Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: christ church, Dennis Chavez, John Ragsdale, lyric, Lyrics, Music, Paul Thompson, Prayer, Relationship, Relationships, song writer, You are Holy
Dennis is in one of the back rooms paying the keyboard and/or the guitar and the singing. On the way to church this morning we were listening to John Ragsdale sing “You are Holy” (based on Isaiah 6 – you can check it out here http://www.johnragsdalestore.com/fr_index.cfm it is on the CD “The Sound” and it is song 5 or 6). Dennis tried singing the lyrics in Spanish…they didn’t fit. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. So I challenged him to re-write the song in Spanish…to be clear, to re-write the lyrics and the music. He was working on that.
So I decided to do a little writing.
We’ve been hearing a lot lately about “Getting Connected”. Getting connected to the Holy Spirit, connecting to community, connecting to …you name it. Apparently we are designed to connect.
It all sounds good. Sometimes, what we think we should connect to isn’t what God is working to connect. Today I wanted to go to a birthing class our church was having. I had been personally invited. I wanted to go because I want to connect with the women at my church and many of then are mothers and they are passionate about child birth and all things related. It is good. It didn’t work out. We went had planned to attend an appreciation service for Bishop and Sister Thompson, one of the pastors who prayed for us at our wedding. The service was longer than I realized.
It was a great service. And we met so many wonderful people. We met the couple who pastor Christ Church in San Marcos. They are a lovely couple with young children. We enjoyed meeting them. It was funny, I saw them during the service and I thought maybe I knew them from somewhere. You know when you get that feeling?
Lately, I have found that I have become friends with several women who are very strong Christians but who do not attend “my church”. I’ve also become friends with some women at my own church who some might say are “unlikely” friends. Once again, it is not always the people we think we should be friends with but the ones that God connects us to.
It reminds me of a message that John Ragsdale preached about getting the right relationships, the right reasons and the right resources. (I know back to John Ragsdale – hey, this guy doesn’t just sing, he and his wife are also great preachers! You should look him up.) In our lives, we need to pray that we would have the right relationships in our lives, the right reasons (motives) and the right resources…when these things line up, it’s all good.
So here is to connecting the right people.
Filed under: Prayer, Uncategorized | Tags: Holy Spirit, intercessory prayer, Prayer, prayer team, prayer teams
In my previous, “Random” blog, I made mention of acclimation to the Spirit. How we have a tendency to “get used to” the Holy Spirit that are frequently exposed to. I’m not sure that is a good thing at all. I know it happens. Sometimes, it isn’t so much that we “get used to it” as it is we “aren’t as aware” of it.
Our Tuesday night prayer team meets in our Pastor’s office (usually). We are pretty free flowing. We have a mission: to pray God’s Will, God’s vision and God’s mission for Promiseland San Marcos. Very simple. And off we go. Sometimes we are loud. Sometimes we cry. Sometimes we eat carpet. It is according the leading of the Holy Spirit.
We have been doing this for over a year. We haven’t grown much numerically, although we have almost doubled…we started small. Even so, I’ve been disappointed and a little frustrated.
A few weeks ago, one of the intercessors shared some information with me. She told me one of the staff members came into the outer office while we were praying. He told her he could hear us “tearing it up” and the Holy Spirit was so strong in the outer office that he couldn’t stand, he had to kneel right there and pray.
That encouraged me.
At a service shortly after that I heard Sister Hayes’ story about a church they were pastoring. She wanted to encourage the church members to attend pre-service prayer. Week after week she was the only person praying. She began praying that God would move on the congregation to PRAY. On week, she was in the prayer room alone again, she was in a deep place of prayer; crying out to God. When she finally finished and looked up the prayer room was full. Someone told her later, they were in the sanctuary and suddenly they felt a call to pray.
Deep in my heart, I have this spark of faith that one night, on a Tuesday, while we intercessors are praying for a our church, the Holy Spirit is going to fall on the whole Promiseland Campus and everyone who is on the premises(that is when the worship team and the dance team meet) will fall to their knees and pray. I keep waiting and anticipating it….
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Facebook, Lukemia, Order, preacher, twitter
I haven’t been doing much writing recently; not feeling very inspired. I keep thinking I have a story to tell but I am not sure what it is.
We are about to embark upon a Diet Game. Yep, being pregnant, I wasn’t doing much exercise so I’ve pretty much gone to the pigs. That’s right, I’m talking bad about pigs. The game is based on the a book; The Game On Diet. It is all about establishing healthy habits…like exercising, eating right and drinking A LOT of water.
October is my birthday month and interestingly enough, we are broke right now. For my birthday, I don’t really want gifts, I want to do thing…like take a trip to Alabama or Florida and even visit the Big Easy on the way and have some biengets. I guess we will see how things turn out. I haven’t exactly been feeling like God is for me lately…not that He’s against me. Maybe it’s a matter of alignment on my part. I find myself once again looking for the “sweet spot” and wishing I could live in it.
Sometimes I think Max Lucado sends too many Tweets on Twitter. (just a thought) Yet, I still “follow” him. Twitter is a very revealing tool. Some people are way more shallow than I expected. Bishop preached a sermon recently about “being deep” and going deeper. Then there are some people who are just trying too hard. I want to tell everyone on Twitter…I don’t need to know what time, where and with whom you are having lunch.
I saw a tweet from rather well known minister who wrote, “Look at me delivering a serious prophetic word in my barefeet”. I thought this tweet said it all “Look at me…” So many times tools like Twitter and Facebook become “all about me”.
