Your Mind and the Smell of Sin...

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind." NIV Luke 10:27
The Message says it this way: 'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence...'
I think its great that The Message writer refers to our mind as our muscle...use it...strengthen it...with God's Word...

I love to read books. Most of the books I read are, in book stores, considered 'Spiritual OR Religious', I find them in those sections anyway! My Bible happens to be one of the main books I read. So, books in those sections of the stores are usually related to Biblical topics...I must be careful, sometimes, they sneak 'secular things' in those sections, as well...uninformed book-store workers, I suppose!

Right now (which means it is apt to change in the next couple of days) I'm reading parts (probably will wind up reading all) of 'Loving God with All Your Mind' by Elizabeth George...because I'm giving a talk on that subject soon...although, I'm not really using anything from her book...it's just good to hear what she has to say....she did a great job with 'A Woman After God's Own Heart'...

On the 'book' area of my 'study' area, (which, because of the snow, has become my kitchen table) there is a small book that looks very ominous...it's called 'The Smell of Sin and the Fresh Air of Grace"..by a guy named Dan Everts. It is a great little book, about how seriously God takes our sin...and how His grace is available..the surprising thing in that book is how graphic he is when he talks about sin. (it's a rough 'R') Which, if we read the way Jesus talked about sin in the gospels, there was quite a bit of 'bloody' examples used there--gouging out of eyes, and cutting off of limbs... Enough about that, I don't do bodily fluids well, and I'm making myself sick! The point of the book is that God takes sin VERY seriously...and His Grace is available to all!

I wrote all that to say this: I love to read & study and think...I'm not really a naturally 'deep' thinker, so I may have to read difficult, or hard to grasp points over and over to get what the author is meaning...however;
God's Word, HIS Bible...is deep, but because His Spirit lives within me, I can 'get' what He has for me today in those pages! What a great God we serve: To have our portion ready each day when we pick up and study HIS word!!!
The bread of life...Again, I tell you: Go, get some bread!

More snow! More Wine!

I don't know exactly how much more snow, but I'm willing to guess at least another seven inches...enough that there's no school, yet again today! They aren't even getting snow trucks out today...that should tell us how much we got, and exactly where we are situated on the planet: Snow Trucks, You stay home...we got too much snow! (Hint: we live in IL--have you been watching the news?)

I love Snow Days...it's like 'extended quiet time' for me. The girls are still sleeping...and my husband is gone to work, very thankful for 4-wheel drive!

Today I could whine. All the 'unknowns' of parenting could really get me today. So, I'm fighting the urge to spill it here...

Let me just say: I don't know everything, nor would I want to know everything...I am a human person with high ideals and expectations. I like to know what's going on in the lives of those I love.

Too much to ask? Usually! Almost always, 'asking' is seen as trying to manipulate or control...and honestly, that is the furthest thing from my mind. I just want to support our girls in what ever they are facing...what ever they are facing. Because they are our girls...and they are all young and mostly depend on their emotions (or the crazy emotions of their friends!) to make decisions instead of facts...enough about that!

I get to speak this spring at two different gatherings for women. Preparing to speak is both fun and challenging for me! I was able to spend extended time yesterday getting ready for one of those events.

Preparing for these events brings up a lot of "feelings" for our family that I don't always keep close to the surface. You see, we went from a small family of four to a large family of 6 over night, then, eventually we were 8! (due to baby-surprise #5 and an ailing Papa)

I have great memories of all these times together..I also have memories that I don't feel so great about. It's hard raising girls at different ages and stages and care for an aging parent all in the same household. You have to have a pretty strong marriage to face days like that...Anyone who does all that has my admiration & prayers.

I have seen the Mighty Hand of God during all those times...His provision, His peace, His comfort and His strength, and perhaps most importantly for me: His grace & forgiveness! And, I praise Him for all of it...the good and the not so good. Because of Who He Is and Because He is Worthy...He never wastes anything we go through...the good or the bad...He uses our very humanness to bring honor & glory back to Himself...you gotta love that about Him!

Today, I'm not going to whine...I'm going to Celebrate!
Celebrate the fact that I can type this and it goes out in to cyberspace, enjoying that freedom! Celebrate the fact that it's warm and dry where I sit and enjoy the view!
Celebrate that our family enjoys great health!
Celebrate that there's food in the cabinets & fridge...and my husband has a job!

No whining today! Just the wine of God's goodness...
Take a listen to this wine:
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Jesus said those words in Matthew 11:28-30...I love that about Him!

Celebrate! And, find rest for your weary soul!
Peace.

Snow--SNOW!!!

I love mornings like this, everything is quiet and still. There is snow on the branches of the trees, and evergreens hold just a dusting. Everything is covered in this gorgeous,thick blanket...making my whole view look fresh and clean.

