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Posts Tagged ‘GOD’

Eternal Liar

Posted in WONDER, tagged #suicide, Bible, christianity, Depression, GOD, Jesus, satan on January 26, 2025| 1 Comment »

The news cuts somewhere deep within us … for we were not created to die. The truth of God’s intent for us never included mental illness, depression, death.

Yet …

haven’t we all cried, sorrowed, grieved when we hear of the end of life of another?

Death entered our world when Satan told a lie in the garden, to the original souls of humanity.

And he still tells lies.

This past week we heard of the death of beautiful soul. One tortured by that which was never intended … despair, despondency, depression.

A young woman who God knit together in her mother’s womb … oh that mum, that dad … God hear our prayers for them!

A young woman with siblings, relatives, friends.

And they all cry, sorrow and grieve.

And we ache, deep in our souls … because this is not the way it is supposed to be.

And this deep ache …

it is proof that it’s a lie.

IT’S A LIE!

WHEN SATAN TELLS YOU

NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOU

NO ONE LOVES YOU

NO ONE THINKS OF YOU …

OUR GRIEF IS PROOF

IT’S A LIE.

If you are ever so low you despair even of life. If you hear whispers that no one cares about you, no one loves you, no one thinks of you … I want you to know those whispers are from Satan himself. And, I want you to remember what grief feels like … because the sorrow of grief is proof that Satan lies. He has lied since the beginning of time.

Our grief is proof, that Satan lies … for our grief comes from caring, loving and thinking of the one who is gone from us.

Satan … “was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” John 8:44.

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First Love

Posted in WONDER, tagged Bible, christianity, GOD, Jesus, revelation on September 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Did you know that, in the US, Canada and some other nations, national First Love Day was just yesterday (September 18)? It is the day to celebrate the one who caused that first release of the love drug (said in Barry White deep voice) … oxytocin.

First love … just saying those two words may bring a face or name to mind immediately. The memories of the lovely, silly, warm feelings one felt, perhaps many, many years ago. The thought of a first love may also make one thankful that that person has stayed in the past.

In Revelation 2:4, the apostle John scolds the church in Ephesus:

“But I have this against you: You have abandoned your first love.”

He is telling that church (and maybe even tells the christian church today … and we individuals within it) that they/we have forgotten the love, the passion that was felt when we first came to know of who Jesus is and how much we are loved.

And why is this such a big deal? I love one of the points made in the Matthew Henry Commentary,

“These lively affections will abate and cool if great care be not taken, and diligence used, to preserve them in constant exercise.”

Isn’t that like all forms of love? If we do not dote on the one to whom we say we love … if we do not study and listen closely to what they say, if we do not take (make) time to be with this love … well, do we really love them? And, if we were to jump into the ‘others’ shoes, would we feel loved, would we know we are loved if the other does is not attentive, is not making efforts to show love towards us?

John then continues on with a stern (and serious) warning,

“Therefore, keep in mind how far you have fallen. Repent and perform the deeds you did at first. But if you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” (v. 5)

Repent … just own how we have failed to love our God.

Perform the deeds we did at first … let the passion of the beginnings of love for God return.

BUT …
If we don’t do these things, something unbelievable, of upmost seriousness, is our consequence (as the church and as we who claim the name of Christ …

“I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place”

For the lampstand to be removed is to have the Light of Christ removed. This is so very serious.

Oh, how we need to call back our first love joy. How we need to return to that passion we once had for this one who brings light to our life.

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Why Do We Pray?

Posted in WONDER, tagged #obedience, Faith, GOD, Jesus, Prayer on May 27, 2024| 2 Comments »

Is there anything more boring than repetition? There is no feeling, no emotion, no uniqueness, no life in the parroting of what has always been done. In things of the church, in the life of the Christ follower, this redundancy can seem to be almost deadly.

although …

As a girl, my church had, for so many years, a call to worship hymn … every Sunday. If I heard Thou Art Worthy once, I heard it hundreds of times! As kids we mocked it, ignored it and allowed out eyes to roll sarcastically in our heads.

Yet now, forty odd years later, when that song is sung, tears fall from my eyes and my knees wiggle to bend, for the repetition as a teen caused an inner chamber of my heart to hold those words more closely than might have appeared at the time. Those words were written on my heart by the same repetitive, boring means that I mocked.

