Going Against the Grace

While I was driving home the other day I was thinking about how challenging my life is. Yes, I am thankful for so many blessings the Lord has given me, but still, living in this world requires fortitude. Emotional, physical, especially spiritual fortitude. I have tried hard to make right choices for the right reasons my whole life. I was saved at an early age, raised in a Christian home and typically chose the right path. I struggle with many sins and am by no means perfect, but in general, I have lived an obedient life. My life is hard. My life is draining. There are times when I want to give up or give in.

My next thought was, "How do Christians who have lived lives full of sin and bad choices make it?" "How do they get through the day victoriously?" I truly cannot imagine dealing with all the heartache, the regret, the guilt, the temptation. I cannot. It is so overwhelming, it takes my breath away. And not necessarily for the actual acts themselves, but rather for the reprocussions. You reap what you sow, so even if forgiven, for years later you will still reap the consequences of those bad decisions and wrong actions. How do they get through it? HOW?

My thoughts questioned.

Immediately, the Spirit answered:

"Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."

The Spirit slayed my thoughts with the sword of His Word.

I've been thinking about this verse ever since that night. Mulling, chewing, digesting, asking, what does this mean for ME?

I've heard many many sermons on the grace of God. I've sung many many songs on the grace of God. I think I've always thought of grace as something pretty and lovely, one of the spiritual truths that is nice to think about. After all, a girl named Grace would be softspoken and kind and pretty. Being gracious implies kindness, thoughtfulness, unselfishness. But wait!!! I think that grace is perhaps one of the most POWERFUL truths of God's Word!!!

(This is where I hope my words do not fail my thougths:)
As a Christian, what does God's grace mean for you? What does it accomplish in your life? What do you do or have you done with God's grace? Is it just a word that you hang your spiritual hat on because you sat under a five-week series on grace, or know all the songs in the songbook on grace? Can you make the acrostic?
G-God's
R-Riches
A-At
C-Christ's
E-Expense
I truly dont mean to be caustic, that's nice fellow Christian, but SO WHAT? If we are not doing something or living something based on what we KNOW what good is what we KNOW?

God's grace is powerful!! Do you know why? Because grace was paid at the cross by the blood of the holy lamb of God, Jesus Christ. The holy perfect God of the universe died to conquer sin, and in doing so, provided grace. Grace is NOT a pretty word, oh no, grace is a powerful word, the word that gives us power over evil!!!

"Where sin abounded, grace did MUCH MORE abound!"

Sin is horrible. Sin has horrible consequences. Think about the sin in your life, or in someone else's life that has crept in and corroded you or them, has reached it's tenticles to family and friends and left its mark: infidelity, drugs, alcohol, stealing, cheating, lying, manipulation, abuse, bitterness, wrath, gossip, disobedience, fornication, selfishness, anger, worry, murder, idolatry, unthankfulness, envy, strife, pride, worldliness. Sin always reaps more sin. Always. It leaves heartache, emptiness, weariness in its wake. Oh, it may feel good, for a season, but when it's gone, the emptiness is deeper, the heartache more acute, the weariness more intense.

My God took every sin ever committed by mortal man and every consequence of every single sin and placed them on His precious only Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus willingly carried them to a lonely cross and paid the sacrifice- He shed His blood - to pay the price for every single sin. Billions and billions of people multiplied by thousands if not millions of sins, placed upon the holy Son of God. The consequences, the emptiness, heartache, weariness - it all went with Him there!! And it all died with him there, too. Every single sin has already been paid for, every sin has been marked with the stamp of "VICTORY" when Jesus rose from the grave three days later. "VICTORY" over infidelity, "VICTORY" over drugs, "VICTORY" over alchohol, "VICTORY" over anger, and wrath, and selfishness and disobedience. "VICTORY" over idolatry, and envy, and anxiety and pride and worldliness. "VICTORY" over cheating, and lying and stealing and manipulation.

