A friend remembered

Yesterday, July 1, 2013, we celebrated the life of my friend Alison.  Alison was and will continue to be an inspiration to everyone who knew her.  She lived her life as a devoted follower of Christ and committed prayer warrior who faithfully served in the prayer ministry at my church for over 15 years.  The service was beautiful and well attended because although Alison never married and had no children, she was loved not by her family and the hundreds of people who were blessed to call her friend. 



Alison was a remarkable lady who made a point of reaching for scripture as part of her habit of prayer.  Along with the order of worship that we received upon arriving at the memorial service, we received copy of a collection of scripture that Alison had compiled for herself.  She had taken the time to write out scripture that spoke to her concerning many of the things that she was asked to prayer about as part of her work in the prayer ministry.  For each burden that came to mind, each request she faithfully brought before His throne,  she found a scripture to comfort, encourage and heal. 

When I got home, I enjoyed reading through the scriptures that had meaning to my friend.  The exact scriptures that she treasured and considered sure comfort for those in need, are the ones that I am enjoying the most today. 

Right now I'm looking at a page just a few pages into Alison's book. 

Under the heading of Peace she has listed one of my favorites

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."  John 14:27

Under the heading of physical sickness she has listed this verse which to me embodies the life that Alison lived most especially when she was sick.

"The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.  The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down." Psalm 145: 13b-14

Some of her headings are more specific than others and one heading is cerebral palsy and  epilepsy which was something that she suffered with throughout her life.    For that specific need she listed one of my favorite verses which is;

"The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.  Zephaniah 3:17

If you can't access the player, please feel free to go to this link to hear the song.

 Zephaniah 3:17 by Bonnie McSpadden

Immeasurably More!

Ephesians 3:14-20
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 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

What a lovely prayer to have stuck in my head!  This year I was excited to find myself with some time to watch a few of the sessions from the Passion 2013 conference.  I love the fact that when I was a college student I got to go to the first Passion conference in 1997.  Because I was so deeply impacted by my experiences there, I like to keep up with what they are up to.

 Anyway, while listening to the first session Louie referred to verse 20 of this passage where it says,

 "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work with in us....."  

I think maybe he asked something like "Do we really believe that God can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine?"  I might be close to what he said or  he might have something completely different, I'm not sure I remember exactly.   Still,  I'm telling ya'll that in light of that passage, the question that the Lord had for me is:

Do  I really believe that God can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine?   

The coolest thing is that ever since the day I got to catch up with Passion, that question has caused me to identify and change my defeated thinking patterns quite often over the last few days.  Until the Lord began to bring it to my attention, I didn't realize how often I deal with circumstances in my life from a defeated perspective.  More often than I realized I would come across a circumstance in my day and find myself in a state of passive resignation rather than a place of hopeful anticipation.

As those moments have been revealed to me, I've sort of had this refrain caught in my head, a sort of paraphrase of the verse fragment..... He is able to do immeasurably more than I ask or imagine....

Do I have the strength to change this habit?

 He is able to do immeasurably more than I ask or imagine!

How can I possibly deal with this crisis?

He is able to do immeasurably more than I ask or imagine!

Will I be able to do what I need to do?

He is able to do immeasurably more than I ask or imagine!

It's pretty cool because now instead of facing all the ordinary issues I face every day with dogged determination, I have noticed that I am more expectantly watchful.

What will God do in THIS situation? 

Our hope is assured because we serve the Risen Savior who has not only defeated death, but who proceeds us in triumphant victory! In any case, I feel very challenged and excited about what is to come.  I also hope that you will join me in praying this prayer for me, for yourself and for each other because what could be more sweet than to live a life like this?

 "....being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." 

Nothing could be better than that!

How my animal print wardrobe reminds me of God

Please excuse my extended absence from my "caveats" blog.  Over the last several months all of my blogging efforts have been directed toward developing my music teacher blog called melodysoup@blogspot.com.  Since I teach music all day sometimes it's easiest to write what is on my mind and I almost always have school running in the back of my brain..... So I've been writing a TON for that blog and none for this one..... But I miss this blog because here, I can write whatever I want.   It's kind of like taking a vacation and I LOVE vacation.

Since school has started back I've realized something about myself that I never knew...... Did you know that it is entirely possible for me to wear a different animal print item of clothing each day for a little more than a week without ever having to repeat the article of clothing?  I didn't either!  I was truly surprised because ......I suppose I like animal prints ok, but I would never claim them as my favorite choice.  Plus, I would never choose an animal print for my home decor.....So when the school theme was announced as "Wild About Learning" and we were told to find some animal print for the first day of school.... I never dreamed that I would be the one left out of the shopping frenzy.... I REALLY didn't need to purchase anything..... I just had to walk to my closet.  Some of my teammates were rather worried because they didn't own any animal print at all, but they needn't have worried because if you are in the market for animal print clothing THIS is your year..... It is possible to buy all items of clothing from head to toe and from underwear to outerwear all in animal print......You don't even have to limit yourself to clothing.  You can get curtains, bath towels, bed sheets, dishes and furniture ALL in the animal print of your choice.  It's a virtual safari.  

Animal prints look nice on people with my skin tone because God made those prints to blend in and folks with really fair skin and a ton of freckles need a little blending to help them show up.  As it turns out, when the prints are on animals rather than people, the prints help hide the animals either from predators or their prey.... Well unless you are a zebra..... in which case, God may have decided to just make you pretty and quick.....so RUN! .......but I digress.....  

I love the way that God can use seemingly random unimportant parts of our lives to teach us and remind us of who He is.  So for weeks now as I've been proudly proclaiming my "wildness" about all things learning by regularly wrapping myself in whatever animal print suits my fancy that day.  It wasn't long before the Lord brought my attention to the beauty of the patterns themselves and then I realized, THESE are God's creation! He is the artist!    He painted all these detailed and intricate patterns just to hide some animals so they could stay safe and hunt food....to help them hide.....Here I am, resting in His love, a redeemed child of God, .hidden in Christ and the Lord is my hiding place. 

Psalm 32:7 says, "You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.