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Thou Shall Not Covet, 15NOV

I am up, 2:30am… Why Lord?

I need sleep, I slept all five hours really well, so if I write this all out, will you let me go back to sleep, Lord?

I will write this backlogged thought… My great sin right now is a basic one – a ten commandments basic one: “Thou shall not covet”…

See, my old greatest sin used to be NOT believing in Jesus as the Son of God (minor point, huh? oops). But now, I know am truly NEW in CHRIST, just like 2nd Corinthians states, and I know I am blessed to have been made new… I do feel new, I am new, I am SO different… But there are many NOT so different aspects of my life, still rough spots to iron out, hmmmm…

So God had been taking care of a lot of those things that started changing life for me for the better – God changed them in rapid fashion – and God always would like to hear some appreciation Hallelujahs from me to praise HIM, so YES, Lord, “Thank You and Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah”)….

The things that changed were rapid – but now in my accelerated time frame of expectations, I am not sure if I am allowed to say “what’s next God?” Am I allowed to make a laundry list of improvements I would like to see? What’s the next moving mountain, Lord? Do I push God? Do I let it be? Do I instead try to change me and not the situation? Am I simply being impatient? Am I asking too many questions because this is ALL new to me???

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT”

God wants me to focus on HIM, of course, and we all desire Jesus to grow in the most intense way in our hearts, so why should I want even the slightest bit more? I know God wants us HAPPY, happy enough to do HIS work – and He wants us content. So I ask Lord, why am I still tinged with jealousy and want for even more than you already gave me? There are small scale wants and large scale wants… I want more sleep, sure, but that’s small scale – no biggie – and I know I might catch a nap later today after church… But large scale wants? are we allowed to want? Hmmmm…. !!!!

See I know it is NOT always jealousy over things… NO, for me it’s coveting the LIFE THAT I THINK I COULD HAVE… !!!! God gives real commandments warning about jealousy. I don’t have a quick fool-proof answer or solution for this perplexing issue of how not to be jealous, but I do know I want to be content – But perhaps God doesn’t ALWAYS want me to be content, otherwise how would I’ve stayed motivated? I don’t know the answers here –  And just like when we put on a sweater when we are cold, we seek out others when we are lonely, and we strive to be the best we can be… perhaps God says “OK, I will give you free will enough to motivate you to improve your lot in life as long as you are doing it for the right reasons… TO PLEASE ME…”

His Grace IS sufficient and it’s my job to show and to tell others that too… And if you improve your lot in life enough to help that cause, perhaps God says OK… Good works won’t get you into heaven, so since we are IN already (we hope), it’s time to spend time instead working the rest of HIS WILL – which is spreading the Good News, and improving the lot of the masses.

So I ask you Lord… if I strive for my desired plan and I pursue it, am I a sinner? Well, yeah, I am already a sinner; we all are sinners… that’s why Jesus came!!! But OK, but do I become an even GREATER sinner then?… So can I pick and choose my sin?

I don’t especially expect any answers here Lord… I don’t have wisdom that deep, but I do appreciate Your PEACE when you give it to me… So, I will try to be at peace at being a sinner, and I will use this burning sin question of mine  to depend on Jesus even more…. I WILL depend on asking YOU each time I become jealous of what I THINK I could be and what I THINK I deserve… If I decide to improve “my lot in life”, I will pray to ask “am I doing it soulfully for You and YOUR ultimate goal? Or am I doing it solely for me?”

I pray Lord, that sometimes we can get our goals to align, just like stars… I will pray to contribute greater to further YOUR will… and if it pleases YOU, then please make our desires mutual… Please let Us agree sometimes…

I LOVE you Lord, You know I do.

Thanks, and let’s get some more sleep, ok? Thanks for the chat, Lord… You rest up too ok?

PEACE

LOVE,

Your growing child.

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It’s 5:45am, what am I doing up so early on a Saturday? God says my Grace is sufficient for you and so is seven hours sleep, you got solid sleep, now wake up and let’s write….

The stars are so faint here in the offcast of city lights, but the planets shine… It was Venus who called me outside this crisp November morning, to see how it aligns with Mars and Jupiter… Perfect, straight and sharp…

And then I turn to see the Pleiades…. They are SO faint but I can find them. They are mini, they look like a mini dipper with half a handle… They twinkle…. Oh how faint they are and yet my eyes catch them twinkle as bright as a Christmas tree. My eyes have seen their light. Mine eyes have seen THE light. I know God blessed me and kindles a great FIRE in me for Him. I am YOUR child God, please shine me where I can do the most good for you.

God wants me and wants you to see HIS twinkle… The twinkling of God working in all things…

Ah, thanks God, that’s what you me to write about today…. I just wrote that twinkling part while leaning against my Subaru with its Pleiades logo of six stars, as I fancy being the seventh sister… And yes, I fancy that I personally twinkle with a different light, the LIGHT of Jesus shining thru my soul… I write to let you know that God loves YOU… That is a warmth I pray you all know. The warmth of Jesus in your heart and the clarity of Jesus in your mind.

