A Visit to the Youth Detention Center

Recently we went to the Youth Detention Center to provide food and fellowship with the residents. I was blown away by a guy who appeared to be about age ten.  He was so small in stature.  I was not too far off, he was twelve.  Twelve and already in detention.  That's two years younger than my grandaughters and that thought was sobering.
I played the music video by Toby Mac entitled, "I don't want to gain the whole world and lose my soul". It was powerful.  Afterwards we discussed what they had seen and they asked many questions.  Some not so easily answered.  It was a great discussion and afterwards we gathered them around tables and sat with them to share and answer more questions.
One fellow had been there the last time we were there.  He was sixteen and facing 17-20 years for his offense. He was so kind and talked of reading his Bible and trying to do the right things. I grieved for him and the others.
I left there overwhelmed with the helpless feeling of what  I could do to make a difference in these lives.
My friend Sheila had gone there with me to help minister in some way to their young lives.  My son had been in a place just like this at one time and Sheila's had lost his life three years before to addiction.  Addiction was stealing the lives of these young lives just like we had seen it done in the lives of our own.  See that is what causes us to go each time we are invited......we love these kids and want desparately to see them turn from the direction they are headed.
We want them to get the picture before they ruin their whole lives bound by drugs, sex, and other strongholds in their lives.  After asking the question, "Do you want to be free", we explained that true freedom comes only through Christ.  We gave them booklets that Neil Anderson wrote on Freedom in Christ.  They do a checklist on things that they may have been involved in and then pray over those things, asking forgiveness and moving on to the next section which guides them in confessing and receiving God's promised forgiveness.
Many things in our lives have made us say, "I wish this was all a dream", but I left there feeling that way that day. These kids were way too young to be in such hard situations.  May they see Your love for them through someone who comes their way Lord.
Oh God, You love these young people so much, please hear their prayers while they work through these things that Satan has lied to them about.  Mainly that no one loves them.  So many of them have never had the proper love of a parent.  Lord, please surround them with your love in their little room where they are tonight.

Cooing of the Doves

Each year when the first signs of spring appear, I start thinking of one of my favorite books of the Bible, Song of Songs.  In chapter 2:10-13 it says, "My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.  For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle [turtle-dove] is heard in our land; the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell.  Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away."
Can't you see the earth preparing for new growth and the singing of the birds taking place in anticipation of the winter being gone?  It has been an especially hard winter for many so I know they are looking forward to the change.  I know I am and I don't even live in the areas where extreme cold was taking place.  It may not be spring yet, but we can sense it is coming.  The fig tree I have planted in the back yard has not started budding yet but I am going to keep a close eye on it.  I am ready.
I love Watchman Nee's translation of the Song of Solomon passage but recently I ordered one by Brian Simmons.  In there I found the most lovely thing.  Most of you know my experience with the dove years ago when I was so distraught over our son.  The dove has meant a lot to me since.  As I was in this section of chapter 2 in this new book here is what I found:
"The cooing of doves is heard in our land.  This spiritual spring brings the soothing messages of love to our souls; it is like the cooing of the doves!  The Dove has come to sing to our spirits and awaken us in bridal affection for the Son.  As this "cooing" touches our hearts, we arise and prepare ourselves for His approach.  We are told that the turtledove always sings at harvest time!  If you listen carefully today, you will hear the cooing of doves in our land.  His Kingdom of Love is coming to earth."  WOW.
I am atuned to the cooing of the doves all the time and I know the sound of them as they are in flight.  Now it I hear it as the sound of the Lord wooing me to fly away over the mountaintops with Him.  Its His love call to me.  Now I am loving that.
Are your ears attuned to His love call to you today?  He calls us His dove in SOS.  He describes His love for her as David writes in Psalm 68:13, Even while you sleep among the campfires, the wings of My dove are sheathed with silver, its feathers with shining gold." 
Now that's some good stuff my friend.  Feast on His word and let Him speak to you.  Draw nearer and nearer Him through His Word and His call to you however that may come.  Be open to receive all He has for you.

Is God Stripping You?

You are probably wondering, what in the world is this.  Well I had begun tearing down the wallpaper in the bathroom months ago.  Each time I had a moment I would go tear off another little strip.  I wasn't making much progress getting it down.  It is a big bathroom. So while it was snowing yesterday I had a goal.....work on the wallpaper.  What better time to do it since I certainly couldn't budge out of my house.
So, yesterday morning I decided to get going on it.
I was up and down the ladder, bending and stuping, squatting and reaching.  I knew if I stopped to rest I would not get back to it so I persevered....for five hours.  Now that might not sound like much to you whipper snappers but for someone my age....it was a great achievement.  I was poohed afterwards.
I have just a little bit left to do and the walls will be stripped.  My goal is to complete the job while snowed in.  Then I can call my friend Sheila to complete the job with a fresh coat of paint.  Mind you I am also cleaning as I go so when it is completed it will fresh and clean.  No more wallpaper goes up on that wall...it was too difficult a process to remove.  Maybe we should think about that when He removes our stuff, not to allow it to stick to us again cause He will use whatever it takes to remove it permanently.
I got to thinking about the stripping God does on us as we allow Him.  Some things come off easily in long even strips and some areas take tedious work little by little, piece by piece.  Somethings seem to be glued on to stay or maybe we hold fast to them.  Thankfully He doesn't stop and start like I did.  He steadily works to strip us of pride, control, addictions, selfishness, disobedience, just to name a few.
Sometimes we want to hold on to the strongholds He wants to strip and it takes a stronger hand to totally release it in our lives.  The stripping at these times may be a long hard process.  I am so glad God loved me enough to begin the stripping process so long ago in my life.
I love the passage in Joel 2:25, "And I will restore or replace for you the years that the locust has eaten, the hopping locust, the stripping locust, and the crawling locust, My great army which I sent among you."
One day as I was reading that the part that says, "that I sent among you" just blew me away.  He did the stripping, He sent the locust.  But with that passage comes the promise that He will one day restore what the locust took.  The stripping may be painful at the time but the restoring....man is that joyous.
So worth the stripping process to be washed as white as snow.  Learn to let go of those things He is trying to strip away.  It is for your good and one day you will look back and know that it was worth it.