I love the story of Joan Chittister, who, as a Benedictine nun, was introducing a new group of nuns to the community. She asked them,

“why do we pray?”

The women responded similarly to how you or I might …

we pray to grow close to God
we pray to confess our sings
we pray to share our burdens
we pray to ask God to answer our prayers

After awhile, a nun dares to ask the question that they all have poised on the lips,

“why do we pray?”

To which Chittister responds,

“we pray because the bells ring.”

“Bell” by Serhii Korniievskyi

To be obedient to the bell, to the ritual of praying (just) because the bell rings, is to ensure that we do pray, that we are obedient beyond desire … for desire can be fleeting, for we can be fickle. To be obedient to the bell is to ensure that whatever mood, whatever circumstance,

we pray.

Perhaps it is time to set a new reminder on my phone.

“To pray only when it suits us is to want God on our terms. To pray only when it is convenient is to make the God-life a very low priority in a list of better opportunities. To pray only when it feels good is to court total emptiness when we most need to be filled. The hard fact is that nobody finds time for prayer.”
– Joan Chittister

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I Was Blind but now I See

Posted in Faith, WONDER, tagged #apostlepaul, #godmakesusright, #ihavekeptthefaith, #iwasblindbutnowisee, #notashamedofthegoodnews, #roadtodamascus, #saultopaul, GOD on February 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »

As I get older, I have grown more and more fond of Paul. That once-Christian-exterminator, who was blinded by a bright light on a long a dusty road. The bright light, confronted (then Saul) personally and said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” Three days later Saul was visited by Ananias, who had been beckoned by Jesus to open Saul’s eyes to the truth … The Holy Spirit arrived (because … Saul was praying for three days) and when Ananias said who sent him, Paul was cured from his blindness.

The rest, one might say, is history.

Paul, the great evangelist, the one who preached Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23), yet met Christ after the crucifixion.

Paul, the Jew, who preach(ed) in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God (Acts 9:20).

Paul, who was once blind, declared, we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Paul, who as a new convert was rejected by Jesus’ followers (makes sense, since Paul/Saul had been wanting to kill the Jesus followers), was hunted by the Jews who had been his friends, he was imprisoned, and no, doubt lonely said, this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love (Romans 5:5).

Paul, the preacher, who said, preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. 2 Timothy 4:2

Paul, who clearly lived with some sort of human struggle, yet, saw God’s plan even in that, three different times I begged the Lord to take it (a thorn in his flesh) away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 2 Corinthians 12:8-9

Paul, who, at the end of his could declare with confidence (2 Timothy 4:7),

“I Have Kept the Faith”

It is his declaration from Romans 1:16-17 that describes his purpose and his attitude towards it, in life. If, he was right, that this Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight, then it seems we ought to see this good news as worthy of dedicating our lives to sharing. For once we have been made able to see the truth of this Gospel, how could we keep quiet …

^“For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

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Ways He Says “I love you” (re-post)

Posted in WONDER, tagged Creator, GOD, psalm 19, when he says I love you on February 19, 2017| Leave a Comment »

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Are there any three words more delightful to hear than “I love you,” from someone who makes your heart skip a beat?

The best thing is when your ‘love’ knows you so well that he says it in ways that are definitely just for you. It is as though he is speaking your own unique language.

I had that happen earlier this week.

It was a typical Tuesday morning. I awoke at 6am, showered, dressed, and sprinted to the morning coffee. I grabbed a form of sustenance, climbed to my desk, and plunked away at the laptop for an hour. I then finished getting ready, kissed my love, and headed out the door.

I backed down our drive, feeling the ‘I love you’ in the fresh morning air filling my vehicle with the reminder of the gift in every new day.

Then, as I moved the vehicle from R to D, I looked up and faced the ‘I love you’ in the beauty of the sky … fog, moving to make way for peeking blue skies, telling me of the beautiful day to come.

I was awakened to His ‘I love you’s’, and began to anticipate what might be around the next corner …

… and as I turned that corner, the field, that I pass every day, was filled with fog, lightly laying within the confines of the fence that stretched around it, like roses confined to the safety of a vase … ‘I love you.’

I felt as though each corner would be another surprise, another expression of ‘I love you’ from my Creator … and He did not disappoint! More lifting fog, more revelations of hope of what was to come that day.

