Today, right now, we long for white blankets-- newness of hope and peace through something supernatural, something that is not of this world.
Yearly, goals are written, aspirations overwhelm, and words seem useless to even try and describe how we feel; because there are so many, so many things... all around us...
We are tired of wanting things, wanting things to fill us until we overflow and then feeling hopeless when nothing actually does fill our hearts.
We become restless waiting for something to happen, waiting for lower numbers on the scale, waiting for a relationship to fill us, waiting for restoration, waiting for a new brilliant idea, waiting for something in us to click, so that we can all of the sudden have the motivation for conquer the world.
The world, however, has already been conquered by a greater Conquerer.
The world does not need more people to conquer it; to revolutionize the age, to inspire the mind.
The world needs more people who will decide to be present in the day to day and make a difference by taking a small step.
Maybe, living life to the full... means being present in the right now and connecting at the heart with whatever soul is near to yours; God's, or that of another human.
Everything is a process; yet especially in today's Americanized, quick paced culture, we forget that there are living, breathing, souls all around us, who need to know the truth; who need to know that it's not about the outward appearance, the ability, the talent, but the surrender. Life is a constant Journey of raising our flags colored in white so that Jesus can cover us with white...
A white blanket which covers us and floods us with fresh hope from the Fountain of Life and Hope...
The Conquerer.
Though the new year was only 19 days ago; we already hope for something new; we are already craving something to fill us because those new year resolutions did not fill or satisfy; we cannot establish the desired habits, we cannot fulfill the promises and commitments we made.
God, however, invites us to be still. To realize that He is the ultimate satisfaction, the ultimate joy, the ultimate Conquerer, and the only one who will pick us back up, who will help us move past the mistakes of the past years, to cling to His eternal Hope.
White blankets are all around us. The habit of contemplation must become ours, daily, for when we can contemplate God--- especially in the mundane, we realize that this world is not about us, nor does it revolve around us, but that this earth is God's and everything in it.
White blankets are found in the trees; how they lift their branches heavenward to the holy King, to sing a praise as the wind blows through their leaves.
White blankets are found in the sky, even when it is gray, because the sky is something that God breathed.
White blankets are found in the breaths we are taking right now, because they are all a grace from God, a grace word, a word that is holy and true, and a word that brings peace.
All of the provisions from Jehovah Jireh are gathering near and close to form a huddle which God Himself covers with a white blanket.
White blankets are found in the smiles, the joy, the laughter, and even in the weeping, the sadness, the tears.
White blankets are found in the giving, and even in the receiving; God is always giving to us, we are always receiving from Him.
His breath is full of grace, his words are white blankets being spread across the earth;
Come near to me, come near to me, come near to me.
I am sufficient, My grace is sufficient, I am all you need.
Let me fill you until you overflow, for I alone can do so.
Let me wash you until you are white, for my blood has washed all your red stains.
Let me fill you with joy, even when you are facing trials.
Let me lavish you with grace, even when you continue messing up.
Let my joy be your strength, my peace be yours forever and ever.
You are bought with my blood, I will not let you go.
I will not let you go.
Our God, so faithful, is reminding us to keep running, though we grow weary.
Our God, so true, is reminding us that our identity is in some-One greater than the lies we believe.
Our God, so just, is reminding us to be holy and to be sinless for the Day of Judgement, when He will, so full of justice and grace, judge the nations.
Our God, so sweet, beckons us to draw near to His heart and hold Him near to our souls.
Our God, is reminding us that He alone can satisfy; nothing in this place we call home... temporarily... will fill us,
except for Him.
Today, what are you worried about? Take it to Jesus.
Today, what are you sad, lonely, discouraged, troubled, angered, annoyed, defeated with?
Take it to Jesus.
He is bigger than your fears; His white blankets are being spread, all around us.
Open your eyes to see that His truth is able to captivate you and imprison you in a place of ultimate peace, full of White Blankets- the constant truths that God speaks to your ears....
Listen.
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Sunday, December 11, 2016
The Tree
It seems, does it not, as it every season in life is a result of a tree...
And it seems as though everything, except for the Creator of the tree, came into existence or revolves around the story of a tree.
And we each have our tree stories... ones that are marked by grace, and others that are marked by crushing sorrow...
But this particular story of the Christmas tree ties everything together... everything ties together and is wrapped up in a beautiful package, sitting under a tree for you to open on that blessed morning... or this blessed evening... or anything and everything in between.
So the story goes...
There was once a tree, with beautiful fruits... with which two certain souls weren't allowed to feed themselves.
However, as time went by, deceit crept in and took their souls away from love by lying to them and enticing their minds and holding them captive in a prison of self reliance and self trust.
