StrawberryRoan

This is love

2012-02-14T14:38:00.000-08:00

““A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”” John 13:34-35 NIV

Does your love show through in the things you say, think and do?
Do people know, by your love, that you are His child?
Let your love show, today and always!

An audience of One

2012-02-08T10:58:00.000-08:00

Matthew 6:4
so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Pray in secret. Give in secret. But it isn't a secret if God knows! It is only secret from people. That is to combat our human tendency to compete. We want to be the fastest, the best, the wisest, the most commented upon or followed. We crave that very thing which caused Satan to fall and that is our own pride fulfilled. It is like emptying the ocean with a thimble.

Pray in secret. Give in secret. Write not for the comments, cash or accolades but for Him. Write, sing, pray, create and live for Him.

It takes a lot to put ourselves out there creatively. We risk judgement, ridicule, misunderstanding or worse not being noticed at all!

A friend wrote about judgement today, you can read about it here (Thanks Carey!) and it really really convicted me. It made me pray. It made me think.

We serve. We pray. We love. We give. We offer ourselves and actions to God as a blessing. We obey when He prompts us to action. We listen for the whisper of the Holy Spirit. We don't own it though.

We may wash the feet of a sister or a brother. We care enough to serve them. But it ends there for us. We don't own their feet, nor the cleansing. We gave it away, freely, as a love offering. Those don't have strings.

We don't get to question or judge whether they walk in dirt or mud again. It's not our affair, even if we did wash their feet.

God blesses us with the words, images, art and song to lift up our brothers and sisters. We give it as a love offering. It is no longer ours to covet. It is no longer ours to expect praise for. We've done it for God, and it belongs to Him.

BUT WAIT...THERE IS MORE! Our job is not done!

Romans 12:8
if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

God also expects His children to love, encourage, serve and care for each other. We are supposed to be the encouragers to others! We are supposed to show them love and grace. We are to lift them up. Love them.

We don't get to ask for that back. (part of me cries here though - we shouldn't have to ask should we? if we are to encourage each other that assumes a two way exchange of encouragement doesn't it?)

We don't get to ask for that back. God already has asked for it back, for us! Encourage each other. Lift each other up. Be there for each other in prayer, love and in actions.

Our love offerings are given to God, for His use to encourage our brothers and sisters. To convict them. To challenge them. To bring them to song or prayer. To move them to action against wrong. They are for His use. We write, sing, love, pray and serve for an audience of One.

Matthew 25:40
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

We serve Him by serving each other! We show God's love by loving. We show how life lived in grace looks by living it out loud. Actively. By words. By actions.

God blessed you with skills and talents to be used for His glory. They may not be the ones you wish you had or the ones you wish He'd use. But they are exactly what He knows is needed when He calls for them. Can we be obedient to that?

Can we truly read someone's efforts, and leave some love?
Can we see a call for help and answer it?
Can we really pray when we type 'praying'?
Can we reach out our hands and hearts wholly?
Can we truly say, Your will and not my own?

If the only feedback you got was from God - would you be excited to hear His words or terrified? Let's be overjoyed that He is our audience of One, let's be so excited we tremble that we can be His children. Let's be the reason someone looks closer at our faith because of our joy, because we live under grace, because of Him.

What's your poverty?

2012-02-03T09:06:00.000-08:00

What do you have? Is it better than what I have? Can I have it? I want it. I think.

God opened a door yesterday and I went through, in faith, and I met a person on the other side I did not know. I thought I knew her, but I didn't! She wasn't who I thought she was and I wasn't who she thought I was. It was very good to talk to a sister in Christ who approaches things so differently from I and yet we share the same foundation, the same belief.

The one thing we talked about that could have been a sensitive issue was poverty and money. I never thought about it the way she does and she had not considered how I look at it. It was enlightening. Neither was out to change the other's mind. We were talking.

She emailed me this morning to clarify what she had said. She was afraid she had offended me. I wasn't offended, and I messaged her back saying that. But it still weighs upon my heart what we talked about. We each saw the same concept, the same word in such different ways.

Consider that. Two sisters, in Christ. Faith filled, redeemed by grace, understanding our words and works are nothing without grace and love. And yet on this issue and one other we are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Not in conflict because we are not judging or questioning, we are seeking to understand.

In what I saw as abundance she saw poverty. Where I saw friends as family, she saw only family OR friends. What I saw as a chance to see yourself as a blessing she saw as her being bereft at making a wrong choice.

Instead of arguing, we explored and found that much like a sphere, you can be on side very far apart and yet that makes you on the other side very close together.

She still may think I'm a bit crazy! And I will still worry for her heart. But we neither judged nor tried to discount the other's path. What a richness and joy that is! What a blessing! Her strong faith leads her, just as mine does me. But God in His great wisdom does not have us walking the same paths, roads or wandering the same deserts.

When we talk about hot trigger words like poverty with other believers are we speaking with our hearts tuned to God? Or are we so certain in our rightness that we feel righteous? There are many kinds of poverty - poverty of physical needs, poverty of spirit, poverty of fellowship and poverty of _____________.

God doesn't just speak of physical poverty, He speaks of poverty of spirit as well. If you have all the physical abundance in the world and don't have a richness in your soul then you too are sitting in poverty.

In the town I live near there are many huge homes and fancy yards. The secret is what is inside. Very often yard furniture or nothing. The people invested everything they had in an outward show of wealth and were left with a hollow, empty space to live in. This is much like our hearts as well...so much of our lives can be dedicated to the exterior that we neglect the soul, the spirit, the Temple.

It wasn't a word I would have chosen to use, poverty, because I see it in quite a different way. But to her it felt and looked just like it should. And it wasn't acceptable to her family, to her. And she felt led by God to go back to a place where she had an abundance to share with her brothers and sisters. Her path. I pray she finds her way and is blessed as she travels it.

How do you share your abundance? Do you question if you have anything to share? We all do! God gives us an abundance in the poverty of life without Him. Are we going to share our talents, gifts and time? Are we going to be bold and ask to be shown how to find abundance in our poverty?

I normally share a verse, but I invite you to share the verses that speak to you on this!

Heart's overflow

2012-01-17T07:43:00.000-08:00

Matthew 12:34

"For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of."

Twenty two verses. Twenty two verses with heart and mouth in them. God knows our hearts and mouths are closely tied to each other. He also knows which drives which. Heart filled with love overflows to a mouth expressing love.

Blackie is a cow who is governed by her mouth, she loves to eat!

Deuteronomy 30:14
No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

God also knows our mouths can say what is not in our hearts, but that it is not truth. God also knows that more often than not when we speak from the heart it is truth. For good or ill, our hearts really do overflow into our words.

You know that person, perhaps you shared the mirror this morning, whose mouth twists and even when loving words are said they are covered in venom. We all have those days where the love just doesn't seem to reach our words, our actions. We repent, we move back into the heart of God and are renewed.

Psalm 49:3
My mouth will speak words of wisdom; the meditation of my heart will give you understanding.

We must spend time in God's word. Meditating with our hearts so that His love can wash us again. And again. There are days when I think my heart is covered in a hard covering of stress, pain, anger, frustration and hurt. It takes all I have to sit back and ask God to wash it in His love. To melt it all away. From heart to mouth.

Mouths can only say what our hearts feel, what our minds know. If our hearts are soaked and washed in love then our words will be those of love. If our hearts are bitter and angry, no matter how we sugar coat them our words are going to be bitter and angry too.

It is much better to admit you are feeling less than loving than to cover loving words with the acid of hate. It poisons the intent, the words and the relationships. When our mouths can only speak of hurt, gossip, anger or judgement the hearts that feed them are filled with that as well. If we take loving words, and cover them in our bitterness, we lose the love.

Think of how much worse this is if we are sharing God's love with that in our hearts! Our words, no matter how professionally crafted or polished are poisoned still! A preacher, teacher, parent or friend cannot share God's love when their own hearts are filled with such an overflow of hurt, hate and pain. We are better to remain silent than to push someone away in our pain.

Psalm 17:10
They close up their callous hearts, and their mouths speak with arrogance.

Callous hearts. How sad are they! Not accepting healing, or love, beating smaller and smaller until they are hardened and feeling they are so right in their feelings. Arrogant mouths. Ones that say loving words, elicit confidences and use them to hurt because of their own hurting heart. There are no words you can say or wounds you can bear that cannot be overcome by God. But brothers and sisters, we are accountable for our words. Those that hurt and those that heal.

I used to have a nick name that explained my bitter heart - acid tongue. I was not a nice person when I spoke. I could reduce someone to tears easily. If I chose, and sadly back then I chose often. I was proud too because I didn't gossip. I cut. I demeaned. I drew in and then pushed people away. My heart was hurting so badly all I could think of was to hurt others as much as they hurt me.

God gave me a gift of words. I misused it. Instead of taking it away, He changed my heart instead. I got a new heart for God. I repented, was redeemed and when I have a day, a minute or an hour of wanting to hurt back I remember I can choose not to. Just because I'm feeling that way doesn't mean I have the right to bring hurt to others. God wants us to be genuine, to live from the heart and share from the mouth, to govern our minds and above all love. Love. Grace is the ultimate expression of love. Ours back is faith. Faith.

What does your heart overflow with? Where is your overflow leading your mouth? If we know what our treasure is by where our hearts are, what is filling your heart today? Is it love? A desire open the gates of grace? Are you hurting and angry? Do you feel no one understands and that lashing out, even with 'truth' is your only option?

Do you think you are alone? You are not. Do you think no one understands? There are those who do. Do you think you are right and justified? Let's pray on that, together, and see what God's answer is. Do you want to overflow love instead of tired, frustrated, angry and confused? Brothers and sisters, I do too! Let's pray together!

Are you offended?

2012-01-14T13:42:00.000-08:00

"And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” (Matthew 11:17)

Have you ever thought about this? Someone being offended by our faith. It happens, people feel defensive or feel they have been hurt by a Christian and that because of the actions of a person they are justified in being offended by Jesus. Perhaps they are offended by a Bible they never read.

What is there to be offended by in Jesus? Plenty! He did exactly what a good Jewish boy and a potential King should never do. He got down, and into the mud, with people who could do nothing for Him! What could a leper, a bleeding woman, a tax collector, soldier, sailor or spy do for the Son of God? Nothing. That, for people who measure success on an earthly scale are offended by this. They were so offended that they crucified Him! They were so offended they entrapped Him, lied about Him and stole from Him.

Offending people in power can be dangerous. It can be deadly. Offend an old lady, a homeless person or a child you don't lose much. At least not in human terms. But to Jesus, who counts each hair and sparrow, you can lose it all. You've lost it all when you don't treat the "least of them" as you would Him.

Who was offended by Jesus? Many were. Many in positions of power and many who were not. They were offended that He didn't come as the King they wanted. They were offended that He healed on the Sabbath. They were offended when He chose the poor, unclean, crooked and young.

If it was a school yard, and we were picking teams for a game, Jesus would have picked all of us last choices first! That gives me shivers! Athlete or leper? You know who He choose! King or poor widow? She got called first! Spinster sisters, a dead guy risen again, a former prostitute and more! The little kids and their Mama's. The orphans and the sick. What a dream team!

Who could be offended? Anyone who thought that Jesus should be what they wanted instead of what they needed!

Think of the people who are not offended by Jesus. Those who know the peace of grace, the relief of redemption and the safety of love. Are you offended by Jesus? Were you ever trapped in the mindset that Jesus was offensive because of imperfect people? I so often hear people speaking of our faith, of our Lord, in ways that are cruel and filled with hurt. These souls have not known grace and love and are offended. Not by something they know, and are justified in being offended by, but in something they do not know. That they have not had a chance to be shown. They haven't seen our faith in action.

Blessed are those who are not offended by me. Not ashamed. Not afraid. Not confused. No Jesus said Not offended! When you read about what Jesus taught and what Jesus did are you proud or offended? Is there something in the gospel that you are uncomfortable sharing because it offends you? Have you thought about it...what stops you from sharing the love and grace that showers us from His hand?

A Centurion's Faith

2012-01-13T08:53:00.000-08:00

The Faith of the Centurion

⁵ When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. ⁶ “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”

⁷ Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”

⁸ The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁹ For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

¹⁰ When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. ¹¹ I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. ¹² But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

¹³ Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.

Hey! You made it! Glad you continued to scroll all the way down here. This story of the Centurion has been on my mind for a few days. What an example of utter faith! Not just the 'trained' faith of a professional soldier who trusts the orders he receives and trusts the orders he gives will be followed. This is more, this is deeper!

Who could have been less deserving of Jesus' healing than the servant of a hated Roman? Most Jews despised Gentiles and loathed Romans. They wanted Jesus to be for them. On their terms. God had many other greater plans than that.

The centurion knows he is not worthy. Soldier, leader and believer. He could be killed by his own command for his faith...and yet he was asking for a healing for someone of his household. Not a family member, not a friend but a servant. This man's heart shone brighter than his breastplate. He stood on the street and asked in total faith that Jesus would heal with a word. A word.

The centurion knows he is not worthy. Uncircumcised, eating 'unclean foods' and a blooded soldier. He knows this. He also knows he is totally and completely able to ask for this! He knows it. His faith is just as valid as that of any other who followed and continues to follow Jesus. The world says he is not worthy, God says he is.

Jesus was amazed. AMAZED! Our Lord was amazed. Not that he was asked for this. Not amazed that it was a Roman Centurion. He was AMAZED at this man's FAITH! His FAITH that required NO EVIDENCE. No ACTION beyond a word. His faith showed everyone that faith doesn't have boundaries.

Jesus was amazed. He took the opportunity to remind his disciples that God's table would have room for all who believed, and that your faith is what bought your seat! Not your genealogy or family name. Faith. Faith. The faith of a Centurion.

The Centurion saw the worst in people, saw blood and war, horror and felt fear. He knew the worst the world could do. Was probably ordered to be a part of it. And yet he came, in faith, to his Lord. And he asked. And he believed. And he needed only a word.

Can you be like the Centurion? Can you ask God and then trust His word? Stop asking for signs and wonders. Start seeking earnestly and accepting that God will have done what you need the moment you asked. Just because we don't get the answer we want doesn't mean God didn't answer!

Live, don't die alive

2012-01-10T18:02:00.000-08:00

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:12-13

Have you ever really thought about this verse? Really thought about it? About how it could mean so much more? The laying down your life means more than dying.

