Little Birdie

I just updated my About Me page. I actually wrote something original about myself. Yay!

My church hosted a community yard sale on Saturday. God was so faithful. He caused everything to come together and work smoothly, he breathed on our efforts, and it was awesome. So many people contributed, and I just want to publicly thank all of you. Especially my friend Susan, who worked super hard and provided her invaluable wisdom.

I pulled together some statistics that I shared with the congregation on Sunday. I share this not to boast of our own efforts but of God’s provision over this event:

• 500 flyers
• 13 sellers
• 40 dozen cookies, brownies, muffins, fruit, donuts, and pastries
• 11 gallons of coffee
• 5 hours of face painting
• 100 balloons given away
• 1 giant bouncy slide
• 25+ people surveyed

And most importantly, 2 people received Christ.

It just goes to show you that God can use any situation, any number of willing people, and any venue to accomplish his purposes.

I can’t wait until next year

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /var/www/littlebirdie/wp-content/plugins/gapp/googleanalytics.php on line 325

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /var/www/littlebirdie/wp-content/plugins/gapp/googleanalytics.php on line 325

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /var/www/littlebirdie/wp-content/plugins/gapp/googleanalytics.php on line 325

Bethel’s worship team is going through the book “Exploring the Mysteries of Worship” by LaMar Boschman. I confess I haven’t been all that faithful keeping up with the reading, but the discussions are always thought-provoking.

We got into a couple of things last night that I have continued to wrestle with this morning: the definition of “the anointing,” and the act of entering the King’s gates and going further into his courts.

Mr. Boschman defined “anointed” as the tender heart that results from being in the presence of God. He presented a forumulaic definition of the anointing as what people see when we fast, pray, and repent.

The worship team pretty much decided that Mr. Boschman’s definition was incorrect, or at least incomplete. I did some more research on this and have made the following obersvations:

1. Dictionary definition: Mr. Webster defines “anointed” as consecrated, set apart as by divine intervention, dedicated to the service of God. It also means to smear with any liquid. I like that
2. The anointing is given sovereignly by God. It is completely external and has nothing to do with us. There are numerous references in the Old Testament indicating that God anointed this person or that person as king, or priest, or captain of an army. He anointed David to rule. He even anointed Jehu to destroy the house of Ahab. The anointing is often symbolized by oil, and it is put on a person by another person. I couldn’t find anywhere that fasting and praying resulted in oil coming out of somebody’s face from the inside.
3. When you accept Christ, you are automatically anointed to (1) make disciples, and (2) fulfill the command to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. These are supernatural commands, but the anointing is also supernatural and gives us the ability to do such things. Just as the anointing in the Old Testament consecrated priests and kings to rule, that same anointing enables us to fulfill God’s commands.
4. God protects his anointed. The psalms are rife with examples of the favor, blessing, and protection afforded to the Lord’s anointed ones.
5. God allows us to move in the anointing even when we are in sin. We can quench the Spirit, and we can harm ourselves when we sin. But as we discussed last night, the gifts are without repentance. God can, and has, anointed my own actions to His glory even when I am in sin. A biblical example of this is the story of David. God’s anointing over his life still held even when he had an adulterous affair and sent the woman’s husband off to be killed.

Our worship leader asked an important follow-up question about the anointing: Is it appropriate to ask for a fresh anointing, a new anointing? After all, the same anointing from the same Almighty God is available today just as it was yesterday.

I think there are two parts to the answer. First, the anointing itself isn’t “new,” but we might need a “renewed” anointing every day. The Bible encourages us to renew our minds continually with the Word of God. If we ask for a fresh anointing, it’s because we ourselves have been consumed by life’s issues and feel dry.

The second part of the answer is, there are times when that anointing enables us by the Holy Spirit to do miraculous works, lead people into a deeper place of worship, etc. It is those times that when we ask for a fresh anointing, we are really asking for God to show up in power and heal, make His glory known, and manifest His presence (which, by the way, was another topic of discussion in the book).

Well, I think I just opened up more questions in my own mind than answering anything, but it helps to write about it. Second topic, entering His praise with thanksgiving, coming up next.

The post-caffeine crash was a non-event. I got a little nauseous and pretty jittery, but I had some food and then I was okay. Slept really well last night too, and no hangover this morning

Sorry for the short post. I’m counting yesterday’s post toward my 2-post-a-week challenge.

