Tuesday, July 26, 2011

what if?

So what if this drought is God's discipline of a Father? God's heart of justice? Now, these next few things i'm going to talk about are me just thinking and praying and talking to Jesus. So take them as you will.


We have been a country, driven by selfishness and greed. We put idols, false gods, believe false doctrine before Jesus, and I could go on and on. We have decided that this whole thing called life, is ours for the taking. Well Jesus gave it to us, so might as well live it up while I can.
That we think we are something special. 


WHAT?!


Ok, ok, let me explain how this whole thing started. So when I was visiting my grandparents in Lucas, I have been out of Texas for 6 months, so the latest on our weather has not really hit my radar. My grandfather was telling me that currently we are in a drought. So the more I paid attention, the more I saw that it was actually kind of serious. Our governor had issued a day of prayer and fasting for the state of Texas for the drought, kinda cool! And then stuff all over facebook began to pop up, how churches and people and groups were all getting together to pray through this drought. 




Taking a look back through some of the old testament, we have fallen into the same things they did, and that obviously did not always turn out too well for them. That Jesus has given us these answers and this book of how He lived His life, yet we choose to run away and be disobedient because we think we know what is better. That we now have chosen to live in a way that slaps Jesus in the face, and says, Your love, Jesus, that is as fierce as the grave, well... I think I have had a little life experience and can roll solo on this one. You think we are the first people to do that, to struggle with that? NOPE.


Take the book of Haggai.
This book, these people show all kinds of spiritual apathy. They are running around, living life, instead of re-building the house of the Lord. So then the Lord comes in and sees that they are spending all their time re-building their OWN homes instead of His. That they have spent sooo much time, traveling and getting the best bricks and stones for their home, miles and miles away, yet somehow the time has not yet come for His house to be rebuilt? Sound familiar? 


Haggai 1
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘This people says, “The time has not come, even the time for the house of the LORD to be rebuilt.”’” Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying, “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?” Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, “Consider your ways! You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes.”
Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,” says the LORD. 9 You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?” declares the LORD of hosts, “Because of My house which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house. Therefore, because of you the sky has withheld its dew and the earth has withheld its produce. I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on men, on cattle, and on all the labor of your hands.”


Hmm, sounds awfully familiar? That because these people chose to spend ALL this time and money and effort into re-building their own homes, while His lies desolate, that HE WITHHELD THE RAINS. 


God has purpose in all HE does, in all He allows to happen. To remind us that HE is in control, He controls the sky and the birds of the fields, that He is the one who says, you people want to live your life fully engulfed in this world, re-building your homes, while the KINGDOM OF GOD LIES DESOLATE? He is the living water, the water that sustains us, the water that is LASTING.


Cause eventually this water here on earth will dry up again. Let's pray for more of Jesus, not more rain. Praying that HIS glory would fall from the heavens, pray for MORE OF JESUS! We need Jesus sooo much more than we need rain. He is the God of the heavens, He opens them up and lets His glory rain down, and that's what we desperately need more of. We need more of Jesus in this place. He is calling us to HIS side, that we are realizing, we are but NOTHING and He is but everything. So let's fall on our face and praise Jesus for His goodness and glory and pray for an increase of that, and we'll see how He lets the rains come.


p.s. you should read the rest of Haggai (its short, you can do it) and see the goodness and heart of our Jesus to the people.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

ywam

http://www.ywampismobeach.org/



SIGN UP FOR THE DTS (DISCIPLESHIP TRAINING SCHOOL) FOR THIS JANUARY IN PISMO BEACH, CA!!!!! YWAM WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE, well really Jesus will through YWAM. and you will have PHENOMENAL leaders!!! :) let me know if you want more info about it!!


please take some time to really just pray about it and listen to Jesus. He may want you there :)

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Him.

Let Him speak to your heart right now.
Stop talking, stop moving, stop doing.


Just listen.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GgNw2neYrU&ob=av2e


how much do you long?

