X-Country: WEEK ONE

Blasted by His Faithfulness

Friends and family are not just people you have a relationship with they are the people who have impact on the fabric of who you are.  They are the ones you share your life with and they therefore share in the writing of your story.  Proverbs says to surround yourself with the wise and not the fool, because whoever you surround yourself with is who you will become like. (Proverbs 13:20)

This is the 6th big move in 5 years, each time I move what I miss the most is the people.  The question of will I ever see these people again, what will our connection be like from here on?  I am amazed by the Lord's gracious gifts to me: precious people He has placed in my life year after year, move after move.  The upward call - whatever your call is from Christ - calls us to leave things behind, even relationships and move forward to the next thing trusting Him to provide.  In that He promises to give us even more and multiply whatever we leave behind.  I can say from my own experiences, the goodbyes are never pleasant. 

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.  Matthew 19:29

This December 2014 will mark 10 years since the biggest move of my life, moving to Kona, Hawaii and joining full time missions.  Within that year I was saying goodbye to family and friends, and meeting people who I never knew could become just as precious to me.  I could give LISTS of people I cried over leaving, and lists of people who - without knowing it - stepped in and filled the gaps...and then I had to cry over them later too...and then more people stepped in to fill the gaps again!

The point of this sappy, emotion filled sharing is, it is not out of some cruelness of God that He moves you and calls you to give up things, but it is deeply rooted in His love. God is faithful to everyone of His promises - if he says He'll provide & multiply He means it - just keep being faithful to Him.

From the time we said our goodbyes to precious friends in Houston we went to see family/friends who we had no idea we were going to see so soon after our last visit to Norway.  Then reconnecting with friends and family in Virginia because of timing that worked out around a camp we were teaching at.  Then this trip across the country is just blowing my mind.  Seeing person after person that we haven't seen in years, and being provided for every step of the way.  I feel blasted by the faithfulness and love of Christ.  HE IS REAL!  His LOVE and FAITHFULNESS ARE REAL!  and I am blasted.  Thank you Lord!

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Newsletter - On Your Mark, Get Set...

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On Your Mark, Get Set...

"If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here..."  Exodus 33:15

This past weekend I was at a cookout sharing a testimony from when we moved to Houston, TX.  We both commented on how it was so "coincidental" that doors opened up for Andreas and I - things that were too "coincidental" to have not been coordinated by someone (The Lord).  "Coincidentally" we had no car and found a ridiculously cheap apartment walking distance from the studio we were training at every day, then someone "coincidentally" had a sudden move and borrowed out their car free of charge to us and handed over their old job to me (Tammy).  Some "coincidence" - especially considering this and many other gifts like this dropped in our laps after a friend told us:  "Hey, when I was praying for you guys I felt like the Lord said when you get to Houston people are going to be filling your pockets with what you'll need."

It is so important to Andreas and I that whenever we feel prompted to move somewhere new that we "Get Set" by taking time to hear from the Lord and prepare by His guidance.  Sometimes that means leaps of faith and sometimes that means hours of strategic planning..and sometimes: a little bit of both!

We planned to begin our cross country drive from Virginia to California the first week of August, but "coincidentally" some things were not lining up.  Now as we plan our take off for next week (third week of August) we found out it "coincidentally" lines up for us to be passing through Kansas City just in time to attend a training-event at the International House of Prayer!  "IHOP" - for short - is a place we have had on our radar to visit for a few years now, but haven't felt the timing was right until now!  It is a neat "coincidence" and opportunity.

This is where we need your partnership to make our attendance possible.  We have enough to cover the costs of registration for the event, however we need more to cover our stay.  This would be roughly $130/day for 8 days = just over $1,000.

Please consider partnering with us for our time at International House of Prayer from September 6th-13th.

Give online (tax deductible): http://www.uofnkona.edu/support/missionaries/?id=5140&search=tammy%20tolaas

NOTEWORTHY:

 

Last week my parents, Andreas and I got a sneak peak at the movie: Holy Ghost. We were challenged and encouraged by the people in this documentary making the Holy Spirit tangible and simple to people they encountered.  It was also interesting hearing what celebrities Lenny Kravitz and Brian "Head" Welch had to say about the Holy Spirit.  Watch the Movie FREE on September 6th here: http://holyghost.wpfilm.com/ (also click picture above to watch preview on facebook). 

Read the complete newsletter here:
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Released - Newsletter

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Love of A Jealous Kind

5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says,  "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us" ?
James 4:5

Maybe I am opening a can of worms by quoting a scripture...that is quoting a scripture...that is not found word-for-word any where else in the Bible.   Is it from a book that was left out? (I personally am of the opinion that the Bible is not missing anything...except for being completed by His second coming ;) ).  Was it a typo by James?!  A fallable man who God allowed to co-create, co-author His Holy Words!  Should my Biblical world view fall to bits now?   No.......I don't think so.

I quickly, haphazardly "googled" answers for what scripture this scripture is referencing and I actually liked the answer I found on multiple sites (I am summarizing): it could simply be an overall summary of James findings of scripture. 

