Monday, January 30, 2012

Wide Long High and Deep

He came from heaven 
To tour earth below
Humbled in form
His love to show


First in His word
Then in His deed  
Greater love has no other
He was willing to bleed


He laid down His life
In the most sorrowful death
Not a common suffering
For ALL in earth's nest


On behalf of ALL
Not only family and friends
On behalf of ALL
Even those who reprimand


Jesus defeated the dark
He did not stay dead
Rose up 3 days after
Just as He had said


In this single act
Scriptures were unveiled
Truths never realized
Stench of death just bailed


If we could bottle it up
All of earth's love and trust
It would still not compare
To God's love in Jesus


His love sacrifice
Was His invitation
To an eternal inheritance
Through reconciliation


Can't measure it Wide 
Love that's too Long
Up over what's High
Love Deeper and strong 


Michelle Fozounmayeh
1-29-2012


Scripture Reference:
John 15:13 
Ephesians 3:18
Philippians 2:8
Luke 24:25-27

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Discovering Little One

Discovering Little One
She’s a special one
Worth the find
Placed by the base of a hedge
Protected until her time
“Listen up little one
You hold that treasure tight
It’s going to take a special seeker
To find your shinning light
"The first wont appreciate
The second will over look
The third will quickly loose patience
The forth holds a bitter root
"But one will take the time 
Thoughtful in His search
Turning over every stone
I have not left you in a lurch
"Trust me my Little One
You want to wait for Him
He’ll hold you up high
Look at your heart and grin”
The whistle rang out
Kids ran every which way
The first stomped next to little one
Dirt covered her that day
The first grabbed an egg
That was vibrant and in plain view
Tossed it in a basket
With hungry eyes she splashed dew
Hidden but not lost
While the other eggs were found
Little one was stuck in the mud
Buried in the ground
The second saw little one
But he didn’t think her an egg
Probably nothing good in there
He moved on with a twist of his leg
Who will take their time?
Most scrambled on by
If the treasure is too much trouble
Just leave her where she lie
The third picked little one up
Annoyed with her dirt and grime
Then her shell was too hard to open
“I’m done with her kind!”
Tossed away she fell back
To the very same spot
Maybe she was better not found
Protected just to rot
The fourth lashed out
A thorn made him bleed
“Why should I pick you up
If I get hurt while I reach?”
Hidden in this space
Told to trust, rely
But it’s so hard
When a little one cries
Sounds start to fade
The kids have gone to a feast
Eating up what they have gathered
Little one seems like the least
The hunt for eggs was over
Others had their day in the light
But little one remained
All through the night
The hedge of protection
Surrounded her very soul
Little one had to trust
That God had a goal
Not at all forgotten
The finder had to be tall
To see God’s perspective
And recognize His call
She needed time too
While the brush was secure
He couldn’t come too soon
Inside little one matured
The leaves started to rustle
A face peered through
His eyes lit up
His smile grew
An egg!  An egg!
What a wonderful find
The color was perfect
After all this time
“Out of the box perfect
No other will do
Who can ever compare
To the jewel I’ve found in you
“I believe in you Little One”
Is all He had to say
Inside the shell
New life gave way
He gently opened her up
And gasped at the sight
She held a true treasure
To His joyful delight

He had found Little One
Held her up high
Golden feathers in the daylight
Wings ready to fly
Kids gazed in amazement
Was this what was missed
“I’d give all my eggs back
For that sparkle, that bliss”
Breathing in air
Discovered at last
Little One’s heart took flight
The past was the past
His promises were true
She soared with the wind
God’s spirit around her
A new story begins
Michelle Fozounmayeh
1-24-2012

Friday, January 13, 2012

How Should We Love?

