God-colors in Costa Rica (Week 3)

“…You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world…” Matthew 5:14 MSG

“Brilla tus colores de Dios” Mateo 5:14

**For all my subscribers, only half of my blog post saved and posted last week, as I prescheduled it to go live while I was in Costa Rica.

So I am trying again.

God obviously had a different plan for this post, because I do not have a saved copy of what I had originally scheduled to go out.

Although the post will start with what you received last week, the remainder of it will consist of “heart-overflow”: gold sifted out of God-moments and wisdom gleaned out of self-wrestling.

I love Christ and I love Costa Rica.

SHINE! 

Link for Rainbow Eucalyptus

The bark is smooth, but flaky as it sheds layers on various places at different times along the tree, revealing new colors and keeping up the appearance of a rainbow. The landscaping article Under the Rainbow (.pdf) explained, “As the newly exposed bark slowly ages, it changes from bright green to a darker green, then bluish to purplish, and then pink-orange. Finally, the color becomes a brownish maroon right before exfoliation occurs. Since this process is happening in different zones of the trunk and in different stages, simultaneously, the colors are varied and almost constantly changing. As a result, the tree will never have the same color pattern twice, making it like a work of living art.” Photo #2 by juicyfunpark

Can you see it, the spiritual significance reflected in the natural splendor of the Rainbow Eucalyptus?

We are all growing in different areas of our lives at different rates simultaneously.  God has made us new in Christ, the old “bark is shed and the new has come” and HE is still making us new all the time, sanctifying us until the day HE brings us into Glory.

We are living works of art:

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)

Yesterday, I posted the beginning of “the process of processing” all that God did last week in Costa Rica.

Today, I continue pulling back the layers of the onion, or the bark on the “Rainbow Eucalyptus.”

As I told you yesterday, God changed all of our plans for Costa Rica.  HE still purposed us for prison but not in the way we had planned.

By nature, I am not Type-A.  I am a bit spontaneous and “fly-by -the-seat-of-my-pants.”  It is not my ordinary custom to study an itinerary or anticipate a certain agenda; therefore, God’s new plan was the original plan as far as I knew:) The majority of our team had made this trip numerous times.  Although the plan changes may have taken them by surprise, they rolled with it beautifully, expectantly watching wide-eyed as God rewrote the itinerary in miraculous “Spirit-illuminated” ways!

We were on a Jesus adventure with God revealing our next move one step at a time.  I am breathless and bent-kneed looking back!

ONLY JESUS!

I am sharing only 2 things today from last week, both expressed in poetry that spilled onto the pages of my Costa Rican journal:

1:

Have you ever witnessed God do the miraculous and then hidden in a cave bound by fear, like Elijah after God put all the prophets of Baal to shame? (1 Kings 18) Have you ever given your testimony, confident in the Lord, and then been hit by a tsunami of unexpected shame? Have you ever wrestled with insecurity and unworthiness while serving the Lord?  Have you ever questioned your purpose or felt like “dead weight,” when your greatest desire was to be HIS instrument of light, reflecting LIFE, Christ?

The spiritual warfare was thick in Costa Rica.  The enemy does not want to see any captives, those behind or outside bars, set free.  He does not usually show up in a devil suit with a pitchfork either.  He attacks where we are most vulnerable and his goal never changes-to steal, kill and destroy.  Our team had been witnessing God move in 4D Technicolor, when the tidal-wave of insecurity hit me.

I was blind-sided by satan and self.

Yes, I cried and hid,

BUT NOT FOR LONG!

Take that enemy!

I wrestled it out in writing before the Lord and I let God’s Word wash over me.  I chose to strengthen myself in the Lord like David,

“…But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.”

1 Samuel 30:6

instead of cowering in the corner, paralyzed by the lies of the enemy.

The wave that was meant to crush me is the wave that lifted me higher!

Listen to the lyrics of this worship experience!

“Satan and Self TRUMPED by TRUTH”

I am recognizing

INSECURITY

Rising in my heart;

I pray they can not see.

I am sickened by the taste

of salty-self on my tongue;

Lord please keep completing

this thing that You’ve begun.

The more I release, surrender and submit;

the enemy gets louder-

“Why don’t you quit?”

I’m tired of contemplating,

“What part am I to play?”

Please give me YOUR EYES,

so WE can seize the day.

My confidence is YOURS;

it is in CHRIST and not in me.

So why am I blind-sided,

by shame and insecurity?

YOU alone woo hearts;

I know that full well.

So, why do I feel fraudulent?

I pray they can not tell.

The enemy is a liar;

his goal stays the same.

BUT GOD SAYS I’M HIS HEIR;

HE SAYS I HAVE HIS NAME!

My faith is not a feeling;

it’s more real than what I see.

My God made me and saved me;

HE WILL NEVER LEAVE.

So I rebuke the snake,

who makes me question in the moment.

Standing on the TRUTH,

grateful for atonement.

Resurrection life

is mine to live out loud.

God gives grace to the humble;

God opposes the proud.

For me to live is Christ;

there is no other WAY.

I will rejoice and be glad

for the gift that is TODAY!

Satan and self

are twisters of TRUTH,

But God

untangled all that’s mangled;

I AM LIVING PROOF!

2:

As I looked at the faces of the inmates in the

San Sebastian prison, Article about San Sebastian Prison and

APAC, APAC Video Link,

I saw little boys.  I got a glimpse of their God-given potential and I saw my sons and myself in their eyes.

If we are not in Christ, we are all lost and we are all captives,

BUT IF WE ARE IN CHRIST,

we are all found and we are all set free to be free indeed. (see John 8:36)

“Worlds Apart and Yet the Same”

Worlds apart 

and yet the same.

Bound together by

The Name above all Names!

Littles boys chained by sin

grew in size,

shackled as men.

The prison full of broken pieces,

we all would qualify.

God still makes new, but not with glue;

HIS BLOOD, we TESTIFY!

We were made to dance and sing;

we were made to reflect the King.

David wept and wailed 

before the God he loved.

He worshiped after weeping,

remaining in HIS keeping!

Turning from his sin,

turning toward the sun (SON),

David was forgiven;

the victory was won.

The prison bars that held

these frightened boys to men,

couldn’t keep God’s grace

from covering their sin.

The choice lay in the shackled heart;

freedom is extended;

A sentence may be 20 years,

but death has now been ended.

Their hope is real;  

the same as ours,

although we may be outside bars.

Set free from shame, free indeed;

We call HIS NAME;

We watched HIM bleed.

The Story did not end

upon that cross in death.

The resurrection followed

And now we have HIS BREATH!

The Spirit fills our hearts;

HE is not bound by bars.

The nails that bought our freedom

Are the ones that left HIS scars.

So when we see the prisoner,

who is longing for some hope,

extend grace and tell our story,

become the bridge; become the rope.

We were not asked to be a savior.

IN CHRIST ALONE-SALVATION.

Disciples we were asked to be.

To take HIM to the nations.

Our compass is HIS KINGDOM, not selfish ambition. 

Empowered by His Spirit,

We live out

The Great Commission!

Although I never actually saw a rainbow eucalyptus, I definitely saw God-colors all round me like never before.  

The rainbow is the sign of God’s promise and it is extended to all, behind or outside, bars.

“Taste (the rainbow) and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in HIM!” (Psalm 34:8)

To God be all the Glory!

Hopefully I will have a new painting and post by Friday, January 29, 2016 for the “Week 4” update:)