August 29 Where is He?

John 14: 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you.


Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of hi that raised up Jesus fro the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you

Romans 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? ...Nor height nor depth not any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I Cor. 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost wich is in you, which ye have of God and ye are not your own?

We ask that, don't we when we are in the middle of a hurricane, whether it is a real one like Hurricane Irene who plowed up the east coast leaving a path of destruction in her wake or a hurricane of illness, loss, broken relationships ...or well, you get it. Those times when it does not go well with our soul.

Unfortunately, some people lead believers to think that once you give your life to God and you live for Him, all will go well in life. But it just doesn't work that way. Christians, like their unbelieving neighbors still have to live in this world so scarred by the fall, the twisting at even the cellular level introducing the seeds of our own devastating afflictions, whether physical or emotional or intellectual.

And when we are faced with those unexpected challenges, we cry out, "Where are you God!"

But He never left!!! I am so grateful that He never leaves us, nor forsakes us, nor stops loving us. We may not notice Him, but we never have to ask Him to be with us. Rather we need to pray that God will remind us that He is right there, ever-present and ever-loving us. AND, we need to pray that way for those we love who know Christ and who are currently facing challenges to their faith or their peace.

August 25, 2011 Waiting?

Psalm 40:1-3 I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on the solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God.

How are you in this thing called waiting? Is it easy for you to sit in the doctor's office or stand in the line at the grocery store? Or how about waiting for an answer from a letter or email? Then there is the waiting we do for a holiday or birthday or ride somewhere. Can you wait in peace? Or does your foot start tapping, your paper rapping in impatience?

I was struck by a writer who said waiting was an action verb, that you must wait actively. Hmmm, seemed almost like a paradox to me, until I gave it some thought. Waiting involves the passing of time, and we can pass time mindlessly, sitting or standing there with our minds off in la-la land. And I must admit I have spent a lot of time like that, and like spent money, you just cannot get it back.

But the idea of waiting patiently. What is that all about? I think it has a sense of passing time in a state of anticipation, expecting a response. And I think though there might be an eagerness to it sometimes, that does not mean there should be an impatience.

I wonder if God doesn't have in mind that we could redeem that wait time, that we could use it as time to consider what He wants us to do, about that for which we wait, or perhaps to use to think about other things, or to pray. I do not believe in chance or coincidence or accident. I think that sometimes God wants me to wait because He wants to hear from me about someone or something I will see from that waiting space.  And sometimes I must wait there in order to hear Him because He knows the time I spend waiting for something else is the only time I might have to listen or speak to Him.

Wait time is like crossing a street. You can have a leisurely stroll from one side to the other, noticing everything around you, or you can be like the guy I saw on the news this morning, running furiously across the train tracks, noticing only the other side. I wonder how differently this day, or any day might be if we savored wait time instead of dreaded it. I keep a copy of the Message translation of the Bible with me at all times; it is so easy to read and redeem wait time. But I am also trying to redeem wait time with prayer, allowing my circumstances to prompt me to pray about things I might otherwise not notice.

Oh, I don't have this down pat, but I was so refreshed and encouraged by the possibilities of making waiting a pleasurable thing, something that honored God that I just had to share it with someone.

August 22 Anticipation!!!

John 14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you.

I love that we are part of a family, not just our biological family, but our spiritual family. One of my brothers, spiritual ones, gave me a great book: The God Who Smokes by Timothy Stone, a former missionary kid. My friend Don, knowing my passion about writing told me to go straight to chapters 9 and 10, so I did and they spoke straight to me as a writer. But then, I just continued to chapter 11 instead of going back to the beginning and I am so glad I did.

You have probably picked up the idea that I have been thinking about the life our life in Christ now and the one to come of late and there was this great paragraph in chapter 11 that I just had to share with you:

You are an eternal being, and your home is an eternal and infinite and exquisitely beautiful place where everything and everyone is complete and whole and in harmony. It is musical and magical, and it is where we all were meant to be. It is where the dance begins and never ends. It is where you fly because all the weights and the waits have been removed. All the nos and the can'ts and the shouldn'ts, all the stops and flops and failures, all the bads and wrongs and wickeds and brokens, and all those long, needling, crushing, killing regrets are erased.

Wow, what a thought!! Makes me wonder why we cling so to this world. Certainly we want to enter that place without regrets, having done all we could to redeem this world for Christ, to use our giftedness for His glory, but oh, what a day it will be when we are shed of this world!!!!

Today our semester begins, and between those on campus and those online perhaps a 1000 BBC, grad and seminary students are filled with anticipation, of learning, building relationships and at the end receiving a "well-done" handshake and a diploma.  So we step into this day filled with anticipation of the glorious day at the end of our "earthly semester," when graduation brings us into heaven. May we bring glory to God as well all encourage one another as we head toward that end.

May 19, How Fast Time Flies!!!

Psalm 33: 1and 4-5 Let the godly sing with joy to the LORD, for it is fitting to praise Him...For the word of the LORD holds true, and everything He does is worth of our trust. He loves whatever is just and good, and his unfailing love fills the earth.

I can't believe it has been a week since I last wrote here, but let me tell you it has been a full week. Last weekend, I spent every spare minute trying to think and clean and shop ahead, knowing that this last week, I would be at school every day from 8am to nearly 9pm for our Leadership Training Week. That said, it has been an unbelievably sweet week with God.

