1 Month Marker

  

Saturday the 24th marked 1 month I’ve been living in Australia.

As expected, the number of adjustments and changes I would encounter were many. I spent the first 2 weeks here in a hotel, well actually 2 different hotels. The first one couldn’t extend my stay, so I had to move. 

It didn’t really feel like I was settling into my new life because of the whole hotel stay and my home situation being unknown. In the midst of that, I was beginning to attend college, get used to walking everywhere, and plead with the Lord to miraculously adjust my body and hair to the tropical humidity. (Still waiting on that miracle by the way…😳)

Trying to rent and get settled into a new apartment took a little time and some efforts in organization with opening an Australian bank account, getting an Aussie phone number and getting my documents together for an application. I also had some work to do outfitting an apartment. Not having a car meant coordinating with college and new friends to give me a ride and help get items into my apartment. 

I had the privilege of spending a few hours with some very kind (and strong) 

young men who helped me. 

We even had an expert level Ikea assembler who is from Sweden and could tell us what the names of the products meant!👀

As faithful as the sun is to rise, so is God in providing and going before me. 

I have a lovely place to live that exceeds any need I have and is completely a gift from the Lord.

I’ve got a running list of things where I see God working and growing me. There are so many new experiences and rhythms of life to get used to, so much daily surrender. For instance, I have never lived alone, and I have never not had a car. There are benefits of getting a sabbatical from regular life, the rest from the usual busyness of home life. However, much like everything else that sounds like a dream, there’s a honeymoon period and then the new shininess wears off and you settle into reality. 

My schedule is fairly easy, I have Wednesday as my 1 big day of classes from 8:30am till 5:15pm, otherwise, just an hour or so on Tuesday morning and 3 hours on Thursday. 

My apartment is about an 8–10-minute walk from church and school, which are situated together separated by a parking lot. Being in school again after so many years was a challenge to my mindset, planning for homework time etc. I just needed a couple weeks of just doing it to gauge what my pace would be. 

One of the things God is working on in me is time management. Having been in a lifestyle where things were relaxed to now having a certain schedule every day, there were some adjustments that occurred regarding my morning routine. I may or may not have run for the first time in a decade in order to make it to class on time….😬

I have a wonderful group of ladies that adopted me right away. I may have looked a little new and lonely my first Sunday at church…but these ladies didn’t waste any time in becoming my friends. They’ve been great helping me shop for household items and getting them back to my apartment, sharing a meal, and just overall encouragement to me as I embarked on this new lifestyle. 

There are so many little things I take for granted at home in Michigan. Like the ease of getting groceries, getting bigger household items into the house, and going places when the weather is not ideal. Walking is good for my body and soul, and is how I planned to get around, as well as using public transit. I’ve been exhausted at bedtime after all the mental adjustments and physical changes this past month!

The good and praiseworthy report is that God is incredibly faithful and so generously kind. I have had so many conversations and experiences that are clearly from Him. Church is always a tender place for me. God has worked some major growth in myself and my family through this wonderful church and their music, so I am reminded of that whenever I enter the sanctuary. Regardless of how hard a day may be, I have full faith that He has called me here for this season. 

The personal growth and opportunities I am having to give encouragement to others based on redeeming work God has already done in me is clear proof. Ephesians 2:10 says “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them”, and I am seeing that worked out before me each day.

I have some ideas of why God has called me here, especially this time in my life. However, He surprises me constantly with hidden blessings He’s prepared for me in advance. It shouldn’t be a surprise anymore, after all I have seen Him do. It still causes me to feel overwhelmed with gratitude that God would see me and my little details and bless me in the most kind and tender ways to prove that He sees and is with me.

I wake up with daily expectation for seeing something great! This church’s focus for the lent season is 40 days of devotion. What I chose to do during that is to give up a bit of sleep early in the morning and to begin my day on my knees in surrender and worship. 

The song I use each morning is an old hymn called “Take my Life” that’s been redone by Chris Tomlin. You have no idea what that small action can do to change a person until you try it. The song goes through each part of a person; take my mind, take my lips, words, hands and feet, intellect and love. I pray through the song each morning, and this sets up my day. 

