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Humility and God’s Hand
Having recently read the book of Ezra again, I was struck especially by two things. How God’s hand was on Ezra as He taught truth and Ezra’s humble prayer for the Israelites and himself. Since I am a teacher at heart, Ezra 7:10 has always been special to me: “Now Ezra had determined in his heart to study the law of the Lord, obey it, and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.“ Ezra was returning with the second wave of Israelites, who had been given permission by Persian King Cyrus, to go back to their city, Jerusalem. The temple had been rebuilt but the worship was still not right.…
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I Blew It…And Yet
On a recent Sunday morning, my husband and I left our house at 7:30 a.m. to attend worship. Normally there is little traffic at that hour. At the stop light to get out of our neighborhood we saw emergency lights and a couple of police officers stopping traffic. I knew we had a race that Sunday, actually a triathlon, but had no idea that every single way out of our subdivision would be blocked…for 30 solid minutes! The longer we sat there, the madder I got. How could they expect us to just sit there and not move until every single biker went by in front of us and then…
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Corrie’s Legacy
When have you read something an author wrote (besides the Bible) that just gripped your heart and maybe even made you cry? Perhaps you watch how someone loves Jesus and you just want to know and love Him that deeply. I believe God doesn’t give us these testimonies to condemn us, but to challenge us to grow in our walk with Him. That has been my response to my re-reading of The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. If you have not heard of or read this book, please get a copy! Although I sometimes dislike reading about the painful past of wars in history, and I especially hate what…
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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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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…
