Greetings from Sunny Colorado

OK, so I can't exactly say "sunny and warm"...that would be Texas. And yes, thanks to all my "friends" that so graciously call and let me know how they are suffering in the mid to upper 70s. Yes, I would call that "suffering".

Anyway... today was very fun as four of us went to Pikes Peak. I drove since my car has the snow/ice tires and that is needed this time of the year. I went with my friend Jaclyn and her sister and fiance and it was really fun to watch her sister and fiance as they are here from Florida. I think they kinda figured out that we weren't at the beach! (hahaha) We were not allowed to drive all the way to the top of Pikes Peak because of the weather conditions, but that's OK as it was -15 degrees and the wind chill was over -50 degrees. Where we were was only -5 degrees with wind chills between -36 and -38 degrees -- much warmer!

OK, so it was a tad bit on the cold side, but it was fun stopping and hiking out in the snow. Well, we didn't really go that far because the wind was really strong and there were times where the snow was deep, to the point of being over my knees when I stepped down. And the strange thing is that you never knew when you were on solid ground and when the next step would have you sinking.

I'll try to post some pictures in the next few days. In the mean time, stay warm!

Love ya,

konya

Is Jesus Enough?

Just a little something that I wrote a little over a week ago.... just wanted to share. Love ya! konya

When we look at our past in a manner that brings shame and condemnation and focus on it, then we are essentially saying, "Jesus, Your Blood was not enough and God, Your plan for salvation - my salvation - was not enough and is incomplete." We are saying that God is not enough. And if God's salvation for us is not enough, then what part is not enough? Is His provision not enough? Is Jesus' redemptive work not enough to save us from an eternity separated from Him? Is His healing not enough? Is His protection not enough? Is His deliverance not enough? What exactly is not enough? And if what He has already done is actually not enough - any one area is incomplete or imperfect - then He is not Who He says He is and He therefore stops being God. If God has lied about any one part of His salvation, then this is all a lie and it's time to search for another god.

The good news is this - that God really is Who He said He is and He really has done all that He said He would do. There is nothing incomplete or imperfect about God. And because of this, those things from the past really are covered by the Blood of Jesus. They really are forgiven. He really does put them away as far as the East is from the West. He really does throw them into the sea of forgetfulness. He really has given us complete forgiveness through the Blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.

What are we going to do with this Truth?

It's a choice that we must make. Are we going to embrace the Truth and reality of God, of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit? Or are we going to be arrogant and say to God, "You are not enough and what You have done is not enough?" Are we going to agree with the original deceptive lie that satan presented to Eve? In Genesis 3:3 the Bible says, "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing the difference between good and evil and blessing and calamity." The key part here is "...and you will be like God..." Eve did not know who she really was or what she really had. How do I know this? Because God had already created her and Adam in the likeness and image of Them (God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit). (See Genesis 1:26 - 27). So since God had already created Eve in His likeness and image, then we see that she really did not understand who she really was or what she really had. And because of this, when satan came to her and questioned what God had already said, she reasoned and agreed with the enemy, partook of the fruit and also gave it to Adam, and sin entered into the world through the choice that Adam made (see Romans 5). Had Eve really known who she was, who she was created to be and what she really had, then I do not believe that she would have made the decision that she made.

This is how it is in our lives as well. God has given us His salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ, and yet we listen to the same lie of satan. satan is still going around and saying, "Has God said..." and trying to get us to agree with his word instead of the Word. And how easy it is when we don't really know what God has said or don't have a revelation of what God has said! This is why it is so vitally important to know God's Word - so that we, too, are not deceived by the enemy when he subtly comes into our lives with a specific, "Has God said...?" moment. If we don't really know what God has said, then the enemy will steal from us what God has already given to us.

