Hungry

Tonight at church, the evangelist asked an interesting question:

“Are you hungry for Him?” he asked.

I began to wonder about the Scripture that  says in the last days there would be a famine of His Word.

You know…I began to really think.  Who is my Jesus to me?

I call him my Jesus.  He is mine. I think of Him that way.  And I have to continue to remind myself daily…

“Did I partake of my Savior?”

“Did I drink from His fountain of Living Waters?”

” Did I consume Him as my daily Bread, my Living Bread in as much earnest as He wishes to consume me?”

I want to be hungry for Jesus.  I want to be thirsty for Yeshua’s Living waters so that I will never thirst again.

Nothing, and I do mean NOTHING can ever satisfy the way He does.

He just makes that itch go away.  He replaces that horrific sadness with a joy so deep.  That deep yearning – He fills it.   The void- He consumes it with His presence until it is full.

Any and everything I have been wanting in life, I found that He alone is the answer.

I can turn right or left– but He is always surrounding me, beckoning me to look to Him.  He is never too far away- an “ever present help”.  He has never, ever left me alone, and never, ever will.

So, am I hungry? Do I long to hear His words, sit in His presence at His feet and enjoy His company?  Do I long to hear Him speak the Words of Life that sustain my soul?  Do I long to partake of His presence here and now…and also at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in the days to come?

Hungry.

I want to be hungry. Hungry for more of my Lord.

Listening to God for Direction

I am finding that the more I sit quietly for a moment…even just one little moment…I can hear the voice of my Lord telling me:

1. What to do

2. Which direction to take

3. When to go

It just takes a little practice and a lot of patience – listening for His voice.

But it is worth slowing down in order that I might really, truly hear Him, and only Him.

I have a few decisions coming in my life that require that I completely and totally hear Him. I am such an infopreneur at heart and I love blogging and podcasting and all that equals being online and making a difference, but in order to move forward with new plans, visions, and projects, I have to learn to let other things go.  And that has been the hardest for me these past few years.  Letting go of familiarity is always hard.

But knowing that as I let go, the Lord exchanges what is in my hand for something new, fresh, and anointed for the hour, is always a positive outcome that I look forward to reaching for.

My prayer to Him has always been, “Lord, I just want to be in your will – your PERFECT will”.

My prayer will always remain.

So, I look forward to the new project that is brimming and about to push me over in a soulful explosion.  I am so excited I can hardly contain myself!  And although starting this new project (a huge one at that) will mean letting something else go, I am excited.

And as always, I will keep updated here at this blog about new projects, etc.

Off to go pray, relax, clean my house, and enjoy a nice beautiful day with my children.

Intimacy With God

How can women in today’s 21st century hustle and bustle, learn to calm ourselves and develop a peaceful intimacy with God?

That is what this episode is all about. Finding peace.  Finding true intimacy with our Savior.

When all else fails, there is only One Someone who can deliver the peace of mind we need from the chaos of this world’s business.

He is our Heavenly Father , our Savior Yeshua- Jesus Christ.

Listen to the first few minutes of the show to hear me sing “Speak for Me” by Jaci Velasquez…then be encouraged by the rest of this audio segment.

 

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Finding Shalom in the Passover

This week is Passover.

As our family prayerfully prepares for this signficant time of the year, I am cleaning and cooking– but better yet, praying for a deeper revelation of who Christ is.
And during my Hebraic roots search I am learning so much that I didn’t before realize our savior, Yeshua (Jesus).

I have been a King James/New King James reader all my life.  With time I began to see the value in reading the same passages of scripture in different translations.  One of my newest favorites is my Complete Jewish Bible.

As I read through the bible (Complete Jewish Bible), I see a slightly different view on who Jesus was and what He actually did – teaching His talmidim (disciples), healing the sick on Shabbat, forgiving sins, burning with zeal and anger over the temple being turned into a marketplace…

I could almost see the scenes play out in my mind. I felt present as I read through the entire book of Matthew, then Mark.

I saw Jesus tell the little girl “Talita cumi, arise”.

I could almost see the look on Peter’s face when his mother in law got out of her sick bed and began serving the disciples and Yeshua.

I could almost see the woman who wouldn’t stop bleeding touch the fringe of Yeshua’s tallit- the hem of His garment. And when she did…immediately she felt His power and virtue flow through her body and stop the continual flow of her blood disease.

