Hi Friends! Can you believe that it's already nearing the end of February and March is soon coming up? Another year is speeding by. It still amazes me how that happens. Being here I have begun to understand what the Lord means when He says "A day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day" to Him. As you know, no, it doesn't mean that each day of creation actually meant a thousand years each. It bugs me when I hear people say that; if that were true then the Lord certainly wouldn't have taken the time to make it clear that there was evening and night and it was the first day.
It just means that time has no meaning to the Lord! That's why when He says "Soon", it could mean tomorrow OR 1,000 or 2,000 years from now! LOL! He teased me once about this. Our Lord has a sense of humor, believe you me (otherwise there wouldn't be such a thing as a sense of humor, seeing as how we were created in His image in every way.) In reading the scripture, I noticed that often, when Jesus said, "In a little while..." it meant it would be happening very soon. But when He says, "Soon..." it's something that won't be happening for a while (at least in our idea of time.) And one day I was asking the Lord about when something would be happening in my life and I heard, "Soon..." and I said, "But Lord! That could mean 1,000 years!" Then I heard, "In a little while" and knew He was smiling and teasing me. So funny.
Anyway, I've begun to understand that time doesn't really mean anything to the Lord, because time is IN the Lord. I read in the book The Attributes of God by A.W. Tozer an analogy about this (but I think he may have taken the analogy from C.S.Lewis, not sure): Imagine a blank sheet of white paper, and draw a line about 3 inches long. Think of God as the paper and the line as time. Time is in God and doesn't affect God. I like that analogy. That's why a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day.
And literally a day can feel like a thousand years, and a thousand years (not that I've lived that) can feel like a day. Also, stories I've read of people who've been taken to heaven, time flew by in heaven and they would be there for hours, days, years etc. while it would be only minutes or an hour or so here on earth. Though sometimes the time was exactly the same. I think that's so interesting. I say all this just to say that in the atmosphere I'm in, some days feel like a year, but I've been here for a year and it doesn't feel like it. And now we're already in March. I may have already talked about this before because I'm always so amazed at how much time has flown by. I mean, I can hardly believe that I'm 27 years old already! AH!
So, what's been going on with me so far this year? Well... school... prayer room... school... prayer room... more school. I'm enjoying this semester better than last semester, but I wish I was in the prayer room more. People on staff, internships or school are scheduled for 24 hours of prayer room a week and also have full time job aside from that; but in the Music Academy our "Harp & Bowl" labs, in which we learn how to run a prayer room, lead worship etc (Harp and Bowl is taken from Rev. 5:8, harps meaning worship & bowls meaning the prayers of the saints) are included in our prayer room time, because we are literally doing the prayer room. And I like that; if they didn't do it that way, our schedule would so full we wouldn't have time to eat (sometimes that's true even now.) The labs still don't feel the same as being in the Global Prayer Room itself, though, so I wish I were in the prayer room more.
I told a friend that I would love to be in the prayer room all day almost every day and she said, "You're an Anna!" I thought that was really neat because I never thought of myself as an "Anna" before, and it's such a great honor to be called an "Anna"!
If you're not sure who I'm talking about:
Luke 2:36-37
"Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity. and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day."
This is one biblical example of what we do here. The Lord counted her worthy to see the Lord before her death and to prophesy over Him to others. She loved the Lord so much and wanted Him so much that she wouldn't leave the place of meeting. She wanted His presence. She longed and mourned for Him with fastings and prayers 24/7. At this moment, I don't really feel fully like an Anna; but I would love to be an Anna. I long for Him and desire Him with all that I am; but not enough. The more I long for Him, the more I realize I don't love Him enough. I want to love Him more! He is worthy of my all!
Anyway, school is going pretty well. I'm taking a theology class called, "Basic Christian Beliefs." It's good; but it's only a quarter of a semester long and we have two papers due at the end. We have to read a 436 page book called Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe by: Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears. I really like it but I'm not even halfway through it yet and I have to be writing a paper on it! I would recommend reading this book. It's really good. Each chapter goes through the beliefs that ALL Christ Followers should believe. It also addresses different perspectives here and there on issues that don't affect our salvation or cause us to believe false doctrine. For example, the Bible says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." (Gen. 1:1) It doesn't tell us how long the earth was "without form and void" before He said "Let there be light" and there was the first day. The original Hebrew doesn't depict a certain amount of time for that verse. So, it's possible that the earth was here without form and void for many, many years before He continued creating; or He created the heavens and the earth on the first day, as well as created day and night all on the first day. We just don't know! What we DO know is that Genesis takes out any possibility of believing in evolution. They address that in the book. Like I said it's very good. =)
In my harp and bowl labs, I've been singing and playing guitar. I've been switching back and forth; although I am the only guitar major on my team! But the other day, I got to play bass for the first time ever. I was really excited. (Next I want to play electric guitar.) I thought it was so cool and funny that I was playing bass that I couldn't stop laughing initially. The first song we played, I didn't realize that the chords on my sheet weren't the right chords for the song, so half of the song I was playing in E, but everyone else was playing in B. haha. I remember thinking, something sounds wrong, but I don't know what!
Thankfully, our regular bassist figured it out and told me. I sounded better after that... for a while at least. The last song we played I asked our leader if we were playing in "D", she thought I said, "C" and so she said "yes." So, I played the entire song in D while everyone was playing C! HAHAHAHAHAHA. This time nobody noticed. I thought it sounded off every time I played D, but, yet again, didn't know why because I had (supposedly) been told that we were playing in D. Even with all those mistakes, many people told me I did a great job, and I hope to play bass again soon.
That's my funny story of the month.
Now, I would like to share a major revelation the Lord gave me recently. I hope that you're as much undone by it as I have been. I have been getting Theophostic ministry (If you'd like to see a website on this here's a link: Theophostic Site ) Basically, it's a kind of inner healing prayer ministry. Recently, I've been having a few relational problems with someone in my life so that was one of the things we talked about in my last session. I was mainly discussing how frustrated I have been and how I feel like I'm almost incapable of responding correctly to the situation and other issues that get me really upset with myself even more than the other person.
So, we were asking the Lord what He thought about the situation and about all the things I was saying about myself. I had just been saying what an awful person I am- unloving, mean, unkind etc. and do you know what the Lord said? He said, "Yup, you are being all those things." I couldn't help but laugh when I heard Him say that. But He went on to say, "But that's who you are in your flesh. That's not your true self. That's not who I created you to be and that's not who you are in Me." And then He went on to affirm who I am in Him, it was a long list that made me weep. After that He said (To those who have ears, let them hear,) "You have been focusing on [this person's] imperfections and it has only caused you to walk in your own." !!!!!!!!
My two ministers and I both went, "Woooooooah" after He said that. It was intense and I felt undone. The more we focus on another person's imperfections the more we walk in our own; or if we focus on our own imperfections we walk in them! What you behold you become! I've heard that principal many times since coming here, but I've never applied it in that way. So, He went on to tell me the only way for me to walk in perfection (for He said, "Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect" Matt 5:48. But we can only walk in perfection in the amount of light He has given us) is that I have to keep my focus on Him; focus on His qualities and speak out & believe who others are IN HIM.
This was an amazing revelation for me and I felt that I should share it. It is something I hope to hold onto for the rest of my life; for all my relationships. And, I'll be married... soon... so I'll need to remember it for that I'm sure. I'd like to think that my marriage will be perfect, but I know better than that. LOL.
Many blessings to you all!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment