These messages have helped me to draw into a more deeper and intimate relationship with Christ, I pray they do the same for you as you hunger and thirst for righteousness.
What an incredible promise from our Father God - for those who have repented and have trusted in the name of Jesus Christ alone, will forever be remembered; will forever remain with our Sovereign Creator, the Great I Am!
Today is a beautiful day to give thanks to our great and awesome God! But then again, isn't every day?
As I looked at all three of these pictures, I couldn't choose which one to use because I felt as if they all described the meditations of my heart:
My heart overflows with the well-spring of Life found only in Jesus Christ our Lord. (Acts 4:11-12)
My continual prayer is that I reflect the brilliant beauty of our Savior. (2 Corinthians 4:6)
I remember the Lord said that one day, He will right all the wrongs and will come with His winnowing fork to separate the chaff from the wheat; and all temporal sufferings will pass as those called by His name will enter His presence forever. (Luke 3:17)
And I pray that I be like this tree, growing in the knowledge of Him who alone has saved my life, in spite of myself. (Psalm 1:1-3 & Colossians 1:10)
As we look forward to a new year, we are reminded of the greater newness yet to come in the new creation. At midnight tonight our calendars will change, but the world will be otherwise the same. Someday, however, God will renew all things. In that day, sorrow will be swallowed up by rejoicing (Rev. 21:3-4). In the meanwhile, even in the midst of life’s difficulties and pains, we rejoice in the fact that we are God’s people. We belong to him, and nothing in all creation can take his love away from us (Rom. 8:18-39). I can’t think of a better foundation for a new year: the hope of God’s new creation and the reassurance that we belong to him forever.
Please watch this video and allow the Holy Spirit to encourage, refresh and teach you as you listen to our brother Ray, lovingly, compassionately and boldly share the message of eternal salvation through trust in Jesus Christ alone.
Hello dearest sisters! I know I've been "away" for a while, but I think I've finally come to a place of acceptance with all my health issues! And here's the VERY short version: I've been diagnosed with:
pre-diabetes
reactive hypoglycemia or hypoglycemia (which usually turns into diabetes type 1)
high blood pressure
and a host of other issues due to this
there's nothing anyone can do but wait for me to get full blown diabetes
just managing it by eating more to keep my sugars leveled
With Christ's strength, our Father God's wisdom and great comfort, I've chosen to let go of any anxieties and inhibitions I've had due to my diabetes and all the other complications I've been experiencing. The best way to express how I've been feeling lately is that I feel like I'm sitting in a car, without a place to go, just waiting and watching as I'm about to be hit by a huge mack truck. Not fun.
BUT.....
Our God awesome! Truly the LORD God Almighty is greater than anything and anyone in Heaven, on earth and below the earth! Our weakened mortal flesh, the trials of living in this fallen world, and the sting of death bears no eternal impact on those who have trusted in the one and only Savior of all mankind: Jesus Christ our Lord! Therefore what can being hit by a mack truck do to me? I'll tell you what it can do! It can give me an audience with an entire group of people (diabetics) that I never had any right to speak with before about their eternal salvation and/or lack of! Do you see what a gift our gracious Father God has given me? He's not just "allowed" me to have diabetes, but He's given me the gift of diabetes (as a tool) to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to the feeble, hurting and anxious. Our Lord has given me to the gift of diabetes to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ who have it and to introduce our Savior and Lord, Jesus to those who do not know Him. Oh what a glorious and generous God we love and serve! Amen?
I'd like to thank you from the bottom....top, sides and every part of my heart for all your fervent prayers for me! I KNOW our loving Father God heard you and in His compassion, He chose to lift my spirits through your prayers! Oh, the gift of the Body of Christ! What precious treasures you all are to me!
"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." ~2 Corinthians 4:16-18
"If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly, then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." ~Isaiah 58:13-14
I am not able to contact each of you individual, so I will quickly attempt to update all of you on why it seemed I "disappeared" this week. I hope you do not mind my doing it this way. But due to all that's happened this week, I'm really quite behind on preparing for my parents arrival this Sunday (my dad is not saved and this will be the first time I've seen them in nearly 4 years since my mom got saved).