I could nearly see woman with the alabaster box pouring out expensive perfume on Yeshua’s feet, worshipping Him and crying over His soon to be burial, as the P’rushim (Pharisees) looked on with disdain and judgmentalism. Jesus accepted her offering and blessed her name to be remembered for all time.

Jesus sat across from the temple offering and watched people place their offerings in the temple offering box one day. He noticed that the rich placed loads of coins into the box. But He accepted the offering of the woman with only one mite, who had given all she had. He blessed her offering as the one given with her heart. I could almost see this.

This Passover season as I think about how that Yeshua- Christ Jesus- became our passover, I am amazed at how when He brought the Israelites out of Egypt and “passed over” their homes that had the blood of the lambs on their doorposts…that He is showing us today how that He Himself has become our ultimate Passover.

He causes iniquity to pass over the hearts and homes of those who cling to Him, and protects us from the plagues of the world. He saves us with a mighty and great salvation, bringing us out of bondage and completely out of Egypt. He lights the way with His cloud of fire and shines light on our path with each step we take, leading us safely out of the world and into His way of righteousness, blessings, and peace.

Belonging to Christ is not something to be taken lightly and irreverantly.

We don’t walk in His true blessings simply because we have the material posessions this world offers. The nicest house, car, and closet full of clothing will not and can NEVER compare to the blessed richness of the SHALOM/peace that only our Savior Yeshua, Christ Jesus, our True Passover, brings.

by Cyndi Aarestad

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God is not some distant cosmic being who is far removed from the everyday life of us mere mortals.

He is not accessible only to a select few, nor is the criteria for meeting Him based on race, age, gender, location, intellect or anything else, other than a sincere heart that seeks Him.

He provided the way to come directly to Him when He sent His son, Jesus to earth to bring salvation to all people. Jesus bridged the chasm between God & man, opening the doorway to God’s throne room.

FOREVER. UNLIMITED ACCESS. 24/7. He’s always on call, never too busy and always welcoming.

So for those who have accepted Christ’s invitation of salvation, there comes the assurance of His abiding presence in their lives, His willingness to participate in every aspect of their existence and His desire to share in every moment of their lives. From the mundane to the monumental.

Through the tragedies and the triumphs, victories and defeats, struggles and celebrations. He’s there through it all and He wants us to learn to see Him and seek Him in the midst of every circumstance. HE IS ALWAYS THERE.

Sometimes we just need our eyes opened and our spirits tuned in. I’ve found it so, and I’ve learned that some of the most profound moments with God come in the middle of everyday living. He meets us where we are and He reveals Himself in unexpected ways. We just have to be watching for Him.

• Christ encountered the Samaritan woman at the well as she was doing her water-fetching chore. He called Matthew away from his work in the middle of a busy day.
• He recruited the fishermen while they mended their nets, calling them to a new vocation.
• Mary was informed that she was God’s chosen vessel while she did ordinary things on an ordinary day.
• Moses was out tending sheep when a burning bush ushered him into the very presence of God.

The Bible is filled with these stories of God encounters during life’s common moments. Only those moments weren’t common any longer. They changed lives, they changed people, they changed history. All because God revealed Himself where and when He was least expected.

He hasn’t changed. His word tells us that He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is always faithful and He walks with us moment by moment. Our eyes are sometimes blinded by unbelief or dimmed by the rationalizations of our minds, but He is still there. He abides – in us and with us, waiting for us to recognize His hand, His presence, His beauty, His strength, His peace, His comfort, His help, His wisdom, His love, His joy, His guidance.

Let Him reveal Himself to you while you go about your day, living it as a sacrifice of praise to Him. When we worship Him in all we do, He is magnified, and we will see Him in a clearer, brighter way. We will be aware of His presence and His workings when our vision is altered, when we’re looking through the Son-glasses, instead of my-focals!

So, start watching for what God is doing in your life, and through the eyes of faith you will see!

Practicing Early Time With God

“Spending time with God is something every Christian woman should set aside time for.”

Perhaps this is a fairly common statement that we’ve heard all too often.  We all know this to be true, and yet it still seems to be a most incredible struggle to obtain that blessed time with God each and every day of our lives.

So, how do we wear all the hats and still have time to be still and quiet in God’s presence?

How do we make the time to sit quietly before our Savior when our toddlers are stampeding through our living rooms with permanent markers only inches away from our furniture and walls?

When do we find the time to say a prayer long enough to our Savior before we are interrupted with “MOM!  She hit me!”, or “Honey, I can’t find my keys!”

