What the Book of Genesis Taught Me

Here is what the Book of Genesis taught me about who God is:
-Old
-Forgiving
-Persistent
-Repetitive
-Wants us to hear His message
-Powerful
-Educating me
-Good
-Blesses us when we listen to Him, because He needs us for His plan
-Conditioning me
-Sharing things with us through visions & dreams
-Odd sometimes
-True to His word
-Has no limits of time or the weakness of the flesh
-Is willing to negotiate
-Firm about what is best
-Urging us to go in the right direction
-Interesting
-Fierce in His testing
-Faithful...especially to those faithful to Him
-A lover of all kinds of people
-Giving
-Listening
-With everyone
-Sees how we treat each other
-Walking before us & conditioning & working in those He needs to, to carry out His plan & protect us
-Full of blessings
-Has a long-term plan & that plan needs generations of people to fulfill it
-Faithful to us when we hold true to His truths & do what is right when it is hard to
-Revealing things to us in our dreams via numbers, frequency of things that happen to us, according to periods of time
-Working on me
-ALWAYS thinking about us, regardless of what season we are in
-SO complex
-Tiring sometimes
-Faithful
-Administers blessings through others

God is taking me on a cover-to-cover journey through The Bible. I'm in the Book of Exodus now, but felt prompted to share what the Book of Genesis has taught me, BECAUSE the Book of Exodus is starting to show me another layer of who God is.

If I reflect back on my biggest take-aways from the Book of Genesis this is what I recall:

-I believe Jesus created the world & he had conversations with God & The Holy Spirit while He was creating it. He had their help as well.

-I saw human weakness amplified. I identified with these people; with their limited understanding; with their fear; with their quick ability to forget. God was with them, blessing them.

-I was reminded that customs we experience are not the same customs throughout the world & God loves everyone throughout the world.

-I was reminded that God has NO LIMITS of the flesh or of time and, although I don't understand how He does it, He navigates through the weak customs & structures of our world to draw us to Him & fulfill His plan.

-Even those God blessed abundantly lied. They lied lies that could GREATLY harm other people. God's grace was there with the people that could have been harmed & the people that could have caused harm. What I recognized were the motives of those lies.... Abraham did not lie about Sarah being his wife to harm Abimelech & his people. He lied to save Sarah, himself & move forward in carrying out God's plan. Isaac did the same with Rebekah. Both of those situations were brought to light.

-Motives of your actions are important. Above is a good example. Another is when Noah became angry with his son Ham. I felt like Noah had overreacted about Ham sharing with his brothers that their father fell asleep exposed after drinking too much. Then after meditating on it....He was upset with him because Ham's heart went to shame him & not help him. His other two brothers walked in backwards to cover Noah.

-God's people will experience hardship & He will walk through those  hardships with us.....as well as the joys.

-There is A LOT more that happened that The Good Book does not hold. If God needs us to know it, He will show us where to find it.

-The more you allow God to work in your life, the more your faith will grow.

-Families & leaders back then were just as flawed as we are. They wrestle with the same struggles & weaknesses, just in different situations. None of this is new to God. He has been navigating us through it for generation upon generation upon generation.

-No matter how monotonous reading name after name after name of people that were not major characters in The Bible can be....these people are our people. It gives a different sense of importance when you realize that.

-God became disappointed in His creation on multiple occasions.

Sometimes We Just Can't

There are times in life where we just can't...

We can't measure up to EVERYTHING our children need.
We can't measure up to what some people think we should be.
We can't manage our home or our work  like we'd like to.
We can't KNOW with any clear cut certainty what is the "right" choice sometimes.

I was reading Exodus 1:1-2:25. The piece within this reading that really spoke to me was about the birth of Moses. At the time of Moses's birth the king of Egypt had ordered that all Israelite boys that were born were to be thrown into the Nile River. Moses's mother raised Moses & hid him for 3 months & then coated a basket with tar & pitch & placed him in the reeds by the Nile.

