Harlot & Pharisee Meet Jesus

 I read a book once... called the Bible. I saw where there was a woman who was caught in the very act of being a sinner...I read where there were Pharisees of the day just doing what they were used to doing....what they were commanded to do...before they had truly met JESUS personally....but that day....HE opened all of their eyes....sinner woman...and white washed saint.....Jesus got eye level with the sinner and wrote something.... and so powerful was the moment.....then He said to all of them....sinner woman...and Pharisee...."Let him who is without sin...Cast the first stone"....Their reaction? ....They dropped their stones to the ground at the realization that for all their keeping of the LAW....for all their trying...sin remained in their lives ....The woman? She received the message of forgiveness along with a mandate from the only one who was without sin...Who DID cast the first stone...so that all mankind could be free from all condemnation of sin...and yet with the mandate....which was the same as when he first spoke it to the woman....."Go, and sin no more!" For all the years I, like this woman, have lived as a forgiven sinner, there have been many who have fallen short of the glory of God and have worn the cloak of the Pharisee well...but truly inside was the scarlet robe of the harlot written in their fleshly hearts. I am a Christian not because there is any good thing in my flesh, but only because my sins have been washed away supernaturally by the blood of the Perfect Son of God....who said ..."Follow Me.... The trouble with us forgiven sinners? We often follow the desire in our fleshly hearts rather than the example to love as Jesus does. I am realizing the more I literally take an honest look in my own heart...I still see a stone...JESUS...THE ROCK of AGES...cleft for me....He still daily covers a multitude of sins by HIS LOVE. Bob Carlisle wrote a song a few years ago that said, "We fall down, we get up...and the saints become the sinners; who fall down...and get up." License to sin? NO!....but truth....that on our best day as forgiven sinners, saints, Christ-followers...or Christians...who try everything humanly to "do right"....we fall short. BUT Jesus never fails! I look to him who is the Author and Finisher of my faith. Change my focus to HIM...he shines His truth on my sin....I choose to repent; get up out of the dirt and Follow Him...doing the best I can not to sin that sin anymore..and try to make reconciliation and restitution to others when I realize I have sinned against them...Trusting NOT in my own ability to save myself....but in HIS FINISHED work on Calvary for me. I read a book once.....I met a man once...Jesus!

Gone to us...but not to God!

How can it be that she is gone? Gone to us...but not to God. She is holding his nail scarred hand just beyond the veil as she whispers, "I have run the race and I have obtained the prize and even though you cannot see me...I am here..with the Great Cloud of Witnesses who have gone on before...and we being dead to this world are ALIVE EVERMORE...through the great work of Jesus and the shedding of his blood. WE shall be reunited again! Where we will never more be separated...and OH, what a glad reunion day that shall be! "Fight the Good Fight...for with my eyes I have beheld the Great Hope...JESUS!..."Run, Children!...Run to Jesus! Run with this HOPE...Share it with others...and HOLD ON! Press ON!.....and don't ever you quit!

The Last Visit with My Sister-n-Law "GENE"

There's a chill in the air as death hovers, waiting it's last order from the mouth of God. A dear saint and sister-in-law lays just at the door. Between uneven breathes; with widened eyes she wakes from a brief rest...and smiles. Her concern was more for those of us who sat around her bedside. As our minds searched familiar scenes of happy times together; the... pain....and realization lay just beyond the veil. The steady tick of life's clock winding down to the final stroke of HIS appointed time. I watched for death to come...then...but not yet. I looked at the faces of those she has loved who have gathered with their last moments of personal blessings...a touch, a glance, a smile, a memory shared. A shared glance between lovers espoused for 42 yrs...an I love you etched in time..."I'm going home tomorrow!"...she says. (I think)...To Heaven?...Oh yes, Hospice has been called. The last of Earth's hope setting the stage...and Jesus...Conqueror of Death, Hell and the Grave awaits!... "I am almost there..." ...she said to me. I thought..."Yes, you are....to Heaven!"... Jordan's River is before you and you have dipped your toes in its chilly banks. You have stood there with outstretched arm as you are holding the hands of those you so greatly love...and a tearing away has begun. I see it clearly. Held between Earth and Eternity. From the love here, to the Lover and Purchaser of your soul.......Oh, we weep.....for now. It is meant to be. Sorrow for a Season...But one day...the Great Exchange.....because JOY comes for all of us....in the morning! I'll see you Tomorrow...(Genie Beanie)

HIS PRESENCE

Now that the gifts are unwrapped and the season is soon ending; there is one gift that will never grow old or fade. His Presence!

Imagine that first night when his mother Mary and earthly father Joseph first beheld him. He wrapped them in His Presence in that lowly place and made the common place a heavenly one.

