All I want

All I want is 10,000 kisses from the one I love,
5,000 bars of chocolate
2,000 slices of my favorite cake

All I want is 10 billion dollars
1,000 top of the line cars
and 3,000 pairs of shoes

All I want is 20,000 vacations
4,000 servants
and 8,000 movies to watch

All I want is what I want when I want it
now
That's all
Is that so unreasonable?

40 Days of Discovery - Day 37

I'd like to share a few quotes from "Come Away My Beloved" that blessed me today.

I am aware of your needs and will provide in abundance, but it is for my glory and honor and I will  have praise.  You will tread lightly and not allow your feet to be ensnared in the net of undue concern for the things about you.  They are mine, just as all things are mine and you are mine and I am more interested in you than in things.  Likewise, I want you occupied with Me rather than my gifts.  You will be my mouthpiece in places where there are no other voices to be heard.

You will magnify my name in a dark corner.

You will not allow your foot to be bogged down in the mire of earthly cares and riches.

Thank you Lord for speaking so clearly to your people.

40 Days of Discovery- Day 30

Only 10 days left...  It's been quite a journey!

I've been seeking God about the matter of needs vs. wants.  I've heard over and over that God meets our needs not necessarily our wants.  As I wrote in a previous post, I'm asking the Holy Spirit to redefine "need".  I haven't given myself permission to enjoy some things in life.  I am very frugal, and simple.  Yet, I love beauty--beautiful art, beautiful music, beautiful homes, beautiful hairstyles, beautiful clothes, etc.,etc.  Somehow, because the world prostitutes beauty, I've not allowed myself to enjoy more beauty in my life.  Because there are children starving and dying around the world, does that mean I can't enjoy life?  I've started feeling a bit guilty about spending money on luxuries since I could give that money to help the poor.  That's not God's way.

The Holy Spirit is revealing the truth.  He's teaching me that I don't have to choose between feeding the poor and enjoying his gifts.  He's El-Shaddai, the inexhaustible source of EVERY good and perfect gift.  So He has enough to take care of ALL  of His children and care for the poor.  As I think of Israel, God told them continually to care for the poor, but He also promised that they would live in abundance.  They were to enjoy the land of milk and honey.  God prepared this place for them.

The problem is that we like to worship the gifts, instead of the Gift-giver.  It doesn't matter if it's a spiritual gift, or a physical gift.  We so quickly make life all about getting the gift, and keeping the gift.  Our eyes become fixed on the gift or gifts, and our hearts become devoted to it.  There's also this flesh to contend with.  It continually rises up so that it may be pleased.  Eating is a necessity.  A desire created by God to nourish our bodies.  It's good to eat.  And God gave us taste buds, and He gave food flavor, and scents so that we can enjoy the process of nourishing our bodies.  Yet, when our flesh masters us in the area of eating, we're unable to say "no" to food that we shouldn't eat or when we've had too much.  This is a sin.  We become a slave to anything that masters us.  And anything that masters us, apart of God, will destroy us.  God came to give us never-ending, abundant life.

1 corinthians 10

 ²³ “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. ²⁴ No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. 

1 Corinthians 6

 ¹² “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 

A  person who has the right perspective can give all that He's been given freely and generously 1) He knows where the gifts came from, and there is plenty more that the Father willingly gives to His children.  God's children will never do without anything that is needed.  Again, need has to be defined.  As one of God's children, I'm learning to defer my understanding to my Father who is perfect in His wisdom.  Sometimes, I need manna. Sometimes, I need to enjoy some fried crawfish!   2) It is an offering back to our God.  If we really understood the beauty and majesty of our God, we would willingly give back to Him every gift as an act of praise to Him.  Oh, Lord, open my eyes that I might see.

I think this struggle of enjoying God's gift, and being a generous giver, may be a constant struggle for me.  In some ways, I think that's good, because it means I'm  paying attention. On the other hand, I really want to live this out in peace--resting in His grace.  Actually, I can rest in His grace even as I strive to live this out.  I will fail, erroring in one direction or the other.  Yet, I desire to please Him.  He knows this.  And I am confident that His grace is fully sufficient for me.  I thank you for that, my God.

