Sappy Song Saturday

I am in a melancholy mood today.  There is stuff going on in my life that I just don't like.  It is an odd place, I was angry and now I'm not, just kind of resigned.  I know if I trudge through, there is likely to be light at the end of the tunnel, I am just tired and don't feel much like trudging.  And to be 100% honest, I am not so sure about that light.  It is a theory, but is it going to be shining on the other side?  I guess what doesn't kill you will make you stronger.  So if I don't die while trudging, I guess I'll get stronger.

Technically, there is nothing really better to do when one is feeling melancholy than to listen to sappy songs.  Interestingly, none of these are 'Christian songs' per se, but I can picture myself sadly singing them to Jesus or sadly listening to Him sing them to me.  Which then makes me kind of laugh, which is an odd, but I guess welcome side effect of listening to sappy songs.  So here you go, if you are looking for some sappy songs to kind of make you laugh (?), these are a couple of my favorites.  Warning:  Some of them, you have to use your imagination.  Obviously every word isn't going to translate to a personal relationship with the Creator of all that is.  I may be melancholy and resigned, but I am not completely crazy yet.

Total Eclipse of the Heart

Time After Time

You Move Me (Careful with this one, the video may be disturbing if you've never seen Dances with Wolves)

When the Rain Comes - Okay, so this is a Third Day song, did you really think I'd make it all the way through this without one? 

Heart, Mind and Soul

What is it like to follow Jesus with everything you are?  To give Him your heart, mind and soul?  To seek Him with all your strength?

Pretty much how it sounds.  You are consumed by Him.  Your first thought in the morning is Him, your last thought at night is Him, everything you do in between is about Him and you dream about Him.  Sound extreme?  It is.  And it should be.

If you are going to be obsessed with or addicted to anything, it should be Jesus.  This life we are living right now is a blip on the radar of eternity.  This life and this world are only a little bit of each of our story.  After this is the rest of forever and there are two options.  Spend it with God or don't.  The second option is going to be really unpleasant.  All sorts of pain and suffering and gnashing of teeth, because it will be away from God.

If you have ever thought this life was rough, it will seem like roses compared to a life of forever away from the One Who Created you.

What does that have to do with being obsessed with Jesus?  Believing in Him is the only way anyone gets option one, spending eternity with God.  He is the only way to avoid option two.

When we believe that Jesus was sent to save us from hell, it is really hard not to become obsessed with Him.  That is an incredible gift.  But that is not all He offers.  Through His spirit, He can offer us comfort while we are waiting for this life to end and the real one to begin.  He can begin to transform all the broken parts of us into glorious ones.

If you are reading this, chances are, He has 'flicked on your switch'.  He has woken up your spirit to realize there is more to life than what you can see.  So you need to ask Him to complete the deal.  Give Him permission to come into your life and start comforting and transforming you and healing you and helping you.  It is easy.

Jesus, I know that I have been separated from You and God the Father.  I don't want to be separated from either of You anymore.  I am sorry that I have been separated from You.  Fill me with Your Holy Spirit and pour new life into me.  I want to spend eternity with You, not separated from You.  I give You permission to work in my life.  I want to be obsessed with and addicted to You and only You.  Help me to do that, because I know I can't do it myself.

And now you can thank Him.  You surround yourself with people who also follow Jesus.  You listen to music that glorifies Him, you read books that teach you about Him, you ask Him to make the Bible come alive to you.  He will set you on fire with passion for Him, but you have to ASK.  And you have to BELIEVE.  One of the many cool things about Jesus is that you can even ask Him for that.  Ask Him to help you believe in Him and have passion for Him.

And then set your eyes on Him.  And remember He is at the right hand of the throne of God.  So when your eyes are set on Jesus, you are actually staring directly into heaven.  And when you are staring directly into heaven, you realize that this world is not the reality.  Ask Him to help you focus on reality, which is not this life but the next.  And when He settles that in your heart, you will be completely overtaken.  It is truly the best place to be.  Looking forward to the next place and working with Him to tell others about it.

And then you and He will have done it together, you will have committed heart, mind and soul to something so much bigger than what you are in right now and you won't remember anything different and you won't want anything different anyway.  Committed, heart, mind and soul.  It really is that easy.  Just ask.

