I have been reading in the book of Psalms for the entire month of June.  One thing God has reiterated to me as I have read through the Psalms in 2013 is that He always keeps His promises.  We’ve all heard what’s on my heart today….and heard it and heard it and heard it if we’ve been in church for long.  Funny thing is though, I know very few who actually live a lifestyle of ‘believing God keeps His promises’!

God has made lots of promises to His children!  I may not ‘see’ the answer to the promise right now, but I believe the answers are there, waiting to manifest, in His perfect timing!

Here are just a few verses of the many that reference our ‘promise keeping God’.  They are quoted from the New Living Translation:

Psalms 18:30  God’s way is perfect. All the LORD’s promises prove true. He is a shield for all who look to Him for protection.

Psalms 138:2  I bow before Your holy Temple as I worship. I praise Your name for Your unfailing love and faithfulness; for Your promises are backed by all the honor of Your name.

Psalms 145:13  For Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. You rule throughout all generations. The LORD always keeps His promises; He is gracious in all He does.

Psalms 146:6  He made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. He keeps every promise forever.

I find we as ‘believers’ often say we believe this but then we act like we don’t.  Why is this?  If we trust Him to save us for all eternity, why don’t we trust Him with our here and now?  He is not only faithful to His promises once we die, He is faithful to all the promises that pertain to our daily lives.  But we tend to believe our circumstances and what we see with our eyes rather than what He says is true.  He tells us to:

2 Corinthians 5:7 (ESV)  for we walk by faith, not by sight.

However, I am so often guilty of ‘walking by sight and not by faith’.  I feel like Paul when he said:

Romans 7:15  For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Scripture tells us repeatedly ‘He is mighty to save’.  In fact, I have these words hanging on my wall where I can see them all the time.

I’ll never forget the day He revealed to me those words didn’t just mean to save me from my sins and for eternity, but He meant to save me in every area of my life! He is our Savior and I believe He saves us every day, even when we don’t recognize it.  He saves us from accidents (that traffic delay that so frustrated you might just have been Him at work saving you.); He saves us in our finances (I don’t know of too many people who haven’t had some kind of miraculous intervention in the area of their finances.); He saves us from ourselves in too many ways to count; and the list can go on and on.

You may ask as I have….well, why doesn’t He save us every time?  I can’t answer that question but He can:

Isaiah 55:8-9  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

We won’t ever understand everything!  If we could understand God, He wouldn’t be God!  We can’t bring Him down to our level of understanding, we must rise to His.

So each person has a choice to make—to believe or not.  Is He mighty to save, or isn’t He?  Is His saving power limited to certain areas of our lives or does it apply to every area of our lives?

Will we do this:

Psa 106:12  Then His people believed His promises. Then they sang His praise.

Or will we chose to do this?

Psalms 78:22 (AMP)  Because in God they believed not [they relied not on Him, they adhered not to Him], and they trusted not in His salvation (His power to save).

Psalms 106:24  The people refused to enter the pleasant land, for they wouldn’t believe His promise to care for them.

God gives us the choice.  He doesn’t force us to believe, He doesn’t coerce us to believe, He doesn’t demand we believe, He only lays out the benefits of believing and lets us make the choice.

Mark 9:23b  “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

Mark 11:24  I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.

Luke 1:45  You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what He said.”

My prayer when I find myself walking in doubt as to IF He’ll keep His promises is this:

Mark 9:24  The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

We really can’t do it without His help.  The paradox is that He tells us to believe and then gives us the ability to believe in His power and strength…just like He tells us to obey and then gives us the strength to obey.

But it all boils down to just one question:

Will YOU believe?

I read this blog post today by Lance Wallnau and found it thought provoking and challenging.

Published May 28, 2013 | By Lance Wallnau

There is a topic that has continued to come up over and over in my reading for the past several years….quantum physics!  It is a heavy topic and not easily understood, but in a very elementary way, I’m ‘sort of’ grasping the gist of it.  I’ve at least come to the place where I see what I think is a real correlation between quantum physics and faith.  As it kept coming up, quantum physics sounded really familiar to me because it often sounded like a description of faith.  Think about it….how surreal is it to read in God’s Word that faith can move (or remove) mountains?

