A Little Explanation for the Not-So-Charismatic (yet - hehe)

Ahhh. Blog Day again. And what shall I tell y'all this time? Hmm. I tell ya another sparkle story and you'll think it's all I care about concerning God. Sooo...

I got my aquarium set back up post-move. We currently have a Mom Guppy, 3 teenagers, a beta, a snail, and "shrimp-bugs." We don't know what they are, but they're too bizarre to not keep.

Not having done anything for D's birthday a few weeks ago, and neither of us having a clue how to celebrate, it dawned on me Saturday, "Hey! I could make you a cake!" We were on the way to the grocery store at the time, but managed to remember everything we needed. Thus, the picture above - my mom's sheath cake recipe. D has been welcomed to spoil every meal with it until it's gone. As for me? I'm working on a 3 pound cheesecake.

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We're going to Lakeland, FL tomorrow (Fri). I think I've mentioned the Healing Outpouring that's going on there, so I'll skip that part. I've been threatening to wear my college t-shirt. Those of you who know where I went to college might see how hard it is to resist. (*twitty smirk*)

I know many of you are from our pre-marriage church background. Maybe you wonder what it is we believe? Whether we've jumped off the deep end? Well...

Briefly, we still believe the same thing you do. God's alive. Jesus is his Christ. He's coming back. Ya know, generic Christian stuff. I guess the main change is that we believe the Spirit goes beyond "seal of salvation." We believe he's active.

What that looks like is kinda crazy though. We've seen miracles. We've spoken in tongues. We've fallen to the floor when God... what's the word? Landed on us? (This is stuff you have to make up vocab for, and I haven't made up enough words yet.) Prophecy has become common. You know about sparkles. Have I mentioned oil? That sometimes shows up with the sparkles. And worship is a lot more expressive - not chaotic, just Loud Order.

Make ya uncomfortable? If so, me too. You're in gorgeous company. I am an introvert. D is an introvert. D doesn't "do loud." I very rarely "do loud." Neither of us is really expressive - though I think my face is, the rest of me's not. All the stuff I listed in the previous paragraph does not fit, even remotely, into my personality.

Thing is, I can't deny the reality of it. Nor can I deny it's God. I've tried to deny both. Doesn't work though. I've gone through the whole list: people make themselves think they feel better, but they're not healed; somebody's sneaking around spreading glitter; people make up "tongues"; they make themselves fall down or get rammed down. And let's not forget Satan disguising himself as an angel of light. I've tried that one too. I'm adding this paragraph just incase you question if I've questioned.

I've given myself full permission, upon seeing something new, to step back silently and observe. Sometimes everyone around me is loudly shouting approval at some event or idea. I sit. I stare. I think. I stand out. (I hate that.) But I don't get spoon-fed either. I end up, upon believing something, knowing why I believe it. (There are a few things I'm still "observing.")

Acts reads real different now. Several times I've said people looked drunk when God "landed on" them. They can't stand up, they move weird, shout, can't talk, or they laugh hysterically. But then there's the story from Pentecost. The Spirit landed on the 11. And the people called them drunk. Now I know why. I never would've guessed they really did look drunk. Wouldn't have known to think that.

It's been a crazy journey. And really, it all started back in February. We truly thought I might die, and figured if I didn't I'd always beg God to let me. We needed a miracle. Nothing less would even have helped. We got one. Life changed in more ways than one. Besides the fact that I'm alive, there's no longer desperation, no longer terror, and our gratitude and hunger for God are both a lot higher. We're driven now. We're closer to God. D didn't need to be nicer, but I did, and that's happening.

God never seems to be predictable. Nor is he ever present without something happening. Thing is, I always thought he was predictable. And I always thought he didn't take action.

I'm starting to understand though; God will always take action where he's welcomed to, and just a bit more - kind of a lure to get us to welcome more I guess.

"Pink Grace" Re-told

The following is taken from a mass email, written by a friend of ours. It's the story from 2 posts ago about getting pink sparkles (ie "glory dust"). I did change the wording here and there for ya. Just thought it might interest some of you.
H
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But after the [first conference we went to, 2 months ago]...H wondered out loud, if "glory dust" came PINK.

I didn't see why not. I figured, JUST ASK.

So as the women's conference was underway, I asked. And I began to see
"glory dust" come in different colors Saturday afternoon. A lady felt
led to give me a speck of pink.

PINK !!! I gotta give this to H. I brought it over to her and
said, "This for you."

