Little Drummer Girl

I was visiting a church service recently and was fortunate enough to sit in front of the drummer. I love the drums, when I get to Heaven I will know how to play the drums and I’m going to be awesome!

I was engrossed in the song as I followed the drummer’s hands, observing the results of him hitting each piece of the drum set in an order that made magical sounds. As I was watching him, I heard the Holy Spirit whisper “that’s how we do your life Gena.”

This of course got my attention and I asked what He meant? I still haven't learned to leave well enough alone.  He went on to show me that the drummer hit different parts of the drum kit to play different notes, but one drum he hit consistently was the snare drum (thank you Braxton Bisceglia for telling me what that was called).

In my life I’m never quite sure where I will live or what job I will be doing, but, the one consistent in every verse of my song is God. He sets the tone for the song and keeps me on beat as I walk through each assignment. The Lord sends me to different places meeting different people to compose a new melody.

For instance, while I was in Tennessee part of my country song was to work for Nash Painting, it was here that I had the honor of meeting Linda! She is now my sister for life.

With this new song came the usual challenge of learning new computer software. If you know me at all you understand that is a HUGE undertaking for me as computers and I have a love hate relationship that leans more toward hate….

As always, I asked the Lord to open my mind and help me figure out the program so I wouldn’t have to constantly ask Linda questions over and over again. I was super surprised to see how quickly I was navigating the system. Little did I know that just a few short weeks into the job Linda would have to go out of town and I would be command central! WHAT!

I had enough knowledge to be dangerous but not enough authority to completely screw things up. This allowed Linda to leave with one less thing on her mind. We were all playing our part and trusting God for the outcome.

I was a bit nervous about this solo but I knew as long as I stayed in beat with the Holy Spirit it would be OK.

During this cantata I was also bartering for a temporary place to live and to my surprise found myself tending chickens and goats at Stoney Creek Farm. 
I never thought I would hear myself say things like “I need to get home before dark to feed the chickens.”  I wore a straw hat, mud boots and flannel to fit the part.

I neither confirm or deny getting the gulf cart stuck in a 2 inch creek after feeding the goats…..

If you’re ever in the Franklin TN area make sure to stop by this sustainable gardening farm and say hi to Leigh and Olin Funderburk.

I also played some spiritual tunes in Tennessee working part time as a prayer counselor for the Christian Broadcasting Network in Nashville.

In between all this I took a side gig in Mississippi and volunteered at Mitchell Farms Pumpkin Patch. Will work for food took on a whole new meaning, it was dark when I went to bed and woke up. I sold admission tickets, painted signs, picked up rotten pumpkins (actually I watched Beverly do that it was very stinky) helped with the corn maze

or whatever else needed doin at the moment.

It was a great experience spending time with the Mitchell’s and participating in pumpkin and peanut farm living.

After 7 months of TN drum playing the Lord was sending me back to Florida. My sweet friend Linda said “now that you worked for a painting company maybe you can find a job for another one back in Florida” to which I replied “I won’t get a job at a painting company because I hate to paint and won’t be applying to any.”
The only thing I painted at Nash Painting was my nails, don’t tell Bill.

Famous last words, I won’t work for a painting company.” 
Little did I know the Lord had my next arrangement in place with Beverly Bakalyar Faux Finish Artist. I didn’t even know how to spell faux.

Now Gems this is where things get a bit crazy even for me. I go from Sweet Home Alabama to Bohemian Rhapsody!

I would soon embrace the title of “Highly Trained and experienced Gilder” along with facing my fear of heights in a tune called Beverly and her sidekicks.

I knew I could handle the spiritual side of this instrumental, building relationships and praying for people, I could play that drum solo all day long, but the natural side was another story. I can’t even color in the lines and did I mention I hate painting and heights?

Lord how did this happen??? How did a hard hat and steel toed shoes become part of my wardrobe? 

I arrived at the site ready to pray with the rest of my band who each would play the instrument God designed them for.  As I stood in the circle alongside this group of truly qualified women I reiterated to the Holy Spirit that unless we could use the “trunk” system (private joke for Betty Cardel)  I had no idea how I was going to pull this off.

