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The Safety of the Cove
My husband Pat, #MoDawg and I finally got out on the lake in our kayaks for the first time this season. My favorite spot is on the water so I was in my happy place. We had some wind that day and had to paddle hard to get out of the cove into the lake. We tried to keep from being pushed in to the shore and out to the middle of the lake since we were already tired from paddling so hard. SO…we headed back into the cove where it was calmer. As we entered, things changed and it was easier to go the direction we desired. Immediately my…
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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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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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Prepared and Pursuing
Each morning we get up and prepare for the day. Each night we prepare for sleep. Seems we are always preparing for something. If we are following Christ and if we are leading others to do the same, we must be prepared for an enemy who does not want us to be effective as disciples. I wrote about this in a LifeWay Women’s Ministry post several years ago. You can read that post The Devil is in My Face if you’d like. Preparation involves knowing who our enemy is and finding ways to be equipped. Recently one of my daughters had very vivid experience of how the enemy works. Here is what she…