The short of it is that I had a bit of a diabetic mishap this week that caught all of us by surprise. As many of you know, I was recently diagnosed as being pre-diabetic (no big), but I still have all my other health issues, one of them being my the ruptured discs in my lower back. It's been nearly 8 months and I'm not healing, but it seems it's getting worse, so my neurologist (who knows I'd prefer NOT to have another surgery, I've had two just this past year within 7 months of each other) put me on some prednisone to help with the inflammation caused on my nerves (which causes pain to shoot all the way down to my foot on my left leg and to my knees on my right leg). Unbeknownst to any of this, this caused me to have a diabetic reaction and I became very ill on Tuesday and it continued up until yesterday. (thanks precious sister Amanda for your professional consultation!)
After a call and visit to my endocrinologist, I now have a meter to monitor my glucose, have been put on a much stricter diet (while I'm on the prednisone) in order to get my sugar levels back under control; which they are now. :-)
Well, that's really enough about me. I just wanted to tell all of you thank you for your prayers, loving comments, emails and text messages (and yummy gifts in the mail that I can't have right now....waaaaahhhhhh).
I'm not a 100% but feeling much better now and still haven't finished decorating for Christmas and preparing for my parents visit! So, I may or may not be able to finish writing the Advent devotionals I started. I'm so sorry.
But I do want to leave you with this thought:
God is glorious and righteous in all that He does! I'm overflowing with joy as I consider that the Lord will use my illness to remind my father that life is short and it is wise for all of us to redeem the time we have and be confident of our eternal destiny. None of us are guaranteed another breath. May each one we take be filled with worship, praise and adoration of our King, our Lord, and awesome Christ Jesus!
My son is making a music video for me that best describes where my heart has been these past few days! I'll have it up when he finishes it. Please come back and rejoice and worship with me, will you?
"If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly, then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." ~Isaiah 58:13-14
Extravagantadj. - excessively high; exceeding the bounds of reason; going beyond what is deserved or justifiable
I'll make a list of God's gracious dealings, all the things God has done that need praising, All the generous bounties of God, his great goodness to the family of Israel— Compassion lavished, love extravagant. He said, "Without question these are my people, children who would never betray me." So he became their Savior. In all their troubles, he was troubled, too. He didn't send someone else to help them. He did it himself, in person. Out of his own love and pity he redeemed them. He rescued them and carried them along for a long, long time. ~ Isaiah 63:7-9 (The Message)
Our Father God's love for us is extravagant: excessively high, exceeding the bounds of reason and goes beyond what any of us could ever deserve.
He didn't pay for us with the fleeting, rotting, things of this world. No, instead He paid for us with His very life. Our Lord Jesus, left Heaven; willingly bound and limited Himself in human flesh, lived among us, ate with us, cried with us, felt hunger and pains He had never felt in Heaven. Our Lord Jesus chose to to put Himself in our place and sit with us in our troubles. Jesus did not come rescue us out of our troubles, for even we can do that for others. But He chose to sit in our troubles with us and felt our pain and suffering; then went far beyond, and suffered what we could never bear.
Often, we think the best way to intercede for others is to "fix" their problems. We think if we feed the hungry, clothe the poor, send money to dig wells to give drink to the thirsty we are sharing Christ's life and love with them. But are we? I say that we are not.
If we merely spare them or rescue them out of their troubles, while we sit in the comfort of our own homes; if we merely send money and sit quietly and pray; yet we do not physically go to sit in their troubles with them, then have we loved others as Christ has loved us - extravagantly? I say we have not.
Let us do all these good things, but let us not neglect to go to the hungry, go to the poor, go to the thirsty and be the hands of feet of Christ by touching them, like He touched us. When you feed the hungry, give them a hug - a long, tight, Christ-loving hug. Then tell them the Good News of Christ. If you feed them without preaching the Gospel, then you have merely "rescued" them from their physical pains, but have left their souls just as hungry and destitute as it was before. Therefore, you have accomplished nothing. The hungry are not surprised anymore if someone feeds them, no they expect it. But they are surprised when you sit with them, when you hold them and stay by their side while they eat. No one but Jesus would do that. We say, "But they really smell bad." This is true, but you know what? Our sins are like the stench of a cesspool in the nostrils of our holy God and He touched us, kissed us and held us anyway.
We so often think we have to go to some foreign land to be the hands and feet of Jesus. But look all around you. As Jesus said, we will always have the poor and hungry all around us; and we do.
There are plenty around here who are thirsty, and there are plenty here in America who are naked and who are need of the physical touch of Christ Jesus our Lord. And there are plenty of lost souls here in America that desperately need disciples of Christ to feed, give drink and clothe their cold, naked, hungry, thirsty dead souls.
