More about the rain

This morning the rain was pouring down, and in the early morning quiet I sipped my coffee slowly as I opened my Bible for my quiet time. Zechariah 10:1 , "Ask the Lord for the rain...." Can you believe that? Not only was it raining (if you don't understand my wow, see "worship in the dark") but then I opened up my Bible and the very first verse that I read was about rain. I think God may be trying to tell me something?

I spent the morning praying for God to pour out his presence and his grace and his mercy and his love on Anna like a torrential rain. To flood us with his Spirit. To fill us up completely with His love. I am excited to see how God will move in the services at the Crossroads this weekend. I can't wait to meet God in worship!

Just another note - God has daily reaffirmed my calling to teach in Anna. Every day this week I have had incredible "God encounters" with people that have no explanation other than God has already been at work.

Continue praying for the church plant. Pray for us all to guard our hearts against temptation and to walk in light, carefully following God's footprints.

I'm a crown jewel

Zechariah 9:16, 17 "When that day arrives, the Lord their God will rescue his people, just as a shepherd rescues his sheep. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown. How wonderful and beautiful they will be!"

One of my favorite things about small children is the sparkle in their eyes. Children radiate their joy and happiness through their expressions, and when they are happy, their eyes simply dance. As we age, our smiles often don't quite make it to our eyes. I know very few adults that have "sparkly" eyes anymore. Life has removed the sparkle, one small bit at a time. Is it not an incredible promise that someday we will sparkle again! Somehow God is going to remove all the weight from our shoulders and give us back our sparkle.

Then there's that whole thing about being God's crown jewel. One of my favorite parts of the Princess Diaries, part 2, is when Princess Mia opens up her closet drawers and there are jewels everywhere and it really sinks in with her that she is royalty. Someday God's treasure house will be filled with "jewels" - his people - worshipping him with no distractions or interruptions, with no sin to ever again separate us from his voice. I just can't find the words to describe what it means to me that I am that valuable to the God of the universe - that he would call me his crown jewels.

No wonder Jesus shocked the world!

I'm on the slow plan on reading my Bible all the way through. I started a little over 5 years ago. At first I felt like such a failure that I couldn't rush through it in a year - after all, the books all say that's how it should be done. But I have persevered with my slow and steady pace and been stunned by how God has revealed Himself over the years. Today's revelation is not necessarily new, but I just understood it so much better than I ever had in the past.

Recently, I have been reading the minor prophets. (You know, the little books at the end of the Old Testament....Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and now Zephaniah.) The last few weeks have been quite depressing, actually. These prophets are very focused on God's judgement on the nations. Lots of "you're going to be destroyed, I'll pour out my wrath on you, burn, baby, burn"...You get the idea. Woven in amongst the judgement however, is a beautiful promise of restoration for God's people. A promise of rest and peace and beauty.

I have always been mystified by how the religious population in the New Testament became so hard and legalistic. But after reading all this, I've begun to understand why the religious people created extra rules that kept them from breaking any of God's rules. I mean, honestly, I don't want to be dashed on rocks, or destroyed by pestilence or famine.

This is why Jesus must have been such a shock. They expected a judgement bringer - a man of wrath - who would destroy the wicked nations of the world. After reading all the judgement stuff in the Old Testament, I could see why they might have this idea. Instead they found a man who said, "Love one another, Peace I bring to you, Blessed are the merciful." Jesus was not what the religious people expected. He was about forgiveness and mercy and freedom from sin. Because He did not fit their idea of who the Messiah was supposed to be, they could not accept Him. They could not wrap their minds around God acting differently than they expected.

Today, I better understood why Jesus was a surprise to the religious people when He came. And I want to be careful that I do not limit God to my expectations of Him. I do not want my limited knowledge of Him and his character to ever keep me from seeing Him at work all around me.

I am looking forward to that beautiful promise of restoration. When someday our relationship is fully and completely restored and not messed up by my sin and when I can see clearly all that God is.