There are so many places in the Bible where God tells us not only who we are, but what we have in Christ. But where do we start? One place that I would suggest is the book of Ephesians. There are only six chapters in this book and there are numerous Scriptures that speak of who we are in Christ and what we have in Christ. And once you know these truths, then you can do what it says to do in Ephesians 6 - stand! You can successfully stand against the wiles of the enemy. And "wiles" just means "a trick or stratagem intended to ensnare or deceive; a beguiling or playful trick; trickery; skill in outwitting". (Merriam-Webster dictionary) It also pictures a road or path that the enemy travels down with the destination being our mind. And we know that a road or path is not developed by walking down it just one time - it is created by a continual traveling of the same path. Yet even if the enemy has created a specific path to your mind, whether it be doubt, unbelief, a specific sin such as adultery or pornography, lying, etc., you don't have to allow him to continue down that path. You can stand. And the way to stand is in knowing Whose you are, who you are in Christ and what you have in Him. Let's stand!

The Next Step...

The 2008 presidential election has now been decided and Barack Obama has been chosen to be the next president of the United States.  For some, there are many "why's" or "why did God let this happen?" or even other thoughts and questions along this line.  The answer (or at least part) to these questions may be found in history.

First, let me say that I do not personally believe that the collective decision made was God's best, but I do believe that it was a decision made by a people whose eyes were blinded or who refused to see.  And as I was leaving school and even afterwards, I was reminded of various examples given to us in the Old and New Testament.

Do you remember when God brought the people out of Egypt?  What was HIS plan?  It was to bring a people, the Israelites, out of bondage and slavery into a land flowing with milk and honey - the promised land.  But did the perfection of that plan come to pass?  No.  Was it because God failed at His plan?  Not at all.  It was because the people, of their own free will, made various choices that prevented them from walking in the perfect plan of God and receiving all that God had for them.

I then thought of how, later on, Israel again made some choices that were not really God's best.  In 1 Samuel 8 we see a situation where the people decided (collectively) that they wanted a king - they wanted to be like the other nations, and they voiced this desire to Samuel.  Their request did not set well with Samuel, so he went before God and God told Samuel in verse 7, "...Hearken to the voice of the people in all they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not be King over them."  Again we see an example where the people of a nation had a choice to make, but the choice they made was not God's best.

Another example that I thought of was that of Jesus Christ.  He grew up and at around age 30, began to walk in the manifest plan that God had for His life.  For three years He went about doing good - preaching the Gospel to the poor, healing the brokenhearted, proclaiming liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, setting at liberty those who were oppressed and proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord (Luke 4:17 - 19).  And what was the response of the people (those in a majority) to Jesus and the good works that He did?  Based on the great things that He did and the love and compassion that He showed, one might think that He would have been embraced and that the people would be for Him.  But this did not happen.  Instead, the "people" said to crucify Him, and they did.

I have shared three different stories (examples) of the results of people's choices.  And I believe that in all three examples we see that the collective decisions made were by people who did not give regard to God and made carnal choices.  I also see another side of all the stories - what I would like to call, "But God..."

In the first story where Israel was brought out of Egypt, there was a "But God..." moment when those led by Joshua and Caleb were led into the promised land - to the land flowing with milk and honey.  And what happened after the Israelites received a king?  Well, it did not start out too well, "But God..." - God raised up King David, who was a man after God's own heart.  And in the last example the people appeared to have put an end to God's plan, or so it seemed to our enemy, satan.  "But God!"  You see, even then, at that place where it seemed as if satan himself had finally defeated God and His plan, God had a greater plan called Redemption and this plan was fulfilled in the resurrection of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We even learn in 1 Corinthians 2:8, that if they would have known, "...they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."

I know that this is a little longer blog, but I want to encourage you by saying that we all have been given free wills - the ability to make our own choices and decisions.  And sometimes there are collective decisions made that seem to defy what God may want or even go against His Word.  Even so, God has not fallen off the throne and is not panicking over the decision made (and in this case, I am speaking of the presidential election).  I believe there is a "But God!" moment around the corner.  No, to many it may not seem that way and yes, there is a great possibility that in the natural we will see the world seemingly grow darker and darker.  (Actually, the book of Revelation says that this will happen)  But as the world does grow darker, we, God's children (the true Body of Christ) will grow brighter and brighter and a great harvest of souls will be brought in.

Yes, we can easily become discouraged by the collective decision that the people of the United States has made, or we can choose to embrace the "But God!" and walk in obedience to the plan that He has for each of our lives.  This is a choice that we each have to make.

