What I'm Reading
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Great Success to Great Fear
Ever had the experience mentioned in the title of this post? One minute you feel good about something, you see God work, you think something was accomplished…then the next minute, fear creeps in? Why is that? I’ve shared God’s message with a group of women, and believed in my heart I said what He wanted. Then, after it’s over, I wonder if I said anything I shouldn’t. Did I distort the Truth, or take it out of context? I fear ever getting another opportunity to share with women! Even God’s prophets experienced this. This past week, my daily Bible reading plan took me to 1 Kings 18-19 and the story…
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Where Are You Looking?
Two things in my study of the Word this week came together on one day and caught my attention. I was reading Proverbs in my daily Bible plan and came across Proverbs 4:25-27 which says: Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead. Carefully consider the path for your feet, and all your ways will be established. Don’t turn to the right or to the left; keep your feet away from evil. I began to consider what that looks like? I believe it means, no matter what life situation I find myself facing, I must not allow the situation to pull my eyes and heart from the path…
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WHOSE Plan?
How many of you are list makers? You like a plan and you like to stick with it? You set out the day with YOUR plan and check off each item as it is completed. I get that. How many of you, like me, often make this plan without consulting with our Creator? Who knows the plan and purpose of our day (and life!) better than He does? Sometimes I move into my plan without remembering this! As I look back over many years of ministry, I see times I pushed my plan through at any cost. Then I remember those times when things weren’t going according to my plan,…
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Yet, Hope
Although I don’t always write on suffering and loss, and I certainly didn’t plan on this third post in a row on the subject, it seems that is just where I am right now. (You can read Part 1 and Part 2 here if you like.) This past week, I’ve been saddened by two friends with cancer and another who lost her husband. Since we just celebrated Easter and the resurrection of Christ, I’m extra sensitive to His presence and of “garden pain” He experienced in Gethsemane. The picture of Christ sweating drops of blood and asking for a different outcome shows us how to approach pain and loss. We…
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Transformation or Transfiguration?
I said I might post again on Elisabeth Elliot’s book published after her death, Suffering is Never for Nothing, and this is it. (You can read the other post here.) The final topic in this book is “Transfiguration.” Elisabeth said she chose this word instead of “transformation”, although they are so similar. Both words indicate a change. Both, for Christians, mean change that causes us to be conformed to the image is Christ (Romans 8:29). She thinks “transfiguration” “implies an aspect of glory that is not always implied with the word transformation.” I’d really not ever thought about that before. I love this image of a boy on a ladder…
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When You Can’t Explain Suffering
Perhaps you are in a place of suffering right now, asking God “why?”. Maybe you are in a sweet place currently, but you remember being in past crises that caused you to try to figure out the “why?” of the situation. All of us will probably face another “why?” moment, or many of them, before we take our last breath. I haven’t even finished Elisabeth Elliot’s book published after her death, Suffering is Never for Nothing. But I want to encourage you to read it! Elisabeth clearly explains in chapter 3, her choice to believe God and accept suffering as a part of following Christ. To be honest, I have…
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I Wonder If….
If I am training for a marathon, I will not only prepare my body physically for the race, but I will also learn from others who have run races before me. If I want to run well and make it across the finish line strong and on two feet, I will prepare long and hard ahead of time. Otherwise…well, you know. I will quit early in the race or I will crawl across the finish line, half dead! I actually understand this because I ran a 3 mile race MANY years ago. I trained hard and I still struggled to make it across the line without throwing up! So, in…
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Lessons from a Goat…and Other Things
So last week I blogged on the current Bible study I am doing by Jennifer Rothschild, Psalm 23 . You can read it here. Today, something that happened on Valentine’s Day has prompted me to write again on what I learned this week through that study and through my daughter. My kids are often “fodder” for this blog and today is no different. So, we deliver Valentines to our grands late in the day on February 14. Just wanting to bless these grands with more sugar and lots of hugs, we were not expecting to be greeted with a crisis with Fred, the goat. (I know we are studying sheep…
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Who’s Driving?
Have you ever ridden a tandem bike? I have many years ago and I remember there is an unsettling feeling of letting go of the control of the ride completely to another person. Not always an easy thing to do, right? If you have ever taught someone to drive a car, you know that same feeling. This is illustration Jennifer Rothschild shares in her study I am in the middle of right now. I’ve read and studied Psalm 23 many times but this new perspective she shares is from her own personal place of struggle and growth, and it is powerful! Just in case you do not know, Jennifer is…
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Joy Restored
Have you ever witnessed an old rusty, beat up car being restored to an earlier version of beauty? I love seeing the new ones on the road but if I saw it before it’s restoration I might turn away and not even notice. Or I might comment on how beat up it is! I’ve been doing the Bible study by LifeWay, The Faithful: Heroes of the Old Testament. Each week is authored by a different Bible teacher and this week I’ve been studying Jennifer Rothschild’s portion on Hosea. I’ve been challenged to take a look at Hosea’s wife Gomer at her worst and at her best. Kind of like the…
