The Uncaged Journey

We've been looking at different ways we encounter God. Today however, I want to talk about parenting. (You know, when I think about it, God actually has used my daughters many times to speak to me and to teach me a great deal about His love. I have encountered Him through my kids countless times!) A few weeks ago I met one of the leaders at the Youth group in which two of my girls attend. She asked me what I did to raise girls so in love with the Lord and told me I should write a book about it. I smiled, but thought, "Oh if you only knew! It hasn't been me, it's been all God." No false humility about it. I'm as shocked as anyone. Our daughters are 20, 18, and 15, and while I am incredibly amazed by their relationship with the Lord, I have no thoughts of writing a book on parenting. Today I only want to offer you my testimony. No sugar coating, no stories of home baked cookies, and domestic foo fooey'ness, but just a very candid look at our journey and...

Fasting Yep, I said the "f" word, but don't stop reading! As I meditate on the various ways I encounter the Lord, the subject of fasting has been swirling around in my spirit. Let me first say that I'm writing on each subject as the Lord prompts, with no particular order of importance to me. There are so many different ways to fast and I was thinking about the fact that in different seasons of my life, I also fasted in different ways. It's not my intention to discuss a current trend in small groups that fasting isn't for today. The Bible is chock full of proof that we are to fast - period.  For many years I did full fasts with water and juicing only. Those were some of the most amazing fasts I have ever done in my life. There was something about the feeling of physical emptiness that enabled me to hear the Lord very clearly. It's something I don't fully understand, but the hunger and weakness quieted my mind. During those years of fasting I re...

I've been thinking quite a bit on these seasons of change we all go through and specifically how the Lord encounters us in them. In Day #1 I encouraged you to think about the ways He touches you and to find out for yourself what is the most prominent way for you at the moment. As I was doing that today, I remembered one of my favorite seasons. Back in the 90's when revival hit Toronto and parts of FL., I was blessed to live in FL and got hit hard by the joy of the Lord. I spent a lot of time during those days in meetings and on the floor, laughing uncontrollably for hours at a time. I would wake up the next day and start laughing again. Wow! That was so awesome! I know some are still in that season...laughing and drunk all of the time, but I'm not. I fully believe it is not a stopping place, but something to catapult us to even deeper things in the Kingdom. Although I think it is accessible ALWAYS! I'm very happy in this season of my life, but I haven't been ex...

I've been pondering the many ways we spend time with the Lord. While I firmly believe that communing with Him throughout our days is indispensable, set apart time is equally important. A marriage that didn't have time exclusively set apart for the husband and wife to be alone, would suffer greatly. The same is true in our relationship with the Lord - there must be time to be with Him, and Him alone. Many of you know that since our move back to the States from Puerto Rico, our lives have changed drastically. In my season of adjusting to this incredible new life, I began to wonder if I was doing something wrong because my time with Him had changed quite a bit. I have found that we tend to become so accustomed to the "normal" way the Lord encounters us, that we downplay noticeable shifts, especially when the "norm" has been outrageously good. Too often we want to camp at specific encounters not wanting the present glory to lift or change. But He has promis...