In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps. – Proverbs 16:9
I left the house for a hair appointment, telling my husband I’d be home soon. In the short amount of time I was gone God directed my steps in a spectacular way.
As I pulled into the salon’s parking lot my phone dinged with a text message. It was my hairdresser letting me know that she was on her way—to sit tight and wait. Using the time to read emails on my phone, I just sat in my vehicle to wait on her arrival.
Two vehicles pulled in and parked next to me. I watched the drivers get out of their cars and enter the establishment next to the salon. This establishment is a ministry—for girls! Get Real exists to encourage, equip and empower girls to Get Respected Educated Able and Loyal in Christ! Each time in the past that I’ve stopped to introduce myself, no one was there. Do you care to guess what my next step was?
Of course, I got out of my car, with a book in hand, to go introduce myself and to pitch The Immanuel Quilt. It wasn’t hard at all. Turns out the woman and I had met before at a Christian youth camp and she is familiar with the Immanuel Quilt. She told me my timing was incredible. They were looking for someone who could present the gospel in a unique way for the girls in December. Honestly, my timing had nothing to do with me being there at that moment. My timing would have had my head in a wash bowl.
Next door I listened to my hairdresser apologize profusely for being late. She told me there was no reason she should have been late. She left her home earlier than usual.
Rarely do days go as planned, however, when God directs your steps—wonderful things happen. Gain a desire to accept each interruption as a gift from God. It’s how to see Him at work in your day. Would you like to have an extraordinary day? Let the Lord guide your steps.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:1
I threw my hands up in frustration, in near tears, as I sat at the eye doctor’s office trying to put contact lenses on my eyeballs for the first time. For more than thirty minutes his assistant worked with me without any success.
After reading that storytellers and speakers should avoid wearing glasses so that any communication that is done with the eyes can be clearly seen, I was determined to get contact lenses. I figured if God helped me make a quilt and begin a traveling ministry, he could help me learn how to put contact lenses in my eyes.
I left the doctor’s office embarrassed by both my tears and my failure. I was given a set of trial lenses to bring home to practice getting them in and out of my eyes. After a month of trying and emptying a bottle of solution—I was no better at the task. Occasionally, I’d get one in and have to call Tom to get it out. I unknowingly wore one four days and it took a trip to the doctor to get it out! The goop forming in my eye was the clue that I must not have really dropped and lost it.
There are eight year olds able to put in contacts. Why couldn’t I? I succumbed to the idea that it must be true—you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
The doctor told me that contacts aren’t for everyone. He was right. As much as I tried, as much as I wanted them, I learned they weren’t for me. So instead I got a new pair of glasses with none other than pretty purple frames!
It’s hard to accept becoming an old dog. None of us like getting older. We all want to maintain the energy, strength, abilities, and looks of our prime years. But the truth remains: we are getting older. We can’t do things like we used to do.
The apostle Paul tells us not to lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day. God gives us spiritual eyes to see Him. They are located in the heart of a believer. No matter how old we get or how much our bodies might fail us—the spiritual eyes God gives will never fail us. We just need to open them to see His presence in our lives.
Do you want to see Jesus? Open the eyes of your heart.
Dear Lord:
Open the eyes of my heart, I want to see You. To see You high and lifted up, shining in the light of your glory. Pour out your power and love as I sing holy, holy, holy. You are the Holy One O Lord. Praise and Honor to Your Holy Name. –Amen.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 9:10
“Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save”
Isaiah 59:1 NIV
It was a happy and glorious day—our son TJ and his bride, Lauren were getting married. Tom, my husband, was privileged to be doing their ceremony. They had chosen an intimate garden wedding for meshing their two families together. It was a beautiful garden and it was also a beautiful, warm and sunny day. Very warm.
Though the wedding was an 11:00 a.m. ceremony, the sweltering heat had already arrived. Tiered layers of brick ordained the ground of the gazebo, baking the three—a father, a son, and his bride. There was no shade of protection, no canopy of clouds.
In the midst of TJ reading his heartfelt, hand-written, emotional vows to Lauren–she took a few staggered steps, her body went limp, and–she fainted. We watched as she fell backwards with no one to catch her. We could see what was happening, but happening too quickly to stop it. In gasps of horror we watched Lauren fall.
In milliseconds my mind thought of how she could be injured. A gash, a concussion, or worse—a paralyzing injury. Undoubtedly, her fall would result, in minimum, a trip to the emergency room. Amazingly though, in the nick of time, my husband reached down, grabbed her wrist and–saved her. He was able to safely lay Lauren down. He’s always told me that he has quick, cat-like reflexes.
