Rachel Barrentine

I was struck by a phrase today that Luke writes in Acts 2.  To give you context, here it is...

Acts 2:22-24

^"22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power."

It occured to me that Luke describes the people that put Jesus to death as "godless."  We all know from other Biblical texts that it was the religious leaders that led the charge for Jesus death.  Fascininating that there is no differentiation between religious leaders and...godless.  Apparently, religiousness has nothing to do with being godly...

Mom"

I'm so excited you guys!  The album is getting finished up.  The artwork is in its final proofing stage.  The book content is finished and edited.  The songs are getting mastered...there's a sense of excitement around my house!  

Really fun, my mom came down this week to the house for a few days.  I was actually having some real difficulty at the beginning of the week with my health.  So, being the amazing woman that she is, my mom disrupted her schedule and drove down here to help with laundry, cooking, picking up around the house...all the things you take for granted when you're feeling like a spring chicken.  

Thanks MOM!  You were such a blessing to me this week especially!  

While she was here though, we were able to go through my book content and edit away.  And strangely enough, I started to feel a lot better once she was here.  Good moms have a way of doing that! So it ended up being some great mom 'n daughter time. I'm so thankful!

You can preorder the new CD+Book on my website.  It's coming 5.14.13

Have a great day!

1.    WHAT GOES IN EVENTUALLY COMES OUT.

It’s true on every level!  So when you’re listening to Eminem or you’re watching HBO with 500 F-bombs…why are you surprised when you can’t control your thoughts or your tongue?  The opposite is also true.  If you think on these things…”whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable”, “these things” will eventually make their way out of you...

I've been in the book of John a lot lately, and found myself wanting a little comfort today. So, I headed to the Psalms to see what might be waiting for me there.  And Psalm 123 caught my eye (mainly because it's short!  I know, so spiritual...)

I began to read it, ruminate a bit.  I'm always amazed how God's voice starts lifting off the pages into my own soul.  So, this is what I got.  (PS - I'm reading from the NASB version if you want to follow along...)

"I lift" - from this phrase, I noticed that their implies a choice.  It is my choice to "lift" my eyes upward.  It doesn't say "God lifts".  In other words I get the opportunity and choice to lift my eyes, or to point my eyes anywhere I want them to be.  Hmm.  This got me wondering, what am I lifting my eyes to?  What have I been looking at?  Our eyes are made for looking...so what are they actually looking at?

The Truth about Trust  -  1 Jn 3:1-3

 It suddenly dawned on me today as I was reading 1 John 3 that our trust and reliance on God is completely dependent on our view and knowledge of God. I always thought I just needed to muster up more trust.  That my lack of trust was just stubborn pride or a sense of independence.  But really trusting is about having confidence in the one you are placing your trust in.  All the sudden my struggle with trust became highlighted today – the reason I don’t trust God is because I actually have wrong beliefs, falsities, and misguided information about God.  My core beliefs about God are skewed and distorted. 

Ok so the other night... I hop in bed, put my ear plugs in like I usually do and invite the dog up to snuggle next to me.  I'm sawing logs and all the sudden I'm dreaming of really loud music.  Oh wait, I'm hearing really loud music.  Is it my alarm?  Voices in my head?  Am I awake or dreaming?  I have no idea.  

So I pull my ear plugs out, and YES, I AM hearing really loud music.  What the heck?  I'm alone in the house with the exception of the zoo that lives with me.  Why is there music playing?  It's 3am.

Dazed and confused, I open the bedroom door to find...

This question keeps coming up, like a sacred echo...What is God teaching you right now?  Or what are you hearing from God these days?  Well, I'd love to know the answer to that for anybody who wants to post it.  Maybe we can learn and grow from each other on this journey with God.

My answer?  Right now, I hear God telling me to "show up". 

So I had this thought today... maybe you can follow my logic here.  But our lives are like little shards of glass mirrors.  We each have the potential to reflect great things.  Whole things.  But instead our lives are broken.  When darkness broke into our world, it shattered the mirror of life.  We now hold our little slivers of glass, little slivers of brokenness and potential redemption.

"Turn to me now, while there is time!  Give me your hearts.  Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.  Don't tear your clothing in your grief; instead, tear your hearts."   Joel 2:12

This verse just caught me today.  I'm reading thru the Bible in a year...and I'm about 6 weeks behind.  But who's counting!  Anyway, the whole line "TEAR YOUR HEARTS"  -- that is the truth God highlighted this morning.  Jesus is so interested in our hearts.  I'm recalling to mind the time when Jesus tore the Pharisees a new one...when He called them a "brood of vipers".  He accused them of cleaning the outside of the cup, but leaving the inside filthy.  This is the same message from Joel.

We gotta clean the insides of us.  The outside comes later.  Scripture says where our heart is...there is our treasure.  The stuff of what makes us who we are is really our hearts.  

So we're human.  We make mistakes, right?  We're sometimes mean to each other.  We...sin.  We fall short of a perect, holy God.  We have a bent toward sin.  It's as if sin is a great Mother Ship, and we are caught in its tractor beam being pulled toward it.  We can't escape it.  The harder we try...the stronger the beam gets.

The Bible says "for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life."  In essence, we are naturally moving toward death - toward separation from God - towards hell (toward the mother ship).  

This bent separates us from relationship with God.  But God, the great writer of redemption, creates a plan to remedy this predicament.

I was just reading on Joice Meyer's website an article about Humility.  One of the most poigent facets of humility that she pointed out was that impatience is really a manifestation of pride.  I've never thought of it that way. Here's what she says...

"Don't be in too big of a hurry to be in the limelight somewhere, to have your name on the office door at work or to have somebody call you the boss or the leader. God will choose who He puts where, and if He puts you there, then be humble about it and do what He asks you to do.

I recently heard that the anecdote for worry is: prayer. And, in my own little lacking-in-faith mind, I’m starting to really believe it. Just this week I was driving somewhere and realized I was completely worried–not about anything in particular, but kinda worried about everything. So, I finally had a conversation…
Me: “God, I’m worried”
God: “What are you worried about?”
Me: “I don’t know. Everything?”
God: “Just tell me everything…even the small stuff.”
Me: “I think I’m worried about…”

and on and on it went. When I was done “unloading” all the stuff I was carrying around, it was amazing how much lighter I felt...