Ostensibly Chaos

Ostensibly: To all outwardly appearances

Chaos: A state of utter confusion

School has been in full force for two weeks now. Getting ready was no easy task, especially since my husband, Marty, & I were in Florida for 10 days and got back home the evening before school started! I know, crazy! To make it more complicated, my son, Chism, who’s an eighth grader and has disliked school since the first grade, was already beginning to complain. While in Florida my daughter, Brooklyn, who is a senior in high school this year, called from home to let me know she got accepted in the two Dual Credit courses she had applied for and, of course, was informing me it was time for me to pay for them.  That would have been fine and dandy except the college website would not accept my computer; therefore my efforts were unsuccessful. Was this an indicator of what’s to come? It’s been two weeks and guess what’s happened…

One of Brooklyn’s classes got dropped because it reached max capacity before I had a chance to pay; Chism was doing any & everything to get out of actually going to school; All the stores were out of the last bit of supplies we needed; & I didn’t have my before-school-devo planned out. Good thing God was in control because I sure wasn’t! Although I was praying, I began seriously interceding for my children! As I prayed, God allowed me to find out that either Brooklyn, her school principal, or I could ask the math professor if she would accept another student. With Brooklyn at school at the time, and thinking the principle would have more pull than me, I asked him if he would please contact the professor and ask on Brooklyn’s behalf. He basically said no and, I found out later, told Brooklyn to tell me not to call! Little did he know I had already sent the professor an email, talked to the assistant dean and the head dean. The head dean informed me that it was totally the professor’s decision but very out of character for that professor to accept more students. Before hanging up he told me that he would pray favor over Brooklyn that she would get in. I sent the professor a second email and still prayed. That evening I got call from the assistant dean saying he had been praying and that the professor had compassion on Brooklyn and accepted her! Did I mention this is a secular college?!

Praying about it before my kids woke, the Holy Spirit revealed to me exactly what to study with the kids therefore our morning devotionals have been going great! In addition to these blessings, knowing Ephesians 3:20, that God can do more than we ask or imagine, Chism openly accepted my challenge to pray that he’d begin to actually like school. Yep, you guessed it! More blessings! He got an extra class in his schedule in which he is able to do all his homework with a teacher on hand to assist. Having no homework, new students, and wonderful teachers, God answered all our prayers with “yes” and Chism actually likes school! Though our lives are not near perfect, we try to stay focused on the Truth and keeping in line with His will and even through seemingly chaos, God Speaks!

Blessings, Treva Hamm

Hopeful Adoption

Hopeful: Full of desire with expectation of obtainment

Adoption: The act of taking by choice into a relationship; especially taking voluntarily a child of other parents as one’s own child

This past Saturday, my friend Linda & I went to a local health food/ coffee shop. It’s a new establishment and we were in early so, other than one employee, we were alone. Linda and I recently completed our Bible study so we met at the bistro to decide our next plan of course. After preparing our tea and my muffin, the employee brought them out on a serving tray in ceramic dishes and introduced herself as “Tamika”. We struck up a cordial conversation with Tamika and she began to share her story with us. Tamika is a single mom of a 9 year old boy, Dee, yet she is not his biological mother.

You see Tamika has a sister who has never been married yet birthed 6 children. When her second child, Dee, came along she was going to give him up for adoption. Tamika couldn’t stand the thought and took him home with her. From that day forward Tamika has been raising Dee as her own son. When Dee was 4 years old his birth mother became angry with Tamika and told him that Tamika was not his real mother but that she was. From that time until now, five years, Dee has been struggling with the confusion of having an aunt who is his mother but doesn’t want him and 5 cousins who are biologically his siblings. They are mostly raised by Tamika’s mother, (also named Linda), and Dee and Tamika are around them very often but their mother has no parenting skills and therefore has little to do with any of them.

