Sacred Sacrifice

*Warning!!  What you are about to read are the jumbled thoughts of a scatter - brained individual*

Oh, my...  I am usually a bit of a "mawmaw", meaning I go to bed somewhat early and ENJOY that.  Tonight...  Or rather this morning, I find myself in a strange predicament...   Thanks to a rather intense combination of a massive headache and approximately 9,254,716,327,854.2 thoughts rolling around in my brain, I find I am fighting a losing battle with insomnia.

As I tend to do when stricken with a dreaded attack of insomnia, I decided to read.  I love to read...  Just as I have a rather eclectic taste in music, so have I in literature.  I love fiction, non - fiction, comedy, thrillers, biographies, self - help, inspirational, cookbooks, blogs, newspapers, magazines, I simply LOVE to read.  One, who reads, never stops learning...  One of the MANY little treasures of wisdom my precious MawMaw Yvonne handed down as I sat next to her.   Gosh, I sure miss her.  There will NEVER be another like MY MawMaw...

Anyway, while rereading some old notes, I came across an excerpt from Beth Moore's book, "Breaking Free":

     To be liberated in Christ, we've got some sacrifices to make. Make sure He's the one asking for it, but if He is, any sacrifice you make will be wholly consumed by Him as such a sweet sacrifice. He will bless.

     We fear making sacrifices. But the irony is that we make a lot of sacrifices when we are not living the will of God.  How many things have we placed on the altar to Satan's kingdom?  We live sacrificially when we're outside the will of God, giving up all sorts of things that were meant to be ours in Christ.

(*side note* I haven't read the entire book, simply excerpts, so please do not take this as my personal endorsement of said book.)  

This specific excerpt struck me a little more this time than the last...  Sacred sacrifice has been on my mind lately.  Not just a "normal" fast or sacrifice, but one that makes the "normal" seem trivial...  Does that make any sense?  I hope so, but I am also fully aware of how badly I tend to ramble.  

Having been raised in the church, I have grown up fasting, praying, reading my bible, attending church faithfully, etc.  Each one of those things IS a sacrifice.  We have to take time out of our busy schedules for each one.  We have to force our flesh to do each one.  But even with carnal flesh, each of these precious things can become routine, they can become "normal", even comfortable.  Sacrifice, especially when it is a SACRED sacrifice (any sacrifice for God), should never be comfortable.  It should never feel normal or routine...  It should shake the very core of our being...  Sacred sacrifice requires discomfort of our flesh, of our carnal man.  SACRED sacrifice is about so much more than ME or YOU, it is about HIM.  

I'm so tired of mediocrity.  I want to live on the edge.  I want every step I take to be full dependant on Him and His direction.  The ONLY way to have that is to die out to His will and ignore that of myself.  This is not a normal day.  This is not a normal time.  We MUST go beyond normalcy; we must stretch ourselves into a greater realm.  We are not the "next generation", my friends.  We are THE generation who is leading the charge now.  We influence everything from clothing trends to political events.  Just like the great leaders of the church who came before us, we MUST go beyond what is comfortable and dive head first into sacred sacrifice.  I don't want the same revivals and outpourings of the Spirit they had, those have come and gone.  I want something greater.  I want my generation to CRAVE more of Him.  I want us to step out of the comfort zones we all tend to cower in and step boldly toward the edge, not relying on our own strengths, but instead, solely on Him.

As I proof - read the last paragraph above, another note came to mind:

Dutch Sheets spoke this over a generation that can either choose to carry the mantle or continue on in "normal". I'm choosing the former.

History will swing & change because of me. I'm not typical but a reformer. I am called to change things & rock the boat. I am an intercessor. I love God - not religion. I love His presence. I don't just sing - I worship. In Him I live, move & exist. I cannot be bought. I cannot be swayed. I'm a world changer. I will not compromise. I dream of the impossible. I will lead in Christ. I fear nothing - because greater is He. I'm dangerous because my life is not my own. Mediocrity scares me. I crave His presence. I'm a worshipping warrior & a covenant keeper. I am pure. I am loyal. I was born for such a time as this. I am the alabaster box generation. I'm the awakening generation. I am alive. Awake. I am called. I'm a voice that cannot be silenced. I'm a burning one. 

You need something from God?  You need a miracle?  You want change?  You want to make a difference?  Give up something; find something to do away with for a while.  Discomfort yourself, inconvenience your flesh...  Focus EVERYTHING on HIM for a time and in return, HE will give focus to our sacrifice; to our sacred sacrifice.

I feel a stirring in the winds of my spirit and it's exciting.

Ink a Smile

 I am a bit of a quote junkie.  I love to read things which inspire me.  I, like most people, like, and even need to be encouraged.  Sometimes I need an encouraging word more than once a day...  Sometimes it's more than 5 times a day.  (Don't act like you don't have those days too, you aren't fooling anyone but yourself.)  Today, one of the several quote accounts I follow on Twitter posted the following: "Take an eraser to erase those tears, then take a pencil and draw a smile on your face."   Instantly, my brain said, "aw, that's a great line".  Almost as quickly, another thought hit me; "why on earth would I ever want to draw a smile on with a PENCIL?!".  As is usually the case, conflicting thoughts (especially those which come in such rapid succession) sends my brain into hyperdrive, most of the time, resulting in a journal or blog post.  Here are my jumbled thoughts:

A smile on a face represents joy, happiness, peace, etc.  

