Flashback Friday: "Our song"

I made an executive decision today. I have hearby dubbed Fridays here on the blog as Flashback Friday. Each week we will look back at the good old days with great affection and nostalgia. And possibly other emotions.

Sunday Enhancements

I love our church. That’s not just something I have to say because my husband is on staff.

 I truly, madly, deeply love our church.

I also love our pastors. Yes, I am partial to one of them since my kids look like him. ;) They each have their own unique style of preaching/teaching but they are always on the same page. They are a great team.  

Our senior pastor is a tremendous student of the Word.  He has shared insight about the Word that I have never known even though I have read the text he is speaking on many times. He is genuinely concerned about the people he shepherds.  He notices when people are not in services, makes an effort to know everyone by name, visits them in the hospital, takes time with them when they need guidance, he’s patient almost to a fault. 

Having said that and meaning it, let me also tell you that I listen to and read material from other pastors and speakers during the week.  Why? Because I can’t rely on what I hear on Sunday to carry me all week long.  Neither can you.  That’s not what pastors are called to do. They are not personally responsible for your daily bread. You wouldn’t ask your pastor to come cook your meals all week. You wouldn’t just eat once or twice a week. Why do we treat our spiritual food differently?

Of course, as a Christian, you must read the Word and pray daily. (I personally love the Bible reading plans offered by YouVersion online. Right now I am reading The One Year Bible plan as well as one called “A Jolt of Joy” that is a 31 day plan. You can find one for yourself here.) But in addition to these essentials in your walk, I encourage you to find other pastors and speakers who enhance what you hear on Sundays. The most amazing thing is to hear your pastor speak a message on Sunday and then hear another pastor via podcast or sermon replay online that speaks the same word in his own style with his perspective. No pastor, church, or denomination has a monopoly on the Word or the Spirit. It is only as a global Church with Jesus as the Head that we can fully carry out the Great Commission. In fact as we each use our own unique gifts and talents that we can reach the maximum amount of people.

I will list below some links to the pastors and speakers I am listening to and learning from currently.  Let me know in the comments what pastors and speakers you are learning from right now. 

Pastor Steven Furtick - Elevation Church, Charlotte, NC

blog  church website  podcasts

Pastor Perry Noble - New Spring Church, Anderson, SC

blog  church website  podcasts

Christine Caine - international speaker from Hillsong Church, Sydney, Australia

blog  podcasts

Lysa TerKeurst - author of Made to Crave & president of Proverbs 31 Ministries

blog/website  Proverbs 31 Ministries website 

Leading and Loving It - a virtual community for pastor's wives & women in ministry

website/blog  JustONE Virtual Conference

JustONE Virtual Conference

http://leadingandlovingit.com/leadership/all-you-need-to-know/


Ever wanted to attend a conference full of wisdom and encouragement in your PJ's? Now you can! Grab a cup of coffee, your notebook and pen (because you are going to want to take notes!) and join the Leading & Loving It ladies for the JustONE Virtual Conference starting today.
The link above as it boasts has "all you need to know" about the conference. You are going to hear from some amazing ladies that are guaranteed to bless sand encourage you. Many of these ladies have become very dear "virtual friends" to me in the last couple of years. And for that I am grateful.

If I Ruled the Virtual World…

"Teacher, which command in God's Law is the most important?" 

Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.'

This is the most important, the first on any list.

Matthew 22:36-38 MSG

I know it’s never gonna happen, because let’s face it—the world is not ready for that and I’m not sure how I would look in a virtual tiara. But, I am just gonna play out this little fantasy here on the blog.

First, let’s give some of you that are tech challenged a little primer:

Facebook=a social media site to interact with friends and family and share updates from your world and pictures of your cute kids and dogs and whatnot

Twitter=all that in only 140 characters

Instagram=iPhone app for sharing photos that you can edit in hipster ways and post to the two above sites and impress your friends (and in this Halloween season, scare the heck outta your friends when they open their app—stop that!)

Now, back to the fantasy…if I ruled the virtual world, these incredible tools that were obviously created by remarkably intelligent people would only be used to benefit the world and spread the Gospel.

