Learning to Lean

A Remarkable Resilience

2012-02-24T06:29:00.004-06:00

The man described in Psalm 1 is remarkably resilient.

Webster defines resilience as: “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.”

What’s so remarkable about the man in Psalm 1? Simply this, “his leaf does not wither” Green leaves are not remarkable when one is in the rain forest, dry leaves would be though. Have we supposed that the man in Psalm 1 never endures drought conditions? What would be remarkable about a tree having green leaves with constant rainfall? Green leaves are common in the wetlands, but they are quite remarkable in the deserts.

But we might think this man is like that tree planted by the streams of water, so we picture a flowing river with a lovely tree nestled beside it. Would green leaves on a tree in this setting be remarkable to us? I think not; perhaps we should look again. During prolonged drought conditions, surface water begins to evaporate.

Prolonged periods without rain will eventually cause streams to become a dry bed. In such conditions we expect to see things that depend upon water suffer. It is not remarkable for the leaves on trees to wither in severe drought conditions, actually it is rather expected.

On the other hand, it is quite remarkable to see one tree whose leaves have not withered when all around it stand many trees who have succumbed to the severity of the harsh conditions. That tree is a remarkable tree; it has overcome the drought. Have we supposed that the man in Psalm 1 must live in the spiritual rain forest with good teaching, good fellowship, good job, good family, and good friends? Would it be remarkable that a man could thrive spiritually in such conditions?

When God is blessing, grace is abounding, and the boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places – God is good and I am good! Is that remarkable?

How do we do in the long dry spells?

Yes, every man will have them! How do we respond to the “dog days” of summer, when day after day the weather is hot, dry, not a cloud in sight, with no sign of relief on the way?

The man whose leaves do not wither in these conditions is a truly remarkable man. The man who demonstrates this kind of resilience must have a source unseen that the withering trees have not found. Even when the surface water dries up, there is water to be had, but it will lie deeper beneath the surface. This is the secret of the resilient tree; its roots go deep enough to find the hidden water source. We see by its leaves that its roots must be deep, because we see no water yet the leaves are still green.

That’s why the man in Psalm 1 is described as BLESSED!

His roots are in God Himself, not the surface conditions of his circumstances.
Jeremiah describes this man in this way:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water, that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
Jeremiah 17:6-8

Such men are remarkably resilient.

The blessing of the LORD makes men remarkably resilient.

Above are some meditations by Alan

"Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
And to know the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge,
that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." Eph. 3:17-21

"He that lives in hope dances without music."

~George Herbert

In the Middle of Manure

2012-02-23T12:07:00.003-06:00

My hands were deep into the pile of manure.
Moving it to a bucket, and then spreading it on the newly tilled ground.

This powerfull composted pile of fertilizer!

“Mom, do you think you should be wearing gloves?”

Oh yea, I was not thinking. I went inside, washed my hands, and realized that something so powerfully good, can still make you sick too. We learn to treat this power with respect.

It's no different with the choices we make.

Spiritual compost is made up of the things we add to our "pile".
Will those items be used to cultivate life in those around us? Possibly, but only if we handle them with care.

The Choices We Make

Panic rather than Peace

Fear rather than Faith

Defending rather than Deferring

Speaking rather than Silencing

Categorizing rather than Covering

Recalling rather than Releasing

Crisis rather than Calm

Worrying rather than Worshiping

Hindering rather than Helping

Running rather than Resting

Blaming rather than Believing

Soulish rather than Spiritual

Carnal rather than Christ-like

For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Gal. 6:8-9

. "Sow a thought, reap an act; sow an act, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny."~Author Unknown

Life is made up of little things. It is very rarely that an occasion is offered for doing a great deal at once. True greatness consists in being great in little things.~Leaves of Gold

When God Holds You Down

2012-02-21T02:01:00.001-06:00

I found this old picture of what trimming Anna's bangs was like at our house. :-) Notice the smile.

She thought it was a fun game, and Whitney was trying really hard, to not poke her eye, and still get the bangs even. Trust me, not every bang job turned out:), and we finally gave up and let her hair grow out.

I remember the time, when Anna had “pink eye” and we had to put drops in her eyes every 4 hours. One of the children reminded me, it took 5 of us, to do this! What was she doing, when one person was holding her legs, one her arms, one her head and one seeking to open the one eye that was closed tight? She was laughing so hard that the one in charge of the drops (person number 5) had to work hard at getting a straight shot in!

Something about how she handles being held down, speaks to my heart.

I believe it shows how she views the ones holding her down.
TRUST sees the TIGHT holdings of God, as His way of bringing
healing.

When situations seek to shut me in, or squeeze me tight, who is in my view? Do I resent being held close to the ground, pressed down on purpose...

Is this smile that Anna has in this "forceful" hug, like what James talks about in counting it all JOY in trials? J. B. Phillips renders James 1: 2,3

“When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don't resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends!”

Try to remember, to keep in view....the ONE who has brought you to this place. Healing is near. As you are pressing against His arms, remember HIS nearness - that is your good.
An evidence that our will has been broken is that we begin to thank God for that which once seemed so bitter, knowing that His will is good and that, in His time and in His way, He is able to make the most bitter waters sweet.~Nancy Leigh DeMoss

A Place of Quiet Rest, Moody, 2000, p. 70.

Trusting God does not mean believing that He will do all that you want, but rather believing that He will do everything He knows is good. ~Ken Sande

Day of Release

2012-02-19T21:22:00.000-06:00

It was February 3rd, 1992.
Cooks Childrens medical Center, in Ft. worth, Texas.

After three weeks in ICU, watching a battle between life and death....this day of release would come, and we would never be the same.

The following song was written, two weeks into our stay in the hospital. It speaks of the battle we all go through, and the hope we found in understanding why battles come.

Only a God Like You
Would work such a miracle in me
My heart is devastated, broken by what I see
But you see through my fear and my weakness
that I'm fighting to believe
Only a God as Great as You.

Chorus:
That's why I love you so my Lord,
That's why your worthy to be adored
There is no God as Great as You ~repeat

Only a God like you,
Would purposely work to break my will
And put me though pain and anguish
In order to make me still,
Then You pick up the pieces You've broken
for a vessel You can fill...
Only a God as Great as You

Only a God like you,
says I must lose, if I would find
so you strip away all of my pretence
and show where I've been blind,
and then when I'm weary and broken
Your word speaks hope to my mind
Only a God as Great as You

This was Anna's song, but continues to be ours.
Pictured below, we had just stepped outside the hospital, and were about to go home.

No words can express how much the world owes to sorrow. Most of the Psalms were born in the wilderness. Most of the Epistles were written in a prison. The greatest thoughts of the greatest thinkers have all passed through fire. The greatest poets have “learned in suffering what they taught in song.” In bonds Bunyan lived the allegory that he afterwards wrote, and we may thank Bedford Jail for the Pilgrim’s Progress. Take comfort, afflicted Christian! When God is about to make pre-eminent use of a person, He put them in the fire. ~George MacDonald

Your afflictions may only prove that you are more immediately under the Father's hand. There is no time that the patient is such an object of tender interest to the surgeon, as when he is bleeding beneath his knife. So you may be sure if you are suffering from the hand of a reconciled God, that His eye is all the more bent on you.

~Robert Murray McCheyne

Fullness

2012-02-17T13:24:00.001-06:00

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Ps. 16:11

Fullness of Joy...

Why fullness?

Because those who hunger and thirst for God Himself will only be satsified with HIS PRESENCE and when HE is our passion, we will take in every ounce of God's goodness humanly possible.

It's what David talks about in Ps. 37:3

“Trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) in the Lord and do good; so shall you dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness.”

Fullness of joy is God's reward for those who diligently seek HIM by faith!

It's a fullness that gives a satisfaction much deeper than anything this world can give. The person satiatied with God has need of nothing else upon the earth.

This fullness shows itself in a contentment with Godliness, which is great gain. It need not look around or wait for the right conditions or circumstances to COME, faith has found its satisfaction, IN HIM.

This is the fruit of a yielded life, and one that roots itself deep in the fertile soil of Knowing HIM, not for what He gives, but for Who He is.

Elijah found this contentment.

While others were famishing in the drought unable to get their gods to answer, he was feasting himself upon the Lord, shutting up the heaven through his communion in prayer.

"I urge upon you communion with Christ; a growing communion. There are curtains to be drawn aside in Christ that we never saw, and new foldings of love in him. I despair that I shall ever win to the far end of that love, there are so many aspects to it. Therefore dig deep, and sweat and labor and take pains for him, and set by as much time in the day for him as you can. We will be won in the labor." ~Samuel Rutherford

Abounding in Hope

2012-02-15T08:40:00.002-06:00

"All the days of the desponding and afflicted are made evil (by anxious thoughts and forebodings), but he who has a glad heart has a continual feast (regardless of circumstances.)" Proverbs. 15:15 Ampl.

Abounding in Hope we have learned how to set our minds and hearts on the ONE who has all we need, in this life. No room for anxious thoughts or forebodings.

Hope is that inner sense of anticipation for that which we are expectantly waiting.

This is the place in which we learn to walk in a continual feast, regardless of circumstances.

It is the difference in knowing How or Who.

Pictured above: Our daffodils are coming up...Spring is near.

The Aggressive Pursuit of Stillness

2012-02-13T08:12:00.002-06:00

Stillness of heart and mind is at times an aggressive pursuit of faith. Anything that carries a value always comes at a cost. Sometimes our Shepherd leads us to these places of quiet rest, but more often we learn to grow in faith, by seeking them.

In these places, when we are seeking to find HIM, we discover all the things that occupy our hearts and minds. They are affections, thoughts, imaginations and even while we might be physically still, we lack a “single eye” that allows us to see clearly in our darkness.

To BE STILL and Know...is to find that place, where we clear out the "patterns" of our mind, to receive the peace that passes understanding. It is on that place, HIS paths, Christ being our constant guide; we abound in abiding.

"The light of the (uncompromisingly) righteous (is within him - it grows brighter and) rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked (furnishes only a derived, temporary light and) shall be put out shortly." Proverbs 13:9 (Ampl.)

The enemy of our soul, fights to keep us away from that place of simple devotion to Christ. This aggressive pursuit, is what Peter was saying, in 2 Peter 1:4-8

"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. For this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Father grant us strength to seek, and stillness to see, the power of the simple, you have called us too.

Pictured above: Path down our road.

“Just like our closets, our minds can become cluttered by patterns of trends of this world. These outfits or thoughts processes may look like they belong in our closets the first few years they take up residence. But with the passage of time they soon appear thread bare and out of sorts. They fit too tight or too loose, too long or too short. Unless our closets- minds -are cleared out and reorganized on a timely and regular basis we will not be able to test and apply God's truth to our lives.” ~Lisa Bevere

“God is whispering to us well nigh incessantly. Whenever the sounds of the world dies out, or sinks low, then we hear these whisperings of God. (He) is always whispering to us, only we do not always hear because of the noise, hurry and distraction which life causes as it rushes on. ~Frederick William Fabar

“Who is there that sets himself to the task of steadily watching his thoughts for the space of one hour, with the view of preserving his mind in a simple, humble, healthful condition, but will speedily discern in the multiform, self-reflecting, self-admiring emotions, which, like locust, are ready to eat up every green thing in his land; a state as much opposed to simplicity and humility as night is to day.” ~M.A. Kelt

To Function or To Florish?

2012-02-07T07:02:00.003-06:00

When vision is lacking in our lives, it is easier to go into a functioning mode, than to be still and wait. What we do in our times of fog will reveal what our relationship is with the Father.

We have mistaken “Seeing Him” too much with “Feeling Him”

“Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him.

On those who hope for His loving kindness,

to deliver their soul from death

and to keep them alive in famine.”

Ps. 33:18-19

Learning to live before Him with hope in famine, will render the fruit of a leaf that does not wither. Your meditations are His thoughts, His heart and Your roots are being established

....Deep in His Love

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,..."Eph. 3:17-20

...like a tree planted in rivers of water.

"But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

Ps. 1:2,3

Flourishing then becomes a way of life.

Many have learned to function by those things that are temporary

(relationships, activities or duties)

but those who flourish in spiritual life, have set their affections on eternal things.

This is the difference in Having knowledge or Holding HIM.

“What do our heavy hearts prove?~that other things are sweeter to us than His will, that we have not attained to the full mastery of our true freedom the full perception of its power, that our son ship is yet but faintly realized, and its blessedness not yet proved and known. Our consent would turn our trials into obedience. By consenting we make them our own, and offer them with ourselves again to Him. ~H.E. Manning

The BE Attitudes

2012-02-05T21:18:00.000-06:00

The following is a letter that Alan wrote to our boys several years ago. It a good reminder of the difference of what "we do" and what we "are"...

Dear Sons,

You have probably already been asked this question and will likely be asked it more often in the near future: "What are you going to be?" When most people ask this to children or young men, they have in mind a "career" or "profession." What they really mean is "what kind of job or career will you have?"

There is a great difference in considering what you are going to "DO" and what you are going to "BE"! When the bible speaks about"doing" it says: "Whatever your hands find to "do", "do" it with all your might as working unto the Lord." It also says "Whatever you "do" in word or deed, "do" it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

As you can see, God gives great liberty in the matter of what you "DO" - because He leaves that choice up to you by the word "whatever". However, in the matter of what you are to "BE", He has already decided this for you and has made His will in this matter very specific. In "whatever" you "DO", you are to "BE" like His Son Jesus!

There is great diversity in what people may "DO" but He has only "ONE" standard for what people are to "BE"! This is the real difference God is looking for in men and women. He is not nearly as concerned about what they "DO" but cares a great deal about what they "ARE" (ARE is another form of the word BE).

When the bible speaks about the day of judgment it indicates that men are going to be judged according to what they have "Done". This causes many people to focus upon good "WORKS" because they think "If I DO good, God will count me as good and let me into heaven." They don't realize that the bible says "No one can "BE" good, not even one." What prevents men from "BE"ing good is sin. Sin effects who we ARE and corrupts everything we "BE"come. Only the salvation God offers through faith in Christ Jesus can change who men "ARE" by effecting what they "BEcome"!

When we hear the gospel, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are enabled to receive the Holy Spirit, who is the very presence of Jesus. Only when the Holy Spirit dwells in us can we "BE" what God desires for all men to "BE"! When He created men in the BEginning, He said "Let us make men in OUR image, and OUR likeness." The Holy Spirit dwelling in us can restore us into the image of God that He created all men to BEcome. The primary ministry of the Holy Spirit is to cleanse us from the effects of sin's dwelling within us and renew us into the full knowledge of the image of our creator - so that we can "BE" like Jesus.

I love all of you very much - and my concerns for you are not so much about whatever you might "DO" but rather who you will "BE"!

Dad

Above picture was taken of the boys when we were building Daniel's "to be" home.

He made us to Soar

2012-02-03T19:39:00.001-06:00

“Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee;”

There is something much more powerful when speaking as one with joy and a free spirit. It is from this place we uphold what salvation really is --- a relationship that is meant to be rich, rather than an obligation meant to be kept.

There is a fine line between feeling and desire. Feelings are fleeting, whereas desire descends, and goes deeper. Our "inner man" knows this place of abiding in Christ.

Desires define the core of who I am. Trust and Delight walk along side of each other, and like the light and noon day, they reveal the relationship that our Father intended from the beginning...one motivated by love.

Its in this place of rest and abiding, that righteousness, peace and joy come.

As we understand, more and more, what it means to surrender self, we are given wings....and the higher we go, the more we begin to understand His vision and heart. We may find ourselves walking through a wilderness, but remember....we were never meant to LIVE there...God made us to soar, with HIM.

On Wings of Eagles

*********************
Observe how a falcon soars high above a valley. He gained that altitude by beating his wings and overcoming gravity, climbing higher and higher until he reached a thermal and another law took over: the law of aerodynamics. Now he just soars effortlessly; he transcends gravity - the pull of the earth no longer has dominion over him. Beloved, this is a picture of the grace of God canceling out the dominion of sin's law. God's will is that we soar effortlessly over an already-won battle, having taken on the divine nature of victory. There is great rest in the thermal. The thermal is a picture of the Holy Spirit breathing power into our inner man.

Let us therefore beat our wings in defiance to the law of gravity, and allow God's Spirit to lift us higher and higher. See every wing flap as a mortifying blow to the flesh. Hide the Word of Christ deeply in your heart. Call on Him as you gain altitude, lest you soon become discouraged and plateau. Wait on the thermal; endure suffering, buffet your body into submission, take all thoughts captive to Christ's obedience. May this be our daily experience: resting and conquering.

May we all enter into this liberating truth.
- Brother Paul West
Please read the full article on the above quote, go here.