Holy Spirit

Hi!  My name is Aubrey.  I am a human.  To be precise, I am a female human.  This gender distinction entitles me to a number of roles in life, mother, sister, aunty, to name a few.  When I have my mother hat on, I have many privileges such as encouraging people to do homework, washing stinky socks or wiping noses and butts.  When I have my sister hat on however, my privileges change.  I get to encourage, harass and have the occasional chat via phone or Skype.  When I am in Aunty mode, I get to snuggle, huggle, oogle and google and only maybe once in a blue moon change a diaper.  It is a good thing that my 'duties' in each role are different because in some instances things could get awkward.  For instance, if I had to wipe butts in the sister role.  I don't think anyone would enjoy that.  But no matter which role I am in, I am still Aubrey.  My personality is still the same, just different parts of it are in use in each instance.  I have all the same skills and abilities no matter who I am dealing with, I am just employing different ones depending on the circumstance.  Get the picture?  Always Aubrey, just different parts of me being expressed and imparted in different scenarios.

God is exactly the same, only way better.  He expresses Himself in three different 'persons' or roles.  God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit.  God the Father created everything.  Jesus and the Holy Spirit were with Him, but He was the 'Mastermind' behind it all.  He still is the 'Mastermind' behind everything.  He knows everything, sees everything, is everywhere, can do anything.  He is straight spirit.  God the Father expresses Himself as the ultimate 'Overseer'.

Jesus is God in a human body.  Humans had worked themselves into a pretty serious problem.  God's solution was to become one of us, do life from our perspective and then set the whole situation straight again.  And to do that, He had to live like we live, become what we are.  Jesus' spirit and God's spirit were the same.  They thought alike, acted alike, were identical.  The human nature part of Jesus still had to make the decision to activate that connection, but once He did they were completely alike.  There really are no words to completely describe how He did it.  He will show us when this world is over.  For now, we just need to know that the 'Jesus' role of God was to walk with us on earth and go through every emotional and physical experience that we do as humans.  He wanted to feel what we feel, how we feel it.

Jesus and God the Father knew that when Jesus was done what He needed to do on earth, we would still be floundering about and need help with this whole faith thing.  They couldn't just leave us to go it alone.  So after Jesus returned to heaven, where He received a new body, like we all eventually will, He 'sent in' person number three to look after us until we could join Him on the new earth.  Thus enters the Holy Spirit, which is really just a specific name for 'God's Spirit' or 'Jesus' Spirit'.  He is Jesus without skin on again.  Which is a challenge for us, because we like to see things before we believe in them.  That is the hard part of faith.  We have to believe the Holy Spirit is in us, working, even though we can't see Him.

When a person prays or spends quiet time with God, they are spending time with Jesus and the Holy Spirit as well.  The three are so wrapped up in each other that they can't do anything without the other two participating.  The Bible specifically tells us though that the Holy Spirit, or God and Jesus in the form they are dealing with us in now if you prefer, is a teacher and a comforter, among many other things.  So He is the power in you that makes the Bible make sense or that gives you peace when everything is crazy and you shouldn't really have peace.  He is the power that keeps our human nature in check when it wants to rage about inside us and amongst those around us and cause chaos.  He is also the power that will do battle for us against assaults of the enemy in our minds and hearts.  The angels deal with the demonic stuff in the spirit realm.  The Holy Spirit deals with the demonic and human nature stuff inside us.

So really, when you 'invite Jesus into your heart' you are inviting the Holy Spirit.  'Inviting Jesus' are just the words we have chosen, but the Bible clearly states that when you 'believe' in Jesus and what He did to save us, the Holy Spirit 'fills' you and marks you as belonging to Them.  So, we believe in the 'Jesus' role and that 'God the Father' somehow was playing both of those roles at once and then the third role, the Holy Spirit, is unleashed in our lives.

Now, add to the picture - denominations- which are completely a human invention.  The Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit did not create denominations.  The reason denominations add some confusion to the situation is because they all have a different spin on how it should look if the 'Holy Spirit' is part of your life.  In the Bible this is not confusing at all.  Let me repeat, this is only made confusing by humans.

When you make the realization that your life is messed up and you can't get through it without divine help and you tell Jesus He can be in charge, you have the Holy Spirit.  Done.  End of story.

