Terribly Interesting

I don't know if it is obsessive compulsive of me, but I wrote out Song of Songs 2:10 about 10 times in my journal. It reads, " Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away ." Something about those words ministered to a place deep inside of me. I am craving a day of nothing but God speaking into my spirit. Maybe I will just lay there all day listening. I simply know that the time is coming. My husband is currently playing a little Spanish guitar in front of a crackling fire and I just breathe in the peace of the moment. I thank God for this. It pushes me on. I meditate on the Christmas season and my thoughts are full of all the blessings I hope for those around me...my friends, my family, my little girl. If I could wrap up one thing this Christmas and send it to all the people I love, I think it would be a big healthy dose of bone deep faith. I want my daughter to know and understand the depth of love that Christ offers her. I want my husband to be propelled forward by

This Blog is updated each Tuesday. " Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses." 1 Timothy 6:12 . There is a poetry of motion contained in the Spirit of God . I would love to capture a small percent of the magnitude of what God is doing in the lives of the people around me. Words at this point are superfluous. This is something you can only understand with a heart of faith. What is God saying to us at this point. Be battle ready. I was mesmerized by a verse I read last week. . " You will be a new threshing instrument with many sharp teeth. You will tear your enemies apart, making chaff of mountains.." Isaiah 41:15 . I love that. The thought of being that fierce is a striking thing. I want that. I want to tear my enemy apart with my teeth. I hate seeing what he tries to do to my sisters, my family, my husband. Everyone I know is in the heat of i

This blog is updated each Tuesday. Writers write. That's the theory. It's proved to be true as far as I know. When I don't write I feel a part of me withers. There is something about words on paper (or screen). I set this deadline of writing each Tuesday to make sure that I cultivate this passion. It's midnight and I wish I could hang up a sign on my blog that says, "No blog today. Catch you next week." It's staring me down and I know I must write. Last week I was driving along to a Bible study and something happened to me. I wish I could explain it. It was a physical and spiritual feeling simultaneously. I felt as if I had broken a high fever and been transported to another world all at the same time. I was trying to explain it to my husband and the best thing I could come up with is to liken it to spiritual Super Mario Brothers. It was as if I had made it to another level of a game. As you look around on the level everything around appears the same, bu

Have you ever found yourself staring into the face of who you used to be in the person of someone else? Recently, I found myself sitting and supping with who I used to be. It is a slap in the face for sure. I thought," God , are you sure I was that arrogant? That condeming?" Oh yeah. I have learned something in the pathway of brokeness. When you think you are sole authority on something or you always think you have a better way, God will burst your self righteous bubble. He . It is something that must never leave our lips. He is. I find myself thanking Him that I am not. I am also, by His grace, not who I was. Props to Brandon Heath for putting that into song so I can praise God for His workmanship. It also serves as a healthy reminder as we think we are gaining no ground. The enemy seeks to tell us lie after lie. We start buying into to his idea of us. That is when, if we are paying attention, God will sit us down with our yesterday and remind us that He brought us up o

This blog is normally updated each Tuesday. Have a blessed Thanksgiving. The air is somber at my house this week. God is breaking me. The enemy is trying to squash me. I find myself quite tired. I keep hearing this voice asking,"are you sure you're ready for this?" My mind takes me through a series of pictures of people God uses in a public way. There are many Christian people who are in the public eye and it doesn't effect them like this. It really is glamorous. Their ministry is much more self-help than holiness. Then there is this remnant, a sub-culture, that is face down and knee deep in intercession all of the time. Brokenness . Surrender. Holiness. Brokenness . Surrender. Holiness. . It is an unending process of yielding your life for God's glory. These people are largely tired. I am not sure they sleep much. They are generally empty and have absolutely nothing to bring to the table. "But God ..." I love verses that start that way. He makes the