Each morning God is faithful to meet with me there.

One month has gone by fast, but slow at times too. I miss my husband, family, and pups so much that if I give any mind-space to dwell on that the tears are immediate, so close to the surface. 👉

God is tender and gracious to hold and carry me through that as well. I am very much learning how to rely on Him for my each and every thing.

My Year of Devotion in Australia

Why would a married woman and mother of 4 adult kids go away for a year to Australia? Never mind that year long concept… Australia! About as far away as you can go!

I am doing a reboot of my blog and using it to document this epic year before me, and so if you’d like to have updates and follow my journey you can subscribe and get email notifications when I post.

A quick snapshot into our current family situation- Chip and I have been married 25 years, going on 26 this September. Chip is an owner at the firm he’s been at for more than 22 years. Our oldest son James is married to Alexia, they met in Australia at Hillsong College. They are now living back home in Michigan. James is about to finish his degree and begin his fulltime career in public accounting. Alexia is fast becoming the best saleswoman David’s Bridal has seen! Lizzie is engaged to be married this summer to Brian, he is such a wonderful match for our Lizzie. 💖 She is also finishing her degree and flourishing in a tax internship. Charlie works full time in concrete and is starting to drive the trucks too. 

We’re so proud of his dedication and hard work. He’s quite a catch for any young woman! Baby Grace is in college full time and working. She’s got a servant’s heart and we are so looking forward to how God will grow her into the woman He’s created her to be. Last but certainly not least, is my 3 fur babies! Sassafras, Ducky, and Huckleberry are 3 Vizsla’s that have a large piece of my heart.

So that leaves me. As you can imagine, raising a family over these years, working parttime and full time some years, sometimes so busy with sports and school schedules I could hardly see straight has been a very full life so far. That brings us to the question of what on earth am I doing going to Australia for a year?!

To start at the beginning would be too long a story, and maybe over time I can share it throughout this journey. However, what I can do is build a timeline of sorts.

So I suppose for me, it might’ve began 25 years ago. I was a very young, pregnant mom-to-be back then, when I first heard Hillsong’s "Shout to the Lord". God often uses music to speak to me, to comfort my heart and lead me to Himself. This song was a catalyst to that. That baby I was pregnant with is James. He went to their college for 3.5 years. This is a blog about my faith struggle to send him.

We can fast forward several years, close to 8 years ago now, we found ourselves in a crisis. I don’t want to bury this post in that whole story, you can find some of that in my post archives in the beginning of my blog

However, that’s where this whole thing began with Hillsong Church’s influence in my walk with God. As most know, they are well known for their music. Their church has been around for more than 30 years and their leadership college has been for over 20 years. They expanded beyond their own little corner of the world into a worldwide superpower of good for the Kingdom of God. He mightily blessed them and I would even say that when I’ve been in their home church building, the presence of God is palatable!

Eight years ago, in that marriage crisis we were in, I spent some serious time in sorrow and at times it was deeply oppressive. My husband would come lay over me, pray, read scripture and he started to play Hillsong worship music. In that peaceful moment, God chased away the darkness I was in and healed my heart. We began to look more into who they were, the church and services we could watch online. It was such a source of encouragement in my restoration time that it became regular. From that, came the strong leading for James to go to the college. It was a big battle of faith for me. At the time, there was no way to go see him, I had no passport, and certainly not extra cash to take that kind of trip. In my tiny seed of faith I mustered, God grew an incredible tree of opportunity!

Hillsong has several conferences they do over the course of a year, all focused on growing people to live for Christ and to grow leaders in the Christian community to spread the gospel and lead well. During James’ time there, God did a lot of blessing and changing in our family. He grew Chip’s work practice tremendously, we got passports and began traveling. Among the first trips Chip took for a business conference was to Sydney just 2 short months after we sent James. Then God made a way for me to go 6 months later! 

The first visit that July had a big impact. I was completely taken off guard by the deep the sense of “home” I felt inside the church building. I knew the spiritual academic stuff, that being among fellow believers and in a church building can give you the “my people” feeling. This was different. So much stronger and pulling.