One last thing... OK, so it's really four...  :-)

As born-again believers and children of God...

1) Remain in and act upon the peace that God has put inside of you

2) Remain in and walk in the love that God has put inside of you

3) Pray for our President (both for President Bush now and for upcoming President Obama) - pray for our leaders and their salvation (if they are not already born again)

4) Pray for our nation

We cannot afford, especially at this time, to walk in anything but God's love.  Jesus even told us in John 13:35, "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."  Let His love shine and let His light shine, because when people see Jesus, the Jesus inside of us, they will be drawn to Him and be saved.  Remember, the fields are white unto harvest...

In Christ's love,

konya

Dirty Laundry

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood.

The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside.

'That laundry is not very clean', she said.  'She doesn't know how to wash correctly.  Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.'

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash out to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband, 'Look, she has learned how to wash correctly.  I wonder who taught her this?'

The husband said, 'I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.'

And so it is with life.  What we see when watching others depends on the purity of the window through which we look.

The Jesus Inside of Us

Yesterday I took a little hike at Garden of our God (had to change the name to this) and went in an area that I had not previously explored.  It was a great time of meditation and hanging out with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

During this time, I also worked on an assignment that we have for one of my classes.  We are studying prayer and each day we will take one hour of the day and divide it into 12, 15-minutes segments (a prayer wheel).  Each of these segments is a separate entity of prayer and we begin and end with the same one - Praise.

As I was going around the wheel, I found it difficult to stay on track with the "5 minutes" and so my hour was more like two hours, but this is a good thing.  When I arrived at "Thanksgiving", there was so much to be thankful for - for provision, salvation, the air we breath, the birds that were singing in the nearby tree, the trees for the birds, the rocks and the boulder that I was seated on... on and on the list could go.  Then I started thinking about the various people that God had placed in not only my life, but the lives of others.  I started specifically naming the persons that I believe the Holy Ghost was bringing to my remembrance and thanking God for those qualities and attributes that made them who they are.

At one point I stopped and tears started to roll down my cheek.  The Holy Spirit was showing me the face of one particular person whom God has used to show me the truth, that when we are born again (come to personally know Jesus as our Lord and Savior), Jesus resides in us and we in Him.  I know this may sound "foreign" to some, but it is the Truth.  If you read the book of Ephesians, you see that there are a lot of "in Christ" or "in Him" Scriptures.  This is describing our position - in Jesus.

How does this relate to this person?  Well, a couple of weeks ago during one of our classes, I went to thank them for something they had done for me.  When I did, I looked into their eyes, but I did not see them - I saw Jesus - His compassion, love, kindness, goodness, warmth, beauty, etc.  I felt kind of strange because I did not want them to think that I was starring at them, but it seemed that I could not stop starring at the Jesus inside of them.  I really appreciate seeing the attribute of humility and the strength that it affords.

This is challenging me.  Do the people around me see Jesus in my life and in my eyes?  Can they see His love, His beauty, His passion, His compassion, His gentleness, His humility, His strength, etc.?  What do people see when they see me?  Or instead of seeing me, do they see past the external and see Jesus?

I believe that as we better understand that we, when we are born again, are changed and given the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22 - 23 - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  These are not attributes that we are trying to obtain, but attributes (qualities) that we already have.  So I am not trying to get love, but I am (and do) release the love of God that is already inside of me.  And it's great to know that I am not lacking in what God gave me, but have all of the love that I will ever need because He already put it all inside of me.

Remember... when people see Jesus, they get saved.

Matthew 5:13 - 16, "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste (its strength, its quality), how can its saltness be restored?  It is not good for anything any longer  but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men.  You are the light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a peck measure, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.  let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven."

Have a wonderful week!

I love you,

konya

Faith Is...

"Faith is blind to all but the Word of God."

F. F. Bosworth

Horse Thief Falls in the Snow

Today Jaclyn and I left Colorado Springs around 6:30 a.m. to go hiking.  We were originally going to go to Estes Park, but on Friday night the Holy Spirit said not to go there.  We did decide on a closer location - Horse Thief Falls.

