G.P.S. "God's Placement System"

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD:

and he delighteth in his way.  Psalm 37:23 (KJV)

Thank you all so much for your encouragement and leaving special comments in the limited blog posts that I've been able to add this week.  I have a sneaky feeling this is just one thing the Lord is going to prune.  I think sometimes, "Lord, it doesn't make sense to cut away something that is fruitful."  And then He so happily responds, "But that is what pruning is all about...."  So I have to believe with all my heart that even though a few very special "things" in my life, such as blogging, sharing, and working on music are being "pruned," that it is only to bring forth much more fruit in those very areas at a later date. 

Today, on the way home from purchasing my first set of college books in over 20 years, I told my daughter, "You know, if I could ask the Lord a question about all of this, it'd be:  I sometimes wonder why You equipped me with certain abilities, and yet it seems that You are shelving those very areas of usefulness that You have received the most glory from?"  In more particular---the ministry of music at church.  I wonder, how that will "hold up" under the pressure of me in college, the kids adjusting to public school (as opposed to home school) and of course all the typical mom/wife/house keeper duties?  Will the desire of my heart to serve Him musically be shelved?   He's so good to give a quick answer.  In My Utmost for His Highest (Oswald Chambers) I read how the Lord sometimes puts us in the "most useless" places--places not where we are most "useful," but where HE can get the most glory.  And it's not for US to say where that should be.   So....that was a big "Ah HA!!" moment.  And then He adds a wonderful P.S. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"  (Gen. 18:25)  God will place us wherever He wants to, in order to receive the most glory out of our lives.  God's Placement System is far more advanced than words could ever describe, so there's no need to "try to figure it out."

He Met Me on the Football Field Tonight:

God is in control.  And to PROVE TO ME that HE IS sovereign in this situation, watching every detail, He graciously added a few "signs" alongside this new road.  Almost like the comforting voice of that little G.P.S. "Turn right here....turn left at the next traffic light," He gave me yet ANOTHER reassuring sign that this is the road I am to be on.   Continuing our normal evening routine, my son and I hop in the car, and we head down to football practice.  Only thing is----no one is there.  Well, no one except one other car with two of his teammates who weren't at practice last night  Evidently last night the coaches told the boys there was no practice tonight, but my son "happened to miss that announcement."  Well...that was of the Lord!  Why?  Because as I was chatting with the two teammates, I mentioned I was going back to college, and they said, "So is our momma!"  Knowing that THIS was a Divine Appointment, shy little ole me went over to talk with her... having never been introduced before, this was a huge step for me.  :o)  Anyway, long story short, she was the biggest help, offering so much advice, and most of all, encouragement!   I knew that football practice had been canceled, and we were the only two that didn't get the message for THIS very important reason:  God wanted me to SEE His hand is STILL working....and yes, even on the football field!  LOL  How cool is that?  :o)

I did look over my Anatomy books, and whew....it's intimidating to say the least...but one thing is for sure, with the belief that "our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made," I was able to view the pictures with a sense of awe, instead of "somebody catch me, my knees are givin' out!"  LOL  Oh how I pray for the Lord to enable me to GRASP this material....but that's another day's story I guess.  Tonight's is just the simple fact that He has been so good to reveal another facet, another "sign" on this new road that is springing up.

Thank You Father for the Divine Appointment You scheduled for me this evening.  Thank You for the little details and encouragements You gave me too!  I pray for my special sisters and brothers in Christ.   The road they are on may be dark, it may be scary...and just to have one glance from You, one Divinely placed appointment would bring such encouragement and breathe strength into their hearts as it did mine this evening.  Do something, reveal Your wonderful fingerprints in their circumstances, just help them to know You are there. If You should choose not to for now, please give them the strength to continue on, until the Son-shine breaks through these dark clouds!  We can only come to You and request this because of what our Savior, Jesus, did for us on Calvary.  We come through Him, in His name, and ask for Your grace to abound to our hearts!  In Jesus' name, amen.

The Master's Plan

The Master's Plan

(written by my Grandmother, Belle Sandefur)

God has a plan for your life and mine:
It's being laid out by His own design.

The pattern from underneath never shows

The beauty the top-side plainly bestows.

Let's make sure to yield to the Master's plan.

For some day, we'll see from the top-side and understand.

