Filed under: Life issues — kaylaatkinsmusic @ 4:22 am
Seeing
I just had eye surgery 4 weeks ago. At the same time, I had mono-vision done to where one eye sees far and the other eye sees near. This is done so I don’t have to wear reading glasses down the road when that dreaded day comes for those of us slowly creeping into that category!! (*Shudder*) Because we are NOT THAT OLD!! Right?!
This eye surgery has caused me to be in a long recovery state meaning, the corneas are still healing from the laser that scratched the surface of my eyes and now my eyes are slowly (EVER SO SLOWLY) being renewed and the “scabs” on my eyes are starting to go away to where my vision will eventually get clearer. This is a 3-6 month process. That is a long time to not see well. Don’t get me wrong, I do see SO much better than before the surgery, but the hazy cloud over everything and fuzziness of far away objects is still an issue and it does feel like I constantly need glasses to crisp things up! But that’s not going to happen because I really have itty bitty laser scabs over my eyeballs that are healing!! Haha! (more…)
Filed under: Uncategorized — kaylaatkinsmusic @ 3:56 am
Hello friends!
I was talking with my mom recently – (who is a VERY wise woman and probably my best friend!) She was sharing with me a thought that the Lord showed her. He gives her such amazing yet simple analogies and this was one worth sharing!
Think of an egg. There are many ways to eat an egg. Hard boiled, scrambled, fried, poached, and of course all the ways we bake and cook with eggs. (My mom is a professional cook by the way – maybe a reason it came to her this way?) They are a very useful item to have around in the kitchen at all times!
But, in order for the egg to be used – it must be cracked first! It can be runny and messy, or it can be hard on the inside, but if that egg is going to be used for any good use, the shell must be cracked off of it!
That egg is much like our lives. God desires to use us in a lot of ways! We may be the protein/meat in someone’s life, we may be the substance that causes things to “stick together” like in a cake, or we may be part of another combination of good “food” for others. If we don’t allow God to break us, we won’t be useful for anything. Instead we will sit on the shelf and eventually go bad or rot.
Eggs are good hot, eggs are good cold, but eggs that have been sitting out all day are disgusting and rotten. We’d be spitting them out also. No longer good for anything!
Ps. 51:17 says “The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart.”
We are in a good place when we are broken before the Lord. THEN – He has something to work with!
I’m about to embark on a new season in my life this week. Something the Lord has been preparing me for, but it has taken a lot of brokenness and time in His presence to get me to this place. I am not any more special than the next person, but I have said “Yes” to Him and His call on my life. I sort of understand what Isaiah was maybe feeling when God called and said, “Who will go? Whom shall I send?” and Isaiah piped up and said, “I’ll go! Send me!” He was willing to sacrifice his life and be broken before the Lord and be used to bring life and substance to others. Even now we continue to benefit from his words thousands of years later!
Be willing to be cracked open – whether we are hard boiled, or a runny mess – God can make something wonderful out of us!
Growing up, I always remember the Friday before Easter being called “Good Friday.” All I really knew about it was it was a day off school and that Easter was a couple days later and people seemed to put fancy labels on the holiday weekend. Honestly, I couldn’t figure out why they wanted to call it “good?”
I grew up in a Christian home. I was in church just about every time the doors were open. Easter wasn’t a foreign concept or just a tradition for us, it was a reality of celebrating Jesus death and resurrection. But still, this “Good Friday” thing I just never could understand. Jesus DIED – that’s not “good” is it?
Only in the last few years have I realized the depth of the “good” of “Good Friday.” It wasn’t necessarily good for Jesus….but for us! His death provided freedom from sin and death, a restored relationship, life eternal, the gift of the Holy Spirit, Joy and Peace! He knew something that we didn’t – He knew Sunday was coming! Sure it was prophesied and Jesus spoke of it, but it was still a mystery! The disciples couldn’t even understand!