For the sake of brevity, I’ll just say that God’s blessing grew far past anything we had hoped or dreamed for, and the continual strong pull to go to Sydney just grew. I had the privilege to go 7 total times, each one attending a conference. In November 2019, Chip and I were there together, he at a work conference and me for visiting. We attended church Sunday morning, and there was an ad that played for the college. The line that caught my attention was “Give God a year of your life and see what He will do”. It sounded amazing! A year of solely devoted to seeking Him, studying and resting from all my normal life things. However, completely unrealistic and outside of the realm of possibility for me.

Or so I thought.

While I was thinking it was unrealistic, the Lord was impressing on my husband’s heart that he needed to send me there for a year. Chip later told me about what he thought the Lord’s leading was, and my first reaction was very much doubt and disbelief. How could this be possible? To leave my family and my whole life for a year? The cost of supporting an entirely separate life in another country was daunting and seemed ridiculously extravagant. Chip felt the Lord’s leading on timing was to be after my youngest graduated from high school. So we continued to pray and we waited.

When March 2020 happened, we had to bring James and Alexia home, leaving behind an unfinished degree for both. I was in Australia at the time, at the women’s Colour Conference. While we were in the last Sunday evening service together, we were waiting for God to fully confirm what we were dreading. We asked Him to confirm to us as a collective little group that we needed to bring James and Alexia home right then because of the covid scare happening and closing of borders. God did indeed answer and confirmed for us that we needed to. I was very sorrowful because I knew how big this whole college experience had been and that it was cutting it short. I also knew that if they left right then it was quite possible that whenever the Lord planned to send me here, that they wouldn’t be here anymore. I really did not like this plan. We had all sorts of things worked out in our minds of how it would look if I were to come to college. Besides bringing the kids home right then, I got one clear message from God- “Will you still obey Me? Will you still come?”

As we got through the tremendous year of change in 2020, I began to have real doubts if college for me would ever happen. We rolled into 2021, and there was a small glimmer of hope that borders would open, but as December approached, hope was lost. 

Until December 20th, when God spoke to me on the way to church.

I was just driving along, singing worship music and praying a bit when this very loud and strong sentence popped into my head. “It’s time, I want you to go now, the January intake for college”. First of all, this is nothing I ever would’ve come up with on my own. I didn’t know the borders had opened to students yet. As it turned out, they had opened 3 days prior! I was still questioning, wanting to have a strong confirmation before I voiced out loud what I thought I heard. I went home after church and was by myself for a while, so I took the opportunity to pray more about this. I put on a sermon from my church that I hadn’t heard yet, to have on in the background. It turned out to be my confirmation. One of our pastors, Tom, was preaching out of Genesis 12- the Abraham and Sarah obeying God and going to a distant land chapter. At first, I thought well it’s just coincidence because our church is doing a series through Genesis and it just happened to be that chapter. However, when my pastor leaned towards the camera and said “Is God asking you to do something right now? Is there something you need to obey God on right away?” I then acknowledged this was not a coincidence but my confirmation I asked for.

In upcoming posts I will share more regarding the struggles of actually getting into the country. But for now, you can see that I am indeed here, I did obey, and my mind is heavy with anticipation for what God has called me here for. 

One thing is for certain. It is a year wholly devoted to Him.

The Study Bible for Women

One of my favorite book reviews to do is of Bible translations and ones that include study guides! It used to be that we’d have to buy all sorts of other resources to study scripture deeper and to get historical information or commentary.

Inside this new CSB Women’s Study Bible, so many wonderful articles on doctrine and biblical womanhood, historical information, and 101 character profiles on women of the bible are included. As a matter of fact, every woman in Scripture is listed in the concordance.

As a woman, I appreciate that the publishers had women theologians, authors, teachers and lay ministers as the primary contributors in the articles written and study materials provided.  It encourages me to continue in my own study and pursuit of biblical knowledge.

Many of the articles highlight biblical womanhood, a trait not promoted enough, but very God honoring. Many necessary topics identified and addressed within the realm of “what does God say”, such as female identity, motherhood, spiritual mothering, women’s worth and identity in Christ, and her mission as daughter of the King.