Moses's sister watched her baby brother from afar... Can you imagine? Can you imagine your older child seeing her baby brother crying in the reeds, being left alone, abandoned by the mother...her mother that cared for them both. Can you imagine the MOURNING Moses's mother & sister MUST have been experiencing? Can you imagine them trying to make the "right" choices?

Then Miriam (Moses's sister) witnessed God's grace....his love... Pharoh's, (the king of Egypt) daughter saw the basket and felt sorry for him. Miriam was there & asked if she should get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby & Pharoh's daughter said YES! She went and got her mother & by God's grace Moses would live! As he got older his mother brought him to Pharoh's daughter for him to be her son. Again...I can not imagine the grief that Moses's family must have been feeling, but I can believe they were GRACIOUS beyond belief.

Where we can't, God can & will. He is moving without us knowing. He is guiding us where He needs us to be, He is revealing solutions to problems we don't even know we have & for problems that seem to have no "right" answer. He is SO abundant. He is SO...right there in it...with us!

I know that I felt VERY grateful for gaining this lesson this week. I am grateful for God's reminder of His power & His love for us. I am grateful that I could find it right there in my Bible...like it was waiting on me to read it.

There are places we just can't. It's not that we don't try. We TRY with EVERYTHING we have. Sometimes we just can't. We can't because we are not equipped. We can't because our knowledge & foresight is limited. We can't because God needs us to depend on Him. He rewards us for our courage & He rewards us for our faith.

God Does Not Operate Under Man-made Rules

I am going to share my reflections from two Bible stories: "The Cure of the Man Born Blind" & "Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well."

When I head to my Bible everyday I'll either ask for guidance on something particularly on my heart OR ask to be led to the message He needs me to hear. I was led to both of these this week & I feel like the message is so profound that I had to share my reflections.

First, Jesus healing the man blind from birth: It can be found in John 9:1-41

There were several things that stuck out to me. The disciples...the very people that followed Jesus asked: "Who sinned? This man or his parents, for him to have been born blind?" Jesus replied: "Neither he nor his parents sinned; He was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him." 

The way Jesus healed him....using his spit & mud. He healed people by simply speaking the words or touching them. He didn't NEED to make the mud to heal him. I knew THE WAY HE HEALED HIM was on purpose for a purpose.

I also imagined what it must have been like for a man born blind to see for the first time. Can you imagine the electrifying feeling? For the first time in his entire life he sees the textures that he could once only feel. The explosion of colors that lit up his mind... He could now SEE where a smell comes from or what makes the sounds he's heard all his life.... What the food looks like that he eats... 

Then, can you imagine the Pharisees trying to steal his joy? QUESTIONING if he was ACTUALLY blind? Going so far as to seek out the man's parents. 

Maybe the most profound part of the story.... Once Jesus learned what the Pharisees were saying & doing, He found the man. Jesus looked at him face to face & told him that He was the man that opened his eyes & that He was the Son of Man. Let me say it again. Jesus cared SO much, He found the man & looked at Him face to face & reassured him that He was The Son of Man. 

I needed a little help connecting the dots, so I found THIS BLOG by K. Corkins. GREAT one! In this blog it referenced "The Samaratin Woman at the Well" & how this instance with the blind man from birth and the woman at the well were some of the few instances where Jesus directly reveals His identity directly to the person asking. I knew I wanted to read about the woman from Samaria, see it in a new light, but had plenty to think on from the man blind from birth. Besides everything I listed, the only other thing that this blog made me think about is how many of us actually relate to the Pharisees more than Jesus these days. In the blog the author gives an example of his reaction to a homeless man. He referred to how he viewed him with different kinds of glasses. One pair was "Judgement." The other was "Disbelief." There was another pair for "Fear" & yet another for "Pride." We aren't supposed to wear ANY of them. Jesus didn't. So, going into the next day, that is what I reflected on. When you start putting those glasses on...take them off. 