Laying down your life for a friend...what could that mean?

Jesus did it for us. With great grace. In our fallible and human way can we try to do less?

What in your life can be laid down for a friend? Your expectations? Your need to judge or be right. Perhaps you need to lay down the need for them to 'pay you back' or 'set things right'. Maybe it is bigger than that!

What if laying down your life meant laying down a dream? Bending down to help someone stand up again? What if it meant leaving behind the life you made for the one God created for you?

After reading my Bible and praying I believe that there is more to this verse than our physical death. It is our physical life! The food in your freezer (or garden). The extra clothes you've been keeping. The LIFE you build and cling to needs to be let go in love. The thing you want to sell, maybe needs to be shared? That desire of your heart should be surrendered to the desire of God's will.

Our lives are meant to be lived fully and lived full of grace and that requires living. Not dying. No in acting like we've died because we are giving. We need to face life full of love, and joy and in that loving joy share our lives. Our time, our bread and wine (figuratively and literally).

Do you understand why? It isn't ours to start with! God provides us with everything we need, we provide the loving labour to work for His kingdom. It is HIS anyway. Why are we so selfish with what isn't ours? Share a smile, a hug, a quick text.

Lay down your reputation and speak up for someone. Lay down your life to show someone living grace. Speak up for people trying again and again. Speak up for those with no voice, no hope and be the vessel of God's hope, love and voice. Lay down your uniform of the day. Bare that soul down to the laugh lines and fearful moments. God wants our lives to be lived.

Do you want a life of 'wish I had' or a life of 'glad I did'?

It is a sad and horrific fact that many saints have died for Jesus. But it is an even sadder and more horrific fact that many thousands more have failed to live on day for Him. Millions cry for relief, some of them are in your home, your family, your church.

Willing to die for our faith has long been held as a 'gold standard' but I truly believe the real challenge in laying down our lives is to continue doing so, and finding in the sacrifice that we begin to live the life God wanted us to live all along!

Love without shame. Show grace with radical freedom. Don't stop believing that God has something amazing waiting for us to step towards Him in utter faith.

Guest Post: A view on faith

2012-01-06T08:53:00.000-08:00

My sweet husband has agreed to write a guest post for me here. He has a blog which is waiting it's first post...maybe this will encourage him to get it going!

So Shanyn has been after me a while to write a blog post. I have my own blog called Duct Tape and Jesus but I have not written anything there yet. I am hoping to write a little more in the future. Life does however seem to creep into the spare time I have and my writing seems to take a back seat. That and I type way slower than I’d like, so sometimes moving on to a project that requires less typing and more hammering is easier.

However when I am in the middle of those other projects, my mind is always working. I am always thinking of stuff. Oh sure the stuff on my mind is always changing, I have projects upcoming, projects completed, family stuff, old stuff, and new stuff. I think about lots of things, these things range from the straightness of our fences, manure and fertilizer calculations, I think about woodworking projects, restoring my old trucks, I think about me being a dad and wonder if I am doing a good job, and I wonder if I am being a good husband. My mind drifts all over depending on what I am doing. Shanyn kind of laughs at me, I have been known to walk out of the house saying I am going to get something from the garage and I walk out an hour later carrying a gate for a corral. She just shakes her head and laughs but she knows I have a plan and a use for the gate, somewhere.

Looking back I have had a lot of time to think by myself. I have spent countless hours moving buckets of gravel and dirt, countless miles driving back roads, countless hours looking at the changing seasons through the window of a tractor.

In all that time I am trying to remember a time if I did not believe or have faith that there was a God. I can’t remember a time if I didn’t believe. Is that strange? I am not sure. I have to be a man of faith. I am a dad, a husband, and all the other things I am in life. I am a farmer so I have to have faith. There is so much in life that I think science cannot explain fully. I am involved in agricultural research as my real job but we also have a farm. Farming requires a lot of faith, we plant seeds, fertilize and wait on feed our cows and hope the calving goes well and that the wolves or bears don’t sneak away with a calf.

I have to have faith that I am being a good dad and a good husband. I am planting seeds I hope that will produce a harvest later. A harvest of good faith, integrity, compassion, and all the things I hope will be seen in my son.

It is all based on faith. What a word. Simple, powerful, and yet not so simple. Faith. How can you not have faith when you are living in this world? There is so much around us that I think requires faith. We have to believe we are doing right as Christian people and we have to have faith that when we pray that God hears our prayers, we may not always get the answer right away but He has a plan. We have to have faith that God will guide us and protect us. Much the same as we hope our livestock will be protected. We plant the seeds in our kids and in our community and we hope that they will produce a harvest. A harvest of goodness, hope and love from the seeds we plant. Faith that we have done the right things and that maybe God was guiding us in our actions.

We are fed by faith both our bodies and our soul. Faith in the fact that God will grow our crops to feed our bodies and faith in God that as we pray and study the word he will feed our soul. I thank God for the blessings in my life and all the answered and unanswered prayers. I am part of his plan and I have to have faith in that.

The Ruins of Babel

2012-01-04T08:30:00.000-08:00

In Genesis God saw how the sinful and willful nature of man could push people to very ungodly heights as seen at the Tower of Babel. God decided, wisely, that human kind, wasn't really mature enough yet to work together. They had nothing to resolve their sin issues. Sin issues.

It isn't about the actually sinning so much as it is the addictive desire to sin. God knowing us, still loving us, saw that steps needed to be taken. No flooding. No famine. No war.

Simply, He made it impossible to communicate with each other. The builders couldn't build together because they couldn't communicate with each other. The language barrier left them scattered and the tower in ruins.

Reading those verses again today brought me to a place where I imagined the churches of today standing in the ruins of Babel. Striving to 'speak the right language' by seeking it in human places we are missing the Corner Stone and the unifying voice of Jesus.

Working so hard to reach the groups by speaking their language I fear so many churches are not really remembering that Jesus did that work already. The language is love. We don't need Babel because Jesus repaired the bridge to heaven. We don't need Babel because instead of human tongues we can speak universally in love.

John 13:35
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

They will know us by our love.

Not by our networking savvy, not by our multilingual talents, not even by our certificates and degrees, diplomas or parchments. Not by the version of our Bible or the number of hymns we know. Not by the name dropping or brand wearing. Not by the number of children, parishioners, churches or viewers.

By our love.

While our churches, and so many people, stand wearily amongst the ruins of Babel, vainly trying to lift man made bricks to heaven Jesus beckons. In love. Utter love. Die for you love. Make it all right forever love.

The bricks we use to build our way to a better tower are in direct opposition to the work Jesus has done for us. He built it already. That work is done! There is a new covenant. One based upon something so totally radical that our Babel tower building DNA fights it and that one thing is grace. We can't do it.

Sorry folks, but no one is building a stairway, tower, book stack or growing a beanstalk to heaven. That work is done. Jesus did it. Instead of standing in the ruins of Babel trying to find the 'right words' to preach, lead or guide people shouldn't we be loving them?

How are some ways we can drop those bricks and start loving? (and I said how instead of what for a very specific reason - I want us to do them. Not just do a list of 'what's but actually decide on a movement of 'how' instead!)

It is the start of a brand new year. Why don't we declare it a special Jubilee and dispense love and bask in grace? Immerse ourselves in the most radical thing of all - reaching out in real love. I don't need to speak to show love, I don't have to spend a dollar or a dime. Love is part of our fibre and in our every breath. Sin fights against love because love can't be selfish. Grace lets the love flow. Imperfect and messy.

Leave that ruin behind and start living and loving our faith. They will know us by our love.

In His Hands

2011-12-23T13:19:00.000-08:00

Joseph. The betrothed of Mary. The step dad of Jesus. The man who chose to follow God and his heart. Joseph the carpenter. The man who walked miles leading a small donkey and caring for his very pregnant wife. This man showed such faith.

Matthew 1:24
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. We are thinking of the Christ child. We are thinking of His mother Mary. We are thinking of the stable, shepherds and the manger. What about Joseph?

New Dad's know this - new babies are frightening! They are so small, they need their Mama for their very life. They are also so amazing. New Dad's know this - every Dad looks for his face in the face of his newborn child. Who did Joseph see when he looked down upon his first child? The child not of his body but from God? Did he wonder how he was going to teach this baby how to be a man? Was he looking for God in his eyes?

Joseph never got to see his wife's first born fulfill His promise. But that promise was fulfilled because of the father he was! God could have chosen a king, a merchant, an artist, a priestly family but he chose a carpenter from a small town.

Carpenters know the value of the work of their hands. Didn't Jesus in His Ministry use his hands so much? With such care and love? Carpenters know how important it is to make all things work together, visible and invisible, to create a solid whole. Didn't Jesus minister to what was easily seen (disease) and what was invisible (the heart)?

Carpenters know about where things come from, they respect the tree that gives them the wood. They value their tools. They craft with their hands, they know intimately what they are creating.

God knows each hair of our heads. Each sparrow's wing beat is heard. Who better than a carpenter to raise His son in His human form?

Joseph helped Mary deliver their baby. His calloused hands lovingly wrapped that child, and held him close. He looked into the face of a miracle, and I wonder if God whispered into his heart right then and promised him the tools he'd need for this job? I'm sure He did!

In his hands God put the baby Jesus. In the hands of a carpenter Jesus took His first human breath. I find it so fitting to think of Joseph today. He has done all he can for his beloved Mary. He knows good craftsmanship and this stable is well built. Built with love. The animals are cared for. The hay clean and fresh smelling.

Breathe it in. Breathe in those moments before Jesus came into the world.

Angels held their breath.
Shepherds listened for the song.
Wisemen walked following His star.

A young father, his dreams forever changed, watches in awe at what God has wrought and he knows it is so very good. He holds Mary tight, and helps wipe the baby clean. The three of them rest.

You've done your rushing. I pray you are done and ready to rest. Rest with us and consider the tasks ahead of this young couple. Rest with us and consider the miracle that was wrought that night.

Mary's Faith

2011-12-22T14:29:00.000-08:00

Luke 1:38

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.”

Then the angel left her.

Mary, in a show of complete obedience to God, speaks her faith and then lives it. It could not have been easy. Young, unmarried, pregnant, a Jewish country girl. None of these things proclaimed her as the mother of a king. And yet she willingly and openly accepted God's will for her. Granted she was told by an angel. And that is a pretty persuasive personage I'm sure! And yet...after the glow of angelic presence left, she stayed true.

Read Luke 1:38 again. Mary accepts God's will. She also states clearly that she holds an expectation of that fulfillment. She wasn't leaving it open, "uh okay Lord, if you still think this is a good idea..." She stated firmly, and with conviction, May YOUR WORD to me be fulfilled.

What a wonderful expectation! Not only does Mary model acceptance for us, but also expectation. God promises and keeps His word. We can count on it. Now, then and forever! The promise in her belly, that grew beneath her heart, was the greatest gift this world ever saw. It came from free will in all directions.

God had to will, freely, the salvation of His creation. Jesus had to will, freely, the sacrifice He would make. Mary had to will, freely, the use of her body, her youth, her love, energy and life, for His growing, birthing, nurturing, loving and entry into adulthood.

What a wonderful agreement! No wonder the angels sang! Humans have shown themselves to be either mightily faithful or terribly selfish. At no time before or since has God been so intimately in an agreement with a person, let alone a woman! People have been asked to give up their lives, their fortunes, their very breath and yet this woman gave something so precious.

Mary's faith was the faith that nurtured the baby Jesus, the toddler and the young man. Mary's heart, her body, fed him and cared for him. She loved, cherished and nurtured the human baby boy who was the Son of God. She promised to be obedient and she was. She encouraged Jesus as only a mother could.

What do you think of Mary's faith? What does she model for you?

New Born Son

2011-12-20T08:15:00.000-08:00

The baby kicked and moved. He was too big for his Mama. He needed to be born. She needed to hold him in her arms after all the time he lived under her heart.

Our friends just had a baby boy today, they are so excited, scared, nervous and will be surrounded by friends, family and strangers offering 'free advice' and gifts. It is a joyful time for them. For everyone who is happy for them.

I started thinking about Mary and her journey to the stable. So different for her and Joseph. Their baby, their baby, was going to come soon. They had no home, no welcoming friends, no one to celebrate this birth with them...or did they?

Far away Elizabeth and Zechariah were holding their son and praying for his cousin. They knew there was something very special about both their babies.

That most special baby boy was born in the most humble of place, and yet I believe that the Shepherd of our souls chose that place. He chose to be surrounded by His Father's creation, to be shone upon by the star, attended by those who knew life and death so intimately in the fields and to be sought, sought out, by the rich, the wise and the holy.

Fresh cold air, warm sweet grass hay, the hot blowing breath of cattle, donkeys and sheep. Warm bodies keeping them warm. A new born life in a place built for new born life. No palace for this King, not yet.

Mary had so much to cherish in her heart. All mothers know this feeling. We hold that baby for the first time, look into their eyes and see eternity. And Mary saw so much more. Those tiny hands, those bottomless brown eyes, that newborn toothless smile broke through her exhaustion, and she leaned back after her labour and soaked in the love. I'm sure the love shone down upon them as God celebrated this first step in realizing our ultimate salvation.

New Mama's hold their babies tight, arms finally holding their heart's desire, and new Daddy's hold baby so gently. Fearing they could break, cry, poop, puke or pee. Fearing they would do something wrong in those first moments. Each one tired from the shared labour of love and each one basking in the angelic starlight.

My friends have a new born son, and this close to Christmas I cannot help but remember Mary. Not as you might expect though, as a new Mama holding the wonder of the world in her hands. I remember that feeling over six years ago. I can imagine her tired smile, her aching body and yearning to hold him and never let him go.

What wonder God has wrought that this baby, Jesus, would be the One who ached for us, bled for us, held us and as promised to never let us go. Thank you Lord for the miracle of Christmas, for this new born son!

Luke 2:19
But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

Love Colored Glasses

2011-12-09T08:47:00.000-08:00

My husband loves me.
He sees me through
love colored glasses.

His eyes do not see
wrinkles or tangled hair.

I love my husband.
I see him through
love colored glasses.

My eyes do not see
wrinkles or frumpy hair.

Our Lord loves us.
He loves us through
Christ colored glasses.

His eyes do not see
sin and shame, all
He sees is us redeemed.