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /var/www/littlebirdie/wp-content/plugins/gapp/googleanalytics.php on line 325

I usually pride myself on being caffeine-free. I drink tea, decaffeinated when I’m at home. I drink diet orange soda. I drink water. Well, pride goeth before the fall. This morning I had 44 OUNCES of diet coke. In 7-up terms, that’s the SUPER GULP.

Now it’s 2:26 p.m. and I am just getting bouncier. I feel like that Animal House kitty on crack! This stuff is better than…well, my brain won’t sit still long enough to think of what it’s better than!

Why did I denounce caffeine in the past? What was I thinking?? I have been more productive today than in an entire week of non-caffeine!

Caffeine is the GREATEST THING EVER!

….

Okay. I just read up on what wikipedia says about caffeine. I think I’m intoxicated. Check this out.

I am not looking forward to the upcoming crash. This could be bad. I’ll report on the fallout tomorrow.

I was sitting with one of my best friends, musing about how we’ll all be celebrating our 7th anniversaries in 2008, and it struck me that my marriage has just been getting better every year. We’re committed to each other, and we’ve found out that we really meant it when we said “I do.”

One of the many things marriage has taught me is that the definition of “intimacy” extends waaay beyond sex. Actually, being intimate with my husband means knowing every little detail about him, getting to the point of anticipating his thoughts and actions, and learning his routines.

However, one thing that I wish we knew less about each other is our…ahem…bodily functions. And believe, me, even with only two of us in the house, we have a surprisingly large, umm, quantity of them. There’s probably a direct correlation between that and the amount of Mexican food we eat.

I took the liberty of creating a graphical depiction of our conversation topics, and it looks something like this:

As you can see, discussion of sex rates even below finances and household activities. But to be honest, sex doesn’t usually require a whole lot of conversation. You would think that going to the bathroom wouldn’t, either, but there you are. It’s WAY more exciting to talk about the fact that the Chinese food I ate is now out of my body 2 hours later, than to talk about, say, doing the dishes, or how Martin Luther revolutionized Christianity.

I just can’t wait until we have a child. Think about all the poo we’ll be discussing THEN!

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /var/www/littlebirdie/wp-content/plugins/gapp/googleanalytics.php on line 325

Except for the kitty litter part.

And the screaming at 4:30 in the morning part. Seriously, I don’t know what was wrong with my cat last night, but she had this driving need to wake us up every three hours to tell us how much she loved us. In very, very loud expressions of cat-ness.

If I could teach my cat to do this, all would be well. Except of course, I would also have to teach her to USE the toilet before flushing it 500 times.

Edit: Believe it or not, there is exhaustive literature out there on how to toilet train your cat. Check this out.

Okay. I am hereby challenging myself to post regularly. Instead of long periods of dry spells followed by a barrage of posts, I am going to post twice a week. Mondays and Thursdays.

There, I said it. Now I have committed myself.

I have five or six works in progress that I haven’t gotten around to finishing, so this will help me finish them. Plus, I like journaling. It’s good for the little bird inside.

Okay, Ready…BREAK!

In one end
and out the other
My tummy rebels
My guts run for cover.

Viva la spices
Regurgitate flavor
Viva tortilla chips
Heartburn is thy favre.

Why do I do this?
The answer is pure.
Te amo burrito
Rolaids is the cure.

I wasted no time in squashing their pitiful excuse for a response:

I understand what the Message 1800 says, and I understand what a soft charge is. My Master Card is not a debit card, it is a U.S. card, I have a U.S. address, and I have ample funds available. It seems to me that if CheapTickets can make a soft charge to the credit card to verify funds, etc., and my card has ample funds, there should be no problem charging my card. Therefore, the problem is with your website, and not me.

I am extremely disappointed in CheapTickets “canned” answers to my problem. I simply would have liked customer service to book my flight over the phone for no extra fee because, by their own admission, their website was experiencing problems. Instead, customer service demonstrated that they have no training in how to really solve problems of this nature, and treated me in a manner that put me on the defensive. This email response is further proof that you do not understand my problem and are unwilling to help me.

Meanwhile, I used the same card on Hotwire.com with NO PROBLEMS. Combined with their customer service record as opposed to your unwillingness to understand my problem and resolve it, I will be doing business with them in the future.

You may think I have way too much time on my hands. You’re probably right. But I’m SICK AND TIRED OF OUTSOURCED CUSTOMER SERVICE BULLSHIT.