God had a plan. Jesus was the main character in this plan; this story. After all, it’s “His-story!” We know how Jesus showed us His love by teaching, ministering, healing the sick, the lame, raising the dead, loving sinners, etc. But, maybe in order to really grab our attention, He knew he had to do the one thing we would never have expected. Lay down His life. That is an incredible “good” thing! (Actually it’s pretty heroic if I can use the term.) As a military family, we understand that very well. We may have experienced this in our lives or know close friends who have gone through the pain and suffering watching someone we know “lay down their lives.” Can you imagine how Mary and the disciples felt? To lay your life down for one person is great, but to agree to do this for the whole world, for salvation and to regain a right standing with God again, knowing many of them will reject you and not believe it even happened, takes a great man. A perfect man. Actually it could only be a perfect God who loves us with an everlasting love!
This is why Friday before Easter is good. If Jesus didn’t pay the penalty for my sin, I would be lost. We needed a Savior and God had a plan. Thank God for making a way through His son! The crushing weight of my sin and shame, my sickness and diseases were put on Him so I wouldn’t have to carry them any longer. He looked from eternity past to eternity future and saw me. He saw you. He willingly laid His life down because He saw the joy of our salvation before Him and he endured the cross for that. This is why it is GOOD!
A song that is a great reminder ends like this:
“Jesus paid it all! All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain and He washed it white as snow!”
I will also leave you with this great song from Downhere – How Many Kings
I’ve been thinking and meditating on the word SACRIFICE lately. I’ve had a new perspective through worship recently. The Lord began to reveal a few new things I never saw before.
I had a conversation awhile back about how the Old Testament is always pointing to God’s redemptive work in us, Jesus, and the New Testament. They go hand in hand. We began talking about the Tabernacle. When God told Moses to build the Tabernacle, as you entered the Outer Courts there was the Brazen Alter. It was the first thing people saw when they entered God’s house. This alter was set up for all the burnt offerings for the Israelites. Here they slaughtered the animals, drained the blood, laid out every inside part of the animal, guts, blood, gore and all. Then the fire would consume this animal as a representation of the sins of the people. The smoke that rose became a sweet smelling fragrance to the Lord. He delighted in the sacrifices and burnt offerings these people brought to Him – DAILY!
The Lord showed me something here. These animals/burnt offerings, although a representation of Jesus on the cross for us, is also a representation of ourselves. WE too are laid out on this alter in the presence of our God – cut open, all the inside is revealed, guts, gore, blood, etc. we are very vulnerable, open and there is NOTHING to hide! When we lay ourselves on the alter in this way, God’s holy fire comes and consumes us from the INSIDE OUT! (Deuteronomy 4:24 tells us that our God is a jealous God, an all CONSUMING FIRE) He takes all of us, and the smoke that rises is a sweet fragrance to the Lord. There’s also mention of incense burning in the temple/tabernacle at all times which represents the prayers of His people (us). All of these things – everything about the tabernacle and what God intended it for, is all a representation of Jesus Christ, coming, living and dying for us, and we partake in all of it.
And the great finale came, of course, when God split the curtain, opened up the Holy of Holies so we may have complete access to Him!
When we lay ourselves on that alter, we’re truly sacrificing ourselves in an act of worship. He wants all of us. He will burn up our fleshly desires, those things that keep us from that closeness with God. But that burning, although painful, is a sweet fragrance to the Lord, and this is what can allow us a deeper fellowship with the Lord. He renews us, fills us with His Spirit and allows us to walk with Him without any barriers in between.
There’s an older song I used to sing that began, “Take me past the outer courts, into the holy place, Past the Brazen Alter, Lord I want to see your face…..” To enter the Holy of Holies, we must be offered as a sacrifice on the Brazen Alter to come into the place where we can enter the Holy of Holies with God.
We need to daily put ourselves on the alter and let the fire of God consume us so we can enter His Holy Place!
Filed under: Uncategorized — kaylaatkinsmusic @ 5:28 am
Hi friends!
Welcome to my blog! Keep checking back in or subscribe to see what new things I’m writing! I’ll be posting blogs from PWOC that I’ve done in the past and new thoughts that come in the future. I’ll also talk about events I sing at
and what God does through those. I’m excited to begin a new journey and share part of my life with you too!
Kayla Atkins Music 