Feeling Anxious?

Isaiah 42:16
I will lead blind Israel down a new path,
guiding them along an unfamiliar way.
I will brighten the darkness before them
and smooth out the road ahead of them.
Yes, I will indeed do these things;
I will not forsake them.

Anxious about what you cant see around the corner?
Gods promise stands true and ready to be fulfilled - just as He led Israel out of the wilderness, He will lead us down a path unknown only us to what goodness He has waiting!

Joyful on the Journey
Marisa

Do I Want Predictable?

Ok, I keep going back to this today...

"If you want God to surprise you, you have to give up control. You will lose a measure of predictability, but you will begin to see God move in uncontrollable ways!" a quote from Mark Batterson's 'The Circle Maker' (our Chick Chat Book Club selection for July)

Is it just me or has that been one of the hardest lessons to learn as you have grown - to relinquish control?
You know, the type of control that can keep you captive to complacency, to fear, to the compromise you shouldn't make, and to unfulfilled dreams.

I'm still learning to give up control. I do well in some areas but I'm understanding its about ALL control. The control of all relationships, of calling, and of tomorrow... it was never anything I had a handle on anyway :)

‘Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ Isaiah 41:10

What I want to say to you and to myself today is this: Christ didnt come that far, give that much, and give up that much, only to leave us to our own devices... He came to conquer!
But not only to conquer death and the grave eternally for us. He also came to conquer the here and now - to overcome that which we let stand in our way, that which He can remove in His power to give us the life we are designed to live!
I want to try harder to let go and let Him bring me the things He wishes to give me - blessings beyond what my mind can see thats best for me.

Did he not tell us in Isaiah 55:9 that 'For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.' ?

So I also remember Ephesians 3:20... 'Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.'
My feeble mind is predictable - He isn't. I don't want what I can do - I want the 'more' He is waiting to do... Are you with me?!

Joyful on the Journey
Marisa

The Book Club Is Back!

I am so excited to be bringing back the Chick Chat Book Club!

So many have asked for it and I think God is now saying its time.
We'll read one book every month or so (depending on how big the book is) and meet together to discuss it too if you like.
Selections and dates/locations for discussions will be announced here on this page. If you arent in the Knoxville TN area but want to join please do so - I'll post some questions along the way you can particpate in as well :)
The books selected will always be to help challenge us to be who we were really created to be - and to inspire us to a deeper relationship with Christ and those around us. 

The first book selection is for July and it is "The Circle Maker" by Mark Batterson (author of In A Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, Primal, and more).

Mark asks - 'Do you ever sense that there's far more to prayer, and to God's vision for your life, than what... you're experiencing? It's time you learned from the legend of Honi the Circle Maker---a man bold enough to draw a circle in the sand and not budge from inside it until God answered his prayers for his people. What impossibly big dream is God calling you to draw a prayer circle around?'

Sharing inspiring stories from his own experiences as a circle maker, Mark Batterson helps uncover our heart's deepest desires and God-given dreams and unleash them through the kind of audacious prayer that God delights to answer.
I'll announce the date and location soon where we will get together to talk about this selection - so pick up your copy and join me as we learn about drawing circles around the huge prayers of our lives!

Learn about the book here
http://thecirclemaker.com/about
Buy online here
http://thecirclemaker.com/buy
or check your local Christian book store


So whether you were a part of it before or not all those years, join again or for the first time, and lets begin a journey of growing, discovering, hearing, and listening for Him together!

Marisa

Am I Determined or Defiled?

Matthew 15: 16-18 says:
“Don’t you understand yet?” Jesus asked. “Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer. But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what can defile you.

Who I am isn't determined by what legalistic traditions I keep, or by what I do that only shows I hold or subscribe to this or that behavior or habit... I am determined to be His and about His work only by the way I am seen and known to love and treat another.

No amount of quiet times, devotions read, praying at the altar on Sunday, or giving money to a need can replace life change, getting to the heart of someone, loving them where they are, helping them reach a higher place of joy, making their messiness yours where you can, and just being kind in our accounting of one another.

I don't think that God is so much interested in the 'good girl' in me. I think He wants the me that errors but knows His voice and is ready then to repent and try again. I believe He wants the me that can be used in the dirty places. But not just in locations, also in the dirtiness of the heart - mine and the one I am to serve. I know He wants to use me to flavor the world, and He wants to be glorified in how I speak and love another.

