Freedom

Mark 5:1-20

Imagine putting yourself in the place of this demon-possessed man. You’re an outcast of society who is feared and hated. You are so tormented by the voices of demons that you are suicidal and the only way to find any measure of relief from their sadistic oppression is to mutilate your body and try to mask the mental, emotional and spiritual pain with physical pain. You are so overcome with sorrow and rage and every manner of wicked and depressing emotion and thought that night and day, unable to find rest or escape, all you can do is weep, wail and cry out. How long have you been suffering? Has it been weeks, months, or even years? You are in such great spiritual bondage, that the people’s attempts to bind you with shackles and chains is laughable – those chains are nothing compared to what locks down your heart.

Now imagine that you see a man in the distance, and due to your heightened awareness of the spiritual realm and the sudden chaos amongst the thousands of demons who inhabit your body, you see something about this man that not many others have been able to recognize. The demonic legion rages frantically in fear about the Son of the Most High God and you have a brief moment of sanity and clarity amongst all the confusion to realize that you MUST see this man and that He is your only hope! You run like you have never run before and fall at His feet in worship. In that moment, all you see is that He is beautiful and worthy of adoration and through this amazing gift of revelation of who He is, you even forget to ask for help, but simply whisper words of love.

Now imagine your surprise when control of your voice is suddenly seized from your power and the demons begin to engage with this man in pleas for mercy. Then with a simple command He instructs them to leave your body and with a jolt of power, you feel every single unclean, filthy, vile and evil thing wretch itself out of your being and you see the black cloud cast themselves into a herd of swine.

You now find yourself sitting at the feet of the man you now know is Jesus. Your nakedness has been covered and the most incredible peace has filled your heart and soul and mind. The look of compassion and love on His face floods your heart and you are consumed with love for this man. You are oblivious to the others who have come and who are pleading with Him to leave until He suddenly turns to go. Now you are the one pleading, but you are begging to go with Him. You have just encountered the love of the very Son of God and your life has been altered is a way so dramatic that it has caused an uproar in your community. You have been freed from demonic slavery and now all you want is to become a bondslave to Jesus and go with Him wherever He goes. When he denies your request, for a moment you are crushed, but then by His grace, you trust Him, for you know the depth of His love for you and you willingly accept His commission to go tell everyone about what He has done for you. In your heart, you still long for His presence and to simply be with Him, but you treasure the experience in your heart, holding onto it, believing that one day you will be with Him again for eternity.

365 Photography Project

Okay folks – I went and started a 365 Photography Project because I just couldn’t help myself!  So far I have only taken photos with my iPhone and I’m guessing that’s what the majority of them will be, so don’t expect anything high quality or fancy-schmancy.  Do expect to see pics that make me smile because I enjoy them. :)

Also, I decided to use tumblr as my way to share my pics, so if you are a tumblr user, feel free to follow me there, or you can add my site link to your blog/RSS reader of choice -> http://echoinghim.tumblr.com/

So go ahead check out the first 6 photos of 365!

Mothering Mondays

If you are a mother, I just want to take a brief moment to share about my dear friend Rosaleen who has a beautiful blog where she details all the wonders of her life as a wife and a mother to 3 adorable children as they travel the world and experience different cultures and gorgeous scenery.  Her writing is always filled with poetry and romance as she invites you into a world of innocence, purity and simple joys.  Along with her beautiful photography, her incredible decorating skills, her amazing food creations, and homeschooling adventures, she is now taking some time to simply bless mothers by offering an opportunity to submit your name into a draw for a weekly gift.  This week she is featuring an elegant and feminine eco-friendly planner, which I am so tempted to put my name in for, but which I would probably sadly not use now that I have my iPhone. But, if you are a mother and want to join in on her Mothering Mondays for the chance to receive something simple to bless you, just for being one of the great women who gives life to a precious child, then go on over and visit her at Beatific – Finding Beauty and Blessing.

2011

There have been an abundance of New Years posts lately, many detailing their resolutions or outlooks on the upcoming year, so I suppose I will join in as well.    While I wouldn’t say I’ve made any resolutions, I have several new projects or goals that I am wanting to implement this year that I am really excited about!

Prayer & Giving
Joe and I enjoy giving to various causes that we are passionate about, but we realized that we felt somewhat disconnected from the things we were giving to and that it was important to not only give financially, but to also pray for these issues.  So we are starting a prayer meeting with just the 2 of us once a week and we’ll focus on one of these issues per month in a rotation.  This month our focus is praying for the ending of human trafficking (modern-day slavery). 

