Bridges... Revival... Going Home

WHEW... after a post I made earlier I kept hearing that I needed to go back to the first post of 2011 in this blog... a year that was a hard awful road of me being widowed and losing everything including myself for a few years afterwards. Today re-reading it NINE YEARS LATER was a FULL CIRCLE  moment with G O D for this daughter.  HIS REASONS...HIS TIMING... THE LESSONS... THE COMPASSION & LOVE OF THE FATHER FOR ME!!!

HEAR ME... IF YOU DON'T READ ANYTHING BUT THIS.... I don't share this to show  how "spiritual" I am. I share this because when you get to know my story... you also get to see how FAR HE will go and HOW much HE will forgive to bring one of HIS back into the fold. To WHOMEVER is suppose to see this: Baby there is nothing you've done or will do that disqualifies you from HIS love and forgiveness!! Come on home... your FATHER  never gave up on you!


Twenty Til’ Midnight AKA Nora's Spiritual Closet: I have a picture of a beautiful bridge that is cal...: I have a picture of a beautiful bridge that is called Crossing Over it is a painting by James Nesbit. I bought the picture about two years ...

LOSS, RESTORATION AND OLD STORM DOORS

A few things over the last 2 weeks have brought me to the understanding of how quickly we forget how fortunate and blessed we are… okay let me speak for me, How BLESSED I am! A picture of my front door last week that I almost didn’t post was my wake up call for me to take a step back and reflect on how far I have come in the last 8 years and how much I truly have to be grateful for in my life. 

Eight years ago this month, I was in the middle of packing up and leaving my home of 6 ½ years. I was a widow of just over 6 mths in possible foreclosure in the middle of settling an estate that consisted of a house I could not pay for, a beat up eight-year-old car and personal belongings. No life insurance and no assurance I would even eat tomorrow if it were not for my daughter and church family taking care of me. I was an emotional and spiritual wreck and why someone had not at that point checked me in to an institution is a miracle. Now that all being said I was great at pretending on the outside most days and especially on Sunday, so I guess I did just enough to stay free! When the estate closed and the house sold, I was handed a check for $68 and thankfully still had the title to that 8 ½ year old car that looked rough but still ran, clothes that no longer fit and some furniture and nothing else. My heart and spirit were shattered, and I was mad Mad MAD at GOD and most people. I walked away from GOD, my church family gave up on life getting better and looked for the quickest path to self-destruction. In the mist of my rebellion as I willfully sought to return to my old life prior to my relationship with G O D, I thought I found the perfect way to do so in a relationship with a gentleman I had recently met. Funny thing happened though… said gentleman was also on his own rebellion walk and we had a lot of talks about that God we were running away from and how we felt let down by HIM and life. Then somewhere along the way we realized that G O D was probably above nudging Peter giggling a little at us saying, “see Pete I told you so, they are perfect for each other.” Us meeting in the mist of our pain and anger at GOD was part of the plan, HIS plan… even in our rebellion we may have given up but HE never ever gave up on us! When we really understood that, we repented took the steps to bring our lives in to alignment with God’s word and then sought HIM for what HE wanted next from us… 

Fast forward to this picture and the title of this blog… As part of a facebook group I took this picture of my Red Framed Door to post. My first thought was OH look at that old storm door, I am so ashamed of that old door and my ribbon is so plain as I am not creative, so I am not going to post it!! REALLY!!! Here I am in my own home again after almost being homeless 8 years ago. With the man I love and who loves me who I know that I know GOD has blessed me with despite my rebellion. Not only that but HE has restored me in many ways in my walk with HIM and in my life. I am in the process of starting my own business and honestly I have more now than I did 8 years ago… and all I can do is worry what someone is going to say about a old storm door on my fixer up house that we haven’t replaced yet!!! We have plans to redo the front of the house and I believe with all my heart GOD will provide the means to do that. BUT in that moment where did that shame come from and what was wrong with me that I allowed it to take hold of me??? I believe sometimes we too often forget to stop and reflect from time to time on where we were and what HE brought us through. In my case not once but multiple times in my life. I should have not made it out of childhood, yet here I am 57 years old. As a teenager and young adult, I put myself in harms way and others did their best to destroy me and despite my best efforts to end my own life on more than a few occasions… here I am. When my world fell apart in 2011 instead of turning to GOD who had already proven faithful… I turned away. But once again HE proved faithful, sheltered me, provided for, and kept me safe until HE could bring me back to my senses. That moment of shame only lasted for a moment and this picture is posted in that group… with a little story about it. But I needed to have a talking to myself and G O D about it and I am glad I learned something from it. Now if my moment of being real and raw helps someone not make the mistakes I made in the past or keeps someone for feeling shame today, then I will post the picture of that old storm door everywhere…. Because what it really represents is RESTORATION!