Tamika was at her wits end trying to convince Dee that he was loved and wanted and that although she didn’t birth him she was still his mother. I must admit after 35 minutes of listening to Tamika I was beginning to wonder if Linda and I would be able to complete our agenda and take care of the logistics of our next study. Then it hit me; here I was distracted by details of a study to help us live Jesus when the opportunity of actually being Jesus to someone was directly in front of me; a live wire and big talker who loved Jesus and her son. Linda gave Tamika some very sound advice on what to say to Dee and I strongly agreed. I think I saw a little bright light twinkle in Tamika’s eye – a ray of hope. It was as though she was being lifted out of the mud of confusion and into the brook of clarity.

Linda and I did get to line out most of our lesson and as we closed with prayer we asked God to give peace to Dee, wisdom to Tamika and growth to her sister. I pray that one day Tamika will be able to afford to legally adopt Dee so that he will not be hanging in the wings in his mind but will know exactly to whom he belongs. Just as we know we are adopted into His kingdom; we are joint heirs with Christ and we don’t have to be confused. Romans 8:14-17

I knew when we went into the shop that through prayer we’d figure out where to dive next into His pool of learning but I didn’t know that through a sweet, verbal clerk I would be quiet, begin to see where to minister, and would hear when God Speaks!

Blessings,

Treva Hamm

Cajun Hankering

Cajun: Prepared style of cooking originating among Louisianans and characterized by the use of hot seasonings

Hankering: To have a strong or persistent desire

Recently my husband, Marty, and I were driving from Florida back home to Texas after a week’s vacation celebrating our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. On our trip to Florida Marty wanted to eat a true Louisiana meal but it just didn’t work out. Consequently he had been carrying a hankering for a Louisiana Cajun meal over the entire week. As we were nearing Baton Rouge around lunch time we were determined to find the perfect restaurant.

Not realizing I was supposed to merge onto Interstate 12 from Interstate 10, I had taken us about thirty minutes out of the way while Marty was dozing. Although the scenery and experience of driving over an incredible bridge across the ocean and back across a double draw bridge was exhilarating and memorable, our hunger was coming on fast and thirty minutes felt more like an hour! We got back on track and, with the help of Urbanspoon on my cell phone, narrowed down our dining options to two choices. Pulling into the parking lot of the nearest selection Marty spotted a stylish couple getting out of their car to eat at the establishment and suggested I roll down my window and ask their opinion of the place. The kind gentleman assured us in more than a few words that we would be getting a meal to satisfy the hankering, therefore he encouraged us to stay. Taking his advice, Marty and I entered the restaurant a few minutes later unbeknownst to us that we’d be getting more than just a tasty Cajun meal.

As soon as the gentleman saw us enter he kindly insisted that we join him and his lovely wife at their table in order to converse with one another. Being drawn to the kinetic energy bursting from him we gladly accepted the invitation looking forward to an invigorating experience. After taking our hands and thanking the Lord for the meal and the opportunity for us to meet one another, they introduced themselves as Bill and Marie Hulsey from Mississippi. We took turns discussing a bit about ourselves and I was amazed at the similarities in our hobbies and talents. If you’ve ever met anyone and after ten minutes felt as though you’ve reconnected with a long lost friend, you know exactly the experience we were going through. We were inspired and ministered to and hated for the occasion to end. The Hulsey’s were the perfect example of living out the ministry of Christ while carrying out their day to day happenings; as a matter of fact, the purpose for their stopping to eat was to fill their bodies with nourishment in order to be able to fill the spirits and needs of the friends and family members they were about to encounter at the funeral of Marie’s sister to which they were headed. Talk about beauty from ashes! The Hulsey’s very lives are the testimony of their belief in and devotion to our Lord! What a blessing that my husband and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time for this amazing encounter… or did we? Was it happenstance? I think not!

What if we’d been able to find a Cajun restaurant a week earlier? What if we’d not left at the precise time that we did? What if I’d not taken the wrong road routing us thirty minutes out of the way?  I truly believe that this was a divine appointment. God had planned that day out for us and every detail that was in effect landed Marty & me and Bill & Marie at that exact place in that exact moment and was the doing of His mighty hand!  God had a hankering for the Hamms and Hulseys to commence and I am so thankful that even through a “chance” meeting, God Speaks!