True, we all wear different hats—some of us are mothers, some of us are married, many of us work from home or have full time jobs outside of the home…but, one thing we all have in common is our need for the peace of God in our lives.  We all need the Lord!

With that said, let’s talk for a minute about some practical things we can do each day to allow the Lord first place in our lives.  We are not only discussing our time in general with God each day, but the fact that we can also give God the first of each day.

“Impossible!” you might exclaim…but it’s true.  We can do this!  I am a living witness that despite the busy-ness of each morning, it is quite possible for me to give God the very first few minutes of my day.

Try the following steps for 21 days and see if you’ll notice a difference in your outlook on life.  Also note any changes in your relationship with God.  You’ll most definitely feel more aware of how close the Lord really is to you, especially during many of your stressful times!

In addition, take note of your relationships to your family and friends, and to people around you.  As you spend time, and early time with the Lord, you will find your relationships with others changing as your heart changes.  Your heart will change because you start to become more like Christ as you draw closer to Him in fellowship each and every morning when you first awake.

Here’s how to make early time with God happen:

1.) Upon awaking each morning, thank God for a brand new day.  Believe it or not, this very small act of gratitude takes you a long way during your stress throughout the day.

2.) Look out your window.  Appreciate the nature. Thank God for what you see.  Observe the weather.  Whether it is raining or sunny, thank God for the weather.  If it’s raining, don’t complain, but thank God for the rain. Thank Him for the sun.  Thank Him for the birds in the air and the trees.  Thank God for His handiwork.

3.) If your children and husband are still asleep, that means you still have time to spend with God!  So get started!  Open your bible and read some scripture, then MEDITATE on it.  Think about what it means to you.  Consider how you might apply the scriptures to your life that day.

4.) Journal your thoughts and prayers to the Lord. Haven’t invested in a journal yet?  Get yourself one—it doesn’t have to be the cutest and most expensive journal.  You could even buy an inexpensive notebook…but do keep one on hand for your prayer times.  Keeping a journal will help you monitor your growth in your relationship with Christ throughout the years.

5.) If you are still the only one up for the morning, now you can take the time to retreat to a place in your house where you won’t awaken anyone, and talk out loud to the Lord. Talking out loud does several things for you.  Haven’t you noticed that when we simply keep our thoughts inward and never verbalize them, many times they don’t feel real to us? But once we verbalize our thoughts, they become tangible.  It’s the same with our prayers to our Savior.  When we can, we should try talking out loud to Him as we would anyone else.  It helps us to realize the tangibility of our Lord, and that He is as real as talking to our friends and family, and actually hears us.  Talking out loud also cements our prayers and thoughts in reality.  As our voice echoes our resounding prayers and conversations with God, we are able to hear these prayers with our own ears, and are confirmed with our hearts the truth and reality of our relationship with God, because after all, we were just talking to Him!

Do you see how spending time with God first thing upon awaking each morning is not only possible but quite do-able, even for those of us with the most hectic schedules?

We can do this!

The benefits of spending time with our Savior each morning are awesome.

We’ll begin to notice our hearts become more pliable to His word.

We’ll start to notice a difference in our feelings toward others and our relationships with family, friends, and co-workers.

We’ll find the peace of God transcending our thoughts and minds.

We’ll begin to notice how strong and steadfast we are as we stand firm in our faith.

As God becomes our rock and our fortress, we’ll find ourselves unmoved by the chaos and stressors of life.

Let’s aim to strive for early time with our Savior.  Once you begin to implement this discipline, your life is sure to change!

Bye bye, t.v.–or at least most of it.

Recently I have been faced with so many distractions in my day– from the blaring television (which I usually like to have OFF), to thoughts of what I need to do or where I need to go, to the radio, and even to messages I want to hear by podcast and library audios I’ve checked out.  I am constantly on “go”–

I think, like most of us, we recognize the need for peace and quiet, but don’t always take the necessary steps to ensure it happens.

I drew my last straw the other week when I caught myself flipping the channels mindlessly– I heard the senseless chatter and watched the meaningless ideas of people who don’t know or love God attempting to entertain the masses with their clueless lifestyles– and yes, I admit, I was entertained. For a few hours even.

Then afterward, I reflected on my past hours and how they were spent.

I felt icky from all of the t.v. consumption.

“You’re going too far”, some people might say. “There’s nothing wrong with watching t.v.”