I go on & carry my lesson into the next day & follow the same routine I had the day before & open the Bible to where I felt led. Again....to the Book of John, but Chapter 5.....about "The Woman at the Well." No joke. In this story, the things that jumped off the page at me was that the woman had been divorced 5 times. My mind automatically went to why? What could have happened? I did some research to find that in that time period, a man could divorce a woman for almost anything. So then I started thinking about the many reasons why this woman could have been divorced: Was she unfaithful? Could she have children? What did she look like? How did she act? How did she treat these men she was married to? How had she been marked? What was her story? I then also wondered: Why did she marry 5 times? Was she forced to? Did she feel like she needed to? Did she find her worth with a man? 

So then, as I thought all these things, I recalled her reaction to Jesus when He asked her to give Him a drink from her bucket. She couldn't believe that this Jew would even consider drinking from her bucket. She didn't know what to think of it. Her reaction was almost downgrading who she was, a Samaratin, by coming into agreement with the culture at the time - that a Jew was of higher stature than a Samaratin. Like....she had been carrying this SHAME about who she was....like it consumed her. 

So then....to get a little more insight I read THIS BLOG by  B. Graham Simpson. TOTALLY WORTH THE READ. I hope I forever remember this message. It doesn't say it quite like this, but it is how I interpret it. Jesus WANTS to drink from our dirty bucket. He wants to open up conversation with us. He wants us to consume Him: "The spring of life," so the world does not consume us. 

When she ran back to town & told everyone & Jesus came & ministered to them; I also thought to myself.... When she said: "He knows EVERYTHING about me..." Did He cleanse her from EVERYTHING? Did He take the SHAME she had been carrying...maybe her entire life....that which OBVIOUSLY had CONSUMED her. Yes. I believe so. I believe that she ACCEPTED Jesus. She already had the faith. She told Him that. When she chose to consume Jesus, "The Giver of Life", her old self died. Her old self died & the shame went with it. The shame that came from the sins of the world.

So what is the AWESOME that I take away from these passages? Why is it worth sharing? Our God is SO awesome. He healed the blind man the way He did to prove to the world that He does not operate by man-made laws. He was here to do the work of His Father. He used EVERY BIT of the time He was here for the will of God....even on the Sabbath...even when man said not to. 

He not only spoke to the woman at the well, but He drank from her bucket. He did not care that she was a Samaratin. He did not care that she was a woman. He did not care that she had been divorced 5times. He CARED that she NEEDED Him & was willing to accept Him. 

He broke through prejudice, racism, sexism, politics, judgement, condemnation.... He WILL NOT operate under the expectations of man. He WILL NOT limit himself to make man happy. He does not want us to diminish our spirit to please men. He wants us to take all that CONSUMES us in this world...all the sin & give it to Him, so He can give us the life that GOD calls us to have....not what man tells us we should have. 

He WANTS to drink from your bucket: failed relationships, bad decisions, handicaps, illnesses, shame, guilt, regret, fear, loss....ALL OF WHAT CONSUMES YOU.....& give YOU life. 

Buck UP Baby & Ride with Jesus! I mean....there is NOTHING more exciting. There is nothing more electrifying. He will open your eyes to ALL the things He wants to add to your life. God Bless!

Rejoice! Lessons from my 2015 focus word...

A friend of mine introduced me, at the end of 2014, to having a focus word for the year. 2014 was the year that I really began to delve into scripture. By God's grace He took care of me, navigated me through the Bible to where I....well I could enjoy it....grasp it. It was a year of big change also & I was kind of trying to bring my JOY back, but at the same time knew that sometimes JOY would not be present. Reading through scripture the word REJOICE stuck out to me. What also stuck out to me, is that a lot of times the word REJOICE would show up in reference to struggle or hardship. Here are some examples:

"In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials." 1 Peter 1:6 (This book talks a lot about persecution & suffering & that we should expect  it in our earthly walk.)

"Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." Romans 12:12 (This chapter in Romans starts talking about how mature Christians should try to live. To me it is dying to our fleshy self & carrying our cross where God is calling us, while on earth.)

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance." James 1:2-3 (I am drawn to this book in the Bible. James encourages us to put our faith into action.)

Luke 1:26-38 doesn't use the word REJOICE in it, but I believe that is what Mary did. This passage is about the angel coming to Mary to tell her that she is going to give birth to Jesus. I encourage you to go read it & then put yourself in her shoes. I think "confusion" would be putting it mildly. She had questions & the answers she got, probably didn't make sense to her either. She sat in faith & hope, for what the angel was telling her.

SIDEBAR....JUST FOR A MOMENT: Several of my friends have shared their struGGLE of 2015 & how they are ready for a new year & new opportunity. When I was first reading those messages I thought.... I LOVED 2015. Lots of pretty cool things happened. And then I remembered...there were some REALLY tough things too. Maybe some of the toughest I've faced in at least 10 years....from a....well...just some of the toughest.

So to recap what the year 2015 taught me about the meaning of REJOICE.... (Life & the divine guidance of The Holy Trinity through scripture has shown me this.)

Sometimes it's about small victories. Sometimes it is about hardships that are just the beginning of a journey to a blessing that no one else could give you but God. Sometimes it is being so pissed off at the enemy that all you can do is REJOICE because you KNOW God will win. Yes...even in the midst of death & disease & perversion & terrorists & extremists...God will win. The fact that all God wants us to do is trust Him, love Him, love His people, submit to His will (which is better than ANYTHING we could dream up), & keep seeking Him....keep seeking peace - is reason to REJOICE!

There are people that face situations that make me cringe....make me sad...make me angry....disgust me... How can they rejoice?

Someone...somewhere on this earth has been touched by each and every person God created. We all have purpose. From the point of conception we are affecting someone & we keep affecting people the longer we are here....and more people. Others need what we have. We may not know who they are, what it is, & at times we may not even understand the affect someone has on us & vice versa, but The Holy Spirit is moving & working among us. God does not waste anything....not a thing.

REJOICE is a verb & after a year of meditating on it, I believe, it is a verb powered by our hope & faith. We have to choose to rejoice & we are able to rejoice in any situation & in any circumstance.

Buck Up Baby & Ride With Jesus! It is not easy, but if you choose to, He will GIVE you MANY, MANY more reasons & fuel for REJOICING!

My focus word for 2016 is RELATIONSHIPS. I want to focus on developing the relationships God has blessed me with. My focus Bible verses will be: "I give you a new commandment: love one another; you must love one another just as I have loved you. It is by your love for one another, that everyone will recognize you as my disciples." - John 13:34-35

Keep Pushing Towards Your Dream....Even If You Don't Know What it LOOKS Like.

A couple months ago I was sitting at this AWESOME gathering. It was a meeting of the minds of lots of business-minded women, who were sharing their LOVE for Jesus Christ. One of the speakers said: "Keep pushing towards your dream." I thought to myself....."I'm not sure what that looks like anymore." That thought kind of struck me & I've been meditating/wrestling/just letting it sit up there somewhere...marinating.

I thought to myself...."My word Heather! You kind of need to know what that looks like, to know how to proceed!" I shared this thought with a friend & she said: "Think about what you did when you first went into business for yourself and you didn't know what it was going to look like."

I had that DUH! moment...although it wasn't quite the same.

Here is what I wanted when I stepped out in faith & decided to pursue the DREAM of working for myself & helping others, with the gifts God has blessed me with, while providing for my family & having a better quality of life..............I KNOW IT SOUNDS LIKE I WAS ASKING FOR A LOT! However....God has given me all of that.