You see, anyone who can claim this "VICTORY" is claiming the power of the grace of God.

GOD'S GRACE IS VICTORY OVER SIN.

When you are proud, when you are angry, when you are selfish or disobedient; when you are unkind, untruthful, unrepentent; when you commit abuse, an act of rage, use drugs and alchohol: When I give in to these sins, I look at the cross and I say, "Grace is not enough!" I tell God that his perfect sacrifice was insufficient, that his blood is powerless, that there is no victory through Jesus Christ.

Oh but friend, when I face the muck and mire and despair of sin, any sin, I can look at the cross, and claim grace! I can face pride head on and tell it that Christ has already defeated it, and claim grace. I can face drugs and alchohol and claim grace. I can face wrath and anger, and claim grace. I can face anxiety and worry and fear and claim grace. I can face infidelity and lying and cheating and claim grace. I can face worldliness and idolatry and materialism and claim grace.

Is this hard? Oh yes, yes! Why? Because I want to do it myself. Somehow I think that I have the power that I have the ability even in my goodness and righteous living, but in my pride I forget that I did not go to the cross, I did not suffer and die, I do not have the grace without Jesus!! I can only face sin with the stamp of "VICTORY" when I claim the grace that was won on the cross. Every day, every sin that tempts me and tries me and stirs me on to more sin can only be defeated when I place myself in submission to the cross of Christ, when I claim His power. Grace is the sanctifying power from God in our lives!

Where anxiety abounded, grace did much more abound.

Where pride abounded, grace did much more abound.

Where stealing, cheating, lying abounded, grace did much more abound.

Where anger abounded, grace did much more abound.

Where disobedience abounded, grace did much more abound.

Where murder, rape, incest, abuse abounded, grace did much more abound.

Where infidelity, fornication, neglect abounded, grace did much more abound.

Where cursing, unkindness, bitterness, nastiness abounded, grace did much more abound.

And perhaps this is where the misconception of what grace really is does indeed come from: for a gracious, kind, gentle person has truly placed themselves under submission to the cross of Christ: they have recognized their flesh and tendency toward sin and have claimed the victory in every situation: When faced with a mean nasty unloving spouse, a gracious person will reign victorious over the nasty angry reply by submitting to the sanctifying grace and reply with kind, loving words. When faced with a disobedient child, a gracious parent will reign victorious over the desire to react in kind, but will discipline with a loving hand and heart. When faced with an unfair or unjust remark or action, a gracious person will reign victorious over the need to defend or take down but will patiently lift up and bear the other's burdens. A gracious person is truly strong.

And how about you, Christian? What sin is rearing its ugly head in your life? "Where _____ did abound, grace did much more abound!"

I am in no way trying to diminish both the challenge and complicatedness of life. The devil knows how to attack, he knows our weaknesses, he wants us to fail. Life will be heart-breaking, back-breaking, will-breaking, but, I do not have to abound in sin. I can choose to abound in the grace of the cross of Jesus.

"Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound!"

Tortured Souls

Tortured souls do not lament
the passing of your spring
for all the while the rain does fall
the mind is restoring

Thinking of the gray-worn world
the tempest in the deep
the ugly meanderings in your head
the phathoms you cant reach

For soon this dreadful parting
will be but distant thoughts
as one who struggles with another
and then is turn to naught

For if this life is full of meaning
and happiness and cheer
why is my heart full of sadness
and the ending seems so near

Tortured souls do not lament
the grave is turned asunder
hell is vanquished gone forever
yet my heart is prone to wander

(I can write poetry! I found this today, and although I like it I think it is missing a stanza. I'll have to tweak it a bit.)

Discovering old truth in new light

Yesterday I was talking with a dear friend about truth. Interestingly she brought it up because she has been reading books and participating in Bible studies that are all dealing with separate subjects and interests but overlap in their search and discussion of truth. As we talked I was reminded of one of my favorite authors, Leslie Vernick, and the first book she wrote, called How to Live Right When Your Life Goes Wrong (which was originally titled, The Truth Principle). I decided to pull it off the shelf and refresh my mind with its nuggets.