So if you want to pray for someone, go to them and pray for them. Go to the abortion clinics and offer prayer to those who are there. Take Gospel tracts with you that do not water down God's truth, but opens their eyes to expose that they are sinners in desperate need of a Savior.
If we're going to do "good", then we must do it like Jesus, for we know, that no one is good, but God. Therefore, if we do "good" deeds, but not in the name of Jesus (meaning in His likeness, with His character), then we are not doing "good", but only something that might seem "nice". For if God alone is good, anything absent of God is absent of good.
"Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that." ~ Ephesians 5:1-2 (The Message)
Thought to ponder:
Gracious Lord God in Heaven, thank You for Your extravagant love poured out on us! Thank You for despising us not, but loving us still. Teach us Father to love like you; without ceasing and without judgment or personal cares. Teach us Father to give our lives away, just the way Jesus did. As we come closer to celebrating the first coming of Your Son, Father, help us to remember why He came and how He came; and send us out with His heart.
May You be well pleased with our offering of extravagant love for You, as we love others extravagantly in Your Name. Amen
Hello my beloved sisters in bloggy land! First I wanted to apologize for not getting an Advent devotional out today. I sincerely apologize. I had much to do today and too little time. I will have one up tomorrow....probably not first thing, like I've been doing, but it will be up, so check back! :-)
Second, I want to be sure to share with everyone this precious bloggy award my darling sister Debra just awarded me. THANK YOU DEBRA!!! I always love stopping by and visiting you! You're so full of love for Christ and sharing His love with all those around you! And I must say, you're doing a fabulous job raising your son in God's word! Way to go sis!
I'm continually humbled at the fact that God uses such a train wreck like to me to provide anyone with His love, peace and comfort. I read so many other blogs and think "WOW, Lord, they're really impacting this world for Your Kingdom! I wish I could be like that!"
So many of you inspire me with your transparency, your love and faithful prayers & encouragement. I truly cannot thank God enough for you. I'm so glad I'll have all eternity to hang out with all of you one day!!!
The rules of this award are:
Confess 5 things I'm addicted to.
Pass this award onto 5 other sisters.
My 5 addictions are:
Jesus Christ, my first love FOREVER and EVER! :-)
Studying and meditating on God's word. One of my ultimate FAV things to do!
My most amazingly godly husband who loves me like Christ loves the Church.
Both my incredible sons are tied for this spot.
Hot tea. Yep, I love a good cup of hot tea...with cream & sugar or a flavored creamer. :-)
Now for the 5 fabulous sisters I'd like to pass this award along to are:
Alicia I love your new "look" as well as your love for Christ you always faithfully share. You're real AND compassionate, that's what makes your blog so fabulous to me!
Heidi You're one of my newest bloggy friends and I'm really enjoying getting to know you and how you are so in awe of God....even the beauty of snow! So much so that you'll show us while you're not feeling so well! Thank you! I love snow too!
Patty Sister Patty, you're a fairly new sister friend as well and I just love your smile, and your genuine love for Jesus and your family. I love how you honestly share that you don't know everything, but you'll share what God's been teaching you. You're refreshing. :-)
Amydeanne Your WFW's are such an encouragement to so many of us! Personally, you help me to appreciate all the "little" things and help me to express my love and awe of our incredible Redeemer and Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord.
and the amazing sister duo Maddie & Delaney Girls, I've never met you in person, but I so love you! Both of you remind me of different things about your fabulous mom! Maddie, you're so creative like your mom and Delaney, you're so contemplative like your mom. I love that about both of you and just am so encouraged to see such young women of God love Him so unashamedly. ***Note: for those of you who have no idea who these precious girls are, they belong to our sister Lori @ All You Have To Give. In this day and age, godly girls are hard to find, and I just wanted to this award to two that I've found! :-)
Our Advent devotional will be a little different today. As we draw nearer and nearer to Christmas, I've been praying and asking God to guide me to be more mindful of the celebration of our Lord Jesus' first coming. In an answer to my prayer, our sovereign Father led me to an article at CWO (Christian Women Online). This article provides wise counsel on how to refrain from spending like the heathens! :-) Just kidding.
Seriously, Marybeth shares how to keep from losing focus on why we celebrate, rather Who we celebrate and how we can keep our spending to a minimum by honoring God. She also gives us some great practical insight on how we can train our children to have a different mindset on the blessing of giving gifts rather than receiving them.
