Did you know? Now you do.

Have you ever had a sense God was waking you up, clearly calling you... but you do not know when or where? Or how?
Watch this. Grabs your heart. Teaches your mind. True. Real. Reflective. Honest. Convicting. Hopeless. Hopeful. Is God calling you?

A Must Summer Read

The idea of summer reading lists is ingrained from school days I guess. Summer is the time I make lists of what to read, what to do, where to go, what to eat for goodness sakes, and what not to miss before Labor Day rolls around.

The favorite read so far... Left to Tell: Rediscovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza.
In 1994 during the 100 day genocide in Rwanda which took the lives of 1,000,000 Tutsis, Immaculee was hidden in a tiny bathroom with seven other women. They were cramped and could barely move. They were silent, knowing even a cough could betray their location and their lives. They were starving: Immaculee was 115 pounds when she entered the bathroom and 65 pounds when she emerged. Her story is inspiring, her God real and compelling. Most of all, her story is of forgiveness and her legacy of faith will be found alongside Corrie Ten Boon's.
It is a quick read, yet one that will stay with you for a lifetime. One excerpt at the end of the book touched my heart:
Rwanda can be a paradise again, but it will take the love of the entire world to heal my homeland. And that's as it should be, for what happened in Rwanda happened to us all - humanity was wounded by the genocide. The love of a single heart can make a world of difference. I believe that we can heal Rwanda - and our world - by healing one heart at a time.

Secret Church

I have discovered a gold mine. If you are looking for a Bible study you can do at home, on your own time, at your own pace, here it is... David Platt's Secret Church.



If you have heard that Secret Church is held twice a year - true. If you have heard that tickets (although it is free)go in 3 hours - true. If you have heard that it is held on a most inconvenient Friday night - true. And if you have heard that the teaching goes well after midnight - all true. The topics are pivotal to our faith and the body of Christ is well taught. Every resource from every Secret Church is available to us.

Secret Church Click on Resources, then Browse Secret Church Media. Each topic has 4 parts that you can either listen, watch video, print materials. Excellent teaching. Each segment is about an hour in length. I began with Angels, Demons and Spiritual Warfare and I have learned so much. Take a look, try a segment.

Compassion Team in Boliva

This week four of our Wednesday Girls - Rica, Susan, Jennifer and Debbie - are in Bolivia with Compassion International. We have been following their blog and praying, praying, praying!
Tomorrow is child visit day and Compassion-sponsored children come to meet the team. Some will get to meet their sponsor. Many of the children travel for quite a distance, for some this is their first time away from home, and some will be flying. Pray for their safely, God's love to be evident, the walls of culture to quickly fall, the team to be healthy and physically strong, and for each ambassador to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit as He ministers in various ways.

This is Sebastian. How could anyone see this face and not want to be his sponsor? Well, that is exactly what happened. One photo sent to one family and he has a sponsor. the family asked if Sebastian could be packed in a suitcase and be brought to them on the return trip home. Well, no. But maybe another trip and Sebastian's sponsor will be on the team. God does so love the little children!

Peanut Butter Balls

This is the dearest story of God's call on a young life and how it has come to fruition. This may be my favorite Coffee Tea and Thee post ever, so if you do not have time to read please come back to it. If you do have time to read it through, take a few minutes more at the end for a word of prayer and a word of praise to our God for a ministry such as this. I received permission to tell this story with my most ardent promise that I would give only God, and none other, full Glory. Soli Deo Gloria.

Once upon a time there was an 11 year-old girl named Fran. She lived in our city, in an affluent neighborhood, went to a good school and a large church. At this early age God began to tender her heart toward those who were hungry. She desired to go into the government housing projects to take food to people. And she wanted to teach Bible stories. She shared this desire with her mother who surprisingly agreed to take her. I'm not sure if this was surprising for Fran's mother, but it certainly would have been for mine. The next Tuesday they loaded up the family car with peanut butter balls, Kool Aid and Bible study materials, and headed to streets unknown. Fran says these were the days when every mother in the south was making peanut butter balls, and every kids had their favorite flavor of Kool Aid. Ah, Iremember those days. On their first visit they slowly drove into the projects, stopped the car and got out. It was only when they pulled out the peanut butter balls that a few kids came around to check them out. The next Tuesday afternoon they attracted a few more, and within a month Fran and her mom had over 20 children leaving the tv and their after-school kickball games, to get a peanut butter ball, a cup of Kool Aid and Fran's Bible lesson. The crowd grew to even higher numbers. You are getting this, right? She was 11.

