Station 25 and the city called Jericho

So the wild unruly Redwood Forest has always been my place, but there is another place, emerging up from the sand. It is none other than Station 25, right there on Sullivans Island. I feel God there. If that is even the correct way to say it, since He is everywhere, rather I should say, I understand better, just how much grace He gives out, over and over and over.

I love it, these children love it, and if you ever come to visit us, rest assured, we will most likely take you there. Olivia is loving school, she has a good group of ladies in her class, she laughs and cackles when Mr. Edwin gets in trouble, don't ask me why. Bodie is also doing good, he is loving school, trouble is the getting ready part, I found him getting ready under his blanket the other day because he didn't want Jesus to see him naked, so there's that. Lills is also doing good. She's the bow on top of this present I call my family.

Today, I read in streams from the desert, and old book my mom discovered, it hits the nail on the head with me so very often. It started off with a verse from Joshua chapter 6. It's an unusual story. Following was a short devotional, and then this little poem,

Faith can never reach it's consummation

Till the victor's thankful song we raise;

In the glorious city of salvation,

God has told us all our gates are praise.

Altho beautiful, I couldn't comprehend what it meant, so then I read the entire chapter of Joshua 6. and then I did my breakfast dishes. Shortly thereafter, it hit me. 

Faith and Praise !!!!

It's what we have to do to get thru the battle. They marched 6 days, and even tho nothing changed, they got up the next day, and kept marching. Then, on the 7nth day they shouted. God tore down those walls, He defeated the city. Now, bare in mind, they didn't shout after the walls came down, they shouted before the walls came down. in the battle against our flesh, we need two very important weapons, faith and praise. Faith, because God has said the battles been won, Jesus hung on that cross for the sin that is mine. Praise, because we are standing on Holy Ground, Praise because that is what we were made to do. God will tear down walls, He'll conquer cities, He'll fight your battle.

A non Social Media Talk

It's been one year and 11 days since I wrote in this little space, that previously felt like home to me. So much has changed, but lately I've been feeling a need to write somewhere that is not social media, and all though this is still the internet, it still feels different to me in some way.

So here goes, we will see how long I keep this up, I intend to be more transparent on here, speak the bad as well as the good.

My online journal of being a wife to Josh, a mother to Olivia, Bodie, Lilly, a step mother to Wyatt, and most importantly, a daughter of The King Most High. 

Life is an interesting ride, is it not?

A Prayer

      Dear God,

    Tonight I needed to ramble a bit before heading to bed. First of all, thank you for people. All of us down here are interesting, really really interesting, and as much as I love the smell of the pines embedded in the mountains, and the crash of the waves over my toes, I just have to say, humans are even greater. Thank you for the chance to live on this globe with all of your children. I miss my uncle, he's with you now, but every day I miss him and his insatiable love for life. There will never be another like him. Oh, and thank you for my friend in Florida, she sent my soul soaring tonight. Thank you for grace and mercy, and the opportunity to be washed white as snow. My feeble mind cannot fathom the beauty of salvation. And how I love my children. I know they are yours, in reality, but I call them mine. They make me feel so tired some days, but when I stop to look in their face, I feel as tho you have outdone yourself in creating them. Their unconditional love for me is something I can't even explain. It bubbles up from somewhere that I do not know about. And my hubs, he is something grand, so thank you for him also. Forgive me, for so often I mess up...I don't like it much, but it happens. Help us all down here to love each other, to admire the beauty of creation, and to always always have faith that moves mountains.

                                       Amen.

                                               

The 17nth day of the 7nth month

  Here is my last and final portion of the Ark story.

 One day while hurrying thru my living room, I had this strange thot, why did Noah send out a raven, and then a dove? It was the dove who brought back an olive branch, and many years later, a dove landed on Jesus while in the presence of John the Baptist. Is is a coincidence? We cannot know the mind of God, but yet I think there is more to it than first meets the eye.

  For so many years of my life, I wondered over the Old Testament. Why so much law, so much law that it almost makes it seems scary for the people who lived before Christ. Here is something I've realized lately, many of the Old Testament accounts portray the Salvation story.

  The Ark, in all of it's massiveness, landed on Mount Ararat on the 17nth day of the 7nth month. If you dig into scripture, it is the same day that Christ rose from the dead.

