Monday, September 30, 2013

31 Days of Faith






"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." - Hebrews 11:1



Faith. I know, it's broad.
I tried to narrow it down, even thought of a few ideas to do so and every time, Papa said no. 
He told me to not "box myself in." 


For the month of October, 31 days to be specific, I will be seeking the Lord about a new revelation of this word that I have known and even claimed my whole life over. Faith. It's time for me to understand it from His perspective. The meaning He intended for it before people like me came along and decided we would give our take on it and then spread that definition among His children. 

I want to give FAITH back to the Creator of it. I want Him to redefine it for me so I don't have to will it to be something it's not meant to be in my heart... you know, based on my efforts or my thinking? 

So there will be stories. Stories from my World Race last year, and the ways He has proven to me in other times that FAITH is indeed REAL. A reality of hope.

I may also host others who have seen Him. You know, SEEN Him. And are willing to talk about it.  


I want to believe in my God and His power, more than I ever have in my life because of these 31 days. 

Please join me on this journey as we face challenges together! It's so exciting to be a part of this special series! I really want you to do this with me because I have a feeling that He's about to just blow my mind with Who He is and with how much He desires the belief in my heart to be in complete abandonment of any doubt. 

31 Days of Faith. Let's go.









beLOVED.,
Lauren!<><+


(Click the following link to read the rest of the 31 days link up and click 31 to read more about FAITH)

Sunday, September 29, 2013

"Come away..." (31 days intro)


So Papa asked me to "Come away" with Him long ago... at 6 years old, actually.

When He asked...not told but asked, I said yes. I said yes largely because it sounded like an adventure to live my life with Him leading me. Partly, because He was so romantic in His early pursuit of my heart. And mostly, because I knew right then and there that He LOVED. me more than anyone could ever love someone as humans on this earth. I desired that relationship with Him and He began, in that little moment, to build my faith, to trust, to follow, and to live the adventure of a lifetime. Literally.

I have been attempting to decide for what seems like months but has yet only been days, what to write about as a theme for my collaboration series with The Nester. I will be linking up with her superb annual Series starter 31 Days and will confront one thought from (hopefully) 31 different angles, to bring to you a month of focused furry in regards to what Jesus wants to teach me and therefore share with you.

I hope to keep it short, simple, heart-warming/provoking, and include stories, challenges, and much more on this one specific Spirit led series topic.

As does the month of October, my series will begin on Tuesday! I will be out of town almost the entire first week of October, which shall make posting tricky. Bare with me :)

I know the Lord has called me to share in this one month writing adventure, as a part of His broad adventurous leadings in my creative and practical writing outlets. My hope is that as I follow His call to do this in obedience that you and I both will be inspired in our EVERY. October. Day.

Drummer role please...




Faith. 31 Days of Faith.

I thought about specifying in this title that I would be sharing unknown stories form my last year on the World Race. And I will be but have felt the constant urge the last couple of days, not to box myself in. God always wants to do more than we can expect.

So... hear the call and read the stories as I beseech you to "Come away" with the Father of Lights, to reveal to you the areas of our lives that could be brought from the shades of grey that we live in and into His glorious light of life.

"Come away" to the days of the past and the lessons learned for the future, as I seize FAITH today.

I have yet to conquer this quest and that is why I'm seeking His wisdom, His plans. Because I know they're great... and absolutely full of Him.

Won't you join me in this FAITH discovery for the month of October? I encourage you to also check out the other writers in the Link Up at The Nester's blog this month (Link above). It's also not too late to join in if you feel the tug on your heart to do so. What could you share with the world for 31 days...









beLOVED.,
Lauren!<><+


(Many  times it's easy to judge worship if it's different then ours. This past year, I noted worship as "different" everywhere I traveled around the world. I love this video by Jesus Culture because Stephany worships in a way that resonates so deeply with my need for God given expression, that it doesn't matter if she looks different when she does it because it's all in, for, and about Him. And He's wild about her. And I'm wild about Him.) Come Away by Jesus Culture!!! (Click that link to hear/see my cry for faith this next month)


Thursday, September 26, 2013

Featured by the editor of "My Mission Fulfilled"


What an honor it is to be the featured writer this week on Courtney Simpson's, Editor's page! Courtney is a sweet friend I made in Atlanta a few weeks ago during her organization's event to serve (even set free) women who are refugees and trafficked into the sex industry. She is the editor for My Mission Fulfilled, which is a ministry child of the WMU (Woman's Missionary Union)! Please Click the link above to see the featured piece and to peruse the site to become more aware of this awesome mission and inspirational resource!

Thanks, once again, to the WMU, My Mission Fulfilled, and to Courtney and Kristy Carr specifically, for finding a bigger purpose for such a small writer this week. Many blessings over the work still to be done.


beLOVED.,
Lauren!<><+

Monday, September 23, 2013

Piggyback, please?