This Blog is updated each Tuesday. I sit here writing to you from the banks of the Lake Livingston . I feel as though I am writing a letter to a dear friend. The winds sweeping across the water make me feel transported to another time or place. I am sure that place is very Pride and Prejudice . I fully keep expecting Anne of Green Gables to walk up at any minute and give me some godly wisdom. She is not coming and I find myslef waiting on God Himself . I need to be alone with Him . (This all makes me think of Genesis 1:2. The Spirit of God moved over the surface of the waters) . This past week of prayer and counsel did me in. It full on brought me to the end of myself. I know this will sound odd, but I am happy to be here. There is a whole lot less of me here than there was last week and I find that quite agreeable. I enjoy less of me no matter how tired I am. . As we all know, God knows what we need. Here I sit on the bank of a river, at the edge of a lake and here I shall remai

This Blog is updated each Tuesday. My husband is tucking in our little girl after a long night. Denbigh is an amazing man. As I speak, teach, lead, organize, or whatever it is God tells me to do..there he is coming alongside. I laughed and told him tonight that he does more serving for women's ministry than most women do. Thank you, lovely husband . Monday night the Holy Spirit fell on us at our first women's worship service, Shiloh . It was phenomenal . It seemed otherworldly at times. The voices were angelic. Angela delivered a powerful word to us. I believe with all my heart freedom came to us in that place. Marla, Janet, and Marj were anointed as they led worship. Thank You, Jesus , for Your presence . Thank You . My word from God I keep hearing of late is Surrender . He has told me to let go of something and I am being pushed to the limit on this one. Relentlessly throughout the past few months God keeps showing me that when you let go of something that He

Alright, baby photo below. Quit emailing me! ;-) I remember having a writer's callous when I was five years old. In my adolescence I hated it. Now, I find it fascinating. Almost as long as I have been alive I have borne a mark that declares I am passionate about something in such a way that it bores into my skin. I have been blessed with wonderful Apple products to use and I still prefer writing things out. I heard Michelle Pfeiffer say David Kelley writes out all of his award winning shows on yellow legal pad. I like that. I prefer a journal and a real wood pencil (the kind that are stained, not the yellow ones.) There's something romantic about it to me. Writing is a choice medium in my relationship with God . I love to prayer journal. I pour out thanks for every minute that I get to spend doing it. In last weeks post I told you that God broke my Mac so I would spend some time alone with Him (then I can have it back in January). Shortly thereafter the enemy came in tel

Do you ever feel like you may have fallen down the rabbit hole to Alice's Wonderland ? My week like that began last week at a local coffee house. I sat there with Anne who was about to hop on a plane to go intercede for Passion in Chicago . First a man comes and sits by us for a good fourty-five minutes and never gets any coffee. He gets really excited when he sees a 1970 high school year book and asks Anne if she brought it. Yeah, Anne was 3 or so in 1970. He proceeds to tell us about everyone in the book and how one guy sold 6 chickens for fifteen thousand dollars. I had to turn away at this point so I did not laugh at him. There were several other interesting characters, but one in particular caught our eye. He had on emo (really tight) pants, one of those shoulder wraps that women wear made of camo and something that looked like a fox stole around his neck (you know, the kind with the fox head and tail that you picture old, rich women wearing to brunch.) This being th

This blog is updated each Tuesday. Just about every week a book arrives at my house. I am a reading junkie. Denbigh is always saying, "What have you bought now!?" Well, I love to read. I explained to my dear husband whom I love and cherish that this is all the fault of Levar Burton from Reading Rainbow . Butterfly in the sky indeed. Take a look. It's in a book. Reading Rainbow . I dearly love to read. I am a studier. I want to be well informed. I think we as an American society just do things because other people do them. We never stop to ask ourselves if something is God honoring or even appropriate. Driving around our neighborhood a few years ago at Halloween, I had a thought. I thought that if someone from another country came over here who did not understand our customs, they would all think we were Satanists. One drive down the street my friend Christine lives on would convince you of that. One of her neighbors puts out a life-size demonic clown with a smoke m

