With who's voice do you speak?

Last night was our first night of prayer for Genesis and the Tacketts. There were eight people and God. It was good. And a few things were revealed that night. Some to me, some to Lewis. For Lewis, the power of prayer in his life and in the life of his future pastor came to a new light and he felt compelled to do something about it. I smiled at the man of God I saw in him last night. And while Lewis was talking about God doing something, although he did not know what, God was whispering in my ear and showing me a glimpse at what the end result will look like in both Lewis and CT's lives. I'm pretty sure I giggled.

For me, it was something different. Yes, the power of prayer, but also the voice with which we as Christians speak. We can speak with our voice and things get accomplished. But Psalm 29 talks about the voice of God and all that it can accomplish.

³ The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.

⁴ The voice of the LORD is powerful;
the voice of the LORD is majestic.

⁵ The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

⁶ He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
Sirion like a young wild ox.

⁷ The voice of the LORD strikes
with flashes of lightning.

⁸ The voice of the LORD shakes the desert;
the LORD shakes the Desert of Kadesh.

⁹ The voice of the LORD twists the oaks
and strips the forests bare.
And in his temple all cry, "Glory!"

All this is accomplished simply by His voice! What a voice it is! What could we accomplish if we spoke with the voice of God? Meaning, how would lives, our own and of those around us, change if we spoke only what God told us to speak and then speak it with the power and authority that He has given us? How would our own lives change if we listened for the voice of God before we listened for the voice of Oprah or Dr. Phil to tell us how to live? There is a truth in the voice of God that is unparalleled!

Last night I prayed for Genesis, Craig, Brittany, and Tyler. I prayed for the people in the room with me, I prayed for people that were not there, and I prayed for myself. I prayed that I would be able to see the truth in the people around me, that I would be able to see truth like a shining light and run from any darkness. I have recently been fighting against a disillusionment that I had with a few different pastors to whom I listen. It bothered me for a while that what they were saying was not original, that it came from some other pastor. I think it bothered me most because they seemed to own what they were saying to such an extent that I hadn't even thought for a second where they learned it. But God reminded me that there is nothing new under the sun and just because they didn't personally think up these good things, that does not devalue what they were saying. The voice with which they spoke was so powerful, I didn't even stop to think where the information came from, only that it was right. Part of that scares me and prompted me to pray to see truth. The wool has been pulled over my eyes in the past and I have no desire to reenact that scene. God has given me a lot of discernment over the years, but I know I need to be closer to Him, to be engulfed in Him.

Here's a song that's been speaking to me a lot lately:

Burn Us Up by Shane & Shane

There were three
Before the king
There were three who wouldn’t bow to him
For when you heard
The music play
And you were standing you would burn.
They looked at him and said…

Burn us up! Burn us up! Burn us up!
Oh king won’t you burn us in the furnace of
Your desire
We give up! We give up! We give up!
Oh king won’t you burn us in the furnace of
Your desire!
Won’t you throw us in the fire!

The king enraged
At what they said
Sent the three away to find their death
The palace stopped in unbelief
When the guilty raised their hands to sing
They looked at him and said…

You are able to deliver from the fire of affliction
It’s the declaration of my Lord
You’re not an image of gold
You’re the God of old
You have made us
Come and save us
We are Yours
But even if You don’t, we will burn!

a few things I learned this weekend

1. I'm wrong a lot.
2. Relying on the wisdom of those wiser than you is a wise thing.
3. Never underestimate the importance of family and spending time with them.
4. There is nothing new under the sun, but that should not make a worthy thing any less valuable.
5. Never put two male toddlers in the same room and expect peace.
6. Rest can happen in the midst of chaos.
7. Within a the next year and a half, I will probably emerge as being the only single one left in my family.
8. When friends are incredibly happy with their lives, they sometimes forget to be sensitive to others, but that should not change the friendship.
9. Having someone to talk to is important. Talking to God is more important. Listening to God is top priority.
10. My fears are tiddlywinks to God's plan and God's power.
    

