October 2007
Monthly Archive
My Issacks Moment Remembered!
Posted by Paul on 30 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Encouragement, General, Hope, Ponderings, Remembering, Writers
As I look back, and it is good to look back at times, who would have thought that sitting at Isaacks Restaurant, in Junction, Texas, in a booth drinking a cup of coffee and reading “Moving God Moving Mountains” by Luanne Hunt would forever become in my mind, my Isaack’s moment, that sitting here I experienced the manifest presence of the Lord and the beginning of Hill Country Thoughts, A Coffee Cup Ministry?
I was utterly in awe and aware of my Father coming and fellowshipping with me, right here, right then. That my Father and I had communion. We never know where God will meet us. For the Apostle Paul, it was on the road to Damascus, for this Paul, it was sitting here at Isaack’s in a booth. It was a breath taking experience.
Reading Luanne’s book was a blessing to me and I know that it will be a blessing to anyone who reads it. For me it revealed the Heart of God, the importance of ministering to Him and the fruits of such a relationship. It is as I shared before, that as we learn to listen to the songs, or hear the words that we read, as we really listen, the Lord will reveal Himself and we will be forever changed.
It is a book that you will pick up and re-read over and over and see a different aspect of our Heavenly Father. It is a book that will put you in touch with the heart of the Father. It is a book that honors our Father, that it is all about Him and not about us.
One of the things that spoke to me was when she talked about our gifts, our talents that He has given us, that they are meant to be shared:
“Even if the Lord has blessed you with many gifts and talents, it’s important to realize God’s primary intention behind them. He doesn’t give them to us so we can go around bragging about how wonderful we are. They’re not meant to bring us fame and fortune or exalt us to a lofty position in the world’s eyes. They’re not meant for us at all.
What? I’m not supposed to enjoy the gifts God has given me? Yes, you can enjoy them, and should. But they would mean very little if we kept them to ourselves.
Surely the Lord enjoyed designing the earth and all the wonderful things in it. But His work was not complete until He shared it with all of us. Had He not created man to revel in His glorious dwelling place, it would have remained empty.
Our gifts and talents are also empty works until they touch another’s soul. They are blessings that bring others joy, satisfaction, comfort and healing. They are reflections of all that God offers to every individual.
This is why painters and musicians are so willing to go penniless in pursuit of their artistry. Something about their sensitive natures lets them see the priceless, spiritual value of their work and how transforming it can be to those who come in contact with it.
The need to express love through their art is what drives their very existence. So it is that God has this same need. We are His masterpieces, created to expose His intense love for all mankind.
It’s humbling to think of ourselves in this way and gives us a whole new perspective on why we exist. We are magnificent creatures, sculpted by the Master, for the sheer purpose of bringing His beauty and light into the world.”
Right there in Isaacks, like a bolt of lighting, to see, to understand that the Creator of Heaven and Earth, our heavenly Father see’s us as His masterpieces. It was literally breath taking. It was a revelation of my Father that I have never seen before. To realize we are created for His pleasure, to fellowship with Him.
To be literally caught up with the thought of the Lord, as she shares in one of her songs, is transforming, life changing, awe inspiring, a revelation that will never let you go back, but will cause you to pursue Him, to pursue Him with your whole heart, with your whole being.
This may not make sense to some, but this is the way the Lord brought it to me as I was sitting there in Isaacks. I know, I truly know that I am doing what I have been called to do and I have an excitement and an anticipation within, that it is not something that I am trying to bring about myself.
I feel as a birthing is taking place. I know that is an unusual term for a man to use in reference to what he is experiencing but I am filled with an expectancy and I feel like my heavenly Father is pleased and that He, this day, at this moment and time is revealing Himself to me in a way that I have never known before and it is happening now, not tomorrow, not two weeks from now. but today, right here, in Isaacks He is revealing Himself to me.
It has become like a consuming fire. A new passion has been birthed, that I am finally learning what it truly means to be born again as the Lord meant it!! It is all about the Lord, always has been and always will be and the awesome part is that we get to be part of what He is doing and that too is awesome.
And I know, that I know, that on this day, October 30, 2007 that I am right where the Father wants me, here in Holly Springs, Georgia, and like my Issack”s moment, that the Lord has taken me to a new level in my walk and relationship with Him and it continues, a consuming passion to follow after the Lord, knowing that what He begins, He will finish.
This is what He wants for all of His children, for us to pursue Him, with our whole being, totally, completely, knowing that this day, we are walking with Him into His purposes for this day and time.
Let us be His masterpieces, let us be used for what He created us for, to reflect Him!
Till later,
Paul
The Planting of The Lord
Posted by Paul on 29 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Coffee Thoughts, Family, Friends, General, Ponderings, Prayer, Remembering
Father,
We praise you and exalt you this day!
We lift up your name and rejoice that you are our portion!
You open our hearts to receive fresh manna, your word , that sustains us!
