Delighting in the Divine
Yes to freedom, yes to play and yes to celebrating the moment!
Could God possibly desire brokenness above seeming fixed-ness?
Could God possibly prefer me broken and weak and at the end of me over held-together-all-by-myself me, because that is where He is? ...
I have found that in the Western world, even amongst Christians, dreams are not taking very seriously, and the assumption is that a weird dream is just a result of a bit of funny cheese. Here in Peru I find that people dream a lot, and the assumption is that God is trying to say something, even if they have no idea what (or even if it is a result of a bit of funny cheese!). So where is the balance? God definitely uses dreams to speak to us today, so here are some things I have found helpful when trying to discern God’s voice in dreams...
It is my thirty-second birthday this week. That comes as a surprise to me because I have been thinking I am thirty-two for several months now. It might be something to do with the Peruvian habit of always referring to the age you are going to be next birthday when you are asked how old you are...
When they glanced at that fruit
What did You feel?
Did Your heart tremble,
Your Spirit squeal?
Did you want to jump out and shout
‘Don’t do that!’ ...
Last week I wrote about how much I feel paralyzed by the inability to do big things or things I feel I should. Yesterday I was not feeling great, Mark was sick in bed and I was preaching in the morning. I find it hard doing ministry when Mark is not around as the boys still needed walking through social situations (one of our children still struggles with having so many people around in our house and interacting in socially appropriate ways around them - a lot of fun in community living!). In the afternoon it was the first birthday party of our friends' child. I was there at little David’s birth, so it was a significant birthday for me to be at and to celebrate and I wanted to be there. But by the time 5 o’clock came round, the party had started and I was asleep and wiped out! I wanted to attend the party but I also knew that I needed to make the children some food first or else they would just fill up on party food and that would not be helpful for anyone. Believe me...
I am not enough. I do not have enough time. I do not have enough resources. I am not enough.
Recently I have been realizing how often I get held back by wanting to do the big and significant that I become paralyzed by my lack and so do nothing at all.
I look at the one talent in my hand and I think: this is not enough. I am not enough. Better to hide and do nothing...
Would you take a moment to close your eyes and imagine Jesus washing your feet. He has everything ready - he has prepared a towel and a bowl and jug of water. He kneels down before you and begins. Stop a moment to receive this imaginary foot washing. Go on, I’ll wait! ...
How is your new year going? Does it feel like a new season? It is Summer right now in Peru and we are abiding as a community - spending lots of time resting, spending time together socially, sorting through things and preparing for the new school year which starts in March here. Having spent time resting over Christmas I feel excited and expectant about what God is going to do this year. Right now I am in a season of preparation and deepening roots...
Do you ever have times when you know you are processing something in your mind but you can’t quite grasp what? There has been an unsettling in my spirit about the new year that I haven’t been able to put my finger on but has manifested in a holding back.
When I think about my life and our ministry in Peru, I want to see God do everything He wants to do through us. But present in my heart is also a fear and resistance which says something like: ...
Last week I talked about developing faithfulness in others but did you know that celebrating Thanksgiving can be a way to encourage ourselves to be faithful in our relationship with God?
Thanksgiving, when engaging with actual thanksgiving, is an act of remembering and God had a lot to say to the Israelites about remembering and forgetting: ...
Where are the faithful ones? Do you ever ask that question as a leader? It has been a cry in my heart at different stages in my life. I am currently so blessed to be surrounded by friends and co-workers who are faithful to God and to us but at times people who we spend lots of time investing in did not respond with faithfulness and it has been painful! ...
Where are you?
It is the first question God poses to Adam and Eve when they eat the fruit.
God asks a lot of questions. And none of them are because He doesn’t know the answer...
Awaking from a dream this week I was stressed out. I hadn’t been chased by hooded phantoms, nearly flattened by an elephant or had to pack up my whole house to move in 5 minutes time. I wasn’t freefalling into a pot of glue. I was just having to sit in a classroom at school.
And not for the reasons you might think...
Lie 4: What I am trying to achieve is more important than the relationship.
Truth: Your mission here on earth is first to love God and then to love others. Loving others is one way of also loving God!
Passivity and busyness are two snares the enemy uses to destroy relationships...
We desire to do great things for God and we crave a community to do it with. Unfortunately, when we work alongside others we soon discover that there are people who have mixed agendas, others who are unkind, others who are passive, others who got out the wrong side of the bed this morning. And those people are us!
Now that you can see the prize and all the beautiful fruits that unity can bring, let’s talk about the price.
My husband and I began living in community 5 years ago after moving from a neighborhood where nobody would talk to us! As well as getting to know our neighbours, we have gathered people around us who have become leaders of their own communities and students from our school of ministry. There are lots of people and many leaders around us, who we work with and live life together with. There are LOTS of opportunities for disagreements and misunderstandings and LOTS of conflicts and potential conflicts...
I have applied the vine and branches passage in John 15:4-5, every time I have read it, to my own personal walk with God. 100% of the time I have viewed the passage like this: If I, Anna, abide in Christ, and I, Anna, seek God and have communion with Him at all times, then I, Anna, will bear much fruit...
I am a missionary and I hate going up and talking to strangers. Does anyone see an irony there?
One of the callings that I know is on my life is to share with others about Jesus. To let people know that there is a Beautiful One who invites them to have relationship with Him and saves them out of all the nastiness of life without Him.
If others initiate conversation, if there is even just a glimmer of relationship, I am able to chat freely and openly with them. But if some one is going about their business, I do not want to interrupt. Anyone else here an introvert with similar feelings?!
There has been a voice in my head recently that has been saying this:...
Good morning, Jesus, what are your plans for today?!
My spirit was alive and ready to engage with Emmanuel and yet my body was still shaking off the night’s sleep. I closed my eyes as my mind focused on Him and a vision appeared of a woman praying for me. Beginning to ask Jesus what it meant, the thought came that He wanted me to ask this woman at the conference I was attending to pray for me and pray a mother’s blessing over me.
The day before at the conference, Isabel Allum had talked about waking up every morning and greeting Jesus and asking Him about His plans, and now I had, and now He had shown me, and now I was scared stiff...
I am really excited about this new series because I am really excited about being in relationship with Emmanuel! It is what breathes life into my life! Without Him, everything I do is pointless, worthless, depressing, overwhelming, stressful and just hard and yucky. Sometimes, when I forget I am in relationship with the Creator of the Universe it is still those things. When I find myself in those moments, I find myself wondering how I can cultivate a walk with God throughout my whole day, throughout my whole thought-life and throughout all my actions.
What relationship-breathed habits and rhythms can I put into my day so I don’t forget the most important relationship I have, for even a moment? Yep, just a small task! Actually, so often my life has become about tasks which I complete, trying to do them in joy and so often not knowing if I am in God’s will. Sometimes I wonder whether God’s will actually exists in what I am doing (does God have a preference here or is He totally content to inhabit what I am doing just as a father joins in a child's play?). Other times I find myself living in a spirit of striving: striving so hard to be and do right, but failing to actually acknowledge Him and ask His opinion on things.