The CSB translation, (stands for Christian Standard Bible) has used the Optimal Equivalence translation philosophy. This is a marrying of the more traditional Formal equivalence and the Dynamic or Functional equivalence. This means that is has taken both the word for word literal translations and the “thought for thought” style of communicating the meaning and impact of a passage to translate. This has produced a very readable, but historically faithful style of bible translation.

This compilation opens with an introduction on how to study the bible. Dorothy Kelley Patterson highlights how to inductively observe, ask questions, view passages as a whole and then how to apply and meditate on Scripture. 

This Bible closes with an extensive explanation section for all of its teaching helps as seen here and an expansive concordance.

You can find this bible at Lifeway Christian bookstores, on their website, and on Amazon

Why do we Sing? ~ A book review

What causes you to burst out in song?

Do you have a swell of school pride and belt out your 

Alma Mater?

At our favorite sporting events, do we whoop and holler along 

with the rest in celebration?

What is this within us that causes us to have a rise of emotion that bubbles up and out of our mouths in a joyous melody?

Ever consider that it's a part of your very essence, part of the basic foundation of who you are as a human?

In their book, SING!, Keith and Kristyn Getty delve into why we sing, how singing changes our lives and where it comes from in our souls. In their second chapter, they identify that there are more than 400 scripture verses that say we are not only created to sing by a creative God, but also commanded to sing, that it is an act of obedience and worship.

More so than just singing in general, they focus in on the Church and how we sing together. They share that "It is hard- impossible, in fact - to sing what you are excited about in your spirit and grateful for in your heart in a way that is tepid, tentative, and withdrawn. Deeply felt thankfulness produces a sound from our voices that is robust and enthusiastic."

In many places in our world including our churches, somehow we've completely misplaced our robust  enthusiasm for singing, or singing with deep conviction with quiet apathy. Not one of us feels awkward or embarrassed when we cheer loudly for our kids or at a sporting event. As a matter of fact, we feel the air of camaraderie or belonging when we join the throng of voices. However, in many churches it's being discussed that we've lost our vigor for worshiping God Almighty.

The Getty’s have written a compelling and inspiring call to action! This book kicks off with an impressive 10 pages of rave reviews from many Christian leaders and singers from all walks of life. They’ve designed the format to even be a group discussion or small group study book with a few focus questions at the end of each chapter. At the back, they've written a section for pastors, worship leaders, song writers and creatives as well.

In the chapter “The Radical Witness When the Congregation...Sings!”, the authors talk about how “the sight and sound of a congregation singing praise to God together is a radical witness in a culture that rejects God and embraces individualism. Our songs are the public manifesto of what we believe.”

Contrasting that with the opposite type of witness that a visitor noted at one church saying “that what they were singing was either not true, or not wonderful or both.”  She questioned whether the people really took seriously what they believed or even believed it at all.

The charge given to us first by God in the Bible and echoed in this book is that we are a witness to the world and our singing is one way the world detects that we are different. The conviction that ought to be in our hearts over what Christ has done for us should be something that can’t help but to bubble up out of us when we worship Him in song. I cannot imagine passively sitting to sing the words “This the power of the Cross..Christ became sin for us..took the blame, bore the wrath...we stand forgiven at the cross!” or “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty!”

It ought to be more like- He is Worthy of all my praise and all my expression, how can I not? If it pleases the Lord that I act a fool in my worship of Him, then I hope I can be counted among bible characters such as David who danced in the streets!

I highly recommend this book for everyone, especially worship leaders at churches. 

This book can be found on Amazon 

Forcing the appointing of your anointing

Do you feel anointed but that somehow you’ve missed the appointing?

If you think you are meant for the platform, writing the next best seller, or speaking life giving words to thousands but can’t handle taking your turn in the church nursery, you might have a problem.

If you are in the throes of motherhood and know you possess gifts that you sense God is going to use publicly one day, but can’t teach your children of Christ, you might have a problem.

If you are waiting for God to place you in front of the multitudes to teach but aren’t giving your best to leading a small bible study, you might have a problem...

In our Christian-ese, we use words like “anointed” and “appointed” to speak of the moment when God chooses us for some special calling and sets us into that place.

