Whale Watching and Hidden Treasures in Hawaii

What an incredible day!! We took the Lahaina Princess whale watching tour. How awesome to see these gigantic creatures right before your eyes! I've seen shows at Sea World and I've watched nature shows, but none of that compares to being out in the ocean right next to them in their habitat. After about an hour, the captain announced that we needed to head back to the port because a storm was coming in. We were about 15 minutes too late! The sky darkened quickly and we met a rain squall. It was frightening at first, but then I realized how relaxed the crew was. Okay, apparently this is no big deal. I enjoyed the rest of the ride; bouncing up and down in the waves, wind and rain pounding the boat. I began to think about the panicked disciples in the storm and how Jesus was sleeping through the whole thing. They woke Him up and His response was, "O ye of little faith." My fear left suddenly.

Our next adventure was a drive around the remote side of Maui (the west side). No power lines, no houses, no buildings, no gas pumps....nothing but God's beautiful creation. After winding around on a precarious one lane road on the side of a cliff, we came into a village down in a valley. One church, one schoolhouse, a few homes and a fruit stand where a Hawaiian woman sells the best banana bread. She was speaking native Hawaiian to some young boys. We asked her about the village and she explained that only natives lived there. The total population: 95. My American city-mind began wondering, "How do these people get medical attention?" Just getting to this little town was scary....the tiny road that sat on the edge of the mountains made me bite my fingernails. I haven't done that since my husband resigned his pastorate.

I feel so honored and privileged to get to see such places. We seem to get caught up in our little lives in our little neighborhoods, little jobs, and our churches. We forget that there is a huge world out there. There are places where time seems to stand still and there are people waiting to hear the truth. In fact, there were Christians in that little village. Maybe they are living the truth while we have gotten too busy to do so ourselves.

Paia Beach Park, Maui

Our First Morning in Maui

This morning, I woke up to a beautiful view on the island of Maui. From our room, I see the Haleakala Crater to my left. The home we're in is actually on the volcano about midway down. The lush green land gradually slopes down to the ocean, which is to my right. Hibiscus flowers and many other tropical flowers decorate the green with brilliant colors. A cloud is sweeping past the volcano and I see a rainbow. What unbelievable beauty!

After yesterday's flight across the Pacific Ocean, it reminds me how vast our universe is. Just the amount of water we flew over astonishes me and yet, that's maybe a drop in the bucket to God. It's wonderful that we can travel for hours and hours only seeing clouds and water...then, suddenly, this treasure appears out of nowhere. How awesome is our God!

A Thankful Heart

Lord God Almighty, Master of the Universe, Undefeated General, Univeral Banker, the Great Physician, Loving King.....

I could sing a song of gratefulness every hour of the day and night for years to come, and it would not be enough to express to You what I feel. You have brought me through darkness while shielding me from the fiery darts of the enemy. I am glad to be in Your service. I just don't feel that I can do enough or be adequate enough, yet I know that in my weakness You are made strong. You work through my imperfections and make great things out of them.

I'm amazed how You have brought me and my family from a place of lack, to a place of having all that we need. You have always taken care of us, yet lately we've seen it in abundance. More joy. More peace. More blessing. I remember one year ago when we sat in the lawyers' office with bankruptcy paperwork in hand. Bill and I expressed to him how terrible and humiliated we felt. The lawyer was a kind servant of Yours and he smiled at us and said, "After looking at your income and expenses for basic living, it's plain to see that you couldn't avoid that. There is no condemnation." We prayed earnestly for a way out and You sent a diversion. A job appeared for my husband that would take him on wonderful travels. We thought for sure that would be our way out of debt, but we were just playing catch up and it would take years to repair the damage.

We prayed again and again. You brought changes into our lives and before we knew it, we were moving, our debt was paid in full and You have brought us to a place of peace. You took my husband on a journey where You spoke to him through people that didn't even know him. You gave Him time with another pastor who knew exactly where he was at. Now, we're on our way to Maui!! I thank You for giving us a time of refreshing. This is completely a series of miraculous events. How can this be? I am looking forward to the surprises You have in store for us there. I'm expecting a 'move' of Your Spirit like never before.

Meet with me, My King. Speak to me. Show me your ways. What do You desire for me to do? May I bring You pleasure always, My Lord. You are worthy of all praise.