Blessings, Treva Hamm

Drawn Breath

Drawn: Caused to go in a certain direction; Brought by inducement or allure

Breath: Air filled with a fragrance; Air inhaled and exhaled in breathing; Something produced by breath or breathing

A couple of months ago I was blessed to be able to attend Catalyst Dallas with my boss, Tammy Lane, and two other co-workers. Catalyst is an amazing 3 day conference on Christian leadership. While there, Tammy and I sat in on a workshop in which Michael Gungor, along with two other artists, spoke and answered questions. I had never heard of Gungor before, he was intriguing and real. Later we were blown away and blessed when we worshiped with the Gungor band! It was an awesome experience to worship with 3000 Christians and Gungor leading the worship! I bought myself and Tammy the Beautiful Things CD and have been hooked on it ever since. Though Gungor’s song, “Late Have I Loved You” was not initially one of my top favorites on the CD, it currently sits there now and was the inspiration of today’s post:

 It’s never too late, yea, we’re late in our surrender to God but we’re not too late b/c God pursues us! He never stops pursuing us. When we finally let down our fleshly pride and self reliance then we can see what was right in front us all along but invisible to us. When we succumb to Jesus He exhales upon us His Holy Spirit. We inhale and take Him in. We become enveloped with Him. Now He not only is visible, He is a gigantic magnet drawing us to Him. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.” If His ‘capitol S-Spirit’ testifies with our ‘lower case s-spirit’ that tells us that we have a spirit in us when we’re Christians. Our spirit can just lie there dormant as long as we let our flesh rule us. But the moment we draw in the Holy Spirit that Jesus breathed out [John 20:22] we are also drawn to Him. If you’ve not yet felt the urging to walk in the Spirit [Galatians 5:16-18, Ephesians 5:15-18, & Romans 8:1-16] perhaps you should examine yourself. Begin with prayer & reading His word. Begin by reading the scriptures I just referenced. Perhaps you feel as though your toes are being stepped on. That’s the inner spirit begging to come out and show the Spirit Himself to you. God has so very many blessings just stored up waiting for you to say, “Okay God, I’m ready, lemme have ‘em!” this statement however cannot be merely verbally expressed, it must be physically expressed in your actions. You must show you are prepared and ready to receive blessings by giving honor and glory to God with what you already have and by being obedient to God. Then, and only then will you feel a drawing so amazing it is like nothing your flesh has ever experienced, you will be able to be led by the Holy Spirit, you will have the breath of Jesus on you which is a direct result of when God Speaks!

Blessings, Treva Hamm

(Listen to this amazing melody about breathing in the fragrance of Christ HERE

Late have I loved You
Beauty so ancient
So new
Late have I loved You
You were within me, but I was outside You
It was there that I searched for You
It was there that I searched for You
Late have I loved You
Beauty so ancient, so new
Late have I loved You
You were here with me
But I was not with You
It was there that You found me
It was there that You found me
You called and You shouted
You broke through my deafness
You flashed and you shone
Dispelled all my blindness
You breathed Your fragrance on me
You breathed Your fragrance on me
Late have I loved You
Late have I loved You
I drew in Your breath
And I keep on breathing
I’ve tasted I’ve seen
And now I want more
You breathed Your fragrance on me
You breathed Your fragrance on me
Late have I loved You
Late have I loved You 

Written by Michael Gungor © 2010 WorshipTogether.com Songs (ASCAP)

KINGDOM WARRIOR

Kingdom : The eternal kingship of God; The realm in which God's will is fulfilled;  

A realm or region in which something is dominant 

Warrior: A person engaged or experienced in warfare; A person engaged in some struggle or conflict

Most of us have a home, a place where we are completely ourselves and run things pretty much the way we want them. Our home is our domain, our dwelling, our place of comfort; yet if we were aware of someone’s plans to come in to rob or attack we would not just sit idly by and wait until it happened. No! We would arm ourselves either with a weapon or a force, such as the police, to guard our abode.