Coming Full Circle

Don't you just love it when God prepares that special favor for you!  That occurred for me with my very special gal friends getaway this past weekend.  We got away for some much needed time together and with the Lord.  We had been for a walk on Saturday morning and were discussing our plans for the day.  Would we just stay in and read, visit, and walk or should we venture out?
About that time a neighbor stopped by while walking her dog.  We chatted a while and then "out of the blue" she said, "Ya'll want to go to a shop close by today for fun?"  She began to describe the shop where she and some other artist had some items on display.  We decided that that is exactly what we wanted to do.
We traveled to the shop and enjoyed looking at all the art and jewelry and even went to a Thrift Store across the street where I found a wonderful old book by Wesley Duewell on prayer.  After that adventure my friend Debbie said, "Lets go to the World Village Store in Montreat."
We were enjoying the shop with all the art from all over the world when we all congregated to the back where the clearance items were.  Debbie looked up and said," Wow, Ms Kearns look at that."  It was the art piece you see at the top of the page.  I was blown away.  Months before I had been to that same shop and bought a single dove for our office.  At the time I was there the sales clerk spoke of the covey of doves that they were going to get in soon.  I longed to see it and here I stood gazing at this beautiful creation and to top it off it was in the clearance room.
At the time they were also giving 20% off your purchase if you donated a small amount to a charity in the area.  It was not to apply on a sale item, but here again the favor came when the manager said, "Oh, I think we can arrange for you to have the discount."  Wow.  At that point I knew God had arranged for me to take this art home with me.
My friend Cathy said, "I believe you have some full circle."  The piece is in a circle and it is not just one dove but several.  She also reminded me of the newspaper article that was written from my perspective years later after our son's picture had been in the paper after his arrest.  Things had come full circle once again when Henry Blackaby who prayed that this Mother would not give up, was prayed for when he was disoriented and could not be found, by this very son he had prayed for years before.
Wow, this piece is very significant in my walk and hopefully will open many doors to express how God brought me through the very hard times as people see it to bring them hope and encouragement.  Thank you Lord for that very first dove that came to minister to my hurting heart those years ago when I was ready to give up.  May I never forget Your faithfulness to use my pain for Your Glory.  You amaze me!!

I realized that we did not have any pictures of our new office on the Blog Site so we have posted them for you to see.  The bottom one is our prayer room which is open Tues.-Thurs. 10:00-2:00.  Come pray!

Do You Love God With All You Have?

                                                          

“Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that’s in you, love him with all you’ve got!” Deuteronomy 6:5 (The Message)

In February we tend to focus on ways to express love to our sweethearts, family and friends as the valentine cards, candy, and gifts start to flow.  Almost 44 years ago my husband and I were married on Valentine’s Day.  I thought it was so romantic and would help my husband to always remember our anniversary!  I would be upset if he didn’t express his love on that special day, but it is also important that we show our love to each other on a daily basis. 

This year as I read this passage about loving God, I began to wonder what our expression of love to our Abba Father might look like. How do I show Him that I love Him every day?  What can we give Him as an expression of our love?  Here are some ideas:

·         Get to know Him as we pray and read His Word

·         Verbal expressions of Thanksgiving and Praise

·         Service to Him as we minister to others in His name

·         Striving for holiness as He is Holy

·         Share His Love with others

·         Obedience to his direction

·         Worship Him corporately and individually

·         Spend time with Him daily

·         If you haven’t done so yet – give Him your heart

Let’s ask him to show us new ways to express our love to Him this year and then act on it.  Add to this list and commit to loving Him with all that’s in you.  After you make your list post it close to your quiet place where you meet with Him as a reminder ways to express your love to Him daily.   He is worthy of our love and praise.  What better way has He shown us His amazing love than when He took our place upon the tree?  Love Him with your whole heart.

Sandra

Day Retreat

Day Retreat!  February 8,2014

At the On Wings Office – 10:00am to 3:00 we are having a Day Retreat with Chris Pritchard speaking on the Re-Entry Process. You may register by emailing Sandra@onwingslikeadove.com or
calling 336-972-4213.  If you will be faced with this issue soon it will certainly help you.  If you just want to gain the education to help others in their process, you are welcome.  Lunch will be provided.