"OK, we can play church. But you be the pastor, and I'll be the manipulative church member who always gets her way."

Why Yellow?

Why is yellow important to me? I feel like it's my new name, in a sense. You see, my husband and I are enjoying a time of rest and restoration from ministry. After much prayer, he resigned a few months ago from his role as senior pastor. I can breathe again. I can be me. I can love God and serve Him without being critiqued. The hardest thing for me was watching my wonderful husband serve with all his heart, pouring every ounce of energy into loving and serving people only to watch some of those people step on him and treat him like dirt. Yes, there are hypocrites everywhere. Not only in the church. I see them outside of the church as well. So please understand that I am not bashing church people. Jesus experienced the same sort of thing while He was here saving us all from our sins.

So what about yellow?? About a year prior to our resignation, I was driving down the road and crying my eyes out so hard that I had trouble seeing the road. I was telling God that I couldn't be a pastor's wife anymore. I couldn't handle the criticism from people who are supposed to be loving. I couldn't handle the expectations that everyone had of me. I asked God if anything I had done mattered. "God, I don't want all this to be in vain. Are You pleased with me?" At that moment, I felt God's presence come into my car. Literally, I knew that if I had reached over into the passengers' seat, I would have felt Him. I can't even describe the incredible peace that came into the car and I began weeping with joy. During this whole thing, I had a CD of instrumental music playing and a particular song started just as that presence of God came in. As the music played, I felt 'loved on' like never before. I felt intense joy. I felt like Cinderella.

Later, when I arrived home, I played that song for my husband and asked him what it was. "I'm not sure, but I'll find out." The next day, he found that the song was called 'Yellow' by Coldplay. He downloaded it for me and played it. We sat there listening....stunned.

Look at the stars,
Look how they shine for you,
And everything you do,
Yeah, they were all yellow.

I came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called 'yellow'.

So then I took my turn
Oh what a thing to have done,
And it was all yellow.

Your skin,
Oh yeah, your skin and bones
Turned into something beautiful,
You know, You know I love you so,
You know I love you so.

I swam across,
I jumped across for you,
Oh what a thing to do,
because you were all yellow.

I drew a line,
I drew a line for you.
Oh, what a thing to do,
And it was all yellow.

Your skin,
Oh yeah, your skin and bones
Turned into something beautiful,
You know,
For you I'd bleed myself dry,
For you I'd bleed myself dry.

It's true, look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for you (x4)

Look at the stars,
Look how they shine for you,
And all the things you do.

Wow!!! I began to look up scriptures and I found so many places where God talks about the stars He made. He seems to really like His stars! And He made them to shine for us. "I came along and wrote a song for you....it was called yellow." Jesus came and died for us. God wrote us a love story...a song. So, what about yellow?? I looked up yellow in the Bible and found that the word yellow is often intertwined with the word gold. Gold is precious to God. He had it in the temple of the Old Testament. It was used in the Holy of Holies and the Mercy Seat itself. We also find gold in Heaven. Read Revelations.
It's everywhere.

"So then I took my turn; oh what a thing to have done." Used to, people sacrificed animals so they could be cleansed from sin. The scripture tells us that Jesus took that place. He was the Lamb of God...the final sacrifice for our sins. So, He took His turn on the 'altar' to give us life. And why did He do it?? As the song says, "....because you were all yellow." His goal is to refine us into the most precious thing.

"I drew a line for you...." Do you recall in the Scriptures where Jesus encountered the woman who was caught in adultery? (John 8:1-11) The Pharisees were ready to stone her to death. Jesus knelt down and began writing in the dirt. The Bible doesn't tell us what He wrote, but whatever it was, it was enough to make her accusers go away. He saved her life and told her to turn from her sinful living. In a sense, Jesus drew a line for us that saved us from the Accuser.

Well, I pray that I am turning into something beautiful. And yes, He loved me and you enough to bleed Himself dry. We are all precious to Him. So, the next time you're down, look at the stars and see how they shine for you.

STUDY: For some really cool insight, get online and study the process of refining gold.

NOTE: I'm sure that the songwriter, Chris Martin, did not intend for this song to be so 'spiritual', but this is what it means to me and I believe that God used it especially for me on that dark night.

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