Safe Place

Oh how my soul longs to be here. To hear the silence of the world and let my soul run free. Oh how I long to listen to the waves crash against the coast, to feel the breeze in the air, and to feel closer to God more than any other place on earth. This is my safe place. The place I go to unwind and decompress. The place I long for. It's the place I feel at peace, the place where I feel warm, cozy, and free. Oh how my soul longs to feel the dew from the oceans mist. To feel the cleansing of my soul that only this place can bring. This is my escape, this is my oasis. Heaven is beyond my comprehension, but to me the ocean is a tiny glimpse of what He has for me in enternity. I desperately wish I was here, feeling the warmth of the sun on my skin and going to a place that I can process and cleanse, a place of restoration. This is where I feel and live His beautiful creations. To rest in my Heavenly Father. Oh how my soul longs to be here.

This is where my soul resides when it’s not out frolicking.

P.S. I love you

I am usually not one for sappy girly movies. Sure I like the occassional romantic comedy now and again but I don't rush off to see the latest "Chick Flick" I recently rewatched P.S. I love you for the millioneth time. This one just does it for me. There is something my souls connects to. I remember in the beginning of the movie just feeling like, wow this is really how Troy and I are at times. The first time I saw this movie, I truly was overwhelmed with emotions. I thought how many times I have had a disagreement with Troy over the silliest things. I can't imagine loosing him, I can't imagine trying to start a life without him in it. This movie just makes me think, it makes me appreciate and cherish my husband. There is so much raw, real emotion in this movie. But one thing it makes me know deep down inside of me....I will love Troy until I no longer live. LOVE YOU 'TIL THE END I just want to see you When you're all alone I just want to catch you if I can I just want to be there When the morning light explodes On your face it radiates I can't escape I love you 'till the end I just want to tell you nothing You don't want to hear All I want is for you to say Why don't you just take me Where I've never been before I know you want to hear me Catch my breath I love you 'till the end I just want to be there When we're caught in the rain I just want to see you laugh not cry I just want to feel you When the night puts on its cloak I'm lost for words don't tell me All I can say I love you 'till the end

Ode to Joy

It truly was an ode to the joy I felt in my heart. I walk into my parents house on Monday April 16, my 31st birthday. I had had a great birthday so far, nothing out of the norm, a good day at work and a great word from God at Soul Sister's that night. I had many wish me blessings, and make me feel special. The one thing I was most looking forward to that day had nothing to do with my birthday but everything to do with the two angels God has blessed my life with. I don't know what it feels like to be a mom, but I know how amazing, how blessed, how rewarding it is to be an AUNTIE and that night I just wanted to have those little arms wrapped around me, to see their smiles and hear their laughs. These two boys light up my heart, as do all of my nieces and nephews. Their is something about each of them that just overwhelms me with love.

Joshie ran to me and said Happy Birthday Auntie as he jumped in my arms. I gave him a big hug and kiss and told him this was the best birthday I could have, and he said if you think this is great just wait what I have for you, I am going to serenade you later with a song. Then comes Braeden aka Mini me and he jumps in my arms and I get to love on him too and wish him a happy birthday. I was just so content with being in the presence of these two little boys.

Later, after my mom got home, Josh got out his Violin (which he just started lessons on) and played Ode to Joy. It was beautiful and I was blown away with how good it was, how well he played knowing he was just learning. He did great and it was beautiful. It is moments like these that you will treasure forever. Those sweet tender moments, when kids melt your heart and really define ODE TO JOY.....

The Inheritance Session 9

The last Session to the Inheritance Studay by Beth Moore was amazing. I have learned so much through this study and know as I continue to process and reread the scriptures and my notes, God will have so much more to reveal to me. If you have a chance to participate in a group session for this study I would highly recommend it, if not I would do it on your own. Learning about our Inheritance and just how much God prepared for us will blow your mind. Be Blessed!!!

Confessions of an Heiress

God has made me an heir.
I am a real, live heir of God and co-heir of Jesus Christ.
Because I am a woman, technically, I’m an heiress.
The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed I have a beautiful inheritance.
As an heiress of God, my life is never left to chance.
As a member of the NT priesthood of believers and as an heiress of God, He is my portion…and I am His.
I am inheriting a kingdom
My inheritance can never perish, spoil or fade. It’s being kept in heaven for me.