How Should We Love?
I have some possible mentors for us that might help us answer this question.  All of them chosen to be part of a tour that would in the end, be very revealing!
How did Augustus Gloop love?
Augustus, a gluttonous boy, loved sweets so much so that he was unhealthy and enormously fat.  After seeing a river of chocolate in a Chocolate Factory Augustus bends down and starts to drink in way more than his body should have.  Despite the warnings of Willy Wonka, who owned the factory, he keeps drinking and falls into the river.  He is sucked through a pipe, gets stuck because he is so fat and after the pressure builds up enough he is shot through the pipe into a room where fudge is manufactured.  In the end he leaves the factory dripping with chocolate.  Still addicted to what almost killed him.
We can love like Augustus Gloop loved!
Just love to eat on the ways of the world more than the ways of God and that is what we will get fat on. Despite the exhortations of wise counsel, if we eat good stuff on Sunday mornings, and the rest of our time we are feeding ourselves junk then we cannot expect to be a healthy part of what God is doing on this earth. When an opportunity comes to make a difference we will not be able to hide how fat and immobile we have become.  We’ll get stuck in a tube.  Out of the heart the mouth speaks.  Junk goes in, junk comes out.  And in the end we will be covered from head to toe, dripping with it.  There will be no hiding what we had been feeding on.
How did Violet Beauregarde love?
She loved to gloat about her accomplishments, the most important being an expert gum chewer. Chewing one piece for months at a time.  Violet’s view was that these accomplishments mattered and being the best gave her an identity that mattered too.  Constantly chewing gum narrowed her self worth to such a degree that it sealed her fate.  Without permission, she grabbed a pice of experimental three-course meal gum at the Chocolate Factory and when it got to the dessert, blueberry pie, she turned into a large juicy blueberry.  Never did she spit the gum out, but just kept on chewing even when she was told that as she chewed she was becoming something she was not meant to be.  What good is she as a blueberry?  Although she was squeezed back to her regular size her skin was forever blue.
We can love like Violet Beauregarde loved!
If we love to gloat about the petty worthless habitual accomplishments we are the best at like Violet did, then no matter how awesome the world says that accomplishment is it is working against who we are meant to be in Christ Jesus.  We are heading down a path of destruction.  Grabbing that “gum” without permission effects our body big time and is a waist of our gifts and talents.  Instead of becoming more holy, sanctified by God’s word, we are turning blue.  Very blue!  Our spirit longs to be reconciled to God and He wants to use us for his Kingdom’s sake.  Continuing to chew on our old habits or gloating about what we may be good at only glorifies ourselves and not the God who made us.  When we are being told what is happening to us we can stop, spit it out and wait for God’s leading!  Refusing to spit it out leads to a joy-deprived spirit stuck in the blues.
How did Veruca Salt Love?
Veruca, a girl who was spoiled by her parents, loved material things so much that almost every time she opened her mouth it started with the words, “I want.”  Wanting only led her to wanting more.  Her love led to a dissatisfied heart despite her parent’s efforts to give her everything she asked for.  She held onto greed and this led to her downfall.  Literally!  She wanted a squirrel from the Nut Room in the Chocolate Factory and the very things she wanted threw her down the rubbish chute. Veruca’s downfall landed her in garbage.
We can love like Veruca loved!
If we love material things to the point of the first words out of our mouth every time we turn around is “I want.”  Then we too are headed to a place where we will be emerged in lovely garbage.  Greedy intentions leads us to striving after more and more stuff.  More money, more toys, more house and more fame.  In the end we can’t take it with us.  It’s garbage.
How did Mike Teavee love?
Then there’s Mike Teavee who also loved.  Mike, a mumbling boy who did nothing but watch television’, loved technology so much that his view of reality was severely altered.  Being fixated and caught up with man-made stimulation devices took his head to a fantasy place resulting in poor judgment concerning his God-made real body.  This poor judgment played itself out in the Chocolate Factory to such a degree that he used a machine Wanka created to transmit chocolate into televisions on himself and shrunk in the process.  Unaffected by his smallness he wanted to do it again completely blinded by the fact it would shrink him into nothingness.  He would become nonexistent!  In the end he was stretched back out but his body was never the same.
We can love like Mike Teavee loved!
If we love like Mike loved then technology devices, social networks and virtual games are the way to go.  We can love them to the point where they engulfs all our minds, our actions and our judgment.  Our spiritual awareness can shrink.  Time-draining activities with zero spiritual purpose takes us away from the purpose God has for us as well as our face to face relationships. Over infatuation in this area aids in a make-believe reality.  If TV, Video games, phones and computers are all we live for than we become unaffected by how small we have become in our effectiveness for God’s Kingdom.  We are blinded on that path that will lead to nothing.  How small does our purpose on this earth have to become before it is gone?  In the end we want to hear “Well done good and faithful servant, well done.”