I smiled as I turned at that busy morning corner, whispering, ‘thank-you’ as I was sure that He had completed His ‘I love you’ message to me.

But, as I faced the tall trees framing the hill under it’s feet, the sky was shouting ‘I love you’ with that most constant symbol of love and hope … the prism of the skies …

… ‘I love you … with an everlasting love.’

“God’s glory is on tour in the skies,

God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.

Madame Day holds classes every morning,

Professor Night lectures each evening.

Their words aren’t heard,

their voices aren’t recorded,

But their silence fills the earth:

unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.

God makes a huge dome

for the sun—a superdome!

The morning sun’s a new husband

leaping from his honeymoon bed,

The daybreaking sun an athlete

racing to the tape.

That’s how God’s Word vaults across the skies

from sunrise to sunset,

Melting ice, scorching deserts,

warming hearts to faith.”

Psalm 19:1-6

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Possession is Nine Tenths of the Law

Posted in WONDER, tagged #2corinthians2:6, #happybirthday, #possession, #possessionisninetenthsofthelaw, Birthday, GOD, sharing on October 23, 2014| Leave a Comment »

You entered the world, and immediately turned mine up-side-down.

That day, you were handed to my open arms, and you were mine.

Now, at twenty-two, and a Psychology major, hearing that you were born into a possessive relationship might make you want to enter into therapy … as a patient.

I can assure you that our relationship got even more possessive, in the years to come. And now, somehow we have reached the point where you like to refer to me as not having time for you … maybe the possessive qualities of our relationship have altered direction (that ought to give both of us reason for therapy!).

According to our friends at Wikipedia, “Possession is nine-tenths of the law is an expression meaning that ownership is easier to maintain if one has possession of something, or difficult to enforce if one does not.”

And, as a newborn baby, you were possessed by myself, and your dad.

Now, if possession didn’t confirm ownership, appearance would cover the other one tenth. You were a visual reflection of your parents. To some a mirror image of myself, to others that of your father. I would say you are an image of the two of us.

There was nothing better, when you were first born, than to look at you. The very sight of you struck awe and wonder in my heart.

That first Sunday at church, when you were surrounded by eager arms, I wanted to hold you close and turn my back on those who would force me to share my possession …

but, I shared.

That first date out, after your birth, which your dad had arranged a dear friend to care for you, I just wanted to say no, and keep your snuggles and baby smell all to myself …

but, I shared.

That first time we didn’t know where you were, in a crowded shopping mall, because one of the girls of youth group passed you to another, I wanted to lock you and I up in our house, and never have to face that fear again …

but, I shared.

The day I took you to preschool, because you begged to go to ‘cool’, I really wanted to stay with you, but your teacher walked me to the door, and said the other children were excited to get to know you …

so, I shared.

And the sharing continued, and continues still.

Now, twenty-two years later, I realize so clearly that I really have never possessed you. From before you took your first breath, before even your heart made it’s first thump-thump, you were a child of the breath-giver.

As I look back at your first twenty-two years, as I look forward, at the appointed ones to come, I am reminded that my main job is not to possess you … but to hand you back into the loving care of the One who teaches us to share.

“I will be a father to you,
and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”
2 Corinthians 6:8

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Take a Break

Posted in GOD, life, WONDER, tagged #devilsconvention, #preoccupied, #stufftodo, #takeabreak, Busy, Church, GOD, Rest on August 24, 2014| 4 Comments »

My post today is not one that I wrote, and I do not even know who wrote it, so I cannot give them the credit. What I do know is that I recently heard it, just when I needed the reminder of the message within. So, today, with back to school approaching, I am sharing this post with you, praying that you receive it just when and where you need it.

THE DEVIL’S CONVENTION
Are You Too Busy For Christ?
Keep The Christians Busy
Satan called a worldwide convention.
In his opening address to his assembled demons he said:
“We cannot keep the Christians from going to church. We cannot keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We cannot even keep them from conservative values.

Nevertheless, we can do something else. We can keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship with Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken.

So, let them go to church, let them have their conservative lifestyle, but steal their time, so they cannot gain that relationship.
This is what I want you to do. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection!”
“How shall we do this?” shouted the demons.
“Keep them busy with the non-essentials of life. Invent schemes to occupy their time.” he answered. “Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, then borrow, borrow, borrow. Convince the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6 or 7 days a week, 10 – 12 hours a day, so they can afford their lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with
their children. As their family fragments, soon their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work.

