Border Bullies

As Bruce Wilkinson points out in His book The DreamGiver, whenever you set out to journey on the Road Less Traveled....there will always be BORDER BULLIES...people who try to stop you in your tracks and keep you from continuing on the narrow way. It is always disheartening when this happens, especially since more often than not, the border bullies are usually those you love and respect most and who love you the most. The people you go to for advice and counsel. The people you look to share your dreams with and for them to be excited and encouraging. Usually in their questioning and challenging, they have the best intentions in mind are only want you to truly think through your planning.

Well, we met our first border bully....and though it was a bit disheartening and frustrating....we are using this as an opportunity grow in our faith and know how to answer the other border bullies that will come upon us. This opposition or challenge is exciting because it truly has only made me more convinced, more prepared, more excited, and sure of the calling and the hope that I have. "Yahweh's gracious gifts and calling are IRREVOCABLE!" Romans 11:29 And now after processing the questions and arguments that the challenger presented, I understand just how gracious and irrevocable Elohiym's calling and gifts are! The Holy Spirit has illuminated my heart by His gracious Word and only deepened my trust and faith to follow where God is leading.

Bruce Wilkinson was right when Ordinary wrote in his book: "I have met Bullies in the Borderland - they were Nobodies I knew! When I left familiar, it upset the Comfort Zone of those close to me. They felt like they were losing something important. EVEN THOUGH my Bullies tried to stop me, SOME OF THEIR CONCERNS WILL HELP ME! I couldn't sway all my Bullies. In the end, I had to decide WHO I WOULD PLEASE. I CHOSE TO PLEASE THE DREAM GIVER!"

"You yourselves know, brothers, that our visit to you was not fruitless. 2 On the contrary, although we had already SUFFERED and been outraged in Philippi, as you know, we had the courage, united with our God, to tell you the Good News EVEN UNDER GREAT PRESSURE. 3 For the appeal we make does not flow from error or from impure motives, neither do we try to trick people. 4 Instead, since God has tested us and found us fit to be entrusted with Good News, this is how we speak: NOT TO WIN FAVOR WITH PEOPLE BUT WITH GOD, who tests our hearts. 5 For, as you know, never did we employ flattering talk, nor did we put on a false front to mask greed - God is witness. 6 NOR DID WE SEEK HUMAN PRAISE - either from you or from others. 7 As emissaries of the Messiah, we could have made our weight felt; but instead, we were gentle when we were with you, like a mother feeding and caring for her children. 8 We were so devoted to you that we were glad to share with you not only God's Good News but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us." 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

Inspiration for the Journey...

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:11-13

Before I take a journey or a trip, I usually like to know where I am going, how I will get there, what I am going to do when I get there...etc. I am a planner to the core. However, needing to know every detail and every aspect of the trip and journey quenches the spirit of adventure in me. Thank goodness Yahweh gave me a life-partner and companion that is the exact opposite. Aaron, my husband, inspires me to dream, to live beyond my comfort zone and to do things I have never done before. I mean just look at the picture above...he awakened in me the desire and courage to do something I would have never done before I met him...SKYDIVE! I thank God for him everyday as Aaron is my inspiration in so many ways. His passion for pursuing his God-given dreams is contagious and he is so encouraging of me to pursue my dreams. But you want to know what I love most...how our Abba Father has interwoven Aaron and I's dreams to make one dream beyond description to bring Yeshua even more glory and do mighty work for building His Kingdom! Praise Yahweh from whom all blessing flow!

I have to also thank my dear friend Terri V. She is a vital factor as to what pushed me to step outside my comfort zone and start this journey in the first place. How you might ask? Besides just being who she is and living whole-heartedly for the Dreamgiver Himself, she also bought Aaron and I a book titled The Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkinson. WOW...as I read the story of Ordinary and his journey to the Land of promise where his dream was, I was moved to tears by how much it was just like our story. Each of us are just like Ordinary...we feel like we are a nobody until we realize that our Creator made us to be a special Somebody. We were created in the image of the DreamGiver - Yahweh Himself - and there is no one like each us in the universe. We are unique and no one else can do our dream...He has given us each a dream to fulfill and a part to play in His Big Dream for the redemption His people. HALLELUYAH! What a great God we serve that Yahweh desires for His children to be apart of the fulfillment of His plan of redemption for mankind. But what's exciting is that because each of us has been given a unique, one of a kind dream that no one else has...WE CAN STOP WISHING WE WERE SOMEONE ELSE and living in someone else's dream.

So...will you embark on your own personal journey to find and live the dream that your Creator gave you - the Giver of all Dreams? Let me warn you that the journey toward our Big Dreams will change us. In fact, the journey is what prepares us to succeed in what we were BORN TO DO. We must rest in the fact that God is sovereign and in control and He is establishing our steps. Even if we think we are making detours or we have hit a roadblock, Yeshua the author and perfector of our faith is weaving every piece together to form us and prepare us for the Big Dream He has for us ahead. So until we all decide to pursue our Dream, we are never going to love our lives the way we were meant to...finding fulfillment and joy beyond expression.

Let's not be like millions of other people who never take the first step out of fear and unbelief. Let's not be like Faith Hill sings in her "Someone Else's Dream"....

Now she's got twenty-seven candles on her cake
And she means to make her life her own
Before there's twenty-eight

She was daddy's little girl
Momma's little angel
Teacher's pet, pageant queen
She said "All my life I've been pleasin' everyone but me (YAHWEH our Father),
Waking up in someone else's dream"

Whose dream are you waking up in? Who and what are you living for? These are all questions I am asking myself as I get ready for the Road Less Traveled...to the Dream Giver and Big Dreams.

I have a dream...

The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear, Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I marked the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

The dictionary definition of a dream is a cherished aspiration, ambition, or ideal. Even more than that, I think each of us has a specific dream given to us - a gift from our Creator - that only each of us can fulfill in our own unique way. We each have an individual dream that works to fulfill the GREAT DREAM of the ULTIMATE DREAM GIVER HIMSELF - Yahweh, Abba. So what is my unique, individual, God-given dream that only I can fulfill? How do I find it, know what it is and begin to embrace and pursue it for His glory? These are the questions that I am asking as a begin this journey on the Road Less Traveled...the Road to the Dream Giver where all dreams are found....the Road to Holiness...the Road to His Kingdom and Life Eternal in His presence.

Dreaming is the very reason that I started this blog and I invite you to join me on this journey. There will be many mountatins, valleys, wildernesses, giants, and "roadblocks" but each circumstance, season, and bump in the road is an opportunity. An opportunity to grow stronger, more resolved, and learn how we can pursue our dreams with more focus, vigilance and greater endurance. So here goes I know that taking this road I will look back and say that this "has made all the difference in my life." :)

Katie Treesh~