What you choose to ask the Holy Spirit to help you with however, is a story only you can write.  The Holy Spirit is always around you and with you and in you, but He never does ANYTHING in you or with you unless YOU ASK.  YOU HAVE to give him permission to conquer your human nature.  He doesn't just come into your life and start karate chopping all the funky parts of your personality or the jumbled up parts of your past.  Let me say this again.  YOU HAVE TO ASK.  But first you HAVE TO BELIEVE that the 'person' you are asking even exists.

So back to some of the confusing things that humans have added to this already mysterious process.  Some people think that if you are really filled with the Holy Spirit, you will speak in tongues.  This is possible, but not mandatory.  But honestly, I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to speak in the tongues of angels or all of a sudden be able to preach the gospel in Mandarin Chinese.  That is the stuff of science fiction movies, which we all watch, and we can have it for REAL.  IF WE BELIEVE.  In other words, turn off our 'adult thinking and figuring out heads' and turn on our 'little kid I still believe in unicorns heads'.  If we quit being all self conscious and self centered and realize we can have real power in the spirit realm to help people, we'd see some pretty amazing stuff shake down.

But I digress.  Other denominations say that if you don't bark like a dog or bray like a donkey during worship services, you aren't really filled with the Holy Spirit.  They are wrong.  Again, the Bible does mention that the Holy Spirit groans and does intercession in ways our humanness doesn't understand and yes, if we give Him permission, He will work that way through us.  He never, however, turns off our brains and flails us about the sanctuary.  

The Holy Spirit will also use us with our permission to tell people things about themselves that we never could have known about them.  These are called words of wisdom or words of knowledge.  And God the Father usually uses them to encourage believers or make unbelievers understand that He is paying attention to them and wants a relationship with them.

I have not included all of the 'gifts of the Spirit' and the 'fruits of the Spirit', but the principal is the same for all of them.  First we have to believe the Holy Spirit is real, then we have to believe His power is real, then we have to give Him the go ahead to work in and through us.

Mostly what the Holy Spirit does in our lives, AFTER WE ASK HIM, is transform us to be more like Jesus by teaching us more about things of God and by comforting us when we are having a hard time in this life.  But He can and will WITH OUR PERMISSION partner with us to do miraculous things in the realm that we don't see and is hard for us to remember is there.

So, yeah.  That's a small piece of the picture of the Holy Spirit, one of the roles God plays in our lives.  Clear as mud?

Hmmm....

....what to post about, what to post about.  Mostly I am just posting so that the person who checks this blog to see if I've posted will find something!!  But just because of who I am, I probably cannot type anything without mentioning God or Jesus.

So, let me think, what can I say about them that I haven't said lately that will make someone go, "Wow! I've never heard THAT before?"  Hmmmm....thinking, thinking.....hmmmm.

Nope, I got nothin'.  What do you want me to write about Jesus or God or the Holy Spirit?  You choose!

Thank You Henry T. Blackaby

"While I pastored Faith Baptist Church in Saskatoon, we began to sense God leading us to an outreach ministry to the college campus....Our denominational student ministries department recommended we begin with a Bible study in the dorms, and it did not work.  One Sunday I pulled our students together and said, "This week I want you to go to the campus and watch to see where God is working and join Him."...

"According to [Romans 3:10-11 and John 6:44] no one is going to seek God on his own initiative.  No one will ask after spiritual matters unless God is at work in his life.  When you see someone seeking God or asking about spiritual matters, you are seeing God at work.  That is something only God does in a life."  

On Wednesday one of the girls reported, "Oh Pastor, a girl who has been in classes with me for two years came to me after class today.  She said, 'I think you might be a Christian.  I need to talk to you.'  I remembered what you said.  I had a class, but I missed it.  We went to the cafeteria to talk.  She said, 'Eleven of us girls in the dorm have been studying the Bible, and none of us are Christians.  Do you know somebody who can lead us in a Bible study?"

As a result of that contact, we started three Bible study groups in the women's dorms and two in the men's dorm.  For almost two years we tried to do something for God and failed.  For three days we looked to see where God was working and joined Him.  What a difference that made!  Over the following years many students trusted Christ as Savior and Lord.  Many of those surrendered to full-time ministry and are now serving as pastors and  missionaries all over the world."

(Experiencing God: Henry T. Blackaby (pages 69-71))

This so eloquently puts into words what I have wondered for a long time.  When we are busy 'doing ministry' are we really looking for what God is already doing, or are we too occupied with our own agendas?  And even if we were looking, would we stop what we were doing and address someone's spiritual questions or would we shove them aside until a more 'convenient' time?  And if we did stop what we were doing, have we spent enough time getting to know our Father to adequately answer the questions?