Under God's Mighty Hand

2012-02-02T12:51:00.000-06:00

Under the mighty hand of my Father
There is the place of refuge sure
Near Him no threat of evil can bother
secure through His love all hells endure

Under the mighty word of my Father
Settles the storm of my anxious thought
Shielded through faith all fiery darts smother
Fullness of joy and rest are wrought

Under the mighty power of my Father
Broken of independent pride
Find in His shadow life like no other
Surrendered to Christ and crucified

Under the mighty light of my Father
The mystery of faith begin to see
The fullness of grace all found in my Brother
His yielded life - His authority

"When you have no helpers, see your helpers in God. When you have many helpers, see God in all your helpers. When you have nothing but God, see all in God. When you have everything, see God in everything. Under all conditions,

stay thy heart only on the Lord."

~Charles H. Spurgeon

Above poem written by Alan.

Your Presence is Enough

2012-02-01T06:54:00.004-06:00

Surely Goodness and Mercy shall follow me ALL THE DAYS of my life

That goodness and mercy is - THOU ART WITH ME - The Lord is my goodness and my mercy

And Because THOU ART WITH ME - I will NOT FEAR - I WILL FEAR NO EVIL

I WILL PRAISE the LORD - WHO COUNSELS ME, even at night my heart instructs

I Have set the Lord always before me

Because He is at my right hand - I WILL NOT BE SHAKEN

Therefore MY HEART IS GLAD and MY TONGUE REJOICES

My body will also REST SECURE

YOU have made known to me the paths of Life (ABIDING IN JESUS)

YOU will fill me with JOY IN YOUR PRESENCE

With ETERNAL PLEASURES (the pleasure of delighting to do Your will) at Your right hand

Above, encouraging words, my husband shared with me this morning via email.

ROCKs do not move...men do.
When we place ourselves on HIS ROCK, He will be faithful to give us all we need to stand. His presence and life, are what give us life. If we allow circumstances, feelings to move us from this sure and firm place....we can easily lose sight of what the problem is...we moved...He did not. Even FOG (not knowing the future) does not become a threat, when we remember to Be Still and Know...HE IS GOD. His Presence is enough. We are not lost, just waiting.

He is as constant, and faithful as the rising of the sun...His mercies are new every morning! Great is His Faithfulness.

Kisses or Courage?

2012-01-31T08:49:00.002-06:00

When my children were small, and learning to walk, sometimes they would stumble and hurt themselves. They would come to me, so I could kiss their hurt. My kiss, did not cure them, but gave assurance that they would be okay. As a younger mother, at first, I thought comfort was my calling.

They were also picky about what they wanted to eat, and how they wanted to be served. Some of our first "battle grounds" were "fought" here in high chairs.

As they became older, and more sure of their steps, stumbling would still bring hurt. They did not come to me any more for a kiss.

They understood, that this pain came from their own actions. Sometimes it came, because LIFE was not concerned about their circumstances.

They found out that they could not pick and choose what life would serve them. They even saw that HARD and DIFFICULT were not conditions to fear, but places to flourish.

My calling for them changed, from comfort,

to Take Courage.

We both would find that Comfort was not what was needed in the end, but to Conform to His image. Those who always look for comfort, do not understand the Cross.

We know maturity comes to our children, when they stop looking around for some one to give them assurance. They do not look at pain, or discipline as bad any more.

A good sign of Maturity, is when stumbling leads us to stand firmer in the Love of God, and seeing that “kisses” are not the cure, only Christ.

Heaven is not here, it’s There. If we were given all we wanted here, our hearts would settle for this world rather than the next. God is forever luring us up and away from this one, wooing us to Himself and His still invisible Kingdom, where we will certainly find what we so keenly long for.- Elisabeth Elliot

"Running from the cross, is running from the Resurrection."
~Janice McBride (Taken from a teaching on Confession Without Repentance)

The knowledge of Christ's love for us should cause us to love Him in such a way that it is demonstrated in our attitude, conduct, and commitment to serve God. Spiritual maturity is marked by spiritual knowledge being put into action. --Edward Bedore

Let the world despise and leave me

They have left my Savior too

Human hearts and looks deceive me

Thou art not, like them untrue

O while Thou dost smile upon me

God of wisdom, love and might

Foes may hate and friends disown me

Show Thy face and all is bright

Wise Women or Wing Walkers

2012-01-30T06:33:00.003-06:00

“A wise woman builds her house, but a foolish one tears it down with her own hands.” Prov. 14:1

In Youngstown, Ohio, on August 15, 1927, Gladys Roy lost her life by accidentally walking into a spinning propeller of a airplane. As I read the account of this tragic loss of a young woman's life, the words “accidentally” seem so out of place. How does one walk by chance into this kind of harm?

It really is not hard to understand when you read on to find out what this woman did for a living; she was a “wing-walker”. She would leap off the wings of a plane in mid-air, which ended with her landing daintily and reaching for her compact (to powder her nose, and show the thrilled audience, all was well.) This story so parallels what is happening to so many women in our own day. We can place ourselves in harm's way and wonder why things are not going well with us.

There are not many “wing walkers” still whooing crowds by taking risk that threaten their physical life, but those who take spiritual risks are really no different than their counterparts. We may not be trying to woo any crowds, but we are venturing into areas clearly not safe, ignoring the obvious risks to our own spiritual demise; most often we are acting alone, independent of godly counsel - doing what seems right only in our own eyes.

We are walking a precarious tight rope of independence that will lead to our own spiritual death. We may not proudly pull out our compacts to prove the point, but we do put on spiritual masks of fellowship while taking risks that will not just take our own life, but the lives of our whole household.

We have missed seeing the GREAT ADVENDURE of all time, of the hidden life that all eternity stands witness to. There is a special grace that comes to the humble soul on the road less traveled. This is the greatest RISK worth taking for all eternity - LOSE YOUR LIFE and you will find it.

What many fail to see is that Adventure's adrenaline runs out, but the Spirit of God's LIFE never runs dry.

Independence will take us down roads of difficulty, marked by ruin and misery. Wisdom's paths are pleasant and peaceful, with abundant grace to endure all that comes our way. The road to independence will end in despair, whereas the way of surrender in unspeakable joy. The greatest adventure of all time is the denial of self, its reward a living monument of Spiritual Battles won while “under the shadow of His Wings.”

The following by Nancy L. DeMoss
Devotional / The Difference Between Proud People and Broken People:
Proud people focus on the failures of others. Broken people are overwhelmed with a sense of their own spiritual need.

Proud people have a critical, fault-finding spirit; they look at everyone else’s faults with a microscope but their own with a telescope. Broken people are compassionate; they can forgive much because they know how much they have been forgiven.

Proud people are self-righteous; they look down on others. Broken people esteem all others better than themselves.

Proud people have an independent, self-sufficient spirit. Broken people have a dependent spirit; they recognize their need for others.

Proud people have to prove that they are right. Broken people are willing to yield the right to be right.

Proud people claim rights; they have a demanding spirit. Broken people yield their rights; they have a meek spirit.

Proud people are self-protective of their time, their rights, and their reputation. Broken people are self-denying.

Proud people desire to be served. Broken people are motivated to serve others.

Proud people desire to be a success. Broken people are motivated to be faithful and to make others a success.

Proud people desire self-advancement. Broken people desire to promote others.

Proud people have a drive to be recognized and appreciated. Broken people have a sense of their own unworthiness; they are thrilled that God would use them at all.

Proud people are wounded when others are promoted and they are overlooked. Broken people are eager for others to get the credit; they rejoice when others are lifted up.

Proud people have a subconscious feeling, “This ministry/church is privileged to have me and my gifts”; they think of what they can do for God. Broken people’s heart attitude is, “I don’t deserve to have a part in any ministry”; they know that they have nothing to offer God except the life of Jesus flowing through their broken lives.

Proud people feel confident in how much they know. Broken people are humbled by how very much they have to learn.

Proud people are self-conscious. Broken people are not concerned with self at all.

Proud people keep others at arms’ length. Broken people are willing to risk getting close to others and to take risks of loving intimately.

Proud people are quick to blame others. Broken people accept personal responsibility and can see where they are wrong in a situation.

Proud people are unapproachable or defensive when criticized. Broken people receive criticism with a humble, open spirit.

Proud people are concerned with being respectable, with what others think; they work to protect their own image and reputation. Broken people are concerned with being real; what matters to them is not what others think but what God knows; they are willing to die to their own reputation.

Proud people find it difficult to share their spiritual need with others. Broken people are willing to be open and transparent with others as God directs.

Proud people want to be sure that no one finds out when they have sinned; their instinct is to cover up. Broken people, once broken, don’t care who knows or who finds out; they are willing to be exposed because they have nothing to lose.

Proud people have a hard time saying, “I was wrong; will you please forgive me?” Broken people are quick to admit failure and to seek forgiveness when necessary.

Proud people tend to deal in generalities when confessing sin. Broken people are able to acknowledge specifics when confessing their sin.

Proud people are concerned about the consequences of their sin. Broken people are grieved over the cause, the root of their sin.

Proud people are remorseful over their sin, sorry that they got found out or caught. Broken people are truly, genuinely repentant over their sin, evidenced in the fact that they forsake that sin.

Proud people wait for the other to come and ask forgiveness when there is a misunderstanding or conflict in a relationship. Broken people take the initiative to be reconciled when there is misunderstanding or conflict in relationships; they race to the cross; they see if they can get there first, no matter how wrong the other may have been.

Proud people compare themselves with others and feel worthy of honor. Broken people compare themselves to the holiness of God and feel a desperate need for His mercy.

Proud people are blind to their true heart condition. Broken people walk in the light.

Proud people don’t think they have anything to repent of. Broken people realize they have need of a continual heart attitude of repentance.

Proud people don’t think they need revival, but they are sure that everyone else does. Broken people continually sense their need for a fresh encounter with God and for a fresh filling of His Holy Spirit.

For more devotionals like the above, go to
Women of Christianity

His Fragrance

2012-01-24T06:46:00.001-06:00

"But thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph (as trophies of Christ's victory) and through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere, for we are the sweet fragrance of Christ (which exhales) unto God, (discernible alike) among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: To the latter it is an aroma (wafted) from death to death (a fatal odor, the smell of doom); to the former it is an aroma from life to life ( a vital fragrance, living and fresh)."

2 Cor. 2:14-16

Why is the one perishing, smelling doom...instead of the LIFE giving substance of Christ?

It is self they are seeking to save.

Doom to their sand castles, that hold no reality of eternal things.

A hidden man of the heart, which is of great price, and holds a frangrace of life, peace and joy, in a home... Now this is a present promise, to those who love and serve HIM.

A few more thoughts from Alan:

Remember that value is based upon comparisons. We measure worth in a subjective way based upon personal benefit. A child will choose a rattle over a one hundred dollar bill, because the rattle is more stimulating and the worth of the dollar bill is not understood. As our mind is renewed, we begin to understand what God's will is - "that GOOD, PERFECT, and PLEASING will." This good, perfect, and pleasing will is "SPIRITUAL" rather than carnal. Only a spiritual mind has an ability to appreciate the greater value of God's good, pleasing and perfect will.

As you begin to experience "spiritual" life, the former value of "carnal" stimulants begin to lose their appeal. Paul put it this way, "the things that were at one time gain to me, I now count as lost...I consider them rubbish -COMPARED TO the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." Experiencing the joy of the Lord will give you the ability to make a true comparison between the "carnal" stimulants and the "spiritual" joy Jesus longs for you to experience. We bait animals with things that attract their carnal appetites. Our offerings to them are deceitful - the same is true of "the deceitfulness of sin." Behind the pleasure is a hook, a snare, a trap. Don't let the devil lure and bait you through deceitful lusts. The Holy Spirit has even more powerfully GOOD desires for you. Jesus said "These things I have spoken unto you that MY JOY might be in you and your joy might be FULL."

All wisdoms ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. Jesus came to provide the ABUNDANT LIFE and deliver us from the "empty way of life handed down to us by our forefathers." We can not live by "laws" of touch not, taste not, handle not. Knowing that we should not do something is law. Being filled with joy so that we have no attraction to "baser" carnal stimulants is the true path to freedom. Walking in the Spirit does not simply mean "keeping the right set of rules". Walking in the Spirit is experiencing inner joy and peace so that we are able to love life and see good days. If I have just left the Outback and eaten all that I can hold, I am not really even tempted to stop by Joe's taco shack.

Beware the false wisdom of simply having someone to hold you accountable "NOT TO SIN". The real answer is walking with someone who is so FULL of joy and peace that they can help you become FULL of the joy of the Lord so that temptation will lose its appeal.

*************************

Pictured above from whitney, Winter in San Antonio. :) She is currently helping her Grandparents.

Surrender

2012-01-22T16:37:00.004-06:00

Surrender means Let Go.

Sur RENDER what does not belong to you anyway.

Release unto Your Heavenly Father the gift of Trusting Him to be in charged, because its not yours ...remember?

When His strong winds blow, its a good sign that death is about to give way, to life.

*********

An entire surrender of spirit, soul and body to His control in a life of inevitable obedience may look hard to a soul ignorant of God. To those who know Him, it is the happiest and most restful of lives. Could we but for one moment get a glimpse into the mighty depths of His love, our hearts would spring out to His will and embrace it as our richest treasure.~Hannah Whitall Smith

God is not looking for ways to make you "squirm." He does, however, want to be Lord of your life. Whenever you identify a place where you refuse to allow His lordship, that is a place He will go to work. He is interested in absolute surrender. God may or may not require you to do that very thing you identified, but He will keep working until you are willing for Him to be Lord of all.~Henry Blackaby

Moving Mountains

2012-01-20T10:37:00.001-06:00

Removing mountains or rooting up mountains were phrases very commonly used in Jesus' day, referring to the removing or conquering of great difficulties. Many rabbis were termed, “rooters up of mountains”, because they were known for helping others with their difficulties.

This is the context through which our Lord's words are to be understood. He that has faith will get through every difficulty and perplexity. Faith moves earthly obstacles, like an excavator moves dirt, clearing the way for new construction. Doubt is like dirt, doing nothing while mounting up higher.

May our Father grant us faith to be mountain movers, allowing His Spirit to always be about new construction in our lives.

While reason is puzzling itself about mystery, faith is turning it to daily bread, and feeding on it thankfully in her heart of hearts. ~Frederic Dan Huntington

"Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible."~Corrie Ten Boom

“Little things come daily, hourly, within our reach, and they are not less calculated to set forward our growth in holiness, than are the greater occasions which occur but rarely. Moreover, fidelity in trifles, and an earnest seeking to please God in little matters, is a test of real devotion and love. Let your aim be to please our dear Lord perfectly in little things, and to attain a spirit of childlike simplicity and dependence. In Proportion as self-love and self-confidence are weakened, and our will bowed to that of God, so will hindrances disappear, the internal troubles and contests which harassed the soul vanish, and it will be filled with peace and tranquility.” ~Jean Nicolas Grou

“Now, as always, God discloses Himself to "babes" and hides Himself in thick darkness from the wise and the prudent. We must simplify our approach to Him. We must strip down to essentials (and they will be found to be blessedly few). We must put away all effort to impress, and come with the guileless candor of childhood. If we do this, without doubt God will quickly respond.~ A.W. Tozer

“For in the time of trouble, He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me;

He shall set me high upon a rock.”

Ps. 27:5

Will These Bones Live?

2012-01-19T13:50:00.000-06:00

Will These Bones Live? When God asks the question, we want to give the right answer. If He were not in the equation, we’d probably say “no way!”

Our skeletons have been in the closet a “long time” and we have grown comfortable leaving them there. Why is God asking about something that’s so dead to us now? We learned our lesson, and moved on – things don’t always work out. Aren’t we supposed to let bygones be bygones? We haven’t had hope for those old bones for years.

Yet, God is waiting for an answer and we are on the spot? “Will THESE bones live?” We know these bones; we remember watching them die and our hopes right along with them. Where was God then and why does He want to know now? We really don’t want to go there,

Maybe it’s not about the bones? Maybe, it’s really about me!

Will that part of me live again?

I’m not sure I want to know; at least dead things don’t feel pain anymore – even thinking about it is unpleasant. I’ve learned to live without it, I barely even miss it anymore? Why now?

That area was off limits (even to me), but it’s God asking and I know He already knows the answer. I muster the courage to answer “You know Lord.”

That’s when He begins to tell what He will do and I realize that what I had put out of my mind, was still very much on His Heart. I had given up all hope of seeing life in that area again, but He is making it clear that this is not about me, or for me, this is about Him.

When God works, the things that completely fell apart are brought back together and the things that had died – begin to live again. We are left stunned and in awe. His work is marvelous - who can fully know it?
~Anonymous

EZ. 37:1-14 "No created power could restore human bones to life. God alone could cause them to live. Skin and flesh covered them, and the wind was then told to blow upon these bodies; and they were restored to life. The wind was an emblem of the Spirit of God, and represented his quickening powers. The vision was to encourage the desponding Jews; to predict both their restoration after the captivity, and also their recovery from their present and long-continued dispersion. It was also a clear intimation of the resurrection of the dead; and it represents the power and grace of God, in the conversion of the most hopeless sinners to himself. Let us look to Him who will at last open our graves, and bring us forth to judgment, that He may now deliver us from sin, and put his Spirit within us, and keep us by his power, through faith, unto salvation."~Matthew Henry

Jesus Be My Hearts Desire

Disappointments, His Appointments

2012-01-17T09:19:00.005-06:00

There are times when events require something of us that we had not anticipated.

