Stepping Stones or Building Blocks

2 years ago today was the Great East Japan earthquake.  Japan is well known for seismic activity.  People were well prepared for that.  From the stories I've read and people I've talked to it appears that almost none of the deaths were attributed to the actual earthquake.  The vast majority of the deaths happened in the resulting tsunami the earthquake triggered.  The tsunami was larger than anything they had prepared for.  It smashed the breaker walls and swept away evacuation centers set in places assumed to be safe. 
So often when tragedy strikes or events happen that we aren't prepared for we blame God and build walls blocking Him out.  Bad things will happen, even to good people.  We live in a sinful world and it effects all of us.  Instead of allowing it to pull us away from God angry and hurt we need to praise Him more!  Romans 8:31-39 is one of my favorite passages.  It says:
³¹ What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
³² He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
³³ Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.
³⁴ Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
³⁶ As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
³⁷ Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
³⁸ For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
³⁹ Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 Nothing can separate us from God!  Nothing!! Unless we choose to look away, walk away, or turn away He will never leave us nor forsake us.  Instead of building walls we need to be using life experiences as stepping stones to fortify our path to Christ.  We need to remember God isn't the enemy but the ally.

Bread and water assured

I love home made bread.  Usually I put all the ingredients in my machine at night before I go to bed and set the timer so it's done just in time for breakfast in the morning.  For me, there is nothing better then fresh, warm bread with honey drizzled on it.  Yum!!
It also makes me feel so humbled and grateful to our amazing God the way He provides for us.  Throw some water, honey, butter, salt, oats, yeast and flour in my machine and almost like magic the next morning is a beautiful loaf of bread.  I'm fairly new to making bread so not every loaf comes out perfect, or rises well, but at least it's always edible.
 Living on a fixed income money gets very tight.  Yet I know without a doubt we will never go hunger.  God always provides.  The other days I thought we were out of food and had no way to buy anything.  However while searching the fridge and cleaning it out I found a handful of peppers and some other veggies. I also found $10 in my wallet.  So I went out bought a few ingredients and supper that night was bread, cheese, and veggies.  Full tummies and healthy foods!  God is so good.  Last night I found a bit of vital wheat gluten so I used this recipe Vegan Dad: Veggie Lunch Meat It is a great homemade vegan meat without all the additives and the price tag that comes from the store bought options.  I also have created a vegan cheese sauce that I use in place of cheese.  Now, we have lunch for today.  Day by day God never fails.
It is easy to say God will provide, but as humans we still tend worry and work find solutions on our own.  I can imagine the Widow of Zarephath felt this same worry and stress.  When Elijah asked her for some bread she told him she had just enough for one last meal for herself and her son.  A heathen woman, in the heart of Baal worshiping country.  Her god wasn't listening, he wasn't helping her.  She was ready to give up and die.  Yet God still knew who she was, and still loved her and wanted to provide for her.  Amazingly, this woman did as requested and made Elijah food first.  The Bible doesn't say she was rewarded for her faith with a suddenly full cruse of oil and jar of flour.  It simply states the jar wasn't used up and the oil never ran dry.  It still was an exercise in faith to trust that daily that they would have enough.  However that faith was all God asked for. 
Psalm 55:22 says "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken."
1 Peter 5:7 says "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." 
We serve a God of love, a God who is intimately involved in our daily lives and never leaves us alone.  How thankful I am for such a wonderful God!  

All in Perspective

When I was a child I spent a week every summer at summer camp.   I would always exchange addresses with new friends at the end of the week so we could write and stay in touch until the next year.  A few friends I stayed in contact with year after year.  As the time drew near for camp we would try to plan meeting at camp, getting in the same cabin, or into the same classes.  It wasn't easy.  Send a letter out, wait a week, get a letter back and repeat.  It always seemed to take "forever" to get a reply. There really wasn't much you could plan out anyway.  You didn't know who the counselors were ahead of time, so how could you plan which cabin to be in.  You could hope to have certain classes, but couldn't pick them out until you arrived to register and if your time was later in the day it might fill up. 
Now my daughter attend summer camp every year.  Enjoying the same youth camp I enjoyed.   Yet things have changed quite a bit.  Thanks to texting, facebook, and online registration my daughter now knows months in advance which cabin she's going to be in, who her counselor is and which classes she is going to take. Sometimes when she is in the planning stage with her friends she will get frustrated when someone doesn't text back right away. As if it could ruin the whole summer if she didn't get a response the same day! We have gotten so accustomed to this fast paced world with instant gratification.  It's no wonder so many grow weary of waiting for Christ's return and give up. 
Revelation 22:12 says "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done." Yet what is "soon"? People have been waiting for 2000 years for Christ to return. 
Hebrews 11 talks of the giants of faith and in verses 36-40 it says:
36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-- 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. 39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40 God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
None of them received what was promised, they died waiting for the promises given to them.  They died holding on to the faith of someday.  Can you imagine Adam and Eve, living for almost 1000 years watching the world degrade because of their mistakes, and yet still waiting for the promised coming of the Messiah? How can we, with such great examples not have the same fortitude to wait?  Whether it happens in our lifetime or not God promised to return and He will!! 
For me it gives new meaning to Isaiah 40: 31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint.  Being willing to be patient and wait for God's promises, trusting His timing to be perfect will strengthen us.  It'll renew us and give us the energy to keep pushing onward. Not just in waiting for His return, but in all promises He's given to us. We have to trust His plan, and His timing.  When we rush ahead or try to do what we can to help fulfill His promises often we end up stepping out of His plan.  Enjoy the day, enjoy the moment.  Instead of rushing to and fro take some time to stop and simply thank the Lord for what has been given you at this time. 