Here I was day one being handed a paint brush and placed on a lift about 28 feet in the air!  Talk about playing the drums, my heart was beating so hard I WAS a snare drum! I hoped I wouldn't throw up as I threatened my coworker that if she made any sudden moves, I would inflict bodily harm to her. Swaying this high off the ground was not what I signed up for, to say I was terrified would be an understatement! How was I going to paint anything while holding on for dear life!

The Holy Spirit brought to my mind some verses from Exodus 31

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ² “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, ³ and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— ⁴ to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, ⁵ to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts. ⁶ Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you: ⁷ the tent of meeting, the ark of the covenant law with the atonement cover on it, and all the other furnishings of the tent— ⁸ the table and its articles, the pure gold lampstand and all its accessories, the altar of incense, ⁹ the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, the basin with its stand—¹⁰ and also the woven garments, both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when they serve as priests, ¹¹ and the anointing oil and fragrant incense for the Holy Place. They are to make them just as I commanded you.”

I, like these men, was doing what God commanded me, so, I figured if it can work for them it can work for me.

I began fervently praying that the Holy Spirit would supernaturally touch my hands and give me creative ability with artistic design just as He gave His other children. I knew that part of this musical was to play it with excellence not just for the company I was representing and the customer who hired us but for the Lord as well.

I was highly trained alright hovering over the earth where only birds belonged, however, in just a few short days, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I was living up to my title! I was painting and gold leafing too!!!

It was truly a miracle happening right before my very eyes!  My friends and family would say things like “I didn’t know you could do that” to which I replied, “I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me!”

Not only did the Holy Spirit train my hands He handled my fear of heights. I went from heart palpitations and almost vomiting to dancing on my lift we affectionately called Buster.

Gems the moral of the story is when the Holy Spirit puts you in a concert and requires you to write a new song, He will give you the ability to play all the notes. I'm never sure what the peace will be that He is orchestrating but I have decided I won't let fear make my decision on if I'm going to play. I would have missed out on meeting so many cool people and seeing awesome places if I quit the band. I hope this encourages you to keep playing your song.

For this concert, I learned all my lines and saw some of the fruit of my labor, the rest will be played when I get to my final symphony.

Rock on Gems!

My new sister Linnnnndaaaaaa 

Moving Heart

I was reading in Exodus 25 where God is giving instructions on how to build the tabernacle.
Three of the verses I want to share with you are,

Exodus 25:2 “Tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution for me; from every man whose heart moves him you shall raise My contribution.

Exodus 25:10-11 “And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and you shall make a gold molding around it.”

Exodus 25:40 “And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which was shown to you on the mountain.”  (God speaking to Moses, as always I suggest you read the entire chapter for yourself)

The first verse God is asking for anyone who is willing to give toward building the temple,
a man whose heart moves him. I realized that request has not changed in all these years.
The first temple of course was a building where God would dwell and meet with His people.  

The temple today is our bodies, we are the temple where God dwells but to become that
you still have to offer “a heart that moves” you toward Him.

It is your decision no one can make you have a relationship with your Creator. Over time
you have to have this same heart to grow toward a more intimate relationship with God.

For me personally there have been some pretty hard times of deciding to have “a heart that
moves me” to draw closer to God. I was reminded of such a time a few days ago.

It was about 13 years ago, I felt like the Lord was asking me to move from Florida to
Johnson City TN. The circumstances to that decision are too many to tell but there was a
definite series of events pointing to that decision.

My youngest daughter was in elementary school and I think my youngest son may have just

started middle school. I called my ex-husband and wanted to set up a time we could talk
about it and figure out a plan that would work for both of us.

Instead of talking to me he spoke to an attorney and days later I was summoned to court. My oldest daughter Amanda came with me for support and I thought for sure the judge would tell me to go. It was God’s plan after all so what could go wrong???

I was told by the judge that I was not allowed to move my children to TN and was given
a warning of jail time if I didn’t obey the law.

