Conversation About Hiccups

Here's a replay of a conversation Jim and I had at the dinner table tonight. It's a revelation about a long held family secret...my loud, loud hiccups. Before I get to the conversation, you have to know that when we were dating (between Febuary 14 and April of 1957 in Chicago)and I would get the hiccups, Jim would quickly walk several paces ahead of me because he was so embarrassed.

Jim: "Did you have loud hiccups before we met?"
Me: "I don't think so."
J: "Did meeting me give you loud hiccups?"
M: I'm thinking, where is he going with this?! I come up with an answer worthy of being in a
book of wisdom (maybe)..."If I had loud hiccups before I met you, no one in Minnesota made
mention of it!!" Implying that the guy I'm dating is embarrassed by my hiccups!
J: "Well, I thought they were cute, and I still do."
M: "You are the greatest!"

So, if you hear loud hiccups at church, it's probably me, please don't mention it! Instead you could have a conversation like we did; what foods give you the hiccups and how you get rid of them.

The Little Mustard Seed

Been trying to get this blogged since Tuesday. In my dream Tuesday I kept hearing "mustard seed," over and over. Finally got up at 7AM and started the day, kept hearing "mustard seed." I decided I needed to figure out what to do, so I prayed, then went to the scriptures.

"The apostles said to the Lord, Increase our faith! He replied, If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, Be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it will obey you." Luke 17:5-6 NIV

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Heb. 12:2 NIV

When God shows us something in His word, He expects us to do something about it, not just hear it. I decided to do one of those things the world would consider foolish. I'm ok with foolish if God is directing all of it. I went to the spice shelf in the store and got a small can of mustard seeds. There must be 2,000 seeds in that can! Went to a craft store and bought 100 small plastic zip-lock bags. One by one, I filled 100 small bags with one mustard seed in each bag. Put scotch tape on each bag and wrote this reference down: Luke 17: 5-6 and Heb. 12:2. I started mailing mustard seeds and handing them out to everyone I talked to in the next couple days.

Friday Jim left work early and we decided to take a drive north in the sun. We stopped in Monroe for lunch first and saw three friends from TRC, talked faith for about 45 minutes and handed out six more small bags. On our way home, we stopped at our kids house and gave four more small bags, also saw two more friends from church. Stopped by their house and we talked faith for another 45 minutes and gave them small mustard seed bags. Some things we heard were amazing! God is talking to His people of faith! No one is squishing their foreheads really hard to have faith...we are believing. We believe because of Who is telling us what He will do in our lives. We know He is faithful!! We fill our hearts with the things that encourage our faith; prayer, hearing and doing the word, fellowship, worship, serving, planting seeds, giving. Whatever His commands are.

I'm going to be carrying around the small bags of mustard seeds until they are all gone. If you want one, let me know. When these run out, I just might be filling more bags. The Lord is doing something in the Church on faith.

Next blog is on the holy seed. Isaiah the prophet talked about it, prophesied it.

Just Something About You Lord!

On my way home this afternoon with Jeremy Camp CD playing very loudly. Had to press 'repeat' on the player. I love this song. "Something about You, how do I describe the God of the universe?" "Speak every language and I'm still tongue-tied." "Keeps me in pursuit of who you are, spending my days and find a way to praise the glory of who you are"...just somethin' about You Lord!

We have no human words to adequately describe God, that's why the angels don't bother with anything else, but praise Him eternally. That's a truth for us today, the exortation is to praise Him in all things. It doesn't mean we are jumping up and down happy about bad things happening, just that God is this God, the only God who is worthy of praise forever, including the time we spend here on earth. It's good practice! The joy we feel is about who God is to us and not what our circumstances are. That is plenty of joy to get us through anything and everything. In the middle of a big, fat argument, stop, pray and praise. It defeats the devil. I know I just heard cheers about that last statement!

There's just somethin' about You Lord!