My husband and son
see me through
love colored glasses.

We see each other in love.
We know our faults,
We even know theirs.
We love them anyway.
How could we do less?

God loves us because
He sees us washed clean
and redeemed by His Son.

He sees us in love.
He knows our faults.
He loves us anyway.
He loves us completely.
How can we do any less?

Copyright 2011 Shanyn Silinski

Undivided Attention

2011-10-25T17:21:00.000-07:00

Psalm 135

¹ Praise the LORD.^[a]   Praise the name of the LORD;
   praise him, you servants of the LORD,
² you who minister in the house of the LORD,
   in the courts of the house of our God.
³ Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good;
   sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant.

When you look around your home, what do you see? Are you so busy that the tasks scream for your attention? What gets your undivided attention? Sometimes, especially for Mama's, it seems there are more things than minutes in a day. I have learned a very hard lesson lately.

God doesn't want my busy. He wants my heart. He wants my attention. My undivided attention.

My son reminded me of this the other day. He loves to make 'movies' with his toy cars. Hotwheels, Matchbox and CARS become part of elaborate and complex (really!) movies. He delights in having us watch him. He doesn't want our minutes taken from what we are doing. He wants our undivided attention. For a few minutes, for a bit longer.

He isn't critical of his audience. He just wants us there. No phones, computers, busy hands. Just paying attention. Listening to him. Watching him. Letting him show us what plays in his mind.

Watching him the other day, taking photos, I noticed something important. He kept looking up, at me, to see if I was watching him. He wanted to be sure I was giving him what he needed. He needed my undivided attention.

God wants this from His children, just as we wish it from Him. He gives it to us. Without question. But how are we at giving it back? When we read, pray or share our faith are we giving 100%? How much of our mind, body and soul is His? At any given moment, are we living and walking with God?

It is hard, I know it to be true. We all have the same minutes in each day. Are we giving them to God or are we tossing them away wasted and empty?

What would happen in the world if we all gave those in front of us our undivided attention? What would happen in our world if we all gave God our time and attention with a whole heart? We belong to Him entirely. We don't own one nanosecond. Why should we try to hoard or toss them as if we owned centuries?

Tell me your thoughts...

Your Name Is Safe

2011-09-30T18:07:00.000-07:00

Proverbs 16:28 A perverse person stirs up conflict,

and a gossip separates close friends.

My friend Stephanie posted this on her Facebook wall today, and I made this sign. One for her to add her family name to. (If anyone wants one just message me and I'll email you one). She and I were talking about it and I said I had to blog it. Here it is...

Your name is safe in our house. Think about what that means. Your name, what you leave with us when you are not physically there, is safe when you are not physically there. No gossip, not judgement, no talking about you behind your back.

Your name. Your reputation. Your life. Your story. Your confidences. Your choices. Nothing will be said about you that would not be said to you. What kind of commitment would that take for your family?

Gossip is one of the single most destructive things we believers engage in. We do it freely and so often without conscious malice but it is gossip all the same. It is judgmental, it is critical, it is divisive and it is wrong.

When someone is welcome in your home their name should be safe when they are not there.

Praying in Line

2011-09-27T07:26:00.000-07:00

Waiting in line. It can be a test. But I wonder why? It doesn't have to be. Those moments when we are angry at being behind someone or status-updating in frustration and wondering why other people are in our way are perfect opportunities to take a deep breath, and pray.

Yeah, pray. Pray for that slow clerk - it could be her first day, or her last or her hardest. Pray for that slow driver - he could be losing his licence, or have lost her husband or losing their life. Pray for that person who takes 20 items to the 15 or less lane - maybe there is a sick baby at home, or a sick husband or they are so tired they didn't see.

Which of these people deserves grace less than you? Which of these people are unworthy of a caring word and a prayer? None! Not a single one.

Matthew 25:40 ⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

What would it take for you to slow down and instead of being angry or frustrated to offer a prayer? What would it take for you to say thanks, or offer some kindness in your busy day? Are we more important than our brothers and sisters in Christ? I don't think so. Actually I know we are not! God doesn't play favorites, why should we? Grace is free. Share some!

1 Timothy 2:1-2 ¹ I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— ² for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

Pray for each other. Offer the people you see to the Lord, direct the shower of grace to them.

It isn't easy, I know. We are encouraged to be first, fastest and best. We need to be encouraged to slow down and pray. We need to be encouraged to show grace and love, to pray for each other.

I'm praying for you, as you read this, I've asked God that when you get here that He shower you with grace for your day. Bright blessings, always and in all ways!

And the award goes to...

2011-09-22T15:16:00.000-07:00

Debbie, from Writin' 4 Him Cafe, nominated me for three blogger awards. I am just blown away, and humbled that she put me amongst the wonderful bloggers she choose, a number of which I cannot nominate now because she beat me to it! *smiles*.

In keeping with the requirements of the awards I am going to be doing my own nominating and sharing. Thank you to everyone who inspires us, drives us and especially those who link, share and leave their comments. Your time in encouraging us is a blessing you cannot even know the measure of! It overflows in grace. Thank you.

1. Thank and link to the person who nominates you
2. Share seven random facts about you
3. Pass this Award along to 15 recently discovered blogs and let them know about it!

1. Thank and link to the person who nominates you
2. Pass this Award along to 15 recently discovered blogs and let them know about it!

(Given to those with fewer than 300 followers) When you receive the award, thank the blogger who gave it to you and link back to them.
Copy and paste the award on your blog.
Choose three to five blogs that deserve a bigger following, give them the Liebster Award, and let them know you’ve done so by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here are my seven random fun facts

I was baptized in a river, in the high plains foothills near the mountains in SW Alberta
When I'm not writing or scrapbooking, I'm taking photographs, playing with my son or the animals on our ranch
I love living in the country and could not handle the city, even town, life. Our road is too busy for me most days
I've dipped my toes in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, I can sing but rarely sing with an audience
I believe we can be blessings and we can be blessed, and that the two are not mutually inclusive
Coffee is a life saving device in my home, don't ask morning questions without making me some unless it is an emergency
My favorite animals are wolves, horses, dogs, frogs, toads, birds and salamanders!

Many of the blogs I wish I could nominate for these awards already have been nominated either on this email or previously on others. Therefore I'm going to combine them, and share some little know blogs with you to explore, experience and some new friends to meet.

1. http://www.aglimpseofbeautiful.com/

2. http://redefiningcool.blogspot.com/

3. http://mypoems4myhealing.blogspot.com

4. http://www.just2techy.com/

5. http://defendchristianfaith.blogspot.com/

6. http://www.taberstruths.com/

7. http://www.likeateam.com/

8. http://www.stickwithjesus.net/

9. http://robertlloydrussell.blogspot.com/

10. blog.onewomansanctuary.com

11. dianalovestowrite.blogspot.com

12. http://parolavivace.blogspot.com/

13. http://loquaciouslyyours.com/

14. http://ccchampagne.wordpress.com/

15. http://passionforscrapping.blogspot.com/

And for the Liebster Award:

1. http://www.aglimpseofbeautiful.com/

2. http://redefiningcool.blogspot.com/

3. http://mypoems4myhealing.blogspot.com

4. http://www.just2techy.com/

5. http://defendchristianfaith.blogspot.com/

The people you pass by

2011-09-19T15:33:00.000-07:00

3 John 1:5 Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you.

Have you ever prayed for people as you drove? Stood in line? Got passed on the shoulder? Maybe experienced someone honking their horn or washing your windows at a red light? Have you ever thought about praying for them?

My husband phoned to tell me this story today, "I was driving and I saw a woman, with her life in her car and U-haul. Stuffed animals on the dash, dog on the front seat, and she was on the move. I thought about her, and said a prayer for her to have a safe journey and that she finds what she needs when she gets to there. I wonder if someone prayed for you, dear, when you ran away to start your life again? Maybe we need to pray more for the people we pass by in life."

Maybe we need to pray more for the people we pass by in life.

The frustrated bus driver. The horn honking road rager. The slow checker at the express lane. The server who needs to ask again what you ordered. The red faced Mama and the screaming tired babe. The sad boy watching Daddy go to work. The dog owner putting up posters for their lost friend. The pastor with dwindling flock and confidence. For the police officer on their way to a call. For the farmer in the field.

Who did you pass by today? Perhaps they were an angel, they could have been a brother or sister in Christ. They could have been at the well looking for water that soothes a soul's thirst.

Instead of watching the world go by, what if we prayed it along the way?

Radical grace. Loving grace. Children of a loving, living God can we do any thing less?

Two Days Later

2011-09-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago the face of the world changed. For many of us it changed in a way that haunts us still. There are people who only think of the DAY - 9/11 and remember it for all the horror that it was. For all the hope that withered and the heroism that inspires us.

John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."

For me the days before and the days after have the biggest impact. They are the ones that bring me to prayer in gratitude and intercession. They are the ones that I won't forget.

Two days before I was in New York, in Manhattan, with the Fire Marshalls. We ate lunch, we drove around, we talked about coming together the following spring for a training exchange. We laughed about family, life and how different it was for a Canadian fire fighter from the prairies and for the high rise smoke eaters of NYC. It was a meeting of two different worlds. It was a meeting of common ground. It was the beginning of friendships.

The day after 9/11 I waited to hear who made it out and we mourned who didn't. We set up chat rooms and we talked long into the night. We all couldn't go to be there and help but we found ways to support each other across the miles. We found ways to pray and share and stick together.

Those waiting days, hours, were accented by the silent skies above. Heightened security. Crazy fears. Silent skies. No jet streams. no flights that were not military. It was so frightening to think the world could be suddenly so changed.

Raising money for families, sharing stories, sending love and support. Listening to the darkness of the days when hope withered away. There is nothing worse for the responder community. We serve, we protect, we pull life from the wreckage. There was so little to do, everyone was ready and prepared but nothing prepared us for this.

Jesus rose on the third day. I cannot help but think that His people felt like we did. The world was changed forever. The curtain ripped, the sky darkened, the Beloved entombed. No washing of feet, no gentle lessons. Nothing but silent skies and darkness.

Nothing Jesus could do or say was enough preparation for His death. Nothing Jesus could promise or paint with words could express their amazement at His resurrection.

Faith sometimes requires us to take the darkest, most silent path and in that journey we find not only the light within, but also the light of God without. On those dark days we walked around by feel and there were a lot of tears, some dark gallows humor and tons of prayers. We connected in ways that brought us closer. It didn't matter where you were from. It mattered that you knew the smell of smoke and understood the call that brought us all to serve in ways big and small.

Why can't we, as sisters and brothers in Christ, do the same? We know the stain of sin and the miracle of redemption. We are His people, living in wonderful grace. We, who have so much, need to take a few lessons from the open hands of those who had nothing to give but their bodies for people they did not know but loved all the same.

1 John 3:16 "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to laydown our lives for our brothers and sisters."

Trust me, the best friend you never knew you had is the one who pulls you from the fire. From the wreckage. From the disaster. From your doom. Everyone who reaches out and finds a hand grasping theirs knows it. It doesn't matter whose hand it is, it matters that we reach out. That we keep reaching. We keep loving. Praying. Believing. Being.

Where did your hands reach today? Was it with God's love and grace they were filled? Fists cannot give or receive anything but pain and fear. Open hands can reach, grasp, pull and hold. They give, and receive. Jesus's hands were open for us. How can ours be anything less?

(Kelty, Bill, Frank, Ron - miss you my friends, praying for your families and you. Proud to call you and all who responded in every way the could brothers and sisters.)

in real life

2011-09-09T00:56:00.000-07:00

Five Minute Friday
Five minutes of writing, no edits, no second thoughts, then you stop. Five minutes. Got it? Go!

...in real life...

In my real life there are no commercial breaks and no one looks like some sort of model. Unless we are a model for dog hair, muddy faces, wandering cows, or elbow deep in fresh salsa!

In my real life I work, play, love, laugh, freak out, get frustrated, try not to succumb to hate and I pray some more and then I pray. In real life we miss Daddy and love summer. In real life family and friends are what you have and you make of them what you can because that's what God blessed you with.

In real life I'm a little crazy and that's okay. In real life I'm so not in control but God is. And that's okay too. That's more thank okay, that's the way it should be!

In real life I should be asleep hours ago and instead I'm sadly wide awake. In real life I'm just one Mama loving one Daddy and one Boy. In real life I wish I had five more minutes to tell you how much better real life is than fiction!

In real life there are real dreams, real poems, real tears and fears, real faith and real miracles. Real blessings and real friends. In real life there is more than a sound bite. In real life the dogs bark silly and the boy dreams wildly. In real life I leave the dishes on the counter and in real life I'm okay.

Are you linking up at The Gypsy Mama for Five Minute Friday?

Grace abundant

2011-09-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

When the daughter turns away grace is abundant.
When she has the babe and shares months later grace is abundant.
When the boundaries for safety and sanity are stepped back from grace is abundant.

Grace is abundant in tears of hurt and frustration. Grace is abundant in times when it hurts with 'might have beens'. Grace is abundant when prayers and mercy come hard and the only thing to do is love.

No sense in wasting love in anger nor is there time to be lost feeling the ache of 'what if'. Grace flows abundant in tears of fear, pain and joy.

What if she came tomorrow or what if she never comes. What if we never see or hear more than what we dream of and pray. Grace stays abundant. Grace stays. Grace.

No one earns it. Not one is worthy of it. And yet it rains down abundant upon us all. When the cloak of it all is love and the love is woven in grace then grace is over, under, around and through.

In the breath that catches.

In the wish that dies upon silent lips.

In the words that never fly spoken.

In the heart that reaches and reaches.

Grace calls us to love. Grace calls us. Grace calls. Grace.

She knows who she is, and while she may never read these words God knows they are my prayer for her, for the babe, for them and our families.

Etch-A-Prayer

2011-09-06T13:06:00.000-07:00

My dear husband gave me the most amazing gift!

An Etch-A-Sketch! I always wanted one, and finally I have one. They mezmerize me. I'm totally intrigued with them. I could do mazes and paths on them for hours.

The other day I was having trouble. I couldn't get my mind to settle down so I could really pray and I really wanted to. So I picked up my Etch-A-Sketch and I started to draw some intricate patterns. Each line became part of my prayers.

I prayed on the straight lines.

I prayed on the turns.

I prayed on the shapes.