Also:
*Super-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still small voice.
*Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive, and to keep the TV, VCR, CD players and PCs
going constantly in their homes.
*See to it that every store and restaurant in the world blares secular music constantly. This will jam their minds and break
that union with Christ.
*Fill their coffee tables with secular magazines and newspapers.
*Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day.
*Invade their driving moments with billboards.
*Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, sweepstakes, mail order catalogs, and every kind of newsletter and promotional
offering, free products, services, and false hopes.
*In their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted, disquieted, and
unprepared for the coming week.
*Do not let them go out in nature to reflect on God’ s wonders. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events,
concerts, and movies instead.
*When they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled
consciences and unsettled emotion.
*Let them be involved in soul-winning, but crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power
from Christ in prayer.

Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause.”
Convention Aftermath
It was quite a convention. The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busy, busy, busy and rush here and there.
Has the devil been successful at his scheme? You be the judge.
How about this definition of BUSY: Being Under Satan’s Yoke.
Author Unknown

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Depression

Posted in GOD, life, The Kids, WONDER, tagged Depression, GOD, Ink Stains, Pain, Redemption, Revelations, Sadness, Sorrow on August 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »

“Depression is an ink that stains everything it touches
A black hole that swallows all that comes near”
-The Beaver (movie)

I do not personally know the truth or fallacy in the quote above. I do know that as I look back at times when I was sad, when I was feeling downcast those words are so true. Looking back on those periods in my life, I can see the stains that were left on those around me, even today.

It is easy to forget, or not even be aware, that we are part of a bigger world than just ourselves, and that things that happen to us, affect those around us. It is the relational evidence of the scientific fact that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So when we are overwhelmed with pain or sorrow or frustrations, we are not the only ones to feel the effects … all those closest to us feel our reactions, and then they, in turn, also respond.

As a mom (I cannot speak for dads) I am naturally predisposed to guilt. I can look over the well-intended mothering that I have done, and see errors that I made that will surely result in therapy for my kids in years to come. Yes, I have forced them to clean their plates, at times. Yes, I yelled at them more than once (a day). Yes, I sent them to their rooms to await discipline … and forgot them. Yes, I made them clean their rooms. Yes, they are all aware that that their not at all skinny parents have skinny dipped (that one may send them to therapy for longer and sooner than any other, if their faces turning green when they discovered this is any indicator).

There are certain periods in our life together, when I thought I was hiding my own disappointments and sadness with life’s circumstances so well, and as I look back, and look at changes in their lives, I am aware that too were stained by my sadness. It is such a guilt-ridden thing when I see those stains that they wear, because of me. My inability, at times, to manage and deal with events in my life better, have permanently stained my children …

I am coming full circle now, though. And I am looking to see purpose in suffering, I am looking to see good from bad. I am looking to see that something positive, not just negative, can come from those stains. And I am beginning to see it.

I see a daughter’s sensitivity to a friend who is being stained by sadness and illness in her home. I see a son’s expression of his friends need of God. I see a daughter’s desire to go to those in desperate pain and need, in a place I would not want to go, to show love and mercy. Those times of sorrow for me, that were permanently etched into the beings of my children, have altered their hearts. They have been able to take the stains that I have caused, and are wearing them as certificates of accomplishment and experience. And these stains are being used to reach out to others, more desperate than their mother ever was.

The redemptive way that God can take our pain, and mold it into something beautiful for others is something I do not expect to ever understand this side of heaven. But, I am thankful that the stains I may have caused, have not swallowed the futures of my children.

“God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes;

and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain;

the first things have passed away.”

And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”

Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.

He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son (daughter).

Revelation 21:4-7

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Beauty out of the Dust

Posted in GOD, WONDER, tagged #beautifulthings, #beautyoutofthedust, Dust, GOD, gungor, Redemption on August 4, 2014| 1 Comment »

I HATE dust!

It makes me sneeze, it makes me cough, it makes my breathing labored, and … it is dirty! I just do not like it. The only thing that is good about dust is how you feel once you’ve showered AFTER being covered with it … it is then that you are truly aware of what it is to be clean, to be cleansed, to be freed from the dust of the ground.