Overwhelmed and painting

So much has happened in the last 4 days! I'm still overwhelmed by it all!

First, Saturday, I learned how to paint and painted my first picture ever in my entire life (See left). In case you need help figuring out what the heck that is, it's me. I'm a dead tree. Or I was at least. But by the blood shed on the cross, I came back to life. I haven't painted a live tree yet, still working on that. But you can see a few blades of green grass beginning to grow where the blood from the cross, carried by the river, has begun new growth, new healing in the tree.

This painting is literally my first time ever picking up a paint brush in my life. I think I might take up painting, it's quite therapeutic and sometimes the therapist needs therapy.

Second, Thursday night I met this guy named Scott (who deserves a whole post himself- but I'm not going to dwell on him). He told me about the house next to him that was for sale. Keri and I will be looking for a place to live in a few months and we thinking about a house, although I wasn't really thinking about buying a house. We drove by Friday night and Keri fell in love with it. She saw the balcony and loved it. My parents and I drove by again on Saturday afternoon and took a look around the outside, my dad found a few problems but reserved his opinion until he saw the inside.

Sunday morning, a bunch of us went to Bethel to hear Craig preach. It was during this service, hearing him preach (although I hear him preach weekly), that I fully realized that this man was going to be my pastor. He said later to me that apparently I smiled at him the whole time and the look on my face said "pastor" to him. I knew that I was smiling becuase God was talking to me the whole time and just hugging me with His love. I knew before I went to Bethel that morning that it was important for me to be there, to hear Craig preach even though I had heard him many times before. And it was that morning that God pointed at Craig and said "this is your pastor" to me.

We then went to The Homeplace for lunch and we had a lovely lunch and a very nice waitress. She recognized me from when I worked at Mill Mountain in Salem and we talked. I talked with her longer than I have talked with my waitress in a long time. Not because I'm rude or anything, just because they tend to have other tables besides mine and not many actually strike up an actual conversation. I, for some reason, told her that we were going to look at houses that day and I was nervous about actually buying a house. She chatted some and then went away. When she dropped off our check, she wrote down her name, number, and weekday job. Her name is Linda and she does Morgages! Gee, does God want me to buy a house? I still don't know. But now I'm willing to look with a more open mind and perhaps get some estimates and numbers and see how to proceed.

Sunday afternoon, we finally saw the inside of the house. Sean Turk took us over. For a single guy, this kind of "fixer-upper" house would be fine. However, it is not, at this point, actually livable. This house needs all new windows, all kinds of work done in the basement, and attic (insulation and such) and it needs re-wiring, and that's just a start. Basically, it would need to be "flipped" as Scott says, which means about $30,000 worth of renovations before we could even move in. Other than that, it's an okay looking 2 story, 3 tiny bedroom, 2 bath (only 1 working though) house.

As Keri was standing on the porch with Scott, he mentions that the house across the street is also for sale. We look over and see this horribly ugly Pepto pink house. I mean, this puppy is hideous! We sucked it up and look inside. It's a nice little 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom (although one is in the basement) house. It needs to some work. For example, it has white carpet that needs to come up, a kitchen that needs help as far as the cabinets and such. It's a nice first house, built in 1948, 1,043 square feet, nice front porch, carport (although that is currently pink), 70 x 133 Corner Lot, and a nice back yard, with nice garden space.

I'm praying very hard. I'm still not sure what to do, but I'll call and get some info on what to do and how to proceed. I'm not ill at ease, neither to I have perfect peace about it yet. But I think that's mostly coming from me. I'm afraid. I've made some bad financial decisions in that past that I have no desire to relive. I'm just getting my credit score back up to something semi-normal. My brother got a loan and tried to build a house, but then couldn't pay for it. I don't want to end up down that path either. I'm praying hard, I'm seeking wise counsel, and seeking God's face about it. I'm keeping a level head, trying not to get too excited or too stressed out by this whole thing.