I seem to be in a constant conundrum with myself and truth and others and their perceptions of truth. It is very confusing to try to live and do right when close friends and family members are claiming to do the same yet their actions and words speak contrary to my own choices and principles. This makes my relationships viable because I know it is a truth to be close to those who follow truth and when we are not on the same page of truth I struggle with what I should do and why.

Several things stuck out to me last night. First of all, I need to know truth. Christ is truth, therefore I need to know God. More than any other relationship I need to know God, spend time with Him, be fellowshipping and communing with HIM. The first step is obviously reading my Bible and praying. Secondly, I must listen to His voice. Do you recognize which voice in your head is the voice of God? Have you identified the faulty voices so you can instantly recognize God's voice?

"Deepening our relationship with Him involves coming to recognize His voice and learning to tune out the ones that distract and lie to us."

My friend and I were saying just that last night, the battle is in our heads!!

Next, I need to value what God says. I need to believe it.

"Christian counselor Sandra Wilson says, 'We don't always live what we profess, but we always live what we believe.' This describes the experience of many when they say, 'I know it in my head but not in my heart.' We will always live according to what our heart believes, not what our head professes to believe. One of the most difficult journeys a Christian will ever take is the journey from the head to the heart, or from knowledge to trust."

This paragraph encouraged me greatly. I know people that know the truth, but dont live it. It is quite frustrating because it affects me personally. I have no control over them or the decisions they make. I cannot change them. But still the constant, what is wrong with them, they say they know all the answers, why cant they do what they know? They don't believe it. If they believed it, they would act differently. Their head knows it, but their heart has not trusted in the truth of God's Words. They can tell me they know it all they want, but there is a strange comfort in knowing that I can trust the fact that they still have a journey of faith themselves before the behavior changes.

Ms. Vernick then talks about how knowing God then involves obeying God, and then lastly loving Him with our whole hearts.

As I read I was truly convicted by the exposure of my own heart's failure to love God. I am a disciplined person. I have an easier time obeying than succeeding in these other areas. But I do not love easily. And Ms Vernick quotes from another book called Seeking the Face of God by Gary Thomas:

"We cease from sin, not just because we're disciplined, but because we have
found something better."

Have I only learned to do what's right for the sake of doing what's right? Being disciplined is not an easy thing. It requires ambition, character, motivation. But perhaps my obedience so often loses its meaning because I forget that I am not disciplined for disciplined sake only, but because the love of God has constrained me to do these things. The more I love Jesus, the more I love God, the more I understand His amazing love for me and therefore the more I KNOW Him, the more I will want to be like Him. Again Ms Vernick:

"It is this union, our abiding in Him, and He in us, where change begins to take place in our innermost being: our heart. This is where we begin to take on the character of the one we love - Christ's nature in us."

(All quotes are taken from Ms. Vernick's book, so if you'd like more detailed explanations, please read it!)

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." Ephesians 3:17-19

Waiting on the Lord

"I waited patienly for the Lord, and he inclined unto me and (he) heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and (he) set my feet upon a rock, and (he) established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God...Blessed is that man that man that maketh the Lord his trust "

Psalm 40:1-4

A few weeks ago my heart was breaking, and I was growing through a tough trial. I was reading this passage of Scripture, which has always been a dear and precious one, and something hit me. I was waiting on a person, I was not waiting on God.

In this world full of sinners, in which you and I are both included, we often find that we are constantly dealing with problems caused by said sinners. So often I blame them, and rightly so, and "sit around" waiting for them to make it right, or stew, or consider several things I could say or do to make it better. We all have people in our lives like that right now. We are dealing with wayward children or spouses, or faulty parents or in-laws, or inconsiderate friends, or even a socialist president. And don't you find, as I find, that I am waiting on them? I am waiting on them to make it right, on them to grow, on them to confess and forsake, on them to love.