There are police personnel all over America who join the force to protect the innocent from the dangerous. We have our branches of Armed Forces who protect our lands. There are laws to protect our rights. All around us are different varieties of protection and in each of these diverse categories there are variations of weapons. Two things that are common factors in each facet however, is the fact that of the persons engaged in fighting for us, those who are engaged in the warfare; each of the warriors has both an adversary and a leader. Similarly, each kingdom has its adversary and its king.

When one has accepted the free gift of salvation offered from God through Christ, they become a part of the heavenly kingdom. It is not uncommon for followers of Christ to refer to God as our King but what is too often overlooked and forgotten is our adversary. People tend to laugh off Satan as the man in the red suit with horns and a “pitchfork” and nothing pleases him more. The fact of the matter is that the devil is very real and very psychotic.  God tells us that Satan is just like a hungry roaring lion waiting to devour us.^{1Pet. 5:8} God instructs us to put on armor and be prepared because the devil will strike. Satan has an onslaught of demonic forces and is engaging in war with us constantly. Just as we would not allow our material homes to be attacked we cannot allow our spiritual homes to be attacked. God tells us that our war, or battle, is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness.^{Eph. 6:10-13}

We ARE at war, you and me, all of mankind. We are warriors! Thankfully we have armor at our defenses, it is only up to us to use it or be devoured. We have a King and it is for His kingdom, of which we are a part, that we are to submit to His leadership, His direction, His will, and fight the onslaught of demonic enemies who are sneaking into our daily lives. Understand that this blog post exposes merely the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more to know and to learn! God has been speaking to my boss, the owner of this blog, Tammy Lane. He has revealed to her His plan for her to host a free women’s retreat. The purpose of the getaway is not only to get this message out, but also to make known to women how to recognize Satan’s attacks and what role we are to take as women. This straight-from-the-bible teaching will be held at Capernaum Village just outside of Weatherford, Texas October 21^st – 23^rd 2011, and will be an insightful demonstration of what happens when God Speaks!

Blessings, Treva Hamm

For more information on the Kingdom Warriors Women’s Retreat click on the link in the right hand column.

Throng Isolation

Throng: A multitude of assembled persons

Isolation: To be in seclusion, separated from the rest

Picture yourself in a gigantic movie theater; it’s filled about two-thirds of the way full.  You’re sitting in the center of the screen far enough back to not strain your neck or eyes & close enough to the front to see everything perfectly. Because there are groups of people on both ends of your isle, folks choose not to climb over them and consequently no one sits close to you. The rows in front of and behind you also are full on each end therefore as the crowd lingers in, each person finds ample seating elsewhere leaving the seats all around you empty. You are isolated. As you look around the enormous arena you see it is becoming quiet full, however, you remain alone. Scanning the entire assembly you do not recognize a single face. Depending on your personality type this situation may be viewed in one of three ways: First; “Why doesn’t anyone want near me, I do have good hygiene habits”. Being flesh, most of us prefer doing things with and around other people, I mean how many times do you go out to eat and spot someone at a table alone? Yes it happens, but it’s a rare case. Second possible attitude; “Perfect, now I won’t be disturbed and can just enjoy the movie”. Let’s face it, there are times when we just don’t want to have to deal with another person and we prefer to just escape through a good book, movie, or other relaxing hobby. The third circumstance; “Okay, the place is pretty full, it’s time, let’s get the show on the road. What’s the hold up?”.  When we truly examine ourselves we humans can tend to be a pretty selfish species. Thinking of no one but ourselves and our own interests, most of us tend to want what we want, when we want it and fail to notice anyone else’s needs.  No matter in which of the positions you most likely see yourself, as the lights go down and the movie begins, you soon become captivated by the happenings, get lost in the events, and the last thing on your mind is the logistics of your surroundings. I found myself in a scenario quiet similar to this Monday night.