1 Corinthians 13:2 (AMP)  And if I have prophetic powers (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody).

Quantum physics is the study of things so small we can’t see them, but everything in the universe is made of these subatomic particles.  Could that be what is referenced in Hebrews 11:3?

Hebrews 11:3 (AMP)  By faith we understand that the worlds [during the successive ages] were framed (fashioned, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose) by the word of God, so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible.

My good friend, Dr. David Stewart gives this explanation:

The principal laws of classical physics were first articulated by Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727). Classical physics has to do with things large enough to experience or measure with our five senses. Classical physics provides the laws by which engineers can build bridges across rivers, design cars to ride in, and send rockets into outer space. Classical physics deals with phenomena involving dimensions the size of an atom or larger.

The principles of quantum physics were first articulated at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th by men such as Max Planck (1858–1947), Erwin Schroedinger (1887-1961), and Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976). Quantum physics has to do with things too small to experience or measure with our five senses. Quantum physics explains things like electric eyes, solar panels, and spectrometers and how they work. Quantum physics deals with the behavior of things with dimensions smaller than an atom. These include electrons, protons, neutrons, quarks, neutrinos, mesons, and other subatomic particles.

As human experimenters, we can study the objects of classical physics as objective observers, separated and apart from the phenomena we study. This is not so in quantum physics, where the experimenter is always part of the experiment.

Annette Capps, in her book Quantum Faith, explains it like this:

“In the quantum, subatomic arena, there are only possibilities and probabilities.  Things don’t work like you think they should.  Nothing is there until you look.  All that exists is only an infinite number of possibilities.”

“Nothing is there until you look” — I love that thought!  To me, that’s just looking around with the eyes of faith.  So in a way, science has finally caught up with what the Scripture has always taught us about believing God!  Hebrews 11 teaches us over and over how ‘supernatural’ things happened when ordinary people believed!

Then today I read this by Lance Wallnau:

There are both natural and spiritual fields around us.  Some scientists call it the quantum field and are just now coming to terms with its implications.  …  There is a realm in the creative sphere of life that attracts to you everything that you need or want.  It seems that all life vibrates at a frequency that responds to you when you are in harmony with it.

I think that is just another way of referring to ‘the favor of God’.  Here are a few verses referencing this idea:

Psalms 90:17 (ESV)  Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!

Daniel 1:9 (ESV)  And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs,

Malachi 1:9 (ESV)  And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? says the LORD of hosts.

Luke 2:52 (ESV)  And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

Annette Capps also addresses this thought:

The thoughts and beliefs that you carry also produce an energy around you.  Have you ever noticed that when you are angry, things go wrong, and people are insulting and angry with you?  Your thoughts and beliefs produce an energy that people can perceive and react to.  If you believe that no one likes you, then you emit that rejecting type of energy, and people will be driven away from you.

If you love people and care about them, they will feel that and be drawn to you.  Have you ever been around someone who is pleasant and full of love?  It is an energy you can actually feel.  The energy of love is a powerful drawing card for good in your life.  After all, God is Love.

So how does one obtain the favor of God?  The first clue has been already given:  God is love!  He delights to pour His favor on us!  I think another clue is found in this verse from the Amplified Bible”

Isaiah 30:18  And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him [for His victory, His favor, His love, His peace, His joy, and His matchless, unbroken companionship]! [John 14:3, 27; II Cor. 12:9; Heb. 12:2; I John 3:16; Rev. 3:5.]

How do we wait and expect and look and long for Him (for His victory, His favor, His love, His peace, His joy and His matchless, unbroken companionship)?  By faith of course!

Hebrews 11:1 (AMP)  NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. 

Annette Capps goes on to say in Quantum Faith:

“Physical laws we take for granted were superseded by the person of Jesus Christ and can be superseded by those who accept the principles of the kingdom of God.”