Slowly, after the lie made them love sin and love the evil things on this earth, deceit kept on swerving, in snake like form... A demonic presence was suffocating people until God had to make waters rain on them because God Himself was being suffocated with grief over His creation.
So waters wiped out the generation of deceit, and a boat was built by trees, one which could fit enough humans and animals to become a world so big as the one we live in right here, right now.
And the boat drifted for quite some time, because God wanted to show that He is powerful enough to make rain fall endlessly,
and He is powerful enough to sweep His fingers across the floors of Heaven and make that rainfall stop.
And that's what it did... and the ground was dry because the hand of God made them dry, just like He called for there to be dry land in His Creation. So the story of our dear Noah is like a story of a kind of second creation by the original, and only capable, Designer of it all.
But human souls kept on using trees for wood to build their kingdoms high. And then they kept falling,
but without hesitation, a new kingdom was being built before their very eyes and sin kept on making everything fall apart and it was a desperate cycle of hopeless situations...
And this cycle kept on going, century after century, and then finally God decided to make a man who would become a carpenter who would build a small barn for some animals and a food trough.
And then a baby boy was born, in that little wooden, cozy, smelly, hay covered barn.
And then the boy grew up and became a carpenter...
And maybe, someone He crossed paths with ---in his --around 35 years of walking and talking and breathing breaths of belief--- built another thing out of a tree...
The old rugged cross.
It was that tree that gave the Man splinters on His back, and holes in His arms... and who knows, maybe those holes are still there...
But then the man defeated the tree, and became victorious over all that the tree held... sin, sorrow, shame, and everything in between.
And afterwards a gentle hush came, until someone decided to build a church out of a tree. And beauty arose from ashes.
You see, trees play a part in the beginning parts of our hope stories.
When we live lives of deceit, instead of being followers of Truth, we are living lives that declare the victory of the first tree; the tree of knowledge of good and evil,
but when we live lives following the footprints of Truth Himself, we are living lives that declare victory OVER the cross.
When we put our Christmas tree up every year, at the center of the tree hangs a cross kind of nail...
To symbolize the way God used and uses trees in our lives to point to the goodness of Jesus Himself. To point to the Only One who is worthy of worship and adoration.
This season is about cherishing our Savior, who decided to walk the road to the tree, and pave the road for many people
because of the VICTORY He had and still has over the tree.
This Christmas,
unwrap God's gift for you... It's sitting there, right there, the tree... a glorious reminder that Jesus has defeated all of the things in our lives that seem like they're not marked by grace...
And He reminds us that His Grace is SUFFICIENT for EVERYONE...
Right here,
Right now.
And it seems as though everything, except for the Creator of the tree, came into existence or revolves around the story of a tree.
And we each have our tree stories... ones that are marked by grace, and others that are marked by crushing sorrow...
But this particular story of the Christmas tree ties everything together... everything ties together and is wrapped up in a beautiful package, sitting under a tree for you to open on that blessed morning... or this blessed evening... or anything and everything in between.
So the story goes...
There was once a tree, with beautiful fruits... with which two certain souls weren't allowed to feed themselves.
However, as time went by, deceit crept in and took their souls away from love by lying to them and enticing their minds and holding them captive in a prison of self reliance and self trust.
Slowly, after the lie made them love sin and love the evil things on this earth, deceit kept on swerving, in snake like form... A demonic presence was suffocating people until God had to make waters rain on them because God Himself was being suffocated with grief over His creation.
So waters wiped out the generation of deceit, and a boat was built by trees, one which could fit enough humans and animals to become a world so big as the one we live in right here, right now.
And the boat drifted for quite some time, because God wanted to show that He is powerful enough to make rain fall endlessly,
and He is powerful enough to sweep His fingers across the floors of Heaven and make that rainfall stop.
And that's what it did... and the ground was dry because the hand of God made them dry, just like He called for there to be dry land in His Creation. So the story of our dear Noah is like a story of a kind of second creation by the original, and only capable, Designer of it all.
But human souls kept on using trees for wood to build their kingdoms high. And then they kept falling,
but without hesitation, a new kingdom was being built before their very eyes and sin kept on making everything fall apart and it was a desperate cycle of hopeless situations...
And this cycle kept on going, century after century, and then finally God decided to make a man who would become a carpenter who would build a small barn for some animals and a food trough.
And then a baby boy was born, in that little wooden, cozy, smelly, hay covered barn.
And then the boy grew up and became a carpenter...
And maybe, someone He crossed paths with ---in his --around 35 years of walking and talking and breathing breaths of belief--- built another thing out of a tree...