Friday, July 15, 2011

hailey's homecoming...for the day


hugging my new LIFE LONG pillow. Hailey hand-crafted this with her grandmothers sewing machine. by the way, they are more difficult to thread than anything, her dad showed us a "mechanics" move to lay it on its side. classy.
oh and if you are wondering, YES, it does have a pocket!
she also stuffed it with a pillow she found in the trash. i love this girl. resourceful!
i love her even more because she is wearing this pancho while she sews.



she also made us matching rings :) out of the t-shirt material left over from our tank top craze!


dear kyle. this is the new addition for your rear view mirror, you don't know it yet, but hailey is hanging it there tomorrow. WE LOVE YOU


changing old t-shirts into tank tops! we love adapting ourselves to the 107 weather today.


and this is hailey. my best friend. 
her attire: mom jeans (up to her belly button)
striped stretchy 90s long sleeve. CLASSY.

hailey mullins, you made my day. i love you oh so incredibly much! thank you Jesus for giving us each other.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

swinging

I’ve been visiting my grandparents for the past few days. As I was driving in, I was telling one of my friends that I felt like I was re-living my childhood, taking a walk down memory lane.
I drove past my old school, my old house, and the neighborhood where I spent the first 10 years of my life.
Lucas, TX.
I still have my Lucas city t-shirt, with the famous Lucas tree on it, which I cried when they cut it down a few years ago because of the new housing developments that they built. I think I also cried when they bought out that land where my grandpa farmed across the street, and instead of looking out the front window and seeing a cornfield, now I see these gigantic houses, making this small town into a suburb.
My grandparents have always lived in the same house, as long as I have been alive, so walking into this place feels like home. It feels familiar to me.
That is a rare thing, when you are accustomed to moving so much. Even my parent’s house in Dallas has some new addition or change in it every time I come home (although I can’t blame them, because I would do the same thing. I love change.)
This morning I woke up to the smell of coffee made by nana, she’s had me drinking coffee since I was about 6 years old.
Then I went outside to the tire swing. This swing we have broken countless times because we would shove as many people on there as possible, and then go faster than what it could handle. Now for those of you who live in Texas, you understand me when I say that from before the sun comes up to after the sun goes down, ITS HOT. I was expecting to walk outside and then turn around and walk right back in, but the coolness of their back yard shaded by the trees, and laying on that tire swing with the breeze, was perfect. It intrigued me to stay.
I laid there just looking up and seeing the sun peek through all the layers of branches and leaves. I just love swinging. I love everything about it, and being in a quiet place, away from the big city I could enjoy the creation the way I needed to enjoy it. The way that my soul has longed to look at creation and just sit and swing and marvel at His creativity.
Funny, because the other night as I sat and watched the All-Stars game with my grandparents, during the commercial breaks we talked about Jesus and His creation, and how vast and wide He is. That they continue to discover new galaxies and things far beyond our reach that Jesus has made for us to stand in awe of. And I like to believe He did it just because He has a creative mind and spirit, like how He made me. We talked about nana and how Jesus has shown her pieces of heaven… multiple times, stories that I wouldn’t have been able to really appreciate until now. Stories that comforted her after the deaths of her brothers… Jesus is so compassionate. Then after the game, nana went to bed and me and dada just sat and talked about our struggles, the things that are hard for us, and that conversation filtered us into the old testament discussion and him just pouring his knowledge into my thirsty soul.
We talked about the Jewish people, and my experiences there and he asked me question after question, and then he would parallel that into how we are so similar to them. The need that our American people have to step outside of ourselves and see that this world is not for us. How “bubbled” we are.
This man, my dada, he, over and over has awed me with his diligence and dedication to Jesus. Even at his age, he refuses to say that he has it all figured out and that he knows it all, or that he’s seen and heard just about enough about Jesus. Each morning, still to this day, he wakes up and before he does anything else, he walks into the living room. He sits down on the couch next to the window, where he keeps his Bible and reading stuff, and gives each morning to Jesus. Every. Single. Day.
So as I swing and as I swung and I just laid there. Jesus just allowed me to simply lay there. I didn’t think about anything specific, didn’t ask any questions. I was just desiring Him so much, that just like I would desire to be with my best friends, just being there with them in their company, me and Him just swung the morning away.
I’ll be honest, its been a while since I just gave Jesus my time. Just my time, where I wasn’t hounding Him or praying for others, or myself, or asking Him question after question. I just enjoyed His presence. I just enjoyed the company of closing my eyes on that swing and being with Jesus. Something I wish I did more often.