 An inheritance is being kept for us in heaven.
 A huge deposit of riches really ought to wait until someone is mature enough to receive it.
 Time cannot affect our waiting inheritance.
 We were appointed to manifest Christ when someone insults us. We are to respond with blessing and to use our tongues to bless.
 When we choose to speak blessing instead of insult, God speaks a blessing over us.
 There is no greater value than committing someone who insults you to God and praying that God will give them their inheritance.
 Our inheritance changes the way we look at bad experiences.
 The one and only reason we have an inheritance is Jesus Christ.
 We are receiving an inheritance because someone did die.
 Jesus Christ left a will for us – the inheritance of the kingdom. He died to give it to us. He just didn’t stay dead.
 The earth will be completely redeemed under Christ’s authority.
 Life like the heiress that you know yourself to be!


When you have entered the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, take some of the first fruits of all that you produce from
the soil of the land the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name and say… “I declare today to
the LORD your God that I have come to the land the LORD swore to our forefathers to give us .… Now I bring the first fruits of the soil that You, O LORD, have given me.” Place the basket before the LORD your God and bow down before Him. And you and the Levites and the aliens
among you shall rejoice in all the good things the LORD your God has given to you and your household.

Deuteronomy 26: 1-4, 10, 11

The Inheritance Session 8 Notes

We are continuing with Session 8 of the Inheritance by Beth Moore…..
Wow, Monday night was so good. I am sad that so many of our table missed on Monday night. I hope that each of you will be able to attend the next three sessions and finish this semester strong. I highly recommend that if you weren’t there Monday night that you download the session. Our story focused on Lost things being found, and the Prodigal. Beth nailed some heavy truths about sin, mostly sexual sin but she came from such an honest and powerful place. This session really made me think about my past and how God is in constant Pursuit of me, how blessed are we that God cares enough to pursue us when we turn on Him.

• Sometimes something is more valuable to us when it’s lost than when it’s found
• At the end of our lives, we’re going to turn our inheritance back into Christ and then we’ll be given responsibility in Heaven
• We squander so much of the Father’s Property
• Various ways we squander (waste or scatter) our inheritance:
o By being too distracted to prioritize
o Bitterness
o Unforgiveness
o Feeling sorry for ourselves
o Not giving Jesus full authority- who’s in charge -> God ->Me -> God -> Me
o Carnality
• God promised that if you will be obedient to Him, no enemy will be able to stand against you, NO one can defeat you.
• If you are living in the will of God, we are never meant to experience defeat (you will have difficulties but not defeat) If you are being defeated you need to ask why and evaluate why:
o Innocently- you don’t know the scriptures well enough
o Disbelief in God and His promises and faithfulness
o Disobedience to God
o Sin ruling over you
o Enemy is on your land
• Your enemy does not have the right to defeat you. You are made more than an overcomer on each square inch of your land
• We can be victorious even if we are not perfect (FYI NO one is PERFECT)
• To be blameless means we don’t have sin ruling over us. We sin, but sin doesn’t have to rule over us
• Everyone misuses their God-given property at some point to some extent
• God, our Father is never without reaction to the misuse of His property
• You are an heiress of God!! Respect and value yourself!! Find out who you are.
• You can have a harvest on your land, all is not lost
• The chief goal of all godly chastisement is so that we can be healed. If we come between someone and their consequences and rescue them, we are rescuing them from their healing.
o God creates consequences for actions. He does so in order to woo a child back home. God appoints consequences and even enemy forces if necessary to woo a child home. The consequences are so that child came be healed. When you step in and try and rescue them before they meet that consequence, when you enable, or when you prevent the rock bottom moments, you are keeping them from their Healing!!
• God knows you can’t force someone’s heart back home- he doesn’t look or force- he just waits!!
• Very seldom do people make a huge or pivotal life change because they have hurt someone else. We are not wired to change to protect, save, and heal, out of love for someone else. It isn’t until we are scorched by our own sin that we will change
• True repentance is always earmarked with humility
• There will always be those who disapprove of or despise our restoration, whether among the family of God or enemy forces
• There is always going to be somebody who takes away our right to be forgiven.
• Repentance has to be authentic, has to radiate from the core of us, to our bones, knowing that no one can take it from you
• No weapon forged again you will prevail
• Part of our heritage is that we get to refute the tongue of the accuser
• I am forgiven. Back the heck off!!!!!
• In Jesus’ name, we are forgiven!! That is our heritage
• The prodigal is never more lost than when he/she thinks they are responsible for being found
• NEVER TWIST the parable into suggesting that it is better to be the prodigal than the faithful.

