"Simple" stuff thats changing my life...

Greetings, all you--people,
Wow, today I am having trouble knowing how to start off this blog. I could say so many things. Hope this day is going well for you, hope you are blessed, whats going on...and on? Thense questions don't get answered though, so I will just have to share an update from my life. I guess that is what blogs are for...still getting used to this! That said, I will get right to the point.
I find myself back in the great state of cheese and expensive gas. Well. That could be most states in the US now, gaswise. However, my family and I are back in Wisconsin briefly. We are enjoying the Dells this time! Chula Vista is an amazing place to come with your family, and again I am with the Tschanz clan, where I stayed most of last month. The Tschanz's built the waterslides at this resort with their family who do this for a living, and they earned a few complimentary stays. It's all about who you know anymore *wink*. We are just having a blast and enjoying being together. Dad will go for a week or so to work on a waterslide in Ohio with the Tschanz crew later on this evening, and then it will be us womenfolk and children who will go our separate ways home tomorrow. My grandma who lives in Wisconsin and my aunt and two cousins from MI are here as well. It's very special how it all came together.
Anyway, the Lord has been bringing so many things to my heart. He continues to bring up more applications on things we have been learning at our many conferences. Right now the greatest thing I percieve happening is that He is teaching me how to LIVE. He is LIFE, He is LIGHT and He lives in me, in my "heart" shall we say, or inmost being. THIS IS EXCITING! Yes, we know this,and have for sometime. Wow, I even feel Him now, but anyway...He has been teaching me to live from my heart, and this continues to change my life. Some of you didn't know that you could live from a place beside your heart. What else is there? Some of you know that I am talking about the American religious mind. That is where I have spent too much of my time living out of, simply leaning on my own understanding. God renews our minds, and can change our minds, but He lives in our HEARTS. At our rebirth He put a new heart and a new Spirit within us, and calls us the light of the world. Incredible! So basically, even though we look normal, He has put in us the glowing, life giving potential to change the world--if we will just let Him! How do we LET this light shine? Living from our hearts, which is the place in us where He lives. How does this look different from living from own understanding? Well, I acknowledge the One who lives in my heart to guide me, rather than consulting my knowledge base which is flawed, incomplete and full of judgements.
This weekend I saw again how currupted my mind can be. Any of you experienced this in worship service at church? My mind simply would not leave me alone. There it went, hopping like a sick bunny from irrelevant, pointless, downright annoying details to even disapointing, heartless judgements of others. It was terrible, because part of me was enjoying worship, and at other times I felt I was a prisoner of my mind. I was crying out to God about this, asking Him to purify and remove these ugly roadblocks to enjoying Him and others in the family of God. He showed me (gently) that #1 I am full of sinful pride and I need to let Him change me by His Grace (can't change myself) and that I am not to live life out of this carnal mind. Instead, I am to live from the new heart, the "new man" that He has created in Me. As I lay down my selfish mind, trusting Him with all my heart, I am free to love as He loves, and my life is no longer mine, but Christ's who lives in Me. It has been so fun practicing this whole living from my heart with my family here at Chula Vista. I have been laughing more, loving more, BEING MORE CHILDLIKE, going down more slides fast, hugging more kids and adults, smiling at strangers, feeling full of love...ahhh...I hope I can learn more and more of this and it grows. Sometimes I get this, other times I slip back into the "safety" of my own understanding...but it is a journey. I hope this made sense in some way and it encourages all of you precious Jesus-lovers to
"Trust in the Lord with ALL of your HEART
Do not lean on your own UNDERSTANDING
In all of your ways acknowledge Him
And He will *lovingly* direct your paths"
Prov 3:5-6
*my addition :)*