Today is the last day of July, but it’s still not too late to write about freedom, is it?

My time with Jesus yesterday began with some things I was upset about, things I was concerned with, and my unending desire to find a normal rhythm to my schedule.  As I lamented to Jesus about all this, I concluded that I agreed with David’s “one thing” in Psalm 27, mentioned at church on Sunday. This “one thing” theme has come up often for me in recent years.  Here is David’s “one thing” in Psalm 27:4.

“One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

and to seek him in his temple.”

I looked up the cross-reference to this verse and it took me to the Mary and Martha story in Luke 10:38-42. Truthfully I was looking for the reference to Paul’s declaration of his “one thing,” but curious, I stopped here and read this familiar story again. Verse 42 reads, “…but only ‘one thing’ is needed.  Mary has chosen what is better…”  Wow, I never saw that before.  When I re-read verse 41 where Jesus says, “Martha, Martha,” I heard, “Debbie, Debbie, you are upset about many things,” to which I agreed and began to cry.

Jesus highlighted so much to encourage me deeply in that moment:

• Martha had opened her home to the Lord (way to go Martha)!
• Martha openly took her needs in that moment to Jesus without hesitation; she was so real and comfortable with him.
• Jesus listened and responded to her.
• Jesus knew her name and spoke it to her with love and concern.
• Jesus taught her the “one thing” that matters most.
• The “one thing” was the “better thing” to choose.
• Jesus gives freedom for Martha to choose it for herself.

Jesus whispered all this so sweetly to my heart as the tears came again. He was so present. He heard my cries and complaints, my prayers and fears of failure. He spoke my name because he knows my name. I cried more. This is the “one thing” – Jesus – that Mary was experiencing.  Mary’s life found its proper place in Christ’s presence and now so was I.

All my troubles didn’t get fixed in these moments, but they did take their proper place at his feet.  He was teaching me that each day I have a choice to invite him into my mess like Martha did.  But most of all, I have been given freedom to listen to him respond to my cares and teach me like Martha.  This must be what David experienced with the Lord as he expressed himself in Psalm 27. We too can find this kind touch from Jesus even in heartache.

Jesus is no less present with you right now than he was with Martha and Mary so long ago.

It is our prayer that together we seek his face and rest at his feet. Know today with a renewed certainty that Jesus knows your name and cares deeply about your concerns. He has something to say to you too. Chose today the “one thing” that is the “better thing,” acting on the freedom we have been given to listen and experience Jesus even now.

We love you too.

Brennan Manning was an amazing man of God who said, “Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is an illusion.” The Bible is about this kind of radical love. In the book of Hosea, Gomer was loved despite all the ways she hurt her husband and God. Hosea was instructed by God to marry a woman he knew would betray him. What courage, what obedience. But even greater is how God uses this story to tell of His love for His beloved people, Israel. He gave them everything and they betrayed Him for the lust of other lovers. Many of us know the hurt and pain unfaithfulness causes. In the midst of this betrayal, God shows love and mercy. Reading Hosea 2:14-23, God makes an amazing declaration for Gomer and Israel then, and more importantly to us today:

“Therefore, I am now going to allure her;

I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.

There I will give her back her vineyards,

and will make the Valley of Achor (trouble) a door of hope.

There she will sing (respond) as in the days of her youth,

as in the day she came up out of Egypt (slavery).”

Where is there for Gomer, for Israel? Where is there for us today? Where is God taking you to know and hear His tender voice, redeem what you once had, and find a door of hope from the trouble you face? There was a desert for Gomer, Israel and Jesus. But there they get back the vineyards, hope and an opportunity to respond to the One that provided the mercy and love to get back what they once had–a relationship with radical love.

The desert is a dry place where thirst and hunger are not satisfied. It is hot, and without provision death comes fast. It is not a place of vineyards and hope. But there was where God was and he was at work to draw back a people, not His people, to be His beloved. He loved in the midst of His pain, as they and we chose other lovers.