And although television in and of itself is not wrong or evil, I find that the majority of the channels I surfed didn’t edify my spirit.  And although there were some great channels where the gospel message is being preached, I constantly found myself attracted or drawn to those shows that did not promote godliness.  Nothing morbid or over the edge, but still, not godly enough for me to want my children to sit down beside me and watch as well, simply because I don’t want them  to be like the kids /people on the actual shows.  And of course, producers know what sells!  What sells to our flesh, that is.

So I  said, “Enough already!”

What if I had spent that same amount of time just “hanging out” with God?  Talking to Him, listening to Him, praying for others, or just reaching out to others’ needs?
Wow.
What a difference in my day would that have made.

So, I am happy to say that this morning, when I was tempted to watch a rerun of that dinky reality show, or the latest on the gossipy talk show, I ran in the other direction.  Instead, I found that inner power within God had already given me…(plus, a little bit of common sense and a little muscle power in my wrist), and I flipped the channel on my dandy little remote.  I flipped to the 700 Club.  I flipped to Joyce Meyer.  I flipped to PBS Kids for my toddler.  Then I flipped the television…completely off.

What a relief.

Now I can actually LIVE.

How about you?  Do you have any suggestions for how you make the peace and quiet happen in your life?

Turning to Christ for Peace

In my journey of peace I realize even more than ever how important it is for me to actually KNOW the giver of peace.

Jesus is referenced as the “Prince of Peace” in the bible.  He is the One who ultimately gives me the peace that I need in order to deal with and be a victor in my life on earth.

Sometimes I fail to remember this all important truth.  When I forget that He is the author of my peace, I take situations into my own hands and try to solve problems in my own strength.  I fail miserably every time.  In attempting to “fix” my situations, I either end up messing up the situation…or I tend to get my emotions, intellect, and soul all warped and confused in the process so that I end up being an emotional, mental, and spiritual wreck.  Then how good am I to the Kingdom- or how effective am I in ministering to others, loving others, being a witness to the world of Christ’s love and peace…if I have no peace?

So, it is in Christ that I must learn to rest.

I HAVE to allow Him to solve my problems- any problems.  He is the ultimate problem solver, and …yes, I often forget that too.

My duty on this leg of my journey is to begin to trust Him as my “answer to all things”.  Whenever I have a problem, I must turn to Him immediately, rather than later.

If He is my giver of peace, then I don’t need to fix anything myself.  My goal is to turn to Him from now on to meet all of my needs.

ALL of my needs.

Learning Contentment

Today I’ve been thinking a lot about satisfaction.

Some research shows that people in general  are feeling much less satisfaction now than fifty years ago…and yet we have way more today than we did fifty years ago.  Way more, in terms of gadgets, choices, and stuff.

I think of the simplicity of my childhood (though a military brat and raised in suburban California and the snowy peaks of Great Falls, Montana)…my days were simple.  There was a constant rhythm to my life.  Sun up, breakfast and a bit of television (or school).  Mid day, lunch.  After school, dinner then homework and television.  Then out to play.  Sun down, bath.  Then play before bedtime.  Bedtime prayers with mom and dad.  Then bed.

It was that simple.

On occassion, I may have had piano lessons maybe once or twice a week after school for about 30 minutes.

Otherwise, there weren’t a lot of activities for me besides playing with my neighborhood friends…which left me with hours and hours of leisure time to use my imagination and make up stories and games in my bedroom.  This, of course, was only the beginning of my journey toward a lifelong passion of writing and journaling.

Meanwhile, I learned the value of contentment with what I possessed.  There wasn’t much else a kid could do except to learn to be happy.  And boy, did I enjoy life!

A few days ago I picked up some old books from my mother’ s house that I owned back when I was maybe 10 or 11 years old.  My high school aged brother quipped, “Man, those books are old!  I didn’t know they had color print back then.”  We laughed when I joked with him that I was actually born AFTER the dinosaurs died off and that yes, they indeed did have color printing in the 80′s.    But when I see those old chapter books with the hard back covers and simple illustrations, they look so plain compared to the vibrant, colorful, magazine style chapter books our kids are reading today.  The fancy covers alone should be enough to hook any young child into reading, and yet we see our children oftentimes declining in the area of reading interest.  We do more and more to gain their attention, only to reap less of their time and attention because we are competing with so many vices (media, techie games, after school activity overload, etc.)

