A Writer's Callous

Alright, baby photo below. Quit emailing me! ;-) I remember having a writer's callous when I was five years old. In my adolescence I hated it. Now, I find it fascinating. Almost as long as I have been alive I have borne a mark that declares I am passionate about something in such a way that it bores into my skin. I have been blessed with wonderful Apple products to use and I still prefer writing things out. I heard Michelle Pfeiffer say David Kelley writes out all of his award winning shows on yellow legal pad. I like that. I prefer a journal and a real wood pencil (the kind that are stained, not the yellow ones.) There's something romantic about it to me.

Writing is a choice medium in my relationship with God. I love to prayer journal. I pour out thanks for every minute that I get to spend doing it. In last weeks post I told you that God broke my Mac so I would spend some time alone with Him (then I can have it back in January). Shortly thereafter the enemy came in telling me that I was never going to get another computer and that I was not fit for the task ahead of me. I told these lies (of the enemy) to my husband and just voicing them left me feeling more free. God brought to mind that Scripture that says the devil goes to accuse us before the Father. I decided to turn the tables and do it to him. I sat there for an hour journaling and telling God all the lies the enemy had told me. I wrote out all of the ways God has answered prayer and blessed our family. Then I asked God to shame him to bring glory to Himself for His faithfulness. The next day I had a certified letter with a check in it...exactly the amount I needed.

Please be in prayer for Kyle Sherrill. He was born 4 months premature last week. His dad, John, wrote one of my favorite worship songs, Beautiful Jesus. Pray. Donate. Encourage. http://www.prayforkyle.com/

Update from "The Cup": Last week, Anne and I went to share a cup of joe at our local coffee shop. Of course someone interesting came up to us and asked us to vote for him for a city position. I asked him jokingly if he was going to do a good job. He looked at me and told me that he really didn't know anything about it and only wanted it because it was high profile and it would be good for his business. I stared at him wondering if he just swallowed some truth serum. Anne says, "what more do you want...your name is on this pen." I could bleed this dry of cheesy spiritual applications, but I digress.

I know all of you fans of Laomai will be disappointed because I didn't get any pictures of her taken yet this week. To appease you I found a picture of a random baby on the Internet.

Below: For all you who complained that the above baby did not appease them.

An Alternate Reality

Do you ever feel like you may have fallen down the rabbit hole to Alice's Wonderland? My week like that began last week at a local coffee house. I sat there with Anne who was about to hop on a plane to go intercede for Passion in Chicago. First a man comes and sits by us for a good fourty-five minutes and never gets any coffee. He gets really excited when he sees a 1970 high school year book and asks Anne if she brought it. Yeah, Anne was 3 or so in 1970. He proceeds to tell us about everyone in the book and how one guy sold 6 chickens for fifteen thousand dollars. I had to turn away at this point so I did not laugh at him. There were several other interesting characters, but one in particular caught our eye. He had on emo (really tight) pants, one of those shoulder wraps that women wear made of camo and something that looked like a fox stole around his neck (you know, the kind with the fox head and tail that you picture old, rich women wearing to brunch.)

This being the 7th unusual person we saw, I told Anne that there was a theme emerging. These are the people Jesus wants us to share Him with.

The week didn't stop there. I was praying about my part in a new Bible study emerging in our area and I didn't really want to be involved at first. I like my own "brand" of things. None the less God told me I was to head it up. Surely, I misheard you, Lord. He took me on a seven year journey in my mind and I realized He had already told me this multiple times. He had also fully equipped me and allowed me to see the fruit of that equipping. I still wasn't sold on it. Watch out. I watched the screen on my Mac crack. He said I could get a new computer after I go to the desert place He is sending me for the next few months. Believe it or not, I still wasn't ready and asked for a sign. The next morning I get up and my kitchen clock had flung it's hour hand way out in the middle of the floor. I just stood there staring at it and wondering how the clock had done this. Then I realized that 'it' was not the One that flung it. That is when I heard God say, "The hour has come. Rise up." In my spirit I feel a year of Jubilee coming to us. Jubilee was a period when debts were forgiven and slaves were set free. God is ushering in a year of healing for us. I believe it started at Loving Well and will continue on. The hour has come to us. Who is going with me!!!?

