Breath Of Heaven

I sat there at my daddy's bedside, I sat and I watched the heaving in his chest. Up and down, up and down, struggling for air. The doctor's baffled not knowing what was happening in his body. Rushing, spinning, the room, my heart. After surgery we were called in to visit. There lay my strong daddy, the man that used to lift me over his head, with a tube breathing for him. I had to stay strong for those around me, but after I found a room and I collapsed. I cried, I cried out to the Lord, I ask Him to please let me have my daddy a little longer. Selfish, I know. I want my kids to know how blessed they are to have such a wonderful Papaw, I want Rebekah to meet him, I want to have more time with him. We went to a hotel close by since he was so critical and again I found a place. I sank down in the bathtub on my face before God, begging.

My daddy is coming home today, not going home to his eternal home, but home. This situation has drained me physically, spiritually, and emotionally, but it has me thinking too. I have been pondering heaven. A place of complete peace and rest. To be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord. It's so hard to find Him here sometimes. There are principalities and powers of darkness waging a war for our souls, for our affections, for our trust. I couldn't feel His presence even though I knew He was there. There was no emotional experience. Having His word in my heart is what held me. Knowing what He says and knowing it is true. This is not our home. We are pilgrims here. There is a place that awaits those of us that belong to Yahweh. He says in His word that He is preparing that place just for us. When we remain earthly minded we forget the heavenly realm. Ministering spirits sent to aid us in this world, perfect light, perfect love, perfect peace. Jesus Christ forever!

This life is so hard, babies dying every day, sick loved ones, pain, poverty, orphans, bombings, hate, death. We have hope in the eternal, a new body, consuming beauty, loved ones that have died in Christ, the cloud of witnesses that have watched our story unfold. I can't imagine not having hope in heaven through Jesus, struggling through this time here, this vapor of a life with no hope. How do those of you without Christ cope?

Lord, what is man, that you take knowledge of him? Or the son of man, that You are mindful of him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow. Psalms 144:4-5

Junk Drawers

God gives us the strength to live godly.

Titus 2:11-15

11. For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12. It teaches us to say "no" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, 13. While we wait for the blessed hope--- the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14. who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good. 15. These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.

This lesson started with me and 7 junk drawers. 7!!!! I had 7 drawers filled with mostly junk, stuffed away, hidden from sight, and in cleaning them God started cleaning me. I have a hard time with biblical submission. I wasn't raised to submit. I was raised like most women in our culture to be self-sufficient, strong, and fight for my rights. So when God started showing me and teaching me that I have a very stubborn heart the heat was on. I was broken by the 7 drawers. I saw the junk in my own heart that needed to be cleaned and purged out. So I pray the same for you! I pray that you will take this lesson and apply it to your heart, those secret places that are hidden away for no one to see.

To have a clean heart we first MUST be saved! The key to living a godly life is to be converted and filled with the Holy Spirit. Apart from Him we can do nothing.

So examine yourself and ask God to reveal the condition of your heart. This is for everyone, the Sunday School teacher, the ones of you that made a profession of faith at a young age, you that prayed a prayer, everyone needs to examine their heart. If you are converted there are things that we all need to be delivered and set free from. Women carry a lot of baggage and stuff a lot of junk. Thankfully we have the Holy Spirit and God's word to teach us.

Look at verse 12--- Gods grace teaches us to say "no" to ungodliness and worldly passions.

I love the word "teaches" in this verse. It says to me that it is a process that is not yet complete. We are continually being taught to say no to our flesh and to live a self controlled life.

Let's look up at verse 10. Here Paul is telling Titus to teach slaves how to obey their masters (WE ARE BACK AT SUBMISSION). Read verse 10 "They will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive." !!!!!

Are we making the teaching we do about God attractive through our lives? Can we be trusted with the holy word of God?

What are areas you lack self-control? Write them down.

What secret sin do you need to clean out of your junk drawers? Write it down.

What are some worldly-passions we lust after? Read Titus 3:3 List some worldly passions.

We should live godly in this present age. Our present age is defined by social media, texting, entertainment. We have a lot of temptations to fight against in order to live godly. We shouldn't look like the world. If we are watching what they watch, wearing what they wear, listening to what they listen to, are we living godly? Can they see a difference?

This brings us back to submission to Gods authority. He created us for good works. He has equipped us beforehand to live upright, godly, and self-controlled lives.

Verse 13--- We live this way while we wait for our blessed hope to return. We live with GREAT expectation of the life to come. When our obedience is full-filled and we are with Christ forever. He is coming for His people a pure people. Verse 14--- a purified bride.

The end of Verse 14 says: "We're eager to do good."

Are you eager to do good? It is not always the easiest thing to do, but we should want to do good.


Homework

Clean and organize a space in your house, a drawer, a room, a closet, etc. As you are cleaning ask God to reveal any area in your life that is junkie. Ask Him to purify you and help you in this area. We all need help. There is none perfect except Christ. Open the drawers of your heart today and let God cleanse you!

Housekeeping

Submission in the Greek is Hupotasso- A Voluntary placement of oneself under the authority and leadership of another.