This is a great time to enjoy hot tea and quiet time to read and study...my favorite things!

I just read Oswald Chambers. I know...he wrote this probably 100 years ago...but it is always relevant! Because I meet a lot of 'worriers'...people who think that their job in life is to worry about everything, I felt it would be good to share this--today's entry, from

My Utmost for His Highest:
" 'Do not worry about your life." Matthew 6:25
Our Lord says to be careful about one thing--our relationship to Him. But our common sense says, "That is absurd. I must consider how I am going to live, and I must consider what I am going to eat and drink." Jesus says you must not. Beware of allowing yourself to think that He says this while not understanding your circumstances. Jesus Christ knows our circumstances better than we do, and He says we must not think about these things to the point where they become the primary concern of our life."

When I consider this, I must ask: If He has the hairs on my head numbered, then He knows and cares what my day will be like. He knows what things delight me, and He knows what scares me to death....and He loves me anyway. He knows what tempts me and He knows the things I need to face in His strength alone...
When you can grasp these truths, there is peace. There is comfort knowing that the God of the Universe--the One who put the stars in the sky and gave ME this gift of lovely snow today--also holds ME in the very palm of His hand. He shines His light on my path to light my way and watches over me while I sleep...
And, the truly great thing is this: He cares the same way for each person...I am not unique in His provision...I am unique in what He provides for me, because He knows me best!
He knows how busy my life is, and He cares about the details of each and every day...I love that about Him!--It makes me love Him even more when I start the day by giving it TO HIM, and let HIM order my 'to do' list, so that it becomes HIS!

Do NOT worry about YOUR life!!!!
Have Peace...

What a Sunday!

I love Sundays...especially because I get to connect with people at church I haven't seen all week. Today I got to baptize a lady...she was excited and I was excited...and the cool thing is that scripture teaches us that THIS is when the heavens rejoice...when someone comes to claim Jesus as Lord & Savior!

We had a great meal with our kids, the ones in town, anyway...and then went to visit our across the street neighbors. Their son (and his new wife) were in town just for the week end from Colorado. It was fun to see them for a few minutes.

Then, we took all our kids to the movies...we do this as a family, a lot! Some of my favorite memories of our family are all of us piling in the same row with 3-D glasses to watch what ever was 'on' for the week end...but because it was an icy night, we were about the only people in the room! We are truly movie-nerds...we do movie quotes in our regular conversations...so it's hard to 'get' the under lying meaning sometimes, unless you can identify the movie & lines!
The girls & I saw 'Benjamin Button' and the guys went to see 'Gran Torino'...
'Benjamin' was good, not really my favorite 'kind' of movie...but it was well-done, and I enjoyed it. Of course, Brad Pitt makes it worthwhile, as well!

I made a new friend last fall when I went on a retreat in our area. This friend told me when I met her about her granddaughter that had been born earlier in the year, but had heart problems, and had already had a couple of surgeries on her little heart. I think to date she's had 3 surgeries, and I'm pretty sure she hasn't had her first birthday, yet. Well, I got news last night that this little girl died last week, not sure why or what the circumstances were...but she's gone. This kind of conversation is always hard for me to listen to, because my heart just goes out, of course, to the mom...and the dad...

This makes me just pray for them, because the father of lies wants to cloud their judgement, make their mind 'set' against the things of God....I think this is what makes me most sad. People are in so much pain when this happens, that they are susceptible to all kinds of lies from Satan.

This will be a matter of prayer for me...until I write again, though remember: Love the Lord YOUR God with all your mind, soul, strength and heart!--Luke tells us in chapter 20...look it up!

Blessed Day!

What a Day this has been! I got to spend time with a couple of ladies early this morning. We are working together to plan a ladies retreat for women in our area, which will happen in April. What an honor it is for me to get to work with them, learn from them, and be inspired by them. They are great friends to each other, and have a great time where ever they are! --Such blessing to my life! Thanks, Debbie & Earline!

Then, I arrived back in town just in time to have lunch with two of my 'small group girls'...MORE blessings! We can laugh and cry with each other, and that's pretty much what we did!

After lunch, I met with a neat couple that are new to our area, and new to our church. How much fun we had trading nuggets from scripture...I think I got the better trade...not certain I left any behind...but I took out a 'whole wheel barrow full of treasures' they shared with me! They both have so much wisdom and knowledge that they are willing to share. So, from the time I spent with them, I was both inspired to go deeper in study and challenged to trust my God even more! And, be very much in awe of my Abba, Father's timing and provision for friends in my life!! Thanks, Jackie & Nancy!