I was so able to focus on my prayers it felt amazing! I totally understand how people can be so helped with prayer beads and other prayer tools!

Mine is just a red plastic box with two white knobs. Turn each one alone and you can go up or down and turn the other to go side to side.

We talk to God, we talk about God.

But when we use both knobs we can make so many shapes, we can create images and designs.

We can talk with God, we can walk with God.

When we use the gifts He blessed us with we become more than what we appear.

I encourage you to read 1 Corinthians 12 today. Live it today. Be blessed knowing this:

"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men." v. 4, 5

Isn't it wonderful to know that you are exactly who He made you to be, now use those gifts to be a blessing! Share, serve, love and be filled with grace.

How Do I Really Know?

2011-08-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

Trailing After God with Melinda Todd

Philippians 4:8 NIV Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

How do I know? How does anyone really know? We know because God took the time to tell us! Philippians 4:8 as a sample tells us a lot of things we need to know. That God needs us to understand.

You can read the rest of this post, and join the conversation over at Trailing After God.

Living Waters

2011-08-18T19:19:00.000-07:00

We have rather smart cows (for cows, that is). They know what is good, what is safe and when to seek shelter. They also know to trust us to take care of them.

We have a few sources of water during the year. In summer it is the usual automatic waterer, the swimming hole and the seep water which comes up from the ground near the house.

In winter the automatic waterer is the only game in town. It stays fresh because they use it every day and sometimes many times during the day. In summer it is used less and it gets algae and it isn't very fresh after a day in the sun.

The swimming hole in dry years like this one, is sandy, warm and full of frogs, dragonflies and although it is fed by a deep spring the water there is hard to reach. You have to go further out to get the fresh water and most cows won't do that.

The seep water, which may seem nasty to us, is filtered though sand and peat so it is fresh and clean, it never gets stagnant and it is easy to access. They drink there most often. They know where to get the best water to sustain them.

It got me thinking about the water Jesus promised at the well in John 4. The woman couldn't reach the good, life and soul saving water until Jesus showed her!

She has choices of water from the well of society which was stagnant, confined and easily polluted. She was married and in relationships. She was offered easy, but not clean water in life.

A Samaritan woman she could not access the holy water of Jerusalem. Being a woman and of a despised group kept her from the fresher water that was hard to get at.

She came to the well, knowing only a bucket could reach deep enough, and wondered at the man who waited there. (You and I both know Jesus was waiting for her and had been all her life!) His questions, her answers, His water, her thirst.

Her question - how do we reach this water? And His assurances that the way was right in front of her made an eternal difference in her life. An eternal difference in the lives of many women since!

Jesus told her, this woman who any sane Jew would reject if not stone, that it was for her that He would bring the living waters!

" ²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

What a promise! At the well, in the town where everyone not only knew her name but what she was, she was able to bring back to her people the message of living waters, of eternal life. Of waters within reach. Waters for the soul. Waters to quench hell's fires. Waters to wash anyone clean, even her!

Are you standing at stagnant waters? Pushing aside algae to drink it stale and warm?

Are you wading in way too deep into waters that are so hard to reach? Are you losing your footing and falling?

Are you willing to seek the Living Waters? Easy to find, clean and soul quenching! Are you willing to give up your present self to become what He knows you are in Him?

Surely if some shaggy cows created by His holy Hand can figure out what is the best water, we His children should be able to find it...the Way is written down for us to follow! There is no deep well, no buckets or ropes. No one counting our sips or gulps. No one measuring our consumption of grace.

Praying that we, you and me, because we all lose our way sometimes, can find our way to the clean, clear waters that wait for us in Jesus!

Six Years Ago

2011-08-15T19:27:00.000-07:00

1 Corinthians 2:5 (NIV)

"so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power."

Six years ago tonight, this was my heart's foundation, this was my prayer. After days of struggling in pain to convince nurses and doctors to listen to me I was drugged up in preparation for what they called an emergency c-section. This little one inside of me struggling to be born needed help. I needed help.

God listened and He brought us through. He provided a wonderful doctor when mine was on his holidays. He provided an amazing surgeon who saw right away our distress. He gave me a wonderful husband and supportive friends and family.

Six years ago tonight I surrendered my life to God and offered to Him the life I carried. I surrendered my wishes to His power and grace. I was able to rest. I was able to face the morning with calm.

God heard the secret prayer in my heart to be a Mama. A good Mama. To show myself, and those who doubted, that I could do it. God blessed us with an amazing son.

Six years ago tonight, I held my husband's hand and prayed for him. Prayed for us. God gave us peace. God gave us rest. God must have smiled knowing what lay ahead. Okay, maybe God laughed out loud!

Tonight, for the first time since he was born my husband isn't here, Daddy isn't here. Our hearts hurt with that distance and yet again God is giving us peace. God is giving us grace. God is asking our surrender to His will. And we are giving it. Freely.

This body, that carried him when I thought it would carry no child, hugs her 'big boy' and realizes that the surrender was more than one night. It was the surrender of not being a morning person and the surrender of nights and it was the surrender of so many things I don't even miss!

The tears, the fears, the giggles, and endless questions bless me. The struggles to learn, the soaring after grasping something, the little helper hands making big messes and the wonder of seeing him grow in his faith.

If there is nothing else I do that matters. If no one reads another word I type, another poem I share. If no one sees another photo I take or another page I scrap. If my voice is silenced except for one thing, that he lives and loves God, then I will have done enough.

His faith encourages and inspires me. He sees God so personally and loves Him so deeply. He shows me how to love God as a child and in that love I find my own way to love God that way too!

Six years ago tonight I could have had no understanding of how much that baby, toddler and little boy has brought me closer to God, to my husband and to my faith.

He sleeps, the excited slumber of an 'almost 6 years old boy' and I look back, praises and wonder still, thinking of him, of his Daddy, of our family of three. I'm awed and amazed and filled with wonder all over again.

Thank you God for this shining light You blessed us with.

Digging Up Seeds

2011-08-12T09:22:00.000-07:00

We plant seeds in order to grow something new and in that growing we have to trust.

We have to trust what is happening we cannot see.

In the garden or flowerbed, when you plant a seed do you dig it up to see what it is doing? No! You'd likely kill it. We plant seeds and let them grow. God asks us to plant seeds. He does not ask us to rip them up to see if He is doing anything!

My life, your life, my testimony or yours - are you digging up your seeds?

Slide on over to Matthew 13 - read about sowing seeds. Read about harvesting. Read about good soil and poor soil. Read about weeds. You won't read about digging up seeds!

When we share the Gospel and live God's grace we are planting seeds. Our words, our love, our caring nurture those seeds. The soil, the condition of the listener's heart, is God's domain.

Think of it this way - where do seeds grow best? In darkness, with water, soil, heat and patience. Does not matter if you are planting oak trees or seasonal grasses. Seeds do not grow well when they are disturbed. Neither do the spirits of people.

Plant the seeds. Be faithful to those who need encouragement, water them with love, shine on them with grace but don't disturb their growth. Don't dig in their dark places, where the growing is happening, leave that to God.

Pray for discernement in your nurturing and love. Be faithful and prayerful. Don't be high pressure, poking the ground, don't be judgemental, seeing what that seed is doing already and don't expect that just because you helped in the sowing that what you reap will resemble you! Our witness is to glorify God. Not us. Not a pastor. Not a faith leader. God!

The seeds that are sown will grow into what God designed. God loves the wildness and beauty of His creation. What do we do? Grow places, people and learning that looks the same, needs to be the same and rejects much that is not the same.

We are, when we get caught up in the gotta be more like me or gotta be more like our church, creating a GMO (genetically modified organism in the plant world) version of faith. It conforms. It is expected to grow the same, harvest the same. Look and sound the same. We start ministering to ourselves because it is safer.

God never asked us to dig up His seeds! He never promised safe. He promised abundant, eternal, everlasting, gracefilled and redeemed. God wants us to plant, and tend but leave the dark growing, budding and bursting through to life in His Holy Hands.

Strands of Three

2011-08-04T18:54:00.000-07:00

9Two are better than one,

because they have a good return for their work:

10If one falls down,

his friend can help him up.

But pity the man who falls

and has no one to help him up!

11Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.

But how can one keep warm alone?

12Though one may be overpowered,

two can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

We are a cord of three strands this little family of mine. We are Mama, Daddy and Lukee. We stick together even when we are miles apart. Our faith unites us, our love binds us together and our devotion to each other keeps us strong. God gave us the blessing of each other. Without Him there would be no us.

We are also each individual a cord of three strands. We are mind, body and spirit united in God. He keeps us together, in faith, through grace. Redeemed. Beloved. Cherished. Protected. Strong together in Him.

What happens to a cord when one or two strands are frayed or worn? What happens when they lose their close connection to each other? What happens when we stop holding together and start pulling apart?

We become weak, we lose our strength and we lose each other. When we get pulled apart, those are the times we need to stick together. When I, or he or all of us feel like we are being ignored or we are not being heard, that is our signal to stop. Pray. Pull together. We each have an equally important role to play. Equal but not the same.

Mind, body and spirit are the very same. When our bodies and our minds draw away from God and our spirit we can lose that focus, that pull that keeps us together. When it feels like I'm falling apart I know something is out of balance. That one of my strands is not holding together with the others.

Ropes can be fixed. They can be spliced, braided and repaired. Sometimes when a rope is broken you can weave a new rope into it and create something brand new. God is the Master weaver, and can bring us into a bigger rope, a stronger place. He is without limit, if we can let go and give to Him the strands which are His already to weave into His will.

In a rescue rope or a climbing rope each strand has a special job. Some strands lend strength, others are the ones who provide unity to the other strands and some surround the entire rope protecting it. We each have a role to play in the ropes God has woven us into. What wonderful grace! What a grounding thought!

God wove this rope, He brought these strands together. Each strand, alone, is weak. It cannot carry much or give much. Together, however, together we are so much more!

It pains me deeply when I see sisters and brothers in Christ gnawing away, cutting and chopping at the ropes which God weaves. It hurts my heart when people can't put the false gods of this world behind to stick together as children of the Living God. I feel so sad when I see people crying for someone to help them and find that they are turned away for not being the right kind. When the cords of community, the strands of grace are cut in the name of status, celebrity or anything else of this world.

Together we are so much more. Who are your strands? Who has God woven you together with? How can you stay strong, become strong again and resist being cut at by the world? By grace, through prayer and with great love. It takes more love to stay strong together than it does to fall away and fall apart. How do you stay strong together? What strands are in your rope that God has woven?

Berries, frogs and bird song

2011-08-02T17:43:00.000-07:00

Watering my plants tonight, the rains we got were not enough. The lawn is crispy and brown, the plants wilt waiting for a drink. I let the water flow, sprinkle on them. Let them drink it up. I start to think about watering our lives and the blessings we can miss by looking for easy fruit.

My raspberries are thorny and tangled and hide beneath their leaves wonderful, blood red fruit. The best berries are not out waiting in the open for picking! They hide, among the thorns, under leaves and in the back by the warm stucco wall. Looking for them takes patience and along the way there are other wonders to behold! A snake, hunting, in their branches, pauses by my hand. The bees, checking for the last sweetness, buzz by. The ants feast on the final fruit of an older cane. The birds rustle in their nest and a fledgling tests her wings near by.

Blessings are like this too! How many blessings do we miss being busy with the busy of life? How many do we think we are going to find waiting for us? How many are in line for coffee or flying outside our window or playing in the next room?

I was feeling really frustrated and low about some things someone said, feeling they said them in love, and I didn't understand. I felt I was being judged and found lacking in some human, social, people person thing. I really confused and hurt.

Fleeing to my garden I started to water, first with the hose and then while the sprinkler ratcheted it's way around the garden I reached into the almost empty rain barrel and pulled my watering can. Waters sloshed around the bottom weakly and I went to toss it on the lawn. What slipped out was a very tired little tree frog! I picked it up and let it rest in my hand. When I went to let it go, it crawled up my arm and held on. Have you ever seen the perfection in the toes of a frog? We spent a few moments together, and I could feel God smile! If He made me okay for His creation then I was okay!

Good enough for God and the critters! Knowing in my heart that this frog was my blessing in the moment I let the hurt go, I let the confusion go, I let it all go. I held on to God. I held on to the bird song, the trusting frog, the rescued dogs and the waddling pregnant cat who showed up. I held on to my loving husband and precious son. I held on to Him who blessed me with wildflowers, bird song and love.

Don't miss your blessings by looking for them in easy to access packages! There are eagles flying over head, are you watching? There are hummingbirds following you, can you hear them? There are tickles and giggles to share, are you ready to let loose? Remember past the thorns, stiff canes and sneaky leaves are the bright, sweet fruit of blessings! They aren't meant to be easy, but they are meant to be found!

Still...A Five Minute Friday

2011-07-29T06:03:00.000-07:00

The challenge, write for five minutes, no more and no less. No edits, no going back. Add links and images after. Five free minutes with no editor - really? No perfection, just heart pouring out and sharing by linking up at The Gypsy Mama to share and read other Five Minute Friday posts.

Today's prompt: Still

7:55 am. Friday.
I look outside.
No breeze. No wind.
Still.

I listen to the house.
Air conditioning rumbles.
Little boy plays on his bed.
Computer hums.
Be still.

Mama reading her Bible.
Reaching deep for the waters.
Reaching deep for the grace.
Praying for His touch on her.
Soaking it in, still.

Note books, devotionals, guides,
study Bible, pens,
gratitude journal.
Blessed still.

Holding my breath,
waiting for something.
Not sure what.
Can I breathe?
Waiting...still.

The rush of the day,
pants at the door.
Waiting to devour me.
I pray for patience,
for saving grace.
Waiting on Him - still.

Dances to "Rise Up"
as only a little boy can.
Shouting his love for Jesus
as only a little one can.
They seek Him still.

Waters rest. Frogs rest.
Birds rest. My heart rests.
We wait for the whisper
the promise of being here
with us.
Always.
Still.

Still I love Him.
Still I seek Him.
In Him I can
be still.
In Him
I can
be.

8:00 am. Coffee is hot. Still.

Poem copyright Shanyn Silinski 2011

Waiting for Wild Flowers

2011-07-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

God asks us to plant the seeds and He asks us to be good stewards and tend them.

He never tells us what we planted! That is where faith comes in. We have to believe what we cannot see and in that belief we actually know Him.