Maybe your desert place, your there, is the very place God is drawing you to renew your true identity as radically loved by God? It is in desolation and desert places of the heart that God desires to speak tenderly to you and draw you back to what has always been there – God the Father’s love. God goes on in these verses to declare His commitment to an undying relationship in an unbreakable covenant of love for Israel and for us today: 

“I will betroth you to me forever;

I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,

in love and compassion…”

Jesus Christ has fulfilled this promise and has betrothed us to Himself. He is the Bridegroom and we are His beloved Bride, the Church. He has given us everything. In this season of love may we all be willing to go there with our Lover. Let God satisfy our true longing with His radical love because “beloved by God” is our true identity.

(Please play “Love Like This” by Lauren Daigle. Let’s celebrate True Love today!)

Jeremiah 32:8 “I knew this was the word of the Lord, so I bought the field”

The city of Jerusalem was besieged; Jeremiah would likely have heard the siege ramps being built against the high walls protecting the city.  But Jeremiah did not concern himself with that.He had a story to tell about God and how he was calling him to personal action in the midst of chaos.

He was affirmed by God to buy a field at such an unreasonable time. But he knew God was speaking to him, right there in the middle of all the commotion. Later in the chapter, God gives Jeremiah a deeper understanding of what the deed to this property meant to the covenant promises God had for Israel.  But only after Jeremiah obeyed.

Wondering

A commentary on this story said, “We wonder sometimes what God’s will for us is, or how we can know what it is, then something happens or we meet someone who, without knowing it, says or does something that confirms for us the way ahead.”

“Intentional” Wondering

At YadaFactor we still wonder, but we do it with intention!  Without an intentional action plan for discernment and spiritual growth, we are far more apt to lose focus and get distracted.  Without an intentional plan, we start dismissing the internal wondering for voices and choices not of God.  We are more easily wooed by our own wants and desires. Voices like:  “You can’t know for certain.” “Things won’t change.” “Does it really matter anyway?”

Intentionality in Yada is reading, re-reading, writing, reviewing, verbally processing a week at a time to see and hear God; we learn to wonder intentionally.

An Invitation To Increased Clarity

We invite you to our next online course, YadaFactor Experience.  This is an invitation to do more than take a course to learn to hear God.  It is an invitation to enter more deeply into God’s story with your own life story one day at a time.  Whatever is happening in your life, God wants to speak to you, to lead you, and experience with you the joy of knowing that He is speaking.

The Yada Experience

Learning to hear God from an experienced Yada Coach provides the essential guidance you need to listen and hear with confidence.  We believe it may be what is missing in the church today.  We have so much Christian information available, but how do we know what is for us personally?

If Jeremiah had relied on his reasoning as to whether he should buy the field that day, it may have not happened.  But, having learned to hear God over many years of experiences with God, he could confidently take action.

Our next course starts soon.  Learn more at www.YadaFactor.com

Demanding Voices

The cries were deafening. They demanded, loudly screaming, “Crucify him, Crucify him! Jesus was a threat on many levels. The leaders and crowds were unwilling to examine what Jesus threatened in them. History was being fulfilled. God’s long awaited Messiah had come, but they refused to listen to him. The crowds loud demands moved Pilate to please them over the truth he knew. Jesus was an innocent man.

 “…they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that He should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. So Pilate decided that their demands should be granted.” Luke 23:23-24 

I have to admit; I understand the power of demands that scream so loudly. They come in the form of expectations, obligations, opinions, and decisions. Pilate heard audible voices, but it’s the silent demands in the mind that are harder to detect. Yet if undetected and unexamined they will attempt to crucify our lives.

Internal Thoughts

Seeking God one morning, I was challenged to examine my thoughts and  feelings. I had been studying about the enemy of the soul and how he operates. Here are some of his characteristics:

• He is a liar and his goal is deception.
• He manipulates believers to doubt God and his Word.
• He tempts to move one away from God.

Getting Honest

As I began to write down the thoughts I was having I was appalled. I was not conscious of the voices demanding and condeming in silence  until I asked God to show me what was going on. As I wrote these thoughts down they became real, realizing I had been mediating and believing them instead of God’s living Words. These were negative internal thoughts screaming familiar tones;

• “You can’t do this, why do you keep trying?”
• “You’re wasting your time with that project, you are not smart enough”
• “This will never work, give up before you make a fool of yourself.”
• “You will fail anyway so why not quit now.”

