Verse of the week

"My heart and my flesh may fail, but YHWH is the strength of my heart" Psalm 73:26

shout out to stev-o

Since when did Stephen Court use the word 'riff'?? Anyone? Beuller?

where the heart is....

I've been experiencing a bit of the 'domestic' life lately. Taking kids to and from school, making meals, housecleaning, laundry. I've been seeing a lot of old faces, too. It's good, and makes me wonder about marriage a lot. Paul says it's better to stay single, because more of your energy is spent towards Kingdom efforts. But I have seen examples of how two mission-minded people can actually compliment eachother's ministry within and through the covenant of marriage.
Does God ever make us choose between the mission field and our family? I heard a preacher say this past weak that for many of us the mission field IS the family. The question shouldn't be an either\or issue, but rather an and\as well issue. If I am living my life for Christ, that includes my WHOLE life, not just what I do from 9-5. I want my WHOLE mind, spirit AND body to be in submission to God, 24-7-365. The Kingdom of Heaven is all around me and I can choose to be a part of it all the time! Lord, let it be so for me and my house.

September 30-October 2

What are you doing at the end of this month? I know what I'd like to be doing!
Going to armybarmy.com and checking out ACC, that's what I want to be doing! Eva Burrows, Michael Collins, Danielle Strickland, Majors Hailes and Hobgood, I mean seriously! It's going to be a party! A primitive salvo retro bingo army barmy gathering.....well, maybe not the bingo, but all the rest, for sure! Go to it! Catch the fire! Don't bring a fire extinguisher, just let yourself be consumed!
Grace.

Lessons learned (well, learning!)

Here are a few lessons from this year:
God is Sovereign.
Satan mimics. He can't create anything new.
Salvation/healing go together.
Justice is about more than 'just us'.
Humility is agreeing with God about who you are all the time.
Holiness is readily available all the time, and depends on continued OBEDIENCE to the Spirit of God.
Jesus invites us DAILY, moment by moment to join Him in what He's doing.
God knows the desires of our hearts better than we think He does.
Faith is fixing your eyes on Jesus. Always.
True confession/repentance is actually a VERY good thing.
Worship is an expression of love, that can be found anywhere, even in the dark corners of the DTES.
God wants us, spirit, soul, AND body. He's jealous, but in a good way.
Grace.

Transition

This is a wierd time of year....transition. I'm finding myself disassociated with my friends here because I know I'll be leaving them in two weeks. Then I'll be home, but again, only for a few weeks, then on to Bangor, but even some of the details of that are unsure still. I'm learning to trust YHWH even through the transition times. Christ's life was all about transition "I tell you the truth, the Son of Man has no where to lay his head"....I think we're all feeling it, trying to get as much time together to enjoy eachother, meanwhile there's a lot of craziness and hectic-ness around; preparing 8 new rooms in 2 new hotels for the new students, as well as relocating those of us who are still here and recleaning the rooms our friends have lived in all year to make room for the new students. There's been piles of primer, paint, vaccuuming, powdering, windex, mattresses, bedding, keys cut, many trips up and down stairs, telephone calls, cars being impounded, mouse poo, bed bug eggs, urine stains, along with who knows what else to wade through. I'm telling you, worship is DEFINITELY more than singing pretty songs once in a while. Worship is life, and life together can be worship. It seems at times that only when we realize our time is short that we start appreciating the time we have together. Amidst all the running around craziness, there have been some beautiful moments of simply appreciating my friends here, and seeing the Jesus in them shine through - I mean, seriously, how many people do you know that would praise the Lord every time they found a new pile of rodent feces to clean, or 12 mattresses that needed to be walked up three flights of stairs, and come back the next day and say "when do we start?" These guys and gals are champions! Lord, thank you for the Martyrs. Thank you for the servant's heart that says 'yes' to even the nastiest of situations! Praise the Lord.