My new fav verse

...whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,

and whosever wants to be first must be your slave -

just as the Son of Man did not come to be served,

but to serve,

and to give his life as a ransom for many.

- Matthew 20:26-28

Such a verse is moving to me in this season of (what I feel like is) much service. Serving others is a privilege, and I shouldn't avoid it but embrace it, as it's God's assignment for me. And not just for me in this season, but for all believers all throughout life. Having young kids is just something that helps you serve more.:)

So yay for that, and may God provide the strength with which to do it! (If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides... - 1 Peter 4:11)

Good Books

I have become a fan of Biblical Fiction books.

I mean, I have been for a while, but now, I really really really am.

These books open your mind and heart to stories you've known for your whole life. You start to see and feel the events of the Bible in ways that you don't by just reading the story about Mary Magdalene, or Moses. These books make you think on the Bible more, not less. They make you understand God better, or realize that you really don't understand Him at all, and that He is unbelievably gracious to you in the first place.

Our television has been in the closet since the middle of December. (except for 1 hockey game during the Olympics.) Those close to us know that we greatly enjoy television entertainment, whether it be a close baseball game or our revered West Wing or Star Trek dvds. In December when the tv started living in the closet, we found we really enjoyed the "freedom" that came from not having it sitting there looking at us all the time. The Sunday afternoon lure and evening desire for it faded, and we have found ourselves thankful for plenty of other things to do, or the sleep that comes just a bit easier when not tempted to stay up to "find out what happens next."

Anyway, this relates because I have found myself reading a good deal more than before (which isn't a ton between the kids, OneWay, a growing love for "domesticity", and various other personal goals), and I remember why I used to read for hours at a time.

So for anyone out there who is looking for some great books to read, here's a list of my favorites. Just google them and you can find a synopsis if you want more.

Biblical Fiction:

By Francine Rivers:

5 quick and easy novellas about women of the Bible, now all in The Lineage of Grace, separately as

Unafraid, Unashamed, Unshaken, Unspoken, Unveiled

5 quick and easy novellas about men of the Bible:

The Priest, The Prince, The Prophet, The Scribe, The Warrior

The Chronicles of the Kings series by Lynn Austin:

Gods & Kings

Song of Redemption

The Strength of His Hand

Faith of My Fathers

Among the Gods

The Shadow Women by Angela Hunt

Magdalene by Angela Hunt

Michal by Jill Eileen Smith

Christian Fiction:

Riven by Jerry B. Jenkins (amazing! amazing!)

Safely Home by Randy Alcorn

Hidden Places by Lynn Austin

Wings of Refuge by Lynn Austin

Bible Memory

God is showing me how memorizing the Bible can change my life.

I had a goal of memorizing 100 verses by the end of last year, and another 100 by April 1. Today, on the eve of April 1, Steve "tested" me on all 200.

I want to testify that God's GRACE has been working in my life, working in me (Phil 2:13) to want to know His Word and helping me to see it transform my mind (Romans 12:2). Everything seems different, makes more sense, is more clear.

I would love to encourage anyone in any Bible memory desires they might have - click here for my list of verses that you might want to pick from. Click here for notecards for the first 100, here for notecards for the second 100. You can easily print the notecards on 3.5x5 index cards.

How I memorize:

1. As I read through the Bible, I write down what I deem "memorize-worthy" verses on the inside cover of my journal. Takes little effort.
2. When I am wanting to start a group of them, I put them all in an excel file with the reference.
3. If I want more, I read through other lists of verses to see if any should be added to my list. (see below for a couple ideas)
4. I print out verse cards from my Excel file in Word (data merge manager). I can make this Word file for anyone - just send me your excel file!
   
5. As I learn them from the cards, I write down the references on a piece of paper that becomes my "key." This way, as I review, I can go through them on that paper, then look them up on the cards as I have need. This also helps me learn the references.