Today, those are the things that make me go hmmmmm.

Be Careful What You Ask For...

Sometimes what I read in the Bible and what seems to be going on in 'real life' don't always line up.  John 14:13 and 14:14 say this:  And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.  That is Jesus speaking, hence the red letters for those of you who appreciate that.

An excellent Bible teacher I know always says, "Make sure you aren't taking scripture out of context, and make sure you aren't reading a bunch of stuff into it that really isn't there.  The Bible was intended for everyone, so God didn't make it all super complicated and full of hidden meanings.  What scripture says, is usually what scripture means."  Well, that is mostly what he says, I kind of summarized and added a few words that he wouldn't have used, but you get the idea.

John 15:16 says this:   "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." That is Jesus speaking again.  

Is anyone else picking up a pattern here?  I am pretty sure there are three places that say, whatever I ask God for, He's going to give it to me.  I am sure that is what it says, and when I read both those chapters in John, it seems to mean what it says within the context of the rest of what Jesus says.  So, really, what's up with that?

You and I both know that we've asked God for a lot of things and haven't ever gotten them.  For example, my bank account still has a rather low balance compared to the amount of money circulating in the world.  And believe me, I've ASKED.  And mostly, I've even had good reasons and sound, logical arguments to present to God.

"If you let me win a lotto, I would do this for that mission."  "I would build an orphanage, I would build a homeless shelter, I would build a school somewhere that needs a school.  And I would make sure everyone in all of those places knew it was You that had made it possible."  And I would, in a heartbeat, do any of those things if I had unlimited cash.  I have asked, but I have not received, and until just this morning, I have been ticked off about it.

Here's the newest piece of the puzzle for me.  I just had an overwhelming sense today, that if I kept asking, I would eventually receive EXACTLY what I was asking for.  I am quite convinced of that all of a sudden.  If I asked God four or maybe five or maybe fifty five more times, He would let me win a lotto.  And, also for some mysterious reason, I am just as convinced that I would be miserable if He did.  I'd be having to say 'no' to people asking me for help, and I don't handle that well.  I'd always be wondering if I'd invested it in the right thing.  I'd be stressed out about how much I should be tithing and how much I should be giving over and above my tithing, etcetera, etcetera.


Kind of like when you are baking and one of your kids says, "Mom, that smells so yummy, can I have a taste of it?"  "No, it is vanilla extract, it smells good, but it tastes disgusting by itself."  "No it doesn't, please Mom, I want a taste of it."  "No, you don't really."  "Yes, I DO!"  "Well all right then."  They don't usually believe you that if they wait until the cake is baked, it will taste super nummy.  They don't believe you because it's not what they think they want.  Now, for those of you who have never tried the vanilla experiment, none of this will make sense.  I don't recommend tasting vanilla extract, but I am sure you will anyway.  I wish I could be there to see your faces.


Back to the point.  I think we ask God for things that we feel are full of wisdom and divine intentions when really they aren't.  Or maybe they just aren't of the same caliber of wisdom or quite as full of divinity as say... His ideas.  Generally, I think it is safe to say, the plans He already has for our lives will have eternal value if we don't complicate them with our own.


Matthew 26:36-42 and Mark 14:32-42 tell us about Jesus' time in the garden of Gethsemane.  They are brief accounts.  I sometimes wonder if that was really all that Jesus and the Father spoke about that night, but that is just speculation, and the gist of the accounts - strictly as we read them - applies here I believe.  Jesus was basically asking, "Seriously, this is how it has to happen?  You're sure there is no other way we could do this 'saving the human race' thing?  Well, alright then, You make the call."  (I apologize to those readers who are offended to think Jesus might speak like a nineteen year old of our generation.  And I apologize to those nineteen year olds who are reading this and thinking, "That is NOT how I would speak.  Where is my LOL Cat Bible?")  Of course, that is an incredibly flippant summary of Jesus' time in Gethsemane.  Jesus knew what was coming and was in AGONY over it, I think Luke tells us that Jesus even sweat drops of blood.  But still, He ASKED if there was another way to get it done.  And if I've read correctly, He asked two, maybe three times.  And I bet that two or maybe three times, the Father asked back, "Are you SURE you want to change the plan?"  But in the end, and mercifully for us, Jesus chose the will of our Father.