The Rock

In 1994 the International Pathfinder Camporee was held in Morrison, Colorado.  That was my first trip to Colorado and I knew in my heart this state would someday be home.  Since that trip I held onto a rock I picked up at Red Rocks amphitheater.  It was the paperweight on my desk or a dust collector with other knick knacks on the shelves.  A constant reminder of something God has shown me would happen someday.
Over the next 16 years life went on. I graduated high school, gave birth to my daughter 9 months later.  Got married and had 2 more kids.  We moved quite a bit, but never really left Michigan.  Then we were transferred to Japan and lived there for 3 years. 
In 2010 I filed for divorce from my husband and wanted to find a place to start over.  I was taking classes online at the community college of Denver so I took a look at the housing around Denver and quickly ruled it out because it was too expensive. Then the Lord intervened.  As I was trying to register for the next semester of classes nothing was working out.  They kept losing my paperwork, or not getting it at all.  I'd mail them the paperwork needed, they didn't get the email.  I'd fax it to them and the fax machine came up with an error message.  Over and over for about a month no matter what we tried something went wrong.  I needed to get those classes done, so I finally decided to fly to Denver and straighten it out in person.  Being back in Denver I was reminded of the beauty of this state and the sense of home that I felt being here.  That winter, our first one back in Michigan, was terrible!  We had been in Japan for 3 years and had been used to mild winters.  I was not prepared to drive in snow.  So in January 2011 we packed up the van and hit the road.  18 states and almost 10,000 miles in about 6 weeks.  We wanted to see where we could enjoy winter again.  Of all the states we visited it came down to the ones in the southwestern region: Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern California.  We made a 2nd trip to Colorado in May of 2011 and 2 months later we were following a big yellow moving van full of our belongings heading to Colorado.
I had to borrow the money from my parents to cover the moving expenses.  Even after we got here we were homeless for 6 weeks.  Yet I knew where the Lord wanted to be and I chose to follow.  In the 1 1/2 years we have been here we have made so many friends.  We are blessed with 2 amazing church families and an awesome home school support group. For the first time in my life the gypsy spirit in me doesn't feel it has to wander so much.  Instead we take a hike into the mountains and enjoy the day in God's creation.  I love it!
Deuteronomy 32:4  says He is the Rock, His works are perfect and all His ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.
Life is messy, stuff happens.  We can be distracted and sometimes out of fear or stubbornness we make the wrong choices.  Yet God's plan never changes.  His plan is for us to draw closer to him, and show those He brings into our lives who God is.  We need to remember to hold onto the Rock and focus on His plan. He never promised His path would be the easiest, but when God is for us who can be against us?  (Romans 8:31)

The beginning

Last week in our home school mom's group we talked about leaving a legacy.  For so many reasons we don't see what we do in our daily lives as anything important.  Often we discount our ability to make a difference because of the negatives in our lives.  I yell too much at the kids, have yet to finish college, and don't even have a job. If you talk to my ex-husband he'll be more than happy to list a lot more reasons I am not doing anything important enough to be considered a legacy.  However God doesn't look at our list of credentials and resumes.  He loves us as we are for who we are through Christ.  I love this compilation of verses from the Bible because it helps give us a great image of who we are to God:  Love letter from God
In the past 2 years God has moved mightily in my life.  Wiping away obstacles and creating paths over shaky ground.  Along the way He has asked me to write this down, share what He has done so that people make see Him more clearly.
Zechariah 4:6 (NIV) says “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty. 
Not by might: his ability, wealth, efficiency, not even an army.  Nothing about Zerubbabel would sway the changes the Lord was decreeing would come. It is true for each of us as well.  When God calls us to do something we have to have faith to step out and do it.  Regardless of our ability or credentials.  He works through the weakest of us so that all can see it is God at work and not us. 
That was this blog is about, faith walking.  Stepping out of my comfort zone and moving where God leads.  Praying that through my words, my experiences that other people can be strengthened and encouraged to walk closer to our God and allow Him to work in their lives too.