In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
Friday, April 29
Casual Friday | In Christ Alone
Wednesday, April 27
Making Time
Read Philippians 4:4-9
This year on Good Friday I found myself in a heap of complaints. What better time to think about myself? My house still hadn't cleaned up itself. My husband travels for weeks at a time for his job. My Mom lives far away in a state where people talk funny. My four year old is going through his weird question stage. My nine month old is just kicking his nursing addiction. The icing on the cake folks, I'm in my first trimester with baby #3. Poor me! I deserve to feel this way. I'm entitled to an enormous pity party where my husband is the guest of honor. Right?
I haven't picked up my bible in weeks. I've deleted every daily devotional from my inbox. I can't remember the last heartfelt time I spent in prayer. I'm just too tired for God.
This year on Good Friday I found myself in a heap of complaints. What better time to think about myself? My house still hadn't cleaned up itself. My husband travels for weeks at a time for his job. My Mom lives far away in a state where people talk funny. My four year old is going through his weird question stage. My nine month old is just kicking his nursing addiction. The icing on the cake folks, I'm in my first trimester with baby #3. Poor me! I deserve to feel this way. I'm entitled to an enormous pity party where my husband is the guest of honor. Right?
I haven't picked up my bible in weeks. I've deleted every daily devotional from my inbox. I can't remember the last heartfelt time I spent in prayer. I'm just too tired for God.Tuesday, April 26
This Little Light of Mine
Read Matthew 5:13-16
I spend much of my time in light places. I may be part moth or something, but light draws me in. I am blessed to be surrounded by a great number of Godly friends and family, and I like it. I am comfortable in the light.
I don’t often have cause to go into dark places, and when I do have to go, I flee as quickly as humanly possible. I just don’t like the unsettling, uncertainty found there. I know what to expect from people filled with the light of God’s love. I don’t know what to expect form those wandering around in darkness.
An unpleasant side effect of this condition—this surrounding myself in light—is that my personal light doesn’t need to be all that bright.
On early summer mornings, the sun pours into our east facing living room. It has to be at just the right angle to make it past the front porch overhang, but for about an hour, the light is actually quite harsh in here. So I come in, open the curtains and turn on the light. The light from the 75 watt CFLs does little to add illumination in a room already flooded with sunlight, but I turn it on just the same. It drives my husband crazy, but I contend that more light is always better.
I am the 75watt CFL in the sun drenched living room.
I spend much of my time in light places. I may be part moth or something, but light draws me in. I am blessed to be surrounded by a great number of Godly friends and family, and I like it. I am comfortable in the light.
I don’t often have cause to go into dark places, and when I do have to go, I flee as quickly as humanly possible. I just don’t like the unsettling, uncertainty found there. I know what to expect from people filled with the light of God’s love. I don’t know what to expect form those wandering around in darkness.
An unpleasant side effect of this condition—this surrounding myself in light—is that my personal light doesn’t need to be all that bright.
On early summer mornings, the sun pours into our east facing living room. It has to be at just the right angle to make it past the front porch overhang, but for about an hour, the light is actually quite harsh in here. So I come in, open the curtains and turn on the light. The light from the 75 watt CFLs does little to add illumination in a room already flooded with sunlight, but I turn it on just the same. It drives my husband crazy, but I contend that more light is always better.
I am the 75watt CFL in the sun drenched living room.
Monday, April 25
The Woman Who Conquered Cannibals
The Book of Missionary Heroes, by Basil Mathews. (Copied and lightly edited by Stephen Ross for WholesomeWords.org).
As the train from the south slowed down in Waverley Station, Edinburgh, one day in 1898, a black face, with eyes wide open with wonder, appeared at the window. The carriage door opened and a little African girl was handed down onto the platform.
The people on the station stopped to glance... But as a second African girl a little older than the first stepped from the carriage to the platform, and a third, and then a fourth black girl appeared, the cabmen and porters stood staring in amused curiosity.
Who was that strange woman (they asked one another), short and slight, with a face like yellow parchment and with short, straight brown hair, who smiled as she gathered the little tribe of African girls round her on the railway platform?
As the train from the south slowed down in Waverley Station, Edinburgh, one day in 1898, a black face, with eyes wide open with wonder, appeared at the window. The carriage door opened and a little African girl was handed down onto the platform.