We are not to wait on people. We are to wait on the Lord.

The Lord works on people. He is the one with both the power of His Word and the power of the Holy Spirit, brings people to change: to make things right, to grow, to confess, to forsake, to love. Only He and He alone. When someone makes a wrong choice, it is not in my power or area of judgment to change them. I am a supporter of both bearing burdens and loving confrontation, as well as fasting and prayer, but dear readers, those things will never change a person. I may be a catalyst, but me thinks myself too powerful, too special if I think my actions caused that change.

Waiting is not easy. David was crying. He was in a pit, in the miry clay, slipping, falling. He was despairing, disponding, and he had to wait. He never said how long he had to wait, but he was faithful to wait for the hand of the Lord - the hand of the Lord to lift him up, to set him on a rock, to establish him, to put a new song in his mouth. Such a song, that those that saw where he was and where God placed him saw it too, and with fear and awe, trusted in the Lord as well.

Who am I to think that I have that type of power? Power to lift someone up, to establish them, to change the song of their heart and therefore their mouth? And even if I did have that power, would not I get the glory, and not my precious, almighty God?

Those that wait on the Lord are blessed - the are happy, they are content. Waiting on the Lord puts us in a place of peace, of security, of being established.

He also promises to strengthen our breaking hearts as we wait. "Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart" Psalm 27:14 He never promises an immediate answer, of immediate solutions, only the courage and strength to get where we need to be as we wait for His hand to work in both our lives and in the lives of others around us.

Book Reading

Besides reading the Bible from cover to cover every year, President Bush read 95 books in 2006, 51 in 2007, and 40 in 2008. (As cited by former senior advisor Karl Rove.)

I am dumbstruck I think. If the President of the free world can read that many books in a year, what excuse have I?

I have a long list of books that I'd love to read including some I already own and have been gathering dust for years on my shelves. I seem to put reading (particularly non-fiction) at the bottom of my to do list, or not put it on at all because I seem to have so many other things to do.

But once again, if the President can find the time, perhaps I might be able to squeeze it in? (Or perhaps make it a priority as is the whole point.)

My basement is officially clean and that should be a good thing, right?

For those of you who know me well you know that my house is a mess. You will not hold it against me and you will acknowledge it kindly. I appreciate that. I have been on a real journey of sorts with my stuff. I am a packrat. I know it and I pretty much know why. Dealing with why is not always easy, but I am trying to overcome. Last year my theme was purge, and this year my theme is peace.

Going through one's things by one'self is not very easy. I get very lost in the "I might need this one day" mentality and then I also hear my sister and my good friend telling me that I will never use it, and then I also see my MIL giving me a strange look after I tell her why I think I will use it one day. I am trying to find myself in my stuff. I dont want to hear or see someone else's opinion of my stuff anymore. I need to figure out if my stuff is important to me and why and then figure out what to do with my stuff.

The playroom/homeschooling room is the front bedroom of the house. It has been ankle deep in paraphanalia of all shapes and sizes for - hmmm - years? I can visualize two different friends helping me clean it. The problem with said room is that for years (yes, years is correct) I clean it but dont completely finish and than it goes right back to the way it was because it was never completely done. It has truly been the bane of my existence as a housewife. My constant goal is to get to the playroom. Well, I work two days a week, my husband is a pastor, and I homeschool and try to take care of four children. "Getting to the playroom" is not a simple task and if I ever do "get there" it is never completely "getted" so I have started to ignore it because I know it is futile.

(This is going to sound backwards, but bear with me.) The basement of our home is like the typical garage and attic combined. It is the catch all for everything. The problem was that it was catching all and not organizing all it was catching. I decided that in order to get to the playroom, I needed to get to the basement. I could not continue to keep throwing everything down there without a vision for where it should go. I did not know what I had down there nor why. So, for the past 2 1/2 months my vision was my basement. Can we just pause for a moment...