  My point is this, when we are reborn into Christ, we enter that ark, just as Noah, he didn't partially enter, or leave a foot out the door. He was in, and God shut the door. So are we in Christ. Either we are in, or we are out. God engraves our name on His hands, Isaiah 49:16. We don't topple back in and out of salvation, nor do we loose and save ourselves. Salvation is a gift, the most magnificent gift we will ever be given. We will sin, as Noah probably did in that ark, and then God will haul us to the woodshed, but he won't scratch away our names from His hands. Sometimes we loose our peace, it is a most desolate feeling, and then we must repent, but we are His child thru out eternity, oh blessed thot.

The Rainbow

  It's been waaaaay to long.

  I've been oh so busy, chasing my own tail, doing things that are just so important, but really they aren't. Quite frankly, I would have made a terrible disciple. I would have always been scrambling around, never getting to the point.

  Now, as for the rainbow, one night I took Bodie out the back door to see the rainbow, it was so incredibly beautiful. That night it felt as tho, perhaps if you ran just a little ways, you could touch it. I couldn't stop staring. Then it hit me, how could the rainbow have showed up only after Noahs family disembarked that ship? Because God in His wiseness, created that bow, that is in fact, scientifically correct. So...explain how it hadn't appeared before.

It hadn't ever rained.

  Odd, isn't it? Which makes Noahs faith seem even grander. To build something in preparation for something you had never even witnessed. The earth was like a rain forest I do believe, with springs and rivers and waterfalls. Can you even imagine ?

  So now we have the rainbow, God won't flood us out folks. It's easy to believe that promise of His, it's just some of the other ones we have trouble with. You know, like when he tells us not to worry, we still worry. Or the fact that Eternity will be so grand, that this life will seem so very fleeting.

  Fling your man made worry out the door, toss Satan out the window, grab hold of Gods truth, and let it sink deep down inside of your being. We miss out on the beauty and power of God sometimes, even when it's staring us right in the face.

  Goodnight world

Our Ship

Yep, I should totally be in bed. Wonderful lovely cushiony bed. But first I must write my third segment in the Noahs Ark story.

  This third part is probably my favorite, perhaps because of the stage of life I'm in, or maybe because it's helped me realize just how in control God is.

  So now Naoh and his own family are in the ark, it has started raining, giant bolts of lightning and load claps of thunder ring in their ears. They don't know what it looks like out there, the animals are terrified, and they have absolutely no idea how long they will be in this ark. Remember how I said I believe this story portrays the salvation story? That ark is Christ,and Noah is in the ark, just as we are in Christ when we are born again,  Noah answered Gods call, and he is now in that ship. There is no steering wheel...probably no anchor..no way for Noah to guide that boat. God is, he shut that door and he guided the ark thru everything, without accident. Gods hand led them wherever they went.

  We are in that ship, and while in there, we worry, we fret, we wonder, we get frazzled, but all the while Gods hand is leading our lives. It's quite amazing when you picture us scrambling around in there, don't you suppose Noah did? They worried, they wondered about their future, they hoped there was enough food to go around, and maybe they were concerned about their health. All we have to do is trust in Gods hand leading our lives. It is that simple. Sure, we have to put feet under our faith, but it is He who leads us where so ever we go.

The Parade

 Now just suppose you lived up the grassy hill beyond the Cypress forest a little ways, on the same side of the city that Mr. Noah was assembling his ark. Then suppose that your daughter had married a son of Noah's 

  She'd been coming home lately and giving you updates on the building of this giant structure that everyone was talking about. She was saying that it was awfully close to being finished. Then she proceeds to say that she'll be getting on. You look at her in bewilderment. She looks at you with silent questioning eyes, would you join? And in your head you're thinking....get on a boat...a giant boat...with somebody who says God told him to build it....and that it's going to rain, but it never has. She leaves, she says they'll be packing a few belongings any day now, and tells you which day they are planning to board. 

 You get back to making supper, tell your man what she had said, you both just wonder what is going on. Bedtime hits the land and you fall into a troubled sleep. Next day while outside in the garden, you hear a noise, something different, and it steadily gets louder. 

  It's animals, every kind you could think of, running, flying, walking, even the ones that typically would never show themselves out in broad daylight. The noise of the hooves is deafening, a parade of every kind of fur you could ever imagine, then you realize that they are not being led by a man. They are heading straight to that boat, almost as if there is was other place to go. In complete amazement you watch them board that ship along with Noah and then his family, and your own daughter.

Can you imagine?? Really imagine standing there and watching that?? The more I think on it, the more it boggles my mind. Then on the heels of that, I can't imagine someone not realizing that there was a much greater being than us mortal humans, leading those thousands of animals, then watching

 that door shut. Then it hit me...I do it all the time, I overlook the work God is doing, he may not be leading a parade of animals, but I can guarantee you he's doing far more than our small human minds can even begin to fathom.