I lift up my hands in prayer – presenting myself wide open and vulnerable before You, God. I trust You.
I lift my hands in awe and amazement and then spread them far out in front of me as I kneel down with my head to the ground. You are holy. The palms of my hands press against the cool earth, a reminder of where I came from, that I’m really dust. How is it that you care about me, God? Continue reading
Someone I dearly love has been wrestling with lies from the enemy and shared more openly with me tonight about it. As I listened I got mad, furious that he would torment her and give her such ideas, ideas to harm herself. I reminded her that he doesn’t care about her and she doesn’t have to listen. She said she needs a miracle. The beautiful thing is that we serve a God who does miracles all the time. Read this and be encouraged:
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(I posted this on my old blog a few years ago – I want to post it again)
Our spiritual enemy wants the opposite of what God wants for each of us. He will use lots of different tactics to try to drag us away and turn from God.
In order to defend yourself or even have a chance at defeating an enemy, you must know about the enemy. Here are a few things you need to remember about our spiritual enemy, the devil: Continue reading
I don’t know what’s ahead tomorrow; don’t even know what’s ahead in a few hours or two minutes from now. But it’s going to be good.
It may be something different from what I plan. It may hurt. It may make me laugh. I might be overjoyed or concerned, scared, relieved, bewildered or surprised but I belong to a good God so it’s going to be good. Good doesn’t necessarily mean “happy” or comfortable or even pleasant. There’s a deeper good that God knows and wants to give.
My God who keeps His promises. My God who loves and loves and loves. We can’t out-give Him. He is good.
Sadly, the hard stuff of life can sometimes cause me to see God as indifferent, angry, or unkind. What if instead I saw Him as He is: a wholly devoted, attentive, compassionate Dad who can relate to how I feel in every moment.
Have you ever bought a gift for someone and you know it’s exactly what they want and waiting until it’s time to give it to them is almost unbearable? You just can’t wait to give it to them because you know how happy they will be and you want to make them happy because you love them. God probably has to restrain Himself from bowling us over with revelations, blessings, and knowledge of outcomes because it’s for our good, because it’s not time yet or we’re not ready to receive what He has for us yet. I think He can hardly wait to help us and show us all that He has planned. I imagine it’s especially hard for Him when He has to remain silent, watching while we cry out, all so that we will search more, grow more, and become stronger.
Sometimes when talking with friends about things I don’t understand we say that when we get to heaven we can ask God about it. Maybe then He’ll finally show me what it was all about or why certain things happened.
You know what? I don’t think I will care at that point! When I see Him face to face – the One who somehow shrunk His vastness down into the tiny, frail body of a human baby and grew up among the limited, common folks He Himself made out of dust, and then actually gave his life up for all of us because of unrelenting love – I think all I will be able to say is “thank you.”
All the stuff that happened here will be wiped from my memory and won’t matter anymore. All that will matter is that it drove me to Jesus and helped me get home.
It’s going to be so good.
“…open your eyes and see—how good God is.
Blessed are you who run to him.” Psalm 34:8 The Message
“You bless all of those who trust you, LORD.” Psalm 40:4 CEV
It takes someone outside of me to help me see behaviors and pinpoint thoughts/perceptions that aren’t healthy. Whenever I spend time with my sis, I learn so much. She is very perceptive and wise and is one of those friends for me who speaks truth into my heart and life. I take it from her because I’m secure in her love. She knows me and doesn’t judge me.
Sitting at my kitchen table a few mornings ago, somehow we began talking about connecting to people and trying to fill the need in our hearts to connect with stuff other than intimacy with God. Jodi asked me what I was afraid of. I hadn’t thought I was afraid of anything but as we sat there and I thought about it I realized I am afraid of being alone and lonely. I’m having a hard time watching my old friends from our old church grow more closely together, even though that is wonderful and what’s supposed to happen, because I feel I’m drifting away from them. I’m missing my college girls – and anticipating when my youngest also leaves – and realize they’ve been some of my closest friends all throughout their growing up years and now they are moving on, so to speak. Continue reading
My sister arrived today from Phoenix to visit for a few days. I was able to take those days off of work and so now we can do whatever our little hearts desire. We have no big set agenda and we love it that way. Well, Five Guys is definitely going to happen somewhere in the mix. We might take a walk or two or three, might sit by the lake and watch the sun reflect on the water while we visit, might eat some ice cream, might just drive around through the open countryside and listen to music, will most definitely have some good laughs and heart-to-hearts.
