Coincidence

Coincidences seem like just that, coincidences, to people with unbelief. To believers, well, we just know better. God has an infallible plan that goes far beyond what our little brains can comprehend. With that, let me tell you about my night by prefacing it with a short story.

I LOOOOOVE John and Lisa Bevere. They are amazing, incredible, heaven grabbing individuals who, quite literally, know how to bring the power and the glory of God into where ever they are. *For those of you who don't know them they are a husband and wife who are both authors and speakers. You can check out their website at www.messangerinternational.com* Okay, so I had the amazing privilege of going to a conference and meeting Lisa Bevere back in February!*See totally rockin' picture where I look like a nerd because I was so excited to meet her!* She was amazing, and totally life changing. So, my dad lives in Tucson and I found out that John Bevere would be speaking at a church in Tucson on Mother's Day. I badgered him pretty much daily to go. I sent him the address to the church and told him how awesome it would be. I was incessant. The Sunday came and went and he didn't go. womp womp womp. I was sad, not that he didn't go, so much as I was sad that he didn't get his face rocked off by God that day. I reminded him of that church a few more times, and told him that was the place to be.

Last night he texts me and tells me that he went to an awesome church service. I asked him where, really what I wanted to know was if he got out of his comfort zone and went anywhere other than his normal place. He told me where he went and my jaw HIT THE FLOOR. I asked "Was it amazing? Did God rock your face off!?" He responded "Have you heard of it?" My reply was simply "DAD!!! That is THE church I have been trying to get you to go to for WEEKS!" For you readers, if you didn't just get chills let's recap: I told Dad to go to a rockin' spirit-filled church. He didn't go. Weeks pass, and Dad seems to forget exactly where I told him to go. In a seemingly coincidental series of events my dad gets invited to the EXACT church I had been telling him to go to. Coincidence? I think not.

God has seriously been blowing my mind lately and I LOVE it. He can keep rockin' my world like this anytime He wants. I know it was not coincidence that my dad ended up at that church, and if he continues to go there I KNOW God will blow his mind.

I was just in total awe and worship this morning sort of giggling to myself at God's plan all along and I really just felt like God himself was chuckling with him, ruffling my hair and saying "see, I got this kiddo." And He does. Oh, does He ever.

Dog Puke

I realize that dog puke isn't the most appealing name for a first post,and I know you're thinking 'how does dog vomit relate to God?" However, stick with me on this one.

Every morning when I wake up there is an epic battle between the part of me that knows I do, in fact, need to get up and take care of my kids, and the side that wants to just go back to sleep. The kids win. This morning as I was taking them downstairs in my usual morning fog I noticed a pile of something on the landing of my staircase-- dog puke. For those of you who don't know me, or my awesome dog, her name is Ginny (yes, as in Ginny Weasley from Harry Potter) and she is 75 pounds of pure love and awesomeness with a wagging tail. That being said, she is gross. Seriously, gross. She is slobbery, smelly, licks at herself, and as the title of this post alludes, she vomits on my floor.

Back to the story, I take the kids downstairs and get them their breakfast. I then begin to prep myself for the awful task of cleaning up said pile. The usual 'breathe through the mouth not the nose!' and 'I will not puke! I will not puke!' were the mantras that I chose this morning. So, I cleaned up the pile and the staircase it was on. I realized that it was very grassy. A little background for you in case you're not a dog lover; when a dog has eaten something that is making them feel sick, they will eat grass in an attempt to make themselves throw up. Sort of a binge-and-purge of the doggy world.

This got me to thinking, Ginny knew enough to purge her body of the things that were making her sick, do I? I'm not talking physical stuff here.

Numbers 33;51-53 "'Speak to the Isrealites and say to them: 'When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish their high places. Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess." God had told Moses that before the Isrealites settled in the promised land they would need to drive out all the wicked inhabitants and destroy their idols. Not just go in a settle near them. Not just go in and settle and don't associate with them. Destroy them. In Colossians Paul addresses the New Testament church on this EXACT thing and how it relates to life in Christ:
Colossians 3:5 "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature..." He goes on to list some things, but the Holy Spirit was realy just speaking to me about this particular section "WHATEVER belongs to your earthly nature. Anything. All of it. Not just the things that other people may or may not see as "wrong."

I think what struck my in both of these sections was that in both the Old Testament and the New, the people had to make this change. In the Old Testament it was the Isrealites who had to go into the promised land and purge it of the wicked people. In the New Testament Paul is instructing the church to purge themselves of their wicked ways. It doesn't say 'believe in Jesus and life will be easy.' It doesn't say 'God will take all your problems away.' And it certainly doesn't say 'You won't have anything to overcome once you're a Christian.'

There are days when I still struggle with my "earthly naure" okay, who am I kidding, I have 2 kids under 5, it's like a daily struggle to stay sane in this house. These passages, and the revelation from the Holy Spirit that came with it, was amazing. It is MY job to purge my body of the earthly things. MY job to make sure that this "promised land" is fit for my King. Of course God will help along the way, but it definitely gave me a wake-up call to some of the things that people assume you just "don't do" once you become a Christian.

I have moments where I get super angry and I find myself attempting to pray "help me not be angry." and a lot of times in my prayer time I hear God speak to me and say "practice not being angry." WOAH! Okay God, you have my attention!