godgirl's blog

I started a new bible study today and our Pastor asked for us to find illustrations of God in our life. So I had one and fired up my new camera.  Had a bit of fun with this. Enjoy.

It is written in Stone.

I was in one of those spots when I felt God was holding a deaf ear to me.  He’s been very active in my life and well, this week, he just disappeared – or at least so I thought.  I saw everyone around me getting blessed and being heard and well, I got into one of those pity parties I am so good at throwing.  But, that all changed last night.

For it was last night around the 3:50 a.m. hour that he woke me up to hear the following words – TRUST ME! And I heard it loud and clear.  I guess he had enough of my unbelief even in my REM sleep.  He wanted to silence whatever thoughts I was having and give my burdens over to him.

I wrote about blueprints in my last post and I guess this was his way of confirming he has my life under control. And if you think I was imagining hearing that word for God – well, wait to you hear this. I told a friend that God spoke to me last night and he asked me a strange question. He wanted to know what time God woke me up.  I told him and he said God woke him up at the same time and told him to pray for me.

So do I think God knows what’s going on in my life even though I don’t have a clue? Heck ya.  Do I think I’m called to trust him. Yes.  Is it hard – yes!  But, I heard it loud and clear.  He’s there for me, directing my path and providing relief.

Amen.

O Sovereign LORD, you are God! Your words are trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant.  2 Sam 7:28

Right now I am having to trust God like never before.  As my coach, God has been conditioning me to trust him and work the fundamentals.  He has me reading his promises and believing them.  I’m been reciting and meditating on them over and over.  Such things like He will never leave nor forsake me. He will provide a path.  He chose me.  He forgives me.  He wants me to have peace in him. He loves me as his child.

I know the drill.  He’s there. So then why am I so fearful that this one time he won’t come through?  Oh me of little faith!

Talk about crazy. John Hulber of the Netherlands actually built a replica.

I am reading through the bible again this year and as such, I’m now in Genesis and so I am reading about the ark.  Man, God laid everything out for Noah from size, weight, materials and content.  He gave him the exact blueprints on how to build it.  He even gave him the vision for it. All Noah had to do was believe it and follow it.  Trust him. Be obedient.  And I know that’s what God want each of us to do too.  Trust his blueprints in our life.

Take Noah for example, he had no idea, if the world would think he was a crazy, but he didn’t care about the outcome. He did not doubt – but he followed God’s word.

¹² God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. ¹³ So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. ¹⁴ So make yourself an ark of cypress  wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. ¹⁵ This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.  ¹⁶ Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches  of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. ¹⁷ I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. ¹⁸ But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. ²⁰ Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. ²¹ You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”

²² Noah did everything just as God commanded him. Gen. 6:12-22

I’m in the same exact position right now. God is laying out for me a path for my life which is contrary to the world’s.  It’s unconventional and so that makes it a bit scary for me at the moment. But, he knows what my blueprint is and to him it’s not scary…it’s beautiful.  It’s what I was made for.  I just need to build his vision and believe.  If I follow his way, even when the floods come, I’ll be sailing above the water not under it.  And there’s no place else I’d rather be.

If this is your prayer too, I will stand with you.  Let’s follow God’s path and share in this adventure that He has created for each one of us.

Is there any barrier we can’t overcome?

Downtown LA never looked better. Credit: David Toussaint. Header image Credit: nOnick

Why didn’t I think of this?

I have been seeing the chiropractor recently for a chronic back injury I have from playing so many years of competitive volleyball. I sure didn’t feel any problems when I was younger, but now, all those years of diving and jumping on hard wood floors has taken its toll.  If I don’t go through a 30 minute exercise regimen every morning, I can forget about walking without any pain.

My chiropractor has added some new exercises lately which have caused me to literally look up.  In fact, did you know that the proper way to stand up every time is push up from your feet and tilt your head up, looking toward the sky!  I didn’t know that. And then he gave me an additional exercise – a variation of a squat – that causes me to look up the entire time.

Through these exercises I have been asked to look up more – which lead me to believe that isn’t that what God has been asking me to do all the time. Why did it take the chiropractor to have me look toward heaven? Why didn’t I just normally do that any way – I mean if I really want to improve my walk – is there any better way?

So, the lesson of this post is that there is a correlation between walking and looking up.  To have the best walk possible, keep your eyes toward your eternal home, where our King sits – protecting and loving us and wishing we would just keep focused on Him.