We should just desire to be with Jesus, in the same way we just desire to go out with our friends or just spend the day with them. Since when is Jesus all about business? Since when have we ever had friendships, honest friendships that EVERY time that we go to hang out with them, we just want to take care of business? We just want to get right to the point, and not enjoy their company at all.
Shouldn’t we do the same with Jesus? Shouldn’t we just desire His presence so much that the rest comes after just being in His company?

I think I forget, we forget, that Jesus just loves us. He loves us and just wants to be with us. I don’t think He just wants to be this Jesus who is up there, giving orders and controlling our lives, having us beg all the time for, well, whatever. He LOVES us.
Can we accept that?
Do I really get that?
That He actually calls us worthy of His time.
That He will wait. HE will wait.
Yet over and over we are guilty of not treating Him like He is worthy of ours.


and p.s. this is my dada :) what a stud!

Monday, July 11, 2011

art

Mixed Media Collage
30x20 on canvas
$180

SOLD.

Watercolor and Acrylic
15 1/2x20 on canvas
"Teach me and I will listen"
$90

if you are interested in buying either piece, you can email me at audreyspurgin@gmail.com

or if you like what you see, but you would like something more specific or in different colors, i would love to do a commissioned piece for you as well!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Camp Blessing

I can’t love without Jesus.

I have said it over and over again when people have asked me about camp this past week. (For those of who who don’t know where I was, I have been at Camp Blessing for the past week, which is a special needs camp, LOOK IT UP! Give your summer to serve there, I promise, your life will be changed, and your love for Jesus will EXPLODE!)

I can’t even love the most lovable people without Jesus.

“ For you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” Galatians 5:13

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for GOD IS LOVE. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In THIS LOVE, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; IF we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. BY THIS we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the SAVIOR OF THE WORLD. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. GOD IS LOVE, and the one who abides in him. BY THIS, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is; so also are we in this world. There is NO FEAR in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is NOT perfected in love. We love, BECAUSE He FIRST loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, CANNOT love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.”
1 John 4:7-21

Read it again.
And again.

He is saying, that without Him, love doesn’t even exist, without Jesus, we can’t love, I mean REALLY love, without Jesus. He came to be the savior of the world, so that we could love people with Jesus. That we could be loved.

So do we really know God?
His Beloved, are we abiding in this love?
Listen to that IF…IF we love one another, THEN God abides in us.
How can we but love one another, if we REALLY let Jesus love us, naturally we would be over flown and overwhelmed by the power and magnitude of His love. That the SAVIOR of the world, would even care to love us.

Are we ready to be perfected?
We cannot fear. For if we fear, we cannot love.


Cabin 2B "The Green Turtles!"

the ladies walking back from the dining hall

me and mary helen (camp counselors) and us debuting our air band! we are just here to entertain the ladies :)

costume closet: King David (me) vs. King Saul (mary helen)
i won.
me and my sweet camper linden :)

horse painting!

Friday, July 1, 2011

pastoral care

I’m boggled! Seriously, make me into one of those creepy big headed bobblers that move back and forth.
MY GOD IS SO GOOD!! He opens the floodgates of Heaven! To those who seek Him, to those who want to see His glory, it’s there, it’s right here! My brain can’t really function right now cause there are about 8 different directions that I want to take this next sentence.
Ok let’s start with this morning.

“Here inside your presence, taken by the wonder of You. Here inside Your glory, we give our lives fully to You.”