Fran's mother continued to drive her, and foot the bill for peanut butter balls and Kool Aid, until she was 16. And on Tuesday afternoons no less! Not on a weekend when it might have been more convenient, but on a Tuesday when she had to rush home and get dinner for five children, get their homework and to bed! Fran says she never grumbled or complained. She was raising her children for His service! A true servant of the Lord. I write this to encourage those of you I watch who are doing the same thing. Keep listening to your kids and serving their need to work for God, and keep doling out the money to underwrite their kingdom work. Bless all of you! Then Fran got a license and a car, took over her ministry and drove herself. In her her own words, she says that she was quite proud of her Bible lessons and abilities to keep a crowd coming!

This continued until she went to college. After college she moved away and it was a long time - like 10 years - before she moved back. Okay, hang with me here... One day she was driving an unfamiliar route in an unfamiliar area. Remember she had been gone quite a while. She needed a few groceries and pulled up to some kind of market in a not-so-good area of town. As she was checking out, a young man, African American, kept looking at her oddly. He asked her, "Aren't you Miss Fran?" She said yes, he told her who he was, and she remembered him. He had come to her Bible studies years earlier in the projects. If you know Fran, you would know that she whooped and hollered and gave him a big slap on the back. Made him feel loved and happy and welcome and important.

She must have made him feel all of that because he opened up to her in a few short minutes. He said, "Miss Fran, you know all those Saturdays when you came to teach us Bible stories? I didn't really come for your stories. I came for your peanut butter balls. I would eat one of your peanut butter balls on Tuesday and I would sneak two more and hide them in my pocket. We had very little food. On Wednesday nights we ate at the church. From Wednesday until Sunday when we ate at my grandmother's, I would ration out my two peanut butter ball and be able to make it until I could get back to you on Tuesday. Miss Fran, you kept me from starving."

Are you sobbing yet? I can't tell, write or hear this story without bawling. That very day God grew Manna House. Fran is still feeding people, still whooping and hollering and still making everyone feel loved. She works with churches and businesses and hundreds of volunteers. She asks God to fill the need and then waits to see what will show up. One time someone needed Pepto Bismol for an upset stomach. Reluctantly Fran said Pepto Bismol wasn't really food. Two days later God sent one lone bottle of Pepto Bismol in the middle of a pallet of food. Fran says things like that happen all the time.

Manna House does more than serve food. Manna House serves love. The concrete floors and few rooms are God's workspace. It is holy ground. I know this has been an extra long post, but go here to to read more about it, to volunteer, to take your kids.

Wedding Season

... there will be heard once more the sounds of joy and laughter. The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will be heard again, along with the joyous songs of people bringing thanksgiving offerings to the Lord. They will sing,

‘Give thanks to the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
for the Lord is good.
His faithful love endures forever!’

For I will restore the prosperity of this land to what it was in the past, says the Lord. Jeremiah 33: 10-11

Excuse me while I digress from my usual topics, but we have a wedding in the family! These days the wedding is my topic.

Sarah and Sean kicked off the wedding season last weekend and I thought you might enjoy some photos of family and friends. This is such a happy joyous time for our family. We already are hearing the happy voices of bride and bridegroom. Our thankfulness to God is overflowing! To see the full post and all the pictures go to Molly's blog, Sweet Mondays, on my sidebar.

A Deeper Look at Isaiah 6

Ever since I heard Jerry Bridges speak a few weeks ago, I have been trying to decide which tidbit I should share. The one golden nugget of many! He spoke on Isaiah 6 which has to be my most beloved passage in the Bible. In the two sessions I attended, Friday night and Saturday morning, I gained more depth from Isaiah than I thought possible! I should have remembered what I used to teach: You can't outlearn God's Word. We never learn it all, understand it completely, or get to its depth. God's Word is beyond measure.

Jerry Bridges taught us that the first thing Isaiah saw was the Holiness of God. It was evident in the Lord's majesty depicted by His train, the worship of the seraphim, and the calling out of His Holiness (this three-fold repetition is only seen two places in the Bible - here in Is 6 and in Rev 4).