Last week Denbigh's guitar was accidentally knocked over on stage. That led us to have it repaired at Ray Henning's Heart of Texas Music . Who waits on us, but ol' Ray Henning himself. There he is. A legend in his own right. He sold Stevie Ray Vaughn his famous guitar. He befriended Willie and Waylon. He's old now and can't hear well, but he's still a fireball. He offered me 5 Martin guitars for Laomai. His wife was in the background laughing. That would be about $15,000 in guitars, but rest assured, I didn't take them. I still have my daughter. The whole thing made me think of people in the Middle East buying women in exchange for camels. My friend Anne was reading the society column in The Statesman the other day and noticed all these names in bold. She said they were bolded as if we should know who they are. She didn't know. So, she started doing it on her blog. It made me giggle and I dearly love to laugh. So, I shall also do it on mine. Anne Smith

This is my sixth year in Bible Study Fellowship. That seems impossible to me. I once couldn't get through a 4 week study. Here I am...hooked on knowing more about Him. This year we are studying Matthew. This past week I realized something. I have known what the name Mary meant for some time, but I have never applied it to the mother of Christ. Mary means bitter. This culture named their children with purpose. Many people even changed their name to Mary after bitter circumstances had engulfed them. I sat there looking at this and I thought that it was so like God to take Bitter and let it birth Redemption. Please keep us in your prayers. This has been the year of severe attack. The enemy keeps trying to take all of our resources. I just keep remembering that you cannot outgive God. He is so faithful. He has far more than we could ever need. Also we have a retreat coming up in 2 weeks. Please be in prayer for what God will birth that Saturday. We still have a few seats available for

This Blog is updated each Tuesday. If you could do anything with your life, what would it be? I challenge you this week to turn off your t.v., computer, or other distraction and do one thing you always say you'd like to do. Read. Write. Paint. Laugh. Don't find yourself saying "I wish I had made time to do that" when your life is coming to an end. Do the thing now. Raise the bar for your own life. Better yet, set the bar down and do some dancing. If I could do anything, I would do much of what I am doing now. I think I'd like to quit trying so hard for things to be done and just enjoy life. I would like to lay aside lists and "to do." I would like to curl up on the couch more at the coffee shop and enjoy someone's company. The other day I was out on my parent's property. I sat on the swing under a big oak tree just breathing. I realized I need to do that more. My dad has a small dry erase board on his fridge (Ice Box to my southern friends). On i

This Blog is updated each Tuesday. Following in her father's footsteps: It has been a whirlwind week with the Cherry family. We spent 3 days at Carolina Creek leading worship. On the way home, Denbigh dropped me at Camp Tejas in Giddings. Sunday we are at church all morning, pack up our bag again and head to Waco for Denbigh's brother's ordination as a deacon where my husband sang. Monday morning we pack back up and come home for my doctor's appointment after the fall. I sit here now wishing I were taking a nap, but my brain won't stop spinning. Thank you to all of you who prayed for the River of Life group. We got on the floor and the Holy Spirit descended on us during prayer. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that people were healed and set free this weekend. I know it was not my speaking or our worship. God had informed me He was coming and to get out of His way. What a sweet and beautiful Savior we have that meets us in the most intimate ways. We praise you

This Blog is updated each Tuesday. Early this morning I was sitting on my bed with my beloved daughter who is now a beautiful 6 month old. She is playing with her pony that Shelley brought her back from Wyoming (because every girl needs a pony). I am reading. I glance at her and a huge amount of white foam is coming out of her mouth! I start freaking out thinking my first born is having a seizure. She had stuck her hand in her mouth (chewing it) so far that she made herself start throwing up! I still have not recovered from this moment. I just turned white writing out the story. Keep us in your prayers this week. We are off to Carolina Creek to lead worship and then I am speaking at Camp Tejas for River of Life Community Church. I know I won't make it through my talks without singing that childhood song atleast once. Sing it with me: "I've got a river life flowing out of me It makes the lame to walk and the blind to see Opens prison doors and sets the captive free I've