This was the cry of my morning, so as I began to remember the vision that Jesus gave me on one of our long bus rides in Israel, I began to remember Baylor. I had put it in my calendar to go and pray for people. Now for those of you who live in Dallas, Baylor hospital is like a small city. There are so many buildings and so many parts, it would take you days to maneuver through that mess. I jumped in the car, drove to Baylor (like 4 minutes from my house) and put the money in the meter. Stepped out and after having a long worshiping Jesus morning, cause I just felt so overjoyed…I mean I literally laughed the entire way to the hospital, I said, “Holy Spirit, take these feet wherever you want.”

And He did. Walking in the 106 degree weather.

Then I was gonna go in the emergency center, but I chickened out cause there were SO many ambulances going in and out I just thought I would be in the way (when I decide to put on my big girl pants, I’ll let you know how the ER is.) So I moved on through to the next building. Walked through the doors with this giddy smile and was in a cafeteria. Not where I wanted to be. I hopped in the elevator and said..hmm down? Yeah, and it led me to the other exit door. So I took that as a no for that building. Walked across the street to the Heart and Vascular Institute. I thought, hmm I could pray for people’s hearts physically and spiritually to be healed! Perfect! Walked in and just acted like I knew my way around.  Saw the directory on the wall, and I saw that on floor 3 was pastoral care. Perfect! We'll join forces! Hopped on another elevator. So I go to the door of pastoral care, knocked, and knocked... pretty sure homeboy is already on holiday. I walk around the corner to the waiting room, and just sit. Then a volunteer, named Ralf, asked me if I knew a patient (because that’s a requirement to be in the waiting room.) I said, “Nope, I’m just waiting for pastoral care.” Then I realized, after the expression on his face he thought that I was deeply troubled or something. Ralf told me he was going to go and make a few phone calls to try and find the pastor. About 7 minutes went by and I could see that him and his co-worker, Mary, were struggling to reach him. I got up and told them that I really was ok, and I could come back later. I just wanted to ask the pastor, essentially, "Can I walk around with you and pray healing?" So I told Mary and Ralf that when they asked my purpose for the visit. They were very adamant about making sure I was not troubled and didn't need guidance immediately. Well, for those of you who know my love for old people, I was just in love with how stinkin' cute they were! Well, we get to talking, and I start telling them about my YWAM experience and how Jesus’ love compelled me to come and He just gave me this desire to see people encounter His love. They were intently listening, so I naturally, go deeper. We connected over a few things that I said, which I love! I tell them about what’s next and how I am leaving all this and moving to California to be completely dependent on people’s monthly support to get me there, and God’s faithfulness and provision. Mary started crying. Then I lost it. She told me about how she has lung cancer now and has been through 9 chemo treatments and her buddy Ralf has heart failure and has had multiple surgeries. She asked me to pray for her. There it was, after all my wondering about, here was my stop. So I prayed. And I just wanted her to know Jesus’ love deeply. We hugged and she told me she was so proud of me, and Ralf offered me his pie. He must’ve of known I am a sucker for pastries. Then Mary reached into her purse and handed me a $20 bill. She said, “Here, I want you to take this and spend it on your travels. God bless you.”

I cried.

I had just had a conversation last night about how, God, every time that I  have looked in my bank account this week after I’ve given, He has almost doubled the amount in there. And literally, I have no idea where it is coming from. But I just know, when I look, there is always more in there than the last time that I looked. Which, don't get too giddy, i'm a missionary, so there really is not that much in there haha

This $20, when He said, that I will provide for you, I will never leave you with less than, and you will feel My love. HE MEANT IT. I’m looking at a miracle!!

There are no other words on my lips, than HOLY HOLY HOLY IS THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY!!

And this little Mary reminded me that He loves me. That He loves me so much that He sent me all the way to Baylor to meet 2 people that love Him and just needed prayer, just loved having the company from someone who wanted to love them.

“...but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
Acts 1:8

“I love you, O Lord, my strength.”
Psalm 18:1

Hebrews 4:14-16

more of this day to blog later.


He makes ALL things possible! 
That when we are faithful to give, He always teaches us something new and exciting about Him.