On Sunday I kept hearing the same thing over and over. "Rise up." I had Denbigh's Bible and started scouring the back pages for the Greek word meaning for Rise. Here is what I found:

(Perhaps you need to rise up as well)

Egeirō: to awaken, wake up, primarily used of waking those who sleep, to wake up; used figuritively meaning to become attentive to one's own dangerous position and the salvation of God delivering therefrom, also used of those who are sick and needing help to raise them up, to recover, rise up from the bed, especially used of the dead recalled to life or who rise to new life. The passage "to rise again" with or without "from the dead" always refers to the resurrection of the body. To erect, build up, to stand up or arise, with a personal objective to call forth, cause to appear, to appear, come forth, generally denotes to quit one's previous position, rise, get up.

Rise up, my sisters!

Info on Shiloh

I read this today! A Whirlwind!

http://store.reviveourhearts.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=323

Denbigh at Metro:

It's a Reading Rainbow

This blog is updated each Tuesday.
Just about every week a book arrives at my house. I am a reading junkie. Denbigh is always saying, "What have you bought now!?" Well, I love to read. I explained to my dear husband whom I love and cherish that this is all the fault of Levar Burton from Reading Rainbow. Butterfly in the sky indeed. Take a look.
It's in a book. Reading Rainbow.

I dearly love to read. I am a studier. I want to be well informed. I think we as an American society just do things because other people do them. We never stop to ask ourselves if something is God honoring or even appropriate. Driving around our neighborhood a few years ago at Halloween, I had a thought. I thought that if someone from another country came over here who did not understand our customs, they would all think we were Satanists. One drive down the street my friend Christine lives on would convince you of that. One of her neighbors puts out a life-size demonic clown with a smoke machine annually. The whole thing creeps me out. When discussing the odd holiday with some friends the other day, Denbigh made an interesting point. He simply said to look at what Scripture says about it. I will post that below. I honestly don't see how glorifying witchcraft, demons, or fear can be God honoring. (editors note: this is my personal conviction that I am posting to cause others to think. It is not my condemnation.) God's Word says to test all things. I have read countless articles on the subject. One Christian woman who is a former witch told how she began in witchcraft was at a Halloween party playing with a Quija board. She was even knocking Harvest Festivals. She says it sends the message that we are missing out on something when we try to provide an alternative. That is her take.
Read the Scripture and make your own conclusions:

Don't imitate evil. : "When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who...practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium, or spiritist or who consults the dead
Deuteronomy 18:9-11.

I don't want you to become part of something that reduces you to less than yourself. And you can't have it both ways, banqueting with the Master one day and slumming with demons the next. Besides, the Master won't put up with it. He wants us—all or nothing. Do you think you can get off with anything less?
1 Corinthians 10:21-22

"what fellowship can light have with darkness?"
2 Corinthians 6:14-17

You have not been given a spirit leading to fear. Romans 8:15

"train a child in the way he should go" Proverbs 22:6

I am not going to go on and on trying to be your holy spirit. I just thought I'd throw some things out there to get some lively discussion going. Hopefully, it will do just what it is intended to: cause you to test what you hold as truth.

You can do your own

Google search:Is Halloween Biblical?

You can find many different viewpoints and see what you feel is God honoring. I even stumbled on a site called religioustolerance.com. Um, it was interesting. According to them we should dress up as demons to get along...and no one is going to hell. We Christians are so intollerant. (according to them)
Some more to read:

Bible vs. Halloween 1

Bible vs. Halloween 2

Retreat Update
The retreat was phenomenal. The Holy Spirit filled that place. I know that several women were set free in our midst. Praise God! I could go on and on about how well everyone did everything, but To GOD be the glory for the things He hath done.

I am thinking about starting a talk show online.
Me, Christine, and Anne.
I laugh just thinking about how funny we will be.

Guess who got her ears pierced!

No, I Won't Sell You My Baby

Last week Denbigh's guitar was accidentally knocked over on stage. That led us to have it repaired at
Ray Henning's Heart of Texas Music. Who waits on us, but ol' Ray Henning himself. There he is. A legend in his own right. He sold Stevie Ray Vaughn his famous guitar. He befriended Willie and Waylon. He's old now and can't hear well, but he's still a fireball. He offered me 5 Martin guitars for Laomai. His wife was in the background laughing. That would be about $15,000 in guitars, but rest assured, I didn't take them. I still have my daughter. The whole thing made me think of people in the
Middle East buying women in exchange for camels.