After I read this wonderful article, I asked my Favorite to read it and suggested we implement these ideas, but maybe next year (since we're already so close to Christmas). Well, my Favorite read it, and liked what he read so much he said we'll be implementing these ideas this year!
So, for today's Advent devotional, I'd like to share with you the splendid gift God shared with me through our sister Marybeth Whalen with her practical "how-tos" on how to keep Christ in our Christmas. After all, isn't that why God gives us gifts? So that we might share them with those we love - just like He did for us, when He gave us Jesus.
Marybeth Whalen is one of CWO's newest team members. She is also a writer and speaker for the Proverbs 31 Ministries and co-wrote a book with her husband entitled: Learning To Live Financially Free: Hard-Earned Wisdom To Save Your Marriage and Your Money.
Oh and please, please note that CWO is in a new format and you can now leave encouraging comments for all the writers. So please share the gift of encouragement with our sister Marybeth as I know God will bless you through her, just like He did for me. :-)
Glorious Father God in Heaven, thank You so much for this time of Advent! It's already been so wonderful to drink deeply into Your word and seek Your purpose for all things, even in our shopping and gift- giving habits.
Thank You for how differently You've gifted each of Your children so that we might together, form the Body of Christ Jesus, Your Son. Thank You for enabling us to appreciate Your gifts and to use them for Your glory!
May we continue in our striving to keep Jesus the motive for our Christmas.
WE CELEBRATE YOU JESUS, WITH EVERY BREATH WE TAKE! Amen.
Our Father God sure knows how to cheer His daughters' days! I'm feeling a bit blue today....too long of a story to go into. But I did want to share that I feel like God just wrapped His gentle arms around me by first blessing me with His love through Christ, second my amazingly wonderful husband, third my wonderful boys, and fourth all of you, my precious sisters which whom I've never met in person (except for LauraLee *smiles*), but oh, so closely knitted in my heart...in our Lord Jesus - the ultimate place to be!
My precious sister Laurie Ann @ A Magnolia's Heart Beats, whom I consider my twin-friend. I'm convinced we were separated at birth - oh, and eh hem.....cough, cough, and a year, 'cause I'm just a wee bit older than her. :-) That's okay, 'cause that just means I love her a year more! HA! :-)
I love you twin sister-friend Laurie Ann! Thank you so much for this sweet award!
Now I have to pass it on.
Here are the rules:
"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find, and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."
Okay, is it just me, or does everyone else already know what that really smart, big word means? Well, I had no idea, so for those of you who are like me, here's the definition (courtesy of dictionary.com) aggrandize v. - to make greater; increase or enlarge in size or scope; add details to.
Sisters, thank you for teaching me a new word! That is so cool!
Discussion Topic: "The Submissive Heart of the Titus 2 Wife; Living the Life, Teaching the Life"
hosted by: Laurie Ann @ A Magnolia's Heart Beats As Titus 2 Women, we are called to live our lives reverently and teach what is good. The result of that teaching is that the younger ladies will be subject to their husbands. Life in this day and age doesn't make all God's commands easy to follow. Let's dispel some myths and see if we are living a life that honors God and teaches other women to be subject to their husbands "At the Well".
Discussion Questions:
Would others view you as being subject to your husband?
Does the phrase "being subject to your husband" bring to mind positive or negative thoughts?
Do you find being subject to your husband an easy command to obey or hard one to follow?
How can you teach other women to be subject to their husbands?
My answer to Laurie Ann's first question is: Yes, by the world's standards. But if I were to judge (discern) my actions by God's holy word, which is perfect and pure, I'd have to say, "Not all of the time".
As Laurie Ann wisely suggests, we ought to be sure to dispel some worldly myths that have crept into the church.
Myth #1: A woman should always speak her mind.
Myth #2: If your husband doesn't do what you've asked, you can repeat yourself, over and over again until he responds. Who knows, maybe he didn't hear you or forgot? After all, you're only "refreshing his memory."
Myth #3: I don't need to be subject to my husband on everything; just the big things.
Myth #4: Just "joking" about your husband's faults, failures, or sins isn't harmful, after all, it's only a joke.
Myth #5: You can share all your husband's sins as long as you make it in a form of a "prayer request".
