not ‘called’ did you say?

“‘Not called!’ did you say? ‘Not heard the call,’ perhaps you should say.
Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put
your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help.
Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers
and sisters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face whose mercy you have professed to
obey and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world.”
-William Booth

‘show me grace…’

greetings!  it’s been a while since we visited.  i’m still not sure if i’m cut out for blog writing.  my thoughts and meditations are way too disconnected and rambling for others to benefit from them.  i did want to share the lyrics of a song that i love though.  it’s by Jennifer Knapp who has been very upfront about her struggles and confusion in walking the Walk with holiness.

A Little More….

“Turn Your eyes from on this way I have proved to live a dastardly day. I hid my face from the saints and the angels who sing of Your glory.

What You had in mind my weakness shines, show me grace.

A little more than I can give, a little more than I deserve, unearth this holiness I can’t earn.

It’s a little more than I can give, a little more than I deserve.

For all the sin that lives in me it took a nail to set me free. still, what I do I don’t want to do and so goes the story. What You had in mind, what we seek we’ll find. shine, show me grace.

With all this motivation I still find a hesitation deep in my soul. Despite all my demanding I still find You understanding. Show me grace, show me grace… “

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

greetings brothers and sisters and friends!  this is about forgiveness and new beginnings.  this is about a God that is so patient with us because of a love so deep, well, there is no end to it 🙂 .  the title quote is from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..  read it through a couple of times and let it sink in….now think of that one we just can’t seem to offer the hand of forgiveness.  what is won?  what is gained in our standoff of the heart?  because of my own riveting season of unforgiveness years and years ago, i know from whence i speak.  it locks us in a mighty dark fortress where satan stands guard to thwart any efforts to free us.  picture yourself there for a moment. now picture the object of your wrath standing outside the fortress in a field.  we think that person in the field can free us by saying (and really meaning it!) the right words that will fling open the fortress door and let all the Light back into our lives.  but with God it just does not work that way and somewhere deep in our spirits we know this- but run from it when backed into the corner by a Judas kiss.  you know what comes next.  the best part 🙂 – Christ, our precious Lord and Savior, willingly went to the cross to pay the price for all of our filty rags because of a love so vast He literally could not deny it.  He freely offers us forgiveness for our sins because it is the only way back home to our Father in heaven. of all the things God could have poured out of His Son’s sacrifice it was forgiveness we needed most.  so it must be the key….

thank You Lord that You will wait on Your children as we learn to walk the higher ground of love – one step at a time.

-the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting, sculpture, music, poetry, etc.

greetings!  the above title is the definition of ‘art’… funny to limit it so.  my youngest is an artist by trade.  it flows out of him as naturally as his voice or as easily as his smile.  he could no more stop being an artist as he could stop eating.  i believe the Lord has gifted him with his passion.  so the above definition of art is very limited and empty in a way.  what if we ventured out of the confines of this definition to truly see art with new eyes?  here are a few examples that i believe prove the possibilities of a larger, deeper meaning:   the earth.  look around.  if you believe the Lord designed and created it all, then just look at a tree…wow!!  He drew that from nothing!  listen to http://youtu.be/amfCqFUMBkY.  the music literally flows from his violin and spills out all over your soul.  close your eyes and take one bite of an orange slice and chew it slowly.  the Lord created that out of nothing to bless our hearts and it is beautiful and it evokes joy.  my husband makes incredible rough wooden bowls out of chunks of wood he scavenges for.  the chunk is always lifeless and fireplace worthy.  he believes that God has put a bowl inside of these formless chunks and if he will let Him be the guide then a thing of wonder will emerge…and it does!  we are surprised and amazed with each new birth.  my oldest son created Roger’s website for him.  the first time i pulled it up i actually took a breath in.  it is exquisite and exactly presents the beauty of the bowls that Roger wanted to showcase.  our son created that website out of a few random pictures of bowls and it is a work of art.  then lastly our middle son designs airplanes in ways that have never been envisioned before.  in fact, i would venture to say, many doubt his lofty visions until time after time he gets it built, it flys like a dream and it is truly something brand new to behold.  art flows out of him in visions, new ideas, music and dance…and airplanes!  the Lord has put this wonderful well of living water inside us all that know He lives in our hearts.  in my mind art flows from that well when we learn how to release it or put a spray nozzle on it, so to speak.  you have that somewhere, somehow inside of you.  have you learned how to set it free?

