HOLY

My face was to the floor, bruised and dirty from the constant blows from life. The burdens of this temporary place held me down to the point where standing up on two feet would not suffice. I crawled in confusion, groaned in grief and drowned in defeat. But alas I had heard of One who’s words were as melodic as a symphony and as medicinal as the finest medicine. Practically, blind from the dust others had kicked in my face by walking about me, I reached out with all of the strength I could muster. The tips of my fingers felt the hem of his garment slide ever so slightly beneath them. I barely touched this Man. Defeated and in despair my face collapsed on the floor…then He spoke. The power in His voice was like fire in my bones and at once I looked up and stared into the eyes of Love. My eyes studied the face of Glory and my whole world changed with just a glance. Dirty and filthy He looked at me as clean and I arose to my feet with renewed energy. Words could not be formed on my tongue and those around me faded into black. It was just Him and I…me and Him. Alone. Unholiness with the Holy One. Uncleanliness with the One who cleanses. Filthy rags with the One who fashioned linens of righteousness.

In what was possibly a crowd of hundreds if not thousands, He had heard me although I spoke no words, He had felt me although I barely touched Him. He was the lifter of my head and that day we danced in the glory of His holiness as we swayed to the rhythm of His heart. The chorus was Holy, Holy, Holy and there is where my whole life was changed…

by Romance Himself…

NOW THEREFORE GO

I’ve been reading Exodus in the midst of my 40 day journey and was excited when I found out it had 40 chapters. Now as I was reading Exodus 4 something stuck out to me…

Exodus 4:13 – “Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”

After Moses is going back and forth by in essence telling the Great I Am that He got the wrong guy, God tells him NOW THEREFORE GO…hmmm. Most of you are probably thinking okay, great…go where? But I’m not concerned with the there after I want to look at the power in those three words alone.

 

Now

Now is not a synonym for later nor is it a synonym for when you get around to it. When man says now, there may not be as much weight behind it but when God says now…how often don’t we take Him seriously? Here we see God telling Moses NOW, meaning urgent. Pretty much Moses wasted time already trying to tell God that he has a speech issue, although a lie according Acts 7:22 and God had had enough. Now is the time, He urges, not later.

 

Therefore

Therefore is the exclamation point on whatever God just got done saying. In this case, God responded to Moses by saying (paraphrasing) “Did I not create your mouth? Really, do you think, if you actually did have a speech issue that I couldn’t correct it?” Then he goes on to say, therefore, as a way of saying what I just said stands, there’s nothing further to discuss. How often do we find ourselves trying to still get the last word in? Hmm…

 

Go

Go! If God is for us then who can be against us? Go means green but often times I think us believers are spiritually colorblind. Green means stop and red means go. The God of all creation just got done explaining to this Egyptian, born a Hebrew that He would be with him, he would put his words in his mouth, etc. and Moses is still pumping his breaks, better yet hasn’t even turned the car on. Yes Moses was royalty here on earth but he had a lot to learn about being royalty from the Kingdom of Heaven. Are you spiritually colorblind and do you know from which Kingdom you hail from?

Moses is a lot of things right now…and his faith is lacking big time yet once he got a hold of who He was in God—he split seas and spoke with God face to face.

Am I the only one who wants that? Well, it’s mine for the taking and it’s definitely yours so you better believe God is saying…

Now therefore go…[insert excuses here if green means stop]

INCREASE

In the next 40 days (began on June 17th) our church will go on an all-out loving God journey. What does that look like for me? Well, I’d like to see increase.

I want to increase in my love for people. I realize how conditional I can be and it’s only in these last 2 1/2 years that I’ve realized what unconditional love is. I’m still learning but I want to love like Christ loves. I want to increase in my faith. Knowing that God is Sovereign has been an interesting thing for me. It should bring about peace and not anxiety so wrapping my brain around that is key. I want to increase in wisdom. I want His thoughts to be mine and His ways to be mine…not the other way around. Lastly, I want to increase in prayer. How often do you say I’m going to pray for you and completely forget…well that’s me too so I’m sorry if I’ve ever said I’m going to pray for you and haven’t followed through. PRAY FOR ME!!!