Tom was hailed a hero for saving Lauren. But, it was the ARM OF THE LORD who saved her.
A father, a son, and a bride.
Our heavenly Father created marriage to be a metaphor of Christ’s relationship to the church. The church–the body of believers are the bride. Christ is the Bridegroom. God uses every act of deliverance–every touch, every manifestation of Himself to make us a suitable bride. We’ve been been chosen to be espoused to Christ Jesus in the most epic wedding ever!
TJ and Lauren made vows to always love and cherish one another. Jesus has made the same vow to you. Are you passionate for Jesus? Have you given Him your heart? Can you call Him your Bridegroom? If the Holy Spirit is poking at dying embers inside you, ask Jesus–the ARM OF THE LORD to reach down and save you. His Arm is not too short to save His bride.
“The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.” Psalm 118:14 NASB
It was one of those mornings I woke after having another unusual vision in a dream. It had been more like a short five second video clip that had shot through my sleeping thoughts. I saw an unopened package of saltine crackers floating on water. I know, weird—right? It’s even more peculiar that I wake up remembering what takes place in my mind while sleeping.
As usual I started my morning with the Lord reading my Bible and doing devotions. The first words in Isaiah 30:20 seemed to jump off the page at me. “The Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction.”
The week had been one of adversity for sure; a story I’ll share another time. However, it was exciting to me that God would first give me a dream about saltine crackers. Jesus is the Bread of Life and we are called the salt of the earth. (John 6:35, Matthew 5:13) I hadn’t just dreamed of saltines though, the crackers were floating on water. Jesus is the Living Water. He says, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”—John 7:38.
Next, I grabbed my Jesus Calling devotional written by Sarah Young and her devotional talked about the ways to be joyful in the midst of adversity. I knew that God was speaking something to me.
Excited I went into the other room to tell my husband and his friend about this experience. His friend says to me, “God never talks to me like He does to you. I must not have what it takes to hear from God like you do. I obviously haven’t reached that mark.”
These aren’t the words or thoughts that I want anyone to think. God speaks to each one of us in the language we best comprehend. There is no mark to reach. He meets us where we are.
A friend told me that she asked God why He didn’t speak to her as He does to me. And God answered her. He said, “Joni is more hard-headed and stubborn. I have to do more to get her attention. I don’t need to do that with you.”
Her words didn’t sting for I knew they were true. “Sin-ugly” seems too often to rear its ugly head in my life. My husband’s friend got to witness this. For as I was in the midst of telling my story, my husband interrupts to show our friend some coupons asking if he wanted any of them. How rude!
And so there it came…the sin-ugly. I immediately said words and reacted in a way that was embarrassing to me, my husband, and to our friend. Adversity. Satan has a way of using those that we love the most to push our buttons, doesn’t he? Yet God’s Word says, “The Lord gives the bread of adversity and the water of affliction.”
Why would this be? Why would God give us adversity and affliction?
The rest of Isiah 30:20 tells us…your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way, walk in it”
Adversity and affliction is to teach us the way in which we should walk. My sin-ugly moment in front of my husband and his friend was perhaps a teaching moment for all of us. For my husband and me we were reminded of the lesson to be respectful of one another as God’s Word outlines in Ephesians 5:25-27. For our friend, I can only hope he learned that by comparing his relationship with the Lord to mine is wrong.
The Lord meets each of us exactly where we are. He speaks in whatever way necessary to get our attention. Believers are still sinners. Yet when we seek the Lord and long to hear His voice, we will find Him with us.
“How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the Name of the LORD,” —Psalm 116:12
Yesterday our pastor opened with a story of young twin boys who were completely opposite of one another. One was a pessimist and the other an optimist. With concern their parents talked to a psychologist asking how they might help their boys learn to discern matters with the right perspective. The psychologist suggested for the boys next birthday to shower the pessimist with all sorts of gifts, and for the optimist—to nicely wrap a large box of manure. It was a test to see if the twins would respond any differently.
Staying true to form, the pessimist complained about every gift he opened. Not the right color. The car didn’t go fast enough. And so on and so on. The optimist, he opened his gift and just started laughing. He told his parents, “You can’t fool me. A box with this much manure has to have a pony in it.”
How many times do we look at our situations with the wrong perspective? God showed me in my dream last night that it’s what I’ve doing. He showed me that as of late—I’ve been acting like a pessimist full of complaints.
The Dream…
Scene One: My husband, Tom, and I were standing in the kitchen of a new home my son had apparently just bought. The kitchen appeared to be a third of the size of our home. It was incredibly large, had all the newest, most high-tech appliances available and was equipped with several cook tops. The countertops were oddly about a foot taller than standard height. I stood complaining to my husband.