My husband is a farmer, and he is used to planting, tending and waiting. Me, I work with our animals, and am not so good at the waiting for seeds. I love the land, love the soil, but waiting for seeds is so hard!

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

We have two flower beds that my sweet husband planted to wild flowers for me. Waiting for wild flower seeds taught me a lot!

This is what I learned from wild flower seeds...

they are tiny, for the most part, and you don't plant them too deep or they won't come up
they are wildly varied and can be very competitive with weeds
they need to be watered consistently too little and they get tight in the soil and won't come up, too much and they can wash away
there is no such thing as weeding wild flowers until they are all up and almost blooming
wild flower seeds do not look like their photos on the seed packets instead they are so much more marvelous and varied and beautiful
they will only come up and bloom and bless you with their beauty in their own way, at their own time just as God designed them to do

How can we, walking with our God and sharing our faith, use these lessons from wild flowers?

This is what comes to mind...

Don't plant ideas and concepts too deep or people may struggle with them
while the weeds of life and the dark ones can cause us to feel like we are strangling we are stronger than they are even the smallest one of God's children is
no two people are alike, not even identical twins, and each needs to come to God on their own
just like watering wild flowers you cannot drown someone in your words and you cannot stop helping tend the seeds of their faith. God's word is planted, we can help tend it in person, through prayer or by our silent presence in their lives
like wild flowers only someone who knows weeds from flowers can do the weeding and that job is God's. We do not weed out believers based upon what we imperfectly know or understand we let God do His work
people will have a relationship with God based upon what God plants in them and it won't be what we expect, think or desire but it will be amazing beyond measure because it is God's hand in their and our lives
God requires each of us to tend our own gardens and be not only good stewards, but loving, faithful and encouraging children of God - people will come to God as He designs we are to be faithful in the loving, praying and stewardships He gives us.

2 Peter 1:5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness;

and to goodness, knowledge;

One thing I learned from my husband's time in University doing the Ag Diploma program is this: Weeds are plants we do not understand the true purpose of yet. Some can be useful and good and others noxious and deadly but many are just undiscovered wild flowers!

How Many Stand Silent

2011-07-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

How Many Stand Silent?

Like watching a storm on the horizon....

How many stand silent,

Watching as you quietly die?

How many stand silent,

Watching as you are abused?

One, a dozen, the whole world.

What if no one spoke for any of us?

Would you speak if the hand raised,

was raised against you and yours?

How many stand silent,

Knowing who deals death

Just beyond their door?

How many stand slient,

Knowing cruelty lives and thrives

Just beyond their door?

One, a dozen, the whole world.

What if no one looked at any of us?

Would you cry out or would you cower away,

if the cruelty was coming through your door?

How many stand silent,

Waiting for someone to speak?

How many stand silent,

Believing the lies, "I've changed"?

One, a dozen, the whole world.

What if we stopped believing them?

How many stand silent...

How many stand silent waiting for...

Just one person to say, "Stop! Enough!"?

How many stand silent...

How many stand silent waiting for...

Someone else to make the world change?

A repost from my blog, Scarred Seeker, this poem resonated with so many communities of people I wanted to share it here with you. Whether we are speaking for survivors of abuse, advocating for those facing troubles, shouting out against animal cruelty or looking for strength to speak our faith - there are always, it seems, too many who stand silent when their voices need to be heard.

I would love to invite you to visit my other blog, Mystic-Mom, for more poetry, stories of ranch life and photos.

Bright blessings!

One blade of grass

2011-07-13T08:50:00.000-07:00

"There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice." John Calvin

I put the camera on macro and wander about the yard, seeking Him in His creation, and the wonders I find bring prayers of joy and thanksgiving to my lips and bless my eyes and lighten my soul!

Have you wandered in your bit of creation lately? Take a closer look at the wonders God has blessed you with right where you are.

Bright blessings, always and in all ways...

Five Minute Friday: Gratitude

2011-07-07T21:28:00.000-07:00

The Gypsy Mama has another great prompt for her Five Minute Friday. Take five minutes and type, no editing or critiqing or tweaking.

Time's A Ticking...Gratitude

I'm at almost 800 in my Gratitude Journal. It amazes me that I can have so many things in my life that bless me and that I am able to sit down to record them. Flowers and birds, laughing boys and the help of friends. Husbands coming home safely and so many wonderful little things!

What am I grateful for? Everything! Even when I'm not sure what is is I'm thankful for I know with confidence that God has a plan for my good and His Glory! That means I truly have reason to be grateful no matter what!

The angry days, the arguing days, the hot muggy humid days - yes those days!

The laughing, giggling, creating, sharing, loving and serving - oh yes those days!

The fast getaway on a rocking horse days, and the days where nothing goes right - those days too, although a bit more quietly!

The getting it done, making things happen, taking names and kicking down doors - those days are challenging too because I need to remember the Source is NOT me!

With one minute left, gratitude is what we have left when the day is done and all that is left is the Thank you Lord for...and gratitude is what you have when you get past the moments, through the tears and into the sunshine. From the eyebrows down angry faces to the smiling and laughing loving the Lord faith of an almost 6 year old. For them I'm grateful, for this all I'm grateful.

Humbled and grateful. Awed and grateful. Washed clean and saved by grace. Grateful!

My Prayer

2011-07-07T20:44:00.000-07:00

When I sit down in the mornings, my Bible with me, my journal and my other devotional books.

I read my prayer by Ogilvie and I open my Bible.

Placing hands upon the open pages, this is a version of what I pray.

I wanted to share it with you.

Bright blessings.

Shanyn

"Lord, please be with me as I am reading your word.

Let me be immersed in it.

Let it wash over me, through me, around me.

Let Your Word reach through my soul,

and through my spirit.

Lord, please let the words soak through my being,

let them become part of my thought,

my breath, my being.

Let Your word wrap around my heart

and entwine in my fibres.

Lord, please let the words become part of me,

for this day and for always.

My life and my living.

Let Your Word surround us, together and apart,

Bless us Lord and be with us.

Amen."

We know what to do

2011-06-29T18:43:00.000-07:00

"I just don't know what to do!"

"I don't understand what God wants from me, from us!"

"I wish He would spell it out for me."

Well short of actually getting an email saying exactly what to do God has, indeed, told us what He wants from us. It isn't a huge laundry list of things to not do but simply this...

"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8

Here I am in the middle of a week of so much and this morning I read this. I need this like I need water, sunlight, love and grace. I ache for this. I'm weeping for this.

He has showed you. I'm almost through reading my Bible and you know what? He has showed me! God has showed me what is good.

What does God need from us? He doesn't NEED anything from us. He requires us, as His children, to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.

As a Mama struggling with a plateful of life's stuff with a side order of chaos and stress this was fresh, cool water on my hot brow. This was a promise already kept and an assurance.

Act justly - when being tried by a stubborn, brilliant and hurting little boy this can be so hard. The easy way, the heavy hammer, isn't just. But being just doesn't mean giving in either. Act justly.

Love mercy. Not anything else but love mercy. Mercy can be easy on the surface and we can feel pretty smug too but to love mercy is to live it, to be it. That's a 24/7 gig. That isn't a free pass or a pat on the head.

Walk humbly with our God. Not running ahead shouting over our shoulders, "lead me Lord!" and not dragging behind like reluctant desert wanderers. Walk humbly with our God. With, together, side by side, holding hands and looking at each other.

Those three things, three things, are so simple sounding and yet I'm convinced I could spend my whole life working on them and still wouldn't get to success on my own. Three things and the last one is the key - walk humbly with our God. With your God. Humble. Not prideful for your mercy or justness. Without Him there is no mercy or justness. Without God we have nothing good.

Tonight, as we close another stressful day I'm humbled that God is so with us that we can pray together, love together and that being a just Mama and a Mama who loves mercy showed a little boy how we can walk humbly with our God.

Thank you Lord for your kindness, goodness and mercy!

Who are we reaching?

2011-06-17T15:29:00.000-07:00

I was driving the other day to see my husband's family and I drove by one of the many local churches in this small city. I was shocked to see them building on. I joking call that particular church The Mall of God because when they were first building it, the resemblance was to a shopping centre rather than place of worship.

Now I know God doesn't care what our church looks like on the outside. I do know that. But when I think mall and not church it strikes a strange chord with me. When I see them building on it strikes another. This is a large church which is a satellite of another larger church with multiple services, many activities nightly, in-church coffee shop and more. And there is nothing wrong with that but I have to wonder, how are we serving our brothers and sisters in need with a many hundreds of thousands of dollars building?

Then I was reading my morning prayer book, Quiet Moments with God by Lloyd John Ogilvie this was the verse for the next day.

"Whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or tongue, but in deed and in truth." 1 John 3:17-18

We can shout to the heavens, to the nightly news, to the faith based blog of our choice about our love. We can share with our people how generous we are to them and how we are building a community together. You can, I can, anyone can. But where do we SEE the love? Where do we see the deeds and truth?

It is hard to know how to help sometimes, at least I find it so, and often we seek to find direction from the church. I'm not sure about you, but I'm not comfortable asking how can we help the street kids, the flooded off reserve families and the children in care to a church busy spending dollars building a bigger building. It's like asking someone who is building a mansion about the value of micro housing.

And yet I am not judging them because I do not know their reasons, motivations or plans but looking at that church as a believer I have the right to ask. We all do. You can ask it of your own church and you could ask it of someone else's church. We can ask in love and with respect because we truly wish to know, we wish to understand.

We all, as a body of believers, are to care for each other. Brothers and sisters. Love one another. Love them as you love yourself. Love your God with all your heart, mind, body and soul. With it all. Every fibre, every nerve, every blood vessel carrying life. Every breath. Every tear.

If we are to follow the examples in the New Testament for starters, what do we see? Jesus, the pure and blameless, hanging out with the worst of the worst. And not just anonymously handing them stuff or leaving a bag in a bin but actually living, loving, praying for and healing them. He knew them and loved them. Dirty rags, bleeding bodies, demon tormented and lust-filled, the greedy and the lost, the hope-filled and the hope stealing all were touched by Him.

I'm not going to list the passages for you, this time you go find them! Open that Bible, and walk with Jesus and really look for the people He loved. It is us! He is loving us! He is saving us! Those who raised their fists to Him and those who shed their tears for Him. God would have given Him anyone and He choose to redeem us all!

Touch the dirty and wipe the tears. Open your heart and share what you have. God wants us to love as best we can in truth and deed, as well as in heart. Does that mean opening your family to someone recently banished by their own? Does that mean giving away those clothes you've been saving to cloth another? Does that mean sharing your garden, your weekend or your love? Yes! Yes! YES!

We all have something to share with someone who has nothing to give back. That's love. That is serving our brothers and sisters. We may not be able to go on a mission to a far away place but we can mission right where we are. God has us here for a reason. I'm humbly and prayerfully asking Him to show us all that reason!

Backwards: sdrawkcaB (Five Minute Friday)

2011-06-10T08:52:00.000-07:00

Lisa Jo over at The Gypsy Mama has some great bloggers responding to this Five Minute Friday prompt. After you leave us here at Strawberry Roan I encourage you to go over and be blessed by their words...and be sure to leave some love in their comments.

Five Minute Friday: sdrawkcaB (Backwards)

Shirts on backwards. Happy little faces playing happily in sand with toys beside them. Dogs chasing barn swallows and not balls. People who said they's always be close are working far apart. Little boys showing Mama the way by their faith. It's so very backwards. He teaches me. Isn't that my job? His faith, his knowing the Fruits of the Spirit, his willingness to pray and live walking daily holding the hand of Jesus. He teaches me.

We live we work we play we pray we do life backwards so often that we don't even notice. We don't notice touch of God in the out of the way places and we see His mercy in the mess. It's backwards this grace filled life. The grace is in the mess. God doesn't want us arriving home in perfect condition, He wants us worn at the knees, washed in the heart and arms perpetually bent to carry each other. He wants us to do this backwards.

(Times' up - thanks for coming by this Friday. Please stop by the other blogs and be brightly blessed, always and in all ways!)

Bright idols?

2011-06-07T15:12:00.000-07:00

I asked a few friends on my Facebook page about the idols they thought we encountered today and we found some in the world around us and then a few right at home. The list included: Facebook, the internet, our phones, money, fame, celebrities, reality TV stars, materialism and I could add the love of anything that draws us away from God.

2 Kings 17:40-41 (NIV) "They would not listen, however, but persisted in their former practices. Even while these people were worshiping the LORD, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their ancestors did."

Are we guilty of this? Do we worship our idols while we are serving the Lord? Are we checking that phone or looking for an update when we are doing our Bible study or praying? Are we checking out of our faith when we check in to reality TV?

For me, I think the litmus test would be if someone could say anything about our faith based on what they see us doing while we are professing to be worshiping and living our lives in faith. Could they tell from how we live and use the tools in our lives the dedication we have to our faith? If they can then we are doing it right but if they cannot, perhaps some prayerful examination is needed.

Are we like that commercial where the couple, and their dog, are at the sunset and she is saying this is great and he motions to her because he is tweeting or updating his FB or texting. Only her dog is enjoying that one time showing of God's sunset. The commercial ends with the narrator happily noting that at least someone gets it and you know it is her and the dog!

How much of life are we missing when we spend it checking out or updating without actually being in it? Don't get me wrong, there are many useful tools, but when they come before our God and before our neighbors then do they become idols of our age?

Are we more aware of the reality TV stars than the people in our family? Sometimes the degree in which we make celebrities frightens me. We put people up so high and then joyfully yank them back down just to prove they are all too human. Using people for idols always leads to being let down they are, after all, people!

Let's put it a different way...if the story of the Good Samaritan (if you need a refresher on it click here) were to happen on your street or the road you take home or even on the sidewalk by your school would you notice? Would we be a good neighbor and call for help with those tools or would we be so absorbed in serving them we would text, tweet and status update past without seeing a thing? Would you stop at a cry for help or would you think it was a cool ring tone?

It isn't just us or even this generation so don't feel all bad! When the toys and tools distract us from relationships, era and age doesn't matter. In Numbers they were distracted by their idols even while appearing to be worshiping the Lord. The high places plagued the leaders of Israel and Judah. The desire to play with the shiny idol things has always been in our nature. We can conquer it through God.