We find ourself let down, disappointed.
It seems as though others' plans have rearranged our own like a tidal wave that sweeps away everything in its path.

At least, it seems this way, but what starts out to be a

DISappointment, to the surrendered heart becomes HIS appointment.

Pass through these quickly in your mind, lest you miss out on your Father's best intentions. There is something very important in the changing of our plans, especially when yielding them to others, that is unseen until we have passed through. On the other side of our conflict, a clearer understanding awaits.

The trouble often begins when we STOP in our hearts, instead of STEP forward to meet what will be required of us. We need not worry that the right feelings are not there at first.

Faith calls us to do what all our own planning fails to do...receive the change as from our Father's hand; yielding always leads us to HIM.

Difficulties are God's errands; and when we are sent upon them, we should esteem it a proof of God's confidence. ~Henry Ward Beecher

The tests of life are to make, not break us. Trouble may demolish a man's business but build up his character. The blow at the outward man may be the greatest blessing to the inner man. If God, then, puts or permits anything hard in our lives, be sure that the real peril, the real trouble, is that we shall lose if we flinch or rebel.

~Maltbie Davenport Babcock

The Cure for Disappointment
“I am the Lord, the God of every person on the earth, Nothing is impossible for me.” Jer. 32:27We need to hear that God is still in control. We need to hear that it's not over til he says so. We need to hear that life's mishaps and tragedies are not a reason to bail out. They are simply a reason to sit tight.

Corrie ten Boom used to say, “when the train goes through a tunnel and the world gets dark, do you jump out? Of course not. You sit still and trust the engineer to get you through.”... The way to deal with discouragement? The cure for disappointment? Go back and read the story of God. Read it again and again. Be reminded that you aren't the first person to weep. And you aren't the first person to be helped.
Read the story and remember, (the) story is yours!
Grace For the Moment; Max Lucado (He Still Moves Stones)

The Proving Point of Grace

2012-01-16T07:56:00.001-06:00

How can we prove that we are really receiving grace? Many living in sin claim that they are still receiving forgiveness through the grace of Jesus Christ and therefore they are not condemned.

There are even those who have developed an understanding that this is what makes grace so amazing. Paul made it clear that we should never think continuing in sin causes grace to abound. The fact that the grace of Jesus forgives us for sin is not what magnifies His grace the most. While forgiveness is certainly a valid aspect of the wonderful grace of God - it is not the clearest proving point of the power of grace.

The power of grace becomes most evident when it is applied where we need it the most - in our weakness. This is what Jesus told Paul -

"My grace is sufficient for you for My power is made perfect IN your weakness."

The power of the grace of Jesus is most observable when our weakest areas have been transformed through His powerful grace into areas displaying His amazing strength.

This is the way for others to experience the nearness of God in a far greater degree than those times of our own personal experience when receiving forgiveness for having yielded to temptation and sin.

The reality of the nearness of God is best seen by others when at our weakest moments, the sufficiency of His grace strengthens us to resist temptation, take the way of escape offered to us, and bear up under the temptation rather than cave in to it. This is where the power of His grace is really proven to others as well as to ourselves.

May the power of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be magnified before the eyes of men as they behold His power being perfected IN our weaknesses. This is what causes the treasure that we have in these earthen vessels to become most apparent that the excellency of the power is of God and not ourselves.

Grace is not nearly as evident through our receiving forgiveness as it is in our being transformed into His image. The proof of the power of Jesus Christ is in His ability to transform us from victims of temptation and sin to victors over temptation and sin.

To Him Who is able to KEEP US FROM FALLING - through His own power being made perfect in our weakness.
To Him be glory in the church.

Written by Alan

When you see a ball of yarn, it is not the

unraveling of it that sets you in awe, but what can be made with it, that you marvel.

The Covenant of Looking Unto

2012-01-12T06:00:00.000-06:00

“I will guide you with my eyes”

When the children were younger, and we were in a place where it was not easy to talk or speak directly to them,
they would look to their Daddy's eyes.

His eyes would answer their questions.

Sometimes his eyes would say, “Stop acting up and pay closer attention.”

Sometimes his eyes would say, "It's going to be okay, just hold out."

Sometimes, when they did not see his eyes or mine, they would be sneaky, thinking they could get away with something.

They forgot about the ONE who's eyes were always looking. Time would teach them the value and safety of the Covenant of Looking Unto.

There is something powerful about the covenant of looking unto Him. It brings our wondering thoughts under His eternal gaze, and brings a clearer perspective, sometimes a profound and refreshing simplicity.

Psalms 23 The Lord is My Shepard

Experience has taught me that the Shepherd is far more willing to show His sheep the path than the sheep are to follow. He is endlessly merciful, patient, tender, and loving. If we, His stupid and wayward sheep, really want to be led, we will without fail be led. Of that I am sure. – Elisabeth Elliot

Unpacking

2012-01-11T05:16:00.011-06:00

Unpacking is a vital part of growing in our Christian walk.

We start out with so much unneeded stuff.

Some good things, some bad, all weigh us down. At first we are too excited about the journey we are on to notice.

Our Father's aim was for us to travel light,
to run in such a way as to win.

We are heading to a Place Who's Builder and Maker is not of this World.

We are just passing though.

Its one thing to unpack,

but another to pick up more,

as you go...

packing cares and burdens,

or How To Manuals,

instead of trusting

Who Will, take us to the end...

no luggage needed there.

Sometimes weariness comes, because of our own choices to carry containers of cares, that were never called for by the Conductor.

Father Help us to set our affections on eternity, as we travel on earth. Help us to unpack, anything that slows our pace in pursuing YOU.

"Lower your expectation of earth. This isn't Heaven, so don't expect it to be."~Max Lacudo

One thing, and only one, in this world has eternity stamped upon it. Feelings pass; resolves and thoughts pass; opinions change. What you have done lasts--lasts in you. Through ages, through eternity, what you have done for Christ, that, and only that, you are.

~Frederick W. Robertson

What do our heavy hearts prove but that other things are sweeter to us than His will, that we have not attained to the full mastery of our true freedom, the full perception of its power, that our sonship is yet but faintly realized, and its blessedness not yet proved and known? Our consent would turn all our trials into obedience. By consenting we make them out own, and offer them with ourselves again to Him. ~H.E.Manning

"Casting all your cares on Him, for He cares for you."
1 Peter 5:7

January 12 Streams in the Desert

Weights Become Wings

"They shall mount up with wings as eagles" (Isa. 40:31).

There is a fable about the way the birds got their wings at the beginning. They were first made without wings. Then God made the wings and put them down before the wingless birds and said to them, "Come, take up these burdens and bear them."

The birds had lovely plumage and sweet voices; they could sing, and their feathers gleamed in the sunshine, but they could not soar in the air. They hesitated at first when bidden to take up the burdens that lay at their feet, but soon they obeyed, and taking up the wings in their beaks, laid them on their shoulders to carry them.

For a little while the load seemed heavy and hard to bear, but presently, as they went on carrying the burdens, folding them over their hearts, the wings grew fast to their little bodies, and soon they discovered how to use them, and were lifted by them up into the air--the weights became wings.

It is a parable. We are the wingless birds, and our duties and tasks are the pinions God has made to lift us up and carry us heavenward. We look at our burdens and heavy loads, and shrink from them; but as we lift them and bind them about our hearts, they become wings, and on them we rise and soar toward God.

There is no burden which, if we lift it cheerfully and bear it with love in our hearts, will not become a blessing to us. God means our tasks to be our helpers; to refuse to bend our shoulders to receive a load, is to decline a new opportunity for growth. --J. R. Miller
***
Blessed is any weight, however overwhelming, which God has been so good as to fasten with His own hand upon our shoulders. --F. W. Faber

Sweet Sixteen

2012-01-08T20:09:00.000-06:00

The following is a repost that I really felt moved to post again. A reminder of what it means to "Cross Over" into the more
Christ has for us all.
Sweet Sixteen

Crossing over into Womanhood

There are special bench marks in every young woman’s life that are remembered because of significant steps of growing in grace before God. As mothers, we find ourselves taking a step back as we witness the lovely touch of womanhood begins to surface. A step away from childhood dreams to a mature understanding of eternal value.

Anna and I will soon enter one of these bench marks together, as she turns sixteen. Several years ago, I remember journaling my daily struggles with Anna’s special needs…

Entry: I just can not figure out how to do this…and I’m despairing over the thought that she (Anna) will never be out of diapers. Alan told me that some people see their conflicts as mountains to scale; mine is in the shape of a toilet seat.

I found myself at this point, no different than any young woman who unwisely places her focus on “earthy things”, thinking “if only this were accomplished, I could move on in life.” This marks the difference in one who understands the value of allowing “patience to have her perfect work” (James 1:4) and the one whose purpose is centered on self achievement (James 4:3). The world tends to set its bench marks of growth by ages, but our Heavenly Father looks for a yielded heart; one who seeks first His kingdom. I know women far older than 16 who still need to grow up in eternal truths of death to self. The true celebration of womanhood begins here!

Mothers who spend time consecrating before celebrating give a priceless gift to their daughters. The songs our daughters hear us singing will have a powerful effect on their hearts, especially in the context of suffering. Any one can sing and dance in seasons of abundance, when hardship is not present. If all we have taught our daughters is how to pour a cup of tea correctly, yet when conflict comes they collapse, we all lose and our ceremonies of womanhood do nothing to grant motivation to maturity. Instead they give a false sense of confidence that will not hold them in the hour of pain.

When I look for readiness for marriage in a young woman, my first questions are; How do they handle conflict? Do they know how to reign in their emotions? Have they understood faith as a daily dieing; apart from feelings or sight? Does a song rise up in suffering? These qualities of character are not taught, but are the overflowing evidence of Christ reigning in a heart.

It was a glorious day when the daughters of Zion took up their tambourines and celebrated the crossing of the Red Sea. But this celebration did not prepare them for the wilderness that they were about to enter. Our daughters need to learn to cultivate faith in difficulties because if Christ is not learned in conflict; our daughters will not cross over into true womanhood. Anna’s presence with us has brought home the reality of the Heavenly Father’s call to my own heart; “Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb 4:16 ) Crossing over is coming to HIM, and this is where the celebration begins.

This year we will all be together as we celebrate Anna’s 16^th year of life. My daughters and I will see this bench mark, not so much in Anna’s growth, but in our own. A friend recently shared something that dawned on her; “Dina, you will always have Anna with you.” The statement seem monumental to her. I smiled inwardly, remembering the toilet seat, and in my heart began to celebrate the thought, “Yes, but I will also have Christ with me, and as I continue to cross over into true womanhood, Anna gets to go along for the ride!

Anna is now 22 years old, and the ride has been sweet!

*******

A special quote for any young single woman,
"A woman's heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her.” ~Max Lucado

Killing the Saul in Me

2012-01-05T08:01:00.003-06:00

I picked up an old book, I remembered reading a very long time ago. The following is a portion from it.
The book, A Tale of Three Kings, Gene Edwards.

"King Saul sought to destroy David but his only success was that he became the instrument of God to put to death the Saul who roamed about in the caverns of David's own soul. Yes, David was virtually destroyed in the process, but this had to be. Otherwise the Saul in him would have survived.

David accepted this fate. He embraced the cruel circumstances. He lifted no hand nor offered resistance. Nor did he grandstand his piety. Silently, privately, he bore the crucible of humiliation. Because of this he was deeply wounded. His whole inner being was mutilated. His personality was over, David was barely recognizable." (Chapter 9)

"The wood that was used to kindle a fire of disdain toward my brother could be used so much more profitably.
It could become a cross . . . my pride could die there. And love would be resurrected. All because I embraced those life-giving words: You are the same." ~Kelly Woodford

"When men sought to make Him (Jesus) a king He fled; now that they seek to put Him to death He goes out to meet them."~Rudolph Stier

"Go forth today, by the help of God's Spirit, vowing and declaring that in life----come poverty, come wealth, in death---come pain or come what may, you are and ever must be the Lord's. For this is written on your heart, 'We love Him because He first loved us.'"
~Charles H. Spurgeon

Father, cleanse us by Your Words. Help us to "hear under", and live a moment by moment awareness of Your presense with us, in all we do.

Manners

2012-01-03T07:20:00.000-06:00

It is supper time. The boys come to the table with hair slicked back, faces washed and hands slightly damp from being washed. I looked to the girls and smiled.

I had over heard one of them reading aloud a Manners book to them earlier in the day. “Wash your hands and face, and comb your hair. Remember that other people have to look at you.”

As our meal progressed on it seemed like the boys could not move without another rule being broken by the book.

Finally, I said “Girls, for all the good manners you feel necessary to instill, if indigestion is the end of it...what's the point?” Both the boys looked up at me with hope in their eyes.

I later read from the book, “A pleasant atmosphere helps your body digests the nutrients you eat.” :-)

In all that we know and long to teach our children, if it is not accompanied by a deep sense of joy and peace, it loses value to the hearer. Our children will know the difference of one who dictates their life by rules, or is ruled by Christ. The Psalms says, “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.” Ps. 37:37

The above was an entry from a gift book I gave my parents, 10 years ago or more. My mother gave it back to me, and I was delighted to be reminded of these simple lessons I was learning from my "younger" children back then. I'm still in that process of learning how to walk by the Spirit, being RULED by Christ, and pray that the PEACE of Christ will continue to guard my heart and mind. When PEACE is reigning in a HOME, you know Who is ruling.

Withhold

2011-12-30T09:53:00.004-06:00

Our Heavenly Father "withholds" information from His child because its better in
His grip than ours.

He "holds - with" care, for the right time.

In due season.

While we wait, we are tested...will we trade trust, for knowledge,

like Thomas?

Unless I see and touch?

Something happens when untimely information comes to a heart, who does not know how to "hold trust"...schemes and plan's come...because our minds are ever active.

We are more ready to move, than be still and listen.

We want more control, rather than to let Him lead.

To Have knowledge, rather than to Hold Trust.

"The branch of the vine does not worry and toil, and rush here to seek sunshine and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it. Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus." ~Hudson Taylor

8 Ways to Lose Peace:
by Elizabeth Elloit
Resent God’s ways.

Worry as much as possible.
Pray only about things you can’t manage by yourself.
Refuse to accept what God gives.
Look for peace elsewhere than in Him.
Try to rule your own life.
Doubt God’s word.
Carry all your cares.
If you’d rather not forfeit your peace,
here are eight ways to find it
(antidotes to the above eight):
“Great peace have they which love thy law:
and nothing shall offend them” (Psalm 119:165 KJV).
“Circumstances are the expression of God’s will,”
wrote Bishop Handley Moule.
“Don’t worry about anything whatever”
(Philippians 4:6, PHILLIPS).
“In everything make your requests known to God in prayer and petition with thanksgiving.
Then the peace of God…will guard your hearts”
(Philippians 4:6,7, NEB).
“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…
and you will find rest” (Matthew 11:29, NIV).
“Peace is my parting gift to you, my own peace,
such as the world cannot give”
(John 14 27, NEB).
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts”
(Colossians 3:15, NIV).
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and
peace in believing” (Romans 15:13, KJV).
“Cast all your cares on him for you are his charge”
(1 Peter 5:7, NEB).

Take No Thought

2011-12-23T06:08:00.003-06:00

Taken from Daily Strength for Daily Needs

“Take no thought how or what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.” Matthew 10:19

JUST to follow hour by hour
As He leadeth;
just to draw the moment's power
As it needeth.
~F.R. Havergal

You have a disagreeable duty to do at twelve o'clock. Do not blacken nine, ten, eleven, and all between, with the color of twelve. Do the work of each, and reap your reward in peace. So when the dreaded moment in the future becomes the present, you shall meet it walking in the light, and that light will over come its darkness. The best preparation is the present well seen to, the last duty done. For this will keep the eye so clear and the body so full of light that the right action will be perceived at once, the right words will rush from the heart to the lips, and the man, full of the Spirit of God because he cares for nothing but the will of God, will trample on the evil thing in love, and be sent, it may be, in a chariot of fire to the presence of his Father, or stand unmoved amid the cruel mockings of the men he loves. ~G. MacDonald

Out of Order

2011-12-20T06:35:00.003-06:00

When something is out of order, it does not necessarily mean that it stops working all together. We can still function in some areas, even in a state of diminished capacity; but, we will not be able to fully serve others.

When love is “out of order” we see the same effect.

It tends to take and expect from others,
because it falsely concludes that its own brokenness and lack,
is due to others.

We can fail to see, that TRUE LOVE,
is a Person.

The difference between full capacity to serve and incapacity is a matter of focus.