We had both been there before, but it sounded like a good idea.  We were not really prepared for our next adventure.  Yes, we got the layering thing down (t-shirt, long sleeved t-shirt, sweatshirt, light jacket and then a wind breaker over it all), but one of us (I'm not saying who, but she is blonde) didn't get the shoe thing down (tennis shoes).  Normally tennis shoes would be OK, but how in the world were we supposed to know that about 4 - 5 inches of snow would cover most of the path?????  They don't teach this in Texas or Florida (where Jaclyn is from).

Anyway, we went less than 100 yards on the trail and Jaclyn asked what kind of tracks she was seeing in the snow.  I looked over and recognized them - mountain lions (aka cougar).  The prints were pretty big.  Then we saw other tracks including foxes, deer, birds and other animals.  Oh, did I mention that we were the only ones on the trail at this time????  OK, so this is when I declared the Blood of Jesus over us and angels around us!  :-)

Going up the trail to the falls is a little tough, and the snow added a new dimension.  On the way we did stop by the beaver bond (see previous pics) and Jaclyn got out on the ice and "skated" around.  It was funny!  We also saw some beautiful birds along the way.  I am not sure what kind they were for the most part, but above is a picture of one of them.  If any of you know the name of the bird, please let me know by posting a Comment.  Thanks!

When we got near the falls, the stream was mostly frozen, but you could hear the water running beneath the ice.  We did not want to test the ice, so we just jumped across.  One of the neat things there was this "S" shaped ice formation that had formed.  I took a pic and it is included in the new pictures on the right hand side.  We also took some time while at the falls to just play around - me throwing snow balls and Jaclyn climbing trees (little tree hugger!).

We then got the bright idea to go North - OK, it really was like "straight up" (see pics).  But before ascending, we wanted to mark the trail so that we did not get lost, and what better way than declaring "Jesus Loves U" in the snow.  This really did help when we were coming back. 

After tramping through more snow, we came to a place that literally went straight up and we accepted the challenge set before us.  You may notice a really sharp grade in a few pics - they very accurately depict the grade of the slope.  It was a very good climb - good workout on the calves.  We then climbed up another incline, but it was more difficult and somewhere up there, there is an ice-cold bottle of Dasani water that went flying when I lost my footing.  I'm glad that it was the water and not me that continued down.  I dug into the terrain with my fingers and was finally able to get my footing and not continue down the slope.  

When we got to a point that overlooked the valley and the neighboring mountains, we sat down and just listened to the silence.  It was wonderful - so quiet.  We talked about God and how wonderful He is and how that He wonderfully created all that we were seeing.  I know that the things on this earth dim in comparison to heaven, but on days like this, I personally cannot imagine something more beautiful.  It was so beautiful that we decided to have lunch there, but then we had a few visitors come for lunch too.  There were some birds that were flying in and landing on the top of the trees, looking at us like, "Hello!  Aren't  you going to feed us????"  We pulled out a few pieces of bread and began to feed the two birds.  Well, they must have had a cell phone and called their friends because the two multiplied into more birds.  It was fun.  And then it got better.  We were able to feed the birds straight out of our hands!  We would put a piece of bread in our hand, hold it out and then the birds would swoop down and get the bread.  After gaining their trust, the birds began to land on our fingers, look around, get the bread and then fly off.  It was so amazing.  Jaclyn said that it made her think about Adam & Eve when they were in the Garden - able to just hang out with the animals that were created. 

We left after about 4 1/2 hours of hiking and the descent was like a ski slope in many places.  I found that tennis shoes are not the best equipment to have...so... tomorrow, I am going to go and get some winter boots with the money received this week in the mail (that was a blessing btw...).  They are rated to -20 degrees and are supposed to keep your feet warm.  Today God was so awesome to keep my feet warm (prayed over my tennis shoes and prayed for warm feet), but I think it's wisdom to get some boots.

Hope all of y'all in Texas are staying nice and warm.  I think of the warm temperatures more often now.  :-)

Have a wonderful week... will post more later.  And one last thing - if you are registered, please remember to vote.  It's a great honor and also a great responsibility that we have.

Love ya,

konya

p.s.  You may want to double click on the pictures from today.  It will take you to my photo gallery at Picasa, and there you can see some of the comments that I have added to the photos.