Myth Busters for Myth #:
Are you kidding me? Have you seen everything that's on my mind? Trust me sisters, ain't nobody want to see that mess! If I always spoke my mind, my words would be so injurious and self-centered, most times, I don't even want to know what's on my mind; but unlike the rest of you, I'm stuck! So I pray and ask God to clean out my heart and mind of all it's filth! (Proverbs 3:5-8, Proverbs 12:18)
To say something once to your husband (with a pure, loving and respectful attitude) is not a problem. It becomes nagging when you mention it more than once. Praying prior to speaking with your husband, to seek God's counsel on whether or not you should even approach your husband with this issue is wise. More times than not, I don't have to say very much to my husband about all the things that concern me. When I go to my Heavenly Father FIRST, He most often takes care of it, just between Him and me. Wow, what an intimacy with the Father we miss out on when we expect our husband's to fulfill all our needs. (Proverbs 21:19)
This statement is a lie from the pit of Hell. If I refuse to be subject to my husband on the "little" matters, you know, the things that I really don't care much about; then what in the world makes me think that I'll be subject to him for the "big" things that I really do care about? The answer is simple, I won't. I'm only deceiving myself. Like my wise husband always says, "You'll play like you practice." If I'm not regularly practicing being subject to my husband, first with the little things, how will I ever work up to the "big" things? (1 Corinthians 11:7-10)
A joke is something that every person involved finds humorous, not injurious. Besides, usually when we do this, we aren't "just joking", its our manipulative female way of shaming our husbands' into doing things our way. And there is no place of this kind of talk amongst God's people. (Ephesians 5:4)
We can call it whatever we want, but speaking behind someone's back is pure gossip. Tacking on "Oh, and could you pray with me on this?" doesn't turn this slanderous time into a holy experience. Gossiping about anyone is wicked, but gossiping about our husband's, whom we've been made one with is worse. When we do this, we're just hurting ourselves and especially our witness. (Proverbs 20:19)
My answer to Laurie Ann's second question is: I LOVE thinking about being subject to my husband! This is one of my greatest passions; becoming a Proverbs 31, biblically submissive wife! Now, if you would've asked me this question 11 years ago, I probably would've thought you were a weirdo and would've asked you to get away from me. :-)
I find it easy to obey God's command for me to be subject to my husband....MOST times. But I've gotta admit sisters, I'm still pretty ornery and need lots of work! I hate when I behave this way, but I'm thankful I have a godly husband who kindly and gently rebukes me. He knows that this is one of my greatest passions, therefore he really does a great job in rebuking me when I fall off the submission wagon! And I'm so eternally grateful to him for that! Why? Because this helps me to participate in the Holy Spirit's work of refining me and making me more and more like Christ.
I once heard someone say, "The best argument for Christianity is a Christian. The best argument against Christianity is a Christian." I'd have to answer Laurie Ann's last question very much the same way. "The best argument to become a biblically submissive wife, is a biblically submissive wife. The best argument against becoming a biblically submissive wife, is a worldly obedient wife."
Obedience doesn't require intimacy or love. But submission does. That is why it's far greater to submit - biblically, rather than merely obey. I call it, "cheerful holiness"! :-)
And to answer our sister Laurie Ann's last question: I'm writing and leading a Bible study on this very subject. You can find it at "A Wife's Biblical Submission" for a more in-depth look on what biblical submission is and what it's not.
Okay, well, that's it for me! Please be sure to visit our other lovely sisters "At the Well" today! You'll most certainly be blessed!
In my last post, I told the story of my Advent beginnings. When I started out as pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church in 1991, for the first time in my life, I began to see Advent as a distinct season of the year and to experience its richness.
In the years following my Advent beginnings, my appreciation of Advent grew slowly and steadily. At some point I became aware of the purple and pink Advent color scheme, something we had not emphasized at Irvine Presbyterian Church. I remember when, sometime in the 1990s, we started using three purple and one pink candle in the church Advent wreath. It was a change for church members, who had been used to all white candles. But soon they appreciated the connotations of the colors. (Photo: The Advent wreath on the chancel of the sanctuary at Irvine Presbyterian Church)
I decided to go “whole hog” with Advent colors one year. I wore mostly purple ties during Advent. I put up an “Advent tree” in my office at church, which could be seen from the busy street in front of the church. I didn’t outlaw the use of Christmas colors in our sanctuary or anything like that, though our sacraments on the communion table and pulpit were purple. I’m sure some folks thought I’d lost a few of my marbles in my zeal for Advent colors, but, for me, it was a chance to emphasize Advent in my personal life as well as in my ministry.