The Bible is full of times when we are full of other stuff and we miss what God is showing us. Baalam had to be reminded by his loyal donkey, which saved his life. Jesus cured blindness of the soul and of the body, of the mind and the spirit. He knew the teachers of the law were worshiping the Law and not understanding the spirit of the law, just as they were blind to the teachings of Jesus because their idols shone so brightly. Their own view of themselves as important shone more brightly than their faith.

What in our lives shines brightly and is made of things of man and distracts us from God? It could be anything and often times are many things. We are all guilty of it. It would be hard to find anyone unable to be distracted by bright and shiny things. Distracted we can pray through and work with it is when we become devoted to them, attached to them that the dangers of idol worship become real.

No one is immune, but God gives us a wonderful antidote. The shining promise of His Love through Jesus. No treasure is greater than our salvation. Nothing is more worthy of our undivided attention than redemption through grace.

So tweet, update, text and talk...but don't become a slave to the tools! Don't forget that even things with a Christian label can be idol like in their distractions! If talking about the latest episode or star comes before asking how are you, can I pray for you, are things okay then maybe the shiny things are getting too close to your eyes!

Be grateful! Be joyful! Be bringers of the fruits of the spirit. Be confident that we can enjoy life, as God has blessed us but don't forget the very things which draw our eyes from God can twinkle and shine to keep our eyes off of God and our tasks for Him.

I would love if you would share some of the ways you unplug and reconnect...some ways we do are being 'off-line' on weekends, setting aside days and times when we are not electronic dependent, talking about what we see when we go for a walk.

Now, please, get off the computer and go hug your loved ones, say a prayer and enjoy the rich blessings of God's creation!

(I have to share that I am so grateful for the brothers and sisters in Christ that I connect with on a regular basis online, without the blessings of technology we would not be able to connect, share with each other and pray together. There are a great many tools we can use to make our lives and walks richer and more full, that allow us to encourage each other and find ways to serve regardless of miles. That is a blessing from God, just as you are!)

Storms Raging

2011-06-03T16:39:00.000-07:00

Psalm 55:8 "I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm.”

We've had some intense storms around Canada and the US lately. Storms which batter us and destructive storms doing tremdendous and sometimes fatal damage.

Not all storms make the news but any storm can send us seeking shelter. The past few nights I've awoken to thunder, lightning and strong winds. They buffet the house, rattle the windows and my son sleeps through it all.

Although it may be just him being a sound sleeper there is a teaching in there for me. Part of the reason he sleeps so well is he knows he is safe. He trusts me and knows I will keep him safe. He knows with faith that God watches over us and he trusts our shelter, our home.

Luke 8:24 "The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm."

He trusts and therefore rests in his faith. He can sleep soundly knowing he is cared for. He doesn't imagine things like broken windows, downed trees and damage. He doesn't notice the power going out or the ticking of nervous dog feet as they seek me as well.

The animals trust me too. They either come in the house or come close to the house. Their source of food and protection resides there.

Could God be any more clear about MY need for faith? I don't think so! (you can smile here, I am!)

I need to trust Him. I need to pray when I'm afraid. I need to rest in His shelter. I need to be able to sleep peacefully knowing He is ultimately in charge. They are His winds and His storms and His elements!

Psalm 135:7 "He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses."

The storms are controlled by God and no matter what He is in control. He uses them, the real life storms and the storms in our lives of emotion, spirit, life and relationships for His good. His grace brings us through. He doesn't want us to panic and freeze up. He wants us to turn to Him and trust Him!

We try to be prepared for storms. We know what to do, where to go and have our emergency supplies in the shelter.

How prepared are we for the storms of life? Do we have faith in Him enough to trust Him and pray? When we panic, when we freeze up, when we lose control we cannot pray. We cannot trust. We are lost.

So this morning, while the lives around me trusted I too trusted. I prayed and praised God. I tried to see the beauty in the storm and not be caught in the fear.

How do you prepare for the storms that come into your life?

Snakes and Crosses

2011-05-24T06:40:00.000-07:00

Have you read Numbers lately? Most especially Numbers 21:6-9? It is where the people complained and were visited by poisonous snakes. It is where, instead of taking the snakes away, God provided Moses with the means to heal the bitten from the fatal poison.God wanted His wayward people to look to His provision for healing and to keep their eyes on His provision, His leader, His power. Not on their complaints, their needs, their wants but rather on Him.

Would you like to come with me to John 3:14-15 and see how this story prepares us for the Cross? Yes, for the cross, that bloody piece of wood to which death and sin are nailed and from which our Saviour rose victorious. Jesus, like His Father, did not provide that which the people asked for but He did so much more!

No earthly, worldly kingdom for the Jews, rather eternal life for all who believe!

No great battles, won victoriously, rather thousands fed from a few loaves and fishes.

No paradise in the desert, but manna from heaven, quail from the seaside, water from rocks, healing from snakes.

No quick and sure answers to many pleading prayers, but small daily blessings.

No easy answers to the challenges faced but quiet assurance of His grace and His peace.

No flashes of great evangelical insight but the wisdom from a child, who believes with his whole being in his friend, his Saviour, his Lord.

God could have chosen anything for the people to look upon in the desert, but He chose a snake on a pole. To remind them that He wasn't taking away the snakes but their poison. Ultimately the cross also took away the original poison of sin and replaced it with shining white grace, heavenly acceptance and holy peace.

God could have chosen anything for the people to sacrifice His Lamb upon but He chose to the nail ridden, blood stained cross. To remind them that He wasn't just here for today but for eternity. That the promises He makes stand forever. The cross, that sign of horror, was just as abhorrent as a poisonous snake and yet each held the focus of the sinner upon the holy healing hand of God.

Snakes and crosses, thank you Lord for putting our eyes and hearts where they belong upon You! When the snake bites us with pride and frustration. When the cross seems far away in the busy of the day. When just one more thing is the final straw. When tears fall hot and fears rack deep and we just sink to our knees and cry out Lord! Lord!

God wants us to raise our hearts, our eyes, our prayers to Him. He wants us looking up at the cross, to remember them looking up at the bronze snake to remove the poison. To restore us to Him. To restore us to Him.

Speak Lord

2011-05-16T20:23:00.000-07:00

The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” 1 Samuel 3:10 (NIV)

A child's talking book, the question, Would that sound like the voice of our Lord, Mama?

Birds singing, dogs barking, horses neighing and cows mooing, Can they hear the voice of our Lord, Mama?

Questions with no earthly answer and yet spoken with such a degree of faith and conviction sends me seeking in the Word. Can we hear the voice of our Lord? Yes buddy we can, in everything around us.

A slightly scornful look and a slowly spoken question, But Mama, I mean His own voice! Oh, that!

We sit down and we read Samuel and we read about Moses and when the dove hovered above Jesus with a holy benediction from His Father. We can hear His voice, we can read it and our imaginations and our faith fills in the sounds.

Only a little faith seeker would want to know what His own voice sounds like while struggling, falling, climbing, seeking Mama waits to feel that voice in her heart and in her soul.

He imagines God calling him by name and believes that he would know his voice. I imagine what is felt like to hear it for others. Fearfully, wonderfully, recognized by mind, body and soul. Recognized by all Creation! All His Creation.

My little seeker searches for the touch of His Lord in everything. I search for Him too. What I find is not what he finds. Is it because of my grown up hobbles or because of his childlike faith?

I want, I want to seek like he does. I want, I need to long for that voice like he does, and so I listen. I wait. I seek. I watch his faith grow and I nurture it.

I never want him to doubt his voice seeking and I never want him to forget that the foundation of his faith is built on that Rock of Jesus. I want him to feel, no matter where he is, he can quietly in the night say, Speak Lord, I'm listening.

Now, can I still my own grown up soul and mind long enough to hear that call too? Praying that I can, for us both. I too long to hear the voice of Our Lord.

Rebuilding Walls

2011-05-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

I was reading in Nehemiah about the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls. What an amazing story and what an amazing lesson for us building communities, relationships and rebuilding walls!

There is this thing about walls especially those made of stone or brick. They have to lock together or they won't be strong.

Each family, each person important, rich, poor, unknown, named, adult and child, worked on their part of the wall. BUT each part had to connect to all the others!

Shallum son of Hallohesh, ruler of a half-district of Jerusalem, repaired the next section with the help of his daughters. Nehemiah 3:12 (NIV)

Think about our lives, our families, our communities. We all have our own walls to build or rebuild and yet if we are to be truly a part of the fabric of believers and a witness to our communities we have to have our work connect together!

They weren't building with new freshly cut stones! These were stones broken down by war, weather and time. This wasn't a bunch of professionals either. These were families working together knowing their walls protected them, their walls united them, their walls were part of their world. Taking the stones they could find and carry, the ones that could be used, these families in about 52 days built up the walls to half their height.

They were mocked and laughed at and threatened. They were told it couldn't work, that's too much effort. They were told they were crazy to try. They kept on rebuilding their walls. They kept at it. They posted guards. They probably sang. Shared food and water. They helped carry loads. Small children, daughters and sons, parents and grand parents, Jews and aliens. Working together. Their work fitting together.

When I read that I had to go back and read it again. It amazed me. What a cooperative effort!

Sisters and brothers - can we not rebuild the walls of our relationships as believers? Can we not find ways to fit together, to work together so that we have a testimony of loving cooperation in the Lord?

They worked together. No one stood up and said, "Your wall isn't good enough!" or "Your section isn't Godly enough." No one knocked anyone down or their part of the wall either. I wondered why. It is human nature to be competitive, to want the best wall, the best grade, the best job, the best look.

So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart. Nehemiah 4:6 (NIV)

They were working together to restore something precious to them all! What is more precious to us than our testimony and the loving Grace of our Lord? The builders were not named to glorify their building but to acknowledge that they worked and built. There was no vanity. There was no my section of wall is greater than yours. No one celebrated that their part was bigger, better, faster, smarter, had newer stones or that they put more sweat into it. It was celebrated that they all worked together.

Shouldn't our church and community of believers have that same attitude of rebuilding walls together as we minister not to ourselves but to the community that needs to hear the Gospel most? Shouldn't our example be one of a people of faith working together? Each wall piece was slightly unique but alike enough that it fit together, that it was strong together.

I believe that we can be a light in the darkness and that God doesn't really care what our lamp looks like. As long as the walls hold together and our light shines with the glory of Jesus and the grace of God.

Reaching 600

2011-05-08T12:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day!

I was thinking about that while I was writing in my gratitude journal. My blogging friend Ann Voskamp has so many inspirational links and printables on her blog if you check them out at A Holy Experience. Her own journey to 1000 and more inspired me to start my own gratitude journal and to make some as gifts.

So I'm writing in my journal, purple cover embossed with the word CREATE and I'm looking at the numbers rising higher and higher of all that I'm thankful for. All that I'm grateful for. Almost 600 items, and looking back on them I see how they paint a picture of my life.

What does it mean to save the moments and to recall those things? It means that when I see blank walls and feel welling tears I have almost 600 things to look back upon and say, Thank you Lord! about! It means one day in the future my son will get that book, and his own we started this spring and see all the little joys which made for great joy in our lives.

It's more than a list of gratitude now though, it has favorite verses listed front and back and a note to my future adult son letting him know about his little book from Mama.

It is the words and the reminder that God is the perfect author of hope and that through faith and love and grace we can find things to be thankful for even on the gray, hazy and sad days. On this, an imperfect Mother's Day, celebrated by a most imperfect Mama I'm grateful for so much.

Do you gratitude journal? Feel free to share some random items!

Looking in my heart

2011-05-04T12:32:00.000-07:00

We each did a painting of a heart -
three hearts for the three of us.

I was in the sunroom, reading through Ezra. He was looking through his new Bible. We were talking about Jesus, God, Heaven and hearts. He comes up to me, puts his finger tips on his chest, closes his eyes and drops his head down.

"What are you doing buddy?" I ask in a quiet Mama voice.

"I'm looking in my heart with God, Mama," came the solemn reply

"What did you and God see in your heart?" I asked, awe in my voice.

Looking up, huge smile he says, "Well Mama, God and I saw lots and lots of love!"

When was the last time you bowed your head, touched your hands to your chest, closed your eyes and said,

" Lord, come with me and look in my heart."?

As I go through my day today, I'm seeking God's holy light upon my heart. What will we find in those places where the scars are thick and old or in the spots where hurt is new and those where love grows and hope springs up? I pray that I will find the touch of God. I pray that you will find the touch of God.

May God's love be with you always, and in all ways!

What were you watching?

2011-05-02T20:53:00.000-07:00

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, [and] giving of thanks be made for all men for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 1 Timothy 2:1-2

Canada has tonight elected a majority and selected a new official opposition, two former leaders have been defeated and we as Christians have a human government moving our country forward. Do you pray for our leaders? Do you pray for them to have wisdom, discernment and grace? Do you pray for them to have courage and to listen to the people who chose them?

Canadians are not as vocal and loud about our faith as some of our neighbors in the south. That is not a fault but an observation. We are less expressive in many ways and yet we speak loudly in others. Sometimes unexpectedly. We don't hear candidates speaking of their faith and yet we should as believers support them with our prayers. Whether we know about their personal relationship with God or not we are instructed to pray for them to lead our country well.

Listening to the party leaders speaking as winners or as losers and I'm hearing a lot of grace, a lot of support and seeing dignity. This is a good way for change to start a new season and I'm thankful for it.

We don't often hear the words pray for our leaders and yet we need to provide them with that, just as we would intercede for anyone. What do you pray for when you consider your leaders and your country?

If I Knew I Could, I Would...

2011-04-28T21:13:00.000-07:00

The Gypsy Mama challenges us for a five minute writing spree...this is what my fingers came up with...

If I knew I could, I would...
Figure out the middle and end of my novel. I would keep writing poetry and get my second book done. I'd design and promote that idea I have. I would reach out and grab the hand of my angel and test my flight plan. I would find a way to really make a difference and be the prayerful Mama I wish and pray to be.

I would add more items to my list of 1000 things I'm grateful for...and I'd find a way to press in some yellow flowers from my sweet boy.

If I knew I could, I would...tell those I care about the things that hurt me and ask them without fear to understand why they need to stop gossiping, judging, swearing and hurting.

If I knew I could, I would...move to the ocean or the mountains for a while anyway and if I knew I could, I would catch up on those pages and print those photos and I would laugh a bit more wildly.

