Hey everybody. I’m back!! I’ve decided not to let the spasms in my back, neck, arms, and shoulders keep me from talking to you here anymore. Sound good? Yeah, I’ll take it slow; but the blogosphere is calling me. Plus God and I had a little talk this morning, and I trust Him to lead the way. Sometimes obstacles look like giants obstructing our vision. But God says, “I am the way.” Next to the One who is inside us, what really is a giant anyway? God has been challenging me to keep my Jesus-lenses on. This is where we …
Happy Thanksgiving
Don’t Go Green
Has it happened to you lately? The moment your joy meets another person’s envy? The time your happy heart collides with someone’s self-pity? A friend waxes green behind a tight-lipped smile and a reluctant shake of the head… “Must be nice…” She may even toss God into it. “Boy, I sure wish God would do that for me…” Self-pity, self-seeking, comparison-making, false-fronts. Yuck, yuck, double yuck. But who hasn’t tasted the sour-stomaching fruity effects of the flesh? So we ask God for more love! Indeed, our flesh screams in protest when we work to attain something, only to watch it …
God’s Got You Covered
Reach God covered our sin-problem even before He spoke creation into existence and reached His perfect fingers into those dark layers of dirt to design us. Son Even before God shaped Adam and Eve, He fashioned our future with His own flesh and blood. He devised a plan involving His perfect Lamb who would rescue us from our dirty selves and every muddy place we’d ever tread. [box] The lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. Revelation 13:8[/box] Story The most powerful stories involve death, whether it’s the death of a person, the death of a reputation, …
And The Lord Says…
I awaken in the middle of the night, fear-struck and wondering, “How will I finish this task when it’s so much bigger than I am?” And the Lord says, “Nothing is bigger than I AM.” Hovering close, His feathery Spirit slips truth into my worry-weighted one. In healing waves, He pours Himself, freely. So what can I do but freely receive… [box] My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:9[/box] Lord, it’s a battle, this worry habit. After so many years of practice, I wonder if I’m too good at it. “Practice letting …
My Big, Fat, Powerful Tongue!
My Bible Study leader looked at us. “Ok, so we’re going to share prayer requests and praises. Cheryl?” I began, “Hmm… Well, last week I had a mastectomy….” Everybody gasped. I gasped. Heat rushed to my face. “Ah – you meant to say ‘mammogram,’ right?” The leader glanced at my chest. “Yes, mammogram!” I said, whacking myself on the head. “Well, they both start with m.” I snorted, then everybody lost it. Only Two Kinds of Mistakes The incident reminded me how there are really only two kinds of slips or mistakes: Mistakes of human denseness (innocent blips like my …
Who’s The Judge?
[box] The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. John 5:22-23[/box] The apostle John got me thinking… What could be a better way for the Father to show how much He loves the Son than for Him to give the Son the power to judge the world? Digging into this verse, I saw several things… The Father honors the Son. Love always honors and prefers another. The Father …
The Big Fail
“Simon Peter followed Jesus, as did another of the disciples. That other disciple was acquainted with the high priest, so he was allowed to enter the high priest’s courtyard with Jesus. Peter had to stay outside the gate. Then the disciple who knew the high priest spoke to the woman watching at the gate, and she let Peter in. The woman asked Peter, “You’re not one of that man’s disciples, are you?” “No,” he said, “I am not.” John 18:15-17 The “other disciple” is said to be John, the one writing this gospel. John took advantage of his acquaintance with …
Secrets & Mysteries
I love talking to God in the morning when everyone’s asleep and it’s quiet, except for my husband’s snoring, (which reminds me how much I need to talk to God in the first place! <grin>) You can’t put a price tag on prayer. We get to connect with the God of the universe ~ the mysterious Father who gave us the Son who gave us the Spirit so we can connect back with the Father! “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?” Job 11:6-8 Millions of books have been written on God, …
Naked Shame Reversed
One day when I was a kid, I saw a mother at the mall accidentally drop her baby. Strange, how these precise moments of horror permanently press themselves in our brains. I’ve never seen anyone actually step on a baby, but I’ve seen the next closest thing: someone step on grace. Like an innocent, valuable, vulnerable baby, the gift of God’s grace was both painful and costly; but we step on it whenever we sin. Why do such a thing? For the same reason many deny Christ: selfishness. The pull of sin is great. To accept Truth means to submit …