...don't worry about missing out...

"steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. don't worry about missing out." - matthew 6:33 (the message) i've been frustrated with myself lately - i don't know if anyone reading this will relate, but so often i try so hard to be so good at everything that i end up having a few days of amazing results and then, inevitably, something starts slipping and falls through the cracks and then i struggle with discouragement which leads to justification which leads to acceptance which leads to frustration which starts me off again. i get all geared up to be perfect, check off everything on my list and do it all with a beautiful smile, gracious spirit and unsmudged mascara. family, friends, work, ministry, my team, my dog, my nails, laundry, exercise, prayer time, soul-winning, grocery shopping, communicate......life!!!! this scripture in matthew's gospel is helping me focus... the word 'steep' means 'to thoroughly saturate or immerse.' immerse your life in God-reality - whose reality consumes me? whose reality am i basing choices and priorities on? saturate your life in God-initiative - would Jesus walk the paths i'm choosing? would He be involved in the projects i'm involved in? would He see what i see as important? when i see things from the perspective of His reality, i'll easily be involved in His initiatives. for example, there are these kids i often pass on a route i use to drive home - precious kids begging for their next meal. the other day, a friend of mine and i took some time to buy some groceries to give to them. the look on their faces when going through the bags of food? priceless. the intensity of one of them looking up at us and genuinely saying, "may God bless you"? powerful. when i see things in His reality, i will get involved in His initiatives, and when i do that, i will live in His provision. this is helping me live each day with the right priorities... another translation of matthew 6:33 says "seek God's kingdom first, then He'll give you all you need." i want to make a difference. i want to make an impact. i don't want to miss a thing... His reality. His initiative. His provisions.

interpretive dances and such...

it's 12:43 a.m. and i can't sleep... just an f.y.i. :)

in church last sunday, my dad preached an awesome message titled "next." (you can download it HERE) amazing to me how i get excited over that one word. next. if you are in a season anything like mine, next offers hope, interest and relief! next holds within it the potential for change...

dad made this statement "God will only have me stay in one place because of my doings or my not doings." a powerful statement. to further quote him, he has also said many times in the past "application is the foundation of fruitfulness."

all of this came together for me a couple of days ago - i've been doing a study of the book of james and so much of what i've been dwelling on in that book ties it all together...

"you can't pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God's law and ignoring others...do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? do i hear you professing to believe in the One and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? that's just great. demons do that, but what good does it do them?". - james 2 (the message)

whether i move to the next level, the next season, the next opportunity, the next whatever is based on my doings. or not doings. shouting "AMEN!" when dad preaches about the "next," singing israel houghton's "moving forward" or "another level" with all my vibrato, journaling scriptures about "see, I am doing a new thing"....these are all well and good - but will they usher me into the next phase? on their own, i'm thinking probably not.

what am i doing? merely acknowledging the need, desire and determination for change will not bring change. a good starting place, but that has to develop into doing. making a daily schedule for myself detailing the particulars of a new course of action to bring me into the next level of whatever is great...but until i JUST DO IT, i'll have only scheduled potential, not reality.

i believe in the principle of tithing - i acknowledge it's truth.
but am i tithing?
i believe in the cause of the Kingdom, winning souls and making disciples.
but am i actually telling people about Jesus?
i believe in good health and staying fit.
but am i still drinking four cokes a day and eating six chapati's for dinner?
i believe in showing the world the love of Christ.
but am i being kind to my family, my co-workers, the waitress who's too slow?
i believe in the power of prayer.
but am i praying?
i believe in the power of God's Word.
but am i reading it? studying it? obeying it?

this is what God spoke to my heart two days ago...
"rebekah, I cannot bless what you believe...
I can only bless what you do."

if i am given seed that is GUARANTEED to be good quality and sure to produce good fruit and i shout about it, write down rhema's in my journal about the best farming techniques, read the accounts of great farmers who have gone before me, write an album full of songs about how grateful i am for the seed, how excited and willing i am to go into the field and sow it, choreograph an interpretive dance using ribbons and lots of ballet jumps and minister it in church, write the most eloquent and moving spoken word and make a youtube video of it that goes viral, declare every day the power that it has, command abundance to come forth out of it, fast and pray for the overflow of harvest from it, host a workshop and then a conference about it, start a ministry called "guaranteed seed heavenly harvest ministries" and tell my friends that they should get some of this seed too.....will any of that bring fruit?????? as wonderful as my motives, excitement, passion, faith, expectation and demonstrations of belief may be, will any of that turn into fruit????

