I THOUGHT IT WAS SPRING!

Now, I realize I live in the Mid-West, but when the calendar states it is spring and there is a snow storm two days later, it is hard not to wonder what happened. Winter is long enough.  We NEED it to be spring!

I was thinking about this concept in our spiritual lives as well. We wait for and expect one thing when something else is given. How does that make us feel? Do we question what our motives were, or if God’s call to us was real? Do we allow our feet to falter and wonder where God could be? When we are holding out for spring and winter is what we get it can sometimes make us wonder what is going on. 

I was looking back in Exodus 17 and I had this written in my margin of my Bible-“How do I feel about following God and still having the ‘bottom fall out?” This is in the context of Moses and the Israelites in the desert after the Red Sea and the waters at Marah and the manna and quail. In chapter 17 Moses and the Israelites are in the Desert of Sin and need water again. They are complaining and feel hopeless. They were arguing with Moses (can you imagine all those people coming up against Moses?) and blaming him for all that had gone “wrong”. They were about to stone him! So here I ask the question, are we willing to continue on when there is no water and trust God? Are we willing to walk the path He has laid out before us even when winter comes and it was supposed to be spring? Will we seek His face in the midst of seeming failure and wait on His next steps? Or will we be like the Israelites and say, “Is the Lord among us or not?” 

Imagine a similar scenario today. What would we be saying on the side-lines? As the world watched what comments would be made of not only Moses but of his God? THEN in the very next section, Moses leads the people on after God did end up providing water and they defeat the Amalekites because Moses lifted up his hands to the God of heaven. The God he was still following and worshipping. Wow. Moses could have turned back to Egypt at that point, but he followed His God. What does the “bottom falling out” look like for you? If we know we are following God and walking with Him, let us remember that in the big picture, God is working where we cannot see. Let us be as Moses. Willing to walk triumphantly out of Egypt, be almost stoned to death in the desert and still courageously walk forward with God no matter who is willing to believe with us. 

How does Moses continue on? How does he know God is there? Because God was speaking to him. He knew God’s voice. He chose to trust. Do we know God’s voice? There are many voices out there…we need to make sure we are hearing God’s and when we do, we need to 100% follow it. No turning back, no turning back…even when the "bottom falls out". 

International Women’s Day March 8th, 2015

In light of International Women’s Day I wanted to take some space in the saturated pool of voices on the needs of women around the world. As I have been to a multitude of International Women’s Day events over the years, I have found one thing missing in the mantra of women’s rights in the secular events claiming to have the answers for not only women in the Majority World but for us in the First World. While it was always exciting to celebrate a day to lift up women and our needs and desires, it ultimately left me feeling like I wanted to stand up and shout that this is not all there is people….glass ceilings, education, access to medicine, and opportunity (whatever vagueness that suggested). While these are important things to discuss and have answers for, we, as Christians, have a far more powerful, exciting, fulfilling, uplifting and eternal answer to the needs of women around the world. The answer to the most fundamental human need, the need for a Savior, a Savior from our sin that marks us unworthy before a Holy God. The answer to our empty hearts and souls, the answer to our need for relationship, and the answer to why we desire to worship something. Jesus is the answer to our problems. The One who speaks life into the lifeless, healing in the hearts of the abused and wholeness to the broken. The One who gives joy despite our circumstances and fullness of life despite our bank accounts or education. 

This, this is why I am willing to go and be a drink offering poured out to the women of Zambia. My God has made a way, Jesus is the propitiation of my sins, the atoning sacrifice, the justification to a holy God and the sanctification of my life surrendered to Him as not only my Savior but my Lord. Jesus is the overcomer, the giver of life and the bondage breaker of strongholds and demonic power, if we bend our knee to Him. This is the message that the women of the world need to hear amongst the other voices. It is in the miraculous life of a believer, poor or rich, educated or uneducated, sick or healthy, that God’s power is seen and His love lived out. God is revealing His salvation to women who have humbled themselves around the globe, and increasingly to the world’s poorest. God’s name is being made famous, glory and honor are being given because poor, simple women bent their knee and surrendered. The harvest is ready….the altering of a woman’s eternal destination is at stake. Let us be the givers of food, freedom and FORGIVENESS! The world is desperately trying to answer the problems of extreme poverty, abuse, and violence against women. Let us be the problem fixers, the ones who will pray to overcome dark strongholds and intercede for women we have never met. To pray for angels to protect supernaturally and for battles to be won in the heavenly realms. For the Kingdom of Heaven to come to this earth through women who are willing to say, “I am the Lord’s servant…May it be to me as you have said.” 

My prayer is that the light of Heaven would flow out of me and that my hands would touch, write, hug, work, hold, dig, or whatever needs to be done to reach women who are lost. That my mouth would speak the Truth that brings freedom and that the Name that frightens every demon would be boldly proclaimed. That my mind would be renewed every day and my heart open to be searched by God that all sin, and worldliness would be eradicated from my life so I might be an empty vessel filled up and overflowing. I pray for any woman today that is reading this and is not sure of your eternal destination, that you would reach out to me or another believer who might share that God wants to transform you spiritually, physically and emotionally. All aspects of women are important and they all need to be addressed to be able to bring purpose to the poor, safety to the scared, and life to the lost. Pray today and intercede with me for women around the globe, imagine their lives and ask God to give you women to pray for, countries to claim for God’s kingdom and miraculous stories that would only point to our Lord and Savior. 

Blessings to all my woman friends and the women of history that have sacrificed to be the hands and feet of Jesus to a dying world.