Lord let my words set about a burning to know you, not one that destroys. And help me love well. 
Call me out to truly seek the heart, and speak life and hope into it.

Joyful on the Journey
Marisa

Claiming The Day!

A friend of mine last night mentioned as we left each others company that she had been nasty to her grandchild that day and that God had pulled her up short, had convicted her of that. She is one of those women that you can easily think probably had never even raised her voice in front of anyone, and I'm sure her idea of being "nasty" is no where near what mine is :)
As I drove away her words echoed. But it wasn't her slight indiscretion that was on my mind, it was what I let that do to me.
See, I noticed at her mention of her experience with her grandchild how quickly the 'guilt' of my day tried to rise up in me again. I messed up many times that day. In thought. In deed. And my God had convicted me. Gave the chance to repent and ask for forgiveness. And I had. So why let that roll me over now?
Isn't that just like the enemy? And I have bought in hook line and sinker over and over to his lies.
Isn't that just like me? I've even become very adept over the years of creating my own voices so the enemy usually can just walk away and leave me alone to my own devices.
I am very good at letting my mind attempt its own destruction of my joy and my faith and belief of who God says I really am.
Fact - if I have repented and asked for forgiveness its done. Its gone.
Is there a need to understand and respect and honor the level of  the depth of God's mercy and grace? Oh my Yes.
But is there a need to continue to feel guilty? Oh friend, no. There is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus!
Is the blood so freely given and still flowing on Calvary in our heart not enough?!
So my vow as I move through this day? To believe and walk out the truth of Romans 8:33-34...
“Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one — for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one — for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.”

I am sought, chosen, bought, loved, refined, claimed, held, adored, treasured, pleaded for, forgiven, covered, made righteous and holy by Jesus, and no one can change that - not even me!

I think I'm gonna claim this day for victory... you?

Joyful on the Journey,
Marisa

Marisa's Chick Chat Book Club Returns July 1st!

So stay tuned for details...

Making Brave

I wrote down something in big bold letters from our last session of the Angela Thomas “Brave” bible study last night.

Together a group of about 10 looked at many different things over the last few weeks that we as women at one time of another face - feeling fearful, broken, invisible, being worn out, undisciplined, and bearing a thorn.
It was at times an exhausting study - these uncomfortable things are markers of hardships and trials of life. And they are uncomfortable to think about let alone go through. 

But once again God is trying to show me that these are actually the joys of life because if I let them they bring blessings – blessings of being used by Him for His Glory
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.”  - 2 Cor 1:3-6

He is once again telling me that I can use those hard things to dig in and identify with Christ or I can turn away, wallow, stay broken, and miss His touch, healing, and what He has waiting on the other side.
“It is the Spirit himself bearing witness to our Spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him - Romans 8:16-17

I want to be more diligent to seek Him quickly for comfort when I am fearful, for a redeeming when I am broken, to be truly & fully seen when I feel invisible, to find rest when I’m worn out, for strength to be disciplined, and as my all sufficient portion to endure the thorn!
To run to Him first – always - instead of my husband, friends, a distraction, or whatever else my mind sometimes tells me will meet my immediate need.

The saddest thing is that as we walked through those hard things together the last 7 weeks, what came sharply into focus is the fact that they will eventually become a prison, a holding cell, and a binding - but by our own hands. Because even if the things that have hurt us, made us feel afraid, worn out, and left us broken are at another’s hand and doing, we only are left in captivity by our own choice.

See here’s the truth…
1. We can make a run for it and be released straight into the arms of Jesus! But instead we try in our own strength and mind, both too weak, instead of trusting He is a strong enough shield to do the fighting for us.
2. The cage door is unlocked! But we’re just too afraid to move through the pain.
3. We can be free! But we choose fear, bitterness, and unforgiveness and hold a shackle in our fist that has long ago rusted and busted apart, no longer able to restrain.

Brave - to confront with resolution

 “And the God of grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast” - I Peter 5:10

We have a Kinsman Redeemer (someone closer than a brother, who is willing, who is able, and that paid our debt in full) to take us somewhere else and away from that which we feel captive to and bring resolution if we let Him make us brave!

