OH.HAPPY.DAY.

Do you ever have some days that are just better than others?  I guess we all do!  When Louis and I were in Austin for Verge 2010 we learned this song by the Aaron Ivey Band…Oh Happy Day!  It’s not the Oh Happy Day that we have all heard before…but a new and different one.

Celebrate!  Jesus is alive!

The quality of the video isn’t the best…but take a listen….You will get the drift of it!  While in Austin, we found ourselves jumpin’ up and down just like these kids were!

This is how I feel today!  So, you are probably wondering why.  I’m not quite sure, but I am going to process it here for a minute.  I was just sittin’ here taking a break from work for a moment…looking out the window of my office and was filled with this sense of peace and joy.

My View from the Office

My New Birdbath..and the Birds enjoying their feed!

Louis and I had scheduled our 2nd retreat for yesterday evening, which didn’t turn out quite like we thought it would, for we had planned to go back to Richmond Hill.  But our friend, Marc came by for a visit, which turned out to be a wonderful gift from the Lord!  As we sat and talked for hours, the Lord revealed much to us.  Later, Louis and I decided to review our list of questions from our previous retreat (which can be found in Enjoy the Journey), and we had received answers or confirmations to many of our questions.

In a nutshell….our answers were centered around the verse…Matthew 6:33:

So…today, as I reflect on yesterday’s conversation, I look out the window and see how the birds are provided food and water.  Sometimes the Lord uses nature to feed those birds…where the birds have to work and work hard for their keep. Other times…there are people like me who provide it through a feeder and a birdbath…making it really easy for them.  Regardless, the birds…they get some food and water.

So, with Louis going half-time and my job coming to an end some time this year, questions come up like…how are we going to make money and pay the bills?  Sometimes there is a slight panic (or not so slight panic!) that Louis needs to hurry up and find something to earn additional money.  But, we have been sensing… “not yet”.  Then, yesterday…the answer became clear!  Seek ye first the kingdom!  We need to do what the Lord has called us to do to seek the kingdom…not seek money or jobs…but the kingdom.  Then Lord will provide when the time comes. We need to keep our priorities straight.

This thought then led me to when God provided manna from heaven for His people when they wandered in the desert.  As Louis and I had our retreat in our own home, we listed the times just recently that our Lord provided for us in many ways….in surprising ways…to meet our needs….our “manna from heaven”.

Some folks like to say that the Bible isn’t relevant today…or that miracles don’t happen in modern times.  But I am here to encourage you….THEY DO!  We just have to be open to seeing them!

Marc, Louis and I were talking just yesterday….that our journey of faith holds many levels.  First…we READ stories of faith and provision in the Bible…stories of those who have gone before us.  Then, we HEAR the stories of our friends and families who tell of their faith journeys.  Then…the sweet spot…the best…..is when you have your own stories to TELL!

If that isn’t worth shouting about…I don’t know what it!  As Shirley Caesar and Marc taught me…”Hold my mule. I’m gonna shout right now!…That’s how I feel right now!…I feel like praisin’ Him!”