Why did Advent matter so much to me? Among many reasons, two stand out. First, I found that observing Advent enriched my celebration of Christmas. Taking four weeks to focus on the hope of Christ’s coming made me much more joyful when I finally got to celebrate it. The more I got in touch with my need for a Savior, the more I rejoiced at the Savior’s birth.
Second, I found in Advent a solution to the age-old problem of secular Christmas vs. spiritual Christmas. If you’re a Christian, you know what I mean. We recognize that Christmas is, most of all, a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus. It’s a holiday that focuses on the meaning of the Incarnation. Yet, given the secular traditions of Christmas, we spend most of our time preparing, not for a celebration of the birth of Jesus, but for fulfilling the demands of the season. We have to buy lots of presents for lots of people and make sure they are all wrapped and delivered. We have parties to attend and parties to host. We have relatives who come to visit or, alternatively, we are the relatives who go elsewhere to visit. This requires lots of planning, not to mention the nuts and bolts of holiday travel. We have to send out Christmas cards, making sure our addresses are right and that they get on all the envelopes. If we have younger children, we may very well spend hours trying to assemble gifts that come with sketchy instructions written by someone for whom English is, at best, a third language. And so on, and so on, and so on.
Meanwhile, we hear our Christian leaders telling us that we’re spending too much time and money in secular celebrations, and not focusing enough on the real meaning of Christmas. Religious posters proclaim: “Jesus is the reason for the season.” But, in fact, Jesus faces heavy competition from retailers, relatives, and revelers. So what’s a Christian to do?
In my idealistic twenties, I thought about downsizing my celebrations of Christmas. At one point I tried to convince some friends and family members that we should make Christmas an entirely “spiritual” holiday, one in which we focus only on the birth of Jesus. Not wanting to be the Grinch, however, I didn’t abandon secular festivities or gift giving. “Let’s do that stuff on New Year’s Eve,” I argued. “Not only is this holiday very close to Christmas, but also, if we give gifts on New Years, we’ll be able to shop in the post-Christmas sales, and that will save a lot of money.” Ah, what logic! But nobody was persuaded, least of all my family members. The secular and familial Christmas traditions were too embedded in our lives and, I might add, greatly loved. So I abandoned my effort to de-secularize Christmas.
As I entered my thirties, I tried to emphasize the Christian aspects of Christmas in the days leading up to the holiday. But I seemed to be fighting a losing battle. I needed some way to focus my mind and heart. And I needed some new traditions that would help me. Then I discovered Advent. For some reason, observing Advent during December helped me to draw near to God in a way that I had not been able to do before. I still engaged in the secular celebrations of Christmas, happily so, I might add. But I also added several new practices that tuned my heart to resonate with the deeper meaning of the coming of Christ.
I know that many others have had a similar experiences to mine. Since 2004 I have been blogging about Advent. During the past four years I have received dozens of emails from people who have shared their own excitement for Advent. Some have grown up with Advent traditions. Most have “discovered” Advent later in life, much as I did. All have found that observing Advent enriches their celebration of Christmas and allows them to have a precious, peaceful, God-focused experience during what is often a hectic holiday season.
In my next post I’ll describe some of the Advent practices that I have found to be most helpful.
"Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian untilChrist came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith." ~ Galatians 3:23-26
Awwww.....isn't my Darling just the most handsomest? Now, THIS is a gentle, God-loving, God-revering man! Even our cat Tigger wants to be like him. But since he's a cat, there aren't too many ways he can be like my Favorite, so Tigger just settles for being able to look like my Wonderful while sleeping! (My Honey's birthday was actually on Wednesday, but we're still celebrating, so I thought I'd put this up today as a continuation. I think when anyone makes it past 30 without completely loosing their marbles, we should celebrate the same number of days, as the years they have successfully lived! *smiles*)
Happy 42ndBirthday sweet baby pie!
I'm so grateful to God that He allowed me the privilege and IMMENSE blessing of being married to such an incredibly godly man who loves me like Christ loves the Church!
Thank you for how you pray for me! Thank you for recognizing me to be the weaker vessel and treating me with such tender mercies from Christ.
Thank you sweet baby for faithfully washing me with God's word and instructing me in the Way I ought to go! You are an incredible husband and Daddy! You are an amazing head for our household! I'm so proud and grateful that God chose to give our boys such a wonderfully humble man to demonstrate to them, what it looks like to be like Christ.