The old rugged cross.
It was that tree that gave the Man splinters on His back, and holes in His arms... and who knows, maybe those holes are still there...
But then the man defeated the tree, and became victorious over all that the tree held... sin, sorrow, shame, and everything in between.
And afterwards a gentle hush came, until someone decided to build a church out of a tree. And beauty arose from ashes.
You see, trees play a part in the beginning parts of our hope stories.
When we live lives of deceit, instead of being followers of Truth, we are living lives that declare the victory of the first tree; the tree of knowledge of good and evil,
but when we live lives following the footprints of Truth Himself, we are living lives that declare victory OVER the cross.
When we put our Christmas tree up every year, at the center of the tree hangs a cross kind of nail...
To symbolize the way God used and uses trees in our lives to point to the goodness of Jesus Himself. To point to the Only One who is worthy of worship and adoration.
This season is about cherishing our Savior, who decided to walk the road to the tree, and pave the road for many people
because of the VICTORY He had and still has over the tree.
This Christmas,
unwrap God's gift for you... It's sitting there, right there, the tree... a glorious reminder that Jesus has defeated all of the things in our lives that seem like they're not marked by grace...
And He reminds us that His Grace is SUFFICIENT for EVERYONE...
Right here,
Right now.
Little Boy
Little boy stands four feet high, without taking a breath... hovering above the wooden table, candle lit in front of his sweet smile.
His love for Jesus shines through this one little prayer; four lines of heart wrenching words...
God, please help all the people who are hurt... all the people who don't have good places to live... all the people who live in the woods.... God please help them.
Little boy cries sometimes because he feels hurt. He cries cries of loss, he cries about the deep hurt in his sweet little heart that aches with pain for the world... aches with pain for the people who don't have good places to sleep. Aches with pain because of defeat.
Sometimes, places of defeat are places we find refreshment for the soul, because we become dependent on the one who fights defeat.
It is in this season that hearts should be overflowing with utter gratitude for every blessing bestowed on the soul of the world...
But reality speaks: Hurt, pain, injured souls, loss, deep deep scars of deep deep pain.
And little boy loves Jesus with his big, beautiful heart, and little boy embraces the love that's all around him...
And he realizes that there is so much pain everywhere; in all those cracks and crevices of the world; the ones that we can't seem to fill with anything that is of or in this world.
The reality is that this season speaks loudest when we realize how unjust everything is... When we realize that the only thing... The only One... who can save the soul and fill those crevices is Jesus Himself.
Little boy embraces me and all the other people in the room with a warm loving soul and spreads the Christmas cheer by filling space with perspective. That's all.
Some good, old fashioned perspective.
Maybe that's what we need more of... Perspective to see that there are little boys like him all around the world who say prayers like that... ones who don't find warm places to sleep... ones who eat things from trash bins...
Perspective to see that men, women, and children are trying to fill the crevices, but they aren't able to because they do not understand. They have no one to gently guide them through the journey of life; the journey of finding Jesus and loving Him more than anything. The journey is impossible without something... or someone, who will care for them, someone who will whisper words of hope into their hopeless souls.
And, yet again, reality is that we cannot do it in our own strength.
So that's when another Little Boy... Jesus... steps into the picture. In every photograph, it is evidenced that His love is real, no matter how deep the scars. His joy is present, no matter how indescribable the sorrow seems.
All because He decided to position himself humbly in this world of people who are proud...
All because He decided to breath softness and humility into this globe... sweet, still, whispers of eternal hope...
All because He chose to forgive by coming and giving himself.
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
The Forgiven Builder
Once upon a time, right now, there was darkness. There was so much, but God was working. Something of the marvelous... yet to come... unknown beauty that only God can bring and breathe into this world so dark...
A house built on sand that was about to come tumbling down on the shore...
Shattering... Everything... TOP to bottom... foundation and all.. just tumbling deep down.
Into the vast, all consuming, danger polluted sea.
O That God would forgive the foolish builder of the house- one of the world.
Hurting hearts are everywhere, all around... just open up your eyes and let it soak through your heart as if it were a sponge...
Yet, His quiet, gentle whisper and presence still flooded the air, right now.
And a gentle hush of peace- a blanket of pressing grace, covering the surface of the house of the forgiven builder.
Then, when the builder let his tools lose, into the deep, and raised a flag colored in white, a flag of desperately desperate surrender...
A wave of mercy drowned everything and grace continued pressing hard, and joy started to be birthed into the builder's lungs, all because someone of the marvelous; of the humble, decided to be breathed into darkness.
Yet again foolish builders imprint the sand with their quick moving feet, leaving traces of shame and guilt and pain.
