Friday, January 27, 2012

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

Thursday, January 26, 2012

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

Friday, January 20, 2012

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

Sunday, January 8, 2012

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