Come away with me

Time away is good. Time away is Biblical. However, time away is not meant for our entertainment, our relaxation or our laziness. Sometimes, we plan vacations and time away, but we come back more tired than when we left, because we fill our days with activity. Or perhaps we go away and do nothing, but because it was not rest for our soul, merely rest for our bodies, we come back to the rat race and it only takes 30 min for you to be right back in the same state of stress you left.
Over recent months, the Lord has been calling me aside and quite honestly, I am not good at that. But I have found in the coming aside, that I find His Presence and my heart is refreshed.
I wanted a place of no distractions, no people calling or beckoning me, nothing to draw my attention or entertain. So I found a place at the end of world and answered his call to come away with Him. Many times we go away and the time away is all about the food we will eat, the places we will go, what we will do or how we will spend our time.
With some encouragement, I laid aside my watch and my phone and walked away from them both. Setting my heart on heaven alone and choosing to let no one and nothing distract...Jesus and I had a date...
I spent long hours in the Word and in prayer. With praises ringing constantly from my ipod and nothing but the view of His creation out the balcony window, I found my heart being soothed by the stillness. And for the first time ever, I think I found some balance...the ability to be still and rest-not lay around and do nothing, but to seek Him hard and fast and still find rest for my soul.
We all have busy lives and busy schedules, people calling and voices that demand things left and right. Families are great and blessed and given by God, but they often drain us as we serve them. Church is precious and we are called to be a part of it, but we can often lose sight of Christ even in His house. Jobs are necessary and we must work as unto the Lord, but they often consume us and keep us from Him. And so, the Lord calls us aside. Not just every once in a while, but He calls us aside regulary for times of refreshing. (Acts 3:19) Times where we can repent and return to the Lord, find His presence and we can recover our breath and find cool shade in His shadow.
Sometimes that looks like an hour stolen or an evening of solitude. Other times, it might require a day away or a weekend removed from the world. And yes, this requires discipline, because the world, our jobs, our families, our lives will beckon us to stay, not go, keep going or try to coax us to engage in entertainment instead. But God knows...in the moment you trade time with Him for the pleasure of this world, that you will have joined the throngs of people who were like Eve...missing Him and end up hiding from His presence instead of lingering in it.
So, at the end of the world, I answered His call to come away with Him...and I was not disappointed. He was there and expereincing His Presence doesn't compare to anything this world can offer.
Jesus knew we would need these times. And thought people probably won't understand, it is both Scriptural and profitable.


Mark 6:30-32
30 And the apostles gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught.
31 And He said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while." (For there were many {people} coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.)
32 And they went away in the boat to a lonely place by themselves.

Jesus' call to us is...I have heard your cry. Life is busy and you have done and taught much. So...come away with me to a lonely place a rest for a while. And so they did. They went away with Him...
And we should too....go away with Him. It is His call and His answer to the crazy life. It is not vacation...it is not finding a place to go and spend time and relax...it is a place to meet with Him. Take a friend and go...Jesus told the disciples to come with Him...but it was with the intent that they would go and be with Him. (often we spend time with family or friends and it is all about being together with them and Jesus is just tacked on.)
Wouldn't it be awesome to come aside weekly and come away regularly with Him? It is what our lives are missing. It is the answer to the stress of life. Be still and KNOW that He is....

ALL FOR YOU

stand on the shore or BE the pier

Recently, a friend sent me this picture of a pier. I have one similar to it that I took myself, but for some reason, when I got the picture, it evoked in me a thought that I couldn't escape.
Perhaps, it was the pilings driven into the sand, deep so that the pier would remain stable when the storm tossed waves crashed against the pier, trying to rock it's foundation to no avial. Perhaps, it was the idea of being able to stand out IN the water on the pier and feel as though you were walking on it, above it and through it.
And while those are certainly things that I could make "preach", I think the thought that continues to strike a chord in my soul has more to do with standing on the shore. We stand on the shore and look at the firm foundation of the pier, seeing it's strength and it's stability. We look at the pier and sometimes even enjoy it's view, walk out on it, but only to return to shore. We stand on the shore and look at the pier...
Nothing wrong with that...I guess. But what if instead of standing on the shore looking at the pier, we became the pier. That person that was driven deep and had a rock solid foundation that couldn't be shaken. That person that stretched out past the safety of the shore into the deep water, seeming as if they could walk on it, in it and through it. That person that made a way for others to walk out further from shore into the deep to experience greatness. That person that went further so that others could too.
I love to walk the beach, stand on the shore and enjoy the view. But I think I want to BE the pier. Building a pier is no easy task. It doesn't just happen and it is not without undergrowth that has to be stripped away even after it is established. But we need some piers....people who will go further and make a way for others to see that the shore is not the coolest place...it is nice, but reaching for the deep is awesome.
Let's drive some pilings down, make a firm foundation and build a pier....
ALL FOR YOU

sometimes it takes shears

Recently, we had to move two of my favorite plants-butterfly bushes. They had grown huge, but were in the way of some changes we were making. So we decided to uproot them and move them. At first, it seemed like that was going to work great. But gradually, we realized they seemed to be dying. What was once vividly alive and growing, was slowly dying because of change. Desptie the watering, the leaves were turning black and falling off. And after a few days, they were just two dead plants in new places. The uprooting had brought what seemed like death.
In a last ditch effort to save them, I had Drew take the shears to them and cut them back to just a few feet off the ground. We continued to water them and waited. Within 24 hours, it happened. New growth began to spring forth from what seemed like a dead plant. It was only a small sign of life, but life was there. The shears were needed for the plant to grow. I was so excited...
And then I heard Him speak. It was so plain. This plant is just like life...and just like church. Sometimes things we love get in the way of changes that need to be made. And so we have to uproot those things and place them elsewhere or allow them to be moved so that they are not destroyed in the changed. Sometimes we have to seemingly let things die in order to allow for change. But much like my trees, when we take the shears to things, prune it back, new life is cultivated from something that needed to be moved and seemed like it was dead.
I was thinking about my life and how sometimes things, good things, have to be uprooted in order for change to happen. How things have to die so that new life can happen. How things have to be stripped and pruned, using the shears to bring new life from what seemed like was dying. We have a tendency to cling to what was...instead of embracing new life.
Maybe it is time for us to uproot somethings...to move it around. And it might die. Or maybe in the pruning and in using the shears, new life might be brought forth. For life is found in dying.
I think I will let go of what was and look for what is to come. Move what needs to be moved. Shear what needs to be sheared...for I don't want to just enjoy the growth of the same old bush forever. I want something new...
For when I moved the bush...I divided it and got 2 out of 1. And BOTH have new growth. It just works that way.

ALL FOR YOU

What might He write in the sand to You

John 8:3-12
3 And the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the midst,
4 they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act.
5 "Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?"
6 And they were saying this, testing Him, in order that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground.
7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him {be the} first to throw a stone at her."
8 And again He stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
9 And when they heard it, they {began} to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the midst.
10 And straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?"
11 And she said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go your way. From now on sin no more."]
12 Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life."

Would it be words of ownership and forgiveness or words of condemnation that sent you running? Would it be words of love and compassion or words of judgement? Would it be the list of your sins or perhaps the list of what has been given grace? As I thought about what might be written in the sand to me...one morning on the beach, the Lord took me on a journey that was precious...His Words to me...
And yes, I am an adulterous woman...not physically-against my husband, but spiritually against my Father. And He sees and knows...and offers words...to a woman who should be condemned, but is given grace.


ALL FOR YOU