Revival starts at home...

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.-Romans 12:2

God has done some UH-MAZING... INCREDIBLE things up here on HOPE HILL in the past month! There has been repentance, acceptance, baptism, community, REEEEEVIVAL people. I feel like it's just a snowball effect and God is doing it all! 

How amazing it is to see other people transformed and to see how God is using this huge gift He has given us only a year after the "build".  Here's the thing though and it's powerful and true and right and it is something my mom told me about 17 years ago as I prepared to leave for my first long term mission. I believe I was in the living room calling my little brother an effing little SOB when my mom popped her head in and said, "Hey Linz, guess what... your mission starts here.. at home, with your family." I think I rolled my eyes and finished mutalating little denny with my hate and anger.

This morning at 33, as I was weeping in her kitchen, she reminded me the same thing. I am being transformed... GOD IS CHANGING ME!!! hmm hmm, but I wonder if my husband and kids would notice the change. I'm game for whatever God has up on The Hill.. but asking me to be joyful or have grace at home... not so much. Praise GOD FOR HIS GRACE! Praise God that he used my moms words again to remind me where the revival he has set before needs to start... HOME... HUSBAND... CHILDREN... 

Today I confess and repent for the anger and control that have been dictating my attitude toward my family... today I claim victory... I claim surrender and the opulent freedom that comes with letting go. I give my agenda for the day to you jesus! Not just in words but from the depths of my guts Lord! Transform me... not just the me people on the outside see... transform my core... let me husband and kids be the recipients of your work in me... REVIVAL LORD... TRUE REVIVAL is what I'm calling out and longing for... get rid of all of the other crap that has kept me bound and held me back!!

AMEN...

The Ministry of Life

Yesterday as I typed an email to someone I told her that God had called me into full time women's ministry... I shuttered as I typed those words. Here's why: Last Saturday, after talking about dreams and what/who we have let hold us back I had someone ask me a question. She said, "I guess my dream would be to have a vineyard with my husband, but is that ok... you know that my dream isn't ministry." (ok that was paraphrasing it was a week ago and I'm sleep deprived.) Anyway, it was right before I had to get people ready for lunch so I quickly answered "Of course! Everything we do has an impact on the Kingdom."

For a week now I have been wishing I would have forgotten about the logistics of getting 45 women in the lunch line and taken the time to talk about this. Here's the thing.. wait for it... WE ARE ALL CALLED TO MINISTRY... YOU ARE CALLED TO MINISTRY... unbunch your panties while I explain.

We are all, in fact, called to women's ministry, to children's ministry, to men's ministry, to feeding the homeless and giving to the poor... BUT  guess what it's not called ministry it's called LIFE.  

Whether you're a lawyer, a stay at home mom, a nurse or a farmer.... WE ARE ALL CALLED to work for the good of the kingdom! We are NOT called to compartmentalize "work", "family", "friends"  and "God". Sometimes I think the label of "ministry" makes the masses feel justified in NOT living a life purposefully devoted to Kingdom work because "ministry" is meant for those with a special calling set apart from "real" life.

If you have decided to love Jesus... guess what???? YOU ARE AUTOMATICALLY inducted into the MINISTRY OF LIFE... It's weird how words can unintentionally create barriers. If I don't label what I do as ministry, but rather as life, is it any less important? It feels less important, but that's called pride, and that's my own issue. When someone asks what I do what do I tell them??? "Well, I wipe butts and occasionally do dishes, oh and I love women..." How do I classify what God has called me to without the label of "ministry"... does it even matter? There's a bit of sexiness in the word ministry... somehow implying ministry is a program that I sacrifice to be a part of... something that only really spiritual people can lead. It can be a barrier... a divider... sometimes even an obstacle built on pride...

Not long ago I saw a friend from our pastoring days. Knowing that my hubby now works for a hospital system and no longer a church or official ministry he asked, "Does CJ miss being in ministry." I said "Not really, because our lives are ministry." I don't think this guy meant anything by his question, but it made my blood boil. Just a few weeks before CJ had been called to anoint a patient with oil and pray for healing because the chaplain was busy... this is life... is it less ministry because he works for a secular organization???!!!! As bosses and employees, as mothers and wives and daughters, as patrons at a restaurant or shoppers at Target... every second of everyday we are called to move the Kingdom forward and to love others by using the gifts God has given us... hmm hmm... M-I-N-I-S-T-R-Y!!