We are going to peer into this idea, seek it out, and ask God to help us learn the reason for our submission and the blessing that will come when we submit.


Goals for our 4 week study

• Learn God's idea for women
• Clean our junk drawers
• Learn how to serve and why
• Learn the gift of hospitality

All through biblical submission. 

Week 1- God's idea for Women

Let's start at the beginning in Genesis 2:15-18 (Please Read)

The man Adam was the first created human to dwell on the earth. God commissioned him to work and tend the garden that God had made for him. He issued the first command to man in verse 17 when he told Adam not to eat of the fruit. 

So we start out with man, Adam, he is in submission to God. God gave him very specific instructions on how to live, what is expected of him, and what he is not allowed to do. 

God gave Adam a choice to submit to His power and authority. God did not lock the tree up or put a wall around it. He said, "I set before you life or death, choose life." 

1.) Submission gives life

Then we see in verse 18 that God saw it wasn't good for man to be alone. There are many ways God could have chosen to form Eve. The animals came forth and Adam was made from the dust of the earth. He chose however to take her from man. 

Read verses 18-23

I find the next verse very interesting. Verse 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. God took Eve from Adam then He states that they are to leave their father and mother and become one flesh. Let's dissect the term one flesh. 

Read Matthew 19:4-6

The becoming of one flesh means physical through sex, spiritual the covenant before God, and social the picture of Christ and the Church before men. 

Lebasar-(Hebrew for flesh)- It describes the entire human nature. So with marriage we have the father and the mother giving their children in marriage. The headship of the parent's in the marriage relationship transfers to the husband. The couple leave their father and mother and cleave to each other. There is something to be said of the family participating in the paring of two people. (that's another lesson on the importance of courtship rather than casual dating.)

I think in order to understand the importance of biblical submission we must understand the importance of the marital relationship. 

#2 Submission was God's original design. 

What is the wife's role? 

Let's take a look back at the first wife Eve. She was created to help her husband. What are ways you think she helped her husband? List them. 

She was also created to submit to her husband as the leader that God placed over her. She was the weaker vessel and needed direction. God is a God of order and design. He created the order of the universe: God, Man, Woman, animals. Man was the head of the woman from the beginning. 

What does God require form us as wives? Read Ephesians 5:22-24, 33

The word respect  in verse 33 is the Greek word Phobetai- it literally mans "fear". It can refer to the fear we have toward God. A reverence and respect. 

If we look at our role as wives in relation to the church and Jesus it may put things into perspective. If the church is the bride of Christ and He is her husband we can see the love, fear, respect, and reverence the church has for Christ. That is what we are to imitate. 

#3 Submission shows the world Jesus!

Submission goes against our sinful nature. In Genesis after the fall God told Eve she would desire her husband. This means she would desire to Lord over him. We by nature want to control our husbands. We nag, we boss, we pout, we stomp, we want our own way. And our husbands by nature let us do it. So when you see a godly woman that truly has a converted heart the seeks after God submitting to her husband it shows the world and us a picture of Christ. This is why the enemy is seeking to destroy the marriage. 

HOMEWORK!

1.) PRAY! Pray for God to open your heart to submission. Ask for God to show you areas in your heart that you don't want to give up. 

2.) Speak kindly to your husband! Even if he is irritating you or being ugly to you. 

3.) Submit your body to your husband. Push pass NO! Become one this week in the flesh. 

Reflections of Grace

The past six months have been life changing for me. The purging, cleansing of this temple. This temple not made by human hands....but by God. My body fashioned before the foundation of the world to serve and praise the one who formed me. I have faced myself in the mirror and ask, "does my reflection mirror His?" What is it like to be poured out like a drink offering? No religious cliches or verses of the day posted on facebook, but a life that is poured out for Him. Not a saying of the word, but a doing. We can all quote the word. The Pharisees did that and they were called a brood of vipers. satan himself knows the word. What is doing the word? I've struggled with that. I've seen how easy it is to go and serve with wrong motives. Not motives that are unholy, just wrong.


I love missions and I have a heart to serve around the world. I will go wherever God calls me. What I have found in the last six months is I'm right where I'm supposed to be. It started with SEVEN
junk drawers. I had seven drawers full of junk, trash, things I had been holding onto for one reason or another. As I started to clean the drawers I started to see my life as God sees it. He sees the innermost parts of my heart the parts that need cleaning. He began to surface my junk, my unsubmissive heart, my quick temper, the anger that raises it's head so quickly, I saw myself in the mirror. "As water reflects the face, so one's life reflects' the heart." Proverbs 27:19 I saw my calling as a mother and how great it is. I realized how I had been comparing my home to the "perfect home-schooling mom's" home posted on her blog. I saw how defeated I had become in my home.

Then the most BEAUTIFUL thing happened on January 19, 2013! The fruit from the seeds planted!

My First Born was washed in the blood of the Lamb!

Filled with the Holy Spirit!

God's workmanship....His masterpiece...created to serve Him!

The monotonous days of school work, bible study, cleaning, cleaning again, changing dirty diapers, wiping snotty noses. Living out, repenting, asking for forgiveness, following, THEY see! 

