The End of an Era

Good bye Mexico, it's been fun!

I left Mexico 5 days ago... I will miss my little man A LOT! The love Tim and Ruth have shown me is irreplaceable... they are truly dear friends of mine. I don't think I've ever met so generous, open and loving people as them two. They are a role model to me.

Please pray for them, for us, that God would comfort us through this season of transition and change. Pray for them that God would make this a special Christmas even as they are away from home. They will be leaving on their outreach to southern Mexico on Christmas Eve and the next 2 months will be hectic, traveling long hours and not staying in one place for more than a few days. Pray for Ezekiel to supernaturally adapt at the inconsistency of the situation and for God to reveal Himself to him at this young age.

Have it ALL

Funny thing happened on Friday last week, my bag disappeared from the top of my bed... most likely stolen... In it were my new pajamas, my toiletries, some earrings I really liked, cel phone charger, my Bible and my journal... Nothing of worldly value.

When I realized it was gone for sure (meaning someone hadn't moved it to another place within the room, etc, etc) nothing more than a sense of inconvenience entered my heart. I had no feeling of real lost. I praised God that, if in fact someone had stolen it with mean intent, He had blinded their eyes to see my purse which contained my passport and identifications in it.

I think I was even happy when I-through this test- found out how little hold material things had on my heart. Sure nothing of worldly value was in it but my Bible and journal are to me my most precious possessions. It was my first English Bible, I've had it since March 2003- it was falling apart, lol. And my journal because of all the great lessons God had taught me this past five months...

The next day God brought to mind one of my favorite quotes by AW Tozer:

"The man that has God for His treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered, that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately, and forever." (The Pursuit of God)

The glorious thing is that only an hour before I found out the bag was missing for good God had spoken to me and showed me how much of His word He has already written upon my heart. Also when I knew there was only a slim chance my journal would show up, I found out that all the lessons were still fresh on my mind. That the past 5 months God has dug so deep in my heart there is nothing that was really taken away from me.

So there you have it my friends, GOD IS GOOD!!! His work is everlasting!

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth or rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal." Matthew 6:19-20

Did you know?

Thursday I went up to San Diego and spoke at the Young Adults Group from one of the local churches. I spoke about God's goodness in the light of the Messiah as highlighted in Isaiah 53 and Romans 8:32,34. At the end of the night, when we were hanging out, I spoke to a lot of the people and heard how God had encoureged them through the Word and even confirmed things to them. I prayed with some of them. I always love to hear how God is glorifying Himself in the lives of other people.

Later on the night as I meditated even more about the goodness of God, the Word that He had given for the night, and really just how much He loves us- clearly portraid in the cross, I thought about why He did it. I know through Scriptures that He has done it to glorify Himself but what I hadn't realize, and what came like a flashing lightning in my spirit, clarifying every thought is that God CHOSE to glorify Himself through loving us.

You see, sometimes when we say God's love glorifies His name we think (deep down) that God is being self-centered; that really the only reason why He loves us is so He can get something out of it. We think He didn't really have an option, He must glorify Himself. But the truth is God never had to love us to start with. Think about it. Think all the way back to the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve sinned. God had two options:

Option 1. He could glorify Himself by wiping them two off the planet, sending them to hell... He would have been glorified because He would have done a righteous thing, He IS a holy God who cannot tolarate sin and MUST as a righteous Judge punish it.

Option 2. He could sacrifice Himself. Stand in the gap and suffer excruciating, unimanigable pain... pain that us as human beings could never survive... He could give Himself to experience all the punishment that was RIGHTLY ours SO THAT we could experience life with Him eternally. He could give it all so that we could have it all forever, we that deserved nothing.

Both of this would have given glory to God and exalted Him to the highest. God didn't really gain anything more whether He had gone with either option. He would had still been God, beautiful and mighty, holy and righteous, good and just, Creator of all things.

BUT

How interesting that God chose the thing that would benefit us the most. That He would choose to glorify Himself in a way that not only declared Him as Almighty God, King of kings and Lord of lords but that would also be advantageous for us. Can you wrap your mind around that? That God chose the road that made Him suffer the most and offered YOU the opportunity to get something out of it. And not just SOME-thing but EVERY-thing....

Conclusion: He really DOES CARE.

Don't doubt Him. Walk confidently and be strengthen in the knowledge that God is for you not against you. Be bold in working out your own salvation knowing that God's desire is for you to have life.

"He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Romans 8:32

Have blessed day today :)

Popcorn Season

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart..." Proverbs 3:5

sigh with a slight whimper, broken heart...

"Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid..." John 14:27

"The Lord your God is with you wherever you go..." Joshua 1:9

5 days til the Mexico chapter of the book is closed...

I will miss my little man, I love him so much- his smile, his laugh, all the clever things he says...

..."Trust in the Lord...and feed on His faithfulness..." Psalm 37:3

Leaving always hurts, it doesn't matter how many times I've done it... Dad, it hurts...

"But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings..." Mal 4:2

"The Lord IS my Shepherd... He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul..." Psalm 23:1-3

sigh of comfort...

the Lord is my Shepherd, He will take care of me :)

Thank you for what You do, O God, Lord Almighty. I will give You praises with all that I am for You are good and Your faithfulness is forever. You give strength to my soul and comfort my spirit. You have poured Your grace in my heart and my whole being rejoices. How gracious are Your words! You are the gladness of my heart! :oD

"Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His Holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." Psalm 30:4-5

"It is Zion for whom no one cares" Jer 30:17

"...You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give Him no rest till He establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth." Isaiah 62:6b-7

I do not know of many other more powerful and clear statement about God's heart for the Israelites, or of more clear a command for those who claim to be well acquainted with the Giver of Life, Creator of the Universe, God Almighty...