I lift up my eyes to you,
to you whose throne is in heaven. Psalm 123:1

Also, when looking for applicable photos for this post, I saw some incredible images when I searched Flickr for “looking up.”  Look at some of these beautiful images.  I’ve been missing out of so much beauty because I’ve never taken the time to look up.  Try it out and let me know what you see!

Credit: Krug6

Keeping my eyes upward,

Cindy

This is a praise report today folks.  I finally got victory over something that has “hooked” me for over 20 years, I kid you not.  But, before I go on, I should describe what this “hook” reference is all about.

I have been hearing this word more and more over the last couple of months.  Hooks. Hooks in the Christian world refer to those things that when you are presented (tempted) with them, you behave in a way which just sets you off and causes you to step two steps back. Hooks are your hot buttons.  Hooks are pet peeves.  Hooks are snares that oppress you.  And hooks are subtle and scary for they have the power to cause you to stumble.

Psalm 141:8-10 (New International Version)

⁸ But my eyes are fixed on you, O Sovereign LORD;
in you I take refuge—do not give me over to death.

⁹ Keep me from the snares they have laid for me,
from the traps set by evildoers.

¹⁰ Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
while I pass by in safety.

Every time when I heard someone pray for a hook to stop snaring me I always envisioned myself wearing a fisher person’s vest.  And this vest of mine could get easily hooked.  Just like your favorite sweater gets snags all the time-that’s how this vest appeared to me.  However, today, I felt a particular hook was trying to hook onto my body but it wasn’t able.  My vest was now made out of some type of material that it couldn’t get hooked into.  I totally could visualize a hook trying to rub against me, but it couldn’t hook into me.  I didn’t react. I finally had victory over this issue. Amen! It was an amazing feeling not being hurt by this situation again after being affected by it for so long.  I know Satan wasn’t pleased, but I sure am!

Now, hooks also have several components to them (ala layers of an onion).  I envision these softer hooks to be more like carabiners. I like these hooks, they have many useful functions  and come in several shapes and sizes. Some are even heart shaped.  But nevertheless they still are hooks.

Carabiners are hooks, but are easily removable.

But with carabiners, they don’t dig into you, they latch onto you.   With fishing hooks, they not only pierce your skin, but they travel deep down inside depending on the size. With carabiners, they can’t penetrate you and you have the control to release them. We can pop off them quickly or leave them on. It’s our choice.

I’ve still got a carabiner attached to this issue, but now, I’m able to pop it off as soon as I recognize it.

The morale of this little post is…have patience with your hook(s). If you keep handing it over to the “greatest fisherman” ever created, he’ll be able to take that hook out for you. I never thought I’d get healed from my issue, but 20 years later…its a new story. But don’t try and take the hook out yourself, you’ll do more damage to yourself. God will work it out of you and he knows the right time for it to disappear.

What do the fisher people say?  Any day fishing is better than any day at work! Work on putting on a hook-proof vest.

Best,
Cindy

I have been rubbing elbows lately with some powerful people of prayer and as such, they have been showing me an entirely new way to pray.   Yes, I know that there are many methods of prayer that have been presented and although, some people subscribe to certain formulas…I know that God just loves to hear from us – no matter how it sounds or what we say or what order we do it in.  You can never go wrong with prayer.  But, lately, I have been learning how much power can be achieved when a prayer includes praying through the situation.

I have to admit that it is difficult for me to pray this way for I have always been a ‘glass is half empty’ type of gal.  So when one prays through a situation, you need to see through it with a positive result.  For instance, last month I had horrible pain in my kidneys.  I was scared that it was something serious, life threatening and didn’t see anything beyond that.  However, when I was prayed over, the prayer warriors prayed through it…they praised God for the healing he gave me.  And it worked.  After a series of tests it was diagnosed as only kidney stones.

Right now I am in transition and as such, God has given me a wide palette of choice.  We also are heading into a New Year which brings hope for a better 365 days.  I’ve recently told a friend that I feel like I’ve just graduated high school and I’m entering college and I can choose to be anything that I want to be.  It’s exciting, yet at the same time a bit frightening.   But, I can be happy. This can be an easy process.  My glass can be half full!  And that’s what I am supposed to pray about…praising God for how he brought me through this transition.  There is light at the end of the tunnel. There always is a new sunrise.