Sitting alone and isolated amongst a large crowd at Monday Night Prayer, and being the analytical person that I am, I began to recognize the setting I was in and wondered how many people there were in the exact same situation and what their thoughts were. God spoke to me prompting me to pray for them so I did. As I became submerged in God’s holiness, I began interceding for the assembly of people and those who were about to lead us. I could hear chatter and laughter, see prayer groups & musicians. Many people were doing many different things as the time to begin approached, however we were all gathered for one purpose; to pray. We prayed through music, we prayed through silence. We prayed with heads bowed, we prayed with hands lifted. We prayed alone, we prayed in groups. Never before had I been alone yet been so beautifully surrounded. The immense love and camaraderie amongst this family of strangers was blissfully peaceful. We spoke to God and we heard testimony of how He speaks to us: acquired jobs, diseases healed, marriages restored, lost souls saved.

When we feel God in our situations it is a wonderful experience but when we experience the responses God gives to our devotion to Him it is true evidence of Him speaking to us. As we lift up our prayers; He rains down His responses. In our Father’s timing, and according to His divine plan, He speaks. Last night, in our drought-ridden land, God literally rained down His response to our communal outpouring in our request for rain. It poured for three hours! Our parched land was quenched because God spoke down his gracious response. I love the ways God speaks!

Blessings, Treva Hamm

90 days of Discovery

Discovery: The act or process of detecting,

finding, spotting, unearthing.

My true Soul Sister, Linda Jones, is the one who taught me how to open the lid of the small box I had placed God in and allow His divine Holy Spirit to come out of hiding, flow into my life, and fill my very being! That was sixteen years ago. During a part of those years, for some reason unknown to us, God placed Linda & her family in California. She’s back now living in my city and together we have experienced a journey over the last thirteen weeks like no other.

While in California, Linda met Christine Taimanglo (pronounced “time-an-glow”). In obedience to God’s pressing, Christine recently wrote a 13-week intense Bible study. The study being in prepublication, Christine contacted Linda and asked her if she would be willing to obtain an accountability partner and do the study as a preview before it is published. Linda understood that she and her partner would vigilantly go through the ninety daily assignments, one of which being to meet weekly and discuss the week’s lessons. Having accepted the quest, guess whom Linda chose as her study, prayer, & accountability partner? That’s right it was me! We began our study with a careful dissection of the introduction. That took me a week in itself because I had made up my mind from the get-go that if I was going to commit myself to a ninety day study I was going to absorb every single word including the introduction. I will tell you that the introduction was just as powerful, in its own way, as the study itself. As we’ve gone along, we have let Christine know our progress & thoughts. At the end of the lesson the two of us will give Christine our final thoughts on and the effectiveness of the whole study.

It is tough to decide what part of this study is my favorite; The mornings alone with God when my house is either asleep or empty, learning how to journal, hearing my Creator and what He is speaking in my life, the fact that the Holy Spirit has prompted and given me the material to write a lesson on becoming acquainted with Him, the deep discoveries and growth in the different facets of my life in which the study addresses, or the sweet early Saturday mornings when Linda and I escape to the coffee shop, cuddle up in the soft corner chairs we dubbed as our “assigned seats”, and unravel to each other all the amazing-ness of God that was so sweetly exposed to us during the week. Or would one favorite thing be the growth & depth, (can those two words even make sense together outside of spirituality?), of my prayer life including intercessory prayer and praying with someone else. As cliché as it may sound it truly is the culmination of all these blessings combined.  Although I cannot go into details of the copy-written Bible study, I can tell you that with only one week of the study remaining; all that I have learned and experienced has not simply stayed between Linda & me. No it has expounded out causing a ripple effect in our lives and the lives of those around us! Prayers have been answered & voyages have begun. I have been able to use things I’ve discovered through this study in my job at Tammy Lane Productions & Linda has been able to accomplish great things in her job, also as a result. Maybe it was for such an effect as this that God had placed the Jones family in California.

I thought it next to impossible that Linda and I could get any closer as soul sisters but God spoke through her 16 yrs ago when she taught me, He spoke to her husband when they moved out of state, He spoke when Linda & Christine met, He spoke when He prompted Christine to write His Bible study, He spoke when Linda chose me to do it with her, He spoke every single day over the last thirteen weeks. He is always there and it is through listening and obedience that we know when God Speaks!