TONIGHT AT 5:55 I COULD SAY THAT MY BASEMENT IS FINISHED!!!!

I know, the reasons are still not completely logical, but believe me, if you understood the situation you would agree, so just trust me on this one or you will be reading several more sentences that I felt I needed to write in order to make it logical which I dont think the sentences will help, so just trust me.

DID I MENTION THAT MY BASEMENT IS CLEAN?

I am tempted to take pics and post, but without before pics it is just not as affective, so just picture a really really clean basement with things in boxes and put on shelves. I have been through everything in my basement. everything. I know where everything is and what it is and where it is. I threw things out, and I put a bunch of stuff in the yard sale pile. And yes, I saved some stuff. But do you know what? I have a REALLY BIG basement. As long as the stuff I am saving is being properly stored and is not taking up room for something more important, I am OK with it. I have 4 small kids. They might need it, I might need it, and I feel AWESOME that it is organized.

So, you may ask, there cant possibly be a problem? Yes, there is. Unfortunately. The problem is is that the basement is now the cleanest room in the house and I want to move down there so I can wallow in the lovely organization of it all. (there are nasty large hairy centipedes down there that I absolutely detest with all of my being so I dont think I'll be down there any time soon with a pillow and blanket in hand.)

Seriously though, the problem is that everything else looks much worse compared to the basement. Even the "clean" rooms look dirty. And that is frustrating. So, this conundrum got me thinking. And this is the point of the whole post...

Cleaning is work. It is not easy. When we clean we have to admit and acknowledge the dirt. We will be uncomfortable with this knowledge and then have to find ambition to deal with our discomfort. It takes a very long time and can be disheartening and exhausting. When we are done cleaning we can stand back and say, "wow this is clean" but we now have a standard by which everything else is compared. Guess what? Other things look dirty too, because we now know and observe what clean looks like. This is also disheartening. Somehow I have to find the gumption to do this all over again somewhere else.

Is it not the same in our walk with Christ? Christ cleans out our hearts - gets rid of the junk - and it is not easy. We have to admit there is sin. Acknowledging sin is uncomfortable. We aren't always sure what to do with the knowledge and once we figure it out we have to keep ourselves plugged into Christ to keep up the strength to deal with our sin. It can be disheartening at times and exhausting. When we can finally say we have the victory, it is so exciting and invigorating, but guess what? We now know what clean looks like, and therefore the other areas of our life that we thought were OK now dont look so OK anymore. And this is very disheartening. And I need to find the gumption...

David found the gumption. In Psalm 51:10 David is asking God to clean his heart: "Create in me a clean heart, O God;" And then we quote the rest of the verse because we know it, but did it ever make sense in this light? "And renew a right spirit within me" David needed his spirit renewed because cleaning is tough. It is not easy. The cleaning and the renewing are not necessarily separate actions. When we are done being put through the ringer and all cleaned up we can be very worn out. And then, we have this new standard of cleanliness that is so refreshing, but then we look around at our lives and want to beg God to clean some more, but we are just so exhausted. I think that many people are puzzled by these conflicting emotions. Satisfaction yet exhaustion mixed with unsatisfaction and longing.

We need our spirits renewed.

Renew means repair. We need God to repair our spirits. Put it back together.

All this cleanin' done wore me out - Lord, I am tired. I am clean, but I am tired. You broke me to clean me, Lord, and man, does it feel good to know that I am holy and and righteous in your eyes, but Lord, I am in pieces and I need you to put me back together. When you clean me, Lord, I am broken. But when you are done, dear Father, you will put the pieces back together for me.

We cannot maintain a holy life without asking God to renew our spirits. We will be forever exhausted and overwhelmed at the insurmountable obstacle of a holy life if we do not ever ask and experience God's repair of our spirit. Holiness and righteousness will only be associated with the pain of the breaking but when God renews our spirits we can experience a sweet and quiet walk in perfect communion with Christ.