Sometimes when I have a difficult time putting into words what I'm feeling, I reach for the book of poems that my Grandmother gave me, with the confidence that she's written a poem for "such a time as this."  And of course, there it was...The Master's Plan.  Normally when I read this I think of embroidery, with all the knotted-up mess underneath...but with one look at the top side of the finished piece, the beautiful picture is revealed.  The dark threads outline each piece, just like the storms and trials are meant to add depth to our lives.  Maybe, just maybe, if we endure these storms and trials, relying on Christ's strength within us, others' perception of US will be the very image of Christ!  

While living on our temporary home, Earth, we are bound to have the disadvantage of looking up and only seeing the jumbled up mess that appears to be our circumstances.  However, take another glance---look into the eyes of our Heavenly Father.  There you'll find the reflection of His Son is being formed in our lives with each and every Divinely-placed stitch!  One day, when we are WITH HIM, we can look from His very perspective and SEE just what it was He was "after" through these dark storms or the things that just "don't make a bit of sense."  

Dear Father, we are resting in Your plan....You are the God of all the Earth, and You shall do that which is right.   In this melting process, may Your All-Consuming Fire purge away the dross within our very lives and make us more into Your own Son's image.  

In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Is this "The END" or "The NOW" ??

I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say:

My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.

Isaiah 46:10 (NIV)

Walk with the Lord for a little while, and you'll soon realize that the only way to find true joy and peace is to be in the center of His will, obeying His calling for your life.  I've been wondering, pondering, praying over His will for my (and my family's) life.   He pre-packed us for the specific journey He has planned for us to take.  Each of us have gifts, abilities, special ways to serve Him and bring glory to Him while we live here on earth.  We're here for His purpose, not our own.

For months now I've been so focused on "what IS The END?"  What is Your purpose for my life?  I got caught up in trying to figure out what was going to be The END.  How foolish and exhausting!  I guess it's our nature to try to "figure it all out." (especially if our earnest desire is to please Him and live out His purpose for our lives.) 

Have you noticed that focusing on "the END" tends to blur the NOW?   Yesterday, I read in My Utmost for His Highest (by Oswald Chambers) that we tend to get so caught up in "the end," wondering about His purpose that we fail to see God is more interested in our NOW.   How are we responding to this situation now?  Are we trusting Him now?  Are we praising Him in the midst of it, now?  Are we seeking others' counsel or HIS counsel now?  Are we anxious now?  Are we running to His Word now?  Are we growing now?  Whew...these are the NOW results that God is after.  Sooner or later, He'll eventually get us to that "end"-- or "the REASON" we've been placed on this earth.  Remember:  It's the time spent in the desert, being so parched and thirsty for HIM; the being ALONE with Him in the mountain-top AND valley moments---these are the moments in which He is preparing us for that END, or that special "purpose."  

Being shaped or conformed into His dear Son's image, (in other words being a "vessel in the Potter's hands") is sometimes uncomfortable isn't it?  The stretching, the pressure from all sides, the having more "clay" dumped on us, the dizzying affects of spinning around and around on that Potter's wheel---all of these things takes a toll doesn't it? 

This summer is quickly coming to a close, and another chapter of my life may be too.  A new one is beginning.  Do I have "the answer" I've been calling on and waiting for over the past several months?   Well, at first, I was looking for that specific END:  WHY AM I HERE, FATHER?  What is my purpose "for such a time as this?"  I've not really come to "THAT end" yet.  However, I HAVE come to a conclusion..and it's this:   Why rush to "The End" when God is after "our Now"!   The journey, the lessons, the learning to LET GO and TRUST HIM, and LEAVE IT TO HIM to get me to that specific "end" or purpose---THAT is what life as a vessel in His hands is all about---for it is in the NOW that He is shaping us into the image of His OWN Son.  (Did you catch that?  N-O-W....O-W-N.)  We are His OWN special purchase and He's not going to throw us out!  He's going to conform us into the image of His OWN Son, Jesus.  No matter HOW long it takes!  The time is NOW!

Thank You Father, for these wonderful, eye-opening lessons You're teaching me.  We're all a vessel in Your precious hands...and You gently ask us this simple question:  "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, *O house of Israel (You want us to put our name there.)  "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Tammi."  Shape us, add more of Your OWN dear Son into our vessels, take away the dross, purify our hearts and prepare us Father...for one day You will use these vessels of clay to take forth the message of Your Love and Grace, Your OWN Special Son, to others.  You're preparing us NOW for The End.  Thank You for being the Alpha and the Omega...You're the Beginning AND the End...and ALL the In-Between too!  In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Who's Workin' Here Anyway??

