the kingdom collection [new prints]

do you ever get the feeling that God is bombarding you with a specific message? you know, you'll read a verse and it lingers with you all day. you hear a sermon or read a blog post or a book. then a song pops into your head. you didn't hear it playing, it just popped in there and sticks with you for two weeks? and you have a stirring that He wants you to do something. and it's a stirring you've felt before. for years, really. and then you have this idea that you should start praying in a certain direction, by faith, that God would allow something specific, or fulfill a desire that you believe He gave to you? just something specific but also out of the blue? well it happens to me often, but this time i'm listening and doing.

do you know that song "Hosanna" by Brooke Fraser? that song popped into my head a few weeks ago. but just this part of the chorus:

show me how to love like you have loved me

break my heart for what breaks yours

everything i am for your kindgom's cause

but it wasn't just this song. it has been a compilation of probably fifty different things, and really over the past few years. it's just gotten louder lately. i have felt for awhile that God has been stirring me to spend time and/or money on some things that would further His kingdom. did you know this is always His will for us as His people?

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,

with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry

and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

then your light will rise in the darkness,

and your night will become like the noonday.

The Lord will guide you always;

he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land

and will strengthen your frame.

You will be like a well-watered garden,

like a spring whose waters never fail.

Isaiah 58:10-11

but we get so caught up in our own busy lives and families that sometimes it's really super hard to think about adding one more thing. i know.

i was sitting in church after a powerful message a few sundays ago. our new church has a central message of "God's kingdom come on earth, today, in us and through us, his people". and most of the sermons for the past few months that we've been attending have been more or less centered around that overall theme.

this particular sunday, not too long ago, had a profound impact on me. and we ended with a time of worship, like always. i can't remember the song we were singing, actually... i just remember that at the end, they tagged on a little chorus from a totally different song. and do you know what it was?

show me how to love like you have loved me

break my heart for what breaks yours

everything i am for your kindgom's cause

and i started crying. and my poor husband was probably a little confused. but it was as if God had prepared that sermon just for me, and just so i knew it was from Him, He had them play "our song". you know? yeah, goosebumps.

and then this flood hit me all of a sudden. i'd already been working on this beautiful collection of prints you see below. and i knew that i needed to finish them, post them for sale, and give the proceeds toward something specific that would further God's kingdom. i started thinking and praying about what that might be, and my mind kept coming back to Compassion International. i've followed their blogger trips for the past few years, and always felt stirred to sponsor as i've read the work they're doing... but i never actually did sponsor a child, for whatever reason. i could come up with a hundred excuses, but lately i don't want to be that person anymore. i have a little way to make extra money, through my shop, and that money needs to be stewarded in a way that honors the Lord. sponsoring a child through Compassion most certainly honors the Lord.

this post was already typed up last week, but wouldn't you know, there's more to the story. so i had to add this part:

just this past weekend, i attended Beth Moore's simulcast, where she spoke to 150,000 of us who tuned in to watch. and God spoke straight through her to me and confirmed everything He'd been whispering to me this whole time. it was the culmination and commission that i needed to finally convince me to stop living by sight, content in my own little world, and start living by faith. it was past time for me to step out into this supernatural unknown where He works and where His glory is revealed most brilliantly. in her wonderful way, Ms. Beth basically explained that we were never meant to have it all together, juggle all our balls in the air, and live a smooth and content and normal life. we weren't meant to be "just fine" when people asked, lacking almost nothing and in need of nothing from them. we were called out of ordinary, into extraordinary, into the supernatural with Christ. if there is not an obvious need for us to exercise FAITH in our lives on a daily basis, we're not out on the water where He wants us. and for all who have have put our trust in Jesus Christ for eternal life... that is exactly where He wants all of  us. out on the water with Him.

this might seem like a super small way to "live by faith" and step out onto the water, but i believe it's the first step that God is asking me to do. i don't know why. but i do know that no step of faith is insignificant. every single thing that we believe the Lord for? it builds and builds until, as Beth put it, we're almost unrecognizable to our own selves. that's who i want to be.

so here are those prints. they'll be for sale in my shop, in a section called "kingdom collection". i'll probably add more as time goes on, but here's what we have for the grand opening [check out a few more colors in the shop]:

by faith, i'm going to sell these prints, asking God to provide enough to sponsor at least 2 children through the money that is raised each month. that means at least five of these prints will need to be purchased each month. i know that might seem silly to you, or even really insignificant, but i've had a habit of not doing the little things God prompts me to do and i want to do away with that kind of fairweather obedience, you know? i'm stepping out. a teeny tiny step, but still a step. i hope you'll buy some prints. they would make beautiful gifts and they would be a poignant reminder for you to be about God's work, to love His people, to further His kingdom, to live by faith.

"Do not wait: the time will never be just right. 

Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools 
you may have at your command, 

and better tools will be found as you go along."

[Napoleon Hill]

here's the link, one more time :)
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