Friday, March 19, 2010

Updates before Evelyn's arrival

I don't know what I'm doing with this blog -but I figure it's time to write something before life gets crazy with baby Evelyn arriving so shortly!! :) We are less than 2 weeks away from meeting her face to face and we are soo excited! :)

God has been blessing us soo much the past weeks (always really right?) - the season of waiting and mourning even seems to be coming to an end, praise God!!! :) B accepted a new job offer, Raymond is doing so great and we are finally figuring out how to parent as a team (though some days we really feel we have NO clue what we're doing - we're making progress!) and the weather is finally nice so we can get OUT and Evelyn will be here so soon!! :) It's just a great season of life.

I've been learning a lot - and writing about it in my journal - but the majority of what is going on right now I'd say is, "never be lacking in zeal but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in afflication, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality." Romans 12:11-13 and that's as simple as I hear Him keeping it for me.

Just start where you are Randi Jo. and don't lose your zeal and that spiritual fervor that He has blessed you with. It's not a life shattering huge revelation He is asking me to soak in. I truly believe He is asking me to truly just start LIVING and stop WAITING right where I am - exactly as I am right now. Take the seeds that He has planted and is growing and do with them what I can right now. "Small" acts and steps are many times HUGE acts and steps. I believe so many times the world needs more people willing to do the small.

So that's where I am. Seize the day type message.... learning to truly be fully alive NOW while at the same time never losing the visions He has planted in our hearts.

Right now I'm a wife, a mom, a friend, a sister, a daughter, an aunt. I am asking Him to continue to open up my eyes to who He wants me to reach out to. He has blessed me with some GREAT new relationships and helped me stop living so 'surfacy' (facebook!) and truly learn to BE the change I want to see.

Today at the park I realized again how sensitive I am.... and am learning always how to have grace for others that maybe don't get that. Many times people say things without knowing the wounds we have or weights we carry and the devil knows that and will twist any words to make us heap more on our back and I really recognized that today. I recognized his scheme for what it was and simply talked to God about it right then and acknowledged I would not let him steal my joy. He would love nothing better than to bring fear/guilt to this time of joy and blessing and I will not allow it is. I'm sure other mommies feel the same way and carry around their own wounds and I realize that you can never over-encourage a fellow mommy. I am in a great place to share that gift of encouragement and help others find ways to have grace for themselves and for their children. I am free to be me... even if I am a sensitive, sometimes overthinking, child-focused mommy who doesn't want to be exactly like others. I don't like to agree on everything with my friends and I will live in that freedom and look for others who desire the same. Thank you God for that freedom and strength and for these lessons.

Help me continue to walk in your FREEDOM, in your GRACE and never be lacking in zeal God. Help me reach out to those around me and be content with where I am right now yet always joyful in HOPE for what is to come! :)

God you are so good!!!! :) THANK YOU FOR THIS SEASON!!!! I am just blown away at how different life is going to be than it was last year this time... or even last MONTH. Praise God for CHANGE, for breakthroughs, for the seasons of life we go through! Out of the ashes is rising beauty once again, THANK YOU GOD for this beauty. Thank you for being with me through the process of these past years and never giving up! Thank you for the lessons you're teaching me and most of all for the RELATIONSHIP you are allowing me to have with you.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The Great News!

On this rainy day, I just felt God drawing me to have some extra quiet time and He is just overwhelming me with The Message. I just feel the need to proclaim The Message. To uplift the Good News! As I've been going through a season almost sabbatical-like the past weeks (months) God has given me a lot of time of stillness and calm (calm before the storm maybe!) and I'm just so touched with the passion He has put into me again. Passion for Him and this beautiful gospel message.

No matter what season you are going through - I pray that anybody who reads this - God will open your heart and just overwhelm you with the GREAT news!! Great news that is so world changing that I don't know how we can keep it inside like we do! How do we keep from talking about it all the time!? Can you even believe what we were saved from!? We were headed toward destruction, eternal anguish and separation from our only True Love... but He came and saved us from ourselves! God of this universe came to this very earth and went through not only the worst that this earth can dish out but the worst that the devil could dish. Death. The weight of the sins of the world - the abandonment and forsakeness... as He got the full wrath of our (my) sins is beyond words. It takes my breathe away and touches my soul like nothing else does.

He, a perfect man, perfectly in love with God had to have that torn from Him... God threw the weight of the world on Him and made Him be alone --- truly alone --- so we would never have to be. Jesus became sin (2 cor 5:21) - and fully felt all the abandonment and loneliness that sin always produces along with the excruciating pain and physical torture leading up to it.

May we praise God for all He has done and never do anything to get in the way of this Good News --- THE news worth proclaiming! No matter how lonely we may feel - we are never truly alone because JEsus was. No matter what happens to us ---- God has made it clear - He will never forsake us. Jesus went through that for us. What a promise. What a God. What a Savior. What a message!

May the beauty of this season penetrate our hearts so we will not be able to continue on focusing on anything else. I pray for us to never take for granted what this Good News truly is and that the majority of those in our world do not Have it - do not get it! I know that if somebody saved our lives last week from a man with a gun... or car about to hit us --- we would tell everybody and be so full of LIFE and thankfulness. Why do we not do the same for what our Savior did for us!? It should make no difference we were saved 2000+ years ago and not last week! Let us never lose our passion of how much more we have been saved from. No matter how many times I sit and dwell on this message --- I feel like it's the first time I've heard it! I feel like I'm born again.. again!

I pray this can be our focus all year long and not just Resurrection Sunday.

So since I most likely will be having a baby around Resurrrection Sunday this year - here's my proclamation and sharing of the passion He has given me.

GOD FORGIVE FOR BEING SO FOCUSED ON OTHER THINGS. FORGIVE ME FOR NOT APPRECIATING WHAT YOU HAVE DONE. FORGIVE ME FOR NOT ALLOWING YOU TO FILL ME WITH YOUR LOVE LIKE I SHOULD!

GOD I LOVE YOU! I WANT TO BE FILLED WITH YOUR LOVE! I WANT YOU TO HEAR MY PRAISE AND SEE MY HEART OVERFLOWING WITH YOUR LOVE AND THANKFULNESS!

THANK YOU GOD!!! THANK YOU FOR ENDURING WHAT YOU DID JESUS. THANK YOU FOR CONQUERING DEATH. THANK YOU FOR BEING FORSAKEN SO I WON'T EVER KNOW THAT FEELING!!!!!! THANK YOU FOR LIFE! THANK YOU GOD THAT JESUS AROSE! THE GRAVE COULD NOT HOLD THE KING!!!!!!

THANK YOU GOD THANK YOU GOD THANK YOU GOD THANK YOU GOD THANK YOU GOD THANK YOU GOD THANK YOU GOD THANK YOU GOD THANK YOU GOD!!!!