Will you join us in the 40 day challenge? We base this off the Israelites who turned a 40 day journey into 40 years.

40 days or 40 years…I’ll take the one month and ten day one for 500…thanks!

WE ARE ABANDONED BUILDINGS

There’s something about abandoned buildings that pulls on my heart. I’m not sure if it’s because I see literally hundreds of homes or abandoned warehouses here in Philly that would make great apartments, condos, stores or churches but I love seeing the potential in them. I live in the Frankford section of Philly (moving soon which is why I’m putting the business out there) and there are tons of abandoned apartments right by and under the EL. Often times I think, I wish I was an investor so I could do 1 or 2 things: gut out these homes and rehab them or break them down and build them right back up.

So as I’m walking to get Chinese food from Chinatown I notice these huge warehouses. They’re hideous on the outside, broken windows, discolored, completely unattractive and abandoned on the inside—empty if you will. Do you see where this is going? So I got to thinking as I often do and I thought hmmm, aren’t we as mankind just a bunch of abandoned buildings that need 1 or 2 things to happen to us? We need to either be gutted out and rehabbed on the inside or broken down completely and built right back up. Slapping some nice paint on the outside won’t do the trick. We need a change from the inside out. We need an investor who is fully vested in us and is willing to give these projects of ours some TLC. We’re abandoned as well and once we are adopted in then we have the Holy Spirit who takes residence in our home.

I can probably go on and on about this but I want to leave some food for thought.

Have you let Him invest fully into your life or are you abandoned wondering why you feel empty?

I LOVE ANTS…

Okay, so I just got paid today and I’m staring at my bank account with a huge smile. When suddenly, this great big gigantic enormous gargantuan outpour of joy fills me up. So as I’m writing down all of my bills that need to be paid and items that need to be bought, I realize something. Are you curious to know what I realized? Is your curiosity gnawing at your insides like mad midgets with shark teeth? (Can you see my excitement level?)

Okay, I’ll tell you what I realized. I looked my bank account square in the eye and told it, monies you’re going to submit to the Word of God today. Monies, you are not going to act funny this time around. For the next two weeks you’re going to have to bow down to the authority Christ Jesus placed inside of me. I will not obsess over you and you will not consume my thoughts. Actually let me tell you something honey, I mean money, I am going to rule over you and multiply you. Do not get it twisted money, you will not rule over me and divide and subtract me. You and I can play nice together, you and me money. I can take you under my wing and show you the finer things in life. However, you will not sell me millionaire dreams when you have yet to multiply into millions. You are so funny money they way you disillusion me and create vivid pictures of wants and not needs. But oh no money, it ends today. I have set up a nice home for you and it’s called a savings account. That’s right, I said it…a SAVE-ING-S UH-COUNT! There you can rest your little head if it “interests” you and it will.

 

I’ll see you in two weeks where you will be unscaved and untouched by the material madness of this dark and present world. 

Looking forward to making you work out for me so you can grow multiple muscles…

 

Your Master,

Nina del Valle

 

So, how that turned into a letter, I have no clue but my point is that today is a day of change…hahaha. Except, I’ll have dollars in front of the change. KA-CHING!

DOING THE “WRITE” THING

I don’t like misspelled words. I’m a grammar fan yet I break many rules. I start sentences with “And” and I love using fragment sentences. It’s my thing. It’s what I do. See? Just like that. Anyways, I’m a writer. It’s my thing. It’s what I…okay you get my point. I love it. If I’m not writing on this here blog (hence the name do the WRITE thing), I’m writing my thoughts in the form of a poem, a spoken word, a song or…a story. I’m a vivid soul and so I love painting vivid imagery upon word documents just for the fun of it. I began writing novels (that sounds so funny) when I was 12 (that’s even funnier) but by age 13, I had written 5 novels on my computer. Now I had given my life to the Lord at age 12 but didn’t start walking it out fully to age 14 and that’s when I took a little break from writing stories. They were slowly becoming too graphic and not too Christ-like so I took a break. I would write every once and awhile but never finished anything.