As you can imagine I left the courtroom with a flood of emotions! I won’t go into all the
logistics of the relationship with my ex or his with the kids but keeping them apart was not
my ultimate goal.

I cried and prayed all the way home and as I pulled into my driveway I heard the Lord say
again "I have a plan, do you trust me?"

I sat my sweet children down and explained to them I knew I had to follow God. I would trust
on His mercy for my heart as He knew better than anyone how important being a mother to
my children was to me.

I continued to pack up my house and make a plan for Johnson City. My ex saw the boxes
when he picked up the kids that weekend and called to remind me I couldn’t
move to which I responded, “Yes I can.”

He reminded me I could not move the children to which I responded “I won’t be.”

I told him I had to follow God and I would be bringing the kids to live with him.

Gems if you think that was an easy decision you are WRONG! It about broke me. The thing
is like the temple that was being built with wood my temple was currently made with wood,
worry, fear, doubt, BUT God  eventually covered it with pure gold inside and out. He filled
me with His Holy Spirit to have the power to follow Him. He also took my offering of
obedience and returned it with mercy. After I let go of my children the Lord changed the
plan and moved us to Tampa, Tennessee would come later.

I think the “heart that moves Him” is a constant development. How close you want to be with
God begins with a decision of going from wood to gold and continues as you walk out your

journey with Him. I believe going to court was part of God's plan to test my faith. I needed
to see there was no way this would work out without His intervention.

In the last verse God is talking to Moses and He tells him to make the pattern of the temple

like he was shown on the mountain.

We know God didn’t give him a Polaroid or an architect design to show him so it must
have been a vision or mental picture, I don't know for sure. I do know the people had to trust
that Moses knew what God showed him.

This same passage also applies today. Gems God shows you things at times that He
doesn’t show anyone else. You have to trust that you saw the whole picture when you
can’t even figure out how to make the first piece work.

On my last adventure in Tennessee the Holy Spirit told me to meet with a man He
introduced me to on my  journey 4 years prior and pray with him. I was like OK Lord but I
have no idea where to find this man and just out of curiosity what do you want us to pray
about?
Gems this wasn’t just any guy, this man is very well known in the Messianic community
both in the U.S. and Israel and did I mention I had no idea what we were supposed to pray
about.

The only thing I knew for sure was I had a vision in my minds eye of us praying and trust
me, it had to be God because there was no way this man would even listen to me without
the Holy Spirit's leading, it had crazy written all over it.

A couple of weeks later I was visiting a church with a friend and guess who was the guest
speaker….. I spoke with him after the service and told him we needed to meet and pray,
the Holy Spirit did what He does best, makes what the world thinks is crazy and turns it
into His plan. We both had to trust we saw something from God.

I love that while God is working on our wood temple it’s just between the two of us. He

works on the inside of us with the power of the Holy Spirit and then when we have passed
that test he covers us with gold, inside and out for the world to see His masterpiece.
He even puts gold molding around it!

I recently moved back to Florida from Tennessee. After 14 months of "sleep overs" the Lord
showed me an apartment and told me to move in. He supplied a job but it would be a
couple of weeks before I would get a pay check. I went to the apartment complex in faith,
wearing my gold, because I knew the Lord said "don't delay."
I was given my first months rent free as part of a leasing promotion. When we move with a
heart for God He is all we need.

Gems I pray this will encourage you to keep your heart moving toward God.

Be The Ring

What is it about the diamond ring? We girls put a lot of emphasis on it don't we? When a girl announces she's getting married the first thing we want to see is the ring. Even before the guy we want to see that ring. 

The bigger the diamond the better the ring, as if the size of the diamond has any relevance to the size of the love.

I'm guilty of this ring thing. I confess I have been known to check out a ring here and there and marvel at a brilliant diamond. 

Even as little girls we are picking out our engagement ring long before our fiance'.

I heard a beautiful ring story from a friend the other day that I just have to share.

She works at a higher end department store in the mall. On this particular day the women who were shopping happen to be wearing some bling (big diamond rings) that my friend happened to notice.

My friend asked the Lord to give her a ring that she could wear from Him.