If I knew I could, I would...find something to say with only two minutes out of five left that is profound, moving and could make a difference to someone. But with less than a minute left I'm a tired, inspired, creative, loving, praying, ranching Mama and wife...who is thankful for it all to her gracious Savior!

If I knew I could, I would...I would say I know I can and I will...

Can I ask you a question?

2011-04-27T19:09:00.000-07:00

God is so amazing! Our Heavenly Father blesses us with not answering us when we demand it. He blesses us with making our own discoveries and finding our way to Him.

I never would have noticed this before I became a Mom. To a son who questions everything and wants to know not just the why but the how and the what if...

He doesn't have the maturity or the experience to really grasp the answers I could give him. So I give him what I know he can understand to help him grow. I don't overwhelm him and I try to be loving even when I've got to be strict.

I could answer his every question to my own personal level of knowledge but that would be CRUEL and WRONG. He is a child. He cannot grasp the things I can.

Oh how wonderful God is that He doesn't give in to our demanding, endless questions with a overwhelming knowledge. He gives us what we can handle, when we can handle it. No more, no less, not too early and never too late. He knows perfectly what and when we need.

As a Mom I can in a small way appreciate that. I don't need to know. Where is the faith in that? Where is our serving of grace? Where is the love? I need to have faith. I need to have heavenly love. I need to be given the answers I can handle.

God, knowing our questioning ways and our stubborn natures,reaches us through our need to know. We are taught to seek Him in His word and find our way to faith through grace. We are to seek faith, hope and love. We teach our children the same - what a wonderful example God gives us!

God, your daughter thanks you and as a Mom I thank you for the example and the blessing.

Tangled Roots

2011-04-26T20:12:00.000-07:00

"Kiss of the sun for pardon. Song of the birds for mirth. You're closer to God's heart in a garden than any place else on earth." -- Dorothy Frances Gurney

Spring. A time to get in the dirt and get ready for planting!  A time to prepare for blooms and new growth.

Spring. It is a time to clean out the stuff that is in the way of growing.  This Lent I was way out of my comfort zone and doing some serious internal cleaning. God is merciful and has a gentle hand. My soul's garden was full of grass roots, stinging nettles and weeds which all needed to be pulled so that the flowers and trees and fruits could grow.

There are a few ways to get the tangled roots taken care of. I'm not a fan of chemicals but for some they blaze away with Round Up or other 'killers'. Dead zone. Dead zone. But where is the mercy and life in that?

Some take a spade and dig it all up and turn it over. The grass and roots are no longer seen. The soil seems nice and dark, rich and ready to care for new life. The old roots and tangles are still there. They are waiting to come up. Nothing can grow well for long in this garden.

Psalm 104:14 He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate— bringing forth food from the earth:

Some pull each weed and grass out one by one. This is hard work, a true labour of love. But if you are only pulling the tops off the roots can still grow another one. Thistles and grass are like this - one is sharp and spreading, the other spreading with dense roots.  Neither one has much mercy on the tender plants you put there.

There are times to take all your tools - spade, fork, knife, knee pads and gloves and really get into the dirt. Dig deep, reach in with your hands pull out those tangled roots, those weeds from their bottom side. Shake off the soil, put back the earthworms and you are ready for new growth. You are ready for the root plants to come back, for new seeds and seedlings to thrive.  It's hard work. Your hands get sore, your knees and back ache. Done right, however I've learned, it leads to fewer weeds and much less grass to deal with all summer long.

Luke 12:27 “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

Our lives are like flower beds and gardens - they grow the seeds of God's love and of our testimony. They are the places that can be filled with color, light, love and beauty or they can be weed choked, tangle rooted and filled with stuff other than God's grace and love.

Instead of dreading the weeding take some time to pray as you clean out those flower beds and gardens. As you are cleaning, it will free up your spirit and mind for God to clean in your soul too!  Who knows what beauty lies beneath your tangled roots.

If you garden, why don't you grow a row for a shelter or food bank in your area, or share flowers and other lovely things as a way to share God's grace with those around you. Someone might even wish to help in your garden and learn to do their own...just a thought from my May Missions: Bread for the Body, Flowers for the Soul.

Risen!

2011-04-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

He is risen from the dead. He has conquered sin. He is resurrected!

This isn't a CSI mystery or even a medical miracle. This isn't someone dead for a few moments, or frozen in hypothermia for a few hours. This is someone brutally beaten after great physical and emotional stress and fatigue. Then he was hung on a cross, nails through hands and feet, slash in his side. DEAD. DEAD. In the tomb for 3 days. In the warmth of a middle Eastern spring. DEAD.

...and yet NOT DEAD! But RISEN! Jesus rose again! Just as He promised! Empty tomb, stone rolled away, angel declaring His glory! RISEN!

This is God's mystery! This is Jesus' gift to us - eternal life through Him. The price paid, the sin washed away, cast away. GONE. FOREVER!

Can you imagine, even on a small scale, the degree of shock and surprise as the women not only found a stone rolled away but were greeted by empty burial cloths and a shining angel. An angel with a heavenly grin declaring victory. Was this one of the angels who stood in mournful attendance as Jesus struggled with our weight on that Good Friday? Perhaps!

Can you imagine the scale of the victory that an empty tomb, vacant burial cloths and an angel in attendance? It blows my mind! All of that for us!

And there was a LOT of THAT wasn't there? A lot of sin, a lot of bloodshed and a lot of human nature...that crushing weight that Jesus bore!

For us. Created by God. Led by sin. Not even enough faith to be the same size as a mustard seed and yet worthy. So unworthy and yet so loved.

Chosen, redeemed and loved. How humbling and joyful this Sunday is.

I'd like to share this video, and wonderful song on this glorious Sunday morning. Be brightly blessed, always and in all ways.

More than 2,000 people from Second Baptist Church, Houston, Texas, gathered at Discovery Green in the heart of Houston to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. The purpose of Dance Your Shoes Off! was to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus Christ in a powerful and celebratory way. Most importantly, each participant left a new pair of shoes on the field for those in need. These shoes will be given to local mission agencies, including Star of Hope, individuals all across the world through our mission partners and mission trips. This song is available at iTunes.

Dark Sabbath

2011-04-23T13:48:00.000-07:00

The Bible is silent about this the Sabbath between the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. There isn't a story about the tears shed, the memories shared, the hugs and the hurting hearts.  No one has heard, at least this side of Heaven, about the gentle reminders about His promised return.

This is a dark day, a day when Jesus did some of the most precious work ever. This is the day when after his physical death He walked through the Valley of the Shadow of Death and He carried all of us. Every sin, every tear, every wound - He carried them all and didn't drop a single one.

Harried and harassed, He fought death and washed us clean. From that last breath to the angelic tomb break He fought for us, He carried us.

We used to have to walk through that valley, until Jesus on that dark Sabbath walked it one last time for us. How wonderful! How amazing. How awesome!

Knowing what we know now, we can see this dark Sabbath for what it really is. But how was it for the sisters, Mary and Martha or for Mary, the mother of Jesus and the other Mary of Magdalene and the other women who were waiting to tend to him.

Their time was short on that terror filled Friday and they could offer no proper anointing, no proper farewell. A quick bit of tearful heart broken work before the sun went down. Then a day to wait. The longest, darkest day knowing that He was gone.

Even in the middle of our deepest grief we can find peace. I think these people of Jesus were seeking that peace, together. I wonder how much love the had for each other or how badly they were frightened? I believe that the Holy Spirit quieted their hearts.

I wonder on that dark Sabbath if the members of the Sanhedrin or Pilate and Claudia or Herod were frightened by what they had wrought?  Or were they rejoicing that another problem was solved? When did someone find Judas? Did he lay at the bottom of the hill all day, alone and scavenged upon? Possibly. Did anyone mourn that lost soul, besides Jesus?

I wonder about the thief who accepted Jesus at the last moment of his life. Today you will be with me in paradise! That was the promise. What a promise!

Because of our sins, we all shared the same death sentence as those criminals who flanked our Lord. And yet it was because of those very sins that He choose to pay our price for freedom. Jesus did what no one else could do - He saved the world from itself. And, wonder of all wonders, He did it willingly and with love. The ultimate love. The perfect love.

That dark Sabbath was washed in tears, blood and yet it claimed no victory. The temple curtain was torn. The old was passed away. That dark Sabbath was the last of it's kind.  No more innocent lambs to bleed out, potion out and burn. The perfect Lamb took all of our places, forever!

It is fitting that the dark Sabbath had no words spoken about it. It is fitting because everyone needs to catch their breath from the cross to the empty tomb. It is a huge journey to take, but Jesus no only led the way but He cleared it, filled it with light and love.

Today, as you catch your breath between Good Friday and Easter Sunday think of the quiet darkness of that Sabbath day. Consider what the silence, the tears and the sense of waiting for something amazing must have been like. The world waited, the very creation beneath our feet, just as was beneath theirs, held its breath. Everything was waiting for that light to burst forth victorious!

The Weight of That Friday

2011-04-22T05:53:00.000-07:00

The angels watched, hands on swords, waiting for Him to speak. Their faces must have showed a deep pain but they could not understand what He was doing. For them SIN was a single moment in time, a solitary choice, follow the fallen or soar in Holiness. There was no temptation, no weight of daily anguish and sin. They stood by waiting for Jesus to give them an order and they waited. Waited to announce the victory over death, over sin, over the prince of the fallen.

Borrowed, with thanks, from

http://www.keepbelieving.com/blog/2011-3-28-50-good-friday-easter-sermons/

Jesus, by this time on that Friday, had been tried, found guilty and was battered and bruised both physically and emotionally as a man but also He was preparing to bear our weight, the weight of all the sins of the world past, present and future. I don't know that He was in a hurry but the rest of the persecutors were!

He rushed to betray him! They rushed to capture him! They hurried to judge him! They pressured and cried to kill him! They couldn't wait to rid themselves of this dangerous man not realizing they were rushing us towards salvation. They didn't know, couldn't know that their sins that day were most necessary and would be used by God and His Son to save us all. Especially those they thought not worth saving - the unclean, the unholy, the human.

I've thought a lot about the weight Jesus bore on this day. How much that Friday must have weighed!

For the human Jesus there was the physical pain, and mental anguish that came from betryal, persecution, assault and execution. The anticipation and the knowledge that it was necessary was something He knew.

Psalm 103 ~ as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us

For the Son of God, the Jesus who willingly came to be wholly human there was an impending weight to be born. A weight for all time. A weight that was more than anyone could understand.

To understand what Jesus did for us we have to think about how our own sin makes us feel. It has a weight on our body, mind and spirit. It pulls us down. Imagine Him carrying all at once the sins of everyone. Knowing that if He dropped the net our sins would spill out and drown the world. Knowing that if He couldn't bear it for us, we could never do it alone. There aren't enough fires and lambs in the past, present and future of the world to atone for humans.

God knew this. God knew this on the first day that Adam and Eve walked out of the garden in shame.  He started getting the world ready, He started getting Jesus ready. The along with the Holy Spirit created a Holy plan to redeem us all once, and for all, and give us the choice in that redemption!

The God self of Jesus knew WHAT He had to do, the human self of Jesus had to bear the physical weight of the task. While His body rested in the tomb, Jesus wrestled with the weight of us and didn't lose a single sin or a single act. He carried it all...my eyes fill with tears imagining in my limited way what He did for us!

Let yourself become exhausted, don't eat or get proper rest. Let your body get worn down. Then in the middle of the night, be betrayed, then beaten. Then dragged around a city under the cover of darkness, knowing that daylight would come, and it would only get worse. Bleeding, bruised, exhausted and utterly alone. That, just for a human mind and body would be crushing, deadly and cruel.  When we are injured and tired the very weight of our own breath can be too much. Add a totally human emotional weight - why me? What did I do? I'm innocent! and the weight can drive you to your knees!

Read Job - he bore all the weight that God would permit the fallen prince to put upon him. He, human man, but one who loved God bore it with God's help. Jesus bore what we all have done, all we did and all we would do alone because He needed to give us empty baskets of sin to approach the Father.

Jesus, the ultimate fisher of men, wove nets of love to catch us on the cross. He also wove nets of love to hold our sin.  And not one wiggling, not a single lustful or murderous one escaped him. He took them all, carried them all and that weighed more than all the world that Friday. He carried that net full and dropped it in the hole between East and West and allowed God to forget our sins and through His Son see us as clean and worthy.

I am so thankful that I have an empty net, that I can go before God redeemed, and know that the net I have woven for me in Love shows that Love.  My sins no longer are stuck in my net, they are by the blood and love of Jesus washed clean and cast away.

The devil, the fallen one, gathered every sin he could find and poured it onto Jesus. Knowing that if even one fell from his net, if even one wasn't carried by Him, that all would fall and so we all would fall.  I dislike imagining him, but I like to smile at his chagrin when he realized that love is so much stronger than he could know. That not one single sin fell out and that Jesus carried it all.

Thank you, God for your Son. Thank you Jesus for not letting us fall, for carrying away our sin. Thank you for sending the Holy Spirit to us. Thank you for the weight of that Friday that you bore for us all.

Palm Sunday at Home

2011-04-19T15:56:00.000-07:00

and yet here it is Tuesday! Tell me how that happened!

The story of our Palm Sunday Adventures will be on my sister-blog Mystic-Mom for those who wish to tour over there. This is the story I was starting to write when I realized God had other plans for me than those I had made!

Let me say here, at the outset, that I've learned some things in my life. One is when you listen God speaks. The trick is to be quiet enough to hear Him. My road that Sunday morning was paved thick and smooth with good intentions! Church with friends, early Palm Sunday service. We had it all planned and we were excited.

Scroll back to Saturday night - little man was up late and then he was up in the night and Mama never the morning person was so tired that she finally awoke to PANIC because no one can get ready and gone in 15 minutes. And to arrive rushed and out of breath seemed to be wrong on this Palm Sunday. A quick text and then at least a little smooth path for some devotional time.

No, not a chance, because our neighbor (bless him!) came to help feed the animals. It was he who found my Lord's reason for keeping me at home. A newborn calf. Tiny. Helpless. Cold in the wind and pellets of snow. Barely seen in the pile of hay. Alone. No other cows near by.

Thank you, Lord! For keeping us home. For ensuring that we found this sweet new life. For I know that she too is precious to Him.Thank you for ensuring I could hear You!