I was reading today about Amy Carmichael.  I was so encouraged to read that often she struggled in prayer, and she was a woman of GREAT PRAYER.  She struggled that her motives may not be pure.  (None are, really) She sometimes resisted asking the Father, feeling like the request was wrong to ask.  And yet, in one instance the Holy Spirit rebuked her for desiring something and not asking.  But she quickly learned the lessons that the Spirit taught.  Once she knew that God was guiding her to ask  for something, she persisted in asking until it was received.  Often she asked that God would confirm if a desire was from Him, with a sign.

Perhaps I'm making this too complicated.  I tend to do that.  Perhaps it's as simple as going to our Father with our needs (real or perceived) and desires, and releasing it into His hands.  Simply, trusting.  Asking that He would confirm our asking so we know whether we should persist in asking.  And then wait on Him to guide us to the answer.  So easily said.  So difficult at times to live out.  help me Holy Spirit!  Help me.

It is much simpler to live out as I live my life in a continual dialogue with Him.  I know that He led me to ask for a dishwasher, for it really wasn't even something on my radar.  And then after asking, He granted my request.  And I give praise to my God who supplies ALL things for His children.!!!!

1 Timothy 6

¹⁷ Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. ¹⁸ Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.

40 Days of Discovery- Day 8

 I was doing some research today on freegans.  I love the idea of people using the excess food that stores and restaurants throw away and living off of it.  It breaks my heart when I consider that we throw away of 50% of the food we produce.  That is maddening!  How could we be so frivilous, when so much of the world is dying of hunger.  A child dies every 5 seconds from hunger.  5 seconds.  And we're throwing food, good food in the trash.  Yes, I throw food away too.  And it sickens me.  Lord forgive us for living so selfishly, and carelessly, for thinking that we are entitled to live so lavishly.  How many times have I complained because I don't like what I'm eating?  Too many.  Praise God I have food.  My mom told me stories about her actually not having food to eat.  One time she said they licked salt for dinner, because they had nothing else.  Another time they ate garlic.  There was even a time when there was no water in the well.  So my grandmother, (We call her Madea), sat on the porch and prayed, and God sent rain.  They ran inside to get buckets to catch their water. 

Americans don't seem to need God like that anymore.

Ok, so I was doing some research on freegans and came across an interesting site:  www.thestoryofstuff.com  My daughter and I watch the movie they produced called, "The Story of Stuff".  It is quite enlightening.  Much of it I already knew from reading"Confessions of an Eco-sinner".  Something like that.  But I did discover an interesting quote that I'd like to share.  It was an excerpt of an article written in 1955 by Victor Lebow, a Marketing Consultant,  for  the Spring 1955 issue of the Journal of Retailing.  I found the entire article online at: http://hundredgoals.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/journal-of-retailing.pdf

The article

Here's an excerpt of the article.  It's quite eyeopening! Remember this was written in a journal for retailers.

"The Real Meaning of Consumer Demand
Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. The measure of social status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our consumptive patterns. The very meaning and significance of our lives today expressed in consumptive terms. The greater the pressures upon the individual to conform to safe and accepted social standards, the more does he tend to express his aspirations and his individuality in terms of what he wears, drives, eats- his home, his car, his pattern of food serving, his hobbies.
These commodities and services must be offered to the consumer with a special urgency. We require not only “forced draft” consumption, but “expensive” consumption as well. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing pace. We need to have people eat,drink, dress, ride, live, with ever more complicated and, therefore, constantly more expensive consumption. The home power tools and the whole “do-it-yourself” movement are excellent examples of “expensive” consumption.
What becomes clear is that from the larger viewpoint of our economy, the total effect of all the advertising and promotion and selling is to create and maintain the multiplicity and intensity of wants that are the spur to the standard of living in the United States..."


"Strong Influence of Television
Probably the most powerful weapon of the dominant producers lies in their use of television. To a greater degree than ever before a relative handful of products will share a monopoly of most of the leisure time of the American family. We will have over 30 million television households next year. And television achieves three results to an extent no other advertising medium has ever approached. First, it creates a captive audience. Second, it submits that audience to the most intensive indoctrination. Third, it operates on the entire family."

What do you think?  Have we been duped?

God help us!  We're enslaved and we don't even know it.