How do you sleep the night before Christmas? or vacation? or your birthday? I don't know about you, but it takes little to mess with my sleep routine, and this week was no exception. I had lots of presentations to make, housing to finalize, and lots of involvement in the entire week...and weekend to come. So, lots of time to pray.

Now, there was another God thing that enhanced all that night-time prayer opportunities. We had our leadership team read MAKING DISCIPLES, ONE CONVERSATION AT A TIME. One of those chapters talked about visualization as a helpful tool. The author encourages people to visualize ahead of time the conversations they are going to make as they minister to people. The point is to take the fear out of it, to make the actual conversation much more comfortable because you have anticipated it, have rehearsed it.

As I thought about that, I thought about visualization as a useful tool even in my prayer time. Instead of praying to a God Who is somewhere, I started visualizing God in person, of imagining what it would be like to actually be in His presence. Now I have believed and taught that God is everywhere present. And I know that when I pray, I am talking to Him, but let me tell you, it has been so different this week, thinking through the reality that I am in God's presence, the One who loves me without condition.

Let me encourage you to think through Who you are praying to, and how much that concept is influenced by your relationship with other humans, your own dad perhaps. When I thought about what it would be like in His presence, after I leave this life, it occurred to me how great the difference between here and there would be. Think about what it would be like to be without sin and doubt and fear and insecurity in your own mind. Then think about being in that place, that Holy Place, in His Presence - how sweet, how pure, how inviting, how accepting, how loved you will feel! And we don't have to wait until His return or death releases us to that place. We have access to it now, every time we meet Him in conversation, whether we are speaking or listening.

August 12 Who's your leader?

Psalm 32: 8-9 The LORD says, "I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you. Do not be like a senseless horse of mule that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control."

I love how God works; sometimes we call it coincidences, but God works by appointment and intentionally. Last night I woke up with a specific student on my mind and felt like God wanted me to contact her. That's one of the blessings of technology - you don't have to wait until people have gotten up, showered and had their coffee before you start talking.

Anyway, my first response to God was, "Really, you want me to get up now? It's two o'clock." I waited a couple minutes, and for sure, that's what He wanted.

Now I have to tell you that in my Bible reading recently I have read about how God led in dreams, how He is honored by our doing what is just and right, and as always, He wants us to love one another - and sometimes that calls for personal sacrifice.

So, I fumbled around and found my glasses and felt my way downstairs to the computer, eyes so bleary and watering that it really was a challenge, especially the whole getting the computer up and going and finding email and face book. Anyway, as I prayed and typed I was sure God wanted me to send both an email message and face book one, so I did, thinking to be honest, that since sleeping is always a challenge for me, for sure I would not get back to sleep the rest of the night.

But God. I love those words. But God took me back to bed and back to sleep. And let me share with you, one of the blessings of vacation - our four days in a little cabin on the end of a dirt road was the reminder of the blessing and what it takes to really hear God's voice - silence.

August 10 It's All About Motive

Proverbs 21:3 The Lord is more pleased when we do what is just and right than when we give Him sacrifice.

Just under 20 primarily one-syllable words, this verse is still packed with challenges. Going to the end, I think about sacrifices. That's pretty much a foreign word to most of us, I think; at least, the concept of really giving something to God...in such a way that it costs us something. The Israelites regularly sacrificed, and when they did, they gave up something significant - the best of the best. They knew what the word sacrifice meant. They had a mental and physical image of it. But I am not so certain that we can relate as easily to that concept.

Still, many of us do set aside money to give to God, sometimes by faith, trusting Him to meet our needs as we tithe or give special gifts. But real sacrifice, giving anything until it hurts, I'm not sure we have a grip on that. And I wonder what that costs us - that lack of an understanding or experiencing what it means to sacrifice to God with a right motive, out of our love for Him and desire to glorify Him.

Now, to the other end of the verse, God is more pleased when we do what is just and right. To slow down life enough to consider that what we do affects how God feels is essential. Isn't that a mind blowing concept - the simple acts of being fair with people, with thinking through the choices we have to make so that we make right ones brings God pleasure?

Of all the "enemies" to the Christian life and godly living, I think the pace of our lives is one of the greatest. We are so busy that we do not think through why we do what we do. I wonder if there is a difference between doing things that are good to do by habit, and doing those same things consciously as a way to please God. Just wondering.

August 8 Keeping Track

August 8 Keeping Track


I Thessalonians 3:5 For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor should be in vain.

There Paul sits in prison and his thoughts are not on himself, but on his old friends, those who have ministered alongside of him and those who have come to faith in his ministries. As I was reading in I Thessalonians 3 this morning, this verse especially challenged me, forcing me to ask myself, "Why have I not contacted old friends and former students to find out about their faith?"

Oh, it is easy to rationalize why not. I am a busy lady, with a full-time job, three married children and nine grandchildren, one of whom lives with me, and another who will be moving in soon - when college starts. I have church responsibilities, and siblings and ...what a bunch of excuses!!!!! Forgive me friends and most of all forgive me God. Because I do make time to browse through a magazine while supper cooks - sometimes, and I have been known to play Spider Solitaire - serves as brain exercise and even look at catalogs that come in the mail knowing I will never order from them.

The point is, I am missing many opportunities to be a blessing and to bless others. So this entry will be short as I make a list of people I need to contact today....and Facebook makes it so easy.