Sidenote: Can you imagine if the apostle Paul had a Facebook? Or you could read his Twitter feed? He had a quill, some ink and papyrus in a jail cell and is still changing the world.

The same tools that are used daily to cause drama and vent your frustrations and tell people what you are watching on tv can be used for such glorious causes as well.

Now, I am not saying you can’t offer up a funny from your day or share something lighthearted. (A cheerful heart is good medicine...Proverbs 17:22 NLT)

But if our intention is to carry out what the Message calls the most important law of God, shouldn’t we be doing that in our social media habits as well? I love the way the Message phrases that verse—with all your passion. I admit my personal passion is to encourage others, especially those in ministry. My goal is for my social media to reflect that. And I am a total tech geek, I am pretty sure that shines through as well.

While I may not be ruler of the entire virtual world, I am responsible for mine. And so are you. What does your social universe look like? It merely reflects its ruler.

Rollercoaster

It’s been too long…

Maybe that’s why my thoughts are so jumbled and scattered at the same time, if that is even possible.

I am even having a hard time deciding what to focus on in this post. The emotional roller coaster of the past few weeks is making me dizzy.

God is doing some new and potentially life-changing things in side of me. And I would be lying if I said it doesn’t make me a little nervous.

I got to experience the burden an intercessor carries last week, and I have gained a whole new level of respect for that calling. It is gut-wrenching. That is the only way I can accurately describe it. I felt like I couldn’t eat, sleep, breathe, without crying out to God. I felt so heavy that I couldn’t put one foot in front of the other.

Then, after all that, my prayers weren’t answered in the way I thought they should have. Isn’t that crazy? Isn’t that just selfish? Who am I to judge the ways of God? And believe me, the Lord was quick to remind me, although quite gently, thankfully.

Isaiah 55:9 (New Living Translation) For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

I felt so close to God as I carried this burden, perhaps because I was in what felt like nearly constant communication with Him. Perhaps because I was resembling Him at the time…

Romans 8:34 (Amplified Bible) … Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who died, or rather Who was raised from the dead, Who is at the right hand of God actually pleading as He intercedes for us?

Mind you, I am not comparing myself to Jesus…far from it. But I felt as though I were pleading…constantly, almost begging, for my prayer to be answered.

Then a release came. And I felt guilty. It felt like giving up, though I had not. But I thought God gave me the release because I couldn’t handle it anymore, like I was a wimp or something. Then when the prayer didn’t get the answer I wanted, I thought, “oh, no, it’s because I didn’t pray hard enough, long enough, have enough faith, have enough strength to carry the burden.”

Again, the gentle reminder…”my ways are higher than your ways.”

I don’t trust God any less or love Him any less today than I did last week. In fact, I have another level of appreciation for His grace, His love, His kindness, His ways. And a new understanding of just how much I don’t know or comprehend about Him. And knowing that means I have to get to know Him more and walk even closer and listen even more intently. And thinking that more life-altering events, thoughts, pursuits may develop in me.

The Purpose of High Heels

This post will speak to the girls. If it speaks to you guys, that’s a whole other blog post…

I am such a girlie girl when it comes to shoes. I LOVE them. If I had unlimited funding, I would have a closet the size of Rhode Island filled with them.

Lately, I have been wearing a lot of flats. They are comfortable. I have said on many occasions “if I have comfortable shoes (and pockets) I can conquer the world.” Today, I have an interview for a job much closer to home so I decided to wear heels. And as I walked from the parking deck this morning, I contemplated why I did this. Hey, God talks to me in unique ways. I don’t question it. I just listen.

Do you notice that when you are wearing high heels you walk differently? You are more conscious of the way you walk. At least I am. I am not what you call graceful. That was a bit of an understatement. I tend to be klutzy, that is more accurate. So while in theory, I love high heels, I tend to shy away from them for fear of falling on my face. Going back to my long walk in from the parking deck this morning, I noticed that when I walk in high heels that I am more aware of how I walk, I tend to stand up straighter, to be perfectly honest while they make me nervous on one hand, they actually make me feel more confident at the same time.

