names….REDEEMED!

From red lights to redemption….

A serving of my heart,
Kim

Books I have been reading:
Girls Like Us by Rachel Lloyd
Rid of My Disgrace by Justin and Lindsey Holcomb
God in a Brothel by Daniel Walker
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Sandpaper

I once heard a preacher refer to people who rub us the wrong way as, “holy sandpaper”. It painted quite the word picture in my mind. Sandpaper is irritating, gritty and harsh. All adjectives that I have observed in others and in myself as well! I like LOOKING at the sandpaper, describing those things that I think are abrasive and offensive. But sandpaper is a substance that is to be used on an object to smooth out roughness. It’s my roughness that God is trying to smooth, it’s my cracks and scratches that He is sanding out of my life so that I can reflect something beautiful…His workmanship…Him!

As long as we walk around in these bodies of flesh we will have our feelings hurt, have ample opportunities for misunderstandings and the chance to be offended will exist. What we do with those opportunities is our choice. But it is so hard…isn’t it? Especially when you think you are right? There was a woman, years ago who inflicted much pain in my life by things that she said and by her actions. I remember the day the Lord revealed the depth of unforgiveness that I was harboring toward her. I think the analogy of unforgiveness being like drinking poison but hoping the other person dies from it, is correct. The poison drained from my life that day as I open-palmed the woman and my unforgiveness to the One who can redeem any person or relationship. In the last 10 months, the Lord in His sovereignty has allowed me to put hands to my forgiveness. You see, the woman was one of my grandmothers. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s last summer, and since then I have had the pleasure on many days to comb her hair, put her socks on, give her medicine, cook her meals and pray with her. Thank you Grace Giver!

It is a constant perspective check isn’t it? Will I hold to my own perspective and be offended or will I ask to have the Father’s perspective? Recently I ran across a writing of Elisabeth Elliot’s on this subject, a perspective shift for sure! She writes, “Insofar as her treatment of me requires more kindness than I can find in my own heart, demands love of a quality I do not possess, asks of me patience that only the Spirit of God can produce in me, she is God’s messenger. God sends her in order that He may send me running to God for help.” That’s it isn’t it? Recognize it more quickly and run more swiftly to Him, my Source, the One who pours His perfect love into my imperfect heart.

Being Sanded,
Kim

Robin Ballet

As I walked today springtime robins were dancing everywhere! They were flitting on branches of budding trees and hopping in yards of emerging green. It was like a ballet. I have always been fascinated with birds. I have very early memories of being given a salt shaker as a little girl and told to go out in the backyard and try to put salt on a crow’s tail feathers. If I accomplished this great task, the crow would let me pick it up. It never happened but it wasn’t for the lack of trying. As a mother of grown children and a grandmother, I fully realize what this exercise was all about! No guilt here though… I might use it this summer when my three-year-old grand-girl comes to visit. 

Raising our children in the Ozarks gave us ample opportunity to see God’s handiwork. One year for Mother’s day, Garrett made me a large bird feeder. It was large enough for multiple birds to be on at one time. At any given moment, it was like God would paint a picture for us using colors that were only on His paint pallet, as purple, turquoise and yellow finches would land. Then Missouri blue birds sporting their blue coats and coral vests and woodpeckers with their bright red top hats would come for the fare we were serving.

Birds show up in my writing and in my home. Almost every room has a touch of them somewhere; a nest with blue eggs, a picture, and two little red birds huddled together on a dresser. My nieces have asked, “What’s all this bird stuff in your house, aunt Kim?” I’ve been called “Birdie” and likened to an old woman. That’s okay because I know….I know the picture….I know what He has told me. You see I have seen a momma hen puff herself so big you thought she would explode as she gathered her chicks under her wings for their protection and rest. So when I read words like, “He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge”, I see that momma hen gather her chicks so tightly you would never know they are there and I realize my Father gathers me, hides me and protects me. And, as Ruth, I am constantly learning it is only under His wings that I can seek refuge and find rest.

As God invited Jim and me into this season of seeking, I had so many questions and no answers. I had fears and insecurities. How would we live? How would we pay the bills? What if we made a mistake? What would people think? Almost immediately after surrendering to what we believed He was asking us to do, a verse came to my mind, He was speaking to my heart, for that is His work regarding His children. Matthew 6:26 “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?” You know when God wants to make a point, to teach, it seems like you see or hear the same thing over and over? This verse has shown up miraculously over and over in the past ten months. It has been in devotions, in sermons and written on mirrors in antique stores! Why? So that the words are no longer words written in red on a page but words that are tattooed permanently on my heart. The questions? They still come, but today as I watched my “robin ballet” I was reminded again, He has it all under control. But most of all I was reminded again, He has me covered!