No Matter How Hard Things Appear - Raise Your Hands and Give Glory

I’ve just started to pray this way, so I’m toddling through this process, but it really helps me become more hopeful. It helps me see that Jesus sees things this way. He’s not bogged down by this moment for he is the only one who knows what is ahead and it’s all good.

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Phil 1:6

So what are you currently praying about? Can you see its results? Are you praying through the situation?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on this and how God is moving in your life.  Let’s pray together for a New Year full of harvest and abundance in leading others to eternal life.

God Bless,

Cindy

When I sat down to watch the film Marley & Me for the first time, I had thought it would be a lighthearted comedy about a dog. Didn’t you?  I had no idea that the movie was really about life and the frustrations and hurt that goes along with it.  I mean the film touched it all…the growing pains of marriage, sacrifices, disappointments and the loss of a loved one.  Good thing I watched it at home and not at the movie theater for I wouldn’t have had tissues.

But, then, this morning when I was contemplating my own life and where I am at the current moment this thought popped into my head – when we cut to the chase and at the end of day – don’t all we really have is God.  So life really is about this film project – God & Me.

To further illustrate this point, God is Marley (the dog) in this metaphor.  Like the photo below, I try my best to put God on a leash and direct his path.  However, thank goodness He has my best interests at heart and truly is the one in control of my life.

Who's Directing Your Path?

But, I’m stubborn and want my own way – just like He does.  I get mad when he’s tearing up my life and cleansing me of things that aren’t so good for me.  That hurts.  Or how about when he wanders off and plays with others. That makes me feel alone and devalued.  Yeah life give us bad times, but it also gives the good.

How about those times that He gives you love.  When scared He comforts you.  When He sends a friend or a note or Facebook connection your way.  When the money does come through. When the medical report is positive.  When He takes care of you when unemployed.  When you read His word and just the right scripture is there and soothes your soul.

When was the last time God licked your face?

To be truthfully honest here, my life isn’t how I thought it would be.   But, even though it not what I wanted it to be, I do trust that God knows best.  He has kept me on a short leash (amen!) and for that I am thankful.  I guess I just need to relax my hands a bit more as He guides me through life and not be so quick to choke Him.

For after all life is about God & Me.

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17″

A Powerful Force of Love

I have a radical pastor who gets right to the heart of matters.  He’s aware that we’re living in a troubled economy. He gets it that some are barely making their rents.  He knows that the holidays are tough in so many ways. He knows that we experience pain and that life can be tough. But…he also knows that despite what problem the world has created that there is an antidote. This antidote is something we each possess and can call upon at a moment’s notice.  Are you ready to hear it?

The antidote is Love.

Love is the answer. ♥ To love and be loved. Is there anything else that really matters?

It’s the relationships in our life that count.

God kept putting the word tsunami in my pastor’s mind and it wasn’t until recently that he understood what God meant.  God wanted him to challenge his church members to create a groundswell, a tsunami of love.  He challenged us to tell at least five people a day that we loved them.  And its working. You should try it. I can’t tell you how wonderful it has been when around others at church to hear those three little words as I’m walking the campus. I can’t help but stop for a second and smile when I hear it from someone.

Like a tsunami, love is a powerful force.  When was the last time you’ve told your wife or husband that you love them?  How about your mom or dad?  Or that neighbor that watches over your house for you while on vacation?  Or how about your pastor or Sunday school leader?

I totally get what he means that though we are small, we can do all things, especially with the use of social media these days – the tsunami of love can extend beyond our church.  Though we are just a little speck on Google maps, the spark of love from this spot can ripple to the four corners of the earth.  Won’t you join us and spread this tsunami of love this holiday season?

It doesn't take much to let a person know that they matter to you. (Credit: Ronaldo F. Cabuhet/Flickr)

My pastor said something today that saddened me a bit. He stated that if we were one of the mega-churches in our area and we did this it would probably make the news and he’s right.  But, that’s what is so wonderful about God.  God works in amazing, unseen ways and although we are small he is mighty.  For all we need for you is to tell two friends and so on and so on and so on.  So if you are reading this and you’re on Facebook, go ahead and put in your status that you love your friends this holiday season.  Those who choose to be your Facebook friends are people who value you and your input. You matter to them.  Tell them to tell their friends too.  Let’s spread this giant tidal wave for love is the only answer.

Find people to love on and watch the tsumani that comes back.

Be sure to share some of your stories with me okay.  I’d love to hear about whom you love and about those who love you.

I love you.

Cindy