Having Time

*As I post, my labels will be my chapter titles/book titles and my posts represent additions to these chapters or books. Sometimes they will be separated by lengths of time and sometimes they will be in a series*

Time. I am fascinated with the concept of time. It is said to be the third dimension.

God is eternal. He has no beginning and will not have an ending. If He never began and He will not end, He had to create time in order to create the world.

God created time. That is just so amazing to me. We are used to beginnings and endings and schedules and rythym and He created ALL of it!!!


So let's think about the concept of having time. Do we actually have time? Interestingly, I think that God gives us time and resources (mostly money which comes from using the resource of our energy and our abilities in a constructive way) at our disposal to both survive and thrive in this world. So I would say, yes, we have time.

I dont have time for _______________. (Think of something you should be doing not something you wish you were doing.) If God is truth, and His Word is truth, and in His Word He gives us commands to obey, and then gives us time at our disposal to obey these commands, are we truly able to say that we don't have the time to do what He wills? God promises us the strength to do what He commands (Philippians 4:13) but also trusts us with the proper use of our time to then carry out these commands.

Is my time then truly mine? Or am I to be sacrificing myself - including the time that I have - and lay it at God's feet to do what He wills? "I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live..." The time I take to eat, to sleep, to be entertained (TV, radio, movies, amusement, sports, etc), to relax, to shop, to anything at all - these are not bad things - but am I sacrificing the use of my time for Jesus' name to serve myself? "...And the life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God" (Galatians 2:20) In order to sacrifice my time, I need to choose to trust that God knows best how my time should be used.

Defining Wisdom

Asking for wisdom is daily my heart's prayer. There are numerous promises in the Bible that we often neglect and only need to claim; I am often taking James 1:5 to God's throne:

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upraideth not; and it shall be given him."

God tells us that if we realize we need wisdom to ask him and we will get it.

This is such a simple promise, but have you ever wondered how you would recognize this wisdom? We have the world and all it's philosophies, friends, family, and perhaps common sense rolling around in our head, and we wonder which voice is God's voice. How do we discern? Well, if we continue reading in James we will discover that God describes for us both what God's wisdom IS and what it IS NOT.

James 3 tells us that the wisdom God gives us is manifested through our TONGUES. What we say determines if we have wisdom from God, or wisdom from this world.

Many of you are familiar with the first part of the chapter in which James discusses how much power our tongues have for evil. Then he disusses how hard it is to tame our tongues. He says that sometimes we say evil things and sometimes we speak good things but "these things ought not so to be."

I have never understood the connection between our speech and wisdom until reading this chapter. I would never normally tie the two together, but this bridge is fascinating. If we are thanking God and blessing Him, but then are speaking ill of what is happening in our lives and even cursing, it is evidence of the world's wisdom. These kinds of words are evident of a heart full of envy and strife. A wise man cannot possibly utter both blessings and cursings. If a man is wise it is impossible!! If our lives are full of envying strife and confusion, it is a direct evidence that we are adhering to the wisdom of the world (vs 14-16).

Are you wise? Well then, "show out of a good conversation your works with meekness of wisdom (vs13)." Our conversation is our lifestyle, our behavior. Wisdom is not only thoughts, direction, purpose or beliefs, but more importantly our actions. Wisdom will direct us to live an excellent life with a gentle spirit that can only come from having wisdom.

