BLOGGING: Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few.


LOL that is too funny... and too true.

Just a reminder to me that the perils of blogging are narcissistic in nature. My vanity can make me believe that the masses are reading and actually benefiting from my blog. In the past the only thing that has ever come out of my blog is grief - and usually I have hurt people with my words and my desire to be right. I'm not sure why I still post. It is an outlet, yet I'm starting to think that I should just put it aside. I have a desire to write and to share what God is showing me and leading me through. I wonder if there is a better way, one I'm missing because I hang on to this.

Yet now I'm going to click 'publish now'; imagining that it will somehow make this a resolution.

I'll probably post something next week.

1 Timothy 1:5-14
I was reminded of this passage this morning as a woman of God quoted verse 12 in her southern twang - made me want to get up and say it with her!

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because ofhis own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

A story that needs to be told is never filled with everything good. There are sad difficult aspects and often there is tragedy and regret. No one wants to hear about some ones life that was perfect.

Perfect.

I'm not sure we understand what that word really means. Jesus was perfect - never did, said, or thought wrong. Was his life without pain, struggle, loss, and sadness? No; the perfect man dealt with all that perfectly. So, in our lives of imperfection; why do we expect a smooth free ride in life? Add the ridiculousness of our choices, the depravity that lies just beneath our smiling faces, and our lack of consistency in good behaviour, and we make the imperfect life almost unbearable. We do that; there is no one else to blame.

I'm grumbling.

Grumbling makes the time of trial a much worse nightmare. Charles Price said in his sermon 'The bitter water of Marah', that the Christians life is marked by triumph and trial, feast and fight, light and dark. He says the sooner we relent to this fact the less unhappy we will be. So, he says to ask yourself what is God saying to me in this time of testing, trial, fight, or darkness? Maybe the specific answer is elusive or just none of your business. We don't like that. How can God think that something affecting me, my life, my livelihood, my kids, my marriage, my reputation, be none of my business? My pastor, Doug, would ask me - 'How far will your faith take you?' I'm asking myself right now - 'The God you know, the faithful, trustworthy, saviour, loving, full of grace and mercy, and the most powerful Holy God, would He allow anything except what is best for you?'

I already know the answer.

Yet, I don't like the trial, the fight or the darkness. Who does really? After such great triumph to find ourselves once again choked by the cares of the world, worry, and even fear is disheartening. I went back and looked at a study I did a few years back - 'When Godly People do Ungodly Things' - it was then that I took up 2 Corinthians 10:5 which states, "... take every thought captive to obey Christ." All of my trouble right now only feels worse when I'm negative. And let's be truthful; our ungodly behaviour comes from our ungodly thoughts.

Lord, renew my mind (Romans 12:1-3), by the Holy Spirit's power, fill my thoughts with only what is good (Philippians 4:8), and even in this bitter place that I must be, show me how to drink so that it may be sweet to me (Exodus 15:22-27). May you cause me to go to the source of living water, Jesus; who has promised to those who believe, hearts with flowing rivers of living water (John 7:37-38).

I can feel the joy returning to me - well sort-of :)

I usually want to pray for a miracle that would make everything as it should be in just a few days. Maybe part of the point of the trial is to learn to be content in all circumstances. What a miracle that would be.

I found this in an old book that my grandmother gave to me about a year ago. It just fell out; and how timely as I seek God's will.

In the Bulb There Is a Flower
In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed, an apple tree;
In cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter; there's a spring that waits to be,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

There's a song in every silence, seeking word and melody;
There's a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future; what it holds, a mystery,
Unrevealed until its season something God alone can see.

In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity;
In our doubt there is believing; in our life, eternity.
In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory.
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

Quotes that made me smile, made me think and offered encouragement.

God put me on earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I'm so far behind that I will never die.
Calvin and Hobbes

Success can go to my head, and will unless I remember that it is God who accomplishes the work, and that he will be able to make out with other means whenever he cuts me down to size.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Try not to become a person of success but rather a person of value.
Albert Einstein

The healthiest relationships are those that breathe - that move out and then move back together.
James Dobson

And finally....

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of just about anything you please. Volvo - a car that cannot only help save your life, but help save your soul.
Volvo Ad Campaign - LOL

I have a Volvo wagon for sale if anyone wants to take them up on their offer.

Thank You...

I was thanked this week for doing one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. My husband and I were both thanked by someone who doesn't even directly benefit from what we did and are doing. We were thanked for God's glory shining in our weakness, in our sin repented, and our reconciliation begun. I've never been thanked for letting my shame be washed in the blood of my savior Jesus Christ.

I am reminded of what James wrote;
"And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."
James 5:15-16

In coming before our brothers and sisters, we opened our lives to the prayer of many righteous. Some things are meant to be told; it is in community that we can become more like Christ.

I think that this 'thank you' is really to the one true living God, creator and sustainer, Father of all, savior of the lost, promised Messiah, ruler and King.

And so I go, into the rest of this journey of reconciliation with great hope and caution to keep up the good fight; ruthlessly trusting Jesus to allow that which seems impossible and against all odds, bring glory only to his glorious name.

"...take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."
2 Peter 3:17-18

In Jesus precious name...

I am so proud of my son tonight. He made a decision to be obedient; he was left alone by his friends as they went on without him; I'm sure he was pressured, but he did not fall; he was more than just obedient to myself and his father, he was obedient to our God. He honored his parents tonight and honored the God he worships.

May the Lord truly bless him as he stands firm.

¹A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,
and favor is better than silver or gold.
² The rich and the poor meet together;
the LORD is the maker of them all.
³ The prudent sees danger and hides himself,
but the simple go on and suffer for it.
⁴The reward for humility and fear of the LORD
is riches and honor and life.
⁵ Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked;
whoever guards his soul will keep far from them.
⁶ Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.
⁷ The rich rules over the poor,
and the borrower is the slave of the lender.
⁸Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity,
and the rod of his fury will fail.
⁹ Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed,
for he shares his bread with the poor.
¹⁰ Drive out a scoffer, and strife will go out,
and quarreling and abuse will cease.
¹¹He who loves purity of heart,
and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend.
¹²The eyes of the LORD keep watch over knowledge,
but he overthrows the words of the traitor.
¹³ The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside!
I shall be killed in the streets!"
¹⁴The mouth of forbidden women is a deep pit;
he with whom the LORD is angry will fall into it.
¹⁵Folly is bound up in the heart of a child,
but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
¹⁶Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth,
or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty.
Proverbs 22:1-16