You watch over us and you lead us each day. Our families, the ones we love, friends that we know and will know, you draw to you, for you delight in our fellowship,with you and one another.
You love to listen to our hearts, our dreams, our thoughts and reveal to us your ways.
You water the seeds of hope that you have planted within!
You nurture us Father!
We are the plants in your garden that you cut and shape, that you prune, that we might mature. When you are done, when we have been matured in your garden, when we have been through that crushing process, through the pruning, the molding and shaping, the fragrance of the Christ within will come forth and it will be a fragrance that will draw others to want to know you, to have the peace and rest that comes from abiding in you.
Thank you Father that we are in a season that you are beginning to bring us forth and plant us in the very places that we are needed.
That when we come before you, we begin to see ourselves as you see us, your sons and your daughters, entering into those things that you have spoken to us, that had laid dormant for so long and now we are in the season, the time that you a bringing us forth, that you will be glorified.
Father, we lift our hearts to you this day, and we thank you for allowing us to be in your garden and in your presence, for breathing life and hope within us.
That we are blossoming now, in the very places that you have need of us!
Till later,
Paul
Vortex
Posted by Paul on 24 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Encouragement, Family, Friends, General, Hope, Ponderings, Remembering
A few months ago, my friend PJ gave me a painting that has really brought a lot of clarity to me, as each day, I would look at it and wonder, Lord, what do you want me to see in this, what are you revealing to me?
The more that I looked at the Vortex, the more clarity it brought to me and what I saw each day as I looked at it, was a sense of being drawn in and that as I was drawn in, the thought I had was less of me and more of Him.
I felt the Lord speaking to my heart, that the more I come into His presence, the more He is changing me. As we come into His presence daily, we are being conformed and shaped into instruments in His hands, to express His heart, His love and His desire to fellowship with us.
That He, the creator of heaven and earth, delights, and takes joy in spending time with us, showing us a Father’s heart.
He has called us for a time such as this to be lights, reflecting His heart, His love! He takes all that we go through, even that which appears to be defeat and he uses it to let others see, there is hope, always hope!
It lets others see that when we hold on, keep moving forward, even when we cannot see it at the moment, that as we share out of that hope that He has given us, it will touch the lives of others.
The life we live, we live in Christ! I no longer live, yet I live, for the Life I live now is in Christ. Our life is no longer ours, it is His, we are living in Christ, in the reality of who He is, is that not awesome and the Father sees us as His sons and daughters.
He is teaching me what it means to live a full life in Him, though in the natural it seems like I lost everything but in reality I gained so much more in Him!
Travel with me as I share over the next couple of weeks, this journey that I am on, of the hope within and a heart that knows, that many of you are on a journey, that you have never been on before.
We are on a journey of faith, of trust, of hope and desire. A journey that will conform us to be more and more like the Lord.
We are becoming the instruments in His hands that He has created us to be!
Till later,
Paul
I am so beautiful
Posted by Paul on 05 Oct 2007 | Tagged as: Encouragement, General, Hope, Ponderings
I bet that title got your attention!
What is Paul up to this time, what’s on his mind?
It’s true, it is really true! “I am so beautiful!”
Ask my Father. He will tell you I am so beautiful. What trigger that thought? A song of worship, a song of adoration, a song of surrender, a song of total abandonment.
It is one of the songs that is in my friend Luanne Hunt’s book “Moving God Moving Mountains” and was released in a CD.
I had the privilege of listening to these songs and they indeed take you into the presence of our Father. They share the heartbeat of God and focus you in on our Lord and Saviour.
Listen to this with your heart when you read:
“Ragged souls are yours
Brokenness you desire
As I sink into my suffering
You become much Higher
I am beautiful, all in Pieces,
You run to me
I am so beautiful torn apart
and drowning in my need”
I can identify with this song, and this is just one portion, ragged souls, hurting souls, broken hearts, in pieces, no longer able to carry on, to move, sinking into our suffering and then looking up, allowing Him, the Lord to become much higher.
Though all in pieces and torn apart because of lifes battles, things that I did not understand, in that time of being torn apart within, when all seemed lost, He ran to me, drawing me in my need, lifting me up, he held me and cradled me in His arms and spoke to me and said:
“You are beautiful my son, one of my chosen ones. My children are so beautiful to me, each one unique, each one so precious and I so want to love them, heal them and in this place of brokenness, in this place of dispair, in this time of suffering, they are were I can reach them. I am here to restore them to that which I have created them for.”
Is that not awesome, does that not give you hope? That indeed you are beautiful, for when He is finished we will reflect the Lord. We will reflect His presence, that as we die to self, He will arise within and that it will no longer be I that liveth, but Christ that lives in me, in you and we will then begin to reflect His character, His attitudes as we are conformed to Him.
That even in the times of suffering, of brokeness, we are being changed, we are becoming beautiful in Him!
Till later,
Paul
Orginally shared in 2004, but felt lead to repost it today