Are we are seeing people as our problem
or the person of Jesus as our help?

When the psalmist was fixed upon the problem he cried out "ALL men are liars!" When his eyes were fixed on the answer his words were "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom then shall I fear - the Lord is the strength of my life!"

Attempts at love always fail when SELF is exalted.
Love never fails, when Christ is lifted up.

We know love is in order, running at full capacity, when it displays the following fruits:

It endures long and is patient and kind.

It never is envious nor boils over with jealousy.

It is not boastful or haughty or prideful.

It is not rude (unmannerly) or acting unbecomingly.

It does not insist on its own rights, for it takes no account of evil done to it, pays no attention to a suffered wrong.

It bears up under any thing and every thing that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of ever person,

Its hopes are fade-less under all circumstances and it endures everything (without weakening)...1 Cor. 13 (Ampl.)

When our “out of order” love, is exchanged, for His unfailing love, He never fails.

His love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who brings His presence back into our focus and restores our capacity to live through Him.

The contrast is so clear,
How could we settle for anything less?

Know that the love of thyself doth hurt thee more than any thing in the world. ~Thomas A'Kempis

May our Lord's sweet hand square us and hammer us, and strike off all kinds of pride, self-love, world-worship, and infidelity, so that He can make us stones and pillars in His Father's house. ~Samuel Rutherford

Going Foward

2011-12-19T05:03:00.004-06:00

It is okay to look back now and then, but our gaze must be guarded, especially in how long we linger!

In moments of confusion or feelings that we might be lost, we must recognize the temptation to figure out where we our headed by retracing our steps.

Going BACK, is NOT going forward.

We need to hear the Holy Spirit; otherwise, to start off in the wrong direction is discouraging. He knows where we are and how we got there, and He also knows the quickest way to where He desires us to go.

Rear view mirrors are nice to gage the traffic behind, but not intended for our constant gaze! The past is very much like this to us. It is a check point of where we have come from, but not meant to direct our progress, only to remember the lessons and learn from them...

"Our lives are full of supposes. Suppose this should happen, or suppose that should happen; what could we do; how could we bear it? But, if we are living in the high tower of the dwelling place of God, all these supposes will drop out of our lives. We shall be quiet from the fear of evil, for no threatenings of evil can penetrate into the high tower of God. Even when walking through the valley of the shadow of death, the psalmist could say, I will fear no evil; and, if we are dwelling in God, we can say so too." ~Hannah Whitall Smith

"Hindsight may or may not be 20/20, but you can't drive while staring in the rear view mirror." ~Derek McMinn

“It is God to whom and with whom we travel, and while He is the end of our journey, He is also at every stopping place.” — Elisabeth Elliot

Do not worry about the future. It makes no sense to worry if God Loves you and has taken care of you. However, when God blesses you remember to keep your eyes on Him and not the blessing. Enjoy your blessings day by day just as the Isrealites enjoyed their manna, but do not try to store the blessings for the future. There are two peculiar characteristics of pure faith. It sees God behind all the blessings and imperfect works which tend to conceal Him, and it holds the soul in a state of continued suspense...But faith is willing to let God act with the most perfect freedom, knowing that we belong to Him and are to be concerned only about being faithful in that which he has given us to do the for the moment. This moment by moment dependence, this dark, unseeing peacefulness of the soul under the utter uncertainty of the future, is a true martyrdom which takes place silently and without any stir. It is God's way of bringing a slow death to self. And the end comes so imperceptibly that it is often almost as much hidden from the sufferer himself, as from those who don't even know he suffers.” ~Felelon (Let Go: Letter 15 Pure Faith Sees God Alone)

If Your Eye Be Single

2011-12-18T07:26:00.001-06:00

Taken from a series of letters that Alan wrote to our sons, when they were younger.

Dear Sons,

Jesus once said "If your eye be single - your whole body will be

full of light." Two things stand out from His statement. First, our

eyes may not always be "single" all the time. Second, it must also mean that it is possible to have only some parts of our body with light while other parts are still in the dark. There may be areas in our lives that are blocking the light from shining in.

The opposite of "single" is "multiple" or "many." The problem

with many peoples' spiritual vision is that they are trying to look at

more things than one at the same time. We will never see clearly while trying to see what pleases ourselves and what pleases God at the same time. Only when our focus is entirely upon pleasing the Lord will things become clear to us.

The light that Jesus was referring to is "the ability to see clearly". That is what light does - it enables us to see things accurately. This is called "visibility." How is the visibility inside you today? When there are areas in our lives that we are not seeing clearly - it is because God's light is not shining in that area. Jesus was warning His disciples about the danger of having poor "visibility" inside themselves.

There are times when a person with good spiritual visibility can

see things in us that we can not see ourselves. This is because they

have light in areas that we don't have ourselves. When this happens, we can either love the light they have or resent it and reject it because "we can't see it ourselves."

Loving the light or hating the light is going to be part of what

we are all judged for on the day of judgment. Jesus said "This is the

verdict - that light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than the light - because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. Whoever does truth comes into the light that it might be seen clearly that what he has done - he did in God."

There are times when rather than loving the light we will argue

against it. Why - because we don't want to see ourselves in the way the true light makes us look. Maybe we think we are doing well, but in the true light it will be seen that we have not done our work well.

Sometimes we see ourselves as seeking God but if more light came we might be exposed as lazy or double-minded. Only those who love the light will "walk in the light". John the apostle wrote "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin." When we love the light and walk in it, we allow the Holy Spirit to expose and reveal those areas in our lives that we haven't seen yet. As we see them, we can then confess them so that the blood of Jesus can cleanse our sins as we recognize them and turn away from continuing in them.

Sometimes mom or dad, maybe a brother or sister, see an area

before we do. How do we react when they attempt to share some light with us? Do we love the light, or do we prefer our own view, even if it is in the dark. I pray for both of you that you learn to love the truth, receive the light and walk in it. Proverbs 4:18 says "The path of the righteous is as the first gleam of dawn shining ever brighter until the full light of day." May this be the path we choose to walk in.

Love, Dad

The Work of Waiting

2011-12-16T07:36:00.002-06:00

There are times an unexplainable deeper work is done in the heart when time has said “wait.” We are tried in what we wanted, or did not want and are then faced with our inability to do anything about it.

A heart that wrestles with waiting does not understand fully the REST of God. Maybe, we have tasted it, but have hardened our hearts when our Father wanted to lead us to a much FULLER land of His abundance.

The Israelites, wanted Promise without pain.
They wanted riches without having to reign over giants.
We want, without waiting.

Good things come to those who wait.

Why? Because they are not allowing WANT to lead, and will not settle for anything less than what the Father desires.

It is a beautiful testimony of His LIFE, when our hearts embrace these seasons of waiting. WE learn how to walk by Faith, and not by what we feel or see.

We might find in the end, that the work of waiting, was a beatiful weaving of the Lord. It really was as natural as a vine growing slowly around a tree...a beautiful picture of two becoming one. Father, make us ONE with You.

“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.” Is. 40:31

"When, therefore, you see as in a furnace our flesh flowing away to corruption, dwell not on that sight, but wait for the recasting." ~John Chrysostom

“ A good life makes a man wise according to God and gives him experience in many things, for the more humble he is and the more subject to God, the wiser and the more at peace he will be in all things.” ~Thomas a Kempis

"The reason why many fail in battle is because they wait until the hour of battle. The reason why others succeed is because they have gained their victory on their knees long before the battle came...Anticipate your battles; fight them on your knees before temptation comes, and you will always have victory. ~Reuben Archer Torrey

The Overflowing Life

2011-12-13T21:18:00.005-06:00

For a beautiful picture of what this looks like.....
Go here:

http://lessonsthroughthelens.blogspot.com/

When Grace comes...
…you know it. What might have seemed hard at one time now becomes something enjoyable. The simple monotonous tasks are given new life and meaning. When Grace comes, it’s very much like the dew coming down in the stillness of dawn. You rarely see it, but its freshness makes a difference by stimulating growth in your life. It refreshes the ground and preserves life, like the rains come on dry soil. We wait, and He comes. And from this place of renewal, you are granted the ability to see things differently. This is the place of learning what Jesus talked about, the place of rest where you find the work that you are yoked with is easy and light, because you are bearing it with Him.

The Overflowing Life of Grace, is seen in the one who understands what has already been given, and also what needs to go.

Who best bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best ~ John Milton

He rides pleasantly enough whom the grace of God carries. ~Thomas a’ Kempis

"In proportion to the size of the vessel of faith, brought by us to the Lord, is the measure we draw out of His overflowing grace."

~Cyprian

Giving Up Means Letting Go

2011-12-12T07:34:00.001-06:00

Giving up means letting go. Anna loves magazines, and Daddy had just given her a new one. Especially the new ones, she loves them best. Just to test her, he asked for the new gift back. A playful run started to happen, as he put his hand out, and she went the opposite direction of that hand! Now several of us joined in, telling her to give up the book. Finally, she reached out her hand with the magazine in it toward her Father, but as he sought to take it, he could not. Her grip on that book was strong. Although the gesture looked sincere, the full action was not done.

Giving up means letting go. Some times we give ourselves a false comfort with our gestures. Gestures are not giving up, they are motions that are easy to do. Letting go means releasing from the heart and hand. Sometimes this is especially hard when the object of our releasing has our affections.

Our children are on loan. As a mother of adult children, I've seen the importance of releasing them back unto HIM. Now, in His Hands they will learn more, than if they were still in our grip. This type of releasing, happens in prayer. Trusting more in His ability to move on their hearts, than in my words.

"Offer up to God all pure affections, desires, regrets, and all the bonds which link us to home, kindred, and friends together with all our works, purposes and labors. These things, which are not only lawful, but sacred, become then the matter of thanksgiving and offering memories, plans for the future, wishes, intentions; works just begun, half done, all but completed; emotions, sympathies, affections, --all these things throng tumultuously and dangerously in the heart and will. The only way to master them is to offer them up to HIM, as once ours (now) under HIM, always His by right." ~H.E. Manning

"The full acting out of the self's surrender to God therefore demands pain: this action, to be perfect, must be done from the pure will to obey, in the absence, or in the teeth, of inclination".

~C.S. Lewis

"What songs do my children see me singing, when life takes a turn to what appears to be unplanned and chaotic? I’m learning a new way to spell faith; SURRENDER. I can only sing with David “…lead me to a rock that is higher than I…” as I’ve learned to release to my Heavenly Father all the things I do not understand. This is a place that is unmovable, unchangeable and a steadfast love that holds me, when I see nothing “physical” to hold on to. We give our children an immeasurable gift, when we ourselves willingly embrace all that the Father gives, in both pain and joy, when we are on schedule and when all our plans have been interrupted. It’s easy to dance to the melody of joy, but how are we doing when the minor keys flow?" Taken from Musical Beds

Endure

2011-12-10T14:56:00.004-06:00

Taken from Daily Strength for Daily Needs
~Mary W. Tileston

"Behold, we count them happy which endure." James 1:11“If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons." Heb.12;7

Be not afraid of those trials which God may see fit to send upon thee. It is with the wind and storm of tribulation that God separates the true wheat from the chaff. Always remember, therefore, that God comes to thee in thy sorrows, as really as in thy joys. He lays low, and He builds up. Thou wilt find thyself far from perfection, if thou dost not find God in everything. ~M.De Molinos

God hath provided a sweet and quiet life for His children, could they improve and use it; a calm and firm conviction in all the storms and troubles that are about them, however things go,to find content, and be careful for nothing. ~R. Leighton

Pictured above: Frozen on the line

When all you know to do is CLING...CLING!
Warm days will come, but until then there is a powerful beauty seen when we come to this place, where we will not let go...until He comes!

"When a man has quietly made up his mind that there is nothing he cannot endure, his fears leave him." Grove Patterson

My Tyler Candle

2011-12-09T09:32:00.002-06:00

"We should save that for a special occasion."

The statement surprised me, because I already knew I would be lighting that candle today!

Anna has done this to me!

Living where normal has no definition, and natural functions are meaningful.

Bowel Movements become Blessed Moments

And losing the ability to control...has caused His comfort to come near...

and in His presence is fullness of JOY.

Light my candle today, you bet!

And when its flame extinguishes, Joy still celebrates, because even in the hidden and dark places, it never stops burning.

The out-and-out Christian is a joyful Christian. The half-and-half Christian is the kind of Christian that a great many of you are~~~little acquainted with the Lord. Why should we live halfway up the hill and swathed in the mists, when we might have an unclouded sky and a radiant sun over our heads if we would climb higher and walk in the light of His face?~Alexander Maclaren

"The joy of the Lord will arm us against the assaults of our spiritual enemies and put our mouths out of taste for those pleasures with which the tempter baits his hooks."~Matthew Henry

"Spirit filled souls are ablaze for God. They love with a love that glows. They serve with a faith that kindles. They serve with a devotion that consumes. They hate sin with fierceness that burns. They rejoice with a joy that radiates. Love is perfected in the fire of God." ~Samuel Chadwick

Death to Self is the way out into a Life of Sacrifice

2011-12-08T18:22:00.000-06:00

The following is taken from Parables of the Cross
by T. Lilias Trotter

This dandelion has long ago surrendered its golden petals, and has reached its crowing stage of dying—the delicate seed-globe must break up now—it gives and gives till it has nothing left.

What a revolution would come over the world—the world of starving bodies at home—the world of starving souls abroad—if something like this were the standard of giving; if God's people ventured on “making themselves poor” as Jesus did, for the sake of the need around; if the “I”---”me”---”mine” were practically delivered up, no longer to be recognized when they clash with those needs.

The hour of this new dying is clearly defined to the dandelion globe; it is marked by detachment. There is no sense of wrenching; it stands ready, holding up its little life, not knowing when or where or how the wind that bloweth where it listeth may carry it away. It holds itself no longer for its own keeping, only as something to be given; a breath does the rest, turning the “readiness to will” into the “performance” (2Cor. 8:11). And to a soul that through “deaths oft” has been brought to this point, even acts that look as if they must involve an effort, become something natural, spontaneous, full of a “heavenly involuntariness,” so simply are they the out-come of the indwelling love of Christ.

Shall we not ask God to convict us as to where lies the hindrance to this self-emptying? It is not alone mere selfishness, in its ordinary sense, that prevents it; long after this has been cleansed away by the Precious Blood there may remain, unrecognized, the self-life sacrifice; there may be much of usefulness and of outward self-denial, and yet below the surface may remain a clinging to our own judgment, a confidence in our own resources, an unconscious taking of our own way, even in God's service. And these things hold down, hold in our souls, and frustrate the Spirit in His working. The latent self-life needs to be brought down into the place of death before His breath can carry us higher and thither as the wind wafts the seeds. Are we ready for this last surrender?

Do you ask, “Does God really mean the emptying to reach so far as this?” Study the inner life of Jesus. “I speak not of Myself,” He says. “I can of Mine own self do nothing.” “I seek not Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.” His human self-life, sinless though it was, was laid down that He might live by the Father; and our self-life, defiled and worthless, shall we not lay it down that we may live by Him?

But how? Again not by struggling and wrestling, but by dying to it in Jesus. “I am crucified with Christ”---I myself in the very essence of my being, I let myself go to that death; and by the mysterious power with which God meets faith, I find that He has made it true: the bonds are loosed and He can have His way with me.
(emphasis mine)

Difficulty

2011-12-03T06:39:00.003-06:00

Difficulties voice is sometimes best unheard. Sometimes struggles come from stirrings of self.

When this happens I’m learning to not look into Difficulty's face, but trust in the ONE who uses the hard places in our lives, to get a clear vision of His love for us.

Self experiences hurt, but the Spirit speaks not of His own.

The Spirit saves us from selves schemes. Difficulty (apart from Christ) will never direct us to die to self, but will be faithful to lead us to a ditch of self-pity. You know you are close to the ditch, when you find yourself waiting on some one else to act first.

Christ will call us to the cross.

Father, may our hearts always be looking to you, while we are praying for others. Turn our eye's away from the ditches of self-preservation, but to the LIFE only found in your presence.

“Be not troubled about those who are with you or against you, but take care that God be with you in everything you do. Keep your conscience clear and God will protect you, for the malice of man cannot harm one whom God wishes to help. If you know how to suffer in silence, you will undoubtedly experience God's help. He knows when and how to deliver you; therefore,place your self in His hands, for it is a divine prerogative to help men and free them from all distress...It is the humble man whom God protects and liberates; it is the humble whom He loves and consoles. To the humble He turns and upon them bestows great grace, that after their humiliation He may raise them up to glory. He reveals His secrets to the humble, and with kind invitation bids them to come to Him. Thus, the humble man enjoys peace in the midst of many vexations, because his trust is in God, not in the world. Hence, you must not think that you have made any progress until you look upon your self as inferior to all others. ~Thomas a Kempis

Difficulties are God's errands; and when we are sent upon them, we should esteem it a proof of God's confidence. ~Henry Ward
Beecher

His Cross As My Call

Persistently Peaceful

In Resolute Rest

For Fortified Faith

An Unquenchable Quest

Move Faithfully Forward

Resolved no Retreat

Unwavering Waiting

Contentement Complete

Not Fretting or Fearful

Just Silent and Still

Both Joyful and Tearful

No Want but His Will

Determinded Disciple

With Meekness as Might

No Goal but His Glory

The Savior in Sight

The Call Consecrating

Abandoning All

The Christ Contemplating

His Cross As My Call

~Am

He leads us beside still waters. The water becomes murky when we stir them up. Be still and know, that He is God, the Shepherd of your soul. (Picture taken on our way to Ca)

Gray People

2011-12-01T14:17:00.000-06:00

We will not be able to please everybody....I keep telling myself this....Especially the Gray People!