She’s not much of a shopper so I asked her if she would still enjoy walking around the downtown square of Noblesville sometime this weekend. She asked me, “Will you be there?” I said, “Well yeah!” She said, “Then I want to do that.”
I love my sister.
I played piano for a beautiful wedding yesterday. The bride and groom looked awfully young to me…and happy. Just like so many of us, they’ve thought about this day for a long time and repeat the vows after the minister with smiles while looking intently into the other’s eyes. Hopefully this moment will just be the start for them of committing to each other and keeping their promises.
I remember well looking into John’s eyes way back in 1988 as we gave our word to one another, our hearts saying “This is for life. I’m in this no matter what.” If God had shown us that day all that we’d encounter together as the years rolled by we’d have been overwhelmed. I like to think we’d both still be game, but we’d certainly be less starry-eyed and looking a little more like deer in the headlights.
It’s probably good that in the wedding ceremony the minister doesn’t go into detail in the vows, Continue reading
Krissy and I read a great devotional thought this morning written by Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay, in the daily email devotional I get from Relevant Magazine. (I love Relevant by the way.) He related Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of motion to our life of faith in this world. It gave me some great “ponder fodder” or food for thought as I drove to work.
If you took Physics in school, you remember that the first law of motion basically says that an object, once moving, will keep moving unless some outside force encounters or impacts it. Continue reading
It’s one of our favorite family laughs. We were living in Las Cruces, New Mexico and had been teaching our girls a little bit about constellations: the big dipper, little dipper, the north star, and Orion’s belt. They had fun looking for them in the wide, clear desert sky at night. All three shared a bedroom and while out shopping one day we picked up a package of glow-in-the-dark stars to put up on their wall. I put them up while they were at school one day and arranged them into some of the constellations, hoping the girls would recognize them when the lights went out. 
Bedtime rolled around and all three were tucked in. After we said our prayers, I asked, “Are you ready to see your stars?” Continue reading
I watched “The Sixth Sense” for the first time, believe it or not, on Friday night. I’m becoming a fan of M. Night Shyamalan’s early movies. They’re so interesting and thought-provoking.
You know me, I tend to link up things I see with spiritual matters, looking for illustrations to real life from what I’ve watched on-screen. I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie but one of the biggest lessons one of the main characters learns is to not be terrified of ghosts (dead people) that he sees, even though many of them are pretty ghastly. They appear to him the way they were when they died or were killed so I don’t blame him for wanting to keep far away from them! Continue reading
I don’t have any wise answers.
I don’t know what the outcome will be.
I do know how it feels like a surprise punch in the gut to receive bad news, or at least news we hoped would be different
I don’t plan on quoting lots of Scriptures to you.
I don’t plan on downplaying your emotions.
I do plan on standing with you and hopefully bolstering your strength.
Take my hand, we can even link arms like when we were kids and played Red Rover,
“Red rover, red rover, hey cancer come over
We’re ready for you
Me and my friend here
The one who’s not alone
In fact, if you look on the other side of her you’ll see some of our other friends linking up too, our line stretching and growing
In fact, if you look more closely you’ll see Jesus down there on the end. He’s our anchor.
You’ll have a hard time knocking us over or breaking through.
There’s too much love on our side, God-given peace and strength you can’t understand or explain. You might as well give up and go home.”
To the enemy, with the overwhelming love and tenacity building in my heart I almost feel I could take you on myself
To my friend, you know who you are
If you get tired or sad or afraid lean on me as I lean on Jesus.
Look! There’s hope ahead. Healing in ways only God can dream up and bestow. Love and faith, freedom from fear. Laughter and dare we say…joy.
Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, can tear you away from God’s fiercely faithful and loving embrace.
Rest in that truth tonight, my sweet friend. I asked God if every thought of you could be considered a prayer and He said “sure.”
I love you.
Along the Narrow Path 