September 5, 2010 by Teri Frana.

“After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.’”  Luke 10:1-4

Have you ever REALLY read the Bible?  I mean sometimes what God asked His people to do is downright terrifying!  What is up with this one?  “GO - to places where you could be eaten alive.  I already know there aren’t enough of you to go around.  OH - and by the way - don’t take money, belongings, or SHOES?”

This passage has been haunting me for a couple of years now.  Basically, Jesus was telling the 72 that they didn’t have a chance at all.  He sent them knowingly into situations where they would need to be completely and utterly dependent upon God’s protection and provision.

It’s when you read further along that it becomes completely mind blowing… vs 17, ‘The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”‘  They came back totally STOKED by the experience.

Call me faithful or weird, whichever side you lean, but I want to experience that kind of joy and power.  I mean, I’ve read the Bible.  I’ve read how the early followers of Jesus lived, believed, and stepped out in miraculous ways.  I guess I’m no longer content to live like that kind of faith was only around two thousand years ago.  I’m not satisfied with my comfortable, safe, and totally secure, “I’m a good Christian” mindset.  I think there is more and I think that more is for today.

I’ve felt God calling me for quite some time to come out of that shell of good intentions and LIVE it out.  I wasn’t sure how or when or what - I just knew it was coming.

It looks as if the “when” is now; the “what” is to move to Gainesville, Georgia; and the “how” is I have absolutely no idea.  I’m literally about to embark on a Luke 10 adventure in 2010.

The date is tentatively set for October 15th.  Which is exactly 40 days from today.  Thought that was funny.  40 is a significant marker to God for some reason.  So, I’m marking today.

I’m not sure what is to come - but I am sure of who will be walking ahead of me, walking with me, and covering my rear flanks as I step out in faith with a conviction that Luke 10 faith IS still for today and not just for those 72 who stepped out as a sheep among wolves two thousand years ago.

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July 9, 2010 by Teri Frana.

Lately I’ve been aching for a supernatural experience.  I haven’t had many in my life which makes me sad.  I think that means that I haven’t been in a position very often that required some divine intervention or that I haven’t stilled my soul enough to drink God in very deeply.

I read this blog this morning and it made me yearn for more encounters with God’s heavenly realm.

Today, I am trying to open myself up to receive all that God wants to give.  I pray for a spiritual encounter I can drink in deeply to sustain me.  I long to live a life which is so filled with these types of encounters that God is glorified and known.  I pray that for you too…

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May 23, 2010 by Teri Frana.

I just caught a bit of sleep here at home.  Spent the night in the hospital with dad.  Thank you for your prayers - he is doing better.

Everything is still seems very surreal to me, yet I am fighting to actually live it, feel it, and experience it so it doesn’t get stolen from me.  It seems like someone has turned on one of the fog machines they use in the dream sequences in a movie, but I know I’m awake. The music plays from the machines that blip and beep and clip along to my dad’s heart rhythm. The lighting varies from starkly unfriendly florescent overhead lighting to soft, diffused sunlight coming through the windows once the nurses leave.

The noises from the hallway cover the spectrum between laughter at the joke of the day, to the clinical discussions between professionals trying to determine the next steps, to the frightening sounds of suffering in other rooms.  I know that after you hear the words, “Code Blue”, you see bodies with multicolored scrubs flying around one of the rooms. I heard those words twice in the ICU the first night.  I grabbed Dad’s hand even tighter then, thanking God the technicolored scrubs weren’t coming in our direction and praying for the person they were running toward.  

I’ve had a chance to read a lot the last few days in between helping to get ice chips and water, fluff pillows, help my dad reposition, and lots and lots and lots of praying.  The books I’m reading right now are about creativity and what it takes to create art.  They leave me breathless and wanting more.  They make me wish there was a much larger tube running between my brain and my fingers like my dad has between the IV bag of fluids and his arm.  I’d like to be on the same genius drip as those authors.

I don’t have much of a point today except to give you something to munch on.  I was just out checking on the “theme” for this blog because I’ve had some troubles with spamming.  My tag line caught my eye, “In passionate pursuit of Jesus Christ…”  Yeah, that is definitely me.  I don’t care how foolish or feeble I am, I’m going to keeping seeking Him with everything I am.  Everything I am isn’t much today.

As I was pondering that, another thought  struck me, “Today, Lord, I think You are going to have to chase me.  I’m kind of tired.”  I can’t be sure because my brain feels very much like oatmeal right now, but I think I heard the words, “You just need wait to be caught.” For some reason, this notion is making me smile from the middle of my soul.  You know, that kind of smile that you get when your insides go all warm and squishy and you feel like you have just been given something that was  designed for only you?

Just color me waiting to be caught…
“But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.” Psalm 131:2

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