Sexual Sin Comment’s and Notes:
We all know, saved or not that sex outside of marriage is a SIN. Whether you truly believe it, it is not just some outdated ideology. Sex changes things, changes you, changes what you will or will not tolerate or accept in a relationship. Most relationships (non-marriage) that have abuse in them, they have had sexual relationship. We all (those who have sexually sinned) have felt the sting, the pain, the shame, etc from sex. How many times have you wished you have never slept with that person, or wish you never went there, or have wished you didn’t take sexual baggage into your marriage.
• Sexual sin- makes you bound to someone you aren’t supposed to be with. Sometimes you stay because you have had sex with them, knowing that they are the “HELLBOY” you aren’t supposed to be with.
• Sexual sin doesn’t work well
• If you are doing it, stop it, it will destroy so much of the fabric of your soul
• You will start feeling devalued- do not give away yourself so cheaply
• Have some dignity and act like the Heiress God created you to be
• People don’t treasure you because you don’t treasure yourself
• We have to repent, and accept this is who you were not who you are
Beth hit hard on this subject but she came from such a beautiful place. There wasn’t condemnation in her comments; there was love and compassion as someone who has felt the sting and the torture in the purest form of this sin. She encouraged woman to see their worth in Christ, and recognize no matter how much we try to make sex outside of marriage a NON-SIN it is. And it is a sin that has the power to destroy, tear down, devalue, disrespect, damage, numb, scar, you. It is so personal and so emotional and it truly was designed by God for good and for pleasure within marriage. If you struggle in this area pray that God will guide you with this sin, that he will soften your heart to recognize what it is and what it does. That he will reveal to you his purpose and plan for you in this area and lead you to repentance and forgiveness. Pour this at the feet of Jesus and know that you have sisters who have been in your shoes, who have sought the Lord and found freedom, forgiveness and cleansing of the wounds. This is a hard topic, it is one we all try to avoid but ladies it is the one sin that can cause so much pain in your life and so much distance between you and God. I personally am here to talk and to share my walk and journey with being a prodigal and the moments when God ran to me and pursued me.

Lifeline

Today I really thought about how people survive this life without God. I am left speechless. The trials that I have faced in my lifetime have broken me, shattered me, left me grasping for air. There were many times when I felt like there wasn’t a reason to go on, or I couldn’t survive. Even when in the Wilderness, even when I was a prodigal somehow God saw me through the good, the bad and the ugly. This past year has still left me grasping at times, it has left me doubting, angry, hurt, and overwhelmed but somehow God sees me through. I know that everything in my past God has used for His glory and for a purpose. The days of my brokenness he made sense of, He revealed to me how those things could be used for the greater good. On the days I have wanted to call it quits, the days when my body and emotions can no longer endure, God is there. I am so grateful to have a Heavenly Father that quiets the storms, that calms those raging seas. I am grateful that when I feel crippled and I feel as though I am suffocating I can bring all to His feet and somehow, someway I know I will be ok. This past year has been a beating, but I know that it all comes down to my Trust and my Control that God is seeking. The lessons of life are sometimes painful, the lessons sometimes make it hard to see that God is and was and will be. But I know that I survive, I continue to face each day because I trust and believe in the one who saves. Thank you Jesus for being my rock, my salvation, my saving grace. Thank you for being the strength when I am weak, the comfort to the emotions I can’t bear or comprehend, the love when I feel empty. Thank you for being the light in this dark world. I am so blessed to be His daughter and grateful that in weeks like this one, I have someone to lay it all out to and know He’s got me in his arms!!

The Inheritance Session 7

I missed actually attending this session and will be downloading the Session soon. My mother shared some notes with me that I thougth would be great to post. I will add more as soon as I have watched it myself.

• The spirit in us is our capacity to know God.
• God is our portion, and we are His
• The down payment made for us is God himself
• God continually prioritizes the internal work
• In the New Testament church, healing is often on the inside. His priority is what He does in the heart and mind of man
• You can be free of any kind of bondage because the Holy Spirit of God is in you
• You have divine power to overcome every single stronghold
• God’s huge priority in the New Testament church is that man is healed from the inside out
• Every single one of us in whom God has worked has a beautiful inheritance.
• Our spiritual gifts are the way that Jesus Christ becomes conspicuous in us
• A manifestation of the Spirit is when your deposit goes from the inside to the outside
• The fruit of the Spirit represents the personality of Christ, the spiritual gifts represent how He ministers to people
• We as Christians are the most gifted people on the planet
• We have confused humility with timidity
• If we are easily discouraged, we will never be profoundly used in this generation
• The enemy wants to know how quickly he can get you to quit
• Our giftedness is the result of the grace of God
• Your spiritual gifts were given to you, but not for you
• We are widely and profoundly gifted
• In all 3 segments teaching spiritual gifts, every single time Paul gives an exhortation to love
• If someone gets on your nerves, you need to pray to love them more
• Pray to love the body of Christ
• If you are a person who has a heart to love people, you will discover your spiritual gifts
• Don’t confuse your gifts with your talents
• Your gifting energizes you rather than exhausting you
• You will have a sense of “this is what I was made for”
• Don’t try to be something you aren’t
• Your spiritual gifts will work, they will have impact, will have influence
• Watch for the trap that will distort your spiritual gift into the flesh
• There is no amount of carnality, no amount of doing our own thin that will ever begin to match what life will feel like in our giftedness
• You have to have faith and patience to operate in maximum giftedness. Harvests grow over time