How did Charlie Bucket love?
Charlie Bucket, a kind hearted poor boy has a love that puts others before himself.  He is undernourished but refuses to ever take an extra portion of food because it would deprive another member of his family.  He is also curious and interested in Willy Wonka and his chocolate factory. While there he too is tempted in his weakness.  His grandfather suggested to steal a quick gulp of fizzy lifting drinks and Charlie gives in.  It was in private and so nobody on the tour knew.  But Wonka knew and when Charlie was the only one left on the tour he is told that he looses the prize of the lifetime supply of chocolate for stealing the drinks.  Feeling remorseful Charlie’s true heart comes out.  He is not upset about loosing the chocolate but is upset that he let Wonka down. He makes it right by returning the only gift he had left from the Chocolate factory, an everlasting gobstopper.  By returning it Charlie showed that he did not have any evil or selfish intentions in his heart and that he was truly sorry for what he had done.  That one decision made all the difference.  Not only was he forgiven and his prize was restored to him, but he received even more!  He became an heir to Wonka and promised an inheritance of the entire Factory.  
We can love like Charlie Bucket loved!
When we love like Charlie, we love doing what is right to please God.  Loving like Charlie is to Love our God with all of our heart soul and mind and love others as we love ourselves.  It's being aware that we are not perfect, that we fall short of the Gory of God.  Even if it's in ways that are not public and is sort of behind the scene where the others on the tour can't see.  Admitting the grime is there, saying sorry and being willing to be changed is loving like Charlie did.  We are lifted out of the garbage and made clean.  Our make-believe ways that fall short is replaced by His grace and we become valuable players in His kingdom.  Trusting in Him alone, handing over it all, even the very last little things that might hold us captive, the everlasting gobstoppers.  Then we win!  We are welcomed in as heirs, the prize is restored and more!  As we put our trust in Him we win the grand prize, an eternal inheritance. 
How does Jesus love?
Wait a minute, Jesus was not on the same tour as our other possible mentors!  He is not even mentioned in the book, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.  True.  Charlie is the clear winner and our choices could stop right there.  Many good people choose to love how Charlie did.  But truth be told even in our best efforts we all have traces of Augustus, Violet, Veruca and Mike creep in now and then.  The true power to love comes from Jesus.  If we love like Charlie did, it should point others to Jesus as their mentor.  His tour is recorded in The Bible.  How he came teaching, healing and empowering. He came from heaven to tour earth in order to love us.  First in word and then in deed.  “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13.  This is not talking about enduring common sufferings like giving up seconds on a meal.  What Jesus gave up (or laid down) was his whole self to the most bitter, painful, and long lasting sorrow and death.  And not just for his circle of friends and family, but for an entire unbelieving world.  Defeating death, Jesus did not stay dead.  He rose up 3 days later and showed himself!, Opening up the scriptures about this miracle, unveiling truths never before realized. If we could bottle up and hold all the love that exists on this earth, it would still not compare to how much love God has for us in sending Jesus to us.  In the end His tour on earth was the most revealing of all our mentor candidates!  His love sacrifice invited all of us into an eternal inheritance through reconciliation with our God... the grand prize is life everlasting!  Now that’s how to love!
We can love like Jesus loves too!
Right before Jesus ascended into heaven, after all his work on earth was completed, He gave this charge, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20.  We have the power through Christ’s spirit in us to choose Jesus as our mentor and love like He loves.  “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” John 3:16  Sacrificial, unconditional love that points others to Christ.  I wonder how different our days would look if we chose Jesus as our mentor?  Charlie inherited the factory giving him the ability to make all people on earth taste sweetness in all sorts of candy.  We inherit God's kingdom giving us the ability to live with God's spirit in us helping others to also taste God's sweet love in sending Jesus.
How Should We Love?
Well after taking a look at some lover mentor, who is your mentor?  These Children showed their love openly, freely and without reservation.  As they loved they ended their tour with their true "love" identity revealed.  Charlie won the grand prize on the Chocolate Factory tour for being honest and true.  You have a golden ticket and are on a special God ordained tour too.  How honest and true can you be before God?  How will Jesus’ love for you change you?  How are you going to use your time?  How will your tour end?  How are you going to love?  