unless i till the soil, plant the seed, water the ground, uproot the weeds...unless i do that, i would have only built monuments of make-believe, turned into a hero of hypocrisy and gathered followers of fantasy.

the scripture says that "knowledge puffs up...".
we often have a false sense of security because we KNOW.
we say, we teach, we talk, we shout hallelujah...
but are we doing what we know to do?

i don't know about you, but i'm ready for the next,
i'm hungry for the harvest,
and i'll do what i gotta do.

the up-side of being thrown into a furnace...

first blog of 2012 - it being april, that is slightly pathetic...
but the last couple of months have been, how shall i describe them...
horrible? amazing? purpose filled? embarrassing? exciting? all of the above...??

it's hard to describe how the worst things can turn out to be the best things in disguise...

like the torture of going to the dentist to remove the tooth that's been making life miserable for weeks, but at the same time, the SWEET JOY of relief when the pain is finally gone.
it's the pain of removal that leads to the freedom of pain...
does that make sense to anyone but me? :)

in daniel 3, there's a story we all know. the three boys, shadrach, meshach and abednego (props to the parents for seriously unique names)... they decide not to give into peer pressure (the whole nation bowing to an idol, thousands upon thousands of people except for them) and as a reward for their unwavering commitment to righteousness, they get bound and thrown into a fire so hot that men simply standing close to it died.

as i've been walking through challenges the past few weeks,
i've been thinking about this story a lot.
a lot a lot.

so much in this story speaks to me, but the crucial part for me starts in daniel 3:19...
"nebuchadnezzer (again - unbelievably creative naming skills from the parents) ... ordered the furnace fired up seven times hotter than usual. he ordered strong men from the army to TIE THEM UP, hands and feet, and THROW THEM into the furnace. shadrach, meshach and abednego, BOUND HAND AND FOOT, fully dressed from head to toe, were pitched into the roaring fire."
(emphasis added - also the part about creative parental naming skills)

later, the king freaks out when he looks in and sees four men in the fire. he double-checks with his staff to make sure how many were thrown in, then says "'but look! i see four men, WALKING AROUND FREELY IN THE FIRE, completely unharmed! and the fourth man looks like the son of the gods!" (vs.25)

he calls out to the men and the next verses are BEAUTIFUL... "shadrach, meshach and abednego WALKED out of the fire. all the important people, the government leaders and king's counselors, gathered around to examine them and discovered that the fire hadn't so much as touched the three men - not a hair singed, not a scorch mark on their clothes, not even the smell of fire on them!" (vs.26b-27)

the up-side of being thrown into the furnace...

#1. freedom is found in the fire...
it amazes me, every time i read it, that strong men tied them up, hands and feet,
and threw them in.
they were thrown in in bound.
they were thrown in helpless.
they were thrown in with the things the "strong men" had put on them.
they were thrown in for doing the right thing.
they were thrown in after standing in faith.

YET...the king saw them "walking around freely in the fire" and they WALKED out.
thrown in bound, walked out free.

the fire wasn't allowed to touch them. they came out without even a hair singed (and from a fire that could kill people at a distance, that's pretty unreal).
the only thing that was there before the fire that was NOT there after??? the bondages.
the only thing the fire consumed?? what the strong men had put on them.
the only thing the flames burned??? the ties that kept them from moving freely.

#2. the Fourth Man is in the fire...
notice, not before and not after.
in the place that was meant to destroy them, they found the Deliverer.
in the place meant to hurt them, they found the Healer.
in the place intended to finish them, they found God.

#3. faith is furnished by the fire...
those who had just invested massive amounts of money into an idol were suddenly converted into believers by what they witnessed. the testimony of those men, the miracle of them walking out without even the smell of smoke confounded the wisest, humbled the proudest and persuaded the leaders that THIS GOD was worthy of worship and allegiance.

so... i think God let me get thrown in to my "furnace" for several reasons...
He wants to deal with the things that are binding me.
He wants to reveal Himself to me in a way i can only see in the fire.
He wants the outcome of the fire to be a testimony to those observing.

and it's been happening... like a dentist's appointment, the place i really didn't want to be has turned out to be where i'm finding freedom, deliverance, purpose, miracles,
grace, and JESUS like never before.
i'm not coming out scarred and wounded and bleeding and dying... oh no...
i may have been thrown in, but i'm WALKING out! FREELY!

so if you're in a fire too, from one furnace-dweller to another... it's SO worth it!!
go in knowing, "you will walk through the fire and NOT be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze." isaiah 43:2