Praises from the Hill

A good friend of mine this week showed me what it means to truly trust the Lord to answer prayer. My friend is a woman who I have known for a little over a year and a half now. When we first started meeting together we began to ask the Lord for two simple things. 1. That her husband and son would stop drinking all the time. 2. That her son would return from the city and move back in with her and her family.
Soon after we began to ask for this, her husband stopped drinking as much, and about 3 -4 months later her son came home and moved himself and his family in with his mom.

Now, whenever we talk about asking the Lord for something, knowing it is only He that can change things, she looks at me with a smile of assurance on her face stating, "Of course Pam, God brought my son back, and he will do this thing as well."

For the last 6 months or more, my friend and I have been praying for a neighbor of hers. She had started studying with us and learning to be a follower of Christ, until my friend informed me that her husband had prohibited her from coming. This week we sat drinking soda under her roof and read the story of the Flood, all three of us amazed at the promise of God etched in the sky after every rain. And my friend just smiled and said, of course God did.

This is what it looks like to ask and believe.

" Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." ~Mark 11:24

"Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." ~John 16:24

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." ~Matthew 7:7

Jesus Said it, Let's Believe it!

The Fear of God

Do we as the church Fear the Lord?

In Deut 6:2 it is recorded that the commandments were given in order that the Israelites, then and in the generations to come, would fear the Lord their God by keeping his rules and statutes.

Lev. 10:1-5 accounts for the deaths of two of Aaron's sons because they did not fear the Lord and offered adulterated fire before the Lord. The Lord responds by consuming them with fire.

Do we as the church today fear God? Do we tremble with the knowledge that the Lord that we worship holds the universe in the palm of His hand? Do our hands quake as we enter into the sanctuary hoping to meet with the Creator of all things? Do we purify ourselves before entering into worship in fear that God may consume us in our sin.

But God is Love right. John Bevere states in one of his sermons on Fearing God that "the love of God keeps us from legalism, but it is the fear of God that keeps us from lawlessness." He goes on to say that we do not see the Lord's presence sitting over the temple as it did in the desert because we are not walking in the glory of the Lord as during the time of Aaron and his sons.

Hebrews 1:3 states that the universe is held up by the "word of his power." Are we as the church fearing God? Am I as a follower of Christ fearing God? It is only through the fear of the Lord that we will see a time of purification in our own lives and within the church, and it is only through fearing the Lord that the presence and glory of the Lord will sit among us again.

Just a thought.

Finding Wisdom in Marriage

It has been one month today since I tied the knot so to speak and entered into one of the most wonderfully challenging stages of life. In the past month I have a learned a few things that I would like to share, realizing that one month makes me no more than a beginner and no more excused from learning a ton. So here are the top ten:

1. Wow, and I thought toddlers were selfish. I had no idea how much self I needed to die to, marriage has a way of showing how truly selfish I am.

2. Morning breath is terrible and I am not talking about his. I never thought I had it, but there is something about waking up to someone in the morning that makes you frighteningly aware of the foul odor escaping your own mouth.

3. The Team. I did not realize how extraordinary it would be to always have someone by your side living practically every moment with you. Praying, Worshiping, Going into battle, Eating, and Laughing will never be the same again.

4. Guys are so strange. Not only do they have some of the funniest looking feet I have ever seen but I really do think they are from a different planet. What fun, I feel like I am learning a new culture every day.

5. Communication, Communication, Communication. I cannot take credit for this lesson, but I want to thank all of you who taught me this before we were married. I had no idea two people would need to talk so much. I love it!

6. Compromise. I thought I understood the definition of this word, but now I realize that I was overly confident. The truth is that I have had to give in on a more things in the last month than has been required of me in my entire life.

7. Husband. I have to admit that I still can not recognize my own voice as it introduces Tucker as my husband to friends and family, such a great yet big change.

8. Love. I have been amazed to discover how much love can change in such a short time. I am positive that I have just begun to brush the surface of loving Tucker as I have been called to love him.