The truth I wrote down in bold letters?

TO REMAIN CAPTIVE TO WHATEVER MAKES ME FEEL FEARFUL, BROKEN,  INVISIBLE, WORN OUT, UNDISCIPLINED, AND DISCOURAGED, MEANS THAT I CHOOSE NOT TO GO WHERE GOD GOES AND WHERE HE WANTS TO TAKE ME – I CHOOSE NOT TO PARTAKE IN THE LIFE HE HAS DESIGNED FOR ME... I AM TELLING GOD NO

Whoa.
Is that me?
Is that you?

As a famous bald man with a mustache from Texas on TV is fond of asking… 'and how’s that working for us?'


"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us" - Romans 8:35-37

I want to be free at any given moment to go wherever God leads with no restraints, with no regrets, to accept the promises He is waiting to fulfill for me, and even if the thorn remains I want to live my life expecting Him to show off despite and because of it, and I want to run unhindered with my Jesus prize in sight!!

Now, on to the business of making brave 

Joyful on the Journey
Marisa

Words Like a Honeycomb?

Words. What of Words?
Proverbs 18:21 says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit of them."
Hmmm… so words (fruit) are offered either as sweet on the tree to be picked for a sustaining benefit and enjoyed, or words (fruit) are offered as having fallen from the tree and laying on the ground rotting and the only thing they give are as a sickness.


In the bible study our Lifegroup is doing we were right smack in the middle of the week on Words of Affirmation. We were studying and learning how the words we use and say can make a huge difference in the temperature of our relationships, and how the effects of offering words that lift up and encourage those in our life can heal and not wound, and create intimacy and not distance. 
Hubs and I were doing our homework and we got to a section where in the margin of one page it referenced Proverbs 16:24… “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” And over the next couple of days my mind kept going back to that verse and I wondered each time, why ‘honeycomb’? It would not let me go.
So I begin to dig a little, and some things I found really began to speak to me.


In 1638 physicist and philosopher Galileo wrote about the design of the honeycomb, and the hollow solid design and strength of the honeycomb. He said “Art, and nature even more, makes use of these in thousands of operations in which robustness is increased without adding weight, as is seen in the bones of birds and in many stalks that are light and very resistant to bending and breaking”.
I also saw where the honeycomb structure has even been applied to the construction of things like airplane materials like steel panels, rocket sub structures, etc.
So the light went on – for words of affirmation to be compared to honeycomb was very intentional and specific. God inspired something in that passage to mean something even more purposeful today!


To start with I looked up some information on bee keeping. What I found was that the honeycomb, if not damaged by a beekeeper, can and will be used over and over again by the bee for making honey. I didn’t know that, did you?
Words can really stick with someone. Just as words that wound do, sweet words of affirmation can be remembered and give courage to someone for a lifetime. Can’t we all recall even from childhood both good and bad things people have said? I would rather someone recall feeling stronger and loved by my words. Ephesians 4:29 says “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” When grace is given it is ongoing, I want my words to be something that echoes goodness and sweetness. I want those I love to be able to go back continually to the things I speak into them over and over for a renewing.


I also was intrigued that this design of the honeycomb can be used in steel plates of an airplane and rocket ship but then can fly through the air. Galileo said that the honeycomb design can be seen in nature, inside some plant stalks that are extremely light but that this strong design allows them in most cases to bend but not break. 
WOW! Our words can give the person hearing them strength in tough times to bend and not break! Think about it, if you believe someone thinks you can stand and has poured into you the affirmation of that – isn’t it easier to try? To believe you actually can? The things I may choose to speak into someone’s life can either be something that keeps them from having the confidence to even try, or they can give them the courage and strength to overcome - to fly! 
Proverbs 15:4 The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.
(Pardon the cheese, but don’t you want to be the wind beneath their wings?)




Proverbs 16:24… “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
Continually offering the sweetness and strength to sustain life through its naturally healing power. Oh that I would offer only healing and life, not condemning and destruction. That I would only build up and not tear down.