Paul was a tent maker by day and still managed to blaze as an apostle, preacher, teacher, and healer and lived ministry.  This is in NO WAY a dig to those in paid full time "ministry", we should as a community financially support our pastors! We should support the great organizations that spread the Gospel!!! The danger I am warning about is adopting an attitude of complacency in life because we don't bear an official label of "such and such" ministry. We are all called to work together... we are all a part of the body of Christ! When we no longer default to letting the "pros" handle the heart ache and ickiness of the world, when we can no longer hide behind the great excuse of being "unqualified", when we stop sitting back and expecting a chosen few do 99% of the work... and realize WE ARE THE WORKERS... WE ARE THE LEADERS... WE ARE THE MOUNTAIN MOVERS... HOLY CRAP people!!! the enemy will cower and the gates of Hell will be stormed... how glorious that day will be!

|FIGHTING WORDS|:

1 Corinthians 12:12-26 (The Message)

12-13You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive. 


14-18I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it. 


19-24But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair? 


25-26The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

Project: WORLD O WOMEN ... overcoming the fear ...

The last two years I've spent taking a full on plunge into the WORLD O WOMEN! Upon becoming a "christian" a little over 10 years ago, I've been invited to multiple women's retreats and have only attended 2. I went kicking and screaming, and really to be honest (sorry girls), didn't enjoy them. I've also attended several bible studies in which I never finished. I always seemed to have a reasonable excuse as to why I shouldn't or couldn't return. So here's my point....This last week a couple of incredible women I know threw a day retreat called the "Fearless & Fit Retreat". It was SO much fun!!! But a heard a question asked repeatedly by the two women heading up the retreat as well as many who attended. 

Why are women so scary? 

Or rather, why do we avoid functions like these ones at all cost? I thought I was alone in feeling this way!! Apparently not. Lets face it, we've all had past experiences that have left us feeling more like an alien than 'one of the girls'...
Back to this journey I've been on. We'll just call it Project: World O Women. Creative I Know! Lol! As I've taken on this assignment to sort of infiltrate these strange beings, I've learned so much about myself. Here are a few things I've learned that may be helpful in overcoming your fear when it comes to large groups of women/people.

Wow! Building relationships just take too much time. Time that I obviously DON'T HAVE! Oh, how I have been guilty of using this A-L-I-B-I. It's God's desire that we build relationships with one another. As I seek Him first, He will direct my steps and help me to make time. We have also become such consumers of information. Coming together only to exchange all of the information we are inundated with on a daily bases. This is not a totally negative thing, but can sometime become a hindrance when trying to really get to know a person.

{Paraphrasing} 2 Timothy says to mark this: There will be teachers, men and women who will have a form of godliness but denying its power. Those who will be trying to deceive others. Have nothing to do with such people.


I've also been terrified of being "misunderstood". As I've ventured out of my comfort zone and returned to situations in which women exist: play dates, coffee dates, workout dates, various ministry groups etc...Guess what? I've been misunderstood and misunderstood others! Big Whoop! This plays a very important part in us developing relationally. If you are faithful in the "just showing up" department, God will be faithful in making what is crooked, straight {Isaiah 45:2}. In fact, the part of me that would prefer to correct the "misunderstanding" by re-explaining what it was I was TRYING to communicate, has begun to diminish. And in many ways is rooted in pride (that's a whole other topic). Now I just smile and nod knowing that the Lord will correct a person's perception if need be. Even if you are misunderstood time and time again, it will be okay. I promise! I wonder if this is why Jesus spoke in parables? Maybe He then could observe & discern whether the disciples were going to stop trying to figure everything out, and just allow His words to penetrate their hearts.

Another block for me personally is that I used to be a very success driven person. I didn't feel validated unless I was able to achieve some level of success by the worlds standards. I could be pretty creative in "talking shop" amongst some VERY successful people in the business world (don't ask me anything now, I've kept myself  completely out of the loop). This caused me to become terribly competitive and thereby I was unable to fully connect with people. Now, I revel in my weaknesses!!!

Something spectacular occurs when you allow people to see in to your frailties. It most often enables them to walk away from the conversation with permission to be real.

One more observation that I noticed women do. We fill the silence with endless chatter. When someone in their attempt at being vulnerable steps out, most women like to respond quickly with a solution. By nature, we sure like to fix things. Sometimes we are trying  to get rid of any possibility of 'awkward silence'. In the past when I've asked for prayer at church or elsewhere, women with the best of intentions have been typically quick to analyze & apply prayer accordingly. Sometimes all I need is for someone to listen and take their time praying for me. I've learned with my kids that when I'm too quick to respond, they walk away feeling as though I wasn't really LISTENING. They for sure won't trust me to listen when the next problem arises.

Knowledge puffs up, but LOVE edifies 

{1 Corinthians 8:1}.

I am truly thankful for my opportunity for personal growth within Project: World O Women. More importantly I've met the most outrageously talented and lovable women in the world! Thank you to the women who have taken the time to love on me while I've come to the realization that women aren't that scary after all!!!