Foundations: Hope

Today after hearing words of fear, and seeing worry on the faces of people; more than ever we need trust in our eternal hope, Jesus Christ. When the "what ifs" come crowding in, these questions don't come alone. Restlessness, worry, doubts and fear come with the w.i's. Will life as we have known it remain the same? It never does because God is changing us everyday whether we realize it or not. Life on this earth has its fickle side. Remember the "rice shortage" scare a few months ago? Rice shelves emptied in a few short hours and people thought, we really must be having a shortage! I'm buying rice again without any problem.

For all the shaking we experience on this earth, what will always remain is our everlasting hope in Christ Jesus our Lord. "Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out to our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." Rom. 5:5. Have you received a bad report from the doctor about your child? Is your marriage faltering? Do you worry how the house payment or rent will be made? Are you worried sick about your kids? Run to your eternal hope in Christ Jesus. Yield your heart to trust Him today in all things. It is the hope that does not disappoint. Ever! In any circumstance. Jesus clearly, simply put forth the reasons we should not fear what happens in this life in the story of the sparrows, Luke 12: 4-7. Their song is based on what they know every day, they are well taken care of. Are we not worth much, much more than a flock of sparrows? Of course we are. Will the heavenly Father who loves us so much, abandon us to be orphans in this world? NO! Will He keep His word to the Church? YES! Fill yourself with God's hope through His word and encourage and exhort one another today, tomorrow, next week, next year...Ps. 39:7, Ps.119:147, Rom. 4:18, Rom. 5:5, Rom.8:24-25, Eph. 1:8, Col. 1:27, Titus 2:13, 1Peter 1:3, Heb. 6:17-19, Heb. 7:18-19, 1John 3:2-3 and many more scriptures.

Words: The Important Kind

When you've been to a great conference, it's very hard to put into words what you experienced in two days. I went to my notes and picked out important words that I heard, and what the Lord is saying to the Church.

Enlarged, (that would be spiritually!) waiting, tensions, ability, voice, urgency, freedom, hardship, grounded, Word, ordain, future, send, generations, declare, victory, nurture, strategy, hear, write, sensitive, intercede, ask, receive, partnership, multipliers, throng, connecting, surrender, (only to God) answers, daughters, mothers, grandmothers, purposeful, compassionate, holy, dangerous, attitude, teach, train, season, protection, inherit, truth, empower, redeem, choices, gospel, gatekeepers, extraordinary, expect, mighty, covenant, table, take, (the gifts given to us by God), remember, rule, reign, invitation, come, respond, escape, contend, identify, rehearse, (speak of the goodness of God), power, source, heart,, build, breakthrough, strength, labor, position, arise, Spirit, see, lift, believe, agree, subdue, wisdom, results, greater, watch, pray, gathering, united, dream, crossover (as Israel did at the Red Sea) hope, glory, amen.

Choose one word a day. Pray, ask, receive. Knock on the door and it will open. Your life will be changed too and ENLARGED!

Foundations: Adversity

Adversity. Now there's something that can shake our foundation! Paul knew well what it was like to have doors opened wide to minister and he also knew great adversity. "SUDDENLY there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. AT ONCE ALL the prison doors FLEW OPEN..." Acts 16:26. Believe me, earthquakes are great adversity! Paul gave his blood on more than one occasion for his faith in Jesus. We haven't given much blood in the American church yet, but the Lord knows how to shake what we build on sand. I've looked at a pile of rubble sometimes and realize it's a second chance from God to rebuild on the Sure Foundation. God still works in these mysterious ways, He can and does open suddenly, be ready; He does open more than one door at a time, be equipped to minister, the doors He opens no man can close, enter with the boldness of His might.

Paul's adversity in part, were stripes. He could count the number. I think I would remember each one too. Did you notice in Paul's life, and ours, that open doors and adversity go together? Wide open doors to minister to the jailer, many adversities. Wide open doors, great shaking. Pruned till it looks dead, great fruit, multiplied fruit, the 100 fold kind!

We can't get away from it. In this body we will know suffering and adversity, but remember the fruit and open doors. 1 Cor. 16:9, John 15.

Another day, our hope.