Posting...

To the zero, three or five hundred people who read my blog - my next post will be dated November 1, 2006. I promise. And I'd better keep it because anyone who wishes can see that promise.
If you have need to waste your time...depending on your definition of that phrase...then please read my archives.
Of course if you want something interesting to read, I will also direct you to my archives.
And if you would like to visit a random website that just happens to be about me, go to my art website (link in the sidebar) and see pictures I have drawn and painted. That will hopefully be updated. Soon. Very soon.
Enjoy!
Have a nice day!
'Cause...it's a beautiful day...sun shines and you feel like...smiling. My own addition of re-writing that song.

Yours in a happy mood tonight because God is very, very good and likes to laugh -

Elisabeth

''In a galaxy far, far away..."

A couple days ago I was washing dishes in the kitchen, and I overheard something on the computer behind me and my siblings talking excitedly -
"Maybe it's peace!"
"No, I think it's nothing!"
Wondering what they were up to, I peered over their shoulders to see what they were playing. It was a Star Wars game, and they had to finish certain statements in Jedi 'laws' about the force. Some of the statements went like this -

There is no death. (There is the force)
There is no chaos. (There is peace)

*The bold text is the statement they had to finish. The italics are the answers.*

So the point of this is to pass the test before advancing to Padawan status and moving on in the game.

When I think of Star Wars computer games, I think of fighting, light sabers and gore. Naturally. But this seems to go a little beyond what I would feel comfortable with doing myself. To which my brother, who is reading over my shoulder, tells me that I'm not doing it myself. Quite right Ben, but that is not the point. Having to memorize these answers to the game so that you can advance is a little too far for me, much less my impressionable siblings.

Knowing that you become what you are most influenced by, I wonder...if this is the best way to get electronic entertainment...or is this just a crash course in watered-down Buddhism?

The fight for the spotlight

After church today, I came home and read the newspaper, as usual. In it, I saw something that disturbed me. There was a large article about a lady psychic. I'm not going to slam the newspaper because it published the article. Personally, I don't think it's the newspaper's fault at all.

A couple years ago, on October 31st, there was a large front-page article about the witches in a town thirty minutes away. I remember afterwards, many people wrote letters to the editor, complaining about the article. Many, many people stopped reading the newspaper after that and canceled their subscriptions. I agree that it was not the greatest thing to see a full article on the front page devoted to witches, but I must ask - what are we doing about it? Even as I'm writing this, I'm wondering...what am I doing about it? Will I do something about it?

As Christians, mostly what I have seen us do, is get all defensive and cancel subscriptions. But it obviously hasn't helped any. The enemy is in the spotlight of the media and newspapers - no doubt about it. When was the last time you saw something positive in the news? I tell you, God is not negative!

The enemy has been looking for lost and hopeless people, and using them to his own purposes. God looks for the same kind of people and sets them free to run in the path of His commands. The enemy has been on the move. (So has God, by the way) I have not ever read a large front-page article concerning pastors. (Excepting in court case coverage with my church...not necessarily putting us in a good light though) These psychics are in the newspaper quite easily. They put on many classes concerning the 'second sight' and how to use it. They are the ones who are out there and bold. They certainly have not been hiding in their homes, trying to survive on their 'psychic talents'. (No I don't support psychics. They get knowledge from the wrong source and are being used by the enemy, whether they know it or not)

I've only read books about churches setting up booths to give words of knowledge. Praying for healing and deliverance. Isn't it time to do something? If we want the enemy to stop getting all the spotlight, then we need to make action and do something worth the spotlight. Prayer is great. It's never been better. But that isn't a spotlight thing. Jesus said to go in your room, shut your door, and pray. But why don't we make use of the gifts God has given us and do something?

I'm so guilty of it. It's so easy to give our (my) church friends an encouraging word, or pray for their healing. But we (I) shirk when it comes to the man in crutches at Safeway, or the listless lady on the street corner. I so want to give God the spotlight. But if we (I) don't do what He says, which is so worthy of the front page - then we are complaining in vain when the enemy gets the article.

Born of God

So last night was the start of youth group, and my youth group is going through the book of John...So this is what my some of my thoughts on the first chapter are.

"Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." ~ John 1:12 -13

After being born of God, perfect God, Holy God, it is unnatural for us to live in sin anymore, and it should be more natural to do right, but it's not, because we have not fully understood in our hearts the truth that we are born of God. God our Father is perfect. (Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect - Matt 5:38) We need to grasp our identities.
Think of how silly it would be for a French citizen to go through his whole live believing that he was a citizen of Germany. That would be the most unnatural Frenchman you ever saw! In the same way, we are born of the Spirit now, but we still think that we are born of the world, and because that is now unnatural for us, that is the way the world sees those who have not grasped who they are born of - unnatural Christians. We need to grasp the fact that we are born of God!