Alas, when I was 17 God had laid on my heart an idea for a book and an idea for a series. The book was to be called TRACES OF SIN and I have just about begun that and never ended it a total of about 5 times. Well, a month ago the series idea came to the frontal lobe of my brain and I had remembered it after reading a friend’s story, “Nickey’s Flesh.” I was inspired and so I began writing my own series. For more info on it…click on my writings to the right and scroll down to my excerpts.

Pray for me as I continue to write this magnificent story…magnificent because of the Glory of God revealed in this individual’s life…not because I’m a good writer or anything like that…ha ha. I’m ok.

MY MEMORIAL DAY

Man…the drop kicks have seemed to come to an end and now I have felt the arms of comfort. I can’t say that the assault has finished completely (when does it ever) but it’s not as aggressive. Instead, it’s been like a bunch of midgets that come up to my thighs are punching me in my stomach. The result is not much damage but if I don’t flick them away then they may begin to leave a bruise. Okay, now that the imagery is done, let me get down to it.

I’ve noticed God does monumental things in my life over holidays. The last monumental thing I felt He did as in throwing me into the next arena of Glory was on Resurrection Sunday of 2008. Not to say He hasn’t done amazing things since then because He has but the last alter that was built, if you will, was on Resurrection Sunday of 2008. We are in 2009 and on the day before Memorial Day what does God do? He invites me into the Holy of Holies to show me one last memory of what was, as He lovingly pulled me in close and showed me what is and what will become.

There are things that I don’t like about me…habitual and sinful tendencies that need to be broken, completely uprooted or passions that just need to be tamed. Over the last few months I have been asking Holy Spirit to search me and do with those things as He wishes. Well, He has and now I feel like a prepared individual who now knows exactly how to react and battle some of these things.

I’ve been studying 1^st and 2^nd Peters and I’ve found that Peter and I have a lot in common. I too have found myself treading on waters one minute and then the next drowning and crying out to Him to come deliver me as a result of me taking my eyes off of him. Peter was passionate. His passion wasn’t always tamed though. It led to him to cut off ears, deny Jesus after explaining he was the Messiah and later when that passion was tamed led him to be crucified upside down because he felt he was unworthy to be crucified right side up like Jesus. Anybody who knows me, knows I’m passionate but when my eyes are off the One who eases my storms…I end up overtaken.

Well goodbye old ways…I died again and the memorial was on May 25^th, 2009. Now off I go to cut off ears of enemies and flick these dumb midgets…

LESSON FROM THE ANTS

Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise! Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. – Proverbs 6:6-8

I’m not a fan of ants. They’re intrusive, there’s never just one of them but they invite their whole entire crew and if you ever had one crawling on you, it’s enough heebeegeebees to make you shake like you’re a pentecostal at a football game. I do not like them. This is probably why when I read this Scripture I disengaged myself immediately. However, me knowing me, I realized it had nothing to do with the small insects for which I carry much disdain but all about the storing food for the Winter part. It was the provision and wisdom of the ant that drew me away then drew me right back in.

Why?

Well, simply put, I suck with my finances. I have millionaire dreams with hundred dollar realities. Am I lacking? I shouldn’t be but often times I find myself in those millionaire dreams until it gets popped by my now negative hundred dollar reality.

Stewardship. It’s a word Holy Spirit keeps impressing on my heart and spirit and it’s uncomfortable. I struggle with pride often and to know that finances is an area that I don’t have together causes me to be humiliated instead of humbled, prideful instead of persistant and habitual instead of hopeful. This sinful nature is a beast.

