Hunger = The gift of God

Sometimes there is no worse than being hungry and surrounded by the most appetizing things and yet unable to partake of any of it. It's the torturous feeling you get while you sit in a restaurant waiting for your food and everyone else's goes sizzling by you. Leaving you only with the sights and sounds of something delicious not intended for you. Ok...now that you are reliving that moment...hold that thought.

In Song of Songs at the beginning of chapter 3 we find a bride who has enjoyed the great abundance and luxury of the king, but now is invited off of the mountains outside of her home of comfort she and her King have shared. He doesn't shout at her to come to these hills and mountains, but instead He speaks to her about how things are actually a ton more delightful with Him than she even knows yet. He is aware that she is not mature yet in her devotion. She loves Him. She loves wonderful qualities that He gives so freely for her to experience. But her picture of Him is not yet whole. He knows that. And He has a plan... He is going to leave. (Sound familiar?)

Let's bring this up close and personal to us now.

Jesus does not use some sadistic form of absence to punish us. He has something He wants us to see about Him that our perspective wont currently allow. He wants us to experience the victory of His overcoming. That He truly is our only hope and satisfaction in life. He wants to be precious to us, not simply convienent. He calls us forward by letting the sting of divine hunger drive us to a place we wouldn't go otherwise. This is His gift to us to overcome the fears, insecurities, disappointments, the list goes on that have kept us from standing up in some areas. Now again, He is looking at us like the Song of Songs bride...she's immature, but beautiful to Him. He won't bark at His wife, but instead will call her to be His partner in what He is wanting to do. We have been joined to Bridegroom that has an agenda, an assignment He has to do in all of creation...redemption. But He wants us with Him. This is not because He has to...He wants this! He wants us! He calls us according to His desire for us, but asks us to answer His desire by drawing near to Him in the ways and places He has called us.

Think about this for a second...why did God create Adam? Why Eve? Then why only them in His image? Did He just want diversity of created things to just pedal around the earth or did He have intention, purpose, plan for us to do something with Him that nothing else in all of creation could ever do? He is making us hungry for being with Him again. We are invaluable to Him, because He made us to be invaluable. We have a role and a part to play and He is passionate to include us in the execution of His purposes in the world. So He has given us hunger to cause us to arise and press into some our most vulnerable fears, wounds and lack to reach for Him. O let us grow only more hungry for the gifts that He alone can give. The revelation of our beauty, the power to overcome, faith to experience Him in powerful ways. Our escort to satisfaction, faith and encounters we most long for...His hand upon us, His voice in our ear, is found in hungering for Him beyond anything else in this world.

So here is the promise we cling to. Thank you God.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." Matt. 5:6

Welcome to our Blog!

Hello All who may find this and read it!

This blog is place designated to keep up with the current news and thoughts of Aaron and Joy Phillips. We are excited for the journey the Lord has put us on and we want include as many as will come along with us.

This is such a great hour of history to join into the plan of God and be before His face to search Him out. These writings will be from the everyday, but also will be some of the overflow of what God has put upon our hearts. We believe one of our greatest roles in Christ's kingdom is to strengthen and build His Bride. There is such hope, power and grace to be found right now. We want to be part of the company of people that captures it and gives it away for the Body to built and established until Christ returns.

Welcome to our letters from the journey!

- A & J

The Value of the Human Life

Ps. 139 speaks of the intimate knowledge and the woven, merciful care God has given to each and every person. He has known us from before our conception and has a vision for our lives that penetrates eternity. This is our great God that we serve! He has a redemptive plan to draw all men to Himself and will be faithful to complete it entirely. If this is what our God is like, as His image-bearers, this must be our same vision. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4:11

We live out of the revelation of the nature of God we have seen. Thus to truly have godly love and value for others we must behold how great His love is for us. Jesus was never so distracted by the immaturity of His disciples, or their lack in being great men of God, that He no longer called them into who they were meant to be. We want those eyes like Jesus to see, think about, speak to and fight for destinies those around us like He does for us! From the unborn child, to our closest friends, to the most hardened sinner, we are called to exemplify the very nature of God we have received. God has created mankind to be a kingdom of worshippers and lovers of His name. We are given the charge to call one another forth according to this destiny in God. We get to plant seeds of hope and true redeeming love by the power of the Spirit in those around us. Let us ask God for eyes of redemptive faith to bring others into the great, hidden worth of their lives as God sees them.