From my journal - Righteousness by faith, not works

Hebrews 11:5-7

5By faith, Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found because God took him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.
6And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
7By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

How do I please God? With faith. And this faith is coming to Him, believing that He exists and rewards me earnestly seeking Him.
I don't please God with works. That's not what makes Him happy. I don't have to be perfect to come to Him. I just gotta have faith.

How easy You've made it for me! Yet I waste all this time outside of Your will and Your presence worrying about how imperfect I am, when You don't even care about that, because that part of me doesn't exist on Your radar. How long will I be controlled by this pauper's 'Righteousness by works' mindset, when righteousness comes by faith?
I so long to grasp hold of this heavenly reality and have peace in my soul in the stillness with You, knowing that You love me, and that is all I need to know. I no longer want to live as a princess with a pauper mindset. I wanna know who I am deep within myself. I want the white stone. (Revelation 2:17)

The importance of who we give our faith to

"...Fear is the manifestation that we have faith in the wrong thing. When we believe something is going to go wrong, we have given our faith to the enemy. By doing this we have just empowered the one that Jesus disarmed at the cross." ~ The Supernatural Ways of Royalty, Kris Vallotton

I'm learning more than I thought I would in that book. This is something I've never thought about before!

Dual Realities - The art of living in two worlds at the same time

"Your internal reality always exceeds your external reality" ~ Bill Johnson

Bill Johnson asked us - "Why was Jesus sleeping in the boat, when there was a terrible storm and the disciples thought they were about to die?" I heard lots of people (including myself) saying -
"Because he was tired!"
Wrong answer.
Jesus was sleeping in the boat because his internal reality (heaven) was exceeding his external reality (the storm). The disciples woke him up, and he rebuked them for their little faith (which means they had the potential to take care of the situation instead of making Him do it) and spoke peace to the storm. He had peace in him, and that reality invaded the outer reality.

I have been thinking so much about this ever since I got home. Internal reality, external reality, two worlds, on earth as it is in heaven, etcetera.

And lately, God has been showing me how many things that we would classify as 'small' are actually huge in the kingdom of God, because they all play a part in bringing heaven down to earth. Forgiveness is one. I suggest you go read my 'Forgiveness - A key to the Kingdom' entry.
Peace. Forgiveness. Unity. Love. Joy. Kindness. Patience. All the fruits of the Spirit. AND healing, deliverance, salvation.
If I respond to my brother in love when he is being annoying - I am releasing a kingdom atmosphere, because I have love in me. If there is arguing and fighting going on in my home - I can release peace into the atmosphere by simply just being that way. I want to have my home a kingdom atmosphere all the time.
Am I succeeding in it? No. I'm human. I fail. But God is succeeding. He never fails. He never leaves something like it was, once He touches it. And once the atmosphere starts getting like home (heaven) then guess who's going to show up - God. I once heard someone say that "He just can't stay away from home". Heaven. It's what it's all about. Bringing heaven to earth. By the simple and the huge.

It starts in your heart.

My weekend and what went on

This weekend I went to hear Bill Johnson at a church several hours away.
First of all, I have to say that I think the worship was really awesome. Not only did they have a grand piano, and a bunch of other cool stuff, but they had lots of people there who actually wanted to worship extravagantly. The atmosphere was awesome...it wasn't pulling teeth to go deep into worship.
Somehow, it is so much easier to get into God's presence and focus deeper on Him when a bunch of other people are going after God as well. It was just like...a snap of your fingers to go deep into worship. Whereas at my church, I struggle with worship - and of all things I am on the worship team! I'm not saying nobody worships at my church - that's not the point.
But there is just a different atmosphere when most of the people in the building want to go after God no matter what it takes...very much different. But I don't see how that should matter if I am going after an experience with the King! Why should what other people are doing matter so much? It must be an 'on earth as it is in heaven' principle.All I know is that I so want that kind of atmosphere in my church. I guess it's like the grumpiness factor in the mornings. If one of my siblings is grumpy, whines at me about what I make for breakfast, tells Celeste she's being too bossy, and gets a spanking because of all that, pretty much everyone in my house is affected and our day turns out quite sour. It affected the atmosphere. I guess worship is like that too. I think I may be beginning to understand a little bit more about what Jentzen Franklin spoke about on worship..."And I'm going to be the worship leader of this PEW! Even if nobody else is worshipping, I WILL worship." ~ Northwest Breakthrough Conference 06

It's so easy to go into a church and enjoy the result of their labor, but it's another thing to be in a part of the labor in your own church. I guess this is something I can look back at and remember as great, yet knowing the things ahead are awesome. (Let's get some optimism in here...God isn't pessimistic!)