We are cleansed from all our sin to follow Him and serve Him. It may be in a nation far away, it may be in your church, but mostly it is to those around you. Loving Jesus in spite of your circumstance, keeping your motives in check, following Christ out of a relationship with Him. Not for the sake of "doing" but for the sake of Christ. Have you looked into your junk drawers? I encourage you today to take a break from mindless internet surfing, comparing, and saying. Take a moment to see your reflection, see your life, and you will see your heart.

A Christmas Poem

The Swaddled Gift

The Gift that came in winter’s night was the gift that changed my life. A baby birthed in pale moonlight from a virgin womb that night. Angels proclaiming hallelujah all around the King of Kings from heaven came down. He lay there swaddled in a cloth, born in a manger, the stench so great, a place for animals our King was laid. 

Our ransom was born that night our souls He came to buy. He purchased us with His blood as His body was nailed to wood. In anguish and in pain upon the cross He would hang. The babe in the mire and stench God would send to earth, our souls He came to save. His blood has now ransomed us in, into a kingdom to call His own the babe came down and left His throne. 

So as you hang your light’s this year please remember this gift so dear. He came from heaven swaddled tight the greatest gift to change your life. 

 Merry Christmas

With Much Love,

Kimberly 

Afraid to Pray......Afraid to Bond....

It has been 8 long months since we placed these green shoes on our princess. We have been told from the beginning that the adoption process in Haiti is an arduous one. We've been told not to get impatient and to expect it to take up to 2 years. Since receiving this news I have been extremely patient, almost too patient. You see when we adopted Eli I knew, I knew he was coming home soon and I told everyone. I posted it on my blog www.babyeli.yolasite.com. I BELIEVED! I expected from the Lord. This time it has been different, I haven't expected anything. So, I have put Rebekah in the back of my mind in order to cope with the long wait. 

But something has happened this week.....something great! I started believing in miracles again! I went back to scripture and it was confirmed in my heart. And what I knew in my head was confirmed again this morning when a sweet adoption friend posted to our private site on prayer. It really doesn't matter what timelines say, governments do, or we think, our God is a BIG God. A God that is concerned with ALL of our ways. "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses  but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need." Hebrews 4:15-16

If I have no unconfessed sin in my heart I may approach the very throne room of God. WOW! He also says in His word, if I ask believing I will receive. This is the part that is tricky for most believers. This doesn't mean if I ask for a Mercedes Benz the Lord will give it to me. The Bible says if I ask according to His will. So I must search the scripture to determine His will. 

His will is for Rebekah to be home with her family! Psalm 68:5-6 "A father of the fatherless. God sets the lonely in families."

He has already promised her a hope and a future. So when I approach His throne believing she will come home soon and praying in that manner He will hear me! So I have a request of you!

See this candle? Every morning the children and I are lighting this candle for Rebekah. We are getting in the floor on our face before God and we are asking that He move mountains and bring her home soon. Not for my sake, but for hers. She is in a wonderful place, being cared for, her daily needs met, but she needs us. She needs to be tucked in every-night by her mommy, kissed by her daddy, and snuggled up with her sister. God has written her story out, it is done, now I must believe. Will you believe with me? Light a candle for Rebekah and pray with me? Pray until she comes home? Let's believe together, united in one accord, incline the ear of our Father, and trust that He will GIVE according to what He has promised! 

The Gift Of Giving Instilled In Our Children...

How do we teach this to our children in a materialistic world? Jesus can't really compete with the toys, Santa, the light's, the glitz, the glamour of Christmas. The kids and I read portion's of the Christmas story each day and still when I ask what their favorite part is they always say, "the toys." How do we instill the joy of giving in our children's hearts? We give! We live our lives out in front of them and set an example of the gospel for them to see. 

I came home last night from work and this note was on the mailbox. I sat in the driveway and wept. My daughter wants to help the poor in Haiti. I wish so bad just one person would have stopped. I even thought about leaving money in the mailbox to increase her faith. What if we stopped in our busy day for an 8 year old little girl with a BIG heart. Her prices were very reasonable after-all. 

Today we were invited to a cookie party at a friend's house. We baked cookies and made up bags for them to give away. 

Then the best part! Instead of buying a $5 gift for them to exchange each child put their $5 into this jar. I'll share at the end what was done with the money. 

We had cookies galore. 

Homemade potato soup....yummy.

Then we opened our ears, inclined our hearts, and listened. The money that was in the jar was matched by an anonymous donor and the total came to $175.00. The kids got to go through various books and choose how the money was spent, their gift to Jesus. 

They purchased a goat, two chicken's, and helped buy a well. AMAZING! Our children were able to live out the gospel today. Jesus says when we do these things for others we are doing them for Him.  

Jesus came and He laid down His life for us. He gave the greatest gift ever given. Could we be like Him? Choose to joy in giving. He laid in a manger on a cold winter's night for you and for me. Give this Christmas! Teach your children to love and serve those around them. Let's take back Christmas from the world. Take back Christmas and serve the One that gave it to us in the first place.