I think walking with God is a lot like walking in high heels.

High heels take me out of my comfort zone.

High heels make me focus more on my walk.
High heels give me added height and confidence.
High heels tend to make me walk slower and with more purpose.

High heels are good for my walk, even though there is a hint of fear in wearing them. I don’t fear the shoes themselves…I love them. It’s me walking in the shoes I fear. Will I make them look bad? Will I fall and scuff them horribly? Will I completely embarrass myself want to hide?

Ever taken a leap of faith? Feels a lot like that.

I started listening to the audio book of Steven Furtick’s Sun Stand Still in my car this morning during the long commute. He talks about “audacious faith.” I don’t think it was a coincidence that I began listening to this and wore high heels for the first time in a long time today. I think they go together. At least in my mind they do.

God is calling me out. I am excited, but I have that hint of fear that I will fall on my face. But I am not worried...

Faith makes me more aware of my walk, stand taller and more confidently, and makes me rely on Him to carry me and be my Grace.

The Story Behind the Video

You’ve seen the Via Dolorosa 2010 video, now here’s the behind the scenes…

This was my first completely solo project for FUEL…and what a way to begin. There were so many aspects to this weekend that it was daunting to attempt to capture it. At first, I wanted to portray the journey itself chronologically. Then it became more of a vision to simply tell the story up to that point. The video was to be shown during the Speed-the-Light service, which would be the conclusion of the weekend. FUEL got to lead the ministry that night, which only happens twice a year, so in my perfectionist state of mind, I wanted it to be as perfect as possible. And I wanted it to be an accurate portrayal of the magnitude of the experience thus far.

The first section I titled, Portraits of the Journey. I kept some of the chronological timeline in tact at the beginning. Primarily, because of the way we always begin—in prayer, all touching the cross, asking for the Spirit to open everyone up to what was about to happen in this journey. Aaron took some remarkable pictures during the opening leg of the walk. I was back at the church preparing the evening meal for the team. They made good time and logged about 4 miles, give or take. Aaron said they kept a great pace and were very cooperative and eager. I was so excited because two of our former students began the journey Friday as well. They had experienced it before and decided to return. I think that had to be especially encouraging to the students who were rookies this year.
The next section I titled, Warrior Prayer. That is what Aaron calls fervent prayer. But it took on a whole new meaning in this prayer meeting. I saw students take on demons from their past and slay them with the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. After that experience, on my blog I could only type these words: “broken...undone...proud...humbled...anticipating...amazed...full...overflowing...” I think the pictures tell the story. And some of the stories are very private, so I will let them tell it alone.

The next part that accompanies the bridge of the song is the most powerful to me. It is raw, vulnerable honesty displayed by students who have every reason to want to hide. But instead they chose to be bold and brave and stand up to their past and become a catalyst for other’s healing and victory. As I took the photos for this section, especially the last ones, I fought back tears so hard. As soon as they students left my sight, I wept openly. For so many reasons…I was humbled to be in the presence of such power and anointing that was upon them. I was grieving for the pain these students, MY students had been through in their young lives. I was so proud that they had been so bold in declaring their testimony with their only gain being the freedom of others. As I snapped the last photo, God spoke so clearly and said, “this [these photographs being shown] is going to set some people free.” Such a humbling, powerful moment that I cannot fully convey even so many days later. It was overwhelming. It nearly brought me to my knees right there on the side of the road. It still overwhelms me right now. Wow, God is so good.

Lastly, we wanted to “finish strong,” another of Aaron’s favorite sayings. We wanted the last pictures to show determination, resolve, victory. That is was not the end of an event but the beginning of a movement. They were a start but the pics that came later from the closing service Sunday night continue the story. While they are not included in the video, they are now proudly displayed in Aaron’s office, framed, and included in an earlier blog post (Via Dolorosa 2010 Weekend).

I recount this as a reminder to myself and those who will view this video as a “stone of remembrance.” Not of an event with an ending, but a revolution at its genesis.