I have a ring that I wear from the Lord so I was expecting her to tell me about the ring He gave her, but that's not what He did.

She asked the Lord for a ring and He said “be the ring.”

What a profound response. Be the ring....

I have chewed on that for days.

What does the engagement/wedding ring represent? 

It tells the world you belong to someone. That you have a personal, intimate, committed relationship with someone and you plan on having it for the rest of your life.

So for you to “be” the ring it would mean your life was a living example of that relationship to someone or in this case to Jesus.

Seriously that was such a phenomenal response. Would we expect anything less from the Holy Spirit?

So now we have to ask ourselves how exactly do we be the ring?

We had a ministry at the church I used to attend called 2^nd Saturday it happens on the 2^nd Saturday each month hence the name 2^nd Saturday :)

Volunteers get together and reach out to the community to bless them in some way. One of the ministries is called Random Acts of Kindness and it's different each month.

My friend April, who was the Director of local outreach, and I were talking about what Random Act Of Kindness we could put together. I asked what was happening in the community that month and April mentioned Valentines Day. 

At the same time we said out loud bring flowers to a nursing home. We knew it was a God thing and the thing to do.

I knew what was coming next and I already dreaded it. I knew April would ask me to lead the team.

Now I'm gonna be real honest here Gems. I didn't want to do it because old people creep me out.

I know I'm horrible but I'm just being honest. I can handle most any ministry but old people in a nursing home.

Needless to say I was the leader of the group going to the Nursing Home.

The Lord sent an amazing group of Volunteers which made it a lot easier for me and off we went.

I was doing my best to hide my feelings because the Lord was very clear this is what He wanted done and I didn't want the volunteers to know their “leader” was "creeped out."

When we entered the Nursing Home I was thrilled that it was clean and didn't have that smell that most of them have.

We spread out and went room to room to give out our flowers.

I walked into one room and the woman was sitting in her wheel chair. She held a mirror in one hand and with the other she was putting on liquid face make up. She was having a hard time with it, some parts of her face had a big spot and other parts had none.

We talked as she was applying it and the Lord said to me “help her.”

I now began having a conversation in my head with the Lord how helping her would mean touching her face and I was really not comfortable with that.

I began looking around the room for a tissue or toilet paper or something in case the Lord insisted on this helping thing. Wasn't it enough that I went did I really have to be touching old people too!

He said it again “help her.”

UGH! So I looked at her sweet blotchy make up face and said “do you want me to help you put your makeup on?” She looked up at me and said “no.”

Well alrighty then. I thought I was off the hook.

She went on to tell me that the day before was her birthday and pointed out the balloon floating on a string from her bed. I wished her a happy birthday and felt like I should compliment her so I told her makeup was coming along nicely and her hair looked pretty as well.

I should have left well enough alone.

She told me she did her hair and was able to do the sides but couldn't do the back. Then she looked at me with that sweet face again and asked “could you do my hair in the back for me?”

Gems the funniest thing happened instantly in my head.

When I was a little girl my mother was a beautician that's what they were called then now she would be called a hair stylist. Every Saturday morning my grandmother and her sisters would come to our house for my mother to do their hair. They all had round bodies and round hair doos. I remembered my mother teasing the back of their hair and filling in the bald spots to make the complete circle.

So I walked behind my new friends wheel chair, grabbed the comb and started teasing her hair.

I gotta tell you I really looked like I knew what I was doing.

I filled in all the spots and rounded it out and went back to the front of her and said “you look beautiful.”

She gave me the biggest smile that filled my heart it was such a precious moment.

As I was looking at her I heard the Holy Spirit whisper to me “being the ring.”

I was being the ring! That's how we do it!

We show the love of God to others so they know who we belong to. Who we're committed to. Who we gave our life to. Who we're proud to let the whole world know we love. That's how to “be the ring.”

Gems one of the things I love about God is whenever you bless someone God blesses you at the same time.

I had no idea when I was a little kid noticing how my mother did hair that one day I would use that memory to show God's love to another person.

What things have you experienced that you can share with someone?

Take time to look around and see where you too can be the ring!