As I was sitting and waiting for my ever patient husband and our cattle dog to bring the cows up I prayed, I thought about Palm Sunday when Jesus was riding on that young donkey. This is the post I wrote, huddled up next to a calf, behind a bale, in the wind. The last place I thought I'd be after planning something so different!

Jesus knew what Palm Sunday was all about. He knew that this was the beginning of the end...for now. How it must have ached His heart to ride in and be cheered as a King on a colt riding to praise, songs and worship. He knew that their hopes, their dreams their wishes for Him wouldn't be coming true this Passover. He knew that their joy would become terror and then horror and dismay before it could be joy again.

He knew the humility of man and He knew the future of the people. He knew the horror of the cross would take many many years to become a symbol of His peace. The tiny fish (see my post from last Easter on this here) would be the secret sign for believers to find each other in a blood washed time. He knew that the Sanhedrin, Pilate and Herod would all play their part in what they saw as THEIR VICTORY.

The ache of love and the dread of being wholly human to bear our sin must have been a weight on Him. Yet on that Sunday, the songs, the colt, the love in the air must have been both sweet and bitter. A praise and a dirge. A bright song before a dark night. A loving embrace before a tragic parting. The freedom to move before the weight of the whole word would rest upon a bruised and human body.

Reading a book by Jim Bishop, The Last Day of Christ, really painted a vivid picture for me. It took me past the loose pieces of Gospel and history and wove me a moving set of images. How much Jesus loves us that He willingly took on this task. That He put aside everything for us.

So, there I was, sitting on the cold ground, talking to the cat and the calf, and praying. Praying about the wonders of Easter and saying thanks for the blessings in our lives, and thinking about that paving of good intentions. If they only knew but couldn't. If he could only make them understand but they wouldn't. But we can! We can see what Jesus did for us and we can, wherever we are, remember that Sunday.

We can celebrate it, knowing in truth what we are celebrating, unlike those people so long ago who did not really understand. How could they? Sometimes I wonder - how can I? We celebrate the victory, before the battle, knowing that Jesus wins! We celebrate the victory. We remember the price that was paid for victory.

Untangling Meekness

2011-04-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

The meek shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5

But the meet will inherit the land and enjoy great peace. Psalm 37:11

humble in spirit or manner; suggesting retiring mildness or even cowed submissiveness - according to a Google search

Okay...this is one place I struggle mightly! I am not generally a submissive, cowed or often mild. I'm wild, passionate and I work really hard to find balance. Balance is something God and I work on together - lots!

Being thought of as meek has been a less than positive thing in my type A world. Meek people are losers, they are the ones who get walked on and end up being used. They are not the take charge type.

This is what I was taught and I have to say I was taught wrong! When I read in my NIV Study Bible the Biblical meaning for meek I was stunned! I literally sat back and thought, "Oh Lord! If that is MEEK then please may I be MEEK!?"

"Meek - those who humbly acknowledge their dependence on the goodness and grace of God and betray no arrogance toward their fellow men." Oh and the reminder that "great peace" can also mean "unmixed blessedness". Unmixed. Pure. Direct from God blessedness!

How often have you said, or heard, it was a mixed blessing. Or that someone had to really look for the blessing in the mess. I've said it. I used to say it. Now I understand what great peace can mean. Now I can understand meekness better.

I can be meek and it doesn't mean weak. Nor does it mean easily taken advantage of or even loser.

It means knowing, acknowledging, where the source of all I am and all I have is. That source is not me! That source is God!

I depend upon God for the breath I breathe.
I depend upon God for the goodness I'm blessed with.
I depend upon God to fulfill my function for Him just like a spout depends upon the water, direct from The Source!

How does meek feel? It doesn't feel weak and it doesn't feel poorly. It feels abundant.

Whenever I feel arrogant (and trust me I can!) I try to remember what meek really means to God.

God doesn't want my pride and He doesn't want my arrogance. No more than he wants me to be cowed or submissive to the world. He doesn't want my false humbleness or my vain mildness. He wants it to be genuine, and He knows when it is from me. He knows when it is from Him.

I am a muddy, shallow puddle. God is a pure, deep spring.
Unless it comes to be from God then it will be from me.

I've struggled this past couple of months, outside my comfort zone, and this pair of verses along with the wonderful teaching of Biblical meekness has brought me another lesson, in being truly humble in acknowledging the Source of all goodness in my life. It isn't my work, or my words. It is God's and His alone.

Thank you, Lord, for the blessings in Your Word.
Thank you, Lord, for the blessings in our lives that come from You.
Help us remember, O Lord, when we are busy and stressed.
Help us slow down, O Lord, and refresh and refuel at you, our Source,
so that we may continue to do Your work and honour You.
Amen.

More Martha or More Mary?

2011-03-24T20:15:00.000-07:00

At the Home of Martha and Mary

³⁸ As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹ She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” ⁴¹ “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴² but few things are needed—or indeed only one.^[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Luke and I were reading his Bible together, and we came across the story of Jesus visiting Martha and Mary. The images in his Bible really struck me straight in the heart. I have been working, with God's grace, on being a more Mary like person. Less frustrated, frantic and less worry about the 'stuff' and spending more time in the Bible, studying, reading and praying. We all have.

What I didn't realize was that Luke had seen the change in me as well. He looked at the pictures, on both pages, and with a serious look on his face told me, "Mama, being more like Mary makes it easier to hear Jesus, right?" and right then I knew something very special. He was seeing the Mary in me, and not remembering the times when I was more Martha.

I know Martha, I know her. I've been her for a lot of my life. The frantic, the must do, the only one person alone doing everything rushing and missing life. I've rushed around, angry and frustrated, and missed blessings heaped upon me and I've been so angry to do things 'alone'. Not realizing that it is my choice. I can choose to spend that time at His feet or I can be rushing about preparing for a mortal feast missing the eternal nourishment in His Word.

How much have I missed? On one hand, too much and on the other, enough to learn to listen.

Learning to listen to the things that really matter makes it so we can listen to the things which are not things!

Laughter, wrestling, little hands helping clean up, little boys growing big, writing in my gratitude journal, taking a walk, petting a new born calf, properly doing my work, homeschooling, keeping our home nice, enjoying my husband, and the list can go on and on...

The food of grace fills me. The Word nourishes my soul, my spirit experiences joy and my life feels more balanced. I don't feel like lashing out. I feel like embracing. Instead of feeling frustrated, I'm calmly and prayerfully approaching challenges. Instead of losing sleep I'm falling asleep in the loving arms of my Lord. Instead of feeling angry, I'm feeling joy.

Let me amend that - I'm seeking joy! I'm seeking His loving Arms! I'm looking straight on and embracing the blessings in my life.

Still, I know I'll slip and embrace my Martha and that's okay. She and I have been together for a very long time. I learned her young and assumed her busy fussing was a good thing. Because anyone who could sit still wasn't being a good hostess. She wasn't being what she should but shouldn't we be just the opposite?

How many times have we wished our hostess would sit and enjoy instead of fussing, rushing and dashing about? What a wonderful message for us to stop and enjoy our guests. After all everyone is a guest in our lives as we are in theirs. Shouldn't we embrace being Mary instead of trying to impress the world with our busy Martha?

I'm working really hard, really prayerfully on being more Mary in my life...I hope you join me!

Reporting from outside my comfort zone

2011-03-18T13:38:00.000-07:00

Even the most familiar places can be foreign and strange

when blanketed in a dense fog.

I have a story to share with you, it is about how God answers prayers and it isn't going to be what you expect. At least it wasn't what I expected!

My last post was about moving outside your comfort zone as a Lenten exercise. Giving up your comfort zone as a sacrifice and a builder of character. Well let me tell you what have I been outside mine! For the past few weeks I have struggled with and dealt with things that were so far away from my thoughts when I wrote that post!

God answered my prayers indeed He did! I got to experience some things in my life that have been scary, stressful, hurtful, isolating, freaking me out hard and I've been struggling with depression. I'm the confident one and I'm our family anchor.

Settled firmly on the sandy bottom of our life and in my faith.

My little ship bobs and hangs on the waves but never really feels like it is going to swamp, or sink. These past few weeks have had me submerged and gasping for breath and while I started out fearing it and even hating it some. I also started to paddle, to swim, to reach out to Jesus who has calmed storms before.

God didn't take the storms away. He showed me how to sail for the weather. He taught me how to chart an unfamiliar course and avoid the rocks, how to pull off of the shoals when my bottom was dragging stuck in the sand. He is bringing me to more time in prayer, into the Word and He is also bringing my family with me.

I thought, wrongly, that I had to have a choice of either or. Instead God is showing me I can have, in balance, that which I need for all the roles I play in life. I was wrong in my comfort zone about so many things, and yet in others I was right, deeply right!

God knows me so well, He crafted me for the tasks I have, and I'm thankful for this time outside my comfort zone. I'm not super happy to be here - do not misunderstand me! My comfort zone is very, well, comfortable and this place is not! But it is here, in my personal wilderness that I've found my quails and manna and I've not felt my spirit hungry.

My comfort zone won't feel the same when I get back. I'm certain it will have some big holes and some tears and even a few new windows knocked in. But that is okay! By learning to give this time and these fears and this worry to God I've learned that my illusion of control was always serving me at MY pleasure, not for God's purpose.

The fog which makes even the most familiar things seem strange and foreign has become less suffocating and more lovely. I've relearned things, and I've discovered things new and anew. I feel blessed by this time and while I won't want to get in line to repeat it I also won't forget its lessons either.

I started reading my Bible more deeply, more prayerfully. I have been diligent in my prayers and in keeping my gratitude journal. I've brought my son into reading and praying more with me and he inspires me with his beautiful faith. I've learned that my hours of worry and my streams of tears do not, in the end, change things. Prayer does. Actually doing things does. Stepping out in faith as imperfect as I am at this. Those are what brings movement and the only way through something is to KEEP GOING!

God has blessed me and I trust that He has blessed you as well!

I've rested on a number of verses but none so much as this one...and I've prayed it, sang it, shouted it and claimed it for myself, for my family, for us all.

Psalm 121

¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
   where does my help come from?

² My help comes from the LORD,
   the Maker of heaven and earth.

³ He will not let your foot slip—
   he who watches over you will not slumber;

⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel
   will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The LORD watches over you—
   the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

⁶ the sun will not harm you by day,
   nor the moon by night.

⁷ The LORD will keep you from all harm—
   he will watch over your life;

⁸ the LORD will watch over your coming and going
   both now and forevermore.

Giving up my comfort zone

2011-03-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

Lent - this is a confusing time for me and I'll tell you why.

I have heard for years either seriously or in jest about the things people give up for Lent. Instead of giving up soda pop or chocolate for Lent, this year I'm doing something different.

When I was reading my Guideposts devotional I was inspired by one of the writers. She gave up her comfort zone for Lent. And that ended up being something she did the whole year through.

What in my comfort zone can I give up? My fear of rejection when I reach out to people? My pride that says it is me that takes care of things? My comfort at feeling like I'm in control when I know deep in my heart He is. My discomfort being around people who are not my first choice for company? Maybe it is my need to be busy instead of being attendant to God?

In my comfort zone I don't count my blessings as much as I should, they are just there. In my comfort zone the things I need are just within reach. Always. What if they were not? What if that job or friend or _______wasn't there? What if it was just you and God?

How can we make Him our comfort zone and within that we can be blessed freely? I have been learning not to lean on myself but upon Him. That shouldn't be so hard but I confess freely that it is!

When we are able to give up some of our comfort zone maybe we'll find ways to share God and the message of the empty tomb. When I think of giving up my comfort zone I am reminded what Jesus gave up on the Cross and I'm humbled. I'm awed. He did that for me. He did that for YOU!

Feel free to share your Lenten journey with us in the comments...be brightly blessed, always and in all ways.

What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

O how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
O how bright the path grows from day to day,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/l/o/lotearms.htm

God is Present

2011-03-03T20:09:00.000-08:00

God is present.
He is there when the tears fall hot on the pillow.
He is there when the fear makes muscles tremble.

God is present.
He is there when our prayers are silent anguish.
He is there when our prayers soar and fly as eagles.

God is present.
He is there when a little boy prays for his daddy and grandpa.
He is there when a mama prays for things with no name.

God is present.
He is present in joy filled laughter.
He is present in wonder filled exclamations.

Got is present.
He is present when His children gather together to pray.
He is present when we lift each other up to Him.

God is present. Whether we want Him to be or not.
God is present. Now, then and so far into the future we cannot see.

God is present.
He is present and I am thankful for it.
He is present and I am in awe of it.

I'm thankful for those who remind me that God is present.
I'm thankful for you!

Be brightly blessed, always and in all ways...

StrawberryRoan

This is love

An audience of One

What's your poverty?

Heart's overflow

Are you offended?

A Centurion's Faith

The Faith of the Centurion

Live, don't die alive

Guest Post: A view on faith

The Ruins of Babel

In His Hands

Mary's Faith

New Born Son

Love Colored Glasses

Undivided Attention

Psalm 135

Your Name Is Safe

Praying in Line

And the award goes to...

The people you pass by

Two Days Later

in real life

Grace abundant

Etch-A-Prayer

How Do I Really Know?

Living Waters

Six Years Ago

1 Corinthians 2:5 (NIV)

Digging Up Seeds

Strands of Three

Berries, frogs and bird song

Still...A Five Minute Friday

Waiting for Wild Flowers

How Many Stand Silent

One blade of grass

Five Minute Friday: Gratitude

My Prayer

We know what to do

Who are we reaching?

Backwards: sdrawkcaB (Five Minute Friday)

Bright idols?

2 Kings 17:40-41 (NIV) "They would not listen, however, but persisted in their former practices. Even while these people were worshiping the LORD, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their ancestors did."

Storms Raging

Snakes and Crosses

Speak Lord

The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” 1 Samuel 3:10 (NIV)

Rebuilding Walls

Reaching 600

Looking in my heart

What were you watching?

If I Knew I Could, I Would...

Can I ask you a question?

Tangled Roots

Risen!

Dark Sabbath

The Weight of That Friday

Psalm 103 ~ as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us

Palm Sunday at Home

Untangling Meekness

More Martha or More Mary?

Luke 10:38-42 (New International Version, ©2011)

At the Home of Martha and Mary

Reporting from outside my comfort zone

Psalm 121

Giving up my comfort zone

God is Present