You're not ashamed to cry, as we know "real men" cry (Jesus wept and He's as manly as a man gets). So now, our boys have learned to cry. You confess your sins to us to warn us not to travel the same way. And you always give glory and honor to God for every victory you've ever experienced. You've taught me and the boys to do the same. I am eternally grateful for your leadership and will never be able to thank God enough for you.
You aren't my dream man, because you are more than I could've ever dreamed or asked God for! I didn't even know someone like you existed! But I'm so thankful to have found out!
As if all this weren't enough, God chose to make you incredibly gorgeous so I just can't keep my octopus hands off of you!!!
On Saturdays, I will post videos that help us to remember why we worship Jesus alone and why we celebrate His birth, while we look forward to our Homegoing.
On Sundays, I will post articles from Rev. Mark D. Roberts regarding the Advent; what it means and why it's important for all of us to stay in a continual state of awe and wonder of CHRISTmas.
I can never watch this music video without crying...and I'm not a cryer. So girls, if you're cryers, or not, you better go get your Bibles and some tissues. Be sure to read the Scripture passage for today so you can gain the full effect of this music video.
I think all of us can relate to someone or many someone's on this video. I've been the first girl, full of shamedue to sexual immorality; looking for acceptance and control of my life. I've also been the little boy and girl who had rejectedand unloved on their shirts.
I think this is why this music video causes me to fall to my knees and give thanks to my Lord and King, who made Himself captive to a human body, in order to set my soul free!
Who do you want to tell this Good News to today?
Gracious Father God in Heaven, hallowed be Your holy name. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the Kingdom, the Power, the Glory, forever and ever. Amen.
WOW! I saw this and thought that this would be something GREAT that all of us can do to keep Christ in our Christmas celebrations! And this also fits in with the Advent we've been celebrating together as we've been seriously considering how we might spend these next 20 days focused more on Christ and why He came - to save our wretched souls!
Please go visit this sight! There are Christmas cards, note cards, tote bag, shirts (lots of different kinds: GREAT for the kiddos too!).
Don't miss out on this fabulous opportunity to share with others the Gift that Christians offer first and foremost....the Gift of salvation found only in Jesus Christ. :-) Are you pumped?! I sure am!!!!
Okay, just saw this video, about an atheist sign in Washington state's Capitol. Now, I'm more convicted than I was a minute ago to purchase the above cards, shirts, whatever. It seems our enemy, Satan is running a muck. Let's get in his way! Wanna join me?
Okay, first I'd like to say that I'm not asking this because I think all of you are dumb or anything. I'm asking because, personally (as many of you have already discovered), I'm not exactly the sharpest pencil in the pack. You know, just one fry short of a Happy Meal! You know what I mean? :-)
Anyway, I just wanted to let all of you know (if you haven't already taken notice yourself) that CWO is in a new format and you can comment on pretty much everything! I absolutely LOVE this new format because when God blesses me through others, I like to share that with them. Otherwise, how would they know? And as women, welove and need words of encouragement. It's just the way we are. :-)
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about my article, but others. ALL the sisters that a part of our CWO team spend lots of time in prayer so they can lovingly offer the rest of us God's wisdom and their specific talents and gifts the Lord has given them to share.
So, (if you haven't already) as you read this wonderful magazine God has brought together to unite His daughters for mutual edification, all the more as the Day approaches, then please read it and encourage our sisters in the Lord.
"One who is taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches." ~ Galatians 6:6
BTW, I prayerfully hope that God is using these Advent devos to bless you and your families. My darling husband has decided to use these at dinner time for our family to focus more deeply on why we celebrate our Savior's first coming and how we ought to live more intentionally with His second coming in mind. I am so humbled that God put it in my husband's heart to lead us this way. I don't know why He chose these devos, but He did, and that's good enough for me.
I love you all and pray for you daily.
May the Lord of peace, reign in your hearts today!
I wanted to thank all of you for your prayers, extremely loving comments and emails you've sent me. If there were words to express the fullness of my gratitude for all of you, I'd use them, but alas, these are the only words I have....THANK YOU!!!!
With not feeling well, and trying to keep up with "life" I've fallen quite behind in visiting with all of you. And I wanted all of you to know how much I want to visit with you and will soon...hopefully tomorrow! I was hoping it would be today, but I've spent most of the day playing catch up with laundry, housework, errands, kids' school stuff and last, but not least, my darling hubby's birthday is tomorrow! YEAH!