My friend Anne was reading the society column in The Statesman the other day and noticed all these names in bold. She said they were bolded as if we should know who they are. She didn't know. So, she started doing it on her blog. It made me giggle and I dearly love to laugh. So, I shall also do it on mine.
Anne Smith makes me laugh.

I find myself looking at some people's blogs and they are an unending chain of theory, interpretation, commentary on the Bible. That's wonderful and all, but I find myself bored to death. I just want to leave comments like, "But who are you?" "What is God doing in your life?" What is God doing in your life?!!!?! Are we like the priests and scribes in Matthew 2 that wouldn't even go 10 miles to see the Messiah? Who is God to you?? Is this head knowledge to you or is yours an experiential faith?

I was discussing some phraseology with my husband,
Denbigh Cherry, the other day. Why do people say, "I don't want to overspiritualize it?" If God is truly sovreign, He must be in control of everything. I think He allows lots of things we try to underspiritualize. Another one that bugs me is "It's easier to act your way into a feeling than feel your way into an action."
Um, obedience doesn't require emotion. Quit whining.

This weekend we are putting on a Women's event in the Kyle/Buda area. We are showing Beth Moore's Loving Well series and having free brunch. We are also having some fabulous Women lead worship for us. Janet Sanders, Marla Rice, Marj Oaks, & my dear friend Tiffany Atwood. We are also starting a monthly women's Night of Worship called Shiloh. Shiloh is another name for the Messiah.
It means tranquility and to whom it belongs.

The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes,
And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Genesis 49:10

Do you ever notice that when you pray for someone that you feel closer to them? A friend and I have a local business owner that we pray for. We both talk about him like he's a dear friend and comment when we think he's doing things we deem inappropriate. It makes us laugh because he doesn't know us from any other customer..yet there we are lurking, praying, & drinking a fine brew. That's it. I don't want to underspiritualize it. God has obviously sent this guy two kooky intercessors.
He must be destined for greatness!!

Monday night we went to a seminar in San Antonio by the people who wrote To Train Up A Child. Michael and Debi Pearl are Mennonites. They have child training techniques that are completely against what the world teaches and we love it! They also have a strong Pentecostal following. When we arrive, there are scads of women in skirts, no make-up, and scarves on their heads. I tell Denbigh I want to go home. He says, "Now Stephi, if these women love Jesus they won't care that you have jeans on." I laugh and tell him that when I walk in they are all going to start shouting "Hallelujah! Another hooker come to Jesus!"
There were some other people there with pants on.

A Call To the Genuine

This is my sixth year in Bible Study Fellowship. That seems impossible to me. I once couldn't get through a 4 week study. Here I am...hooked on knowing more about Him. This year we are studying Matthew. This past week I realized something. I have known what the name Mary meant for some time, but I have never applied it to the mother of Christ. Mary means bitter. This culture named their children with purpose. Many people even changed their name to Mary after bitter circumstances had engulfed them. I sat there looking at this and I thought that it was so like God to take Bitter and let it birth Redemption.

Please keep us in your prayers. This has been the year of severe attack. The enemy keeps trying to take all of our resources. I just keep remembering that you cannot outgive God. He is so faithful. He has far more than we could ever need. Also we have a retreat coming up in 2 weeks. Please be in prayer for what God will birth that Saturday. We still have a few seats available for anyone who would like to attend.

This week my husband was sick and he would not stay away from me. Now I am sick. I hate sick. I used my sick time to do what all people do with it. I rearranged the furniture. Perhaps you heard Denbigh with elevated voice saying,"Stephanie Cherry!!!!! What do you think you are doing!!!" I also watched 12 minutes of The Bachelor. This is a big deal. We don't even have a t.v. in the livingroom. We are anti-t.v. I found myself staring at this Austinite who seemed almost nice...then the Chrisitian girl who says she is high up on her morals is doing body shots and getting naked. I turned it off. Well, that was my 12 minutes of t.v. for 2007. I'll go back to living real life and enjoying my family. Why can't they ever show Christians on television that are not hypocrites? Or ones that have a personality?