You've heard, or maybe read for yourself, the story of the footsteps before...

You know, the one that begins with two sets and ends with one because Jesus is now carrying the person in need of strong, heavenly arms?

Yeah, that one.

Well, Sheldon said something in a prayer he prayed over us the other night that really stuck out to me and I've yet to be able to shake its' unexpected parallel. He simply asked something specific of our great God that was spoken with a hint of humour and even slightly tongue in cheek. But really... it's made me think about the depth of such a request.

"Father, let us depend on you like never before. If you could just carry us... no, give us a piggyback ride..."

A piggyback ride?

I remember that as I glanced up at this glorious man I've been chosen to spend life with, I grinned. First of all, he's cute and saying something like that in the midst of prayer really reminded me of a child talking to his daddy, so strong and so capable, but there was more of a reason then even that.

Sheldon was asking God to not only carry our burdens, our baggage, our weight... but to do so as a loving father would his child with cut feet from stepping on sharp shells, or a lover to his girl to create a bond between them that was slightly whimsical, and maybe still a base to a flyer, cheering loudly while believing her partner won't let her down.

Or maybe a best friend, just because it's fun and that's what best friends do... they give piggyback rides and laugh the whole time.

The cool thing about God giving us a piggyback ride of sorts, is that he won't ever let us slip down his back or feel insecure with a misstep or two. He is solid, secure, and gentle with us as we ride this life out, gripping his shoulders with our fingers or squeezing his neck with our arms wrapped around Him desperately, depending on Him to take us where He wants us to go. For our good. Don't forget that part. And He could take us anywhere. Anywhere in the world. Or He could have us love as He would, right where we are as He keeps us trusting Him here in this place. It's worth a grin.

I'm so grateful for my Papa's strength when I am weak and when I think I'm strong. I need Him to give me a piggyback ride either way. I don't want to walk on my legs in my favored direction... He's got me. I trust Him. Let's go. 

"Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders." -Deuteronomy 33:12










beLOVED.,
Lauren!<><+

Carry Me - Audrey Assad (Click here!)


Where does your dependency on God stand right now, this very minute? Are you holding His hand through trials... wiggling around uneasily while He hoists you up and over his back? Are you riding gleefully, in full acknowledgment that he's got you and won't let you down, even if He decides to run? Leave a comment below if you have something to share.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Laborer of Love


"I've tried to build a few things in my life. I took what I thought were great ideas, I stacked them neatly on pillars, put them on my AV cart, and rolled them out. I've hit my share of rocks too, and those rocks have sent parts of my dreams hurling. Yet Jesus continues to select broken and splattered people not just as followers but as participants. He called people like me who can't even figure out which end of a plastic bag to open His hands, He called people who trip every day His feet, and He called people who can't figure out which way to turn a screw to tighten it...  the ones who would build a kingdom." - "Love Does" by Bog Goff


When a man goes to build something new, very little of the time does he begin on an already cleared lot. No, most of the time he must tear down something first to start his new project. Sometimes it's a forest that must be cleared... sometimes it's the ancient ruins of past days and dreams in the form of an old creaky house... 

When Papa gave me the word "Build" on a rooftop in Malaysia, in regards to my homecoming to America, the image in my mind matched the image I saw when I looked beneath that very building on which I stood. There, lying in neat symmetrical patterns, were the makings of a new project, supplies organized and ready to go. Simply waiting on the builder to start construction.



Little did I realize that my return to the United States, after 11 months on the road and in the air traveling on my kindom journey with the World Race, would begin in the tearing down phase and would only look and feel by month 4 of being home as if my heart, mind, and even life had been cleared a  small patch towards the open space needed to build as declared in month 10 of the 11 away. As the days and now months have passed by since arriving home seemingly "ready to go," the Lord has humbled me greatly in what the entire process of new construction on a piece of land or simply a heart looks like when the Foreman is in complete control of His project. I am a laborer. That is what I am. I am a valued laborer in this kingdom work but a laborer just the same. The project is so much bigger than I can fathom. 

The phrase "tearing down" can seem drastic or defeating when read point blank but truly, it's an intimate process where excess is done away with and the soil is left as ready for its' greater purpose. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I feel that gratitude for this season, has been the foundation on which God, yes that very Foreman of this life building project, desires to build His new framework. 


As you can see by clicking here, there are many steps to building anything. Some revolve around forethought and planning... others around preparation for the build... and yet others still for the very beginning stages. Good thing life is long because I suddenly feel that it is planned to be very full. Full of new ideas, dreams, and goals that all result in a finished product when I meet my great Foreman face to face. That special greeting will not just be because I'm His daughter but also because I was His obedient and willing laborer along the way. 