9. Cooking. How do you know what to cook? I have been blessed to be in our parents' homes for the last few weeks, but in the number of days I spent cooking I have run out of new meal ideas. I feel like everything I ate as a child has been forgotten. Hopefully, this is one of those super powers you get as you spend more years in marriage, the power to create delicious meals out of nothing.

10. Learning what unity really means. I am so excited to unite more with Tuck in every aspect of my life. God's design takes my breath away. I can only imagine what the future years will bring. Who knows, maybe we will become one of those couples that can finish each others sentences and yet I know it is so much more.

Thank you all for your love and support of Tuck and I.

Redefining Discipleship

Life is full of trials and tribulations, joys and sorrows, laughter and mourning, and a constant shifting of sands that leaves us wondering at which point we will stand on solid ground. As I prepare for marriage, it is amazing to me that two lives consistent of such uncertainty can come together, striving for complete unity and intimacy...

Now lets move beyond the marriage relationship, beyond parental relationships and broaden our sense of unity to those outside our immediate circles. Can we ride on the unreliable road of life with others who are not within our natural circle of influence? Can we succeed, rejoice, suffer, and fail with others who may never give to us in return? Can we make disciples?

I am beginning to understand with a little more empathy the lamentations of Paul's letters to the churches he invested in. I can hear the cry in Chris'ts voice a little more clearly when he inquired as to why the three in the Garden could not keep watch with him for even an hour. I am beginning to understand that discipleship is more than just preaching or teaching. Discipleship is hard. Discipleship comes with sweat and tears, because it is more than just teaching a lesson once a week. To truly and intentionally disciple, you have to live life with strangers. When they fail, you fail. When they succeed, you succeed. When they are filled with sorrow, you are filled with sorrow. When they rejoice, you rejoice with them. Discipleship is taking a stranger alongside you and walking along the narrow road to eternal life, and through the journey realizing that that stranger becomes closer than a brother.

It is a hard command to obey, the last commandmant Christ gave, and maybe he gave it at the end so that all who had followed him would understand the true definition of making disciples of all nations. Maybe the hardest part of it all is knowing that there will always be people you will learn to love, walk with and then they will walk away and never look back. The question is, are we willing to suffer that loss so that the rest may find abundant life?

Just a thought...

The real Tucker and Pam

Tucker and I decided to take some engagement pictures, so I decided the honest thing to do would be to post the picture that most represents our relationship and not the obviously staged ones. Maybe not the most photogenic, but definitely the most representative.

Blindsided by Discipleship

After so many months of negligence, I have decided to write about that one thing that has taken me away from the blog community this summer, discipleship. This past year, I have spent hours contemplating the commission that I have based my life upon, "Go therefore into all the world and make disciples . . . .", and finding myself stopped short by this 9 letter word. After many meetings of strategy talks and sessions of verbally processing through all the different ways to disciple, I truly believe that God interrupted it by placing me in a summer where only Christ-like discipleship could happen.

I spent my summer living with and among 8 different summer interns who taught me what it is to love people enough to truly disciple them. What is discipleship anyway, I think I have finally figured it out. I believe disicipleship is loving people enough to live their life with them, and allow them to live yours so that you can learn how to walk with Christ together. I know, my definition is much more complicated then a weekly bible study, but I think that it is exactly what we have been taught by Christ himself. As I lived life daily with these 8 amazing followers of Christ, what I have learned about prayer, worship, obedience and freedom naturally were taught. How to walk with supernatural faith in the Holy Spirit was practiced. And a desire for more intimacy for the Lord was attained together. I must say that I walked away this summer blessed, blessed to see 8 amazing warriors for Christ want more of the Lord, and finding myself starving for more as well.

So, I guess what I have been told about not needing a seminary degree to teach people how to love God and people is true. But Love is absolutely vital, and without the Holy Spirit taking my flesh over, that love is impossible. Get ready to dance over all of the "GOD IS SO GOOD" moments yet to come.

A Call to Love

" Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.
"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."
This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. "

~Ephesians 5:25-33