Now, it's time to reflect on last night: Our second session of GriefShare. This stuff of grief is hard work. My prayer is always that those that are traveling this road of grief learn to trust God with their pain, depending on HIM for thier comfort and not become dependant on anything else to 'numb' or 'mask' the pain.

One of the most important things I learned was to Praise God through the pain. That could sound, perhaps a little condescending...but stay with me...there is truth there. Since the enemy wants us to stay in our grief...(to stay stuck there asking questions like 'why me?' or 'why now?' or 'why____?') he makes up all kinds of lies to tell us. However, when we are praising Our God...the One True Living God...the Lover of Our Souls...the enemy has NO power there, and the lies cannot touch us. God is honored in our praises...and He honors that with His presence.
Praise Him. He is worthy.
Even when you can't see Him working, you must trust that He is still working.
Seek Truth. Seek His Face. He is Faithful!

Great day...

This has been a great day so far!! In spite of the fact that the temperature outside is zero. Inside here, it's been good!
God & I met on the Journey this morning to finish up this week's reading in Matthew 10. I'm trying to decide where to go with these five chapters for my Sunday school lesson for this Sunday...that will be great fun to put together!
After He & I finished that 'SOAP' exercise, we met again in this study of Esther...all I can say is WOW!!! I can't wait to see what God does with this...I love to celebrate...what ever the occasion...I love it. So, this is my kind of study--Celebrate...beauty...food...good company...laughter...fun!!!
My husband & I are on our way to dinner with our small group. One of the couples in our group 'winter' in Florida. They are here just this week, due to a death in their family. In this small group we are as close to 'family' as if we were blood-kin.
This group is made up of 5 couples. We range in age from late forties to early seventies...ironically enough, the couple in their seventies have only been married for three years...what a delight!
Between us, we have 20 kids,(only 2 of which were boys!) some are married, and some are still in school, even elementary. One is special needs, and has the affection of us all! Praise the Lord, lots of insight and lots of wisdom is shared...and we can call one another out, as well, because of the love we have for each other! And, so it's time to celebrate!!!!
Here we go!!

Grief Share and how it works...

From Jill's comment, I decided that I'd just write what I know about this thing called GriefShare that has become such a part of our lives...
GriefShare is designed to be a small group study. It can be used as 'large group' / 'small group' to accommodate a large setting with small groups forming from that for discussion purposes.
We open with prayer then we do an object lesson that helps focus the participants on the evening's topic. This time is followed by short questions about the previous week's work book exercises.
After this discussion, because we facilitate, it works well for us to take a short bio-break, get fresh coffee and light snack, then we re-form to watch the evening's video.
Church Initiative has done a great job putting together grief experts and those that have gone through grief first-hand to share their stories, insight & encouragement about the evening's topic. These videos last anywhere from 32-40 minutes, and cover various topics related to this journey from mourning to joy of grief.
After the video we have directed questions (this would be a time to break in to smaller groups if necessary) for discussion of the evening's topic.
Each participant has a work book with five days' exercises and one page of 'journaling' exercises to do, these reinforce the week's video topic.
As someone who has traveled the tough road of loss, 'reading a lot of stuff' is sometimes that last thing you want to do...focus is also hard. These exercises are quick and to the point, but they help you think, and reinforce the fact that you aren't crazy, just grieving.
This is a Christ-centered study, so the 'foundation for healing' is discussed at length in the work book, but also referred to in discussions on the video, and within our group.
After the discussion portion of the evening, Randy & I have our group form a very tight circle, (holding hands, shoulder to shoulder...because we are doing battle, and I believe this helps us appear battle-ready) and have a group prayer. Sometimes in our grief, it's hard to pray out loud, so I just usually close the evening with one prayer, as opposed to everyone praying in turn.
When we grieve, everything around us is in chaos. Because of this fact, we believe and strive for the time spent in these sessions to be very predictable, there's comfort there. And, yes, our group becomes very tight-knit...we meet together for 13 weeks, and know each other's stories & struggles well in that time. And, yes, when the 13 weeks are finished, the grief is still there...it doesn't magically disappear, but progress has been made toward healing. Every participant in our last session that responded to our survey said that the class helped them in healing.
We host these sessions in a little house on our church's campus that we've been blessed to be able to call 'Macy's Place'. It is small, cozy, and comfortable for those that come in.
Our hope is for this ministry to grow to what ever God has in mind for it...we'll see!--And, continue to give Him praise & glory for all that He does there!
Because of the nature of this ministry, and because our community is small, we spend a lot of time at the funeral home...we write notes to people we know that have recently suffered loss, to invite them to join us, if they feel ready.
If your church is considering this type-ministry, there is a video boot camp that can be purchased, or they also have one-day live seminars for a wealth of information and training. The people at Church Initiative are such a blessing to work with, I would encourage every church in our union to offer this ministry.
The website for griefshare is http://www.griefshare.org/
There is a group locator on that site that you can type in your zip code, and it will give you a list of the groups near you.