Blessings, Treva Hamm

Phenomenal Emerging

Phenomenal: Astounding, Rare, Unusual

Emerge: Come on the scene

Ok, Ok, so maybe writing a blog isn’t so astounding, rare, or unusual but this is my coming on to the scene. Yep, first blog. I know, the profile says “On blogger since Nov. 2008” but actually I just took over a long, lost blog that was begun by who knows who, who knows when. Well in reality I guess we do know when, don’t we? Ha-Ha! The original blog was associated with Tammy Lane Productions long before I began working here and since I didn’t want to re-create the whole Google profile, I just chose to pick this one up and start fresh with it! But why blog now? What led to that decision?

In the mornings, (though I admit I’ve been a slacker lately), I try to get up before the household & spend some time praying, reading the Bible, & doing my Bible study, (Don’t let me forget to tell you about that on another blog, whoa it’s good!). Well one morning after being in deep prayer on an emotional subject I went to open my Bible to Acts and begin where I’d left off the day before; only my ribbon marker wasn’t in Acts. “That’s weird” I thought, and as I was reaching to flip back to Acts my thumb touched down where the marker was, on Philippians 4:4. I’ve read it tons of times before & was very familiar with the passage, only this time it resonated with me! As I read verses 4-7 my eyes began to tear up with joy! Not thirty seconds earlier had I been pouring my heart out to God and in His sweet graciousness, He answered me. He revealed to me to be a gentle spirit during the circumstance in which I’d prayed and that I was not alone in this, He was at my side. Yet a word in the scripture baffled me: “supplication”. Although I had read and even used the word, this time I was intrigued to know more. I had always thought of the word as meaning “request” yet in the New American Standard Bible (NASB) the verse said, “…by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” “Hmm”, I thought, “why would it basically say, ‘by prayer & requests… let your requests be made known’?” So I began to dig deeper. I pulled up Webster’s to find the definition then became curious to other definitions of basically common words in Philippians 4:4-7. After looking up and writing down the definitions, I wrote out the verses again only this time substituting the words I’d looked up with the definitions & meanings I’d found. Reading this “re-vision” transformed the verses into a profound statement that seemed as though they were spoken directly from God Himself personally to me. It was as though the Holy Spirit was telling to daily “live out” what God had exposed to me. [The revision is posted below] Due to the effect it had on me, I shared it with several of my prayer partners. Having felt nudged by the Holy Spirit to write out my story, this was confirmed repeatedly when, individually, each of my prayer partners suggested I start a blog and tell my story.

In a nut shell, well, on the keyboard, I began this blog because God to spoke me. He always speaks and when we keep ourselves tuned into His channel we pick up on the signals He sends. When we choose to tune in we can collect the wavelengths and uncover how He speaks to us; in times of trouble, in times of joy, in times of excitement, in times of monotony; He speaks to us. The more we obey what He says to us, the more we can discern when God Speaks!

Blessings, Treva Hamm

LIVING PHILIPPIANS 4:4-7

Realizing God is the source of my delight; for the rest of my life I am to repeatedly, with happiness, pleasure, and glad joy, accept and enjoy His presence!

Making a conscious decision, I am to allow my gentle, kind, calm and resilient spirit to become recognizable and familiar to all people everywhere; not forgetting that the Lord stays by my side constantly!

Knowing that worrying strangles and torments, that getting caught up in wanting control and have things my way causes anxiety; I am to have none of it!

Instead, with a limber, compliant, humble attitude, an attitude that is able to put my selfishness aside and allow God to mold me, I am to eagerly make my requests to God through prayer while expressing gratitude and acknowledging and celebrating His divine goodness.

Then, from God, a state of quiet tranquility; a harmonious freedom from oppressive, disturbing thoughts; a sense of security so strong and powerful that it is incomprehensible to my brain, will engulf my very being; creating a barrier of protection preventing harm from entering my heart or mind which are both devoted fully to and filled to capacity with the power of Christ Jesus!

Defined words: Rejoice, Anxious, Supplication, Thanksgiving, Peace, Gaurd