And the shepherds who heard the "good tidings"; when they broke through the door of that stable to see a tiny babe just as the angels had told them. But not just an ordinary child. The Holy One was Born! The Living Word...Emmanuel....God with us....lay upon soft hay in a manger; not wrapped in kingly attire, but in a common cloth as common as they....but....when they beheld him....awakening happened as he shrouded them in the glory of His Presence!

Those very wise men who followed a different star and traveled a dangerous journey not knowing where they would end up in that quest and not realizing that they would behold the very Son of God; where that star would finally rest. When they beheld him they presented their most noble riches to him and in exchange His love and light shone upon them as He wrapped them in the Glory of His Presence.

Common parents, common shepherds, and royal kings. From the lowly to the elite. In His Presence there is no respect of persons. In His Presence there is true unity. In His Presence is fullness of joy. In His Presence is the essence of all light and life and joy! And in His Presence is salvation; peace and goodwill to all men!
There is no greater gift.
There has never been any better presents than being in His Presence!

God Sends The Rain

Sometimes...God sends the rain. I've always loved the rain...but not always the danger that might come from it. A gentle rain...ah....it is for laying your back with closed eyes and allowing it to refresh; harder rain is needed to get deep into the soil (soul) where good things need water to grow...

...but a really hard rain....that is a heart-breaker...
because when the rain comes you cannot see your way...it can keep you at a standstill until it passes and you can asses the damage it has brought...
but...still....it washes away...and hopefully underneath what appears to be total destruction...will be the tiniest green shoot of new hope arising.

 Jesus said that weeping may last for a night...but joy will come in the morning.

There is a morning coming!

There will be a day without rain and the ... sun (SON) will shine again.


Take heart! Sometimes...God sends the rain.

We will find our way and we will see hope reborn.

A Journey of Grace

A couple weeks ago I was going through Lifeway Christian Bookstore searching for a book. I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, when my eyes were drawn to a book about the Chronicles of Narnia. I love C. S. Lewis' books.

As I looked at the beautifully depicted lion, "Aslan"... I saw behind this, was another attractively bound book. I pulled it out and saw the title, "Costly Grace" by Jon Walker.

I hurriedly flipped it open and my eyes were drawn to the quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer under the heading, Chapter 15. It gripped my heart and I knew this book would be coming home with me. God had a distinct word and this was his leading. (Even if he had to use "Aslan" to guide me to it. lol)

Bonhoeffer: "True prayer does not depend either on the individual or the whole body of the faithful, but solely upon the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows our needs. That makes God the sole object of our prayers, and frees us from a false confidence in our own personal efforts."

My heart was warmed at this reminder that it is God and God's Grace alone.

At times while reading this book I rejoiced and other times I wept by how much my reflection in God's mirror had been anything but the grace that the Lord has extended to all mankind.

Grace has been such a timely word in a timely season from God that even during a revival that my husband and I recently attended at a sister church, the topic of the Evangelist was also that of The Mark of God's Grace and how if we have HIS Grace operating in our lives it will make us GRACIOUS!
"True prayer does not depend either on the individual or the whole body of the faithful, but solely upon the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows our needs. That makes God the sole object of our prayers, and frees us from a false confidence in our own personal efforts."

"Oh to GRACE how great a debtor!"

My journey of grace is this:

No longer am I a debtor to sin because of Christ's finished work, but because of that miraculous work, all Christians are in a continual state of mercy and grace as we walk together with Christ our Lord on this journey homeward.

Learning to Let

Recently, we just went through 6 wonderful weeks of revival. It was like nothing I had ever seen for many years. God's presence was evidenced through his revealed word and also through the responses of hungry and thirsty hearts.
During the last 3 days of the revival, the Evangelist began to minister the phrase, "Let God Love You..." He repeated this over and over and the more he would say it, the more I believed that the Lord truly desired to be allowed to love us like we have never known.
So many are struggling in this life. Times are hard for many and the family seems to be under attack now more than at any time I have known. There is such uncertainty and fear; such anger and mistrust. Perilous times for many in the body of Christ.
I continued to LET the words penetrate my mind and heart. "Let God...Let him love all of the pain out, let him love all the sorrow, all of the worry, all of the past, all of the fear, all of the bitterness, etc...Let God love you!"
We are such independent people. We live as if we have no need while we try to mask the questions that lurk deep inside us. No matter how we want to hide the pain, the truth is we cannot fix it. We can't fix our families, our friends, situations on the job, having no job, even situations in the church and no matter how hard we try...we cannot fix ourselves. There is only one who can and that is Jesus. We must learn to let.
It may seem difficult at first. It may be that just by hearing this that you recoil and try to deny that you need help. You may not know how to let...but I guarantee that if you simply ask the Lord for help, he will. And in the letting you will learn and in the learning you will let him love you more and more.
For me? I have chosen to LET...and He has begun to reveal his love more and more.
So, LET go....and LET God!