#jessetree

Loves lost. In a blink of an ordinary day. Your heart quakes a bit inside when headlines hit too close. If one more thing .. Feeling beat down. Feeling pushed to the edge. Fear is always this wild flee ahead. Failing. Olives. People. Dreams. You feel like you fail. Soundless hidden grief. In the struggle, rejoices still can abound. Move deeper toward God amidst your struggle. He will warm you with joy. Branches of the Christmas tree bend more each day and fail to hold a few ornaments. Still beautiful. Still singing. Still rejoicing. Even now. Turn your focus. Change your perspective. The secret of joy is focus on the Father, not on the fears. All fear is but the notion that God’s love ends. FEAR not! We have a Savior, we have Jesus. You can take your hands off your life. You don’t have to try and save yourself. He came in a breakable way and was broken for you on a Cross. His love always is there for you. He shares in your struggles. Keep counting the grace gifts and rejoice. Eucharisteo- thanksgiving brings balance. You have a wonderful life and you are not promised tomorrow. . . . Habakkuk 2:1 & 3:16-19 #advent #December #growth #change #jessetree #annvoskamp #bethegift #theultimategift #heart #jesus #cross #light #darkness #world https://www.instagram.com/p/Cma0tgFOZLj/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Adore Him. Come, let us adore Him. Drop the wrapping, leave the decking and preforming - come and awe at God. We are made to worship. If you don’t choose God, you’ll be worshiping something else. https://youtu.be/Is6Xcc7ixNY Are you wavering between the God of Abraham or Baal of perfection? Baal of Pinterest, Baal of affirmation, Baal of career... work, agenda, accomplishment... Keeping you from praying Keeping you from seeking Keeping you from seeing His love and grace.. Still sinking Stop. Slow down. Still and wait. Advent comes over you and brings you up from drowning to see what Jesus has done for you. “What kind of grace, relentless grace Would chase this rebel down Crawl into this prisoners cage Take my hand and pull me out” — It’s always a heart check to see what I’m putting first above God. It’s a daily choice to seek him and see eucharisteo. Be in awe and wonder. there are moments where I shudder. Depressed feelings. a tension headache ebb and flowing. I pray. I petition. I cry. I am at a loss of what to do or say in hopes to spare others from learning what we’ve had to learn the hard way. I rest in God being in control and the peace of the reality that the broken world will pass and our broken bodies will be made anew. . . #advent #December #growth #change #jessetree #annvoskamp #bethegift #theultimategift #heart #jesus #cross #adore #worship https://www.instagram.com/p/CmOKcyTu_Gx/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

For a moment it comes like the dawn and the darkness melts away. Unstoppable light of glory. Advent candles brightening the room. Little lights glowing throughout the house. Waiting for a day. we wait. we hope. We are saved from hopelessness because God came in with infant fists and open wide his hand to take the iron sharp edges of our sins. We are saved in my loneliness because God is love and he doesn’t leave us by ourselves. The message of Christmas is that the world is a mess and we can never save ourselves from ourselves and we need a savior, a Messiah. The light comes in an unexpected places. God favors the dark places so you can see he’s like the brightest. The darkness of the world is coming on thick, how bright is the light of God in your life? so many little things trying to dim the light. things going wrong or weird confrontation or lack there of. busyness that ensues. today the sun shined warm and bright. a short walk with littles and we chased the sunlight for warmth. tears on my face as I drive burdened but conversations in the present and a dredging of the past. trying to give it to God. trying to understand the “why” & the warmth of the sun coming in the car reminds me of His coming. His grace. The Christian never stops living Christmas because it’s something we need to live out everyday. God is with us. God is for us. God is in us. Hope is in the lights and there is hope for everyone. Let the light of Christ warm your heart today. https://youtu.be/vh99QLRCxK4 The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; .. Isaiah 9:2,6-7 . . #advent #December #growth #change #jessetree #annvoskamp #bethegift #theultimategift #heart #jesus #cross #light #darkness #world https://www.instagram.com/p/CmLoNsZOSiz/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