Places to get ideas for memory verses include:

1. FighterVerses: http://fighterverses.com/
2. Promises of God: (long list, but some are awesome): click here
3. Concordances or lists of verses about any issue - online is easiest: google "bible verses pride" "bible verses fear". You'll get plenty of ideas.
4. My list

My tips for Bible memory:

1. Learn a song that has that verse in the lyrics.
2. Say it out loud many times to yourself, with great emotion, emphasizing words as they would be emphasized in conversation.
3. Write it many times.
4. Make up motions that go along with key parts of the verse.
5. Talk about it all the time - to everyone you know!
6. Find a way to USE it in your day to day life - a verse for while in the shower, a verse for cleaning the kitchen, a verse for going to bed.
7. Keep it on a card in your pocket, looking at it throughout the day.
8. When at stoplights, memorize! Print the verses out on cards or regular paper.
9. Teach it to other people.
10. Community: Get other people to memorize verses with you to help inspire you to keep going.
11. Try to remember the VERBS - they help move you through the verse.
12. Learn first letters: Phil 4:8 "whatever is tnr, pla, ep, think about these things."
13. Learn sections, then transitions: work on separate sections, then learn the harder transitions between parts of the passage.
14. Pick applicable verses for your situation NOW, ones that you care about and that you want to be thinking about anyway.
15. Make a list of verses that you have memorized, and keep the list going. Later you will want to know how many and which ones you have memorized.

"...the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus..." 2 Timothy 3:15

Growing Olive Plants

What does the Bible say about having kids?

• Kids are a heritage from the Lord, a reward, and that we are blessed when we have a lot of them. (Ps 127)
• God tells us not to look down on them. (Matt 18:10)
• God said the kingdom of heaven belongs to "such as these" (Matt 19:14)
• AND in describing what Jerusalem will be like when He lives there, God says that "the city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there." (Zech 8:5)

This is encouraging and exciting - I especially like the last verse implies that having kids happily playing is something in which that God delights. We have a lot of that:).

And yet having kids isn't easy allllll the time. God has used a friend's blog post to correct and encourage me.

Read part of it below:

“Blessed is every one who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways…your children shall be like olive plants all around your table.” (Psalm 128:1,3)

I absolutely love the picture this verse paints, and since Jim and I are in the season of raising children, we are naming the theme of this blog after the verse. This is quite intentional, and perhaps even counter-cultural. In a culture where children are considered an inconvenience, we are choosing to believe God’s word that counts children as a heritage from the Lord, a reward, like arrows in the hand of a warrior, a cause for happiness! If I believe this about the children God has given us, then I can cancel the pity party that says, poor me, I can’t sleep in, travel the world, read a book in an afternoon, skip dinner preparation, take a shower in peace…you get the point.

And what’s up with the image of olives?? Let me share something that I recently learned about cultivating olive trees.

Apparently, there are two different methods of planting olive trees in the mediterranean part of the world. The first method takes a branch from an already existing tree and places it in a hole dug for the new tree. The branch is then watered and fertilized. Eventually the tree grows and bears fruit.

The second method also begins by cutting a branch off of a mature tree. But rather than planting it in the ground, it is placed into a soil plug and cared for in a nursery until it is strong enough to be transplanted. While in the nursery the little sapling is watered and fertilized. In due time the gardener sees that the plant is ready and he transplants it into the field. Eventually it bears fruit.

So what’s the difference between the two trees? The quality of the fruit.

Upon leaving the earth to return to heaven, Jesus commissioned His disciples (and us) to go and make disciples. So when I look at these little people under my care, I must seriously consider how I’m training (discipling) them. Am I giving them the bare minimum they will need to grow and bear fruit? Or am I tenderly nurturing them by teaching them God’s word, praying for them, equipping them for life so that they will bear great big juicy fruit?

After reading this, I made of list of the thoughts I'm not allowed to think anymore - any pity party thoughts. (Doesn't mean I won't wish I can sleep more or have more time, but the standard has been set so I can catch myself:).)

God has tasked me to grow olive plants with great joy.

And so grow olive plants I shall, by His power and grace ALONE.

Praise God for His perspective.

Parables!

This week I worked through the parables in the synoptic gospels, and created this document. It was fun.

Pray for Sung

It's not every day I get an email of which I need to take such notice.

A brother in Vietnam named Sung became a Christian just this past November. When he was recently threatened with a fatal beating and the loss of all his property (which would leave his family destitute), he signed recantation documents, saying he recanted his faith in Jesus. His is supposed to prove his recantation by offering sacrifices to ancestors this Saturday. For the full story, click here.

I read Luke 9:23-26: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him..."

And so we, who do not face the daily trials of being a Christian in a hostile land, can and should hold up this brother and the many many others like him in prayer. It's the least we can do from our comfy chairs and computers that can provide us with constant information about God's people around the world. Surely I can't be too busy to pray for those whose faith in Jesus endangers their lives and the lives of their families.

Each Friday I have signed up to receive prayer updates from Voice of the Martyrs, where I heard about Sung. You can sign up too, by clicking here.