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

After Isaiah sees the Lord's supreme Holiness, he then immediately realizes his awful sinfulness. Isaiah calls himself 'unclean'. Bridges says that the word Isaiah uses for 'unclean' is the same word the lepers called out as they approached other people. Unclean, unclean meant "stay away, I am diseased. I am harmful to you. I am full of rotting flesh". Isaiah basically calls himself a leper.

It is when Isaiah sees himself a sinner that God sends the gospel. The gospel delivered in a live coal from the altar, touching him, declaring atonement from sin and removal of guilt.

However profound as these points are, this is not the point that bowled me over. Mr. Bridges went on to ask this question: What is the importance of WHEN Isaiah said "Here am I. Send me!"?
Think about it...

Here's the sequence. Isaiah first sees the Holiness of Almighty God. Isaiah then sees himself as full of the rotting flesh of sin. Isaiah is given the gospel. It is then Isaiah says to God, "Use me."

If Isaiah had responded as he took in the sight of Majestic God, what might his response have been? Remember Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration? Bless his heart (and ours) - he wanted to build three little huts and keep everybody right there in the middle of the experience.

And what if Isaiah had responded after he saw the true picture of his own sin? He might not have responded at all!

It is after he receives the gospel, that he responds! In his sin, Isaiah realizes he is completely unqualified for God's service. But after he is given the gospel, he is then qualified. The gospel qualifies him and motivates him! It is against the backdrop of our sin that the gospel shines so brightly (Bridges).

Jerry Bridges went on to say that Paul had pretty much the same experience. Ponder this... Paul said 'yes' to God after he saw the blinding holiness of God, his own awful sin, and was personally given the gospel by the Lord Jesus. See what I mean about a deeper look at Isaiah 6?

It is the gospel that motivates us love and serve God.

"God's story in my life"

When I met Ben, the first thing I said to him was, "I can't wait to hear your story!" He humbly replied, "I do not have a story. My story is God's story in my life".

Ben Mwangi was born in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya in abject poverty. They had nothing. Living in a 10x10 shack on a dollar or two per day, Ben said that in his earliest life he did not know that he lived in such poverty. But when school started it became apparent. He could not attend school, even though it was public school and free. Free still meant you had to buy school books and shoes and uniforms. Such luxuries were not even a slight possibility. He remembers the realization that there was an "us" and a "them". The "them" had shoes and shirts and went to school. The pervasive feeling was that there was no way out and no hope.

Ben said very quickly the devil, the one who "steals, kills and destroys", stepped in, tempting to relieve the helplessness by stealing. Stealing from "them" provided goods to sell and bought shirts and shoes. Gangs were formed. All he knew in the slums was trash.

One day Ben remembers his mother taking him by the hand to a church - a church that would later be called the Compassion Church. It was the first and only time his mother was in a church. She left him there. I don't know for how long, but he was a little boy standing against a wall with a group of children having his picture taken. Several months later Ben heard he had a sponsor from Austin, Texas and life began to change.

He was educated. He came to know Jesus personally. His family benefited. He graduated from primary school, high school and entered University studying physics. Compassion International invested in him. They saw leadership potential and he entered the Leadership Development Program. It is said that Compassion's LDP has the reputation of securing an automatic job and the job would be one rare, something unheard of, something that would make a difference.

Compassion International's byline is "releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name." They are in their 58th year and in 26 countries. Ben challenged us to hear the Lord call to be the voice of the voiceless. Quite fitting for our Bible study girls... all year long through The Truth Project, Amos, and Radical, we've been listening to the Lord calling to us. We have a summer to process and ponder the Lord's words. We begin in September a radical year: radical study, radical prayer, radical giving and radical going.

Ben used this verse to describe God's story in his life:
... and provide for those who grieve in Zion—

to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of joy instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,

a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. Isaiah 61: 3

Glory in a can of paint

The clean up continues. Ben snapped this picture in a neighborhood nearby completely ravaged. Yet, in the midst of heartbreak and loss, many people have found their voice of gratitude to God in a can of spray paint. Houses have their house numbers spray painted on them for insurance identification, but many have messages written right on whatever shell has been left, giving glory to God. God was and is fully present. Please continue to pray. Please continue to serve.

Graduation Glory

Graduation: Summa cum Laude, Bachelor of Science in Art Education, Middle Tennessee State University
My precious niece. My brother. Graduation of a different kind. My cup runneth over. Thank you, Lord.

Jerry Bridges Weekend

I have been waiting for this weekend for months! This is the weekend Jerry Bridges will be in our town speaking at Christ Presbyterian Church in Hampton Cove.