Mean while, I found out recently that an acquaintance of mine has Lukemia…the really bad kind (as if there is any good kind). It has been weighing on my heart. He has some time to get everything in order and to make peace with God. That is about the best news in the whole situation. The bad news is this incredible talented writer is down. This is one of the most creative people I know and his light isn’t shining as brightly these days….almost like glory fading. Breaks my heart. This cannot be the “WILL of God” for someone so full of glory (Glory is man fully alive – St. Ignasias) to fade. So we pray and wait and wish there was something we could do to change the circumstances.
Spoke to a friend yesterday who lost her wallet….with all the rent money in the wallet. I’m thinking we might have to exercise some servalution for her and her family. It will take a group effort though. Our emergency fund is nil right now. We need some stimulus in our finances as well. (Anyone know of some writing I can do at home??)
Well, I’ve rambled on and possibly preached a mini-sermon or two. It’s time to get some things in order.
Last week we went for our first pre-natal visit and received some bad news. They could not find the baby’s heartbeat and it did not appear to be the size it should have been.
This situation may not be bringing out the best in me because I wanted to smack the nurse that day…she called it a spontaneous abortion. What an F.O.N. (Freak of Nature). Who tells a woman who just told you her and her husband have been trying for a year to get pregnant that they are experiencing a “spontaneous abortion” ?
The good news in all of this is 1. We were able to get pregnant without “help” (other than God) and 2. Everything on my end was good – it was the baby who failed to sustain life.
So I will have a D&C on Thursday to help my body reset and in a few months we will try again.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Have you ever woken yourself up from a dream laughing or crying?
Maybe it is being pregnant but I woke myself up laughing and talking in my sleep…or maybe Dennis woke me up because I was laughing and talking in my sleep.
I was having this dream and this guy Paul I grew up with was going to build a house. There was an old farmhouse on the property and I was telling him to renovate that and live in it while he was building his house. My mother told him not to do it. She said that we would want to live in the house later but we needed to live in a bakery. She wanted us to own and live in a bakery. I was very angry with her for saying that. I felt like she was telling me that is what I had to do with my life. I told her, “Do you know what kind of crackheads hangout in bakeries?”…I actually said that out loud and even as I said it, it struck me as funny. I do not actually know many crackheads; a few former crackheads. I have never heard of crackheads hanging out in bakeries.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Last month we took Katherine and John (he doesn’t want to be called “John Daniel” anymore… I suppose he is getting too old for that – Kat and John are Dennis’ brother and sister) to Corpus Christi. John had not been to the beach since he was two (years old) so he didn’t remember ever being to the beach.
Our plan was to visit the USS Lexington and then go to the beach. I was wearing a cute white dress and my red sandals. Thought I was looking cute…well for me (considering I had worked until 2 a.m. and then got up at 7 a.m. to leave town).
As we approached the ramp to go up to the ship, the guys noticed some guns so they went over to climb on them. I walked over to read a plaque about the Blue Angels (they used to be based out of Corpus – that was news, I have seen them in Pensacola, FL). As I stood there a woman was telling someone about the birth of one of her children. She was standing next to me, not too close (not like a weird, awkward close or anything). She must have stepped closer to where I was standing. Out of nowhere, she reaches her arm out and PATS my stomach!!! Then asks me how many kids I have. My response (not that we haven’t been trying) was “none”.
Awkward. She quickly left.
I laughed about how I need to lose some more weight as I told Dennis, Katherine and John what happened. Dennis and Katherine said maybe it was prophetic.
Didn’t realize it at the time, but the “Crazy Lady” wasn’t so “crazy” ….
We are EXPECTING!!!
Hi All,
To my faithful readers…I am so sorry. I’ve been sick for over a week now, so I haven’t been writing. I’m feeling a little better today so hopefully, I’ll feel up to getting back into the grove of writing in thee next few days.
C.B.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Cancer, Da Vinci, Surgery, Surgery Update
As many of you know, my dad had surgery today. Mom and I are hanging out in the surgery recover room at the St.David’s North Austin Medical Center. Our family loves St. David’s…Ellie, Evan, my sisters and I were all born at St.David’s (not north). Kudos to St. David’s.
Dad’s surgery was pretty high tech. The surgeon (Dr. Ruff), uses a console to operate a robot that does the actual surgery. It is called Da Vinci but I have dubbed it Dr. Wii. When Dad described the surgery, I asked if his doctor was young (He is) because you do not want an “old fart” (mom’s words) doing virtual (video) surgery on you. This doc looks like he’s probably played some video games in his time.
Anyway, Dr. Ruff just came out and informed us that the surgery was successful. They believe the cancer was confined only to the area they operated on (have you noticed I am not giving specifics? 1. I am not very familiar with technical terms. 2. My spelling skills are pretty questionable. 3. Let’s just say it is related to “man parts”). Anyway, Dad only lost maybe half a cup blood (very good, no transfusions necessary) and they believe all the nerves were successfully reattached.
Thank you, everyone for your prayers! I’ll keep you updated when we know more.
Filed under: Uncategorized
A few weeks ago, I found myself worshipping with other believers at First Baptist North Mobile (http://www.northmobile.org/). Pastor (Dr.) Ed Litton spoke. In his message he sighted this article ( http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5400568.ece )by Matthew Parris. The title of the article was very catchy so I tracked it down to read it. The title: As an athiest, I truely believe Africa needs God.
Here are a few excerpts, the entire article is worth reading and can be applied to every Continent. In fact, I will say that as a Christian, I truly believe America needs God:
“Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good. “
“Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing. “
“In the city we had working for us Africans who had converted and were strong believers. The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world – a directness in their dealings with others – that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall. “
“And I’m afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete. “