They live on the out skirts of true fellowship, but still like to come in and out at their convenience.

They want to be included, pursued, and invited, but most often they hang back in the gray places because they feel safer there. Their thoughts are a gray cloud that descends like a fog and blurs the black and white reasons of why they are not really with you. Part of them misses being with you, but the other part is unwilling to put forth the effort necessary to stir up love. The fog prevents them from doing the very thing they are still expecting from you; including, pursuing, and inviting.

There is a black and white type of living...its called GIVING without expecting anything in return!

It's a liberating discovery that removes the gray and restores our ability to see the black and white of always giving, and always receiving more to give. No more gray disappointment, because HOPE flows Outward (away from SELF). NO more insecurity and confusion in relationships, because there is NO NEED to be included , pursued, and invited. And you remember Jesus words, “It is more blessed to give than receive.”

Father may our cup be filled, and overflowing - always giving and needing more ONLY FROM YOU – just to keep us giving. When it's Black and when it's White giving is precious in Your sight.

You must encounter God firsthand; or you will become passive, apathetic, or just drop out all together. You must continually encounter God firsthand or your fellowship with God will grow cold. You will quit caring about the concerns of God for His church, for the Kingdom, or for the lost world.~Henry Blackaby

Gratitude is the inspiration of heaven's most melodious anthems. Its fruit is joy in the tune of mourning, courage in the day of despondency, security in the hour of loneliness, peace in the midst of battle, and satisfaction in spiritual or physical famine. Dorothy Kelly Patterson

You must stay upon the Lord; and come what may – winds, waves, cross-seas, thunder, lightning, frowning rocks, roaring beakers, no matter what, you must lash yourself to the helm, and hold fast
your confidence in God's faithfulness, His covenant engagement, His everlasting love in Christ Jesus. ~Richard Fuller

The above picture taken from Discovering Beauty reminded me of the importance of reflecting His beauty, in whatever He gives.

As Easy As Breathing...

2011-11-30T08:41:00.004-06:00

As Easy As Breathing...

(The following was taken from a family newsletter we did in 2003)

The emotion of it hit me when Alan made the announcement, “Today we have been blessed to have Anna with us for 15 years.” He then led us in prayer both acknowledging the Heavenly Father for His goodness for LIFE, and thanking Him for Anna's special purpose in our lives. It was then I remembered the trachea tube that went down her throat and the machine that would act as a mechanical breathe. We all knew that these interventions had nothing to do with the final decision of her life, but they allowed us time to stop as we faced death, not just of a child, but of our own ideas also.

During this time of standing between life and death, the Heavenly Father spoke clearly to Alan's heart, “I want you to die, not her.” We all understood what He was asking for, it was death to all our independence, dreams, and concepts that hindered what He longed to do through our lives. We had to die, so that HE could live through us.

We accepted the death sentence to our own hearts, and watched in awe as our little girl was given the gift of breath when the machines were all pulled away. Our lives would never be the same again.

Breathing is more than something you do, it's an act of receiving what is given.

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Gen. 2:7

Death both touches and awakens the eternal part of our being and makes this life seem so temporary. There seems to be something very vital in understanding our end. David wrote, “Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the extent of my days. Let me know how transient I am. Behold, Thou hast made my days as hand breadths, and my lifetime as nothing in Thy sight. Surely every man at his best is a mere breath.” Ps. 39: 4,5

The understanding of this gift called breathing also comes in different phases in our life. We recently took a trip to visit some new friends, and one of the things they shared was, “We were so blessed by how your family all ministered to and cared for Anna.” This statement brought the realization that caring for Anna was so easy, like taking our next breath; then I remembered how it was not always this way.

In the earlier years there were sleepless nights, unanswered questions, and limitations that some of my other children struggled with. It was like the contraction part of labor, where you learned to breathe with the pain. This phases of breathing was necessary, just like an experienced runner presses on to the goal, in spite of the pain and shortness of breath, for the prize set before him.

There is something very precious about the seasons in our lives when our breathing is more labored. Something very insightful happens during these times when we are weary, and we have to take another breath before we take the next step.

We come to understand our weaknesses as human beings, and this sets us up for receiving what the Father provides in the midst of our labors, pains, and disappointments. We are forced during theses times to stop and BE STILL and KNOW that He is God. This transforms breathing into daily gifts given, and makes the simple things of life mean so much more.

Those who die in Jesus live a larger, fuller, nobler life, by the very cessation of care, change, strife, and struggle.

~Alexander Maclaren

Why do Mercy and Goodness Follow rather than Lead?

2011-11-29T09:58:00.003-06:00

Why do Mercy and Goodness "Follow" rather than "Lead?"

When David wrote Psalms 23 he had been fleeing from Saul. His life was continually being threatened. He was remembering past experiences and this produced in him a present HOPE. He must have understood the same truth found in Paul's encouragement to the Romans..."...but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character, and character, hope."

I think we would rather be "LED" by Mercy and Goodness, because these are the two attributes of our Father that are enjoyable to receive, but more difficult to give.

However, goodness and mercy are best understood in the context of what we have received, in order to enable us to give to others. This might be why they follow from behind.

As we remember how much mercy we have received, we are able to understand how much mercy we must give.

We all WANT mercy and goodness, but have we understood their value? I doubt we will, until they are "broken in" by our painful experiences.

Like the treasure in Mary's box that was released by being broken so that it filled the air...so Mercy and Goodness follows our own brokenness.

Not always OUT of our troublous times,

And the struggles fierce and grim,

But IN–deeper IN–to our one sure rest,

The place of our peace, in Him.

–Annie Johnson Flint

“Every year, I might almost say every day, that I live, I seem to see more clearly how all the rest and gladness and power of our Christian life hinges on one thing; and that is, taking God at His word, believing that He really means exactly what He says, and accepting the very words in which He reveals His goodness and grace, without substituting others or altering the precise modes and tenses which He has seen fit to use.” – Frances Havergal

“I am not a theologian or a scholar, but I am very aware of the fact that pain is necessary to all of us. In my own life, I think I can honestly say that out of the deepest pain has come the strongest conviction of the presence of God and the love of God.” ~Elizabeth Elliot

Pictured above: Water drop

Perfect through sufferings

2011-11-28T07:16:00.001-06:00

“Perfect through sufferings” Heb. 2:10

Steel is iron plus fire. Soil is rock, plus heat, or glacier crushing. Linen is flax plus the bath that cleans, the comb that separates, and the flail that pounds, and the shuttle that weaves. Human character must have a plus attached to it. The world does not forget great characters. But great characters are not made of luxuries, they are made by suffering.

I heard of a mother who brought into her home as a companion to her own son, a crippled boy who was also a hunchback. She had warned her boy to be very careful in his relations to him, and not to touch the sensitive part of his life but go right on playing with him as if he were an ordinary boy. She listened to her son as they were playing; and after a few minutes he said to his companion: “Do you know what you have got on your back?” The little hunchback was embarrassed, and he hesitated a moment. The boy said: “It is the box in which your wings are; and someday God is going to cut it open, and then you will fly away and be an angel.”
Someday, God is going to reveal the fact to every Christian, that the very principles they now rebel against, have been the instruments which He used in perfecting their characters and molding them into perfection, polished stones for His great building yonder. ~Cortland Myers

Suffering is a wonderful fertilizer to the roots of character. The great object of this life is character. This is the only thing we can carry with us into eternity...To gain the most of it and the best of it is the object of probation. ~Austin Phelps

Above taken from Streams in the Dessert

The tests of life are to make, not break us. Trouble may demolish a man's business but build up his character. The blow at the outward man may be the greatest blessing to the inner man. If God, then, puts or permits anything hard in our lives, be sure that the real peril, the real trouble, is that we shall lose if we flinch or rebel.

~Maltbie Davenport Babcock

When Madame Guyon was imprisoned in the castle at Vincennes, she said: "It seems as though I were a little bird whom the Lord has placed in a cage, and that I have nothing now to do but sing."

And prisons shall palaces prove

If Jesus abides with me there.

Pictured above: Singing in the Dawn

Cultivating Faith or Feeding Doubt

2011-11-26T05:50:00.002-06:00

“Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” Heb. 4: 1, 2

The people of God stood at the brink of entering into a land that promised the rest that they had longed for. Gardens already planted, and houses ready for their dwelling.

As a mother with children standing by her side, having traveled in barren lands, today held something more than a longing! Stability, food other than manna, water always available, grass instead of dirt, etc.

Did that young mother realized that she was one more doubt away from losing it all? Did she understand that her walk through the desert was a test to strengthen faith for this very day. The Israelites lack of faith to enter into the promise land started back at the Red Sea, and continued each test they met along the way.

They practiced doubt, and the habit of it became so much a part of their lives, that when the ultimate test came they were blinded from seeing the goodness and grace that God was offering them.

We must be very careful not to underestimate the power of doubt, in every little test we face.

“Today if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

Each new day holds the challenge of cultivating faith or feeding doubt. One leads to rest, and seeing the goodness of God, the other leaves us standing there, watching others enter in.

Faith is the mother of virtues. Faith is the fire which consumes sacrifice. Faith is the water which nurtures the root of piety. If you have not faith, all your graces must die. And in proportion as your faith increases, so will all your virtues be strengthened, not all in the same proportion, but all in some degree. ~Charles H. Spurgeon

"To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible." ~Thomas Aquinas

"The only way to learn strong faith is to endure great trials." ~George Muller

The above came from our family newsletter that we put out in 2003. It's truths still encourage me to live moment by moment, seeking to be alert to the weeds of doubt, and pull them up on sight!

Let Us Make Acknowledgment

2011-11-24T00:40:00.000-06:00

Psalm 107:10-17 - from the Septuagint

"The ones sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, being shackled in destitution and iron for they had rebelled against the words of God and they had provoked the counsel of the Most High. Their heart was humbled by their troubles. They grew weak and there was no one helping. And they cried out to the Lord as they were being oppressed and He saved them out of their distress. And He led them out of darkness and the shadow of death and he tore up their chains. Let them make acknowledgment to the Lord for His mercies and His wonders towards the sons of men because He broke the gates of bronze and He fractured the bars of iron into pieces. He took hold of them out of all of their lawlessness. because it was for their lawless that they were humbled."

Take hearts saints, for the desire of our Wonderful God and Father is to hear us when our hearts have been humbled by our own choices and rebellion.

Even in the times when we have become weak, and our troubles have multiplied upon us and there is no other one willing to help - He is waiting for our humble cry. If in the midst of our self-inflicted tribulation and destitution we will cry out to Him - He is willing to hear and rescue us.

He will smash the bronze gaits of the strongholds imprisoning us. He will fracture the iron bars of our prison cells into pieces and He will deliver us from OUR OWN LAWLESSNESS.

Let us MAKE ACKNOWLEDGMENT to the Lord for His wonderful works towards us.

If the consequences of our actions have brought us into bondage and despair - even there the Lord's mercy can reach us. I am reminded that the literal wording in the greek for "humble yourselves before the Lord" is actually

ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE HUMBLED before the Lord.

When our foolishness and stubbornness have brought us into calamity and bondage, allow the consequences to humble us so that we can call out once again for mercy and see His wonderful works towards us again.

"But the soul renounced shall abide in the boundlessness of God's life. This is liberty, this is prosperity. The more we lose, the more we gain." ~Watchman Nee

The above was taken from an e-mail Alan sent out a while back.

When the Dust Settles

2011-11-23T07:05:00.002-06:00

There is a danger when deep feelings and emotions have been

stirred up. In the ages when many battles were won by hand to hand

combat you can imagine how confusing things could become with clouds of dusts hindering visibility, men, swords, spears, and shields all around you. Yelling, growling, men screaming in pain and adrenaline, men falling down or bumping you from every angle; a soldier could easily become fearful, confused and disoriented. I wonder how many soldiers accidentally wounded or killed their own fellow soldiers because they couldn't see well, or they were so scared that they swung their sword before they realized it was not an enemy.

There is a similar danger of speaking, acting or making decisions when our minds, or our emotions are stirred up. We must learn to keep a tight reign on our tongue in situations where the "dust is flying." Christians too can wound fellow believers by speaking or acting out of their fear or emotional turmoil.

A spiritual man is one who has learned to distrust his natural reactions, and to not give in to sudden impulses like fear or anger.

The power to overcome these strong impulses is called "self-control." Self control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, and can only be experienced by allowing the Holy Spirit to guide our actions even when there is a great stirring on the inside of us or a turmoil happening around us.

Anger can make a friend look like an enemy. Fear can make us hurt someone who really is in need of our help. A strategy that worked for many armies was to make a group of soldiers charge right into the middle of a well organized group of enemy lines. The commanding officer knew that most of those men would die who were leading the charge, but his goal was to create chaos and confusion that his better soldiers could take advantage of.

Be on your guard against the enemy's strategies. Don't let him move you into fear, or panic or confusion.

Call upon the Lord when the enemy charges, listen to the Holy Spirit's direction before you think, act and speak on your own.

Often the most experienced soldier is the one who knows when and on whom to use his sword. It's not just how many enemies he has slain, but just as importantly how many of his own men he has not!

The above is from a series of letters that Alan wrote to our sons, several years ago.

"Believe God's word and power more than you believe your own feelings and experiences." ~Samuel Rutherford

"One thing, and only one, in this world has eternity stamped upon it. Feelings pass; resolves and thoughts pass; opinions change. What you have done last--lasts in you. Through ages, through eternity, what you have done for Christ, that, and only that, you are. ~Frederick W. Robertson

Purpose of Heart or Plan at Hand

2011-11-20T19:50:00.003-06:00

When the purpose of the heart becomes more than just getting the job done, it's a wonderful thing to watch in our children. I will never forget the time Joseph went to feed the chickens. It was taking a little longer, so I looked outside, and what I saw brought a smile to my face. Four or more hens staring up at him through the fence, as he wiggled his body, bobbed his head, flapped his arms, and made some type of sound that I'm sure he thought they understood. Well they sure were as fascinated with him as I was – (or maybe just waiting for him to throw more food.) This simple act of childhood innocence in seeking to do more than feed, to care... reminded me of his name sake.

While serving his fellow prisoners and seeing their needs – Joseph stops and inquires because their continence is down. This one caring question starts a tide of events that will forever change his life. His insight arose from having a purpose of heart deeper than a near-sighted focus of accomplishing the plan at hand.

There is a BIG difference between the two and time will reveal which one we are living for. When the deeper purpose of heart is to please our Father – our steps are measured accordingly. The overflow of this will impact our relationship with others.

Disappointments/interruptions/misunderstandings will all begin to fit like a glove, because whether it's a prison or palace – His presence and His pleasure are all that matters.

The plan at hand – is nearsighted, looking only to find fulfillment in it the present moment; without the interference of man. It rarely looks for anything outside of the obvious, so many opportunities
to experience His presence and bring Him pleasure are missed. This is a very difficult way to live – because control always comes at a high price -seeking foremost what is in our HAND rather than His plan.

Memories of Joseph's chicken dance remind me that – a heart that serves in love, can not help but share itself with others. I just wish I knew what those chickens were thinking. :-)

“You can give without loving; BUT you can not love without giving. ~Amy Carmichael

“The pharisees minded what God spoke, but not what He intended...They were busy in the outward work of the hand, but incurious of the affections and choice of the heart. So God was served in the letter they did not much inquire into His purpose; and therefore they were curious to wash their hands, but cared not to purify their hearts.”
~Jeremy Taylor

Preparing for Blindness?

2011-11-17T07:54:00.000-06:00

Whitney sat at the table in front of her plate of food with a blind fold around her eyes. Everyone was eating like nothing unusual was going on.

“Please tell me why you have a blind fold on?”

Everyone looked at her about then, almost like they were seeing it for the first time, as we all waited for her answer. “Well, one day I might be blind, and I am preparing myself for this.” While one of my children rolled their eyes, the other was secretly sneaking some food from her plate, totally undetected by Whitney.

A few minutes later... “Hey, where's my chicken!!! You wouldn't treat a real blind person this way!” With everyone laughing, Whitney decided being blind at the table in our home was not safe enough.

Preparing for blindness? May be possible, but why? It seems there is a tendency in all of us to try and jump ahead to the unknown, rather than rest in the assurance of the known.