And yet again, forgiven builders stopped making great their own kingdoms, and kept on raising their flags colored white; of desperately desperate surrender. And then God said, "Let there be light," and it was so.
And light dies to put an end to darkness.
And then when dark shadows stopped appearing, light rays started breathing, like a new plant, so green, so fresh, so alive... In the chilled air of a springtime day.
Light rays started raining refreshing rains of deep joy, so that foolish builders like us, you and me, could be raised up from deceitful, shadow drenched graves.
Then a dragon was slain when light died, because the dragon was of the dark, and though his fire kept on coming, forgiven builders, once known as foolish builders, started raising their fire proof shields, so that no blaze could pierce their now divine spirits.
Their spirits, which were attached to THE Spirit, one of the divine.
They became defenders of the light, and mountain tops cannot stop them from walking their beautiful feel across the vast land, right here,
Right now.
A house built on sand that was about to come tumbling down on the shore...
Shattering... Everything... TOP to bottom... foundation and all.. just tumbling deep down.
Into the vast, all consuming, danger polluted sea.
O That God would forgive the foolish builder of the house- one of the world.
Hurting hearts are everywhere, all around... just open up your eyes and let it soak through your heart as if it were a sponge...
Yet, His quiet, gentle whisper and presence still flooded the air, right now.
And a gentle hush of peace- a blanket of pressing grace, covering the surface of the house of the forgiven builder.
Then, when the builder let his tools lose, into the deep, and raised a flag colored in white, a flag of desperately desperate surrender...
A wave of mercy drowned everything and grace continued pressing hard, and joy started to be birthed into the builder's lungs, all because someone of the marvelous; of the humble, decided to be breathed into darkness.
Yet again foolish builders imprint the sand with their quick moving feet, leaving traces of shame and guilt and pain.
And yet again, forgiven builders stopped making great their own kingdoms, and kept on raising their flags colored white; of desperately desperate surrender. And then God said, "Let there be light," and it was so.
And light dies to put an end to darkness.
And then when dark shadows stopped appearing, light rays started breathing, like a new plant, so green, so fresh, so alive... In the chilled air of a springtime day.
Light rays started raining refreshing rains of deep joy, so that foolish builders like us, you and me, could be raised up from deceitful, shadow drenched graves.
Then a dragon was slain when light died, because the dragon was of the dark, and though his fire kept on coming, forgiven builders, once known as foolish builders, started raising their fire proof shields, so that no blaze could pierce their now divine spirits.
Their spirits, which were attached to THE Spirit, one of the divine.
They became defenders of the light, and mountain tops cannot stop them from walking their beautiful feel across the vast land, right here,
Right now.
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Welcome!
Welcome to Anchor for the Soul!
I am so glad to greet you with a gentle handshake, a big hug, a warm smile.
I know that Jesus is glad to greet you as well.
Thats why I decided to type, right here, right now. Because I know that God is doing something big; something that is too wonderful for us to even imagine.
Big. Beautiful. Life changing. Rest for the soul...
Anchor for the soul.
Why?
Hebrews 6:19... I urge you to look it up and highlight it in your beautiful, uniquely breathed and penned for you Bible... But, if that's not possible right at this moment, I'll just let Jesus press into you with grace right here...
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul...
Yeah. That's what it's all about folks... Because our souls, your soul, has the opportunity to stand strong in the ocean of rest... with an anchor called Jesus... who births hope into the world with every breath he breaths into the air.
About me?
Well, I'm just a girl... who loves the King, loves life, and loves to write...
That's about it.
Simple, huh?
I think so...
Breathe... and let these words speak to your soul. Just be still. Let the Prince of Peace fill you up until you overflow.
I am so glad to greet you with a gentle handshake, a big hug, a warm smile.
I know that Jesus is glad to greet you as well.
Thats why I decided to type, right here, right now. Because I know that God is doing something big; something that is too wonderful for us to even imagine.
Big. Beautiful. Life changing. Rest for the soul...
Anchor for the soul.
Why?
Hebrews 6:19... I urge you to look it up and highlight it in your beautiful, uniquely breathed and penned for you Bible... But, if that's not possible right at this moment, I'll just let Jesus press into you with grace right here...
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul...
Yeah. That's what it's all about folks... Because our souls, your soul, has the opportunity to stand strong in the ocean of rest... with an anchor called Jesus... who births hope into the world with every breath he breaths into the air.
About me?
Well, I'm just a girl... who loves the King, loves life, and loves to write...
That's about it.
Simple, huh?
I think so...
Breathe... and let these words speak to your soul. Just be still. Let the Prince of Peace fill you up until you overflow.
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