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.   II Cor. 4:17, 18

How many times have you been sitting in church, or listening to a sermon on the radio and heard "For our light affliction..." and said to yourself, "Wait a minute! Light? I'm sitting here, bearing a heavy burden, and this doesn't seem like it will ever go away!!" and just turned your ears off?

I confess, "I've been there, done that"--completely missing the entire point. Now, you're probably thinking the "point missed" is the fact that our light afflictions are nothing to be compared with the "exceeding and eternal weight of glory..." But that's not the treasure that is so easily overlooked, or at least has been in my case.

In a day when unemployment is skyrocketing, and jobs are extremely hard to come by, it may be encouraging to know that our very own PROBLEMS can actually WORK for us! Think of it! You, THE BOSS--FINALLY! "Someone's" working FOR YOU, for once! And get this, YOU GET PAID for all "their" work! Go figure!

Okay...this sounds too good to be true right? I know..but IT IS TRUE, because GOD's WORD says so...and that's the only "Because I said-so" we'll ever need! God never lies! God IS Truth!

He gives us the key to making our trials WORK FOR US:  Look at verse 18: "While we DO NOT contemplate the things that are seen." (the "seen things" are our circumstances---the situation that SURROUNDS us.) As long as we don't look at our present circumstances and STOP there, but LOOK past them and ON TO the things that are NOT seen, our problems are working FOR us--doing something GOOD FOR us.

We're to look past the present situation and onto those "unseen" things, which are the HIGHER PURPOSES God has for our lives. Yes..God has a purpose for even these storms. This Higher Purpose has its rewards, which are ETERNAL and worth SO MUCH MORE than what we see now. What a BONUS! The best part is no one can snatch it away from you! You earned an eternal reward by letting your troubles work for YOU! All you've got to do is FOCUS on "what is God's purpose for my life?"

Keep your eyes on the prize--the prize of the higher calling. God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ever ask or even imagine! He can (and WILL) "work" all things our for OUR good and His glory---as LONG AS we desire to be used of Him, to bring Him glory. (Romans 8:28)

I know--it makes no sense to the common sense mind! But that's the way it is with "walking by faith"--It's completely OPPOSITE of "walking by common sense."

So I've got a question for you: "Who's the Boss?" :)

Dear Father! Thank You for showing me the simple word "while"---that gave me moment to pause and think about this. Our light afflictions ARE WORKING FOR us, but only WHILE we are looking past them and onto what YOUR purpose is for our lives, even in the bad times. If we take our eyes off of Your goal in our lives, we will sink every time---then we'll be enslaved by our circumstances! And Hard Times are Hard Task-Masters! Please gives us faith to see the unseen! In Jesus' Name we pray, Amen!

Wait for the Son to Rise

"Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him." 
Mark 8:30 (NIV)

"...Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead."   Mark 9:9b (NIV)

I was reading in My Utmost for His Highest (Oswald Chambers) yesterday about the Transfiguration (recorded in Mark 9).  Jesus leads Peter, James, and John up a high mountain.  Mark 9:2 says that "after six days He led them up..."   I know that the number six represents the human aspect, whereas seven represents the number of perfection.   Thought that was interesting...keep that in mind.

So there they go, following Him UP the high mountain...if only they knew what awaited them!  After the struggle of climbing treacherous, unchartered territory while following Jesus towards the top, they finally reached the mountaintop and caught a glimpse of Jesus in all of His glory...not only Jesus...but He was conversing with two prophets of old...Elijah and Moses.  Peter was "sore afraid."  Yet, even while being scared to death, he realizes something.. "It is GOOD for us to be here."  He knew what they were witnessing was GOOD!   What he said next revealed the desire of his heart.  "Let's pitch three tents (shelters or habitations) for You, Elijah and Moses."   Next thing, a cloud envelopes them, and a Voice calls out, "This is My Son, whom I love.  LISTEN TO HIM."   Then SUDDENLY, as fast as this transpired, everything they witnessed vanished ..."all except Jesus."   They could no longer perceive the glorious wonder and splendor of Jesus!   No longer could they see Him conversing with the prophets. . .all that remained was "just Jesus"....Which makes me wonder, could this explain their immediate descent?   Hmmm.   They are "coming down" from the high ecstasy of having caught a glimpse of the Lord in His glory. When that glory has "been hidden again," they COME DOWN.   Don't we all though?