John 14:12 (NIV84)  I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

God is not limited to the things you and I see.  When you hope for something (NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for), where does it exist?  Only in your mind and heart!  God desires that we see with the eyes of faith, and sometimes, that means seeing “as real fact what is not revealed to the senses” (Hebrews 11:1 AMP).  And maybe, just maybe, when we look we’ll see something that was not there before!

Mark 9:23  And Jesus said … All things are possible for one who believes.“

Do you believe?

Quantum Graphic – from the book, Advanced Visual Quantum Mechanics by Bernd Thaller

Quantum physics, or faith?  One or the other? …. Or are they one in the same?  I’m still pondering this topic.  What do you think?

Serendipity is defined according to dictionary.com as:  an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

Serendipity–to me–is the leadership of the Holy Spirit and it’s no accident!  Recently I had one of those events many would describe as ‘serendipity’ but I know it was God leading and directing me into His will for my life!

Early in August of this year, I got the September issue of The Herb Companion, a magazine I enjoy as I am trying to learn about growing and using fresh herbs.  That particular issue had an article on “Alternatives to Antibiotics” that fascinated me as well one entitled “Guide to Essential Oils”.  After reading those two articles, I went to Amazon to investigate these topics a bit further and ‘stumbled upon’ (serendipity? or Holy Spirit?) the book, Healing Oils of the Bible by David Stewart, Ph.D.

I immediately ordered it that very day.  And not only did I order it, I ordered two other books that Amazon showed ‘often purchased together’.  One was The Chemistry of Essential Oils Made Simple:  God’s Love Manifest in Molecules also by Dr. Stewart and one was Feelings Buried Alive Never Die by Karol Truman.  I spent $63 on books that day–this is not my normal behavior…especially on 2 authors I didn’t know!

Why did I do that?  Well, if I look at it logically, here’s why:

1.  I’d never been satisfied when I questioned others about ‘anointing with oil’ as to what oil was used in Bible times.  The usual answer I got was ‘olive oil’ and I never felt that was the ‘right answer’.  So to see a book entitled Healing Oils of the Bible intrigued me.

2.  The chemistry book is a little harder to understand as I look back.  After all, it is an 850 page book and I’ve never had a chemistry course in my life…not in high school or college.  (I’m not sure how I managed that but I did.)

So why did I buy it?  I can only say when I saw the subtitle, “God’s Love Manifest in Molecules” my heart said ‘you need this book!’

3.  And why did I buy the third book.  Well, no question there….the title fascinated me!

So all of this can be explained logically.  But I now know it was not my own thinking that caused me to buy those 3 books that day….it was God’s directing me in His sovereignty!

Why do I say that?  Because those 3 books sparked something in me.  After I read Dr. Stewart’s Healing Oils of the Bible, I felt something rising up in me I can honestly say I’ve never felt before….a true and real passion for an area of study.

You see, all my life I’ve realized I had many interests but no real passion for a particular subject.  (This has nothing to do with my passion for the Lord by the way.)  But so many people just KNOW what they want to be ‘when they grow up’ and I never did.  I wasn’t particularly gifted in any specific area of study….just kind of all around average in my likes and abilities.

But this book ‘lit a fire in me’ and I am continuing to intensely study in the area of ‘Biblical oils’ as well as ‘essential oils’.  In fact, I’ve already begun working toward becoming a ‘certified instructor’ through C.A.R.E. which is the Center for Aromatherapy Research and Education.

An interesting tidbit…all 3 of the books I ordered are ‘required’ reading for this certification!  Was the Lord going before me??  And no, I’ve not finished the 850 page chemistry book but I am over ½ way through it!  Dr. Stewart does make it simple to understand, but with no background of any kind, I’m taking it very slow!