Eyes to the skies….

Love,
Birdie (aka Kim)
Psalm 91, Ruth 2:13, Deuteronomy 32:11, Matthew 23:27, Matthew 6:26

The Robin and the Sparrow

Said the robin to the sparrow,
“I should really like to know,
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so.”
Said the sparrow to the robin,
“Friend I think that it must be,
That they have no Heavenly Father,
Such as cares for you and me.”
~~Unknown Author

Dove's Eyes

I sit down with my coffee in hand and there is a stillness that wraps me. This is the part of the morning that I love. I slip into the place my family calls “my nest”. It is that place where bibles, devotionals, composition books some full and some waiting to be filled, pencils, highlighters and pens reside. I love being surrounded by paper and books! In my nest I sit, I pray, I listen and read. This morning I sat in the silence trying to drink it up along with the hot black stuff that I cradled in my hands. Then I heard her, just outside my bedroom window, singing her song, cooing to me as I listened. A dove had landed on the window sill. Her song of gentleness was so soothing. I had asked the Lord to still me this morning as I walked to my nest, anticipating what He would say. Still me, He did. I didn’t move for almost ten minutes as she continued to be His instrument to serenade my soul to a place where it was ready to listen. I wondered how many times He has tried this before and I have rushed on and never noticed? After she flew away, I thought about the truth that I had tucked in my heart about doves. I turned to the Song of Solomon. (This is the place that if either one of my children are reading they have gasped and said, “No, mom you’re not going to talk about sex!" No, I’m not...maybe some other time though!) In chapter one verse fifteen, of this book that is a beautiful love story of two very real people and an amazing metaphor of my love relationship with the Lover of my soul, the Beloved is speaking and he says to her, “How beautiful you are, my darling, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are like doves” As with so many comparisons in the book, like, “your hair is like a flock of goats” this statement about eyes being like doves seems strange to us women walking around in 2012! The fact is, dove have no peripheral vision. The only thing they see is what is right in front of them. I lived in West Texas for almost four years where dove are plentiful. Many times I would see a dove as I was driving down a street and think that it was not going to get out of the way. It would wait until I was right upon it before it would move. Whatever is front of them is what captures their vision and they can’t see anything else. I know He was reminding me how easy it is for me to allow other people and other situations to consume my vision. I am so easily distracted! Oh how I pray for dove’s eyes, so that my Beloved is the only One who captures my vision.

Be Thou My Vision….

Kim
(Song of Solomon 1:15, 4:1, Hebrews 12:2)

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.
Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all

Love Is In The Air

Valentines are everywhere! I have been working in a florist shop for this biggest of all seasons for flowers. It has been fun to be surrounded by red roses, pink roses, carnations, tulips, chocolates and gifts wrapped in red and white paper. I have helped husbands and boyfriends as they struggle to send just the right thing to the one they love. The best part is when I ask, “and how would you like your card to read, sir?” Most are very sweet; some are direct and to the point and some I must admit are a little steamy! The steamy ones usually are over the phone, if they were face to face, I would be the reddest thing in the room!! The cards have the usual “Happy Valentines Day” or a beautifully written “Love” at the top. There is one that says, “Be Mine”; I like that one the best. Somehow the words, Be Mine communicate much more to me; they say “I want you”, “we are together”, “we belong with each other”.

God’s valentines are all around us and run through His word like a brightly colored scarlet thread. He is always expressing His love to us. One of those red ribbon verses is Isaiah 43:1; I drop my name within its rich content. I have the verse written on a 3x5 card and like a little girl preparing valentines; I took my red sharpie and put red hearts all around it. This valentine, these words of belonging, sit propped on my kitchen window sill. It is His valentine to me. I read it every morning….and can’t help but smile! It reads;

“But now, Kimberly, the Lord who created you says, “Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name; you are MINE.”

His valentine….
His love…..
His redemption…

I am relishing in the reality of relationship. Even with all my faults and prone to wander ways, He looks at me and says, “Mine”!

How deep…how wide…how great…is the love of God?

Overwhelmed,
Kim

Ephesians 3:17-19 NLT

“And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in Him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how big, and how deep His love really is.”

