Monday, December 31, 2012

New Year's Eve Edification



2012 has been a tremendous year for the Kirby family. We celebrate what the year held. It forever changed us for the better. If I may humbly yet boldly proclaim, we passed our tests together!

I cannot recall a past New Year's Eve where I felt such a sense of supernatural JOY, residing deep down and bubbling up to overflow, that is both grateful at its root and expectant throughout its branches. I love and serve a mighty and purposed GOD!

I say, "Thank you, God, for 2012. You have brought me riches untold and my heart searches for a way to express my gratitude to You. I cannot wait to see You fulfill Your words over us for 2013. It is going to be the most fabulous, exciting, joyous journey to date! To You be ALL the glory, honor, and power! Here's to 2013! Let's do this thing!"

To my friends - I do hope you all take a moment today to be still... to completely "swallow" 2012... acknowledging all the "flavors" it brought to you... and then sit a spell with God.... listen for His revelation to you of YOUR 2013.

It was recently said that man relates to God through resolution -- God relates to man, however, through revelation.... when the two are combined it gives birth to revolution (defined as "a radical, sudden, complete change)!

Resolution without God's revelation is HOLLOW and MEANINGLESS. That's why so many New Year's resolutions come and go without fulfillment... because they haven't been sanctioned and released by God's revelation.

Take the TIME to apprehend God's revelation on your resolutions -- only then will you gain the revolution you truly desire!

MUCH love to you all!
Deborah and Brian


Monday, December 24, 2012

Wondrously Grateful

This morning, as it is still dark outside, I sit by the fire, hot coffee in hand, reading the only Book that truly matters in life and joyously conversing with the One who steadfastly calls out to my heart, "Beat!"

Six months from now, by this point in the morning, I will have sat on my hill. Having watched the sun rise, feeling its warmth, and hearing His voice, I'll embrace the wondrous day granted to me as a gift to be cherished and explored.

Seasons. Both the natural seasons and the spiritual seasons work their differing effects on us, but God's wondrous presence in my life is the everlasting constant I hold most dear.

Wondrously grateful that some 2000 years ago..... JESUS CAME! He came for me.... and He came for you.

Do you know HIM this Christmas? Oh, how I pray you do. ♥


Friday, December 21, 2012

Merry CHRISTmas!

May you and yours have a most blessed CHRISTmas! Those of us here at JITM pray most sincerely that you look to God afresh this season, embracing so great a love as His. There is none more worthy to be celebrated than Him!

Merry CHRISTmas! With our love! ♥



Tuesday, December 18, 2012

'Tis the season!

This morning I walked into the quiet of the kitchen, turned on the light, and exhaled.

God is about His business of wrapping up 2012 at an accelerated rate for us. From the more significant to the less significant, He is dotting the "i" and crossing the "t" and putting a period at the end of every sentence. As the saying goes, "It's a wrap"...well, almost!

The coffee maker was filled -- the French toast was made.
I sat at the breakfast table absorbing the quiet.  Shortly, my husband walked up behind... gave a hug and a kiss... and sat down.  Quiet reflection of the season past and the season to come was caught in between our eyes.

Journeying with God calls forth a challenge to our humanity.  It is an addiction unlike any other.  Follow long enough and there is no point of return to be found. It will tear the flesh to pieces as it gives way to the spirit, soaring to greater and greater heights.  The wings beat, the heart pounds. It is a habitat flight unlike any other; not meant to be a one time flight -- a "rush" as they say.  No!  Such flight is to be a habitat, a sphere of air in which to reside.  It is arduous, extreme, demanding, life-taking, life-giving.

Steam from our coffee wafted up into the air.
The sun began to light the day. 
My husband and I smiled together,
no words were needed.

Two hearts.... one beat.
Two pairs of wings powered by harmony,
greater heights in our sights.

To take such a habitat requires everything possessed and more; yielding ever increasing degrees of light, fresh air, wholeness, and life than ever thought possible.

To NOT take it  robs everything possessed and more;  yielding diminished light, suffocating air, brokenness, and ultimately -- death.

Last week we were all reminded how suddenly life can forever change.

My exhortation to you today is do not put off tomorrow what could --- what should -- be done today.

I have been writing a good bit in recent months about diligence and stewardship -- basic principles that MUST be deeply rooted  in BOTH thought and action before one can expect increase.   As an author once wrote, would you entrust your child with two more dollars if he lost the one dollar you gave him initially?  No! God will not increase until He sees that you can properly handle what He has already given.

Too often we float through our days with a subconscious thought, "I have tomorrow."  But what if tomorrow never comes, at least here on this planet we call Earth?

Those who have followed me for any length of time know what a proponent I am to righteous sowing - not only for your generation, but the one to follow.  If you want a harvest, you have to work the field... you have to sow the seeds God has given.  Any farmer knows that if you plant one seed, it returns both  fruit and a multiplication of seeds.  Take the multiplication of seeds and plant those -- and they too return a greater  multiplication of seeds.  But if you never plant the "starter seeds," you'll not receive the fruit NOR the multiplication of seeds.

Don't wait another day, dear ones, to plant the seed(s) God has entrusted to you! And once planted, sprouted, and harvested.... make sure to sow the seeds of increase.  It's a divinely orchestrated pattern destined to leave a powerful mark on this planet!  All it requires is our faithfulness to sow.

It is written, "I, the Lord, am its keeper; I water it every moment. So that no one will damage it, I guard it night and day." Isa 27:3

GIVE God something to water, something to guard.



Monday, December 10, 2012

Nourishment Distribution

I'll be sharing with a great group of people this evening. It always brings me so much joy to share with others what God has so freely and generously taught me through the years.

I am ever mindful of how Jesus blessed the fish and loaves and THEN put them into the hands of His disciples to distribute. He didn't REQUIRE a wait staff, but CHOSE to use them.

His disciples had to do something, however, before they could participate in the distribution. Know what that was? They had to GO to HIM. We can't give something we haven't received!

I'm so glad He did it the way He did! And because He did it just the way He did, His disciples received JOY at being a blessing to others. They received AWE in witnessing their Lord in action. And they received their OWN nourishment even as they handed nourishment out to others.

Remember to go to Him today -- receive YOUR nourishment --- and then look for opportunities to DISTRIBUTE the divine multiplication of that nourishment to others!


Friday, December 7, 2012

Past, Present, and Future....

A glance back once in a while is necessary because it causes us to inspect our growth. It is the fixed-stares aimed backwards that we must guard against!

Stagnation birthed from either weariness or complacency is one of the largest enemi
es to spiritual growth. When we give in to it, the natural tendency is to look anywhere but forward.

Perhaps your past season was better than your today season, so much so, that you can't imagine anything better up ahead. Or perhaps the past was so painful and hurtful that it has left you numb and on the side of life's road.

We all have a story. We all have a past. But more importantly, we all have a future. The past only has the power over you that you permit. I encourage you to give your past to God, and trust Him with your today and your tomorrow.   HIS exchange rate is second to none!

Onward, dear siblings.... onward!
Bless you!
Deborah
 

Monday, December 3, 2012

The Wonder of It All

I smiled tonight as God saw fit to see a small need and meet it. I will forever stand in awe that He sees, with such detail, specks of people as you and me --- coming to us, redeeming us, and then methodically intertwining His character and His care into the tiniest of fibers within those specks.

Amazing... absolutely amazing.