If you clicked on that website link I provided above, you'd understand what I mean when I say that I believe that I am in the "flooring" stage of this building project. It's just a lot more about rebuilding me than I ever imagined it would be. It was about His dreams for my future, His planning for my location, His determination in pursuing my desire to be where He wanted me to be, His direction as to how I would build with the identity He has designed me to be as His laborer, and even His kind stripping of my knotted and twisted excess picked up along the way to this day... and now He's laid a foundation of gratitude that will hold up His will in me and through me. 



I totally get Bob Goff, almost on every level. I hope you will read his book and feel the same way. But as this life building project gets off the ground, I realize as Bob has more and more, how ill-equipped I feel and yet how incredibly skilled I am in my Foreman's shadow. I rest in Him and He does the work through my obedience to His call. 

Sometimes when I write about my relationship with God, I feel that a person reading who has yet to experience Him, may find it to be a manipulative relationship... let me say that I have never felt so loved in all of my life... or so free as I do right now while typing this post. Please note that even though this is about Him and not me, this life I mean, He created me to be in a love relationship with Him that only naturally involves service. As any earthly love relationship does only to the greatest degree. I serve Him because I love Him and mainly because He LOVED. me first. 

Now that I've explained the building process that has begun in me, I hope to help you and others experience it all week by week and in ways that change your life to also live under construction and ready to build whatever project or projects He has for you as His laborer. Life is so much better when we say yes to our Foreman's call and labor out of love. 








beLOVED.,
Lauren!<><+

Maybe you are reading this post today and wondering what "your project" is going to be? Tell me your thoughts! Or maybe you desire that relationship with God, the foreman of your life, as I have described? Please click His story to know more about the Father and His Son Jesus now. Lastly, maybe you DO know how God has or is planning to use you to build as His laborer... please share below your thoughts from that perspective! I can't wait to know!

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

like a rose



Beautiful girl, so tried and so timid. Your false portrayal of confidence does not fool me. Your heart is breaking and I can see it. Please, take this rose. Take this hand written note of love. Call this number. Be rescued from the darkness in which you dwell. 

Paint your lips and keep the bar code close at hand. Know we are waiting for your cry. We want to help. We dream of your delivery. We pray for you daily. You are trapped. We know. Mentally and physically trapped. You may be older. You may be in your youth. But you can be free. You can be free. 

Jesus broke my heart for you long ago. For your suffering. For your needs. For your freedom. Let us. Please, let us. Don't run away, shy away, give up. The vans keep driving up and down and up and down. They are looking for their "girls." The ones who they have seen week after week. The girls that know their white vans and pray to be given the red rose. Like a rose, you are precious and all together lovely. You are beautiful and LOVED. so please, don't give up or give in but get out! 

(Florida Team)

(Our entire FL/AR Team)

You think that you won't be safe. We will make sure that you are. You think it won't work any other way but we promise it will. You think you will have to go back and that it will be worse but you don't have to and it can be so much better than this. Your body can be yours and your children can get out of their fearful closets. Your Papa in heaven... He sees you. I know you have trouble believing in Him because of all you've been through. And especially the thought that as a Father He could possibly be good to you but one day you will. I believe for you. And He's sending us, week after week to your neighborhood. Not to bug you. Not to cause you more pain. Not to create an issue. But to offer you the chance to be LOVED., known, and once again valued. Maybe even for the first time. Your drug addiction can't keep you down and neither can your poverty. You are worth the fight and we ask you to let us fight for you in Jesus name. He is the freedom giver and we want to be your freedom fighters. 

Make the call, get in the van. Today could be your day of freedom. Tonight could be your night of rescue. Tomorrow can be the first day of the rest of  your life. We are praying. We are here. We love you. And we want you to know why. Because Jesus paid for you with the price of His life long ago and wants you. He WANTS you. He doesn't want to USE you. He desires to love you the way He intended you to be loved.

Get in the van of safety. We will lead you to rest. We will share with you your worth. We will hold your hand and tell you of the freedom of God Who LOVED. you enough to bring you a rose and a way out. 

One girl got in the van. It happened. She chose freedom. Praise God. I will never forget her fragility. She was so much like a rose...



(This piece was written in honor of the organization Out of Darkness, connected with the Dream Center and the myMISSION fulfilled wkd event in Atlanta, GA. I was honored to be present for a rescue this past Friday night, there on the streets of Atlanta. One girl was given freedom and safety from her pimp on that night because after 1 year of building a relationship, she trusted us enough to get in the van. Amen)















beLOVED.,
Lauren!<><+

Thank you for your many prayers for this past wkd's event! I gained a huge amount of insight into the anti-trafficking movement in the United States and feel better prepared for the future work the Lord will allow me to pursue in that field of justice!