Rock Climbing

Have you ever been asked to go someplace or to do something that you thought utterly impossible or didn’t make sense? Or maybe you find yourself in a place that isn’t comfortable and you’re searching for a way out. I’ve been there!

One summer we took our kids and our then future son-in-law to Yellowstone and the area that surrounds it. We love going there and find much to do as we like to watch nature, hike and white water raft. My family likes to rock climb so we searched for some kind of rock face that they could climb. We stopped at the ranger station and a kind ranger directed us to a place that we could climb that was off the beaten path. He was careful to tell us that a grizzly bear had been in the area and that we would need to make a lot of noise going up, that was to keep bears away…I guess? We found the place, it was one of those places that has a sign-in and sign-out sheet at the entry point of the trail, just in case you sign in and don’t sign out they will come looking for you or what remains of you! Off we went on a narrow trail that snaked up the side of the mountain. The trail was only wide enough for one, so we looked like a parade going up the mountain. Every once in a while someone would recognize that we were being too quiet as we navigated the trail. They had obviously had a thought of a grizzly bear; they would break out in a song like This Is The Day and clap their hands loudly. We would all laugh hilariously and sing along. When we arrived at the face, the kids noticed that the face was loose and they would have to climb without ropes or tying in. They would take three steps up and then slide down a bit, regroup and go again. Jim didn’t think I should try it, which made me laugh because I don’t think that thought ever entered into my mind! So off they all went three lunges forward and then slide down. I was standing on a narrow ledge with a drop off of about twenty feet below me, a raging river at the bottom of the ravine and a mountain face on the other side that my family was creeping upward on. It then hit me, I was alone and what about the bears!!! Great, Jim really wasn’t thinking about me having a hard time climbing, he was using me as bear bait!! I sang, clapped my hands, watched my family and prayed for them as they struggled to navigate the rock face. All of a sudden my family froze, a mountain goat had scampered out on this face that literally had very little angle to it. I know he had to be thinking what are these things clinging to my mountain?! That goat must have been stunned, because he stood there long enough for me to get my camera out and take a picture, then he scampered away effortlessly. I was delighted and couldn’t believe how wonderful it was. My family continued to struggle to get their footing and made it to the top. I realized that they were able to see things from the top that I was never going to see from the semi-safe ledge below. Although the climb was difficult, as proof by the torn clothing, dirt covered, scraped and bleeding family that returned to me…it was all worth it!

High places are not easy places to get to usually. They require determination and wisdom to navigate. Sometimes there are scrapes, bruises and blood accompanying the climb. The high places in our lives are the places that the Lord desires to take us. And although difficult, it is usually in the climb that we know Him more intimately as He teaches us things that would not otherwise be learned. My high places are not your high places. The difficult things that have come in and out of my life probably don’t look the same as yours, but we all have them. His promise to us is to be with us, to guide us, and to equip us for the climb. Even when my climbing looks like taking three steps forward and sliding backwards or just hanging on, digging my fingernails into the dirt to cling and keep my footing. He knows the way I take! Never thought I would pray, make me like a goat…give me hind’s feet!

Ever climbing,
Kim

Habakkuk 3:19 The Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, and makes me walk on my high places.

Job 23:10 He knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

Inquiring Minds Want To Know?????

I'm always on the hunt for a good book or study or teaching that is out there. I try every January to make a book list for the coming year, most years I never read the whole list! I thought I would share a few books that I have read lately, a couple of them I read a while back and have re-read them. Also a couple of teachings and devotionals. Would love to hear from you what are a few of the books, studies, devotionals, that you would recommend.

Books:
The Red Sea Rules by Robert J. Morgan
They Found the Secret by V. Raymond Edman
One.Life Jesus Calls, We Follow by Scot McKnight
Grace For the Good Girl by Emily Freeman
Invitation To Solitude and Silence by Ruth Haley Barton

Teachings:
Jonah by Priscilla Shirer (I didn't do the workbook, just watched the teaching DVD's)
Wrecked Not Ruined by Beth Moore (this is a teaching done on Life Today with James and Betty Robinson and is a 5 part teaching done in November and December) lifetoday.org

Devotionals:
Jesus Calling by Sarah Young
A Lamp Unto My Feet by Elisabeth Elliot

Ok, if you have a minute would you leave me a comment and let me know what you are reading or a teaching series that you think is really good, or a devotional that you reach for that really speaks to you. Can't wait to hear your responses!!! Thanks for taking the time.

Blessings,
Kim

shhhh

Has God ever asked you to be quiet?

