Jezreel

In the middle of service a couple of weeks ago, the word echoed again in my mind...

Jezreel.

I am not sure, God, what it means? A fresh word from you is typically simple,but an obscure name-word that I don't understand? All I remember is the tiny mention in Hosea.

Yes, I heard it, the word is Jezreel.

I took the word to Pastor R. and told him I believed it was meant for the stonehouse during our annual influx of Christian missionaries, and that I didn't know what it meant.

Jezreel.

He didn't know, so we looked it up together and sat with it for a moment.

• A name of God? Our God - Our God who sows.

I like that. It makes sense with the verses in Hosea I love about stirring up fallow ground and God raining grace upon us. It makes sense that it has to do with planting.

• a name of shame, a "cast away"...ouch. That too makes sense in the context of God, He is often shut out, cast away, His people are despised and often rejected as well. (the stone of the stonehouse is the "cast away stone" the rejected).

Jezreel.

• May God make fruitful, an implanted/impregnated seed (holy spirit-Word of God).

(word bracelet from NYC...simple sweet yummy words)

I let that one sit, and it only takes a minute to sink in...Yes, this is the God I know and love. The One filled with fresh words. The house is to be filled to the brim with God's word...precious verses, humble tear stained prayers, guitar strummed praises to the King of Kings. Yum.

The Rising Tide and friends gave us this beautiful gift of God's word and testimonies and love for our stonehouse. Come by and see it for yourself, it is a blessed treasure.

Thank you my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.

((hug hug hug))

I love you.
jj

seeing God in the everyday...

How do you see God today?

I want to put together a huge collage of words & pics that are expressive of God's "present" presence in our lives. If you are interested, bring things to the stone house the next 2 weeks and and we will put something great together. I am wanting to use things that He blesses you with today...right now.

jj

i {heart} eyes that see...

{everyday in hearts}

If I don't focus, I can't see...

God, please open my eyes, don't let me stay blind in any way--help me see You in truth and in love. Please share what it is You see...point me in the right direction...

I can't wait to see what you will reveal this week & don't let me forget my camera?

jj

hidden things and wild adventures...can't wait!

(my pic of a beautiful tile-fresco in Massada, Israel)

As we uncover the old and broken, sometimes we take a moment and polish off the rock to see what it is we have uncovered. Today was like that.

We didn't uncover any amazing tile-frescoes under the stabs of mortar or stunning pioneer paintings underneath the old carpet...but we did find some remarkable things.

When we pulled back the old carpet today, we found a really strong wooden floor, painted a great mustard yellow brown (i think it's lovely for sounding like a condiment) and the slabs of a giant hearth made of hand-carved stone that had sunk 6 inches into the floor. Until now, we never knew either existed. John (our only paid help) is elated. He loves stonework. I am thrilled about the wood floor, it is in such amazing shape,too -- it just saved us hundreds if not a thousands of dollars in repairs and new flooring. YES! I am sooo thanking God for the big and little things that inspire us to keep moving forward.

* * *

Along with the hard labors of unearthing, plaster glopping and paint picking, we also had great discussions about our beliefs. Unearthing our fears, questioning what it is we truly are believing, and realizing that so much of our personal revelations are put through multiple personal filters---Where can we ultimately find truth?

In the work we are doing with our hands, this all "belief excavation" makes sense to our hearts. John and I have very different beliefs, but we are in this project of uncovering truths together this week. It is good.

Oh, Yes...this is going to be an adventurous week. There are so many great friends coming in to visit and stay. These individuals devote their entire vacations to reach out to the local community in ministry and love. Wow. John will have a great group to visit with and bounce ideas off of, I know there will be some good Q & A's, and I will have a bunch of my fav friends to hang out with. :o)

I am grateful for the gift of friendship that these mission groups bring. I love to catch up on their lives and how seeing how God is working in other places--in other hearts. It is also such a huge time of digging into God and growing in a really dynamic way with Him.

* * *

Lord, restore us this week. Fill us up with the joy of your salvation. Restore to us the wonders of your love...remind us intimately of your heart for each of us. This isn't about religion...this is about a real and honest relationship with You.

Love, inspire, and cover each and everyone that is coming here this week.
Give us hearts that feel what you feel.
Lord give us great courage. A healthy dose of your untamed passionate energy and love for those you love. Let us be your hands and your feet, let us not fall back when it gets hard, but hold us together and keep us upright?
And,
When it comes time to jump into your awesome adventures...don't let us waver---push us right over the edge and into your grand plans.