The church meets at the Hampton Cove Middle School, 261B Old Highway 431, Hampton Cove, AL 35763, 256-533-4044.

Jerry's messages will be titled, The Foundation of Holiness from Isaiah 6:1-8. His speaking schedule is:
Friday, May 13, 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Saturday, May 14, 9:00 - 11:00 AM
Sunday, May 15, at 9:15 AM and 10:30 AM

Please plan to attend and invite sometone to attend with you!

Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28: 19-20

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1: 8

The words Jesus left us with after his resurrection but before his ascension.

We know we are to go and take the gospel. In Acts he tells us 'how' to go... he gives us a game plan. A how-to. Actually, this design in reaching out to others constitutes a life plan. Jerusalem first, then spread out to Judea. Then a little further to Samaria, then to the ends of the earth.

In light of our last week, this helps me. Jesus' plan put legs to my desire to help others. My Jerusalem is my immediate and extended family. My Judea is my faith family, Bible Study girls, dear friends and friends of theirs, neighbors and neighborhoods nearby. My Samaria is Tuscaloosa and Phil Campbell and Birmingham and Mississippi and beyond. For such a time as this...

Sometimes taking the gospel means taking food and clothing and gas and generators and cash. Yesterday in Bible Study we made several lists of needs. And we made several game plans for the next few weeks. One list, shared here, helped me so much to hear God's call for immediate service. I hope it helps you.

Here are places to serve and what's needed right now:
Manna House needs volunteers.
First Baptist is still taking volunteers.
Monrovia Community Center is organizing volunteers.
There is a great need for blood. Blood drives are being organized all over and always at the Red Cross Headquarters.
Families need hot meals.
$25 gift cards are most welcome from Kroger, WalMart, Home Depot and Lowe's. $25 gas cards are a huge help. You can drop cash cards at any of the above places or to Commissioner Dale Strong on Highway 53.
Carpentry skills are highly sought.
Generators.
Clean clothes are desperately needed - some people are wearing generously donated clothes and have to discard them because they have no means of cleaning. Make a call requesting Tide's "Loads of Love" to come to our area.

Go, in His Name and serve.

Power!

I want to thank everyone for your prayers and concern for me, my family, our area, our city and our state. For your text messages, calls, emails, relayed messages, and offers of hot showers and the luxury of power. We are okay, grateful, humbled and blessed.
~ ~ ~
I spent Wednesday morning in the church basement with a handful of Bible Study girls. Knowing nothing except school was to get out early and the worst was still to come, we prayed for what we all would face later in the day. I left there in total peace. It has been a testimony to me what pre-prayer can do. Through wave upon wave of storm (we had hail three times), I continued to think back on those earlier prayers and the peace that passes all understanding never left me. After the last storm was over, we knew we had been spared... and grim reality the next morning proved us right. Our area was one of the hardest hit.

The next morning I woke up at 5:30. It should have been pitch black dark but there was a eerie light that got my attention. Looking out the window I saw a law enforcement vehicle in my driveway with blue lights blinking warning. I threw on sweats and rain boots over my pajamas and walked outside to investigate. Trees had fallen, lines were down, and utility poles were hovering dangerously close to falling. The deputy told me that we were expecting a power loss for 5-7 days. Now they are saying it is more like 10.

Here's what I'm thinking...
I hardly know how to live without power. Electric power. I forgot my home phones have to be plugeed in to their chargers. I have been shocked at what I've missed most - first, my hairdryer, then coffee maker and vacuum cleaner. I never thought I'd be so grateful for a generator, but I forgot they run on gas. I never thought loss of power could result in a dusk-to-dawn curfew. I never thought I'd be so grateful for my Kindle and battery operated book light.

And here's what else I'm thinking...
God's power just trumped man's. He showed us how powerful His power is and how flimsy is ours. And this...

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3: 20-21

I have God's power at work within me and I rarely give it a thought. I am frustrated over frizzy hair, but not grieved over the dormant, rarely-if-ever tapped power of God residing within me. I've got it all backwards. You? I want to hear your 'power' stories. Bless you all and please continue to pray for those with devastating losses.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Ephesians 6: 10

Francis Chan

A few weeks ago in Bible Study we were shown this video clip as an illustration and we are all still talking about it. I am passing it on - not that it depicts you, but at the moment it is me to a tee.

Here you go... Francis Chan at his best!