What an exercise it is for me to be quiet! Those closest to me aren’t used to it; in fact, Jim says it makes him nervous when I’m quiet and not verbally processing everything! All through elementary school, it was not unusual for my report card to have a note from the teacher that read, “Kimberly is a good student, gets along well with her peers, but is too talkative.” I actually had one teacher that put me and my desk behind a cardboard tri-fold. I’m not sure that worked?! As I got older and went to junior high and high school, I had some insightful teachers along the way that steered me into speech, drama and debate. Even in those early years, the Lord was forming me. As He became my Savior and Lord, the adventure began. He would ask me to cooperate with Him by walking into new places, loving the adventure, and talking! (Teaching) A teacher always wants to share what the Lord is teaching her. But sometimes the lesson is just for her and Him. He puts a cardboard tri-fold around her, not because she is in trouble, but because He wants to teach her and have her undivided attention. There flows a sweet intimacy that isn’t up for discussion. I have stepped into this “blog world” and have been grateful for the opportunity to let some of the lessons spill from my heart to written word. They are the expulsion of some of the words that He is writing on my heart and allowing me to share. It has been a joy to converse with those of you who have been emailing me. (Keep it up, I love hearing from you!) Honestly this lesson in vulnerability leaves me feeling naked most days when I hit the “post” button. But there are those things that I think are in every woman’s heart; things that are just between her and the Lover of her soul. These are things that Mary treasured and pondered in her heart, the places we are asked to walk alone. For over six months I have had words, His words in my ears saying things like; “Be still, stop striving and know that I am God” Ps. 46:10 and “The work of righteousness will be peace, and the service of righteousness, will be quietness and confidence forever” Isaiah 32:17. Being still and being quiet, not things that I’m very good at but things that I’m learning. For years I thought about the declaring of truth more than the living of truth…about the doing more than the being.

I am constantly learning that one of the things that the Father is doing is preparing us for what is coming next whether that is a trial, a new season of life or the next assignment. The following is an excerpt from Streams in the Desert that has spoke to me over and over. “There are times and places where God will form a mysterious wall around us, and cut away all props, and all the ordinary ways of doing things, and shut us up to something divine, which is utterly new and unexpected, something that old circumstances do not fit into, where we do not know just what will happen, where God is cutting the cloth of our lives on a new pattern, where He makes us look to Himself.” I like the expected, I like sameness, and I like props! To be honest they bring me comfort! I gently hear Him say, “Not this time my child”.

Forever learning…
Stilled by His love and grace,
Kim
kimday1964@gmail.com or
jimlouisday@yahoo.com

Mistaken Identity

I have two really great sisters-in-law. They both make me laugh and it has been so much fun being able to spend more time with them in the past six months of life. I have pet names for both of them, although they don’t know it. I call one Ornery and one Feisty! Trust me when I say this is a true analysis of both of their lives.

This Christmas a part of my extended family from my Dad’s side gathered. It was wonderful to see aunts and uncles that I don’t get to visit with often. At this gathering I was able to catch up with one of my cousins that I haven’t seen in years. I met one of his children for the first time and observed what an amazing daddy and husband he is. He also is extremely shy, so to have a conversation with him took some doing. I saw him multiple times sitting quietly with his children playing a game in one corner of the living room. To an extreme introvert, a house brimming with children and loudness can be painful. There was another observation that I made, he seemed to be a little shyer around one sister-in-law, “Feisty”. After everyone left, “Feisty” and I helped clean up and were talking. I asked her about my cousin’s shyness, to which she responded; “Well, I probably know why he is a little skittish around me!” She had that smirk on her face and I pressed her to tell her secret. Our family also does a yearly fishing trip, it was on one such trip Feisty saw my brother, her husband bending over his tackle box. She looked around and saw no one, so she thought she would seize the opportunity to add a little spark to their marriage. She walked up behind him, put her hands on both buns, and gave them a little love squeeze! He stood up and swung around in a hurry…you guessed it…it wasn’t my brother; it was my extremely shy cousin!! All she could get out, as the color drained from her face and returned in multiple shades of red was, “sorry!” He stood there dumbfounded and said nothing! No wonder he acted like a long tailed cat in a room full of rockers!!! I laughed until I cried and have been giggling and chiding my sister-in-law about it now for a month.