We are waiting in anticipation of what you are going to do...

* * *Your surprises are always the best!

jj

creation's beauty and the tear down uglies...

Something about the cool and wet weather has made this little town in the mountains look and feel like the Northwest. The air is softer, the rain clouds roll in every afternoon, and the flowers are so big and beautiful (for our dry high desert).

Tonight as I watered the bleeding hearts, tiny baby hostas and the new raspberry-rose, a doe (a deer) sat and watched. For an hour as I moved dirt, pulled weeds and garden hoses around the yard she just would follow me with her head and twitch her ears but never leave me. She rested back in the mulberry trees and let me be busy. What a treat - a new friend.

Again today the trees were clapping their hands and dancing in the wind and it made me grin, grateful for a Creator and a creation that delights in our delight. I love this God of ours.

* * *

The work at the stonehouse (besides the yard) the past few weeks has been this messy mess:

(this was the gaping hole in the kitchen wall)

(the walls are scored for plastering...messy...)
(with wallpaper gone, you can see how the front of the house was pulling away...great.)
(the front room with all of the wallpaper pulled off and all the plaster falling off in sandy flakes)

It had to happen. My friend John (who did the amazing work on the outside rock work) and I have had discussions about this *job* for a good 2 years. We have thought about it, talked about it, looked into it...but it wasn't until I got curious and started ripping huge sheets of wallpaper off the walls that something finally got started. That was last week.

And oh, my goodness did that start something BIG...yikes.

I am amazed that John is still talking to me. I didn't give him much time to help me get this done - 2 weeks - nothing gets done in this town in that amount of time, ever. This project is on a record breaking roll.

Then this:

(we broke into the dark chamber of secrets)

(it was actually 100 years of black soot.
So then I enlisted another helper...and we made a REALLY BIG mess...)
(we all think he looks like a zombie, but it's just Pete
lacking fresh air and tired of hours of hard labor)

Okay, so we could have been more interested in seeing what was behind the bricked up fireplace like 6 months ago or something, but no. For reasons still not too clear we got excited to do it right now. Sort of "the place is already a mess, a little more won't hurt?"

* * *

So it got me thinking about this whole daily divine mess we live in...

Why do we spend so much of our lives tearing down and building up?

Can we just "live a happy little life" without getting messy with God?

So much of the real life changing work (for me) has always been in the tear-down. In comprehending things, in order to *really get it* I have to get out of the nice clean box I have built around myself and let things rip away.

Tear down is painful.
To really let God cut, chisel, scrub all the junk away?

Sometimes I still like the junk He is trying to help me get rid of and worse still, sometimes I don't even realize I have junk???

All I really know about any of this is: The Creator of our lives (of my life) likes to tear down. Jesus promised, "Everything my Father didn't plant He will uproot." Sometimes I help Him along - tearing all my wallpaper out or messing up so badly that big chunks of my life fall apart and I scream out loud for help, but other times the tearing down just comes out of nowhere...

Well, as much as I know the tear down is going to happen and is happening...I know that my Creator loves to build. I am going to hang onto His promise in all of this (and stand back and watch).

"Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it."

I will post pics in a few days...after I get all this soot off.jj

In Capernaum next to the Sea of Galilee, there is a beautiful garden tended by sweet nuns and monks. Showcasing beautifully carved stones and winding walkways, the place is just filled with flowers. Traditionally it is said that Peter had a home here, his name and Christian writings were etched in the dark walls of a dwelling close by. I simply knew it as the place where Jesus walked and taught and opened the Word in the Synagogue to Isaiah and spoke out loud the miraculous reasons for why he came to us...

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me,
Because the LORD has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound"

After spending a great deal of time at the stone house today, I came across these pictures tonight of that trip and I am amazed at how beautifully similar the stone is in both of these places. The one that housed the ancient synagogue, it is so light (unlike Peter's dwelling next door that is so dark), it is cut stone and put together with chalky mortar. When we visited this place, pilgrims from all over the world were sitting around the outer edges, playing guitar, reading, visiting. Not unlike our stone house when groups come to stay.

I love it.

I love that God gives simple gifts of divine connections and focused remembering.

I love that similarities bring me comfort and make me grin.

I love that He gives the best gifts...He brings me back to Him. Bringing love to my emptiness, healing my broken and troubled heart, and setting spirit free...I am free.

Draw me in to you Jesus...Help me see you in the stone, in the garden, in the quiet grass...

I love you.

prayer time (time-out)

so much to do...
and every minute is holy. I love this place.