God, thank you, that we are created with the ability to communicate with one another thru the spoken word. Thank you that we can share your Word and your promises in that way, speaking your truth and life into those around us.
Help me today and every day to choose to offer life and not death with my tongue. I want to offer something that over and over brings sweetness just like the honeycomb. I want to impart strength and confidence with what I say. Father I pray that things that I have said that have brought sadness, anger, hurt, and bitterness to those I love would be forgiven. Your Word in Matthew 12 says that “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks”. Give me your heart! May things I have said that encouraged and soothed wounds be remembered. Remind me of the sweet promises you have left me to go to whenever I need them -  in times of trouble and in times of joy. May I seek to leave behind words of life sustaining sweetness that others can go to time and time again to know their true worth, value, and gifting… to remember who they really are in your Son Jesus!
Amen

Invisible Ones

She was walking across the street. Not exactly a feat of extreme efforts. That is unless you are this woman. The woman I gazed intently at through my windshield was staggering about under the influence of whatever she took last night. or this morning, or both. As she crossed towards me, diagonally from my left to my right I slowed (she was really not even aware of the flow of cars around her it seemed). If I didn't slow I was afraid she would walk straight into the side of my car as I passed her. She was dressed in skin right jeans tucked down in ratty boots, a tight shirt hanging way off one shoulder, with no bra on. It didn't cover her stomach either. It was as I slowed to a stop to make sure she was able to cross my side without getting hurt that I noticed the smile on her face. It took my breath. A plastered on smile. A smile of smeared bright red lipstick. Eyes vacant and drooped. But it was the smile that caught my attention the most. A smile as fake as they come.
Not able to be sure of her age, I was looking at a woman who looked to possibly already had received the wrong kind of attention, many times over. Maybe even last night. And quite possibly in her condition may attract the wrong attention once again on her way home or to wherever she was headed.
I began praying for her as she passed. God, this precious daughter of yours is in need. In need of  You. Of the ONE who can be her everything. A Savior who can show her she is beautiful inside. Meet her where she is Father. Help her see her worth in You. 
Where was she headed? Where was she from? What had her life been? What was like now? Did anyone in her life really truly see her? As I thought these questions I looked for her in my rear view mirror, but in a flash she was gone.
I drove on to meet with my friend for breakfast, and had a sweet sweet time with her. But in the back of my mind I couldn't forget the woman with the fake smile.
After breakfast I drove back to that street, hoping to see her again. Just to know she was okay. Maybe to try and talk to her if she was alone.
She was gone.

Before I went home I headed to a retail store to pick up 4 place mats I knew were on sale that I wanted. But as I drove there I was thinking about the woman. She was a young girl once. Hoping for a wonderful life. The stuff fairy tales are made of probably. That's what the world does. Makes you believe in fairy tales that can't come true. Makes you trust in things that aren't reality instead of trusting a Father and Prince of Peace who can truly give you the life you need and can surpass all that's not real or attainable.

I gathered what I came for and went to get in line to pay. It wasn't a busy but there was three people in line in front of me. But there was quite a large pile of clothes on the counter so I leaned against a column to get comfortable for the wait.
It was then I noticed the three people were together. From the little conversation between two of them I gathered it was a grandfather and his two grand kids. One a boy about 11 and a young girl about 14. I didn't get to the line in time to see what may have already been rung up for the boy, but as the girl stood texting on her cell phone I did notice some things. I noticed she hardly looked up. Hardly spoke. I noticed she only stopped with the phone long enough to pull at the edge of her way too short shorts. They were not only too short but about a full size to snug. So any time she moved at all she has to stop and tug again.
I also noticed the new clothes as the clerk picked them up to scan the bar codes on the tags. Really short summer skirts, some sleeveless see-through tops, a low cut top, more short shorts. My heart was sinking more with each item that I saw move by the clerk to be placed in a bag.
The grandfather was paying. I don't know if he realized what he was purchasing. Was he appeasing her and trying to connect by buying her things? Or was he only one more distant man in her life that would rather buy things than spend time with her - paying little attention to both the clothes and her? I don't know. It could be either or something completely different. Either way, how horrible that this man was actually purchasing things that would also draw the wrong kind of attention to his own grand daughter. 

