Day 21: full circle, back on track….

Day 21: 19 May 2018

Introduction: Thanksgiving, Praise and Worship exercise – this one is best when watched on the largest screen possible. I love getting lost in this “song.”

SONG: Eric Ludy – He is (The Names of God) – (Return of Majesty Trilogy)

Old Testament Names of God – Blue Letter Bible

• El Shaddai(Lord God Almighty)
• El Elyon(The Most High God)
• Adonai(Lord, Master)
• Yahweh(Lord, Jehovah)
• Jehovah Nissi(The Lord My Banner)
• Jehovah-Raah(The Lord My Shepherd)
• Jehovah Rapha(The Lord That Heals)
• Jehovah Shammah(The Lord Is There)
• Jehovah Tsidkenu(The Lord Our Righteousness)
• Jehovah Mekoddishkem(The Lord Who Sanctifies You)
• El Olam(The Everlasting God)
• Elohim(God)
• Qanna(Jealous)
• Jehovah Jireh(The Lord Will Provide)
• Jehovah Shalom(The Lord Is Peace)
• Jehovah Sabaoth(The Lord of Hosts)

Names, Titles and Characters of Jesus Christ – Blue Letter Bible – Incredible list with biblical references.

Want to dig deeper, grow more in the names of God? I compiled some cool info on Names of God.

When I became a Christian at the age of 26, I became a sponge, soaking in all I could. One of the things I clearly remember is hearing this next song and wondering what the names were. I remember slowly learning about the names of God. This song helped introduced me to some of the names of God.

SONG #2 for today: El Shaddai by Amy Grant With Lyrics

SONG #3 for today: What A Beautiful Name – Hillsong Worship

Step 1: Gather

13 April 2018, when I left the building, where the medical miracle took place, I kept thinking about the fact that God was as awesome on the 1,200-mile drive TO the doctor as he was on the 1,200-mile trip BACK home. He was the same God, going both directions. Regardless of the outcome, I was so incredibly secure in the fact that He IS.

To let the one’s praying for me know that I lived through it, I typed out a short text and sent it to them. I do not remember all of my words but I remember the important ones. It was something to the effect that HE IS because He was the same on the trip toward the medical help as he was on the returning trip home.

Having that security deep within my being gave me the ability to find a peace in every breath I took and every heart beat on the ride there. There is no medical explanation for my heart holding out until I got to help. No explanation why my lungs allowed me to breathe. There is no explanation for many things surrounding those days, except to say HE IS.

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” ~ Philippians 4:7 NIV

That security provides a peace beyond description. It allowed me to relax into the situation. Allowed me to take very shallow breaths for days because my lungs were filling with fluid and mold. If I did not breathe with intent to live, I would have coughed, choked, increased my heart rate even more and my heart was not able to handle that because it was not receiving blood or oxygen.

ONLY because I relaxed into that peace of knowing who HE IS could I change how the human body works. God did it, but I had to relax into it. Had I fought it, I would have died.

Leaving that medical intervention, all I wanted to think about was HE IS. Nothing that has happened in the past matters. Nothing about the future matters. Only that particular moment mattered. I could die from a car accident on the 1,200-mile drive trip back home and it could never change the fact of the what God had done for me or who HE IS. Nothing can change who HE IS.

That was felt so intensely, and I did not even know how to explain that in words at the time while letting others know that I made it through it. Saying HE IS was the only way to express it at the time. I rode the waves in the storm, all because of who HE IS.

As I end this 21-Day Brain Detox, I am brought full circle to HE IS. What a beautiful experience.

Yet, I do not want to get lost in the experience and not move forward. I want this to propel me forward.

As I sort this out in my broken now-repaired heart, I look at my circle of life. I actually have a beginning and end. God does not, I do. Part of my beginning has to do with where I am today. There is a funny irony in it all.

I was born in St. Joseph, Michigan. I have lived in Saint Jo, Texas for the last 18 years. The social security office cannot register that fact in their brains much less their computers. They argue with me over this fact, birth and current locations can be so similar yet so far apart.

As a human being, I have traveled far distances on every level. Yet, I am still the same person making that journey. I change, I grow, I mess up, I grow up, I find my way through the fact that I am just simply me, with all of my complexities.

I AM is okay to say. Nothing the same as HE IS. It took HE IS for me to see more fully that I AM. My Creator chose to make me exactly like he did, knowing the travels I would take and knowing the end result.

There is NO reason for that not to be enough. He created my core that will never change. My skin and flesh may fail but my core remains. My core has the seeds of life.