... Frosted window panes Candles gleaming inside.. Your face reflected in a world of pain. Looking comes first. “I’ve seen me a King” The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. The heart. He sees the heart. Humanity is often fixated on façades. Blinded. Humanity obsessed with vapors, not eternity. changing my perspective is a continuous occurrence- situation by situation. In hard eucharisteo moments it is a slow process. It’s a tough place. We know that God has a plan... preparing us for something, something we cannot imagine. Often we are looking for vision and direction. Joy is a function of gratitude and gratitude is a function of perspective. You only begin to change your life when you begin to change the way you see. The media of this world aggressively schools your soul to see the exact opposite of the way God sees. See the eternal matter of things. Exercise how you look at things by walking with Christ. Is your life about the heart of things? Is your Christmas? Are you deeply absorbed in Him and the heart of things? Or is your life a shallow absorption of surfaces? God never stops looking for the unseen, reversing the ways of the world. He never stops looking on the heart. …But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." ….And the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!" 1 Samuel 16: 1-12 .. . #advent #December #growth #change #jessetree #annvoskamp #bethegift #theultimategift #heart #jesus #cross #insideout #souls #hearts #real #love #walk https://www.instagram.com/p/CmI69fPubew/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Moments where you feel invisible. Seasons where you had these hopes but then you find yourself empty and crumbling. It can be very hard to find the gifts. Bitterness can set in. Let there be faithfulness instead and see the dawn of the new Kingdom coming. Light is breaking through the cracks of our dark and fallen world. We are not denying the dark but we must never stop looking for His light in everything. Expectations can come steal gifts. There is always a reformatting of thinking. A perspective change. .. the simple daily things.— We can’t have an agenda for God. Divine moments. Divine appointments. Don’t let them be missed with what you think should be happening. Redeemer comes through mangers. In Bethlehem, the house of bread, Jesus comes like bread to make sure our hearts are never hungry for love again. The mundane holds miracles. Gifts always come out of the unseen and hidden places. Keep looking for the light breaking in. “Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the LORD had visited His people by giving them bread. Therefore she went out from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go, return each to her mother's house. The LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. "The LORD grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband." So she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. But Ruth said: "Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God.” Ruth 1:6-9,16 . . #advent #December #growth #change #jessetree #annvoskamp #bethegift #theultimategift #heart #jesus #cross #lights #darkness #houseofbread #seek #expectations #coming https://www.instagram.com/p/CmGpu3huSE-/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Deadlines. Lines of traffic. PICC lines. Spaced out lines into stores and out. Lines on your face and around your ears. Garlands, ribbons, and paper chains decorate doorways and bannisters. The scarlet lifeline we are waiting for. We are wishing for. God. Without Christ we are all tarnished, fallen, and desperate for God’s grace. Rahab. not if the choose people but by belief and faith she was enfolded into the line of Jesus. By her faith, God saved her from destruction. Faith that motivated her to act in obedience to God. Real faith will be evidenced by real action, as Rahab did hiding the spies from the King. He reveals Himself whenever, wherever, to whoever. NEVER limited. Rescuer to the prodigal. He gives faith in the places you most doubt. Believe that God is where you doubt He can be - that is the secret to the grace filled life. This abundant life of seeing the gifts. In a godless place, with a godless past Rahab believes and lives it out. In the line that leads straight to this Jesus. Step out in FAITH. Do not be afraid. God is here. In this mess. This chaos. See the sovereignty of God’s grace and power. No situation is more hopeless than your Savior is graceful. This advent reach for the hope with faith. The scarlet lifeline of Christ. Tikvah. The scarlet cord. HOPE. How strong is a cord tied around a Christmas gift. Strong enough when your life slips off the edge of a cliff to hold you-your lifeline, your hope. Only one line amidst this chaos of a world worth reaching for. This advent reach for the hope with faith. The scarlet lifeline of Christ. “You must leave this scarlet rope hanging from the window.” Joshua 2:18 . . . #advent #December #growth #change #jessetree #annvoskamp #bethegift #theultimategift #heart #jesus #cross #scarletletter #line #rope #twine #faith #hope https://www.instagram.com/p/CmDp1klOL2H/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

The word is love. Covenant love. Canopy of love over you, inviting you to Himself. A way of living out love. God longs for our hearts to be captured by the wonder and awe of Him. He lavishes his love upon us but we aren’t caught in the wonder as we wander. A story shared at the Christmas concert @vancouver_church today of a chicken who gave its life to save its chicks - a reminder of how He loves us and saves us. {prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave thy God I love.. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. } He knows we will and He continues to seek us and to draw us into the true commitment to love. We are given law but He is saying here is my love for you. A covenant leading to the cross. Jesus filling the unfulfilled. Paying the price for our broken love like we never could. {He has come for us this Jesus https://youtu.be/j7GL673EqMg } Love the bond of perfection fulfilling the law. Love, our love is the greatest thing we can give to God. Advent keeps coming and this love story never stops. A word "Then the LORD heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to me: 'I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. 'Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever! Deuteronomy 5:28-29 . . . #advent #December #growth #change #jessetree #annvoskamp #bethegift #theultimategift #heart #jesus #cross #holy #love #obey #covenant #perfection https://www.instagram.com/p/CmBLJY7ueGN/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

This side of heaven is utter chaos. In this stage, the streets and porches and doorways are lit with colors with twinkling lights and ornaments ... there’s always the light that’s out or the broken pieces Like hope torn to pieces. Tearing you apart. Bravery given to touch the torn places and God brings peace as we see the further along. https://youtu.be/q1wy6MGoG7Y What intended to tear you apart,God intends to set you apart. He makes a place to see His glory. Never undone. Can’t be shaken. Press on. A phrase I have a love hate relationship with but it’s ever true. Press on. Through the broken mess.. Through the wretched evil.. Broken manger to a broken cross. Cries in Bethlehem to cries on Calvary. Injustice on that hill. Turning what was meant to be evil - death on the cross Into the greatest gift we ever know. Turning our troubles into a gift? Its hard to see it. Evil is rampant. Stressors are deep. Loss is heart wrenching. As the world is dressed in a colorful coat of Christmas, see through the noise and hear, “all is grace.” What evils are you experiencing now that you need God to transform into something good? A coat “You intended to harm me but God intended it all for good.” Genesis 50:20 . . . #advent #December #growth #change #jessetree #annvoskamp #bethegift #theultimategift #heart #jesus #cross #coat #robe https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl-jZKfuZl6/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=