Twinkling, 14NOV

God twinkling… God can come with the full force of nature, but God likes to make things twinkle, dabbling extra sparkles in all our lives. God puts the twinkle in our sight. God puts the twinkle in our eye. God loves us.

God shows us glimmers of hope when someone is awakening to the concept that they are worthy of God’s graces, they start to twinkle. God brings joy and peace to sorrow, brings LOVE and understanding, brings healing and hope, and brings salvation with forgiveness. We ARE forgiven when we forgive others and forgive ourselves. We have God in us to twinkle. We can shed light on others and give them hope. We can be the spark to light or relight the realization that God wants them to shine.

Staring at the stars, even when the city lights are too bright, you can watch the twinkle. Not only do we gaze upon this glorious display of light orchestrated and piercing the dark to reach our souls, we get to see the stars twinkle subtle and focussed… Light generated so long ago still being moved thru the universe, we are seeing the past because these stars are so far away. We see twinkles of explosive fires too faint to hear and feel with our other senses, but it is truly dazzling to our eyes… It will draw our focus.

We can focus, we can see twinkling in our favorite uplifting friends, they shimmer, they shine, their cups overflow with sparkles. Their smiles and their kindness kindles hope.

We can focus, we can try to see the twinkling still left in those down and out people when we look long enough and deep enough. We can tease apart thorns in jaded and frustrated folks and ask God to send some HOLY SPIRIT wind their way to light a FIRE to burn away some thorns. We can pray for them to stoke the FIRE of Jesus in their own hearts.

God wants me to show the FIRE in my soul, He wants me to focus the fire on His plan, He wants me to urge you to look for yours…

Because you are made of God’s Spirit, He can make you twinkle. He wants you to focus on your fire then get ready to shine.

If you have shined and burnt bright, keep your embers going, you now have the most intense heart, you have the most intense heat to light others.

Jesus burns bright, follow the internal LIGHT…

God loves YOU…

Jesus saves YOU…

Jesus brings YOU home forever…

God IS forever…

Twinkle…

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BE THE CHURCH, 12NOV

VBS scriptures still ring true…. Today as I put away 4-month-old VBS material I remembered that God provides, heals, forgives, gives eternal life, and comforts us…. But this is NOT JUST for us, He comforts us so that we can comfort others….

Initially my phone autocorrected to “He churches us so that we can comfort others…. And yeah, that’s true, God puts us in churches to help others. He “churches us” by surrounding us with HIS fellow children to help us and for us to help them.. “Be the church”…. I am NOT talking about the building but about church the faith community…. God wants us “churched” because as saved souls we are tasked to disciple all nations… Every week our blessed pastor always says “Go out and BE THE CHURCH.” And he means it! It’s because out there is where WE are needed, it’s where Jesus is needed! Our churching is not always for us to be fed, but for us to multiply the feeding… just like Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes… Turns out that the ones being fed by us will feed us back too. We are blessed always by sharing HIS LOVE.

See the bigger church in Jesus’s frame of mind is not the building at all, the church is the people under the steeple and outside the walls….

It is easier to BE THE CHURCH when you ALSO allow yourself to “be churched” by God. Unless you allow God to place you where you are supposed to be in HIS plan, it’s going to feel like fighting an uphill battle (you know ultimately God will win anyway)… once you feel comforted, once you feel searched, churched, and saved by God, then it’s time to go and be the church yourself… You were saved for God and HIS glory, not yours… It would behoove you to tell others of God’s power to provide, heal, comfort, forgive, and give eternal life…. Likely, you are already doing this! And you likely don’t have to reach much further then using your own God-given skills, and if you are questioning how to help God, well just ask Him… I betcha HE already knows what skills HE wants you to use. At minimum, it’s not a stretch to be your own witness to how God has blessed you… Yes, others will be able to see the genuine God-workings in you.

Being THE CHURCH also means feeding the masses, feeding their souls and taking the time and opportunity to heal wounds… And trying not to inflict new wounds… And yet we are human, we make mistakes. Well, God wants you to “go and sin no more”… God can help you on all this, because God is ALIVE and working on YOU. Perhaps others seeing you repair your human brokenness will be inspired to ask God to work on their brokenness too.

Jesus and the whole church as His bride, will come together, and oh – that will be the most glorious sound ever, I betcha ALL the bells will ring then. Grab your flowers… Hear the bells…

Remember that God loves YOU so very very much.

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PS… although you can witness and feel God’s love anywhere, I truly do believe it would behoove you to be in a physical church building-setting too (maybe a couple) with church people to help you be “churched”… because even though God works on you independently, having a net already set up will catch you both from falls and from overreaching leaps…. Personally when I started falling into Jesus’s arms and started tossing and tumbling in initial confusion, I turned to people who were already waiting with the net… My personal net wasn’t always in the worship service, but in front of the copy machine, in front of a repair shop, pushing a baby in a stroller, in discussions over sweet potato fries, in email chats, and even that day when I reached to my pastor it wasn’t over breaking bread and wine but pizza and birch beer…. So yes, “be churched” because Jesus can take care of you best with HIS woven net of family. Weave in for strength, then reach out to catch more fish. And those fish will continue to strengthen the net for all. I am ever BLESSED to be in GOD’S net.