His people parish for lack of vision and that’s simply it, I don’t have vision for my finances. Not realistic ones. My hopes are not to live this fabulous lavish life but to live being content with what I have and simply stewarding it right. That’s my only hearts cry concerning finances.

This is a bold move posting this for all the world to see but maybe one of you will keep me accountable and keep me covered in your prayers. I’m in a season where enough is enough and although the drop kicks continue coming and even the lies as well…I must remember to whom I belong to and keep my eyes on things that are lovely, righteous, holy and eternal.

I suppose I should open up my arms to the ant and invite him into the room of discomfort that lives within me. Grrrr…

DROP KICKS OF DEATH

 I am a huge fan of John Acuff’s blog “Stuff Christians Like.” It’s a very sarcastic and sattire-like approach to everything “Christian” from VBS, to the worship leader who thinks he’s a Pastor, to the importance of NOT being single, etc. etc. Check him out @ stufffchristianslike.blogspot.com/ so that your funny bone can be soothed daily.

 

On that note, he mentions leg sweeps and karate chops often which is completely appropriate when speaking of The Holy Spirit. How so? Well I’m glad you asked. You know how sometimes God speaks in a still small voice or He’s as loud as roaring lion? Well, nope, not with me. If you ever see me with tears welling up in my eyeballs it’s because Holy Spirit just got done punching me in the gut with some new profound revelation. It hurts when He speaks to me. It’s uncomfortable. I have ADHD and so I think if the majority of his communication was in still-small voices He’d be drawned out by a gazillion other thoughts that run rampant in my mind…but that’s a whole other issue and a whole other blog. Therefore, He results in karate chops to the throat and leg sweeps that leave me flat on my face in the posture of humility. I’ve learned to embrace pain though. When she is looking me dead in the face…and it’s a she because pain doesn’t play fair with me…as she’s ready to choke me to death, I kill her with kindness and a huge bear hug to ensure her that I’m ready to tango. It throws her off each time and then we sashey to the root of the issue where the Holy Spirit is found gardening my rotting garden so that it can bare better fruit–healthy fruit…juicy delectable fruit!

 

All that to say…I’m learning about God’s Sovereignty and it’s kicking my butt. It’s causing me to die more then what I have before and I’m realizing how much I’d rather be in control then allowing Him to be in control. The amazing thing is a split second after the drop kick of death comes…the arms of comfort and new life follow.

 

PRAY FOR THE HEALING PROCESS OF MY DROP KICKS OF DEATH!!

THE I HEART MOVEMENT

 Okay so in light of Valentines Day coming up I thought I’d make mention of this subtle movement that is slowly making it’s way into our daily vocabulary. Some may think I’m over-analyzing but hey, I think I’m making a valid point here. Maybe I should get to that point huh?

 

Alrighty then so here it is….society makes attempts daily to numb us of anything that reflects God. There are obvious situations reflecting this such as taking prayer out of school, turning merry Christmas to merry x-mas and then to happy holidays and one recent situation where the folks who make our money accidently “forgot” to put IN GOD WE TRUST on our jeffersons and benjies…YEAH RIGHT!! But on to the subtle movement that is kinda urking me at this moment and time and that’s the I heart movement. You’ve seen it, you’ve heard it, you’ve probably text it or said it. Where we use to say I LOVE you, we now say I heart you. What in the world is this nonsense??? Being a victim of influence I sent I heart you to a close sister of mine…and I almost rebuked myself in the name of Jesus when it dawned on me…GOD IS LOVE. Love is intimate, God is intimate, Love is sacred, God is sacred….I HEART you is so common and so not intimate and so loose. IT MADE PERFECT SENSE TO ME!!!!

 

Therefore, from this day forth, a day before the day of Love…I shall ban I HEART you forever…

 

and that’s that…lol