Blogs, Kenya, Dallas – In That Order

From now until October, my life is taking quite an orderly direction. I’ve not blogged for the past few weeks simply because I have not had a lot to say. A short break is good isn’t it?

For the next 3-4 weeks I am going to reblog some great posts, share some awesome prophetic words I’ve been reading and send out some other things that interest me. Hopefully you will like them too.

Kenya Girls with Bananas

Kenya Trip – August-September. Really excited about this. These past few years has been quiet for Marvin and I, not a lot of traveling. I am happy to say we are back on the road again. Our call to Kenya beats strong in our hearts. I started ministering there in 2002 all the way up to 2008. Then God said to take a break and we did. Now the door is open again and our vision is clear for this season.

Our itinerary includes prophetic meetings, conferences, and leadership meetings, teamed up with Pastors Augustus and Peninah Mutua. I am working on a 4 day discipleship course that centers on a revelation from Acts 17:28 – Being in Christ, Living in Christ, Moving in Christ and Creative Expression in Christ. This course will take shape in booklet form in the days ahead for upcoming trips. We have a wide open door of ministry and it feels good.

Dallas/Fort Worth Area – October – Moving, moving, moving. After these past 2 years of being in Southern California, we are settling in the DFW area for our next season. After much prayer, there seems to be no doubt that this is where we are going and again, we are quite excited about it in every way.

So enjoy the blogs that are forthcoming and be blessed in the Lord.

In Christ,
Debra

I would love to speak at your conference, gathering, church or home group. Contact me here, on Facebook or on Twitter. Enjoy reading about Rivers of Eden and the Timeline of our Life!

Creative Expression: A Never Ending Story

Life cannot be understood through a timeline of events. Events are just events, points on a line in time. Birth, death, marriage, or divorce are just a few examples of points on the timeline that we call life. The years come and go. Each day can pass without any meaning. By the time you know it, life has come and gone and you can’t help but wonder what it was all for, where it went, and what now?

How do I see my life? How do I want to impact time, here and now? It seems that I have been wandering for many years now. That is not a good thing but can often be the breeding ground of disillusionment or discouragement. This blog, from this point forward, is flowing from me. So who is me? And what makes me different that you would want to read anything about me?

I don’t want to refer to these posts as a patchwork quilt, piece-by-piece, varied and different with the whole making the final statement of a picture.

That’s not me. I am more eclectic than that. I am chaotic at times and my musings will throw me off balance, so I try to reel them in and then I feel compromised and complacent. I want to make you think and reflect. I want to stir up questions that make you see beyond the surface of the words to find something of eternal value and beauty. To do that, I have had to walk away from other’s expectations and my own fears to move in ‘me’.

I am perhaps like some of you – visually inclined to see and observe with stories and pictures running through my head in color. Of course, can I say that this part of me, of Debra, was not actually accepted for many years? That is why I lost myself and tried to be acceptable, understood and balanced. Well, I am quite often the opposite to all of that. I tend to be quirky and offset and intense. So this blog of Creative Expressions will be various creative expressions – stories, videos, pictures, and so much more. That keeps my creative energies stirring round and round, flowing, moving and just being.

The foundation of my life is Christ Jesus. I keep trying to speak to this issue of creativity in the church and walking in creativity in Christ Jesus. I am not sure many are getting it so I have a choice. I can be the norm or I can walk ahead of the pack and believe that Christians will rise up into the creative expression in Christ, venturing out into unexplored vistas of possibilities. I will go and start walking now, right now. I will post at least 3 times a week, asking Holy Spirit to ignite this creativity in me so that each blog post will stir each of you with a smile, a tear and laughter. Some will be serious and forthright as a lion coming out in me. Others will be spontaneous. Others will be visual. That is ‘me’. Not a patchwork quilt, per say, but rather like a never-ending story in process as the Lord keeps forming me and anointing me for the quirky.

 So my next post will be about a vision, a story, a cracked mirror and facing disillusionment head on. Enjoy this journey with me!

How about you? How can you make 2014 more internally creative? It’s not about a creative act. It’s about YOU, being creative in Christ.

Imagination – Creativity

Imagination – creativity; vision; inspiration; inventiveness; ingenuity; originality; innovation; fascination; passion; curiosity

I am all of the above. I can say that now but could not always say that. Fear paralyzed me, subdued me, and trapped me in its grasp for so long that I lost Debra along the way. This past week, after years of being a Christian, I had this ‘aha’ moment during a time of worship. Suddenly I knew that grace shifted my life to actually be this woman whom Christ called me to be, right now.

Creativity in Christ – my mandate and my mission in life. Yet, as I preached it, wrote it, thought it, and tried to move in it over the years, I did not really feel that I had actually grasped its understanding in my own life. When people questioned this burning passion in me, not quite understanding it, I felt rejected and alone. Worse yet, I felt that I was not taken seriously somehow and that this was a superfluous message in the Body of Christ.

Over the past 6 months, Jesus has been showing me through His word, visions, dreams revelation, and experiences that His vision in me is for such a time as this. I know that many out there are like me, creative types who think differently, express uniquely. Many have been hindered by fear. Others have been ousted in subtle ways from being creative in the Body of Christ. Still others take their gifts and use them where people will appreciate them, not in Christianity, which is often viewed as lackluster and boring.

The life of Christ in and through me is a path of truth, where creativity abounds in diverse ways. I want to gather with others who don’t limit Christianity to just words but employ visual expression. There is a bit of this right now in the Body of Christ but I don’t believe we have even scratched the surface of what is yet to come. When people came to our Rivers of Eden meetings, sometimes they just didn’t get our message and did not get us. So unfortunately, I turned to accommodate their acceptance of me and became what I was not created to be. Those days are over. Thank you Lord so very very much.

Jesus was imaginative in His expression of the Father on earth. His unique style of ministry is the launching platform for creativity in the Body of Christ. The Gospels are diverse and varied and unique in the style, form, and passion of Christ. To focus on Paul and the Epistles brings us into an awakening of grace and its freedom in Christ. But now, I want to look at Jesus – how He moved to the sound of heaven in the Spirit. As I said in the last blog, I am on this journey right now before your very eyes. It is not static but moving. The ministry that God gave to me, Rivers of Eden, has floundered for many years, trying to break out, break through, and be released into who He has made us to be. I have hit closed doors while other doors slammed in my face. I waited for God when there seemed to be silence. Is what I heard actually from God? Is there a Rivers of Eden?

I have my answer. Yes Rivers of Eden is alive but in need of being deconstructed to be built up in Christ Jesus, anew and afresh. Now I will walk in His way. Creativity, imagination, passion, the arts, music…………………..it’s a journey to explore creativity. Of course, I can’t do all of this. My call is to gather, to mentor creative people, to write, to live, to love, and to……….I will leave this open-ended. I see in the Holy Spirit. I hear the Holy Spirit. Writing more on this journey of creative expression in Christ day by day.