Well...this isn't what I wanted to talk about in this blog entry at all, but as usual I wandered off in my thoughts...sorry about that

Do you want to be like Jesus? Then hang out with Him!

Do you want to have a dream?

Hang out with the Dream Maker

Do you want to have vision?

Hang out with the Visionary

Do you want to have peace?

Then hang out with the Peacemaker

Do you want to be free?

Hang out with the Chain-Breaker

Do you want to have love?

Hang out with the Lover of your soul

Do you want to forgive?

Get around the One who forgave you forever

Do you want to be bold?

Be with the Lion of Judah

Are you grieving?

The Holy Spirit is your Comforter

Do you want more joy and laughter?

Your Father is waiting to tickle you!

Are you sick?

Touch the robe of the Healer

Are you angry?

Get around the One who is never angry at you

Do you feel dirty and unholy?

Get around the Holy One

Are your days monotonous and boring?

Do whatever your Father asks for a day - guaranteed no boredom

Do you want more of God?

Then spend time with Him.

When you seek Him, you will find Him...His mercy is everlasting

Abiding...and nothing less

"And so, I am drawing you to a place where I will be your very breath, where communion with Me will be your very reason for existence each day, where nothing less will sustain you. I am drawing you to a deeper place in the Spirit where your need for My presence will be so consuming that unless you draw close to Me, the cares and the stresses of life, even of My call upon you, will overwhelm you...for...beloved, I called you to abide in Me." ~ Journal of the Unknown Prophet, by Wendy Alec

I still struggle with keeping my focus on God. It's not always easy these days, with so many things that demand my attention and quite frankly, sometimes I would rather have my attention on them. But life is like a game in some respects and I know the strategies of some levels pretty well. It's just winning the game that's hard. You can't just know it - you have to do it and win each level before you can go to a new one.

So I've been playing this game and as I've played, I've learned about focus. And I've learned what God is trying to do. And I've learned, through trying different things on the level I'm on now, that it's very logical. My days go better when I've spent time with God and am focused on Him. But when I am being my carnal self, the ugliness comes out. My mind gets stopped up; I have a tornado inside me.

But abiding in Him...peace. Grace. Beauty. He makes it so easy for us to win the level, to win the game, to move forward...if only we abide in Him. Yet it's the hardest thing to do. Millions of people struggle with just reading their bible daily, much less abiding in His presence for a little while. If we're bringing heaven to earth, then we should be in His presence every moment of the day! Brother Lawrence (Please tell me that's his name!) was closest to God washing dishes! Abiding in Him is so important, and if we want to see His kingdom come, we better start abiding in Him, because if we were in heaven, which we are (seated in heavenly places), then we would be in His presence the whole time.

I don't think this is where I was planning to go at all for this entry, but I need to spill it out and encourage myself. (What I mean by that is, a lot of what I write encourages me whether it does anyone else, I don't know. I write stupid poems just to make myself laugh - if I can be entertained by my own stupidity...oh dear where is the world coming to!)

God, I so want to get out of ordinary life and abide in You. Cause it is where You're taking me - nothing else is going to work.

Focus - Where am I looking?

What you are focusing and what you surround yourself with is what you will be like.

This summer, God showed me some areas of my life that needed to change. So I put all my effort into focusing on the problems and trying to get rid of them. Unfortunately, I had forgotten the fact that I can't do anything by myself - and I need to depend on God to do it for me because I am so utterly helpless, and whenever I try to do something in my way, in my timing - it becomes a terrible mess that I have an awful time getting out of. But His grace is enough.

So during this period of time, all I wrote in my journal was depressing things - "Woe is me...I'm so awful...I can't change...blah blah blah"

But last Sunday, we had a special speaker, and he was talking about believing, and using two instances where Jesus heals blind men. The first question he asked was - "What do you want Me to do?" and the second was "Do you believe I can do that?" Then he had the church answer those questions for their own lives. It was then I had breakthrough and God started to reveal where my focus was to be.

It's all about being IN God. In Him there is no darkness, IN Him nothing can touch you, IN Him is peace. Placing your mind and your attention on God is part of getting IN Him.

I don't think I was very explanatory in this entry...I sure hope it makes sense. But the one thing I want to stress is - Keep your focus on God. Life won't be perfect, but there is no other way to have peace.