I have been presented with an amazing opportunity to go to Israel in September, to participate in a Convocation dedicated to intercede. People from all the nations come to the convocation to pray for Israel and all the nations.

"And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles."

Zech 14:16

I will be going with a group of people from England composed of individuals from different churches. Our traveling dates are Sept 6th through the 22nd.


Please keep me in your prayers, that God would be preparing me, even now:


-physically: Keep me healthy before during and after the trip (no jet lag or exhaustion),

-spiritually: It is a schedule packed with worship, A LOT OF INTERCESSORY PRAYER and

listening to testimonies of what God is doing in the nations of the world. I need

spiritual stamina and a soft heart to listen to His leading, specially in prayer.

-emotionally: If you've ever done any sort of focused Christian work you know that emotions can

all of the sudden go haywire as part of the spiritual warfare, specially the thought

life. Pray against that.



Thank you so much for your prayers... There are even MORE trips that I will be taking this Fall [Autumn as my British friends prefer to say ;-)] I will post info about that later on...

7 Days

7 days left

shorter breaths

the road is getting narrower

God is good

Someone once called me a 'wonder junkie'... he was right... heck yes! I am addicted to God.... How can anyone who has seen and tasted that the Lord is good ever walk away? It is impossible!

I desire to know Him more, to love Him more, to experience Him more, to find out everything about Him... I want to abide [dwell in the midst of, be held, kept continually] in Him.... be one with Him...

Anyone that has ever seen God knows: He is wonderful- full of wonder... and my chest becomes still, I feel as if frozen in time. I do not speak, I don't even blink, I just look... I behold, I take Him in, I gaze upon Him who was pierced and then I know:

"...Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." Matthew 7:14

God, give me the strength... give me the faith... grant me a grateful heart that rejoices in all of Your ways at all times :)

"...Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me..." Psalm 23:4

Attention Passangers...

It was 8am on Saturday morning and I had just been inform I'd missed my flight for the second time... I had forgotten how stressful it was to fly close to the holidays. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong, it was ridiculous all the little details that had happened to keep my from boarding 1. my 6:20am flight and 2. my 8am flight... seriously felt like a supernatural force keeping me from boarding those planes. I wasn't as frustrated as I would have expected to be. All I kept thinking was: "Are you serious God? What is going on?!"

I got on Skype to ask ppl to pray, I didn't even know if I would ever see my checked-in luggage again (yeap that was one of the things that went wrong- unsure if it had been checked-in properly)... I found a friend online and I told him about my day so far... the bottom line of the conversation was: "Maybe God wants you to meet someone"... He must be a prophet ;)

"Surely you shall call a people you do not know, and peoples who do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and the Holy one of Israel; for has glorified you." Isaiah 55:5

The name of my divine appointment is Kelsey*. She was standing by the front desk when they called my name to give me a sit on what was my third attempt to board a plane that day. Yeap it looked like I was finally going back west. Group number 5, Seat 11b. "Excuse me", I said, "are they boarding group 5 yet?" "No", came her reply, and I notice she was also in group 5. I went away to sit down only to notice she had followed me and was now sitting next to me on the waiting area. We started to talk and it came naturally (not like the usual awkward airport conversations). We started to board. She had recently moved to Oregon and commented on the fact she moves around a lot, I confessed I could relate. "Where are you sitting?", I asked her. "Sit 11a"... no way!!

Long story shorter, she asked me why I moved around so much... answer: "I'm a missionary". We talked a bit more then she asked: "So WHAT do you do, like, what's your job description?" He, he, he :) This is how it all began. "Well, I am a Christian. I have commited my life to God and I do whatever He tells me to do." I then went to speak about God and how He speaks to me. "What do you mean God speaks to you?? How?!" She was hungry, thirsty and ready to receive the truth.

The next four hours of the flight were spent sharing about God coming to earth and dying for us so that we might have a life with Him. I answered her questions and explained about sin, repentance, following Jesus, and life of santification. It was wonderful, she didn't have a clue about any of this things... she didn't know about Jesus, being crucified and dying for us all. As I told her all of this her eyes were getting biggere and bigger: "He died for all of us??!!"

Towards the end of our conversation she looked straight ahead, started to nod her head and speak to herself: "I like that... I want that... (big smile) I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna commit my life to God!" Yay, praise the Lord. "Before I met you I never wanted to know anything about religion but the way you talk about God is as if He were right here... He is like your friend... you talk to Him and about Him like a real person... it's amazing! I think God made you miss those two flights so that you could talk to me! I had started to doubt there was even a God and now I've met you... and what are the chances we end up sitting by each other? Something at the gate draw me to you, and I felt like I had to talk to you... I never talk to ppl at airports. This had to be God."

That plane ride was probably the quickest 4 hours of my life... for her too. We were sad to see each other go but we exchanged e-mails. Pray that God will continue to put ppl in her path to disciple her. She doesn't go to church or anything, so for this seed to grow and mature to bear fruit it'll take a miracle. And a miracle WILL take place because God is the one that has brought her to life and will see her through, so keep her in your prayers.

Thank you for your prayers for me, they continually impact my life and the life of those around me ;o)

God bless you!!!!!!! and Happy Thanksgiving!

(PS- my checked-in bags got in ok :) )

*Names have been changed for privacy purposes