A New Session...

Today is the first day for Wednesday programming for winter sessions at our church. This is a huge day...lots going on...

I'm facilitating the Beth Moore study: Esther: It's Tough Being a Woman. It is going to be an amazing study! It will be a great study for the women of our church...but especially me! The women I have the privilege of doing this study with are amazing...very strong and love the Lord...I anticipate such a great time together!

Then, tonight, we started a new session of GriefShare. This is a 13 week, biblically based study for people that are grieving the loss of a loved one through death. We had a very moving first meeting. Grief is all around us, and yet, it is the least-acknowledged human condition in our society...No one wants to consider death in their own lives, or in the lives of those around them...people don't give themselves permission to grieve, because the process can take a really long time, and frankly, our culture just doesn't like to take the time to actually heal...our culture would rather 'numb up' with alcohol, food, or drugs...sad but true.

The truth is, complete healing is available for those who grieve...complete joy can be restored, but it is through relationship with the living God...His deliverance from our pain and suffering is available...these sessions point to that truth...God's word points to that truth...my husband & I just want to encourage others on that road...sometimes it's hard and sometimes it's not, but it is always a joy to serve in such a way...we've been blessed with complete healing...yes, sometimes we are still sad, sometimes, we miss our little girl so much....but we are always reminded of God's faithfulness in our lives and in the lives of our other children...and we are always so very thankful that we were given the opportunity to know little Macy Jo!

Week One of our Journey!

The first week of 'The Journey' is finished. I love this systematic study. Others that I've talked to are excited and loving it, too! People are talking about their study, just about everywhere I go...this, to me, is so much fun!

I'm sticking with John 14:27 as my life verse for now...and, this week, I've purposed to:

**Ask Jesus to read His Word to me--the chapter of the day, that I may hear what He has to say to me and see it in a different light than perhaps ever before!

**Keep my to do list either near by, on sticky notes, OR, write it before I sit down to study and make it a matter of prayer for my day....amazing the amount of 'calmness' that little practice has added to each day!

**The Word: is all about change...and delighting in the unexpected...I praise God for who He is and what He's done in my life...The Grace He has given even me!

Just for today: I got to spend the morning with eight women from our region of like-precious faith. We are working as a team on, what to us is a huge project for the Kingdom! I'm honored to know each of them...they are such an encouragement to me, and my faith...they are each a blessing straight from the Hand & Heart of God!

Then, this evening, I was privileged to go to dinner with my husband, to our friend's home for chili. While there, we met a couple that is new to our area...and had a great deep-seeded Bible discussion!!! What a delightful surprise!

...man shall not live on bread alone, but by every Word of God!!! Go, get some bread!

Tonight is the Birthday Party!!!!

Well, tonight is the official birthday party for our girls!!! They are beside themselves, they are so excited!!!

A bright spot for me is that we talked them OUT of a sleep over...I've been attending or hosting sleep overs for pre-teen and teen age girls for right at 40 years...I'm too old! The first clue is when you get out of bed the morning after, and you can't focus because of lack of sleep...and even your hair hurts!!! I have these things happen on a regular basis on random mornings, so I don't need to make them happen on purpose. And, so it goes!

Baby Ally and I got a little nap this afternoon while everyone else went to buy last minute decorations and things...I was better suited here!! Their dad took them, he is a great shopper, equipped with the patience of Job, where any of his daughters is concerned!!! --I'm SO blessed! --Of course, so are they!

On a more serious note: God is revealing Himself in such awesome ways in the past few days...I can't wait to see what He does as 2009 unfolds! I'm very excited to see what He does in each of our daughter's lives and how He continues to use us...Peace and NO fear!

It's here!!!

We just returned from a trip to Chicago. It was a great time to spend with our twins. They will be teen agers in 3 days. They plan more for their birthdays than for Christmas...hilarious to me!

The city was wonderful. Walking, loud, quiet, parks, ice-skating...sky scrapers...good food, laughter...lots of talking...cold...windy...beautiful.

Back to reality. School will be back in session on Monday morning!

I've taken John 14:27 to be my verse for right now:
Peace
I leave with you; my
Peace
I give to you.
I do not give to you
as the world gives.
Do NOT let your heart be troubled
and do not be afraid.--NIV

The New Year is HERE...I will not fear. Nothing is going to happen to me this year that is not filtered through the love of my God & my King. Nothing about my life will be a surprise to Him. I will have no fear!
Praise Him...and Happy New Year!