Example time: If I had to sum up the Bible in different sentences one sentence might be something like: Scripture says: "Here is the ultimate love story that you are invited to join!"  That would be one summary I could give to the Scriptures.  You wouldn't find that word-for-word anywhere in Scripture but it is kind of understood that it is in line with Scriptures in the Bible, and is not contradicting Scripture.

In addition I have to admit that when I read over James 4:5 the first thought that came to my mind, "Oh yeah, where is that passage he is quoting...?" That thought came as if I were so sure I had read that word-for-word somewhere.

Then the first scripture that came to my mind was Song of Solomon 8:6
Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord.

My Glo Bible program has study notes about the scripture from Song of Solomon summarizing that the type of love that is being talked about here is..."(this) love as the strongest, most unyielding and invincible force in human experience".

Another verse(s) I find very closely complimentary to what James is quoting is from the ten commandments:
for  you shall worship no other god, for the  Lord , whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. ( Exodus 34:14 )

And of course there are verses stating essentially the same thing (that God is a jealous God) multiple times in the Old Testament when the Israelites are suppose to be building a Heavenly based Kingdom on earth in Love and servitude to the One True God - separate from the gods of this world.  Also of course in the Prophets - the prophets are often calling the Israelites attention to the fact that they have given over to "whoring" over other gods and separating themselves from the One True God who is jealous for His people.

I think it is safe to say that James is accurate, we serve a God who yearns jealously over us.  Who yearns to see us walk out the amazing, good plans and purposes He created for and within us when He breathed it into us at the start of Creation.

In addition to all of this I can help but be reminded of two fairly well known songs within the "Christian music" genre

Jealous Kind - Jars of Clay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wISIgxdOT5E
He Loves Us - John Mark McMillan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLvgqqZvLZk
A Mighty Fortress - Christy Nockels - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRQp1bUJkBE "Our God is jealous for his own"

In light of all of this.  I wish I could walk in a manner glorifying to God on a daily basis, not provoking His jealousy by how much I give attention to other things in this world that weigh upon my decisions more then the weight I give to Him in my daily, weekly, monthly, yearly decisions.  Recognizing that His Love and wisdom is far more valuable then any of these other "gods"/idols that would cry out for my attention.  That I wouldn't take that Love for granted.  That I wouldn't reject His love but relish in it, live in it, and celebrate it - Him.  Realizing also that He has placed grande things within this "jar of clay", and letting that pour out/overflow.

Tolaas 2013 Year in Review

Be the Mouth-Piece

My dear friend Crystal - who has become a part of my family - always includes in her email as apart of her signature/sign-off at the bottom of her emails:
"The artist's function is perpetually to be the voice and conscience of his time.--Jose Limon"

Maybe Jose Limon did or did not realize the implications of his quote, but as for me - a Believer, Co-Creating with God in this God-Given life I realize that being an artist is being a mouth-piece of the Lord.  The Prophets written about in the Bible, people often refer to them as a mouth-piece of the Lord.   Let's be honest, the prophets...they were a bit weird.  I've shared this before and I'll say it again: in Ezekiel the Lord asked him to put on a show of sorts.
Ez. 5
“1. And you, O son of man, take a sharp sword. Use it as a barber's razor and pass it over your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair. ² A third part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are completed. And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city. And a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them. ³ And you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the skirts of your robe. ⁴ And of these again you shall take some and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will come out into all the house of Israel.
⁵ “Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem..."

He wasn't using words, he wasn't in the closet of his home praying about this, Ezekiel had to actually go out in the middle of the city and put on this show.  It was a proclamation about the state of Jerusalem blatant rebellion and how the Lord was going to openly make an example of them to the nations around them because of their CONSTANT hundreds of years of rebellion.

Let's be honest, when you see an "artsy" person you often call them "artsy" because they're a little bit odd.   I can imagine how ODD/weird/artsy the local Jews must have viewed Ezekiel parading around chopping pieces of his beard around the city.

I think as artists and believers we are called to be the mouthpiece of the Lord to our culture and time we are in.  No matter how weird it is.  How opposite of the norm of the current culture, because those who lose their lives to what the world believes as "proper" will find their lives in eternal perspective with Christ.

It's difficult, it's frustrating, it's not always pleasant going against the grain of this culture.  People will accuse you of being judgmental, unloving, weird, ignorant, foolish.  Sometimes you'll need to speak back against those accusations in love, and sometimes you'll need to just smile and turn the other cheek.

The glory of it is, if we truly seek the Kingdom first in this and keep the overflowing, abundant, patient Love of the Lord central in our hearts, we can have peace in knowing that it will all pay off in the Grande Scheme, in the Big Picture of Eternity.  Because the fact is there is more than just this life that we live on this planet, we have something to look forward to and that's what we work towards and what we rest in.
Until then, Lord help me to be apart of the "foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose [this] weak [thing] of the world to shame the strong.   He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that" not even I can boast before You.  Keep me bold in you alone. That I would "be bold & very courageous" to share who You Are, and don't let me forget "if the world hates [me]...it hated [you] first."  that I do not belong to this world.   But instead I MUST testify of who I am with and who I represent - Christ in me the hope of Glory.