These thoughts brought anger and discouragement. I began crying out to God and He said clearly as I read my next place in 1 Corinthians…stand firm.

“Thanks be to God, He gives victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, stand firm. Let nothing move you…”  1 Corinthians 15:57-58

The negative voices were moving me in the wrong direction, and tempting me. It took time in God’s presence with his Word for insight to come. I had to get real with myself and God. In that confessing and brokenness God spoke, his voice commanded me with gentleness, authority, and love to “stand firm and let nothing move me.” He hushed what was false, overcoming the battle in an instant. God and I were alone together deeply connecting. It was an amazing moment knowing He heard me. He was enabling me in great personal weakness to stand above the loud demands that day. I was sustained firmly within by God himself. It is quite unbelievable, but this is why we share YadaFactor with others. These moments add up within us and He uses each experience to morph us into what He has designed us to be, His. To know Him and love Him above all.

Make a Decision Everyday

Everyday is a battle for our attention, the world is loud and the crowds are demanding. Make a decision now, be willing to seek God with all your heart everyday to understand yourself and your thoughts from his living Word, but even greater to know God. Taking time with Him can change everything with only a whisper, silencing the demanding voices of this world that desires our crucifixion.

Who’s voice are you listening to today?

 Take some time to examine your thoughts and let us know how God’s voice is prevailing in your life today. What is He saying to you from His ancient scrolls? 

What is a Degree?

Webster defines degree as; “any of a series of steps or stages, as in a process or course of action.” In the Bible, 2 Corinthians 3:16 tells us that when we enter life with Jesus we will begin to change, one-step or one degree at a time.

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” ESV …Glory to Glory in the NIV translation.

Yada Writing and Sharing

Sharing in YadaFactor facilitates degrees of change. In many ways it is like climbing a mountain, it is a slow and sometimes challenging process. Change doesn’t always come in the time frame or grandeur that we might be expecting in today’s high-speed 21st century. God’s ways are not our ways, and He doesn’t need the transformation; we do.

God’s ultimate goal is to make us into the image of His Son. He wants to transform our thoughts, behaviors, desires, and attitudes to reflect Himself. Jesus’s desire was to love the Father and obey His commands.

Yada meetings are the time and place we take serious our relationship with God and our relationship with one another. Sharing from our journals in Yada helps us to identify sins and gives us an opportunity to confess them. Writing enables us to capture subtle nuances of God insights we would otherwise miss. Processing out loud can help us see our part in any life situation so we can take personal responsibility for what God is teaching us.

Personally

God is dealing with my tongue, and what comes out of it at times. Recently in a Yada meeting, my YadaSister had the courage to gently ask me, “Are you frustrated? Do you know where this anger is coming from right now?” I hated that moment! At the time I didn’t know why I was feeling frustrated; but she nailed it. I couldn’t answer her. All I wanted to do was run and hide or just stay angry. But after 12 years of sharing in Yada and building safe intimacy with friends, you learn that you must vulnerably “go through” the pain of change, in faith, rather than run from it. Later that evening and continuing into the next day, I had to deal with the real feelings behind the frustrations and take it to God. I listened and He lead the way to another degree of healing.

God Met Me

He reminded me that He is making me into His image. He revealed a specific wound of rejection deep inside, that had nothing to do with what was happening on the surface, yet everything to do with what was going on in my heart. God spoke with love and discipline through Proverbs 10. His Word encouraged prayer, change and more confession. He reminded me of what He had said to me two weeks prior. “ I am changing you from glory to glory, one degree of glory at a time.” This degree of change was arrived at only when I shared my writing in group and a YadaSister was inspired to ask a perceptive God question.

One Degree Today and Another Tomorrow

Each day we get to decide if we will take a step toward God or run. We chose the direction. God has something for us at the top of life’s mountains, but the goal is to know Him more with each step. The path to Him is His Word to us daily. He is guiding and speaking. Hearing Him changes us. Which direction are you walking in today? Who are you listening to? Ask God. Write something. Then share it. He will transform your life one step at a time!