“Why would our son buy this house? He doesn’t need a kitchen of this size? And those countertops! He’s not a giant. Why would he want those?”
Scene Two: After spending the night at our son’s new home we woke to find that he had made us breakfast before having gone to work. He’d made enough to feed an army. There was bacon, eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy, fruit, and smoothies—you name it—he had fixed it. There was food everywhere that he had prepared just for us. Yet…I complained.
“Why did he make all this food? There is only the two of us. I can’t even reach the stove-top. I’ll have to get a ladder to fill my plate. And this mess! It’s going to take me all morning to clean it up.”
In my dream my husband responds with an answer that is so typical of something he would say. “It’s all right. I’ll fill your plate for you. I’ll get you whatever you want and do whatever you need.”
Scene Three: I see my mother standing in the kitchen and I tell her that I didn’t know that she was there. She held up a pair of aloe infused socks and said, “I came for these.” I remember thinking in the dream: Why would you go to your grandson’s home for a pair of socks?
After that I woke up.
Now you may think this is just a weird dream, but not me. I know that God was definitely pointing out my poor behavior and trying to get my attention. Under pressuring anxiety at the thought of traveling alone to Ohio to speak at the Igniting Souls Conference and at the reality that the book, The Immanuel Quilt will be out in a few days a spiritual warfare was going on within me. With increasing doubts and fears–my emotions were all over the place. I began complaining, and crying, about everything: traveling alone, having purchased a large quantity of books that no one might want to buy. Even my hair cut and having to dog sit had me in a dither. Complaint. Complaint. Complaint. Sin. Sin. Sin. So…God chose a dream to show me I had the wrong perspective on the situation.
Analyzing the Dream
The house was not our son’s home. It represented God’s house. He dwells with those who abide in Him. Tom and my son were representing attributes of Jesus.
Our son is always doing more than what is necessary. For example, in his high school speech class instead of just giving his speech—he dressed in costume. In college not making the school’s baseball team, rather than just joining a league team, he formed a team. He didn’t just order the team t-shirts either. He went out, secured sponsorships and provided the team with uniforms. This is what God does—He provides us with more than what is necessary.
Tom represented other attributes of Jesus: loving-kindness and a generous, giving spirit and one who is always willing to serve others. In the dream Tom had said, “It’s all right. I’ll fill your plate for you. I’ll get you whatever you want and do whatever you need.” This is exactly what Jesus says to us.
The high countertop—the one out of reach—represents this journey that I am on with the Immanuel Quilt. In a million years I would never have dreamed of being called into a traveling ministry or writing a book. I thought these were unattainable things out of reach for me. Yet look what God has done. He’s made the impossible possible.
What about those socks? Well, they were special socks coated with aloe to sooth the feet. These are the kind of socks that create a sensation of a spa-like experience…which of course brings peace and tranquility.
Through a dream I was allowed to see that I needed to change my perspective from that of a pessimist to that of an optimist. And asking God to forgive me, I then I thanked Him for the gift of this incredible journey. Thanks to the Lord for fitting my feet with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
This is the BIG week guys. In just three days, the books will be in my hands. There is still time to pre-order your copy HERE and receive devotionals on thirty Names of Jesus before the offer expires at the end of the month. As always keep following and keep sharing the Immanuel Quilt Journey.
You my friends wanted it, you asked for it, and God has made it possible. The Immanuel Quilt – A True Story of One Ordinary Woman, One Unique Quilt, and One Extraordinary God will be in print and in my hands by this time next month!
Getting the website set up with a store so that the Immanuel Quilt can be purchased online was no easy task for me. I struggled with the process and was forced to call the domain service for help. What a blessing that turned out to be!
When the customer service gal on the other end of the line pulled up the website, she exclaimed, “Oh my gosh! I know about this quilt!”
This young sounding girl proceeded to tell me the story about the Immanuel Quilt. She called it an “amazing and incredible story.” It was her grandmother who had told her about the Immanuel Quilt. Amazingly, her grandmother has never been to a presentation. She doesn’t even live in my home state, Indiana -she lived in California! A friend had told her of it, and then in turn, she passed the story on to her granddaughter -in Massachusetts!
Coast-to-coast people are talking about the Immanuel Quilt and sharing His Story. His good word and good works travel fast when we are willing to share them with others.
Who will you be sharing The Immanuel Quilt with to tell His Story?
“We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deed of the LORD, about his power and his mighty wonders.” -Psalm 78:4 NLT
Receive 30 devotions on the Names of Jesus portrayed in the Immanuel Quilt for free with your pre-order purchase.