Sometimes fascination with what we cannot control will rob us or distract us from the fullness of joy that the Lord desires for us to experience today. "This is the day that the Lord hath made, I will rejoice and be glad in IT!"

“Wisdom is the ability to see with discernment, to view life as God perceives it. Understanding is the skill to respond with insight. Knowledge is the rare trait of learning with perception---discovering and growing. ~Charles R. Swindoll, The Strong Family

“A simple, childlike faith in a Divine Friend solves all the problems that come to us by land or sea.” ~Helen Keller

Joseph and Benjamin preparing for wilderness survival :)

Taken in 2000

Short Order Cook

2011-11-16T05:11:00.013-06:00

I will never forget, as a young mother, a little comment that changed a direction in my life, in serving my children. We had out of town guest and hospitality was a new adventure for me. Breakfast was in the process of being served, and I was asking each of my children, and my guest...how they wanted their eggs to be cooked. My visiting guest said with a smile, “So, you are a short order cook?” My response, on the inside, was “No, I'm a mom who is making something that could be simple...harder!” :-)

Sometimes, we get into patterns of doing things that add to us, and take away from our children. I started just serving them, all the same thing...and they had the opportunity to learn to not have preferences. They were learning how to receive and be thankful, instead of expect and be served.

Its taken time, but some of the most important lessons in my own life, have not always come in what I served, but what I did, with what was served. There have been times when I looked at my Heavenly Father as my “Short Order Cook”...and my heart was revealed when what was served, was not what I wanted. The beauty of time, and His long suffering with me, showed self at its very core...I wanted cake, but no spinach.

If our children learn this pattern of life from us, they will grow up despising the very things that will give the greatest strength to them.

A Plate of Experiences

“I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you.” Jer. 29:11

Last night during family devotions, I called my daughters to the table and set a plate in front of each. In the center of the table I placed a collection of food: some fruit, some raw vegetables, and some Oreo cookies. “Every day,” I explained, “God prepares for us a plate of experiences. What kind of plate do you most enjoy?”

The answer was easy. Sara put three cookies on her plate. Some days are like that, aren't they? Some days are “three-cookie days.” Many are not. Sometimes our plate has nothing but vegetables---twenty-four hours of celery, carrots, and squash. Apparently God knows we need some strength, and though the portion may be hard to swallow, isn't it for our own good? Most days, however, have a bit of it all...

The next time your plate has more broccoli than apple pie, remember who prepared the meal. And the next time your plate has a portion you find hard to swallow, talk to God about it. Jesus did.

Taken from Grace Moments; Max Lacado

How to Bear Suffering Peacefully

2011-11-15T04:41:00.003-06:00

Let Go

Letter 2 by Fenelon
How to Bear Suffering Peacefully

Concerning our friend, I pray that God will give him a simplicity of trust that will bring him peace. When we are careful to instantly let go of all needless worries and restless thoughts (that is, self-centered thoughts, rather than loving outgoing ones), then we shall find ourselves on plateaus of peace even in the midst of the straight and narrow. We shall find ourselves walking in the freedom and innocent peace of the children of God, not lacking wholesome relationships either toward God or man.

I willingly apply to myself the same advice that I give to others, for I am convinced that I must seek my own peace in the same direction. Even now my soul is suffering, but I am aware that it is the life of self which causes us pain; that which is dead does not suffer. If we were really dead, and our life hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3), we would no longer struggle with those pains in spirit that now afflict us. So we must learn to bear all sufferings with composure, even those which come upon us through no fault of our own. But we must beware of that restlessness of spirit which might be our own fault. We can add to our God-given cross by agitated resistance and an unwillingness to suffer. This is simply an evidence of the remaining life of self.

A cross which comes from God ought to be welcomed without any concern for self. And when you accept your cross this way, even though it is painful, you will find that you can bear it in peace. But when you received your cross unwillingly, you will find it to be doubly severe. The resistance within is harder to bear than the cross itself! But if you recognize the hand of God, and make no opposition to His Will, you will have peace in the midst of affliction. Happy indeed are they who can bear their sufferings with this simple peace and perfect submission to the will of God! Nothing so shortens and soothes suffering as this spirit of non-resistance.

But usually we want to drive a bargain with God. We would at least like to suggest some limits so that we can see an end to our sufferings. We don't realize how we are thwarting the purpose of God when we take this attitude. Because the stubborn clinging to life which makes the cross necessary in the first place, also tends us to reject that cross—at least in part. So we have to go over the same ground again and again.

We end up suffering greatly, but to very little purpose. May the Lord deliver us from falling into that state of soul in which crosses are of no benefit to us. God loves a cheerful giver, according to St. Paul in Second Corinthians 9:7. Ah! What must be His love for those who, in cheerful and absolute abandonment, give themselves completely to be crucified with Christ!

Photo above taken from Discovering Beauty

Let It Rest...

2011-11-14T05:50:00.002-06:00

It's amazing what time and the touch of my Father's Spirit will do when I'm "all wet." Clean clothes that are still wet must be readied for wear by hanging for a while in the sun and breeze.

The wind simply does wonders to make us "ready."

While some of our trials may need a little more time than a gentle breeze will take, it's this place of quiet waiting upon the Lord where we learn to say, “He makes all things beautiful (ready) in His time.”

It is in this place of rest where most things receive His finishing touch. "Those who wait upon the Lord will renew "their readiness." Renewed strength means we're "ready for action."

“Thinketh no evil.” 1 Cor. 13:5
“Let it rest!” Ah! How many hearts on the brink of anxiety and disquietude, by this simple sentence have been made calm and happy! Some proceeding has wounded us by its want of tact; let it rest; no one will think of it again. A harsh or unjust sentence irritates us; let it rest; whoever may have given vent to it will be pleased to see it forgotten. A painful scandal is about to estrange us from an old friend, let it rest, and thus preserve our charity and peace of mind. A suspicious look is on the point of cooling our affection, let it rest; our look of trust will restore confidence.

We, who are so careful to remove the briars from our pathway for fear they should wound, yet take pleasure in collecting and piercing our hearts with thorns that meet us in our daily intercourse with one another! How childish and unreasonable we are! The vents made by Time will soon mend if you will let God have His way. GOLD DUST~Streams in the Desert

"The clearest indicator that healing rest has occured is renewed joy in serving." ~anonymous

When, therefore, you see as in a furnace our flesh flowing away to corruption, dwell not on that sight, but wait for the recasting.~John Chrysostom

Picture above from Discovering Beauty: Wind anchors

Heart of Worship

2011-11-13T07:34:00.001-06:00

Heart of Worship

When the music fades
All is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring
Something that's of worth
That will bless Your heart
I'll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart

I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus

King of endless worth
No one could express
How much You deserve
Though I'm weak and poor
All I have is Yours
Every single breath
I'll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart

I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it
And it's all about You,
It's all about You, Jesus
~matt redman

The song dates back to the late 1990s, born from a period of apathy within Matt’s home church, Soul Survivor, in Watford, England. Despite the country’s overall contribution to the current worship revival, Redman’s congregation was struggling to find meaning in its musical outpouring at the time.

“There was a dynamic missing, so the pastor did a pretty brave thing,” he recalls. “He decided to get rid of the sound system and band for a season, and we gathered together with just our voices. His point was that we’d lost our way in worship, and the way to get back to the heart would be to strip everything away.”

Reminding his church family to be producers in worship, not just consumers, the pastor, Mike Pilavachi, asked, “When you come through the doors on a Sunday, what are you bringing as your offering to God?”

Matt says the question initially led to some embarrassing silence, but eventually people broke into a cappella songs and heartfelt prayers, encountering God in a fresh way.

“Before long, we reintroduced the musicians and sound system, as we’d gained a new perspective that worship is all about Jesus, and He commands a response in the depths of our souls no matter what the circumstance and setting. ‘The Heart of Worship’ simply describes what occurred.”

When the music fades, all is stripped away, and I simply come / Longing just to bring something that’s of worth that will bless your heart… / I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about You, Jesus

Redman remembers writing the song quickly in his bedroom soon after the church’s journey together, with no grand intentions, by any means, for it to become an international anthem. He viewed the words simply as his personal, subjective response to what he was learning about worship.

Above pictured: Aunt Ashley having piano time with Marcus.

Tight Places

2011-11-11T07:55:00.003-06:00

Tight places are temporary.
We were not meant to continually dwell in them.
They are seasons that give fresh prespective on soaring. We tend to forget the value of freedom, the beauty of barriers.

Tight places tend to reveal those tensions within that stay concealed in the open places.There will be seasons, days, or passages where you can’t help but be in them.

Our Father is always faithful to provide sufficient space in our tight place…its called HOPE. And in this place of hope we learn not to set our eyes on what is seen, but unseen.

"God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble." ('trouble' in the orginal means..."tight places")

We lose courage when we give more power to the tight places, then to the One who placed us there. There is an embracing of HOPE that allows for liberty in our limitations.

When we find this PLACE of abiding, we stop wondering....How Long?...and start understanding the POWER of “Contentment with Godliness is great gain.” (1 Tim. 6:6)

Tight places are made to set us free from Self's whining desire to always have control. We will know when SELF is still reigning when Squeezed, because it has excuses, and is always pointing to others or circumstances, for its woes. This type of weakness carries a very destructive power, and its weapons do damage, because it only lives by what it sees and feels, longing for physical space, yet finding greater emptiness. Seeing the Glory of God, in the FACE of Christ, will set us free from its power.

But when the Spirit is ruling, it is especially in these places that Christ is being manifested and seen, some times only by HIM.

“An occasional effort, even of an ordinary holiness, may accomplish great acts of sacrifice...Constant discipline in unnoticed ways, and the spirit's silent unselfishness, becoming the hidden habit of the life, give to it its true saintly beauty, and this is the result of care and lowly love in little things. Perfection is attained most readily by this constancy of religious faithfulness in all minor details of life, consecrating the daily efforts of self-forgetting love.”
~T.T. Carter

Living Words

2011-11-08T09:51:00.001-06:00

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.

Prov. 25:11

Words can become something that can bring life and healing.

When our hearts are filled with good things, this is what will overflow unto others. This morning I see the importance of a grateful heart, because there are times when this will need to come from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, especially in the times we live in. When touched in this way, we have something to offer that is “food” for others...to bring life and peace.

Gratitude is the inspiration of heaven's most melodious anthems. Its fruit is joy in the time of mourning, courage in the day of despondency, security in the hour of loneliness, peace in the midst of battle, and satisfaction in spiritual or physical famine. Dorothy Kelley Patterson

I was struck recently with the realization that the Living Water that will flow out from our inner most being will take the form of LIVING WORDS that we speak. "The tongue of the wise commendeth healing." "The lips of the wise are a TREE OF LIFE." Even Jesus said, "My WORDS are SPIRIT THEY are LIFE."

When we are abiding in Christ and being filled with the Holy Spirit, the ministry of truth and life at work within us will overflow in the form of LIVING WORDS of truth spoken in love that will produce life in others.

LIVING WATERS BECOME LIVING WORDS!

Words spoken from our flesh have the power of decay and death!

Words spoken from the Holy Spirit have the power of fruit and life!

The true indicator that we are being filled with the Holy Spirit

is our overflowing with LIVING WORDS!

(E-mail sent by Alan)

The following is a short story told by a friend, that I wanted to include in this "re-post" from the past. Thanks, Kelly. :)
_____Jason was talking to the children last night about the unrest that results in our home when they are constantly arguing.
He told them a story about foxes.

Samson used foxes to bring chaos in the Philistine fields.

He got two of them together and tied their tails with a lit torch in the middle.

The fire did the damage, but the foxes' tails bore the destruction.

Just so, we each have a choice if we will offer our tails to be tied.

The enemy is there, waiting to catch two tails of the heart -- the tongue -- and tie them together, bringing his fire and destruction to our relationships.

The tongue, such a little member, can be itself set on fire by agents of hell.

This blessed me . . . spoke to me . . . while he was speaking it to the children.

May all our words be "helpful for building others up according to their needs, that [they] may benefit those who listen." (Eph. 4:29)

A Steady Gaze in the Mirror

2011-11-07T05:33:00.001-06:00

No one likes to keep their gaze in the mirror too long.
The longer we look, the more we see. I can understand why James says, do not forget what you see when our Father's word reflects our need. We see things about ourselves that are hard to look at sometimes; blemishes that need tending to. One indication that we have forgotten what we have seen is the tendency to see others' faults first. We might come to realize that the Father's beautification of our own lives will do equally great things in others. Remembering our own logs is the key to seeing other's problems as mere specks; for remembering how great a mercy we have received seems to result in seeing others' faults as lesser than our own.

“We may, if we choose, make the worst of one another. Every one has his weak points. Every one has his faults. We may make the worst of these; we may fix our attention constantly upon thee. But we may also make the best of one another. We may forgive, even as we hope to be forgiven.We may put ourselves in the place of others, and ask what we should wish to be done to us, and thought
of us,were we in their place. By loving whatever is lovable in those around us, love will flow back from them to us, and life will become a pleasure instead of a pain. Earth will become like heaven, and we shall become worthy followers of Him whose name is Love. ~A.P. Stanley

“Self-righteousness is being more aware of and irritated by the sins of others than you are conscious of and grieved by your own.” ~Paul Tripp

Captivity

2011-11-05T20:33:00.004-05:00

“If we are to receive benefit from our captivity we must accept the situation and turn it to the best possible account. Fretting over that from which we have been removed or which has been taken away from us, will not make things better, but it will prevent us from improving those which remain. The bond is only tightened by our stretching it to the uttermost.

The impatient horse which will not quietly endure his halter only strangles himself in his stall. The high-mettled animal that is restive in the yoke only galls his shoulders; and everyone will understand the difference between the restless starling of which Sterne has written, breaking its wings against the bars of the cage, and crying, “I can't get out, I can't get out,” and the docile canary that sits upon its perch and sings as if it would out rival the lark soaring to heaven's gate.

No calamity can be to us an unmixed evil if we carry it in direct and fervent prayer to God, for even as one in taking shelter from the rain beneath a tree may find on its branches fruit which he looked not for, so we in fleeing for refuge beneath the shadow of God's wing, will always find more in God than we had seen or known before.

It is thus through our trials an affliction that God gives us fresh revelations of Himself; an the Jabbok ford leads to Peniel, where, as the result of our wrestling, we “see God face-to-face,” and our lives are preserved. Take this to thyself, O captive, and He will give thee “songs in the night,” and turn for thee “the shadow of death into the morning.” ~William Taylor

“Submission to the divine will is the softest pillow on which to recline.”

You are never to complain of your birth, your training, your employments, your hardships; never to fancy that you could be something if only you had a different lot and sphere assigned you. God understands His own plan, and He knows what you want a great deal better than you do. The very things that you most deprecate, as fatal limitations or obstructions, are probably what you most want. What you call hindrances, obstacles, discouragements, are probably God's opportunities. Bring down your soul, or rather, bring it up to receive God's will and do His work, in your lot, in your sphere, under your cloud of obscurity, against your temptations, and then you shall find that your condition is never opposed to your good, but really consistent with it.~Horace Bushnell

Freedom in Prison by Madame Guyon

A little bird I am,
Shut from the fields of air;
And in my cage I sit and sing
To Him who place me there;
Well pleased a prisoner to be,
Because, my God, it pleases Thee.

My cage confines me round;
Abroad I cannot fly;
But though my wing is closely bound,
My heart’s at liberty.
My prison walls can not control
The flight, the freedom of my soul.

Oh, it is good to soar
These bolts and bars above,
To Him whose purpose I adore,
Whose providence I love:
And in thy mighty will to find
The joy, the freedom of the mind.

Eleven Cats in One Room

2011-11-03T14:14:00.003-05:00

Guarding the Issues of our Heart

Whitney's cats (Callie and Theresa) had kittens within one week of each other. Comfortably housed within her room are 11 cats (well, 9 of those are to-be-cats) and a litter box. All 9 have names.

No one said anything about this situation the first month, though everyone knew when Whitney's door was open; you could smell the aroma of cat (ugh!) From time to time I would hear some one call out, “Whitney, close your door!” for air quality control. The situation only grew worse.

Despite her best efforts, Whitney slowly began to realize she was in a dilema. These kittens were getting bigger and every time her door was opened, several little rascals at a time would make a “mad dash” of escape! Whitney's inocent euphoria was giving way to sober apprehension, knowing that when these 'little' cats became a nuisance...out they went! It was only a matter of time, their days were numbered. :) Some cats may have nine lives, but Whitney's darlings did not live them out in our house. We have only one cat today.

What are the issues of life, behind the closed door of my heart?

“Keep thy heart with all diligence: for out of it are

the issues of life.” Prov. 3:23

In the same way Whitney daily watched and cared for her “issues”, do I give as much care to mine?