Please Jesus change us one degree at a time, give us courage to move closer to you one step at a time. And help us do this just for today. Amen

Streams In The Desert

(see videos below)

Devil’s Burden

Consequently a Sabbath rest remains for the people of God.—Heb 4:9 NET

The Lord made them secure, in fulfillment of all he had solemnly promised their ancestors. None of their enemies could resist them.—Josh 21:44 NET

For the Lord takes delight in his people; he exalts the oppressed by delivering them.—Ps 149:4 NET

An eminent Christian worker tells of his mother who was a very anxious and troubled Christian. He would talk with her by the hour trying to convince her of the sinfulness of fretting, but to no avail. She was like the old lady who once said she had suffered so much, especially from the troubles that never came.

But one morning the mother came down to breakfast wreathed in smiles. He asked her what had happened, and she told him that in the night she had a dream.

She was walking along a highway with a great crowd of people who seemed so tired and burdened. They were nearly all carrying little black bundles, and she noticed that there were numerous repulsive looking beings which she thought were demons dropping these black bundles for the people to pick up and carry.

Like the rest, she too had her needless load, and was weighed down with the devil’s bundles. Looking up, after a while, she saw a Man with a bright and loving face, passing hither and thither through the crowd, and comforting the people.

At last He came near her, and she saw that it was her Saviour. She looked up and told Him how tired she was, and He smiled sadly and said:

“My dear child, I did not give you these loads; you have no need of them. They are the devil’s burdens and they are wearing out your life. Just drop them; refuse to touch them with one of your fingers and you will find the path easy and you will be as if borne on eagle’s wings.”

He touched her hand, and lo, peace and joy thrilled her frame and, flinging down her burden, she was about to throw herself at His feet in joyful thanksgiving, when suddenly she awoke and found that all her cares were gone. From that day to the close of her life she was the most cheerful and happy member of the household.

And the night shall be filled with music,

And the cares that infest the day,

Shall fold their tents like the Arabs,

And as silently steal away.

—Longfellow

Streams In The Desert – December 1

Public domain content taken from Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles Cowman.

May your Christmas be filled with His presence. Emmanuel, “God with us”.  As you begin the New Year commit to seek Him and Yada (know) Him more.

Merry Christmas and A Happy Blessed New Year!

When pain comes it is hard to understand. Where are you God? Yet we praise Him, and fight to believe what He has promised through the pain. He is enough! This is why Jesus was born. To rescue us, to save us, and to love us home. Nothing is wasted in God’s economy. Please listen to this song all the way to the end, there is a small message from John Piper. We pray God speaks to you and strengthens you today.

Let’s face it; we are all running short on time these days. Our schedules are packed and frankly don’t have time to spend with God, right? We want to, but how is that possible with all life’s demands? We say to ourselves, “It’s ok if I didn’t get there today. I mean, I am saved and I have all eternity to spend with God, right? He loves me just the same and He allows me to live in grace, right?” While all these statements might be true, how does not setting aside time with God affect my day?

Let this story motivate you.

One day Jesus went to visit two women, Mary and Martha. Martha was busy cleaning, as any good hostess would be. And Mary? Well, she was sitting at the feet of Jesus. Wasting time? Doing the lesser work? Nope, not according to Jesus. She had chosen what was better. We don’t know what else Mary got done that day or how God expanded her time. But we know Jesus personally affirmed her.
How much better might your day go if you heard God affirm you? How much more might you get done? Who really cares? If you were affirmed by God today and documented how He spoke to you in your circumstances, you experienced God and have something valuable to share with the world! How long does it really take to read a few verses of Scripture and jot down a note each day? Five minutes, maybe ten? What is the return on that investment of time?

Oh yeah! That is the Yada experience. If you get a glimpse of God’s perspective, how might that change your “to do” list? Apply Mary’s time management system today. It is a decision of faith, one day at a time, believing that every little bit of time we spend with God makes a big difference. Sometimes it will seem unreasonable with your tasks ahead, like there’s not enough time. None of Mary’s “to do” lists were documented, but the time she spent with Jesus was.

Don’t skimp on Jesus today; sit at His feet and get His perspective. He will affirm you too! Or maybe He just did. Print it, paste it, and share it at your next Yada.