The word "smile", is mentioned 3 times in the bible.  Joy, is mentioned 188 times.  Peace appears 384 times...  577 times, the emotions a smile represents are mentioned.  577 times in 66 books is a LOT.  

James, Chapter 1, is one of my favorite passages, more particularly, verses 2 - 4: "2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."  

Count it all joy... .. ...  ALL OF IT?!  That IS what the scripture says...  When you are facing trials, even the ones which feel bigger than Kilimanjaro stacked on top of Everest.  Even when those closest to you hurt you the deepest.  And even when you feel as if nearly all hope is lost...  Count it ALL joy.  My take is we should TRY to maintain a smile, at all times, even if it means smiling through the tears.  I put added emphasis on the word, "TRY", because there will always be times when the smile is temporarily faded.  But, faded doesn't mean it's gone; something faded simply needs to be repainted...  restained, if you will.  Our salvation is bought with the ultimate price, the very blood of Jesus...  Our lives are STAINED with His redeeming blood.  Without salvation, there can never be TRUE, LASTING JOY, therefore I believe that even when our smiles are faded, they simply need to be restained by our Saviour, for HE is the source of all joy.

One of our dear friends, Sonny (who happens to be a superhero in disguise... without the tights...), posted this thought yesterday: "Funny how "blessings" can make us drift away from God sometimes, and our "trials" can pull us closer.  Maybe we have the two confused?".  I think I may have had such a strong reaction to the quote about erasing tears & drawing smiles is because Sonny's thought already had my mind whirling.

I feel Sonny hit the nail directly on the head and straight through the board in one strike with this thought.  So many of the things I first thought were "blessings" turned out to be ravenous wolves, dressed in innocent lambs clothing.  There have been so many more times, when I felt as if the pain of a "trial" would literally kill me, I have become stronger, more determined, and unwavering in my faith...  THOSE have been the greatest blessings of my life.  Even when the hurt or confusion seems blinding and unbearable, SMILE...  Joy comes in the morning...  Joy also returns after the mourning.

With all of these thoughts racing through my head, I have come to this conclusion:  

I would rather forget the pencil alltogether and simply be holding on to an ink pen.  I want to draw my smile on with something permanant.  Pencil markings fade into nonexistance over time and must be completely redrawn.  While ink does fade, it rarely disappears and can easily be restained to it's rightful beauty.  

I can't be the only one who is still amazed by rainbows, especially rainbows which appear while it's still storming.  I don't want to erase the tears, as they are generally a part of the cleansing proces...  A spiritual rain of sorts.  When we smile through our tears, it shows that the storm we are facing will not destroy us.  Our storms are simply a part of the molding process...  A way for the Master Potter to mold and shape us into who HE has designed us to be.

I want my smile to be a permanant fixture, something lasting; a promise of life after the rain.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

I have this yearly tradition...  I read the Declaration of Independence EVERY year on Independence Day [for those of you who are unsure of when this holiday is..  you probably always refer to it as "the fourth of July" ;o)].  Sometimes it's just nice to be reminded what our country was TRULY founded on.  It's nice to remind myself that the leaders of this great nation were once God fearing men (not just during campaign season!).  Reading the first line of the second paragraph always brings a smile to my face and warms my heart, it has always been one of my most favorite "quotes".  This year, I thought I would give my two blog readers a chance to read the Declaration as well.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. 

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: 

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. 

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1

Georgia:

   Button Gwinnett

   Lyman Hall

   George Walton

Column 2

North Carolina:

   William Hooper

   Joseph Hewes

   John Penn

South Carolina:

   Edward Rutledge

   Thomas Heyward, Jr.

   Thomas Lynch, Jr.

   Arthur Middleton

Column 3

Massachusetts:

John Hancock

Maryland:

Samuel Chase

William Paca

Thomas Stone

Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:

George Wythe

Richard Henry Lee

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Harrison

Thomas Nelson, Jr.

Francis Lightfoot Lee

Carter Braxton

Column 4

Pennsylvania:

   Robert Morris

   Benjamin Rush

   Benjamin Franklin

   John Morton

   George Clymer

   James Smith

   George Taylor

   James Wilson

   George Ross

Delaware:

   Caesar Rodney

   George Read

   Thomas McKean

Column 5

New York:

   William Floyd

   Philip Livingston

   Francis Lewis

   Lewis Morris

New Jersey:

   Richard Stockton

   John Witherspoon

   Francis Hopkinson

   John Hart

   Abraham Clark

Column 6

New Hampshire:

   Josiah Bartlett

   William Whipple

Massachusetts:

   Samuel Adams

   John Adams

   Robert Treat Paine

   Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:

   Stephen Hopkins

   William Ellery

Connecticut:

   Roger Sherman

   Samuel Huntington

   William Williams

   Oliver Wolcott

New Hampshire:

   Matthew Thornton