Scripture tells us: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and the one who knocks, the door will be opened" Matthew 7:7-8

"Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

So when I took myself back to that time...when I felt like I was drifting in the sea...on a ship...by myself....& I had to make decisions & friendships & partnerships & purchases that I weren't sure where RIGHT....

I just kept going...asking...seeking...knocking.

And all of a sudden....my dream took shape. Not anything like I envisioned.... More. MUCH more. In fact things were added to my dream that I didn't even know existed.

So...as I find myself on this ship....that now has new crew members & allies & gadgets & tools....I'm going to do those things all over again...ask...seek...knock. I find myself not even trying to envision it...just living it...because what will happen is more than I have the capacity to see.

Sometimes you won't always know what your dream LOOKS like. Sometimes you'll just remember what you hope for & when what you hope for starts happening...you'll be able to identify what it FEELS like....& just keep going.

Get your heart right. Then Buck UP Baby & Ride with Jesus! Keep going in TRUST & FAITH.

Stepping Out In Faith....SAY YES!

I had a busy week, last week & there was a moment....after I got off the phone, with a client...that I just sat back & APPRECIATED where I was. I thought...on what life could be like if I would not have said YES to God...when he was calling me to something MORE. My week has involved discussions for five fundraising galas, four different liquidation auctions, and 5 different real estate transactions. Sometimes those discussions weren't the most exciting, but I had to sit back a minute... This could have been a TOTALLY different story than what I'm typing.

I am THANKFUL. Thankful for the opportunities...YES! Even more THANKFUL though....for the peace of mind I have now....for the flexible time schedule to have MORE time with my family...for the new friendships I've made, that I would have TOTALLY missed out on....for this REAL spiritual development that God is doing in me...there is SO MUCH to be thankful for.

I'm really GRATEFUL that The Holy Spirit kept nudging me & nudged me in just the right ways to get my attention....even when those nudges were NOT so fun... I mean REALLY... Sometimes I would kind of like it if there would just be directional signs. BUT God needs to develop our character in Christ...for what is yet to come.

Turning the focus to YOU (yes, YOU, who is reading this)... If you have reached a point where you KNOW you are supposed to SAY YES to God....just go on & do it!

You will have no clue what it looks like.
It is totally different than anything you are capable of imagining right now.
You will survive on the other side of it.
He has equipped you for exactly where He is taking you.
It won't be easy. In fact...sometimes, it will be down right scary.
Sometimes, you will want to change your mind.
Sometimes, you will want to pull a blanket over your head & not speak to anyone....for DAYS.
You will cry.
You will laugh.
You will overthink & over-analyze.
You will make bad decisions on accident.
You will make bad decisions....that seem like the right ones.
You will trust people more than you should.
Then...you will not trust people enough.
You will have everyone and their momma....& sometimes their daddy...tell you how to do things.
People will criticize you.
People won't get you.
You could drift away from friends.
You could lose friends.
You will gain friends.
God WILL put the people in your path that are needed to carry out HIS missions.
You will LEARN things about yourself....that you just flat didn't know.
You will LEARN things about things that you didn't even know existed.
You will LEARN things about EVERYTHING!
You will do & accomplish & experience things you NEVER thought were even a possibility.
You will GO ON THE JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME...YOUR journey!
It will get complicated....BUT...if you REMEMBER TO PAUSE & PRAY....the clutter will just peel away.
You will prosper.
You will shine.
You will touch lives.
You will change lives.
You will transform into who God is calling you to be.
You will begin to break the boundaries you have up that keep you small....and it will be A LOT of FuN!

For me...the MOST REWARDING part of ALL of this, is that: I am slooooooowly LEARNING how to ACCEPT God's grace over my life, and that JESUS carried EVERYTHING that is holding me back RIGHT NOW...to the cross. He has SAVED ME from it! What I toil & worry about is on me...because it is not of God.  I INVITE The Holy Spirit to MOVE & WORK in my life & ask that He nudge those who interact & work with me, in ANY capacity.

