Orange Beach

Paulito: A baby from the center at Iris that loved to kiss me on the cheek with his ever-runny nose.

I'm sitting in the lobby of a condo/hotel thing looking out over the gulf of Mexico. We just pulled in about 20 minutes ago, and since tomorrow will probably be a full day of set up and sound check, I thought I'd go ahead and blog while I could.

I'm still feeling a bit anti-social, so I'm sorry for not responding yet to some people who have tried to contact me. Well, it's more about the fact that I have moments alone and without a job to do, so THOSE times are when I get anti-social.

We drove all day today. I found myself looking over Exodus 33 because I felt like parts of me were surfacing when it should always just be the Lord who is present. Exodus 33 has always been an underlying, all-encompassing scripture that I have needed terribly.

Today, these few verses really stuck out to me:

v. 7:

Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.

This is appropriate for this season on the road, because I'm having to run away from 'the camp', the things that are going on, etc. that is keeping me from being completely intimate with Jesus. I love Phillip Rice's worship record, "Intimacy with Jesus in the Quiet Places." That is the theme for me for this season for sure. I have to run away and choose Him. There are endless things to steal my heart right now- even on the beach. I can look out and be distracted by entertainment and enjoyment of this beach for myself, or I can walk out there and listen for the Lord. Maybe He doesn't want me to have some memorable experience I can put down in my journal. Maybe He just wants to speak softly and intimately to me in spite of the glamorous facade of beach entertainment. Don't get me wrong... We can feel the Lord's hand through the most indulgent of situations- in bars, at shows, etc. etc... But there's something I've found in choosing the Lord as my portion. When I would rather be a poor man than a rich man, a doorman in the courts of the king instead of a king in my own kingdom, it's MUCH sweeter and more enjoyable when God puts us in such blessed places, like where I am in Orange Beach.

v.11:

Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Two things:

I want to speak to the Lord face to face.

I want to be in a place, as part of a Joshua Generation, where I am hungry for the Presence of the Lord to a point where I will stay in His Tent and only leave when He goes out.

v. 15:

And he said to [the Lord], "If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here."

This will always be huge for me. This means I would rather suffer my whole life with the Lord's Presence close to me than go be comfortable anywhere else.