I’m really being stretched through these studies….after all, I used to think ‘aromatherapists’ were ‘kooks’ and/or ‘New Age gurus’ (in my arrogant and judgmental, non-understanding-of-grace days!).  But quite frankly, I’m tired of Christians sitting back and letting the enemy steal what God meant for our good, and I believe that is what has happened in this field.  So I’m going to be a ‘born again, Bible believing, Holy Spirit led’ aromatherapist!  To quote Dr. Stewart as to healing, “…the Biblical application of essential oils was always with prayer.  Sometimes prayer alone will work and sometimes oils alone will work, but the combination is very powerful, indeed.”

Serendipity?  Or God?

Selah.

As I journalled this morning, here is what I ‘heard’ from the Lord.  I hope it will be an encouragement to you as well!

I want you to enjoy Christmas this year…..I want it to be a meaningful time where you are not rushing around in a panic trying to get things done, but simply resting in Me throughout the holiday season.

Thanksgiving to Christmas has become a nightmare for so many….but originally, the intent was to worship and honor and glorify Me….a month long period of worship and praise and more intent focus.  It’s in the winter when things move at a slower pace (or used to)…the farmers were basically finished for the year, the nights began earlier, and there was a more relaxed pace to ‘pause and calmly think of Me’.  It can be that way for you if you will let it.  It’s easy to get caught up in the ‘hustle and bustle’ but I will help you to ‘tune in’ to Me during these days.  This can be your best ‘holy-day’ season ever if you resist the temptations to lose your focus.

Selah.

I AM the Light of the World

After a crazy busy summer of traveling and gardening, fall has arrived and it doesn’t seem life has slowed down one bit.  It appears I’ll be traveling at least once a month for the rest of this year.  I don’t ever really like to leave my life on the farm but sometimes it’s necessary and I try to have a good attitude about it!  🙂

In September I was gone two out of four weeks and that really threw me out of sorts….and left me way behind.  Or at least it feels that way.  But are we actually ever really behind?  Or have we just not done what ‘we’ want to do?

I ponder this often as I talk with the Lord about my schedule and if it fits in with His plans for my life.  When I ‘check with Him’ before scheduling a trip (or any event actually), and I get the go-ahead, then I need to trust Him with the results of what gets done and what doesn’t.   This is hard for my personality that wants to work on a schedule.  However for me, I still think it goes back to a trust issue.  Do I trust Him with my schedule?

This blog is another one of those areas of confusion.  I’m quite sure He impressed on me to start a blog back in January.  However, through my ‘busy time’ I haven’t gotten to regularly write.  That leaves me feeling frustrated, but again, I want to trust Him with my schedule and my daily activities.

Right now, I’m in an intent time of study in a new area that is completely unfamiliar to me, but is opening up a new realm of ‘Who He Is’ and I’m loving it.  I’m studying about the “Healing Oils of the Bible” and it has become a new passion to learn what God says, what ‘oils’ can do for us, and to learn more about what I have come to believe is ‘God’s Healthcare Plan’.  Right now I’m in the middle of an 800+ page book on “The Chemistry of Essential Oils Made Simple…God’s Love Manifest in Molecules” by David Stewart, PhD., D.N.M..  This is a fascinating trip into the unknown for me as I’ve never had a chemistry course in my life!!!  (Not sure how I managed to graduate from college without one!)  One of my upcoming trips will be to attend a conference by Dr. Stewart in November for more in-depth teaching and study.

All that said, when you are studying, there’s not as much time to write.  So I’m seeking a balance between studying and writing, farming and working….not to mention relationships.  I know I’m not the only one that struggles with these issues of time management.  How do you deal with the ‘un-done’?

I’ll leave you with some pictures from my Iowa trip this summer.

Iowa Corn Fields – beautiful and never ending!

Corn fields for miles and miles and miles….

And who knew that the phrase ‘Go West Young Man, Go West’ led a man to Iowa?  I always assumed it meant way out west like California or Oregon.  Just one reason traveling can be good for me!

And Grinnell, Iowa happened to be a lovely little oasis in the midst of all those corn fields!

Grinnell, Iowa on a Sunday afternoon…deserted!