Mistaken identity…..how often we make assumptions, only to find out what we convinced ourselves to be true, isn’t true at all! As a woman seeking to follow Christ, this identity thing is big. The question is always, what am I going to believe? Do I believe; what I think, what the world says, what the enemy of my soul whispers or what other’s opinions are? Let’s be honest, this is an issue where the rubber meets the road, and will be the determining factor as to how I will live. Left alone to my own thoughts and influenced by the things listed above, I think of myself as; unaccepted, rejected, insecure, inadequate, not the right size, not good enough, doesn’t have what it takes, and all of that is Mistaken Identity! The struggle is always to shut the door on lies and embrace truth. To know my identity, to embrace and renew my mind to who God says I am.

Literally, FOOD FOR THOUGHT;
I am God’s child John 1:12
I have been justified Romans 5:1
I have been chosen, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, sealed Ephesians 1:1-14
I am complete in Christ Colossians 2:10
I am adequate in Christ 2 Corinthians 3:5-6
I am free of condemnation Romans 8:1-2
I can not be separated from the love of God Romans 8:35-39
I have not been given the spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind.
2 Timothy 1:7
I am God’s workmanship Ephesians 2:10
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me Philippians 4:13

Choosing, (and not always with boldness, sometimes with a voice that is more like a mouse squeaking rather than a victorious overcomer!) to shut the door to lies and embrace truth.

Amazing Grace…how sweet the sound!
Love,
Kim

Living Water

Living Water, that was what He told her he could give. Jesus met a woman that day who was dry and thirsty. Her life was cracked and showed all the signs of drought.

This land of Oklahoma has been in a drought for a long time along, with Texas and other states. As a result, there have been devastating fires, crop failure and loss. Some time this summer as I was taking a walk out in the pasture, I noticed a crack, a place where the earth had opened up because of lack of water. As I stood there and looked at it, I thought to myself, what a picture it was. Often our lives get to the place of drought. Because of that, fires happen, things die and cracks appear.

The fires are circumstances that are trying to get us to recognize Jesus the Living Water, the Source of all we need. The things that die are the very precepts that He has spoken to us as they cease to be the guiding truth, perception and filter for our lives. As a result parts of us die also and we lose the empowering grasp of the Holy Spirit. He has not moved but we grow harder, like that earth, and joy, peace, gentleness…life…seems to drain from our splitting open. As cracks become evident in our lives and allow all sorts of enemy attacks, worldly thinking, self absorption and deceptions to enter in.

I have tasted this water and know it’s satisfaction. But, I also know the arid winds of drought on my soul. It is in those moments that I too, like the woman Jesus met, have reached for something else to quench my thirst.

Standing in a Thai prison one hot afternoon I saw the truth of John 4 come alive. There was a woman in our English class, who was the only non-Thai woman in the prison. Because she spoke English she came to be our helper. She was there because she had shot and killed her husband. Upon arriving each week at the prison, we would be escorted to our room full of women and our one non-Thai woman. Someone would come by with two bottles of cold water for me and my friend. One day as we arrived to the class, we immediately noticed that our English speaking woman didn’t look well. Her eyes seemed sunken, her skin was washed out, and her whole countenance seemed altered. When I asked her what was wrong, she explained that she had never drank the water from the prison and that daily someone would bring her water from the prison store. Because of prison regulations, the water could absolutely not be purchased anywhere else. The store had been out of water for four days and our friend had not had anything to drink. She asked for a drink of the water the guards had brought me. I was about to give her some, when the other prisoners began to say no, that she or I would get into trouble for doing so. I thought for a moment and then asked, “Does this water belong to me?” They all nodded. Then I asked, “since this water belongs to me, then I can give it to anyone I want, can’t I?” They nodded again. I was not prepared for what happened next, as she grabbed the bottle of water and drank with total abandon, as if none of us were there with her. Water was rolling down her chin and splashing all over her prison uniform. When she quenched her thirst a little bit, she slowed down and looked around the room. She seemed embarrassed by her display as she realized that she had water all over her. But the moment she came in contact with the water, all else faded and her only desire was for what could satisfy her thirst. We had the opportunity that day, because of the example that had been lived out before us, to share the story of a woman at a well that met Jesus for the first time and how He quenched her thirst. Our English speaking friend did come to know Jesus in that Thai prison.

One of my prayers for this New Year is to learn to drink with total abandon. To be so filled with desire for Him that ALL else fades. I’m asking the Father to keep me mindful to recognize the signs of drought in my life and to sink my roots deeply into streams of Living Water.

Face tipped towards heaven and mouth opened,
Kim

John 4:7-29, Jeremiah 17:5-8, Isaiah 58:11