This Christmas and New Year’s holidays our family spent the entire time organizing and cleaning out our house top to bottom.  In this process we found tons of old clothing, music, books, magazines, videos and DVD’s, and electronic equipment that we no longer use or need.  Like most western families, we have gotten ourselves into the cycle of holding on to old things for memories’ sake, or in hopes that we might still use those things some day.  For the sake of simplicity and starting our lives anew, we recycled most of our old items and cleared away space so that we can really think, breathe, and live a life of peace in the year 2010.

Satisfaction is key to a life of happiness and joy I think.  Even the Bible tells us that “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 6:6).  What this means to me is that if I can learn to be content in the joys of living godly, I have gained much.  The more I seek after spiritual things (godliness), the more I gain.  I can only imagine how much I would lose by seeking things which are carnal (ungodly).  It only makes sense to me, that I spend my time and energy on that which is godly so that I gain more- spiritually, that is.

One of the reasons I had chosen to resign my position at a full time job nearly 8 years ago, was so that I would ultimately trade in my time at work for time at home with daughter.  I found out soon enough that being at home to raise my children is much harder work than having an out-of-the-home career, and when people asked me what I did for a living, I was hard pressed not to tell them that I worked HARD, that’s what I did.  Nonetheless, I learned some valuable lessons at home with my first child, then years later, my second.  One of those lessons taught me the value of godliness versus carnality.  If I wanted to prove to the world that I was somebody important despite the fact that I was at home raising my children, then all I had to do was bring in a salary equivalent to that which I left back at my full time job before I resigned.  And setting out to prove this, I did.  And I accomplished it…only to find out at the birth of my second daughter that carnality is equal to impoverishment in God’s eyes.  And to be content and godly is better gain for me.

Reaching out for more, more, and even more only brings us down to the level of stuff.  Pretty worthless and pathetic.  I know that my future, and your future, is worth far more than the temporary satisfaction carnal stuff brings.

Let us strive toward godliness with contentment.  Satisfaction is key.  Learning to be satisfied with a little, will bring you to the point in life where you will find yourself being spiritually fulfilled in ways you never dreamt.  And, of course,  our Heavenly Father is just so cool to give us “abundantly, above all that we can ask or think” if we  but simply “seek His kingdom first and His righteousness, and all things shall be added unto”…us.  Wow.  Think about that for a moment.

And as one of my mentors used to say… Selah.  Pause a moment and think about that!

What Is Your Ideal Vacation?

I’ve spent a good deal of my summer trying to figure out what to do with myself , my husband, and my two little girls- age 1 and 7.

What to do, what to do.

Well…I knew I had birthday parties to plan, music lessons to get my children to, and of course play dates.  But I wondered what I would do for myself that would give me the much-needed vacation I felt I deserved. I’d worked hard at a long, productive year of homeschooling, plucked slowly, but steadily toward my business goals, amidst balancing the daily tasks of family life (like cleaning, organizing, raising kids)…and now I NEEDED a vacation!

But that got me to thinking.   What are vacations, really?

A getaway at the beach, a fabulous weekend at a ritzy resort, swimming at the lake, birthday parties, summer sports matches…all of these sound like wonderful fun.

But what does our heart tells us a true vacation is?

What a vacation might be for you, may look like an entirely different ordeal when the ball is in my court.  But not only do we differ as individual women in the way we view a time of rest and peace, but God sees His wonderful creation in a total light- He sees us as needing rest in a whole other dimension.

You see, when God gives us rest, He doesn’t necessarily give us a free pass at the spa with our name on it.  He doesn’t necessarily give us a summer of fun outings, great food, and a host of friends…although these things are great, and typically make up our ideals of a perfect summer vacation.

What God sees when He looks upon His beautiful women, is the desire to give us true rest and peace.  This kind of peace comes from within, given to us by the power of God Himself.  This kind of vacation is rest in its truest definition.  Apart from our summer fun and frolic, our Lord wants to crown us with the kind of “peace that passes all understanding”; the kind of peace that sticks with us no matter the chaos surrounding us.

After a good bit of reflection, I came to the conclusion that what a vacation really means to me is a closer fellowship with my Lord. Although I am planning a beach getaway for July, I’ve decided that time spent alone with the Father in the midst of my harried days is far more valuable to me than any big vacation I have planned.

And I figured– that way, I could not only enjoy my “vacation” during the summer, but year round.

What does a vacation mean to you?

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