How exactly is God's wisdom manifested? Well, James describes it for us in verse 17. Wisdom from above is:

(first) pure - This is very interesting: above all else, our wisdom should be pure. This could be described as holy perhaps, but a better description is innocent. Our wisdom should be so pure that it is not even aware of sin.

peaceable - creating quietness and rest (do my words do this?)

gentle- appropriate or patient (do I know what to say and when or what not to say and when?do I dismiss what others are saying?)

easy to be entreated - easily compliant (am I a good listener? do I give in when it is not a matter of principle? do people like to talk to me? do i readily submit to authority?)

full of mercy - compassion (do I want to help those in need?)

full of good fruits - works (do my actions produce honorable, excellent, useful, or pleasant results?)

without partiality - not partial (do I treat others fairly?)

without hypocrisy -sincere (am I a fake/phony? am I putting on a show?)

It is easy to ask for wisdom. It is easy for God to give me wisdom. From this list I can now identify God's wisdom quite easily. Am I manifesting the wisdom of the world or the wisdom from above? "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required..." Lk 12:48

Celebrating Small Victories

I went through

a box of old cassette tapes,
gift boxes,
gift bags,
gift wrap and ribbon

And actually threw stuff away!!
(and put some stuff in the yard sale box)

Just wondering...

Does it seem odd to anyone else but me to put a coupon inside a hotdog wrapper?

The truth about my hand-held grater from IKEA

I love it! And it has a red handle to match my kitchen.

However, grating vegetables is highly preferred over gratings one's thumb.

Kids driving you crazy?

This thought was running through my head. (Sometimes they spin too, but for now this one was just running.) So I thought about the kids driving me crazy and it dawned on me that that means they are in control. Now according to just about every good book I've read including the Good Book, they are supposed to be obeying me. I also believe that means that I am supposed to be in control, not them.

So, in essence, I'm wondering if that means that the kids are never supposed to be driving me crazy.

Of course the thought continues to run, and so begins the conundrum about control. How much control am I supposed to have? Because let me tell you, I am also compulsive (I dont believe that was on the ol' description) and if I think I'm supposed to be in control, I WILL BE IN CONTROL. The question of balance arises. Constantly thinking about the same thing is not healthy (balance anyone?) so either a) I realize I am fooling myself and really I am not in control of anything or b) I realize that it is impossible to be in control at all times and therefore sometimes

The children will drive me crazy.

It is a unique and precious journey. The view is spectacular.

Why?

In case you were wondering, yes, sometimes my thoughts will be random, and yes, sometimes my thoughts will be silly.


Why do salt and pepper work so well together?

My blog - welcome!

Of course you are wondering why you are here. There are plenty of voices in the bloggy world, so why should you listen to mine? I hope to be a voice for truth, and I'd love for you to stay.

I am a thinker. An old friend calls it "ticker tape." She says you can tell I never stop thinking.

Sometimes thinking prevents doing, and sometimes (well, most of the time) thinking allows me to focus my thoughts - channel them; funnel them - to a center place, a place of truth.

"The truth shall set you free" John 8:32 Truth sets us free: free from pain, free from bondage, free from misconception, free from stress, free from confusion. This truth has the power to free me from whatever I have been enslaved. What power this truth has!! What wonder! Pain, bondage, misconception, stress, confusion? Books and articles and essays are written every day about how to obtain this freedom, and yet 6 simple words claim more power than any of these.

Knowing this truth has so much power is so motivating. I want to find this truth. I need to find this truth. I need to be free. Unfortunately the beginning part of the verse is often forgotten: "Ye shall know the truth." I can only be free when I know the truth. "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."

"Thy Word is truth" John 17:17

"In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was God" John 1:1

You see, it is only when I know truth that I am able to live in truth. "Abide in me" Jn 15:4 I cannot abide in that which I do not know. Once I know truth I have the freedom to follow truth without the "entanglement of the affairs of this life."

This, my readers, is my goal: to know truth. I do not claim to have any more power or talent or ability than any one else in this matter, simply the power from knowing Christ and His Word. So welcome to my journey of thought: thoughts about truth. It is my goal to focus the thoughts and happenings of my day around God, His Son, and His Word.

So as you read come join me at the fireside of life with a hot cup of (tea, coffee, cocoa). This is a place for you to curl up and think.