HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We had a wonderful Christmas week, with my Mom and Dad, and Scott's sister, Auntie Jane the power-Aunt. Many games played, many sweets eaten, many many presents torn open. Highlights for the kids were Cup-stacks, a trampoline (from the Rhyno grandparents), Narnia, and a Dora talking fairy princess doll. The competition is on, as we're all whittling down our time doing the full cup-stack sequence. The Rhynos are competitive people!

Tonight we'll ring in the New Year with friends at our place. Then the race is on to be prepared for our TRIP!! We fly out early Tuesday morning, for 10 days in the sun! CAN'T WAIT! And the closer the trip has gotten, the more the Lord has blown us away with His provision, as gift cards and small "gifts for our trip" have been showing up. Unreal! It's cool to me that the Lord has orchestrated this so clearly. CLEARLY He has plans for us there! The picture above is one of the 2 Disney Resorts in which we'll be staying. Unlike any place I've ever even seen before!

Our dear Laura will remain at home (in the cold) with our kiddos. If you think about it...drop her a line to encourage her. She's a wonderful part of this Rhyno family, and we appreciate this sacrifice of hers so very much. She loves our kids as if they were her own, and I know that they will have a fabulous time with her. The picture of them above is on Christmas Eve, leaving cookies and milk for Santa. Even Mackenzie, who knows the truth of Santa now has a great time imagining and playing along for his brother and sister's sake.

Anyway...Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families, and I pray that you have a very Happy New Year!! See you again on blogdom mid-January!!

Joy to the World, the LORD has come!!

Ahhh...Christmas is here!! Our family has arrived, our home is bustling, our children are beyond excited!! Christmas parties have been had at school and there's only one half-day left to go. Last night we finished the last of 6 Christmas outreaches which we did as a Worship Arts department out of doors in our community. We shared music, hot drinks, lots of gifts and very clear Gospel messages at each location, most of which were low-income housing developments. We even erected 25-foot trees at 2 of them, and have left them there, lit, until after Christmas. These will serve as a blatant, and beautiful reminder of the message of Truth shared in their very neighborhoods. The Lord is at work!

We had a Worship Arts Open House in our home tonight, and hosted more than 80 people!! (Much food-prep has been done in the last few days!) It was so much fun making the opportunity to say thank you to many who help us out on a regular basis, those who were a part of the Christmas outreaches, and so many who regularly Worship the Lord with us by returning their gifts unto Him. I praise the Lord for community! I rejoice that I can honor Him by loving on the people who He has given to us.

He is so good, He is so good, He is so good!!!

Have a wonderful Christmas, loving the ONE who gives us all reasons to celebrate. Rejoice in the Lord at all times, and again I say, REJOICE!!

The Lord's Abundance

As I grow closer to the Lord, I've shared before that He continues to change my mind. This week He has actually blown my mind! Like I've shared before, He has been stripping away layers. I've seen Him actively removing from me the idol of "material things" that I hadn't even been aware that I had. I've seen Him birthing in me a greater and greater appreciation for His provision. And I've been calmed by His faithfulness, learning ever more to depend on Him and trust Him, leaning not on my own understanding. As I relinquish control, He is faithful to show Himself as Provider, over and over again. He is growing within me a heart that is beginning to think of others before myself, where there had always been a heart that was self-protective and selfish. I pray that He helps me to continue to seek Him and obey

So, here's what blows my mind: He has been steadily working on me in the area of finances...teaching me to trust, not worry, and not to try to be in control. He has heightened my satisfaction in Him and in His provision, and He has removed from me the intense desire to have "more". He has shown His hand of provision over and over again, when things looked impossible.

And now the amazing thing: All of a sudden, I find that He has prepared for my husband and me a vacation like we could never have afforded ourselves. For my birthday last week, Scott told me that he and I are going to Florida from January 2nd-12th! We will be going to The Gathering, then staying for an extra week in two amazing Spa resorts right in Disneyworld. I feel like a kid! I've never been there before, and our flights and our resorts have been completely provided by two families very dear to us! It is unimagineable to me...we could never be able to do this on our own, and the way things were orchestrated are so clearly God that I am blown away.

