So I keep seeing these headlines about the rising and falling dollar. “Dollar falls due to fear of…” “Dollar rises as investors hope…” “Dollar drops slightly due to speculation…”
I’m no economist, but it seems to me that if we stopped spending so much time obsessing, fearing, hoping, speculating, and staring at our money, it would actually work better for us.
Seems as if Jesus was right on more levels than one when He said “do not worry…”
Tonight I went up to pray on the microphone… not because I especially wanted to, but because there was an hour of prayer meeting left and no one in line to pray. We were focusing our prayers on Cairo, Egypt. I went up with an idea of what I wanted to pray for, but then changed it at the last second, in order to try and better fit it into the flow of the meeting.
I realized about halfway through the prayer that this was something I desperately needed. The words that were coming out of my mouth were just different language for something I’ve been praying for the last few days. As I was praying blessing for a group of believers I’ve never even seen — and I firmly believe that prayer had impact on their situation – I found myself getting blessed, and I found the Scriptures to be prophesying over me and speaking to me. I went up not entirely wanting to pray. I came back down energized, provoked, and somewhat unwilling to sit back down. I found myself pacing in the aisle and praying, engaging my heart with the Lord.
It’s basic sowing and reaping. You sow and labor in prayer, and sooner our later it’s bound to come back and hit your own heart, bringing fascination with God’s ways on top of it all. And that’s a really, really good deal.
I hardly know how to write a worthy follow-up to my brother’s excellent post, but I’m going to share a little bit of my heart on this day.
My Grandma Beattie was a very remarkable, dear woman. Continue reading ‘Remembering a Wonderful Lady’
…which means that M. Beattie (my grandma) is present with Christ as of this morning. She was an excellent lady with a beautiful heart and I know that she is with Him today. And I cannot wait to meet her in the air one day, fully restored.
I will probably write a little bit more later — I have a lot of thoughts right now, but I should try to sleep (I’m supposed to be waking up in about three hours). In the meantime, feel free to toss up a quick prayer or two for my family.
To the regular readers of this blog: I am looking at discontinuing the “Word of Life Bible Study” posts. If you particularly don’t want to see them go, please either comment or contact me (you can use the contact form at the bottom of the “About Amanda” page if you like). Between the amount of time it takes me to put up one of those posts, and the dwindling interest in them, it seems like it may be time to put it to rest. 
That’s it! Blessings.
I have been reminded a lot in the past two or three weeks that I don’t like change. Not one bit. I haven’t bumped into anything too terrifically life-altering, but there have been enough things shifting and jostling around in my life that I have been throwing somewhat of a fit about it. There was a prophetic vision about IHOP-KC some years ago where the person saw Jesus driving a bus uphill really, really slow — which is contrary to conventional wisdom — and then driving it downhill really, really fast, which is even more contrary to conventional wisdom. I feel a bit like we’re in that second stage right now, or at least that I personally am. And I’ve got my seatbelt on, but I’m still gripping the hand rail for dear life, having that funny freefalling pit-of-my-stomach feeling that makes me quite uncertain whether or not I like what’s going on. But I know it must be good. I know that the Lord knows what He’s doing with us. I know I like where we’re headed. But it still freaks me out. I’m kind of a wuss that way. Continue reading ‘Well, It’s Better than Stagnation’
So I learned a new word today. It’s a great word. I hope I get to use it around people sometime soon.
“Zarf.”
I promise I’m not making it up.
According to the Free Dictionary, a zarf is “A chalicelike holder for a hot coffee cup, typically made of ornamented metal, used in the Middle East.” They even had a picture.
Who wants a boring old coaster or coozie when you can have a zarf?
I can’t quite place why, but this is weighing on me tonight and I thought it was worth sharing. In short, this is what’s on my heart: we have got to be vigilant about guarding what we let into our lives as entertainment.
My desire is not to create a list of do’s and don’ts as far as what one may or may not watch or listen to. Rather, I’m thinking of the words of the Apostle Paul: “…’Everything is permissible for me’—but I will not be mastered by anything” (1Cor 6:12, NIV). Within our systems of entertainment lie all sorts of subtle traps that try to master us. We let down our guard in order to be entertained, and don’t notice the strings attached to the things we allow inside our souls. Continue reading ‘Harmless Entertainment… or not’
…And all the NightWatchers said, “Amen!”
I mean it. This is such good news. For you day folks who have never been on NightWatch and may not quite know why we’re so excited, let me explain:
Daylight is a very good thing. In the winter, there’s less of it. When one sleeps from 7:00am-3:00pm, you miss most of it. If you accidentally oversleep one day to 5:00pm (a very bad idea), then you miss practically all of it. I remember three weeks in the winter in my FITN where we had to go to a meeting from 4:00-6:00pm every day. We would wake up, get ready (which takes a while for six girls in a two-bedroom apartment), and head straight over to the prayer room. When we left, it was completely dark already… so that meant we saw the sun for a grand total of, like, ten minutes a day. Not fun.
Anyway. The point is that over the winter months, the NightWatch has very limited sunshine, which, if one is not very vigilant (which I haven’t been), then it can lead to an assortment of less than fun physical/emotional effects. Including even more than usually pronounced paleness (no, I’m not self-conscious… why?).
So, although we do have to lose an hour of sleep, we get an hour of daylight back in the afternoon where it belongs, and out of the early morning where we all should be going to bed anyway and don’t need the sunrise to energize us for that endeavor.
Oh happy day.
It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these posts. I’m in a rambly mood. So I figured now’s as good a time as any to go for it.
Continue reading ‘Welcome to my random stream of consciousness’