Sunday, January 1, 2012

iPray Newness

Anything NEW with you?

"Happy Year!"

Wait, I think that greeting is missing something.  Oh yes, it's the NEW part.  Why would I wish you a happy year without including the most important part?  Without the NEW there is a whole lot missing.

"What's new?"

"Not much, same old same old.  Anything new with you?"

"Not really.  Just chugging along."

See what I mean?  If it's not a NEW year then what on earth are we celebrating?  The same old thing, just chugging along.  Nothing new to think about, nothing new to gain.

What would you think if someone came up to you as the calendar turns over with this greeting:

"Happy year!  Have fun being stuck in the past and not moving forward with anything.  Forget your goals, dreams, aspirations or your God given purpose for what lies ahead.   Love that there is nothing new, just the same old thing.  Just chugging along!  Time to turn over an old leaf.  You know, the one you have turned over again and again and nothing has come of it but sorrow and pain.  Ring out the old and bring in the older.  Stay lonely.  Stay still.  Stay bitter.  Stay angry.  Stay lazy.  Stay revengeful.  Stay jelious.  Stay in your brand spankin' old ways to have a happy old year!"

I could just see your shocked face.  Mouth dropped open, wide eyes.  That is not the greeting we want to walk around with ringing in our ears.  What exactly are we saying when we give NEW years greeting?

"Happy NEWness in the year to come; be happy because it's a NEW beginning.  Look forward to new opportunities to rejoice!  Newopportunities to be hopeful.  A new baby, new home, new age, new start,new look, new perspective, new chance or maybe even new counter space.  Put off the old, put on the new.  Be dead to the old, alive in thenew!  A new day, a new way.  Something is happening that has not existed before.  There are things to be discovered for the first time.  Fresh things.  It's time for a new season, a new life attitude.  Put on joy, patience, compassion, forgiveness, love and hard work.  Look forward tonew music, new dances, new creations, new life, new vision and a newheart in increasing ways.  Happy NEW year!"

Now that's the greeting that can put a smile on a face!  When I include the NEW I'm blessing you with more than just another year.  Shall I give you this greeting again?  YES, take two!  But this time I will not leave out the most important part!  And this time iPray the blessings of NEWness upon you!

iPray a Happy NEW Years blessing upon you... full of PERSEVERANCE!
In keeping with His promise iPray you are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. (From 2nd Peter 3:13)  iPray against the "same old same old" which  stifles a persevering attitude. That you are the seed on good soil with a noble and good heart, hearing the word, retaining it, and by persevering you produce a new crop. (From Luke 8:15)

iPray a Happy NEW Years blessing upon you... full of LOVE!
That the Lord will give you an undivided heart and put a new spirit in you; that He will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. (From Ezekiel 11:19)  Because of the Lord's great love iPray that you are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is His faithfulness." (From Lamentations 3:22-23) iPray over you a new command Jesus has given: Love one another.  As He has loved you, so you must love one another. (From John 13:34)

iPray a Happy NEW Years blessing upon you... full of LIFE! 
Therefore, if you are in Christ, the new creation has come.  iPray the old has gone and the new is here! (From 2nd Corinthians 5:17)  Because you were buried with Him through baptism, iPray that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, you too may live a new life. (From Romans 6:4)

iPray a Happy NEW Years Blessing upon you... full of HOPE!
See, the Lord is doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? iPray that you see how He is making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. (From Isaiah 43:19) Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given you new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. (From 1st Peter 1:3)

iPray a Happy NEW Years blessing upon you... full of TRUST!
That the Lord put a new song in your mouth, a hymn of praise to your God so that when others ask "What's new," you may respond in a new way!  iPray in Jesus name, you will see and fear the Lord and put your trust in him. (From Psalm 40:3)

iPray a Happy NEW Years blessing upon you... full of WISDOM & UNDERSTANDING!
I ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.  And iPray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing new fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience. (From Colossians 1:9-11)

iPray a Happy NEW Years blessing upon you... full of LIGHT
As you share greetings this year, may you be the one that speaks newness onto others.  For light in a messenger's eyes brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones. (From Proverbs 15:30)  So you may be a light for the other nations iPray you will show people all over the world the way to be saved. (From Isaiah 49:6)  That you are not just chugging along but in this new year may you be the light that shines for the world to see. iPray that you are like a city built on a hill that cannot be hidden. (From Matthew 5:14)

iPray it all in the name of Jesus, a-man!

"Happy NEW Year!"


iPray Links

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