Grace-period

There is no circumstance, no trouble, no testing, that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment. But I refuse to become panicky, as I lift up my eyes to Him and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart.  ~Alan Redpath I am not even sure if last Sunday was actually on God's providence.  I think so.  So much has happened this week that Armchair QB was irrelevant.  We had to let my sweet Chelsea go.  Sunday was a bad day for her so Monday we went to the vet and she feel asleep resting in my arms.  I have missed her.  But, truth be told, I have been missing her for weeks, months, as she lapsed into a shadow of the loving strong girl she was.  She is now at peace, but her momma is left with a heartbreaking stillness in her spirit. I kn...

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,  nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God.  Romans 8:38-39 KJV We have a friend who sings this verse in one breath around the campfire.  It makes me giggle every time, probably because it makes all the kids giggle at a silly time of the night and probably because it is such an odd talent to have.  But it is also a humbling verse to think about. Do I really believe what this verse says?  What are the things I have believed can cause God to turn on me?  If this is true, where is God when I feel so alone? Sometimes my brain can't wrap itself around the message even while my heart longs to swim in the grace that flows in this verse. Nothing, like literally nothing, that I can know of or only can imagine or haven't even heard of, can take m...

"I don't think you are enough," I tell God as I light up a cigarrette and take a drag.  "No matter what some cheesy church song tells You. I just don't get what you are enough for ."  I pause.  Am I going too far?  Does it matter?  This is what I honestly think so I add, "And you want me to be honest, right?" "My dog is dying.  My work is a mess.  Everything seems so hard.  Nothing seems right.  Eternity isn't here, so what's the point?" He sits quietly, without offering an explanation.  He just sits and waits. "Really, what do you want me to say?  I am glad?  Grateful?  What Way are you?  Why do loved ones still suffer?  Why do babies still die?  Why is life so hard?  Why are you so silent?" And yet He just sits and waits. I go through my day, trying to keep busy.  A meeting with friends, He sat in the back, where amends and God's love are the topics.  I remember ...

You can read about more fences at the blog carnival here . Fences are these extraordinary things.  They can be wooden, metal wire, metal bars, masonry, brick, or even hedges, but they are all boundaries.  Fences keep what we want in and what we don't want out. Sometimes we post signs on them letting everyone know why: No Trespassing; Beware of Dog; Explosives.  Sometimes it is just a simple Keep Out. Well, that isn't really so simple, is it?  If we could keep them out, we wouldn't need to tell them.  We wouldn't need to set such boundaries if we had any control.  Fences give us the illusion that we have some control over our lives, our property, our boundary.  Some of us even try to do this with our hearts. I caught myself saying to a friend today,  "I can't believe I was stupid enough to let another dog into my soul."  (For those of you who are cat people, you may not understand this because cats don't gently weasle their w...

Ugh, ever hate it when you waste an hour of your life?  I spent an hour listening to Stephen Hawkings ramble on " Curiosity-Did God Create the Universe ," and I found absolutely no challenge to God.  Is it wrong to say I am disappointed?  I thought perhaps he might have something interesting to say, but his conclusion went something like this: since there was no time or space or anything prior to the big bang, there couldn't God, either.  Of course, there are those of us saying, duh!  "In the beginning God created...." are the opening words of Genesis.  We know there was a beginning (some may point to the big bang since that is when "time" began), and God was already there.  Anyway, just needed to vent. Sunday Kirk spoke on Isaiah 40:10-31 .  (I admit, while we read the passage, I was hearing a Kung Fu narrator saying "its people are like grasshoppers.") Somehow, it is interesting that this passage is backed up with the Stephen Ha...

Photo used with permission of Christie Cotney Magera When I was a little girl, I loved when missionaries would come to talk at church or around my grandparents dinner table Sunday for lunch.  I dreamnt of serving overseas in an adventure for God.  As a teenager, I wanted to become a missionary in South America.  The thought of bringing God's love to people who may not know it was exhilarating.  But, life intervenes-bad choices and grown up stuff led me away from those dreams forever.  Well, at least until I started loving Jesus. For all the things that can be said, Facebook opens up the world.  I have 2 "friends" who are overseas living and serving God in Uganda, a country I barely heard of a few years ago but one that has captured my heart since.  When I look at the pictures of the amazing work they are doing, I cannot help but be inspired and awed by God.  I pray for them often since money is not in excess, but I know God can provid...

Our text will begin in Psalm 50 , but who knows where we will end up! Verse 22 says: “Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you: Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation.” He sounds mean, doesn't He?  I mean, is this God really love if He will tear us to pieces because we forgot him?  But we cannot really argue with the God as He is described in verse 1, " The Mighty One, God, the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to where it sets ," can we?  This is one powerful dude, right?  He controls the cosmos.  I cannot even understand or know what I do not know about the expanse of the cosmos. How does all this fit together?  I had been taught, somewhere along the way, that if people did not love God, then heaven would be hell whereas hell, a separation from God, would be their idea of heaven....