blessings for our new year-

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greetings and happy, blessed New Year!  as our thoughts naturally turn to memories of the past year and hopes for the coming year, let us consider a few encouraging suggestions.  first and foremost, let’s take some real time to thank the Lord for the many blessings He has continued to fill our lives with, whether we have acknowledged their source or not, and take some true joy in the spiritual wealth of our lives.  secondly, let’s celebrate the firm fact that we now have a ‘madeup mind’ concerning our utmost walk with God on a daily basis, our renewed healthy eating habits and our vervor to keep our bodies strong and fit.  and lastly, let us join together with a 2013 solemn vow to give it our all!  we look to the heavens for our strength, our hope and our joy.
‘And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.’  Philippians 4:19
gtk:  whether you’ve gained a few extra pounds or not over the course of the last couple of months, now is the time to regain your eating composure.  now is the time to clean out the leftovers from the frig (it’s been a week since Christmas!) and clear the counter of any leftover treats.  freeze them if you must but get them out of your easy reach.  yes you can.  i just got up and did it to reinforce my conviction about this simple step.  of course i ate one of the dark chocolate almonds before stashing it away in the freezer!
Let’s do our best this new year 2013 to makeup our minds to eat healthy, workout regularly and seek the Lord with all our hearts!
Happy New Year to you all!

mind photos…heart treasures

greetings family and friends!  hope you all
had a wonderful, love filled holiday.  i think i speak for my little covey when
i say we had our best Thanksgiving to date, praise the Lord!  the spirit of the
time together was truly ‘a time set apart for love’. we had Mom in her
wheelchair out on the porch with us and we sat at the old picnic table together
to eat.  we were all laughing and reliving old memories and eating delicious
food the Lord had provided in abundance for us.  in the Bible there are several
passages where Mary ‘treasured these things in her heart’.  and for a moment, it
was as if time stood still…suspended there in this precious gift of us
together as a family.  i felt like God was whispering to me to cherish this
picture in my heart- my overflowing heart- and it would warm me for years to
come…so the encouragement to all of you out there is to take many mind photos
this holiday to store up for the  years ahead.  stop, be still, drink it in.
oh, how the Lord has so blessed us with these loved ones of ours….there lies
our truest treasure.

…dying to self.

from the Calvary Road by Roy and Revel Hession

‘We want to be very simple in this matter of revival.  Revival is just the life of the Lord Jesus poured into human hearts.  Jesus is always victorious.  In heaven they are praising Him all the time for His victory!  Whatever may be our experience of failure and barrenness, He is never defeated.  His power is boundless And we, on our part, have only to get into a right relationship with Him, and we shall see His power being demonstrated in our hearts and lives and service, and His victorious life will fill us and overflow through us to others.  And that is revival in its essence.

If, however, we are to come into this right relationship with Him, the first thing we must learn is that our wills must be broken to His will.  To be broken is the beginning of revival.  It is painful, it is humiliating, but it is the only way.  It is being ‘Not I, but Christ,’ and the ‘C’ is a bent ‘I’. The Lord Jesus cannot live in us fully and reveal Himself through us until the proud self within us is broken.  This simply means that the hard unyielding self, which justifies itself, wants its own way, stands up for its rights, and seeks its own glory, at last bows its head to God’s will, admits its wrong, gives up its own way to Christ, surrenders its rights and discards its own glory – that the Lord Jesus might have all and be all. In other words it is dying to self.’

Made-Up Mind

True hope, the kind you can build a life on and see a future in only comes from God.  He designed this old world that way so that in the end, come what may, He would be the only unfailing answer to all our questions- every time, no matter what.  He made us so that His love would be the only love big enough to fill our emptyness.  He is always more than enough for our individual ‘life crisis’ that comes along, as it always does to each one of us.  then the choice is ours-  do I trust Him this time to guide me through this?  No one is ever going to love us deeper, never leave us or be our Rock no matter the circumstance but Jesus Christ.  Ask Him to be that big in your life today….to be your only hope.   then rock on.

“For I know the…

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thankful for the beauty of fall….

greetings and praise the Lord for outside fall days! excuse this encouragement if it sounds rather scattered but there are few important things to cover. one is the obvious awesomeness of Outside in all it’s glory and the ability to be out there and moving with no excuses. in the early morning or the evening, remember even if we make up our mind to step outside and walk briskly (maybe with weights) up and down the road for 5 minutes then come back in and continue what we were doing it will refresh us- guaranteed. or just go stand out on the porch or sidewalk at work and jog in place or do a couple of squats or lunges then stretch our arms overhead and breathe deeply a few times. or put a stationary bike or track outside to jump on now and then. doable :).
last but never least, Anna read where soft drinks can really frustrate our attempts to achieve flat abs. some of us (me) used to drink diet drinks all day. the bubbles stretch the stomach and besides making it pooch out also leave the stomach a bit bigger and so harder to feel full after a regular serving of food. to which we all say ‘bummer!’. so, good to cut down some on any carbonated drinks plus try drinking a bottle of water before the ones we do drink and it will slow us way down on feeling like we ‘need’ to have one. this comes from personal experience. i actually feel better from the extra water and haven’t felt cheated from the absence of diet coke. thanks Anna!