“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”  ~ Psalm 73:26 NIV

An apple is a perfect illustration of abundance. Sweet, hydrating, wholesome and pure. When eaten and enjoyed it can be fully nourishing. When left to rot, it decomposes but the seeds of life remain to nourish future generations. The core, the seeds, of who we are cannot be changed by ourselves or others, not even satan can change the beautiful core that God created.

With that fuller understanding, I am equipped to rise up out of the yuck and muck and just simply be me. The Maribeth that I am in Jesus Christ, nothing else. My value, peace and security are only in Jesus.

My grandfather was a fisherman in Michigan. My grandfather died of one of the diseases that I have had all of my life. His heart/vascular condition was the same as mine. He died approximately within 5 years of my age now. I don’t know his exact age when he passed but I remember how much he loved me before he lost his mind due to not having oxygen to his brain.

He did not receive the miracle that I did. He received other blessings in life but I get to live out the opportunity of my particular miracle for this same disease and it’s effects.

I remember the devotion my grandmother showed to him for the 7 years in a nursing home while he suffered terribly. I remember his funeral. I remember how much my grandmother missed him and portrayed honor for him regardless of anything. I remember all the years that I did have a close relationship with my grandmother. Wish I would have appreciated her more to have shown her that in abundance at the time.

My hope is that I experience more of these deeper meaningful relationships here on earth with humans, but my existence is not reliant on such. It would only be icing on the cake, not the requirement for life itself.

This, THIS, is a good place to be. My anger from the abandonment issues has backed off. The hardness in my heart is subsiding. The physical calcification in my body is giving way little by little to oxygen and blood to not just sustain life, but to allow my life to flourish more than ever.

I am learning about healthier boundaries that create less drama and more meaning to life. I am learning how I contribute to others stomping the snot out of me. I will learn to better use God’s given shields, armors and helmets to make a glorious life. 

The Armor of God

“¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”  ~ Ephesians 6:10-18 NIV

Scientifically and spiritually I have renewed my mind by using God’s power and the 21-Day Brain Detox. This is so cool.

New lifestyle. This is accumulative. Keep going. Now that this is part of me, use this automatically. Find the correct determinations between the armor of God to create clearer boundaries and the love of God that spreads Jesus’ love.

“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”  ~ Proverbs 23:7 NKJV

Stay focused on the beacon, the Holy Spirit…

Step 2: Focused Reflection

Focus is simple today:

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  ~ 2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV

It is SO much easier to focus with oxygen and blood now flowing through my body. That calcification cutting that flow off was death at every level. Now that my Lyme is being shut down by an immune system that has been turned on, the pain is nowhere as near as distracting. The physical problems are being cast away faster than I imagined.

This allows me to think clearer than I have ever been able to in my entire life. I have always had Lyme Disease and a heart condition, always. I have always struggled to focus, collect my thoughts and sorting them out has been a joke. I have arrived!!! So THIS is how so many people have been able to function. Thinking is crucial to flourish as a person. I had no clue what I was missing out on.

Well, easier said than done. In this step I am supposed to be focusing. That didn’t last long…

Holy Spirit what do you want me to focus on?

My little rabbit trail made me smile. Again, thinking that I am created in God’s image, therefore he surely has a sense of humor. Just smile. Just relax into this.

Take a breath of heaven and enjoy earth!!!

Step 3: Journal

Don’t let the storms of life get me off track. When I start to go off focus, just circle back around. That simple. No stress, no fuss, no muss.

Step 4: Revisit

This is so awesome. Holy Spirit, you just keep doing your thing that allows me the choice to stay on track and seek you for guidance.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”  ~ Romans 12:2 NIV

Step 5: Active Reach      

Decision:

See the beauty of life, given at the hands of God himself and through my parents. Remember St. Joseph, Michigan and its beauty.

Rely on the Holy Spirit to help keep circling back around when I start to hear my thoughts going down the wrong track. Keep it simple, just circle my mind back around.       

Action:

Circle back around. Keep picturing the circle that I drew a few days ago while in conversation that was going the wrong direction. As I drew the circle I got to the part where I was willing to listen to the Holy Spirit. I actually wrote “H.S.” which I never abbreviate but I did not want the person to pick up on the fact that I getting frustrated. I abbreviated it, felt his presence in circling around and got right back on track, back to focusing and all was good.

Until I become perfect, just keep circling back, relying on the Holy Spirit to guide me.

May ALL of you come full circle and receive the benefits of returning to your Creator,

Maribeth Baxter, MBNC (Certified Mind-Body Nourishment Coach)

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75% to 95% of the illnesses that plague us today are a direct result of our thought life. What we think about affects us physically and emotionally. It’s an epidemic of toxic emotions. The average person has over 30,000 thoughts a day. Through an uncontrolled thought life, we create the conditions for illness; we make … Dr. Caroline Leaf