Dust is a given for me when I garden. Our house is built on land once known as ‘sand hill’, and it was appropriately named! I remember digging up top soil to build a sandbox in our back garden. Once that was removed, I already had a sandbox, without the box …

I love to garden! It is an opportunity to work with beauty, or at least beauty imagined 🙂 My daughter gets frustrated with me when I garden, because I have gardening ADD … I easily get bored with where I put my plants, and move them around frequently … often before they really reach the pinnacle of their intended beauty (okay so maybe it has more to do with my lack of patience …).

But, when I garden (or cook, or paint, or clean the house … or move from one room to another …) I get really, really, really messy with whatever I touch. I am sort of like a toddler on steroids! All I have to do is make one step out of my door, and I’m a visual wreck! And, by the end of the day, there is not a bit of my body (you should see the dirt and foliage that falls from my unmentionables!) that has not been ‘dusted’ by my surroundings! I look (and smell) like a living dust cloud … like Pig Pen from the Snoopy comics. And, when I blow my nose, at the end of a gardening session, well the ‘outcome’ is a sticky, dirty black mess of goo (too much information?).

Some days, I feel as though my life is dust. I am dry, and there is simply nothing good happening. It can even seem as though all I do is make life for others miserable, like dust that makes me sneeze and cough. Sometimes it seems as though my purpose has dried up, and that there are no longer any signs of life.

It is interesting to me that at a solemn event like a burial, dust comes up. The phrase “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” is a common part of the burial rites, and is said to have been ‘inspired’ from Genesis 3:19, which reads, “You were made out of the ground. And you will return to it. You are dust. So you will return to it.” Those are NOT encouraging words for me … I HATE dust! If my beginning and my end, on this earth (pun intended ) are as dust … well, that is just not satisfying. I mean really, what is dust, but something to be washed away?

And, washed away it will be … one day. As I am, I am just dust. And those ‘dust-like’, dried up, miserable days, they are reminders that, on my own, I am just someone who needs a shower, a bath, to be cleansed. And, once the cleansing, life-giving, hydrating waters have flowed over, and under and through me, until the dust that I am is gone, and the water that refreshes me has taken over and is all that can be seen …

then I am a beautiful thing,

a living thing …

not because of anything that I could ever do,

but because of what God has done with the dust that I am.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time.

He has also set eternity in the human heart;

yet no one can fathom what God has done

from beginning to end.”

Ecclesiastes 3:11

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I Wonder, as I Wander

Posted in GOD, Nature/Creation, WONDER, tagged #blessingandcurse, #iwonderasiwander, #wonder, GOD, nature, walking on July 16, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I know I experience beauty.

I know I experienced joy.

I know I experienced peacefulness.

And, I KNOW I experienced … WONDER.

I know this from a day off I had one spring day. It was on my favorite trail, with my favorite beast (next to hubby), on a SUNNY day (I got a tan … I was beginning to think I would turn green with mold, before I would turn golden brown), enjoying every step I took.

And I really mean that I was enjoying every step I took. Now, most of the time, my walks are walks with a purpose (jiggle the cellulite into submission), but this particular day, I felt compelled, no, insisted upon, by someone much greater, to just enjoy the journey … and so I did. And it was wonderfilled!

There was the dandelion, gone to seed …

How is it that something that, when in flower, can cause me such frustration on my own lawn (and disaster once it’s gone to seed on my lawn), can bring me back to sunny childhood days, when future planning, and dreaming was only a breath away?

Or the tree, bent over right to the ground …

How could such a strong and beautifully created thing, looking so hopeless, from the strong winds of life, still live, and show signs not just of blossoms, but of new life in it’s leaves?

Or the bright, beautiful blackberry blossoms …

How could something so beautiful, so eye-catching (and foretelling of the juicy, sweet berries to come) also be so damaging to the wetlands, to other plants and trees, to streams that it’s ‘mother plant’ drinks dry?

Or the beaver …

How could such a visually adorable, brilliant builder, who really knows how to sink his teeth into his work, be so destructive to forests?

I learned that day that things are not always what they seem. That beauty and evil can be in the same place. That blessing and curse can be wrapped up in the same package. And, maybe even, that good can even come from something that also is, or seems to be, evil.