Why? Why, when the Lord has so patiently been working on me, helping me to look for satisfaction in Him and not in material things, helping me to trust Him with our finances, and helping me to begin to see out of a heart whose selfish walls are continuing to be be broken down... Why would He then provide something so amazingly extranneous... So extravagant?

Because He's ABUNDANT. (Remember an earlier post? ELIZABETH means "My God Is Abundance"). He's ABUNDANT.

I praise Him and thank Him, for this broken and selfish vessel deserves nothing, and yet to her, He remains ABUNDANT.

He has changed my mind

As I've been growing with the Lord, I've found that He has been working on my mind. Slowly, layer by layer, He has revealed stuff to me - lies I have believed (about myself, about others, about Him). One by one He has been teaching me how to replace these lies with Truth. These things are fundamentally changing who I am, and revealing to me much more of Who He is. I can see more clearly now, and realize that He has been working on my mindset. My thoughts are different. What goes on inside my head now is the same as what I portray on the outside. I'm not fighting a battle constantly to pretend to be who I'm not but wish I was. I find that my thoughts are much closer to "acceptable in His sight" than what they always used to be.

Here are some examples:
1) I always used to hear people say "Great job!", but my mind would add "Whatever...they don't really think that."
2) I would hear my husband say "I love you" and I would think, "He'd be happier if I were different"
3) I would recognize the Lord's Word saying He did not create me with a spirit of fear, but in my mind I would always imagine all sorts of scary situations that I knew I would find myself in someday.
4) I would know that the Lord tells me to cast my cares on Him, and I would say that I did, but in my head I would be worried all of the time.
5) Someone would tell me something, and I would think "They think I'm not smart enough to know that on my own."

etcetera, etcetera.

Do you ever feel like you are living a double life? Like the thoughts that go on in your head don't really match up with what the Word says, or what your lips are saying?

Here's one of the first and biggest things that the Lord hammered into me when I finally realized He wanted to change my mind. HE SAID TO QUIT WATCHING T.V.! Would you have guessed that? Though He did it slowly, one by one, He showed me which shows I was watching that clouded my mind...that assisted the enemy by reinforcing the lies he had been whispering to me. He showed me that I was filling my mind with worldly things, crowding my thoughts with worldly perspectives. He showed me that T.V. is not just harmless fun, but that most often it does not match up with His desire for me to think on things that are "pure, holy and honorable". Instead, it filled my mind with fear, covetousness, cinicism, manipulative thoughts, and a very self-cenetered, self-protective perspective.

When I listened, and deliberatly and systematically cut out the shows that He brought to my attention (and I'm talking about things like home decorating shows as well as things like CSI, House etc.), I began to recognize very tangible changes in my mindset, in my thought patterns. I became more content with what I have and more appreciative of what the Lord has blessed me with. I came to recognize just who I am in Him. I have found that my mind does not think manipulatively anymore. I find that I much more patient, that I do not anger easily anymore. I find that I think encouragingly now, and not jealously. And, you know what? I don't even want to watch T.V. anymore. He has even removed the desire.

The Lord has changed my MIND.

And so, I challenge you today. As I read blogs, I am alarmed at the rate at which young and old believers today are filling their minds with worldly things by obsessing over T.V. I see all kinds of blog posts about watching full seasons of shows on DVD, of people obsessed by various series. And, as someone who used to love T.V., I know that these shows do nothing to renew the mind...they do nothing to exemplify Christ or the Christian life. This road we walk is supposed to be narrow, not riddled with the things of the world that we like to hold on to. I know this won't be a popular post, but I'm not here to be popular. I'm here to come against the enemy with the word of my testimony.

Here's my challenge: Ask the Lord today. Ask Him if He wants to change your mind. Ask Him if the shows you watch are acceptable in His sight. Or ask Him if there are other habits you have that he wants to help you change. But don't do it if you're not ready to obey His response. I have no doubt He has something new for you, because I know He desires your mind to be fully engaged, not cloudy. I know He desires your thoughts to be pure. I know that He has more for you, in helping you to know who you are in Him, and helping you to be the same person, inside and out.

Are you up for it?