I have too often experienced the nuisance of some one “letting out” their complaints without allowing their thoughts first to be seasoned with grace and faith. I believe Solomon understood that all “the issues of life” are best dealt with by guarding them with the help of the One who never lacks wisdom. Paul saw this too..

“And God's peace (be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace) which transcends all understanding, shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus". Phil. 4:7

Paul goes on to tell us what “issues” we can allow out of the room... “whatsoever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, if there be any virtue, any praise...these things”

Heavenly Father, teach me how to “Keep my heart” so that any “nuisances” within me will be dealt with by Your Spirit of peace. May Your nearness be my good that allows only that which edifies to come forth today.

Above pictured, the One surviving cat of the Martin household, with Charis (one of the children my daughter baby sits.)

This one of Benjamin was taken around the time period of the writing above. He will be 18 years old soon. Here he is holding one of the 9 that made a mad dash. Poor kitty! A good example of what happens to "issues unchecked"...:)

Trust and Obey

2011-11-02T07:15:00.001-05:00

“I'm holding his shoe for ransom!” Whitney explains to me as she dangles Benny's tennis shoe before me. “You're what?” I asked. “I told him that he would get his shoe back, when his room was clean.”In a moment, here comes Benjamin, with an embarassing smirk on his face, hauling trash out, walking past me - with one shoe on!

I was impressed. It was working. Everyone that lives in this home knows of Benjamin's shoe fetish. I would never have imagined that being used to promote obedience. My older children amaze me with their creative techniques to get their younger siblings to obey. But - wait, there is a problem with this picture!

True obedience should come from a willing heart. There are no rewards in real life for doing what is required in our “up-side-down” world. If we teach our children by incentive alone, rather than relationship....they will miss seeing the root problem of disobedience....SELF LOVE. And they will grow up looking for "what's in it for ME!"

Jesus' call for us to come, deny ourselves, and die was pointing toward a relationship, not just a reward. There will come a point in all of our lives where to “trust and obey” will not hold before our eyes “dangling rewards', but a relationship with Christ far more priceless than anything this world could offer as an incentive.

Many of my own ups and downs have come from this false expectation of having peace without pain, and missing the purpose of His calling for a deeper relationship with my Heavenly Father.

“Obedience to the call of Christ nearly always costs everything to two people- the one who is called, and the one who loves that one. ~Oswald Chambers

"In many ways, the attitude of obedience is much more vital than the act, because if the attitude is right, the act will naturally follow. But the right action with the wrong attitude is nothing but hypocrisy.” ~John MacArthur

A repost, but much needed reminder, "Trust and Obey, for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus....But to trust and obey."

"Faith and obedience are bound up in the same bundle. He that obeys God trusts God; and he that trusts God obeys God. He that is without faith is without works; and he that is without works is without faith."~Charles H. Spurgeon
The Shepherd knows what pastures are best for His sheep, and they must not question or doubt, but trustingly follow Him. ~~H. W. Smith~~
He is too big for her to WIN now. ;)

Sleeping in the Storms

2011-10-31T08:10:00.001-05:00

“And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep. And his disciples came to him and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. But the men marveled, saying, ‘What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!’” Matt. 8:24-27

There is a faith we can have that allows us to meet each storm in our lives with a confidence and calm that expresses itself in a life of spiritual REST. But like the disciples who cry out to Jesus (as he slept) “Lord save us: we perish”, we too hear from our waking savior, not words of comfort, but rebuke, “Oh Ye of little Faith.”

The very One who created life, nature, and man, was close enough to touch, so why this reaction to the storm? Why the panic? What is it about trials, sorrows, and storms that draw out these reactions even though we know God is in control? I’ve observed this in many of my peers and I’ve seen this in myself that this lack of living in the REST of God is often commonly summoned up in three simple words; “Don’t you care?” However, the root issue has more to do with saving self, than trusting God. Jesus went straight to the heart of the matter. He saw through the “Don’t you love us, Lord” issue, to ways we are hindered from going on in our spiritual lives. There are three areas of lack I’ve discovered that point to hindrances of walking by faith.

PRIDE takes on all kinds of forms, but in conflict it can dress itself in depression or defeat. In some ways, those who live in these attributes of pride might very well be sleeping right along with Jesus in the boat, because they have checked out. “A storm? Wake me up when it’s over!” They don’t care, and this form of SELF-PERSERVATION calls out for God to make their world better. Often in conflict and struggles this is the first area that our Heavenly Father touches. J.I. Packer expresses it this way, “ Not until we have become humble and teachable, standing in awe of God's holiness and sovereignty... acknowledging our own littleness, distrusting our own thoughts, and willing to have our minds turned upside down, can divine wisdom become ours.”
Denying SELF, is the first step to understanding true life and freedom in Christ. SAVING SELF was much more on the disciple’s minds than riding out the storm. Corrie Ten Boon says “If a bird is flying for pleasure, it flies with the wind, but if it meets danger it turns and faces the wind, in order that it may fly higher.” Resentment of conflicts will eventually cause the very things you fear the most to destroy you in the end. The bird knows to use the same winds that beat against its chest, to rise above the danger. These storms are designed to take us to His higher, safer destinations.

CONTROL is another chief contributor to our lack of REST. Its expressions are often anxiousness and fretting. No one is allowed to sleep when we are operating in this spirit. We deceive ourselves into believing we need or want something enough that we must wake up our Lord to inform Him. This type of control is similar to the waves of the sea. It reflects a life of one who has continual up and down experiences. They think that what they want is answers, but their true motives are merely peace without conflict. If they can’t command the storm to stop, they look to manipulate the one who can. C.S. Lewis describes it in this way, “We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.” Their self-serving prayers are aimed to be delivered from the discomfort instead of learning endurance in the conflict. This is so foundational in how our own children learn to approach life and understand the love of God. Jesus stopped the storm, not for their comfort, but to expose their unbelief. Many families wonder why their older children do not have more depth, while failing to see that following Christ always has a cost. Do we want our children to be happy, or to take up their cross? Those who grow in faith will allow the conflicts to draw them closer to a deeper understanding of the love of God and His purposes: which are to conform us into Christ’s image.

LACK OF VISION is another reason we rage at the coming waves. We are too prone to trust in our feelings and eyesight. Our emotions become our reality and we fail to see that goodness and mercy are always following close behind. This place of REST (seen in a believer’s life) is a marvel to the world. How can this man sleep, in such a storm? People who lack vision only go as far as they see naturally. Their lives are limited, and you are more apt to see them isolated, safe on the shore, and going nowhere. They have been on that boat, and because they blame others for their own lack of progress, they are not getting on that boat again! Faith was needed to continue, but all they remember is the rough ride. At this juncture, the Father proved their heart, as He did his disciples: it was about them, not HIM. Oswald Chambers sums up the disciples dilemma of faith in this way;

“Our trust is in God up to a certain point, then we go back to the elementary panic prayers of those who do not know God. We get to our wits' end, showing that we have not the slightest confidence in Him and His government of the world; He seems to be asleep, and we see nothing but breakers ahead. "0 ye of little faith!" What a pang must have shot through the disciples - 'Missed it again!' And what a pang will go through us when we suddenly realize that we might have produced down right joy in the heart of Jesus by remaining absolutely confident in Him, no matter what was ahead.

In His presence is fullest of joy. The original meaning of joy here is calm delight. It’s a trust that is mature and settled in heart. It is not shaken by what may seem like chaos in the world. It stands firm, and allows the waves to wash over rather than knock down, knowing that all things work together for them who love God and are called according to His purpose. Those who have come to know this calm delight, have been with Jesus, and are not threatened when He seems silent. They have learned to put their confidence in “things (Him) not seen, but eternal!”

"When thou passest through the waters"
Deep the waves may be and cold,
But Jehovah is our refuge,
And His promise is our hold;
For the Lord Himself hath said it,
He, the faithful God and true:
"When thou comest to the waters

Thou shalt not go down, But through."

Seas of sorrow, seas of trial,
Bitterest anguish, fiercest pain,
Rolling surges of temptation
Sweeping over heart and brain
They shall never overflow us
For we know His word is true;
All His waves and all His billows
He will lead us safely through.

Threatening breakers of destruction,
Doubt's insidious undertow,
Shall not sink us, shall not drag us
Out to ocean depths of woe;
For His promise shall sustain us,
Praise the Lord, whose Word is true!
We shall not go down, or under,
For He saith, "Thou passest through."
--Annie Johnson Flint

Pictured above Wind Torn

A Complete Restoration

2011-10-30T07:14:00.000-05:00

“You will know that God's power is very great for us who believe.” Ephesians 1:19

God loves to decorate. God has to decorate. Let him live long enough in a heart, and that heart will begin to change. Portraits of hurt will be replaced by landscapes of grace. Walls or anger will be demolished and shaky foundations restored. God can no more leave a life unchanged than a mother can leave her child's tear untouched...

This might explain some of the discomfort in your life. Remodeling of the heart is not always pleasant. We don't object when the Carpenter adds a few shelves, but he's been known to gut the entire west wing. He has such high aspirations for you. God envisions a complete restoration. He won't stop until he is finished...He wants you to be just like Jesus. (Taken from Grace For the Moment; Inspirational Thoughts for Each Day; Max Lucado)

To Have or To Hold?

2011-10-27T10:21:00.002-05:00

There can be a big difference in having information and holding truths that have transformed our lives. One is much easier because you have it, and it gives a sense of "well-being" without effort. When we hold something in a way that will change us, not many words will be needed. "There is a vast difference in knowing something, and experiencing Someone intimately."

The difference in holding something means we are learning to labor through the process. We will not let go until we have learned, all our Father has for us in this lesson. This is how we cultivate faith in the every day things of life.

Theory's or fictional stories always have a set end. They are easily shaped and formed, like Castle Building. Always happy endings.

Learning the value of the Hard, makes Holding, deep with meaning. Words carry more weight when few, just as enduring hardship, gives Hope to our Holding.

I'd rather see a sermon,
than hear one any day
I'd rather one would walk with me
than merely tell the way
The eye's a better pupil
and more willing than the ear
Fine counsel is confusing,
but an example's always clear

And the best of all the preachers
are the men who live their creeds
For to see good put in action is
what everybody needs

I soon can learn to do it,
if you'll let me see it done
I can watch your hands in action,
but your tongue too fast may run

And the lecture you deliver
may be very wise and true
But I'd rather get my lessons
by observing what you do
For I might misunderstand you,
and the high advice you give
But there is no misunderstanding
how you act and how you live
~Anonymous

Deal With It

2011-10-26T05:00:00.014-05:00

Anytime you are going to serve, you are going to have messes!
Some of the most enjoyable dishes, even carry the need to be cleaned up.

I remember a visiting family's mother pointing to their child's finished but dirty plate saying “Deal with it.”

It was another way of saying, “Go and wash the plate up, and then put it away.”

When it's a plate, you can do this, but when it is a life, grace and wisdom are needed. It would be so sweet if there was some formula to follow in serving those who are hurting or needy.

This is another aspect of learning to humble our hearts and mind, under the yoke of Jesus. Learning to "hear Him" for the next step.

You can not lean on your own understanding.

When we seek to serve Christ, not all want whats served.

You can not expect a heart without Christ, to know anything about the freedom of a pure and clean life. There are also times, when those who are struggling with vision will cause messes with their words and attitudes.

Sometimes these souls are in our lives for the Lord to expose our own messes to clean up (ie anxiousness, fear, lack of patience and love etc.) It is especially, when we do not have control, that our Father teaches us the importance of letting LOVE serve.

A simple cleansing of the heart is needed.

Our Heavenly Father's still small voice whispers, “Deal with it.”

“I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.” (Ps. 57:2) The beautiful old translation says, “He shall perform the cause which I have in hand.” Does not that make it very real to us today? Just the very thing that “I have in hand”---my own particular bit of work today, this cause that I cannot manage, these things that I undertook in miscalculation of my own powers---this is what I am asking Him to do “for me,” and rest assured that He will perform it. “The wise and their works are in the hands of God.” ~Havergal

“The Lord will go through with His covenant engagements. Whatever He takes in hand He will accomplish; hence past mercies are guarantees for the futrue and admirable reason for continuing to cry unto Him.” C.H. Spurgeon

The real test of a saint is not one's willingness to preach the gospel, but one's willingness to do something like washing the disciples' feet - that is, being willing to do those things that seem unimportant in human estimation but count as everything to God.
~Oswald Chambers

To Function or To Flourish

2011-10-23T05:00:00.004-05:00

When vision is lacking in our lives, it is easier to go into a functioning mode, than to be still and wait. What we do in our times of fog will reveal what our relationship is with the Father. We have mistaken “Seeing Him” too much with “Feeling Him”

“Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him. On those who hope for His loving kindness, to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.” Ps. 33:18-19

Learning to live before Him with hope in famine will render the fruit of a leaf that does not wither. (Ps. 1:3) We have been planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season. Flourishing then becomes a way of life. Many have learned to function by those things that are temporary (relationship, activities or duties) but those who flourish have set their affections on eternal things.

“What do our heavy hearts prove?~that other things are sweeter to us than His will, that we have not attained to the full mastery of our true freedom the full perception of its power, that our son ship is yet but faintly realized, and its blessedness not yet proved and known. Our consent would turn our trials into obedience. By consenting we make them our own, and offer them with ourselves again to Him. ~H.E. Manning

The following was shared today by a brother in the fellowship here:
"What is the strength of the Christian life? Whence has its power?

Let me give you the answer in a sentence:
The Christians secret is his rest in Christ!
The Christians power is derived from his God-given position.
All who sit (that is, all who rest in Christ) can walk (live godly productive lives before men),
for in the thoughts of God the one follows the other spontaneously.
We sit forever with Christ that we may walk continuously before men. Forsake for a moment our place of rest in Him, and immediately we are tripped and our testimony in the world in marred. But, abide in Christ, and our position there ensures the power to walk worthy of him here!"
by Watchmen Nee, quoted from Sit, Walk, Stand Tyndale House Publishers 1977, pp 22-23 (I added the words in parentheses)

Pictured above
leaf of many colors

God Can Make...

2011-10-18T06:07:00.001-05:00

The strain of my misery

into the strength of His mercy

The storm of my feeling

into the serenity of His faith

The wound of my hurt

into the wonder of His healing

The bread of my adversity

into the beauty of His adoration

The torment of my failure

into the triumph of His favor

The guilt of my sin

into the grace of His salvation

The confusion of my wandering

into the clarity of His ways

The bitterness of my rebellion

into the beauty of His righteousness

The groan of my wrestling

into the glory of His resting

God Can Make...

....all things beautiful in His time.

The poem above was written by Alan several years ago.

Hope in God's promises, therefore, is not a wishful longing but a faith-filled confidence for the future. It is simply impossible to trust one of God's promises and not anticipate its coming true. To know God is to trust Him. And to trust God is to trust His promises. And to trust God's promises is to be sure of their fulfillment. This assurance concerning the future, anchored in God's promises, is what the Bible calls "hope." ~Scott Hafemann
The God of Promise and the Life of Faith. Crossway Books, 2001, p. 109.

Hope fills the afflicted soul with such inward joy and consolation, that it can laugh while tears are in the eye, sigh and sing all in a breath; it is called “the rejoicing of hope” (Hebrews 3:6).

~William Gurnall A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 144.

Every Christian who struggles with depression struggles to keep their hope clear. There is nothing wrong with the object of their hope – Jesus Christ is not defective in any way whatsoever. But the view from the struggling Christian's heart of their objective hope could be obscured by disease and pain, the pressures of life, and by Satanic fiery darts shot against them… All discouragement and depression is related to the obscuring of our hope, and we need to get those clouds out of the way and fight like crazy to see clearly how precious Christ is. ~ John Piper

The three above quotes were taken from: Grace Christian Quotes

Moment by Moment

2011-10-17T10:40:00.001-05:00

Learning to live a day by day, moment by moment life, will give us smaller increments to deal with at a time. What wonderful wisdom we see in our Heavenly Father's creation in this matter. He created seasons, night and day, 24 hours, 60 minutes... He divided them, He saw that this was good. He knew in advance, unlike Him, our abilities to handle life would need divisions of time.

It's when we take our concern outside of these boundaries that grace lifts. Grace comes when we trust HIM with the present, not look to the future. Anxious means to be divided of mind, and thinking outside of our limits will multiply our troubles.

WHAT Thou shalt to-day provide,
Let me as a child receive;
What to-morrow may betide,
Calmly to Thy wisdom leave.
Tis' enough that Thou wilt care;
Why should I the burden bear? ~John Newton

Never put down trust,
because that is something God wants you to carry;
Never pick up cares,
because that is something God wants you to cast away.
~Roy Lessin Devotional

“Have we found that anxiety about possible consequences increased the clearness of our judgment, made us wiser and braver in meeting the present, and arming ourselves for the future? If we had prayed for this day's bread, and left the next to itself- if we had not huddled our days together, not allotting to each its appointed task, but ever deferring that to the future, and drawing upon the future for its own troubles, which must be met when they come whether we have anticipated them or not – we should have found a simplicity and honesty in our lives, a capacity for work, an enjoyment in it to which we are now, for the most part, strangers.” ~ F.D. Maurice

Suffering Belongs to the Living, Not the Dead

2011-10-16T06:24:00.002-05:00

Taken from Let Go
by Fenelon

Many are deceived into thinking that the death of self is the cause of all the agony they feel. But that which is dead does not agonize. The more finally and completely we die to self, the less pain we experience.