There is a chance now that I am going out on a limb and may earn myself some 'you are crazy' responses, but worse things have happened.  I am basing this next round of rambling on a comment a bit further on in Matthew's gospel (26:53-54)   "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”   That was Jesus, too.  And I'm pretty sure that means - brace yourselves - He could have called the whole 'saving the human race' thing off.  Pick your jaw up off your laptop, but keep that question in your head:  Where would we be if He would have called the whole thing off?  Where would we be?  

Now, here I could list a bunch of descriptive alternatives of where we would be, but I will leave that to your vivid imaginations and sum it all up by saying, "nowhere good, that is for sure.."

I remember when my Grandfather was in the hospital for the last time.  I prayed and I prayed, I asked God to heal him.  In my opinion, Grandpa was too young to leave us that soon.  I threw the whole arsenal of the above scripture at God along with a few extras.  When I knew the end was near, I got mad.  Was God not listening, was He listening and just ignoring, did He not know I was just quoting His own words to Him?  Yes, He did know and on top of that He knew so much more.  

Grandpa was in a terrible state, he was no longer coherent, his body was pretty much just a skeleton with a bit of skin on it, he had been that way for what seemed like forever.  It was not good and it wasn't getting better.  A very wise nurse told our family, 'he is just waiting for all of you to say good-bye.'  You can bet I didn't like that piece of advice.  But it was true.  The family decided to 'let him go'.  We all took turns with Grandpa alone, saying our good-byes and telling him how much we loved him and asking him to say hello to Grandma for us when he got there.  Within fifteen minutes of the last family member saying good-bye, Grandpa was gone from this world.  THAT was not the answer I had been looking for.  

But now, I can speculate.  I can speculate that Grandpa didn't want to be here, he missed Grandma terribly and for as much as he loved us, his heart was there with her.  I can speculate that God knew how I was feeling and may have even considered for a moment granting me my request, but in the end, He did what was best for Grandpa and He full well knew that ten years or so down the road, I would be able to see and I would be able to speculate.


So all that to say, if I could have heard God then putting the question to me this way, "Do you want to feel better by having your Grandpa around for a few more years in a desperate state of loneliness or do you want me to bring him home?"  I think I would have not been so angry.  I think I would have known I wasn't being ignored.  But that was then and this is now.

I find it incredibly cool to consider that I could call on my Father and He would put legions of angels at my disposal (and you can bet that would be a party).  Would that be the best thing for me to ask for?  Depends on the circumstance I guess.  Would I pout if I asked and He didn't send me the angels?  After today, I would hope not.

So to sum it all up.  When we are asking over and over for something and it doesn't seem to get answered, maybe we should change the question.  His solutions to problems are the best for everyone involved.  Sometimes God answers us the best by not answering us at all.

The 'Rules of the Blog' Post

Feel free to add any wisdom, insight or Godly knowledge to any of the posts via comments.  

Feel free to tell me you think I am crazy, but you have to tell me 'why' you think I am crazy and it has to do with the posts.  If I didn't make that rule, we all know, it would take me a long time to read all the comments that would show up after every post!  If I think you are crazy, I will tell you back, but nicely, and, keeping to my own rules, I will tell you why I think you are crazy.  

Feel free to ask questions, again, about the blog.  I don't want any questions like, "Do you have a cat?"  Unless of course the topic is "Cats of the Bible."  Then that would be an appropriate question.  Also, there is a very good chance I will not know the answers to any questions, but I can probably find someone who does, and then I will just hopefully-mostly-correctly quote them.

It would be great if this was a discussion blog.  I am fully aware however, that if no one reads this, it will not be much of a discussion, so um...yeah.  We'll just have to see how that goes.  

Also, and most importantly, I am by no means a Biblical scholar, theologian or analyzer of all things divine.  I am simply rambling in the presence of He who created Forever, and I would simply love it if you would join me.

'Tribute' Post

So, some of you will know, the title of this blog is completely plagiarized.  But, there is a reason for it.  The two people I have stolen this title from have inspired me, though I am sure I have never told them so.  They have in turn made me laugh, made me cry, made me cry while laughing and made me want to bang my head against the wall.  As I have them.  But mostly, they have served in my life to make me want to persevere.  I am blessed to have many such people in my life, but these two, at this point, deserve my thanks.  So, thanks ladies.  What a privilege it has been to be placed on each others' paths.