I began praying for this young girl in line in front of me, this young woman wanna-be that was tugging at her shorts. God, this precious daughter of yours is in need. In need of  You. Of the ONE who can be her everything. A Savior who can show her she is beautiful inside. Meet her where she is Father. Help her see her worth in You. 
What had shaped her already to think that showing herself this way would be the thing to do? What about her friends? Her family? Did they see her? Really see her?
My heart sank as I thought of what her self worth may be now, and what it could be in the future with the world telling her this is the way that a 14 year old girl should dress.

I have seen two very different ladies today- different in their location, in their age, in their experiences maybe.
But very similar as well. Same provocative dress. Same want of attention. Same disregard to just how bad that attention could get.
The same need of achieving a self worth that can only come from one place - from an understanding that a Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus gave up everything for them and that He sees them as worthy, valuable, precious, lovable, and cherished treasures that He designed and created for so much more than they are now or have now!
My heart cried out to them... Oh sweet dears! How much you are loved, how lovely you are - just as you are - without clingy revealing clothes, without so much make up, without having to showcase your bodies. There is ONE who wants desperately to spend time with you, to love you, to bless you, to be your constant and your portion - your FULL portion!
I was hoping the grandfather and grand son would walk ahead somehow, and there would be a moment I could speak to her and tell her this looking into her eyes without freaking her grandfather out. But just then her phone rang and answered it walking out ahead of the transaction being fully completed.
I asked the lady ringing me up to please hurry that I wanted to talk to the young lady that had just left. She did work quickly and I ran outside.
She was gone.

An invisible woman and invisible girl - to some - but not to you "El Roi - the God who sees me"! (Genesis 16:13) 

Father I pray that both of these precious creatures begin being somehow surrounded by people in their lives that begin filling them with the right words of affirmation. That someone builds them up in the right way. That someone earns the right to be heard, and shows them the rescuing love of your Son Jesus, and that they learn just how beautiful they really are. If they know you but have lost their way I pray you continue pursuing them relentlessly!
May we affirm the women and young girls we know and come across - help us to show them their worth in you and see them the way you do... created as your masterpiece, the apple of your eye, known and seen before they were born buy your Loving Heart, priceless, and fully loved!
And Father show us those who need you, keep our hearts broken for what breaks yours, show us whom you love and want to redeem, and teach us how to love them as you intend us to!
Amen 

Marisa

What Kind of Memorial Is My Marriage?

I was sitting there in church yesterday morning on Memorial Day and thinking how wonderful our Heavenly Father is to bring such a message right NOW - when our Life Group is in the middle of a a marriage bible study, wanting our relationships to not only be better, but make a difference in our families and in our world.
Our Pastors sermon was on leaving a memorial with our lives within in our personal stories. He referenced Joshua 4 - when Joshua ask his people to build their memorials of 12 stones (their Ebenezers) it was to honor all that God had done, all they had made it through and survived, to show and remind generation after generation what miracles, rescues, what abundance of grace had been bestowed on them, and of all His promises kept.
Joshua 4:4-7 says
⁴ So Joshua called together the twelve men he had chosen—one from each of the tribes of Israel. ⁵ He told them, “Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the Lord your God. Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder—twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁶ We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ ⁷ Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.”
I was thinking, how wonderful that our Pastor literally walked us through how to write our stories – using his as an example – that Heritage, Relationships, etc, each were a stone in our memorial. I was thinking how much our marriages can be a integral stone in our memorial to our generations to come.
WOW, imagine part of the heritage stone of our childrens or friends memorials one day being that " _______ and _________ " (insert your names here) loved me most through how they loved one another, and that they became examples I followed".
Might they one day say my husband and I modeled a marriage of love, grace, compassion, selflessness, forgiveness, kindness, affirmation, a faith in God, and that we placed Him above all? I sure hope so.
Joshua 4:21-24
²¹ Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future your children will ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’ ²² Then you can tell them, ‘This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ ²³ For the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and he kept it dry until you were all across, just as he did at the Red Sea^[c] when he dried it up until we had all crossed over. ²⁴ He did this so all the nations of the earth might know that the Lord’s hand is powerful, and so you might fear the Lord your God forever.”
What an amazing blessing that our marriages could be one more part of building our story, our memorial, and our Ebenezer for those we love - all for HIS GLORY!!!

Joyful on the Journey
Marisa