Father God, protect and equip Sung and his family to deal with this situation by clinging to You. Give him a special assurance of Your love, faithfulness, and trustworthiness even this night. Be his mighty rock and refuge, his fortress so that he cannot be shaken (Ps 62). Through Your divine power, provide for everything he needs in these days (2 Peter 1:3). Our eyes are on You and we look forward to Your answer!

Come Holy Spirit

I find myself overwhelmed by the tragic situation of the world. How we need God to intervene! How every person desperately needs Him, even if they don't realize it or accept it!

Anyone reading this post is most likely in the 1 or 2% of the richest people of the world. And yet the wounds, the burdens, the sorrows, and the pain even of us and people we know personally is immense.

And then there's the rest of the world, many of whom have never heard of Jesus, the only Savior and King of all mankind. Many whose life on earth will be struggle after struggle to get just food, water, clothing, and shelter for themselves and their families. Most of my major prayer requests will never be on their radar, for they need the things I take for granted. And even those who aren't stricken by poverty (Europe, parts of Asia) may never know anyone who knows Christ. Hopeless.

Would you take a moment to join me in praying the immense needs around us and in our world?

I just used the song Come Holy Spirit to help me pray for the needs below - by no means a comprehensive list, but a start.

(Listen to Come Holy Spirit by

1. going to http://www.owm.org/music-media/music,

2. on the music player click Shine (2009)

3. click Come Holy Spirit.)

Come Holy Spirit, move in this place

Come Holy Spirit, have Your way

Reveal anything that keeps us from You

Consume any darkness, make all things new

Move in Your power within us

LET ALL THINGS GIVE WAY to JESUS

• ❑ not enough money to buy food or clothes or shelter

• ❑ no water

• ❑ sickness that can easily be prevented

• ❑ sickness that causes death

• ❑ people so hungry that they are dying

• ❑ a mom who cannot keep her child fed or safe

• ❑ a mom in Haiti or elsewhere who doesn't know if her kid is alive or dead

• ❑ a woman who aborted her baby

• ❑ anyone in a divorce or having marital problems

• ❑ anyone whose spouse has been unfaithful

• ❑ deep wounds from what were once close relationships

• ❑ one's body ceasing to work from old age

• ❑ anyone in a nursing home

• ❑ anyone suffering from alzheimers

• ❑ the lonely

• ❑ the depressed

• ❑ those with daily physical pain

• ❑ those in war

• ❑ those who can't forget war

• ❑ those who live in war zones or have been forced in a refugee camp to live for years on end

• ❑ those addicted to drugs

• ❑ girls and women being trafficked for sex

• ❑ kids being abused by their parents

• ❑ those in prison

• ❑ those for whom safety is not normal

• ❑ those getting ready for death without salvation

• ❑ anyone without salvation

Bring in a brand new day O God! By Your power and Spirit bring salvation, healing and hope to all peoples around the world.

Preach good news to the poor

Bind up the brokenhearted

Proclaim freedom for the captives

Release the prisoners from darkness

Proclaim who You are!

Comfort all who mourn

Provide for those who grieve -

so they may have beauty, not ashes

gladness, not mourning

praise, not despair. (Is 61)

For nothing is impossible with You (Luke 1:37), and though "we do not know what to do, our eyes are upon You" (2 Chron 20:12). And teach us how to live and what to do in the meantime!

Amen.

I Exist for God Alone

Come into my heart

and focus it on You

Throw off its entaglements

whether attitudes or longings

and free it to be after You alone.

For you are the great King

the Great Ruler of the Nations

and Truth lies with You alone.

All I see is superficial

Much of what I do is superficial.

But deep inside, Your Spirit dwells

Powerful and alive

Sometimes chippping away

sometimes blasting away anything not true or of You.

And I am a bystander.

I can watch and celebrate or lie prostrate

but I am a bystander.

HOWEVER, not just a bystander, because in Christ

I am victorious, more than a Conqueror

Nothing is without solution or hopeless

Nothing is impossible.

My God lights up the world, and thus, so do I!

Nothing can hold me back -

not what people think

not tiredness

not desires for other things

not insecurity

for I exist for the God of the universe and Him alone.

Let It Shine

The week OneWay Ministries waited for all year ended in complete victory.