The people on the station stopped to glance... But as a second African girl a little older than the first stepped from the carriage to the platform, and a third, and then a fourth black girl appeared, the cabmen and porters stood staring in amused curiosity.
Who was that strange woman (they asked one another), short and slight, with a face like yellow parchment and with short, straight brown hair, who smiled as she gathered the little tribe of African girls round her on the railway platform?Friday, April 22
Good Friday
One day when Heaven was filled with His praises
One day when sin was as black as could be
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin
Dwelt among men, my example is He
Word became flesh and the light shined among us
His glory revealed
Thursday, April 21
To Shine or not to Shine
Read John 3
The Israelites numbered about a million and a half homeless people. They made tents and moved about the desert at the whims of a column of smoke. They ate flecks of mystery manna gathered from the sandy ground. Their clothes never wore out, so there was never an excuse for new.
At least in Egypt they had their own space. Sure, they were forced into servitude by a cruel, cold hearted ruler, but at least they knew what was expected of them. Moses, the deliverer, had delivered them over to a bizarre and uncertain faith. He had enticed them out of Egypt with promises of freedom, failing to mention the desert between them and the Land of Promise.
The Israelites were afraid of the God whose voice thundered out of the mountainside, but Moses, was just a man. An intimidating man, but one they could talk to. Moses didn’t get a lot of affirmation from his people. What he did get was complaints.
“Why did you bring us out into the desert to die?!”
“We are so tired of manna, we just want meat.”
“We were better off in Egypt.” (see Numbers 21)
Have your kids ever done this to you? Mine have. It usually happens around hour three at the zoo.
“I’m tired of walking.”
“Why won’t you buy me a toy?”
“The lions are sleeping. I’m bored.”
“Can I play on your phone?”
“Can we watch a movie on the way home?”
I get furious. I am trying to give them a good thing. We are trying to build memories together as a family, but they are so ungrateful all they can do is complain?? Oh, I’ll give you something to complain about…
Like nails on a chalk board, complaining and arguing take their toll on everyone involved. In the desert, God Almighty himself decided to do something about it.
The Israelites numbered about a million and a half homeless people. They made tents and moved about the desert at the whims of a column of smoke. They ate flecks of mystery manna gathered from the sandy ground. Their clothes never wore out, so there was never an excuse for new.
At least in Egypt they had their own space. Sure, they were forced into servitude by a cruel, cold hearted ruler, but at least they knew what was expected of them. Moses, the deliverer, had delivered them over to a bizarre and uncertain faith. He had enticed them out of Egypt with promises of freedom, failing to mention the desert between them and the Land of Promise.
The Israelites were afraid of the God whose voice thundered out of the mountainside, but Moses, was just a man. An intimidating man, but one they could talk to. Moses didn’t get a lot of affirmation from his people. What he did get was complaints.
“Why did you bring us out into the desert to die?!”
“We are so tired of manna, we just want meat.”
“We were better off in Egypt.” (see Numbers 21)
Have your kids ever done this to you? Mine have. It usually happens around hour three at the zoo.
“I’m tired of walking.”
“Why won’t you buy me a toy?”
“The lions are sleeping. I’m bored.”
“Can I play on your phone?”
“Can we watch a movie on the way home?”
I get furious. I am trying to give them a good thing. We are trying to build memories together as a family, but they are so ungrateful all they can do is complain?? Oh, I’ll give you something to complain about…
Like nails on a chalk board, complaining and arguing take their toll on everyone involved. In the desert, God Almighty himself decided to do something about it.
Wednesday, April 20
My God Shall Supply All My Needs
Read Philippians 4
"And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4:19
My God will supply all my needs. I believe this wholeheartedly. I've heard the familiar verse all my life and it even has a catchy tune sung often in my Sunday School classes as a child. Yet it is difficult to see God supplying my needs on a daily basis.
I needed a reminder.
Monday, April 18
Hearing God's Silence
Read Matthew 11
Max Lucado is one of my very favorite authors. I love the word pictures he paints. I once told someone this, and he said, “Ah. The guy who makes up stuff about the Bible.” He makes some broad interpretations, but they are founded in the truth of the Word. The stories do not stray either from context or spirit of the text, so I am content to let him run with it. And I will run along, because the alive and active Word of God gets my imagination spinning too.