2 Corinthians 1:21-22 says “And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee” This is applicable to all Christians. We are all called to do something or be something in the body of Christ.

Scripture has several characters that provide a glimpse into that picture and provide some good understanding to the concept of being anointed and then being appointed.

David is a famous example in scripture of being chosen (anointed) by God. He was just a boy out in the fields with the sheep. He wasn’t significant enough in his father’s eyes to call him home when the priest Samuel came. Once Samuel passed by 7 of the 8 sons and God clearly told him that none of these young men were God’s chosen...Samuel had to ask if there was any other sons.... enter the boy David...

David did not walk into the kingdom and take the throne the day of his anointing. He went back to work...in the field. He lived with his father longer, as a child (who had just been chosen as the next King)

He was willing to obey, to follow the Lord and do menial tasks and later, great big tasks. 

He obeyed his father and brought food to his brothers on the front line of the war with the philistines.  His huge entry into spotlight was of course Goliath. 

What happened before that though?

He learned to lead by having herds of sheep to shepherd. Not glamorous, not an impressive place on a platform.

He watched over sheep, normally a dull time until he killed bears and lions... with no gun.... with his bare hands... (1 Samuel 17:34-36)

His character and strength were built in obscurity, alone with the Lord and quietly in the field. He was being prepared for one of his many momentous occasions, forever captured on the pages of scripture.

David didn’t become a full-fledged King until he was 30 years old (2 Samuel 5). Some scholars believe it was a 15 year wait.

His appointing came years after his anointing.

Do we feel that God has chosen us for something, anointed us for a special calling?

How patient are we? How much faith in the Lord do we have? Do we expect to be whisked away to the height of that calling immediately? Do we get impatient with God’s timing, wondering when He’s going to “make it happen”?

How about this.... do we force the outcome? Do we push and make things happen? Go out and find the way and commandingly step out into the calling we are certain God has for us right this very minute?

Ever hear the saying “God helps those who help themselves”?

This is not scriptural. We certainly have  to participate in the kingdom work, but it gets abused by telling us to pull up our bootstraps, to go out and make it happen!

Our example of what to do is in the Word of God. He gave us all these biblical characters and their stories to show us how to do it. Just because we aren’t herding sheep doesn’t mean we aren’t cleaning the house, or changing diapers or driving kids all over. None are glamorous, but they are a perfect breeding ground for character building.

God may have told you that one day you are meant for something... chosen, anointed. However, you have some time before that appointing happens. You typically do not appoint yourself, someone higher up appoints you.

What was David doing in the in between time? 

Still serving the Lord, it just looked different.

Sometimes it’s not a refusal to do the behind-the scenes work, but it’s just losing heart and being impatient.

Friend, God did not forget you. He didn’t forget that He chose you. He’s got you exactly where you are for a reason, your job is to listen to Him, surrender your will and find out what He’s got for you right in this moment. Don’t miss the blessing of right now because your dreaming about the appointing.

Each day has a set allotment of mercy, grace and blessings, scripture says it’s new every morning. When that day is done, its gone.  You get a fresh new crop the next day, but you won’t get yesterdays.

Use this time you are in to grow your faith in the Lord, believe He will do what He says, and trust Him for the outcome! His timing is always far better than anything we can fabricate or force. 

Detours by Tony Evans ~ A Book Review

I am so grateful for getting the opportunity to read Detours by Tony Evans. This book grabs your attention and shouts “HEY! This is for you right now!”

Detours is a book about how God ordains the pathways of our life, leading us to exactly what He has for us. Detours in life don’t appear to be good or desirable, they annoy us and make us want to give up.

Tony Evans makes an excellent case for staying the course and trusting God amidst your detours. He tells us the story of Joseph from the Old Testament. Joseph had many things go seemingly wrong for him. His life was a story of several trips through hardship from being in a literal pit having been rejected and sold by his own family into slavery, to later being in a jail cell for years because he was wrongfully accused.

However- God had a greater plan.

That’s the application for us. Our lives are not nice, neat, straight lines from point A to point B. We have trips down alleys, two tracking it down unpaved roads, pothole-filled roads under construction and once and a while getting to experience that perfectly paved road without detours. The key is HOW you walk through the detours in life.