Later that afternoon (if I get this right) H asked God for a pink
gemstone. Hmmmmm.....

Well...if the crimson "glory dust" wasn't enough (some kids at the conference got caked in red) ...the Lord wasn't
done for the evening of doing really specific things.

At the end of the evening, I was sitting on the floor in the back of
the conference with H and D, and D started looking at the floor.
And PINK "glory dust" was appearing on the carpet around him.

It's interesting that the Lord would bring the color pink to D, before
H. Maybe for "leadership" reasons. Maybe because he's a secure man
who is able to hold a pink Bible and pink purse for his wife when her
hands are full. ([My husband] could learn from D ;-)

But when the pink "glory dust" was brought to H's attention, it
began to appear where ever she sat. It was SO much fun to watch the
two of them collect it.

Then H felt led to take one of the pieces and place it on her
engagement ring. She made a comment that the color was more of a
violet pink and looked like the color of her stone. Sure enough, it
matched PERFECTLY.

WOW !!!

Another specific gift from the Lord where He was showing someone,
I see you,
I hear you
I love you.
And I'm with you always.

Blood Results

Spoke with my Lyme doc yesterday.

The notoriously inaccurate blood results came back. Doc says my immune system is working, though I could possibly have a co-infection. (Lyme often comes with friends.) Like one of our friends said last night, "I have a 40% chance of being better." Totally accurate. I sure FEEL better though! Glory to God for it!

The one real symptom I have left, quivering muscles, could be due to my too-low magnesium. I'd stopped taking it, but am back on. So we'll see.

Next appointment is August 13.

Pink Grace

It's been like a month! Duuude!

So throwing the last month's worth atcha:

We moved. Nice place. Diggin' it. Odors are an issue, but nothing else is. We still have a quarter of our stuff in boxes, but are budgetting for shelves (cue "Someday I'll Wish Upon a Star" music). All of said boxes have been banned to the 2nd bedroom. And since I mentioned the topic to many of you pre-move, I'm still not comfortable with doing the laundry. However, the laundry room ranks lower on the Creepy Scale than the last one.
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You've heard sparkle stories. How 'bout a PINK sparkle story?!

We went to a conference one week ago.

Whole seperate topic regarding my foul attitude. I simply must mention it to be able to fully give God credit for the following.

At one of the last sessions, I asked God for pink. Here's where my foul attitude plays a pivotal role. I absolutely did not have the faith to even look. At that point, I was far too deep into "God doesn't like me anymore" (lala) Land.

But an hour after my asking, a LOAD of pink sparkles appeared at D's feet. Thinking back on it, that makes sense. God wants to answer, but I'm not bothering to look and D is. The obvious choice of whose feet to drop them at would be my husband's.

So now there's pink sparkles stuck between the pages of my Bible (along with gold, silver, and dark red). That's what the picture is of. It's not clear, but I tried. There's actually twice that amount - the others just didn't catch the light. Try clicking on the picture. It might get bigger for ya.

And get this. We put one of them on top my pink sapphire (engagement ring). We were able to see only part of the outline of the sparkle against the stone. The shade was precise.

Show the slightest little hint that you believe me, and I'll boggle your mind further. Well, technically, God will. But I'll let him borrow my fingers for it. There is so much to tell.
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I've been doing a lot of sewing lately - mainly making, altering, or backing curtains. Our mini-blinds have as much as 2 inches between them. Real nice when it's dark outside and we have lights on.

However, I've also been wanting to add color to a black and white apron I have. (Hi, Visitor! The rest of you can ignore this sidenote.) It has 24 flower petals on it with a wide range of sizes. I've decided to sew a different word or phrase into each petal. I pulled them out of places like Philippians 4 ("think about such things") and 1 Cor. 13 ("love is"). I figure it's the perfect project. Each word will take a while to sew, and I'll naturally have to think about that word while I'm doing it. Then I'm left with a reminder of all the time I spent thinking about them.
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Speaking of fun, we watched Ice Age the Meltdown on Sunday. Ya know the squirrel that chases his acorn across the glacier? He's called "Scrat." Turns out, a scrat is a saber-toothed squirrel. (Squirrel + Rat maybe?) The interesting part of it is; this new knowledge has made me feel brilliant. What is my deal? For all I know, it's not even true. I think the phrase "saber-toothed squirrel" and suddenly feel that I have a doctorate in Squirrelage.