The following text is taken from Lucado's book Applause of Heaven. Allow me to set the scene first. John the Baptist, hanging out alone in a dungeon under Herod’s castle had just sent word to Jesus: “Are you the one who has come or should we expect someone else?” This was code for, “Are you gonna get me out of here or what?”
Jesus, with great compassion for the doubts of a strong voice for his kingdom replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
John was likely expecting something more dramatic than the sermon on the mount from the Messiah. A great and glorious takeover perhaps is what he was looking for. Instead, he received confirmation that the Kingdom of Heaven, for just a moment, was here.
I like to think of a slight smile coming over his lips as he heard what his Master said. “So that’s it. That is what the kingdom will be. That is what the king will do.”
For now he understood. It wasn’t that Jesus was silent; it was that John had been listening for the wrong answer. John had been listening for an answer to his earthly problems, while Jesus was busy resolving the heavenly ones.
Max Lucado is one of my very favorite authors. I love the word pictures he paints. I once told someone this, and he said, “Ah. The guy who makes up stuff about the Bible.” He makes some broad interpretations, but they are founded in the truth of the Word. The stories do not stray either from context or spirit of the text, so I am content to let him run with it. And I will run along, because the alive and active Word of God gets my imagination spinning too.
Jesus, with great compassion for the doubts of a strong voice for his kingdom replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
John was likely expecting something more dramatic than the sermon on the mount from the Messiah. A great and glorious takeover perhaps is what he was looking for. Instead, he received confirmation that the Kingdom of Heaven, for just a moment, was here.
I like to think of a slight smile coming over his lips as he heard what his Master said. “So that’s it. That is what the kingdom will be. That is what the king will do.”
For now he understood. It wasn’t that Jesus was silent; it was that John had been listening for the wrong answer. John had been listening for an answer to his earthly problems, while Jesus was busy resolving the heavenly ones.
To Be Reminded [to surrender all]
I recently wrote about my week of reminding myself to pray. You can read the first post here (2 weeks ago) and last Monday's here.
To recap, I simply set my watch to beep on the hour. It's a tiny, tangible sound to remind me to pray my thankfulness to God. I am now on week 2 with 16 hours per day of wakeful hours, equalling 224 hourly reminders to come before my Heavenly Father in prayer.
Last week I wrote of my new routine,
Everything I said in that post was absolutely true and I went on my merry, blessed way. So much good has come from this closeness with God. It's an honor and a privilege to come before him, either 15 seconds or 15 minutes to take and regain perspective.
And yet, there are times during the day when I hear the beep and I do not want to pray. Inwardly I am a defiant toddler who doesn't want to be told what to do. I am surprised and most assuredly ashamed when I feel irritation about talking to God. This whole experiment with hourly reminders has revealed some more uglies in my closet.
To recap, I simply set my watch to beep on the hour. It's a tiny, tangible sound to remind me to pray my thankfulness to God. I am now on week 2 with 16 hours per day of wakeful hours, equalling 224 hourly reminders to come before my Heavenly Father in prayer.
Last week I wrote of my new routine,
I don't think I can stop even if I wanted to. A new habit has formed and I find myself anticipating the hourly respite with my Father. What a gift I was missing! I packed duties and deadlines into hours that passed without notice. I covered everything with, "of course I'm thankful." I said I was too busy for prayer, too busy to grow, too busy to change. It was true, I was too busy and I needed something concrete to help me find the time. The moments were there all along.... I just needed a reminder.
Everything I said in that post was absolutely true and I went on my merry, blessed way. So much good has come from this closeness with God. It's an honor and a privilege to come before him, either 15 seconds or 15 minutes to take and regain perspective.
And yet, there are times during the day when I hear the beep and I do not want to pray. Inwardly I am a defiant toddler who doesn't want to be told what to do. I am surprised and most assuredly ashamed when I feel irritation about talking to God. This whole experiment with hourly reminders has revealed some more uglies in my closet.
Friday, April 15
Come Ye Sinners
Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love and power.
I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms;
In the arms of my dear Savior,
Oh, there are ten thousand charms.
Come, ye thirsty, come, and welcome,
God’s free bounty glorify;True belief and true repentance,
Every grace that brings you nigh.
I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms;
In the arms of my dear Savior,
Oh, there are ten thousand charms.
Come, ye weary, heavy-laden,
Lost and ruined by the fall;
If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all.
Joseph Heart, 1759
Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.
Ephesians 5:25-27 NLT
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