I'm in the mood for GRATITUDE :).... To end this post, in this moment....I think I am the MOST thankful that I can look at my children...& tell them to pray, and when they pray LISTEN...to whatever their inner self is telling them, BUCK UP (no matter how long it takes) & step out in FAITH, & SAY YES to what every instinct in you is telling you to do (not your logical thinking head ;)). Those instincts are gifts & no matter what...THANK GOD. Give it ALL to Him. Praise Him in the rain & praise Him in the sunshine.

Buck Up Baby & Ride With Jesus! It'll be the ride of a lifetime!

Jesus Mourned...

A young girl in our community...Emily Fritsch...fourteen & vibrant, passed away a few days ago. It was sudden & unexpected. As a community, we find ourselves mourning for her parents & for ourselves. We ask all the questions of WHY?? We don't understand. We get upset with God. We don't feel safe. We hurt and question on levels we maybe haven't yet.

A friend of mine shared some of his thoughts & feelings he was experiencing, once he heard the news. The link is here: Jesus Wept: A proclamation in grief. It references John 11, where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Please read it: John 11:1-44. Lazarus is the brother of Martha & Mary Magdalene. He was out teaching and was sent word, by Martha & Mary, that Lazarus was sick. When he heard, Jesus's words were: "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." He stayed 2 days longer. Martha & Mary ran to Him when he arrived ultimately saying that Lazarus would still be alive, if He had been there. He told Martha that he will be alive again, but she could not understand what He was telling her. She thought He meant at the resurrection. Then when Mary came, and the Jews that were comforting her, Jesus saw how deeply troubled she was. Scripture tells us: "When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled." - John 11:33. Then a couple verses later we know: "Jesus wept." - John 11:35 

Jesus goes on to raise Lazarus, after already having died & the burial rituals performed. I remember when I meditated on this story a while back I thought....Why did Jesus weep? He knew that Lazarus was okay. He knew that He would raise him from the dead. He knew that He would give comfort to Martha & Mary. Why did he weep?

I believe He wept because He was mourning with them. This story of the Bible shows that Martha and Mary did not have the ability to fully understand what He was telling them. There isn't anything He could say that would cause them to understand, because of the limitations of their flesh. There were things that He could not share with them. He knew that they had to experience what they were experiencing. There was no other way...& JESUS MOURNED with them. He mourned because they had to suffer. It doesn't mean He liked it, but He knew it had to be, to get to something greater. We live in a world of sin. We are broken, BUT we WILL be restored in the name of Christ Jesus, in the appointed time. Sin will not win. We are all where we need to be. 

I never met Emily, yet her life, her death, & the deep mourning of those that new her, has affected me & many others SO deeply. As we continue to mourn the loss of this young life, I have been SO thankful for the community we live in. This picture was taken at the high school I graduated from & the same school my daughter attends. In tragedy the amazing & powerful gift of The Holy Spirit weaves us all together in love & support & suffering. We suffer together. 

Right after satan entered Judas & he left to condemn Jesus to death.... Jesus said to His disciples: "'My little children, I shall not be with you much longer.'" - John 13:33 He was speaking to the very men that walked and experienced life with Him. We are not made to understand what is to come. He goes on to ENCOURAGE them & He says: "By this love you have for one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples." - John 13:35

He has us in such a BIG & MAJOR way. As we mourn, we also THANK GOD for the blessing of this beautiful life that has touched & CONTINUES to touch so many. 

I ask that anyone who reads this, keep the family & soul & spirit of Emily Fritsch in your prayers. I can only imagine the wrestling that they are experiencing. The Holy Trinity is with them, with us, with Emily &...although it hurts...we shall not fear, for He is with us. Say a prayer for everyone that is mourning a tragedy.

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace." - Ephesians 6:12-15

THIS LINK CAN HELP DIRECT YOU ON HOW TO MAKE A CONTRIBUTION TO A MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND SET UP IN HER NAME.