On page 91, Tony says “One of the reasons some of us haven’t gotten off our detour is we are still too self-sufficient. We still feel like we can handle it ourselves. We think we know the right people, or have the right money, or even work the right job. We think that because of our own hookups, human abilities, talent, contacts, or even our own resources- that if we just toss a prayer on top- we can get to where we want to go.”

“It doesn’t work that way. God doesn’t work that way.”

This book came at such a great time for me personally. It was confirming to where God had been leading me in my own life and encouraged me to stay the course and trust the Lord to continue to lead me one step at a time.

I loved the alliteration Evans used in his chapter titles. There are 16 small, easy to read chapters beginning with “The Purpose of Detours” and ending with “The Path of Detours”.

He does such a good job explaining how sometimes our detours have the appearance of evil. That God takes what was intended for evil purposes and turns it into something good that glorifies Him and puts you further on the path to your purpose in life. “Evil. God. Good.” is the pattern of many detours. You can’t get to the good without it starting bad and God intervening. If we constantly try to be in the way, manipulating things and try to work it out ourselves, we will stay on that detour for a longer time than if we had surrendered our will to God’s perfect will.

Tony Evans will give readers the answers to several crucial questions that many of us have in life.

• “How do you find the destiny God has designed for your life?”
• “How can you make the most of the detours God has planned for you?”
• “Is there a way to shorten a detour and speed up your progression in life?”
• “What is the purpose of a detour?”

I am so grateful to Dr. Evans for writing this book, it was so timely for me. I also want to thank B&H Publishing for the opportunity to review this great book.

You can get your own copy by visiting http://detoursbook.com/ or Amazon

When we expect God to choose from our multiple choice options

How often when we pray do we give God multiple choice or ask Him to give us an answer on “either this or that”? It’s like playing a card game with God asking Him to choose from only the options you’ve presented Him with. 

We forget that God exists outside of time and knows the exact perfect will and plan for our lives.

Romans 8:26 says “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too 

deep for words;”

So often we use prayer as a second choice or even last resort after we’ve come to end of ourselves and what we can do. By the time we take it to prayer, we are desperate, especially desperate for the exact outcome we desire.

By the time we pray about something,  we are so desperate for it to have the exact outcome we desire that  we forget that God’s will might be different than what we want.

We are flawed, imperfect human beings. That also means that our prayers are flawed. We ask selfishly, or incorrectly without knowing the whole story like God does. That is why He tells us that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, praying spiritual groanings too deep for words.

Have you ever felt so deeply for something you were praying about that all you could do was cry, lay in silence or just repeat the same words over and over? The Holy Spirit takes our heart cry and delivers it to the throne room of heaven.

The amazing thing about God and prayer, is even when we don’t quite ask right, or our motives are wrong, He answers in the best, most perfect way because He knows our hearts and also knows what is best for us in His perfect will. Matthew 7:11 says "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” and also Psalm 145:9 “God is good to one and all; everything he does is suffused with grace.”

My husband and I had an experience with this. We were praying about my employment. We had several factors contributing and not the least of which was making sure we could afford our 4 teenagers and that we felt called to give to our church’s building project. I was working and the current life circumstances were pushing me towards leaving that job for another. However, through prayer we had no peace. We kept praying and asking God for an answer regarding the two options. We only prayed about those two though. God did not give clear direction on either option.

After a couple of months, we sought some counsel and on the way there asked God to speak through the Pastor we were meeting with to provide us with an answer. Well…answer He did! Just not the way we expected at all!

I am now a stay at home mom and have been able to obey and follow God’s leading on several things that would’ve never happened if I was working all day every day. We also had to learn a fuller dependence on God and He has been faithful to open the heavens and shower us with blessings! It is clear as day that He gets all the glory for what has happened!

Isaiah 55:8-9 says “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

We have no idea what the future holds and what God’s perfect plan is. We can pray to the best of our ability, but we have to keep our hearts open to the possibility that He might answer off our multiple choice plan. I am so grateful that He answers the way He sees fit and not the way I see fit!