December 8, 2008 I sat in Wentz Concert Hall at North Central College with Michael Thompson and Jim Johanik and took notes on all the vision ideas for the "next" concert.  Michael was talking about "let our lights shine" from the song "This Little Light of Mine".  The hall seemed huge - after all, we had just put on a concert in a hall that seated 225, and now we were looking at 605.  I wrote things down like "representative from every country of the world" "50 piece orchestra, 50 piece choir" and was excited, yet a little nervous.  After all, who was going to do all this? (I am, after all, the project manager and the only non-visionary among the 3 of us.)

So a year later, it's done!  

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine on us...

that your ways may be known on earth and your salvation among all nations. Ps 67:1-2

These ancient words have been sung and played so much by people on our team that God is already answering our prayers...God indeed has poured out His grace upon us.

On December 3, people from all over the world, new friends, and members of the OneWay family filled the 605 seats of Wentz Concert Hall for "Let It Shine" a worship and prayer gathering for the nations.  God's presence was palpable as we worshiped with over 70 musicians.  Believers and unbelievers alike were powerfully challenged to live "all in" for Christ.  17 organizations had booths in the atrium to enable and activate people to pray, give, and go for teh gospel.  We know God is mightily at work in people's hearts, including our own!

The same day we re-released our evangelistic Christmas cd Driftings with a new gospel presentation by Lon Allison, director of the Billy Graham Center (and Steve taught his son in his ping-pong class at Wheaton Academy!).  Concert attenders took 2000 copies to distribute.

The same day we released OneWay's 2009 worship album: Shine, which combined the gifts of over 120 musicians to encourage and strengthen the body around the world.  This used the most people we've ever used on an album before, and is truly a work of God from start to finish.  Someday maybe I'll write about some of the cool stories that are behind it.  Hear samples of both albums here. 

The same day the brand new prayercast.com site became active, with 19 country pages full of prayer videos, pictures, and ready for content to be brought in from around the world.  Click here to check it out and pray for the world: prayercast.com.

The day after the concert I got an email directing me to the next prayercast video out.  I went to the site, and was overwhelmed by God's grace to this ministry.  We are a very small group of workers, pray-ers, and givers, and yet God has poured out His grace on us to bring about such a powerful site.  I find myself renewed and inspired by the vision of prayercast - to make a wikipedia of prayer information for the nations so that God's people may intercede and stand in the way of the enemy.

And yet my favorite part of the week, personally, was that I was the least frazzled and anxious that I have ever been, with a bigger event and more details.  I am seeing God at work in my life, developing fruits of the Spirit and a passion for God's message of hope to be known throughout the world.  

And this is why I know God is making His face shine on us - may His ways be known on earth and His salvation among the nations.  Come Lord Jesus!

Don't neglect being loved

My new favorite thought...

Don't neglect being loved by God.

Don't neglect being forgiven and accepted and protected and strengthened and guided by almighty God.

Don't neglect enjoying the free access to the throne of grace.

Don't neglect the inexhaustible treasure of God's promises.  

This is a great salvation.

Don't neglect so great a salvation.

It is the something better you've been hoping for.

-Nancy Guthrie

Joy

My new favorite quote about joy and delighting in God:

"Joy is perfect acquiescence - acceptance, rest - in God's will, whatever comes.  And that is so only for the soul who delights himself in God...Accept for yourself the Fatherhood of God...and by the presence of the Holy Spirit within, you will learn to rejoice in the will of God, and nothing else....Leave yourself open to the circumstances of His choice, for that is perfect acceptance, and rest in the will of God...If you do so, you are in the company of the brave!..In this..."You became imitators of us and of the Lord. (1 Thess 1:6a)" - Amy Carmichael

1. first discovered by me Monday, December 4, 2006.

2. rediscovered by reading my old journals Monday, August 17, 2009 while trying to come to grips with the fact: yes, I am a mom!

3. hopefully not forgotten by me in the coming weeks and months!

Let me help...

Kids show you a lot about our Heavenly Father.

Anna recently became upset by a garage step from which she really wanted to get down.  She focused on it for a while, could see no solution, and started to whine a little.  This would normally be a normal reaction, except that the whole time she considered her predicament and was upset by it I (as the ever-attentive and loving mother) was standing there saying "Anna, let me help you" and "Anna, take my hand."

Is this not what God does with us every second of every day?  If only I would listen and allow myself to be led and helped by Him moment by moment - surely THAT is part of the abundant life!

So do not fear, for I am with you; 
do not be dismayed, for I am your God. 
I will strengthen you and help you; 
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

- Isaiah 41:10