Therefore, I'm going to give all of you a quick update as I have to run since dinner is almost ready. My appointment went well yesterday. My endocrinologist is just fabulous! Everyone in the office is so wonderful! I suppose it's because they're always dealing with some pretty serious life issues so they really make it a point to be tender and extremely kind.
Here's the diagnosis, I am pre-diabetic. All that means is that I'm not diabetic, but will be. I am at a very high risk anyway (didn't know that until now). And normally if someone is pre-diabetic they can prevent you from having diabetes. But like I said, that's "normal" and as many of you have already figured out "normal" is not a word that often used to describe me! HA!
You see, most people who are pre-diabetic are smokers and/or drink alcohol, are overweight, sedentary and eat unhealthy. So they asked me what I ate and what my daily activities were. When I shared what my daily food intake and activity was (and they were very specific, like what exactly did I put in my sandwich). They gave me a chart and found out that I already eat all the foods, in the proportions they were going to suggest. I also do not smoke, drink any alcohol and am not overweight. And usually, they tell pre-diabetics or diabetics to eat the way I already do, lose weight, stop drinking or smoking and exercise.
Since I already do all these things and my sugar levels continue to go up all by themselves, they said that right now theres nothing we can do except to wait until I become diabetic...which they said I will. So, unless God changes His mind, I'm headed that way...which really, I've resolved and am total peace with. After all, God is still God and He is still on the throne...no matter our earthly circumstances....so what can man...or rather diabetes do to me? :-)
I love you all and can't wait to have some time tomorrow to stop by all your places and share some love with you!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU again, so much for all your prayers and love you've so faithfully shared with me! I'm so grateful to God....oh so grateful to God for each and every one of you!!!
Hello precious sisters! Here I am, just popping in for literally about 3 minutes! I was able to run a quick errand, do some laundry and get this note to you before I have to head out again for my dreaded 2 hour testing. Can you tell, I'm not the least bit excited?
But I am VERY excited to share with you some news!
God has once again bestowed upon me a blessing that I didn't even know I could ask for....He has allowed me to be part of the CWO team! When Darlene first asked me, I was shocked and completely humbled...then terrified that I would do a horrible job, and be more of a burden rather than a blessing. I am responsible for interviewing precious sisters in the Lord for our cover/feature stories. This month's issue (December 2008) is my first interview with Renee Swope from Proverbs 31 Ministries.
Renee is incredibly kind, gentle and real. I was so blessed to be able to get to know her better. In my interview with Renee she shares how God called her into a speaking ministry as well as adopting two girls from Ethiopia...this story...well, I'll let you read it for yourself. ;-)
I encourage all of you to read and share this months issue of CWO with others. I know you will all be so wonderfully blessed as you read all the fabulous articles about how we can get our hearts, minds and bodies (yes, our bodies too) prepared for Christmas; for the honor and glory of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ!!
Unfortunately, I am not able to meet with you lovely sisters today "At the Well" as I have MANY wifely, motherly things to accomplish today prior to my obnoxiously long (2 hour) testing I have to go through in just a couple of hours.
But I didn't want any of you to miss out on today's WONDERFUL discussion, our sister Tracy has started over at her place! Be sure to stop by and visit her! :-)
My very quick answer to all these questions (hopefully I'll have time later to really visit) is the Advent devotionals I'm writing and posting here to help me....and well, anyone else stay focused on the real reason why, we as children of God celebrate this season - Christ Jesus our Lord. Quite simply put (I'm copying DaySpring Card's here) "Jesus IS the Gift"! I LOVE that! Now, if I could remember that all the time, I probably wouldn't get in so much trouble all the time! HA!
But seriously, I do find it difficult not to get caught up in the train of gift buying and looking for the temporal things that will satisfy me and my loved ones. Sad, but true. Therefore, I am ever so grateful that God has given me an assignment to help me with my problem! Isn't our Father God so amazingly awesome?!
Below are the discussion questions Tracy poses for us:
Keeping "Christ" in Christmas with Practical Ideas
Do you find yourself stressed each Christmas, trying to "DO" all of the activities of the holiday, only finding yourself depleted and wondering if your family celebrated the true meaning of Christmas?
What are practical tips and ideas you can share that celebrate Christ and simplifies Christmas?
"Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it."
~ Proverbs 3:27
"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy."
~ Proverbs 31:8-9
set courtesy of 