"The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part." Job 42:12a

Get Your Boots On Time to Crossover!!

Then Joshua said to the sons of Israel, “Come here, and hear the words of the Lord your God.” 10 Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will assuredly dispossess from before you the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite. 11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over ahead of you into the Jordan. 12 Now then, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man for each tribe. 13 It shall come about when the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off, and the waters which are flowing down from above will stand in one heap.” 14 So when the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant before the people, 15 and when those who carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest), 16 the waters which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those which were flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. So the people crossed opposite Jericho. 17 And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan.  Joshua 3:9-17

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;  1 Peter 2:9

First and foremost there is a promise to us from GOD that HE would deal with all the “ites” for us… and that includes “Covid-19 ite” we just need to walk in that promise and stop this panic of unbelief!!! We as Believers should be on the front line… in the parking lots of hospitals praying with family who can’t enter the building to be with their loved ones. Making sure ALL elderly and others in our community who we are aware of have the basic necessities; checking on those whom we know suffer from depression or anxiety and may need that extra 10 minutes of our time and wherever else we may be needed. We are the Priest of our time and we need to start acting like it! They were first into the flooded river… they held their ground the middle of that river (the GAP) until the ENTIRE nation… the ENTIRE nation of Israel crossed over! Do you really understand how many people that had have been? They had been wandering around in the desert for 40 years… how many do you think they added to the numbers? AND THEN and only once everyone else was on the other side did they, still carrying Ark of the Covenant come up behind them into the Promise Land. And as always, the people were covered all round by the presence of GOD. We now carry that PRESENCE in us as believers so whenever we STEP into a situation, we bring HIM with us… think on that for a minute.  We the so-called believers/intercessors of this generation need to be praying and praying without ceasing until we are on the other side of this.  We also need to shut up any prayers that start with judgement.... God did not have Joshua appoint morality police who screened who would get across the Jordan and who would not… GOD dealt with the last generation of Israelites harshly but this generation was allowed AS A WHOLE to come into the promise land… warts and all!!! We need to shut our mouths, set our agendas aside and simply get on our knees and seek God’s face until this thing is gone. We also need to show love and be known by the TRUE fruit the REAL SPIRIT of GOD will produce. WE… THE CHURCH needs to strap on our work boots and get about the business of our FATHER!!

Do You Burn?

I love being the person who tends the fire whether it for cleaning up the yard, sitting at a campsite or even at a firepit. I am not sure if it is a control thing or if I just find such clarity in looking into the flames. Fire can be beautiful or horrifying to watch depending on what side of the flame you are on. Fire can purify or destroy. Fire can bring warmth to a cold body or destruction and pain if you get to close to it. Metaphorically speaking people and wood are a lot alike. Some wood catches and burns red hot for a minute and then flutters away as ash in the wind. Some wood gets warm and even shows some signs of being in a fire but doesn’t actually catch because it is too hard at its core or to soaked in other things to burn. But then some wood was meant for burning… it will catch with proper tending… it will burn and maintain a nice HOT steady temperature and then turn into the perfect fuel that can be used to start other wood burning. In this picture there were all 3 types of wood. I pulled a piece of that “wouldn’t” burn wood out to show that while it had been in the fire the same about of time as all the rest it appears almost completely untouched because it was too hard to burn. The red hot quick catch wood turned to ash and flew away in a matter of minutes on the wind. What you don’t actually “see” however is a section of wood that I used to get the back side of my fire to finally catch… it was a 12-16-inch piece of wood that had turned into the perfect starter piece that I gently moved to the back area that had not caught yet and placed it there with a few pieces of the red hot quick wood… and BAM a roaring fire took hold. DID you catch that…. Even that flighty red hot burn and gone wood had its place in my fire pile. Fire is a very important creature, but it must be nurtured, maintained and understood. And then after you have set the boundaries of the fire pit there is a time of standing back and letting it have its way as it completes its task. My question to you today is do you have a fire of any kind burning in you? If so what kind of fire is it? Is it a useful or dangerous fire? As for me… let me be real clear…. If the fire in me is not from GOD… I don’t need it and I DON’T WANT IT. I must be vigilant in monitoring what goes in my fire pile and vigilant in allowing Holy Spirit to tend it. I must be vigilant in who I allow in my life as well as what I allow in my mind and spirit. So once again I ask you, what fire is burning in you and who is tending it?