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Desert Walkers

Jeremiah 31:2
“This is what the Lord says: ‘The people who survive the sword will find favor in the wilderness…”

Growing up my Grandmother displayed an array of flowers and plants throughout her house and yard. I have always felt so pulled toward the little flower boxes, to gaze upon their beauty and ask just what type each respective colored bloom was. Her flowers reminded me so of love. Just these colorful sprees of life, beckoning all to come and rest for a while. They added such flair and design to an otherwise bare porch.
Inside her house to this day sits an interestingly shaped cactus plant. Yep, you heard me. Beauty outside. Cactus inside. In her kitchen no less! How could one plant all of these gorgeous creations to enjoy the sunlight and star gazes only to destroy the whole thing with a hideous looking cactus plant right smack in the heart of the house?
Now, this cactus plant is not your ordinary desert dweller. It honestly looks like a bunch of fingers, pointing straight at you as if identifying you as the culprit. Every time I catch a glimpse of it, I am worried police are coming to bring me in for a crime. The thing should be burned. My Grandma loves it. “Beautiful in its own way…”
“Grandma,” I’ve said on many occasions, “it is a cactus and it has bitten me more than once. Not counting all the other grandchildren it has attacked in its years! You do remember the Summer House incident of ‘93, don‘t you?”
She just laughs and comments on how the poor plant should be pruned. I’ve never understood it. That is until this New York girl found herself in Texas. In the middle of a glassed-in cactus exhibit. These things get big and some of them well…I will admit it here…it could have been the chocolate talking since I was actually participating at a chocolate festival that day but…some of those cacti were actually…ahem…beautiful. I took pictures and everything! Tall. Strong. Sure of themselves. Sure that what lives inside of them is enough to keep them going…these cacti knew who they were!
Wouldn’t you know the Lord spoke to me through cactus plants? Cactus are built to survive and their lives are not all light rainstorms and rainbows. They have hard lives: dirt, heat, cold nights, barrenness. Cacti somehow find favor in the desert.
Not much unlike us, the faithful followers of Christ. I don’t know if you have just found yourself in the desert or if you have been desert walking for years. All I know is that I have been into a few deserts myself with the Lord and well, I am starting to look more and more like a cactus everyday! The Lord wants us to be able to survive - on Him alone- and so He takes us by our hands sometimes and leads us into the desert!
Moses knew what that was like, Deuteronomy 2:1 says,” Then we turned back and set out toward the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea as the Lord had directed me. For a long time we made our way around the hill country of Seir. “
For a long time Israel trekked through barren lands and sand stormed living because they were directed to do so. Do you relate? When you look around your life right now are you in the heart of the wilderness? If so, Jesus has two great truths for you today.
One is found in Deuteronomy 2:2. “Then the Lord said to [Moses], ‘You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north.’”
Dear one, eventually the Lord will call you out of your desert surroundings. If you are faithful to him even in your mirage-inducing settings you will see the second joy offered to us desert dwellers. Jeremiah 31:2 speaks to us! “This is what the Lord says: ‘The people who survive the sword will find favor in the wilderness…”
Amidst desolate lands and parched mouths…you will find his favor if you remain faithful. Impossible? I think not…the cactus pulls it off. A rugged beauty. Sure, not the look we had always envisioned for ourselves but the look of a survivor.
Listen closely to His word, “Those who survive the sword will find favor in the wilderness…” Our hikes are battles we can be sure. The question is not if the trek is hard. We know it is. The question is will we give up and trade in our reward of favor to simply be a flower adorning a porch for the summer months? Or will we trade in our expectations and find favor in the wilderness, standing tall as cacti; taken care of and glorifying-ly alive?

Purposed Passion!!!

All I can say is if you can...GO!!!!!

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Hebrews 13:3

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"Blessed are they who maintain justice,who constantly do what is right."
(Psalm 106:3)

Psalm 87:7
“As they make music they will sing, ‘All my fountains are in you.’”


Crazy as it may sound, I was pondering water fountains today. Somehow I got into my head I am going to take up jogging and this time actually stick with it. This thought than birthed the thought about somehow installing a water fountain at the driveway that way as I am leaving for each jog I can take a quick sip and upon returning can just gulp the water down.
This small dream of a water fountain grew to the dream of a Gatorade fountain. “How could I manage to get blue Gatorade pumping through a fountain”, I thought? Is it possible to order a tank of Gatorade? This, sadly enough, gave way to my fruit punch fountain and even more sadly, the thought of a milk shake fountain just popped into my head this very second! But that would kind of defeat the whole jogging purpose…so back to the fruit punch/Gatorade one…
Actually, getting off this whole fountain dream is the underlining point. How easy it is for us to take a perfectly good thing and BAM! Feel like we need an upgrade! I literally went from jogging with a water bottle like normal people to adding in a water/punch/Gatorade/Milkshake dispensing fountain in my front yard in a matter of seconds. Why isn’t water enough?
We do this with God. We take The Thirst Quencher and try to fit him into a better post-jogging-fountain. We dig wells that are not meant to be dug. We place our thirst into the hands of those who cannot hydrate. We take addiction, depression, devastation and somehow we begin to serve what they serve. Despair becomes our ‘it’ guy. Loss our only comfort.
How can loss even be a comfort? I don’t understand the logic, but I have been the one to jog drinking in fountains full of loss. I have been the one who has dug the cisterns of loss juice and tried to hydrate on anger, rejection, sin. I have lived the fountains. None of them took care of the thirst.
I absolutely love Psalm 87:7. Speak it aloud as you read it. “As they make music they will sing, ‘All my fountains are in you.’” How beautiful. Lord, all my fountains are in you! What I fear we miss is that the deeper our thirst for Christ and the more we allow him to quench it, the more fountains we find springing up. And soon the Living Water that was rather bland in the beginning to our taste buds is sweeter than any milkshake could ever be. Soon, we serve only one. Soon - all of our fountains are in one place.
And oh how His streams affect our lives. Dry bones rise up and live. Broken hearts begin to mend. Lost dreams are found. Shattered hopes become restored. Our thirst is quenched…and we soon find ourselves jogging just to get to the fountain. We soon find ourselves exercising just to be rejuvenated. We find ourselves being emptied but not worrying about never being full. Yes, Lord Jesus. All of our fountains, every last one is in you.

No fruit punch add-on’s for us. We want the real deal and nothing less!

Hey Guys!

Well,

I am not working on any big projects this Summer so I thought I would start a blog. That way I can share as I go and keep the writing skills top notch! Check back each week for something new...

In the King,
Kristen