The world lost a beautiful rose

I never have understood death. As a Christian I really hate that about myself because I can't process things outside of this world. I truly want to find comfort in our loved ones and friends leaving this temporary home and going to spend enternity in Heaven. This is something to rejoice over, for our bodies aren't meant to be here long, and this is only the stopping place before going onto either greater or worse things.

My heart is saddened and full of questions. I feel a loss and it's as time stands still. I remember her smile and her laughter. I remember those conversations we had as we pondered the world and tried to find all the answers to everything that plagued us, everything that made us smile, try to fit the pieces of life together. She had a smile that lit up the world She had a contagious, fun, outgoing, lovable personality. She definitely was the life in any room. People saw such beauty and confidence in her, she just radiated. I got to see many of her emotions, good and bad. We got to battle through things together, cry and laugh together. People enter into our lives for reasons, they touch us in so many ways, yet on days like today I am sad that I didn't get the chance to tell her recently just how much she impacted my life.

Today I found out that a beautiful, contagious spirit left this world and is dancing in Heaven. Part of me wants to smile and rejoice, while the human in me is heartbroken. She will live on in the lives of all she touched and will be missed by so many. Until we meet again, my God's peace surround you Melissa. Love ya!!!




"The Rose"


Some say love, it is a river
That drowns the tender reed.
Some say love, it is a razor
That leaves your soul to bleed.
Some say love, it is a hunger,
An endless aching need.
I say love, it is a flower,
And you its only seed.

It's the heart afraid of breaking
That never learns to dance.
It's the dream afraid of waking
That never takes the chance.
It's the one who won't be taken,
Who cannot seem to give,
And the soul afraid of dyin'
That never learns to live.

When the night has been too lonely
And the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only
For the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter
Far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed that with the sun's love
In the spring becomes the rose.

Hmmm....

True safety only comes from a life hidden in the safe place of Christ
For when you are tired of coming up with a plan, might you be willing to simply come? I’ve thought a lot lately about this space created for souls to breathe and the true meaning behind it.
He will not come undone. He remains un-overwhelmable

Heart Tenderizer

This was in my devotional read for March 19, and I found so much in this that I needed to hear. Be blessed....

Heart Tenderizer


“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, Who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” 2 Cor. 1:3-4

Great trials produce big hearts. But to those who have never been knocked down, or who have not felt the woes of adversity, the heart is small and insensitive. Indeed, it is on the bed of affliction that human beings find themselves horizontal—looking up to the Lord in heaven. A plague of bad news will pass—leaving behind a righteous residue on all hearts softened by the Spirit.

Where does the core of comfort come from for a Christian? Our consolation comes from Christ, where there resides an eternal security that transcends all fiery trials. He wraps us up with His love, and with a fire resistant blanket of belief. Jesus replaces anxiety with peace, and fear with courage. He is a friend who flocks to a friend facing great loss, giving His loyal support. A heart grows tender and true under the loving influence of the Lord.

“Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the LORD.” 2 Chronicles 34:27

Ironically, the comforts of the world can crowd out the comfort of Christ. Our hearts can be so full of self-medication that there is no room for our Savior's intimacy. However, a humble heart is always on the hunt with spiritual weapons forged by faith. We go out of our way to be a blessing by serving behind the scenes. A tenderized heart stays moldable for its Master Jesus.
Above all, the green grass of grace grows best in a moist heart of humility. And it is grace upon grace that God gives you—to give to others. Grace extended to friends and foes alike helps them become like Christ. So, out of your softened heart, you comfort others for Jesus' sake. You are ready to birth comfort for others to enjoy, when your heart has been impregnated by Christ's consultation. Your tenderized heart is trustworthy to Jesus.

Lord, how can I apply Your tender touch to my heart, so I can be a conduit of comfort to others?

Related Readings: Joshua 22:5; 1 Samuel 10:9; Luke 1:78; Acts 15:8; Hebrews 4:12

Post/Tweet today: The green grass of grace grows best in a moist heart of humility. #grace #humility