Death is only painful to he who resists it. Self always resist death, because of its intense desire to live!

The imagination works over time, exaggerating the terrors of death. The spirit argues endlessly that the life of self is simply the natural thing. Self-love fights against death, like a sick man in his last struggle. But regardless of the protests of self, we must die inwardly as well as outwardly. The sentence of death has gone forth against the Spirit as well as against the body. The body must die because of sin. But the spirit must die to sin, and to itself.

Be sure that your spirit dies (to itself) and then our bodily death will be as peaceful as falling asleep. Happy are they who sleep this sleep of peace.

Quotes from Norman Grubb on Dieing to Self

"Because we ourselves have so much of the old grave clothes still clinging to us, we are quick to see those same characteristics in others."

"God uses evil to bring about good — not causing it, but using it."

"We have one great enemy of faith — within us, and not in our circumstances ---- fear of the visible. ( We see five loaves & two fishes - Jesus saw His Father’s unlimited supply.)"

"Leave Him to mind His own business. The heat is on Him to do the keeping!"

“… self-improvement is both a sin and an impossibility.

Trust in God's Timing

2011-10-15T09:14:00.000-05:00

This is God's way. In the darkest hours of the night, His tread draws near across the billows. As the day of execution is breaking, the angel comes to Peter's cell. When the scaffold for Mordecai is complete, the royal sleeplessness leads to a reaction in favor of the favored race.

Ah, soul, it may have to come to the worst with thee ere thou art delivered; but thou wilt be delievered! God may keep thee waiting, but He will ever be mindful of His covenant, and will appear to fulfill His inviolable Word.~F.B.Meyer

There's a simplicity about God in working out His plans, yet a resourcefulness equal to any difficulty, and an unswerving faithfulness to His trusting child, and an unforgetting steadiness in holding to His purpose. Through a fellow-prisoner, then a dream, He lifts Joseph from a prison to a premiership. And the length of stay in the prison prevents dizziness in the premier. It's safe to trust God's methods and to go by His clock. ~S.D. Gordon

Providence hath a thousand keys to open a thousand sundry doors for the deliverance of His own, when it is even come to a desperate case. Let us be faithful; and care for our own part which is to suffer for Him, and lay Christ's part on Himself, and leave it there. ~George MacDonald

Difficulty is the very atmosphere of miracle--it is a miracle in its first stage. If it is to be a great miracle, the condition is not difficulty but impossiblility. The clinging hand of His child makes a desperate situation a delight to Him.

Taken from Devotions for Morning and Evening (with Mrs. Charles E. Cowman)

The Sound of Distant Laughter

2011-10-13T18:51:00.001-05:00

These past two weeks have been filled with more laughter, than I can remember. Last night, several of my children and I laughed ourselves to tears. Then the shadows come, and you quickly forget the laughter. It is strange how when the lights dim, the gift of laughter is hard to find sometimes. I think darkness is given to teach us to REMEMBER the things we can not see, and value the things that we take for granted. They teach us to walk by Faith, and not by Sight or how we feel. It reminded me of a very old journal writing, that I thought I would re-post. Shadows will pass, but His faithfulness is always present, when its dark and when light is filling the room with laughter.

It was dark and quiet. All were lying down for the night; then I heard the laughter. My head laid down comfortably on my pillow, and my first thought was “I really should tell them (the boys) to quiet down and get to sleep”, but for some reason, just this night, the laughter ministered to me. It has been an intense week. I have noticed that as we grow older the blows of life take us down longer than when we were younger.

Laughter is more of a gift than a common friend.

As I reflect on the difference between the young and the old, I see one clear difference between the two. The young have the ability to trust in those who care for them to carry their loads. Laughter and joy come easy, for trust is the air they breathe. So why can I not learn from them?

Heavenly Father, I give you my load today. Yes, I trust You to handle it better than I. Let Your joy and laughter flow through my life, as a clear song to the honor of You, of a life of faith.

One who knows how to walk in laughter and joy in the deepest sense, has learned how to sing their songs in the darkest nights. They are the children of the Father who have learned the secret of a trust and assurance of His love. They know of the hiding place of rest. They carry the treasures of knowing Him. They walk with Him, alone and find His approval far more important than anything this world could ever offer.

"Spirit filled souls are ablaze for God. They love with a love that glows. They serve with a faith that kindles. They serve with a devotion that consumes. They hate sin with fierceness that burns. They rejoice with a joy that radiates. Love is perfected in the fire of God." ~Samuel Chadwick

The above was penned about the same time the picture was taken; many, many moons ago.

Also remembering an older post of Whitney's....
http://lessonsthroughthelens.blogspot.com/2010/12/out-of-all-gods-creatures-he-made-us.html

Also another beautiful reminder of the beauty of "seeing in the dark"
http://www.aholyexperience.com/2011/10/slowing-to-see-the-fullness-of-life/

Default or Devotion

2011-10-12T07:29:00.001-05:00

We can easily default to an acquired habit and let our base line of operation rule, instead of being RULED by His spirit. This is why it is so important to renew our hearts and minds, and not live by “automatic” settings. It might seem easier to live by this mode of operation, but we will miss out on so much when we do. There have been several ways which default has replaced devotion in my own life. One way has been when Convenience comes before CHRIST. We are tempted to allow those issues that we COUNT dear to us (like "MY" time) lead us...instead of simple consecration to Christ (HIS time always). His yoke is where we want to be ("Calvary" take me away). It's a yoke that fits and will always take us where He calls us to go. Calgon only leads to having to clean the bathtub when you're done.

Hannah Whitall Smith expresses what this is like...
“I have noticed that wherever there has been a faithful following of the Lord in a consecrated soul, several things have inevitably followed, sooner or later. Meekness and quietness of spirit become in time the characteristics of the daily life. A submissive acceptance of the will of God as it comes in the hourly events of each day; pliability in the hands of God to do or to suffer all the good pleasure of His will; sweetness under provocation; calmness in the midst of turmoil and bustle; yieldingness to the wishes of others, and an insensibility to slights and affronts; absence of worry or anxiety; deliverance from care and fear;---all these, and many similar graces, are invariably found to be the natural outward development of that inward life which is hid with Christ in God.”

Another default is Doing rather than Being. Our agenda and plans can give us a false sense of security when all the externals are taken care of. It's easy to find fulfillment in the doing, rather than in the Being. Character before Charts. Charts are a great idea for keeping records and bringing order to a home, BUT they can be done totally void of heart. If our curriculum does not first include the heart issues of our children and ourselves, then all we are doing is providing Head knowledge. We are simply teaching our children how to live externally acceptable lives before men, without any fear of God. The reason the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, is because it is dealing with His all seeing eyes on all that we are in the hidden places. Knowledge might take them far in the world, but KNOWING HIM will prepare them for eternity. He sees the hidden things of the heart. Devotion may lead us to change up the charts, and deal with hearts.

“Christianity is not a doctrine, not truth as truth, but the knowledge of a Person; it is knowing the Lord Jesus. You cannot be educated into being a Christian.” T. Austin Sparks

“Godliness is the devotion of the soul to God, as to a living person whose will is to be its law, whose love is to be its life. It is the habit of living before the face of God, and not simply doing certain things. ~J.B.Brown

Last but not least, Limiting Him. It's one thing to be limited, its another to limit. The one who is giving or taking, is the one who has control. In a subtle way we can seek to control even while being limited, by discontentment or jumping over set boundaries. Devotion here looks like contentment rather than control.

“It is not the multitude of hard duties, it is not constraint and contention that advance us in our Christian course. On the contrary it is the yielding of our wills without choice, to tread cheerfully every day in the path in which Providence leads us, to seek nothing, to be discouraged by nothing, to see our duty in the present moment, to trust all else without reserve to the will and power of God. ~Fenelon

I was also encouraged by Whitney's post today
http://lessonsthroughthelens.blogspot.com/2011/10/falls-flowers.html
Also the picture above, is from her daily posting of Discovery Beauty
http://discoveringbeauty365.blogspot.com/

Fret Not (Ps. 37:1)

2011-10-10T13:43:00.000-05:00

I was encouraged by the following from my daily reading of Streams in the Dessert.

Fret Not
This to me is a divine command; the same as "Thou shalt not steal." Now let us get to the definition of fretting. One good definition is, "Made rough on the surface." "Rubbed, or worn away"; and a peevish, irrational, fault-finding person not only wears himself out, but is very wearing to others. To fret is to be in a state of vexation, and in this psalm we are not only told not to fret because of evildoers, but to fret not "in anywise." It is injurious, and God does not want us to hurt ourselves.

A physician will tell you that a fit of anger is more injurious to the system than a fever, and a fretful disposition is not conducive to a healthy body; and you know rules are apt to work both ways, and the next step down from fretting is crossness, and that amounts to anger. Let us settle this matter, and be obedient to the command, "Fret not." ~Margaret Bottome

"The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it. Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus.

~Hudson Taylor

“Worry is the antithesis of trust. You simply cannot do both. They are mutually exclusive.”~Elizabeth Elliot

We learn in STEPS, not YEARS

2011-10-07T14:15:00.000-05:00

The following is a letter Alan wrote to a friend, struggling with how the knowledge of the truth, becomes the steps of our hearts. Its easy to get side-tracked, when we listen to our "own experience" of defeat, instead of the Spirits whispers of "Come."

This is the struggle we have all faced - the struggle of faith. I am confident that you will be brought into that place where you realize His desire for you is backed by His ability to you. This is why we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within. As we learn to abide in Christ or walk in the Holy Spirit (keeping in step) we begin to draw from the very life of Jesus His provision for our every need. When we need self-control - His Spirit ministers His strength to us in the very moment. This is part of learning to live THROUGH Christ who strengthens us. As we learn to live THROUGH the grace He is giving us moment by moment, we begin to be able to do ALL THINGS THROUGH HIM who strengthens us. Then we will say like Paul, I NO LONGER LIVE BUT CHRIST JESUS LIVES IN ME and the life I NOW LIVE in the body, I LIVE BY FAITH in the Son of God Who loves me and gave Himself for me.

The entire ministry of the Holy Spirit is to take everything that is so natural to Jesus and make it available to us moment by moment. This is described as "partaking of the divine nature." It is His nature, but we partake of it through receiving His help moment by moment. Part of the struggle all of us have experienced is learning to "put to death" the practices (deeds) of the body. We must be "TRANSFORMED" by the renewing of our mind to begin to discern the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God - moment by moment. The transformation from the mind of the flesh to the new renewed mind of the Spirit is a process -BUT that process need not take years. It takes "steps" achieved through constant practice just like the book of Hebrews states quite frankly. "Solid food is for the mature who by reason of use (by practice) have exercised their senses to discern good and evil."

The Holy Spirit will teach you how to deny the old man, and receive the grace of Christ in place of the old man's ways. Inconsistency, and apathy can lengthen this process far beyond the time it should take. That's why the writer of Hebrews stated "for though by this time you OUGHT TO BE teachers, you need someone to teach you again the rudimentary principles all over again." So, yes, it will take steps of progression. You will have to learn the ways of the Holy Spirit, but it need not take as long as it did for me. "HE WHO WALKS WITH THE WISE BECOMES WISE." If you will hear carefully and apply diligently, the process will be much shorter for you than it has been for us.

Contentment and Godliness

2011-10-06T11:21:00.000-05:00

Contentment and Godliness are traveling companions.

You can't separate these two.

You can't have one without the other...

If they are separated...

Contentment will settle for little,

(like the man who buried his talent)

Godliness will boast of nothing

(all form, but no power)

Together, they are great gain.

There is great gain because they have ONE Vision.

The hope of glory, found in the face of Christ.

This is why, in whatever circumstance you find them,
they STAY on the road, and keep walking.

Struggles, Storms, Stresses...do not slow their pace. They are
on a mission that is more important than their own comfort.

When we fail to see their connection, we complain, and
like the rest of the world, live roller coaster (ie up and down)
lives.

"The secret of contentment is the realization that life is a gift, not a right."~author unknown

"True contentment is a real, even an active, virtue---not only affirmative but creative. It is the power of getting out of any situation all there is in it." ~G.K. Chesterton

Surrender is Not a Heroic Sacrifice, But a Simple Sinking Into the Will of God

2011-10-05T07:11:00.000-05:00

LET GO by Fenelon
Letter 34 (emphasis is mine)

Your only assignment, my dear daughter, is to be strong in faith, no matter what your weaknesses. “When I am weak,” says Paul, “then am I strong.” Strength is made perfect in weakness. We are only strong in the Lord in proportion to the weakness we sense in ourselves. So your weakness will turn out to be your strength if you accept it humbly.

Sometimes we are tempted to believe that weakness and humility are not compatible with the surrendered life. This is because we tend to think of surrender as the great thing we do when we want to show God how much we love Him, and how heroically we are willing to sacrifice everything. But a true surrender to God has nothing to do with such a flattering description as that.

Let me tell you what a real surrender is. It is simply resting in the love of God, as a little baby rest in its mother's arms. A perfect surrender must even be willing to quit surrendering, if that is what God wants! We renounce ourselves, and yet, God never lets us know when it is complete. If we knew, it would no longer be complete, for there is nothing that bolsters the ego quite so much as knowing that it is fully surrendered!

Surrender consists, not in doing great, heroic deeds about which self can brag, but simply in accepting whatever God sends, and not seeking to change it (unless it is His will for it to be changed). Full surrender is full peace. If we are restless and concerned about things formerly renounced, we have not genuinely surrendered. Surrender is the source of true peace; if we aren't at peace, it is because our surrender is not complete.

Song by Joe Garrity
Sweet Surrender
http://www.godlychristianmusic.com/music/play2.aspx?id=1040&type=song.mp3

Two Marbles

2011-10-04T14:10:00.000-05:00

We were visiting friends and my fascinated 6 year old (Benjamin) was playing with their bag of marbles.

He had never played with marbles before – and absolutely LOVED them.

He loved them, too much.

Two weeks later, he stuck his hand in his pocket and slowly pulled out two marbles – and before the little colorful balls could touch the ground, his brother chided him,

“Benny, you got those at the Godfreys!”

The marbles were sent back, with a note. Benjamin did not know of my own plans to buy him a bag of his own.

Wisdom would desire to teach us that there are times when loving something too much, blinds us from the so much more our Father has for us.

Sin is deceitful like that, it robs us of the full enjoyment of the Best Things by substituting the Best for "questionably Good Things"

The value of Best Things is lost through sin's deceitful lure towards "the good."

If we understood the importance of waiting for God's Best, we wouldn't grab so quickly at the first flickering toy (ie our desires and plans).

The BEST Things come to those who wait. "Every good and PERFECT gift comes from the Father of Heavenly lights who does not change like the shifting shadows."

A lot of things look better in the shadows than they do in the full light.

“Our eyes when gazing on sinful objects, are out of their calling and God's keeping.” Thomas Fuller

“God never witholds from His child that which His love and wisdom call good. God’s refusals are always merciful — “severe mercies” at times but mercies all the same. God never denies us our hearts desire except to give us something better.” — Elisabeth Elliot

Adaptation with Joy

2011-10-03T08:59:00.001-05:00

Adaptation is Surrender with her shoes on, ready to shift circumstances with a smile.

The only way this is possible is to learn that people are more important than plans.

“A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” Proverbs 16:9

Adapting is another way we learn to Abide in Christ. There is only ONE PLACE that never changes and gives our feet sure footing..."near to the heart of God.”

This is a spiritual state of a heart consistently at rest.

When we learn to abide, even as we adapt our plans, we enjoy an assurance that teaches us the value of submission.

Those who have learned the importance of Adaptation understand why JOY can COUNT her blessing even in unsettling circumstances.

When we do not learn this adaptation with joy, we are faced with another alternative:

Unbelief's children: Struggles and Stress. Struggle and Stress both have spiritual ADD (attention deficit disorder) and never have their mind stayed upon the Lord long enough to enjoy His peace.

Surrender has shoes

Joy has Springs

Joy sits up high, on the abiding rock, and sees the adventure of perseverance.

Joy in the Journey
(by Michael Card)

There is a joy in the journey

There's a light we can love on the way.

There is a wonder and wildness to life,

and freedom for those who obey.

All who seek it shall find it,

a pardon for all who believe.

Hope for the hopeless and sight for the blind

To all who've been born of the Spirit

and who share incarnation with Him;

who belong to eternity, stranded in time,

and weary of struggling with sin.

Forget not the hope that's before you,

and never stop counting the cost,

Remember the hopelessness when you were lost?