We had our first prayer meeting last night and used the International House of Prayer‘s free prayer room webstream to help us out – they conveniently have a prayer meeting every Monday evening at 8:00pm for the ending of human trafficking that we could easily join in with and add our prayers to!  While I know that there will be weeks when I don’t feel motivated to get off my butt or where I have other things on my to do list or when I’m so focused on my own wants and needs that I won’t want to intercede for others, I am praying that God will give us the grace and strength to carry through the year. 

Ultimately, our goal and desire is to discover what it means to be priests of God and to minister to Him and others daily, wherever we are – at work, at home, at church, running errands, etc. – because this is who He made us to be and because He is worthy and deserving of our worship.

Bible Study
Joe and I also wanted to incorporate some kind of Bible study into our schedule, so we took advantage of the discounts available through IHOPU’s eSchooland registered for a 4-course non-credit audio bundle, which gives us four of the University’s courses in .mp3 format with all the course notes, which we can go through at our own pace.  We are probably going to start with the course “Christology” taught by Stephen Venable, which has 32 sessions, which we will go through 1 per week – that’s 8 months!!  The course description is:

“Through rigorous exploration of the biblical teaching concerning the person and work of Christ, this course seeks to inform the mind and inflame the heart with love. In view of the coming eschatological delusion, it is imperative that believers be established in the truths regarding the Son of God.”

We’ll probably listen to the teachings individually on our own time and then hopefully spend some time once a week together to discuss what we learned, simply meditate on God’s Word, and maybe spend some time in worship, singing about what we’ve discovered about Jesus!

Bible Reading Plan
I’ve noticed lots of people are getting excited about reading the Word this year and many people are signing up for various Bible reading plans.  Last year I managed to complete reading through the entire Bible in 90 days, but when I finished, I found myself floundering and not knowing what to do next.  Without a plan, I was lacking direction and so I ended up not reading my Bible at all!  When I read about some people who had this crazy plan to read through the New Testament in 30 days every month of this year (#NTx12 for those of you on Twitter), I felt like this was the plan I wanted to get on board with.  I’m excited about this plan because I had actually already been wanting to go deeper in the New Testament and this plan offers you the opportunity to “re-start” every month, in case you fall off the wagon.  Plus, it’s extra fun when you have others doing it along with you – several of my friends are joining in as well and it’s great watching the tweets starting already with people’s thoughts on what they’re discovering.  Most people are taking advantage of YouVersion.comwhich has fabulous resources with many reading plans to choose from – it’s easy to sign up for free and create an account that allows you to start a plan, tag verses with your own custom themes, bookmark your favorite verses, create notes with your private thoughts or share them publicly with the community, and much more!  If you’re on YouVersion – come follow me here!  I personally love using the YouVersion iPhone app, but I also enjoy the Blue Letter Bible iPhone app which allows me to highlight passages with my own custom colored themes (up to 7) and view related commentaries, dictionaries, etc.

365 Photography Project
I’ve always thought it would be fun to do a 365 Photography Project where I take one photo every day for a year and I am wondering if this is the year to try it?  I’m a little late, but I think it would be fun!  I’m a little hesitant because it’s also a big commitment and of all the things I’d like to do, this one would probably be the first to get abandoned, and I don’t really want to start if I’m just going to quit.  If my husband is reading this, he is probably pleading with God right now that I won’t do it, because he is horrified by the number of pictures I take and keep stored on our hard drive already – lol – but I am still very intrigued.  I’m thinking that if I don’t manage to take a picture every single day, that I would probably even be happy if I just took one picture per week, which works out well for one 365 Photography Project planthat gives you ideas/themes to inspire you – one for each week of the year.  The other drawback for me is that all I have are a point-and-shoot camera and my iPhone camera – not exactly professional equipment – so I’d have to do it knowing that my pictures wouldn’t be all that spectacular or come anywhere close to comparing with other photographer’s similar projects.  This week’s theme is “Cold”, which is definitely fitting for the frigid temperatures we are experiencing right now – I wonder what interesting photo I could take today???  If I do this, I’ll also have to choose my medium for sharing my photos – whether to post a blog weekly, monthly, or simply put them up on flickr or some other site – I’ll keep you updated on what I decide to do.

Yikes!!  I’m a little nervous about the amount of things I’m getting into, but mostly I’m just excited about the potential for growth and creativity and being challenged! 

Have you made any resolutions or goals or started any new projects this year?  Do share in the comments and let me know!