Traveling Towards Home

As we make our way towards heaven, it requires copious amounts of faith.  It is this faith which not only sustains us, but fuels us, and prepares our way into heaven. Hebrews 11:6 states that ". . . without faith it is impossible to please Him. . . ."  Pleasing God is my dearest desire, without which my life is an aimless ship adrift on the ocean of time and space. Tomorrow morning, Rodger and I are putting our faith into the hands of an eye surgeon as he undergoes a refractive lensectomy on his right eye.  We trust in the doctors skill to do the job with mastery and excellence.  But we don't blindly do this.  We know that the surgeons at this center have a good reputation.  They have many years of combined experience and success to bolster our confidence in them. Our faith in God is no less based on blind faith, but on the recorded deeds of our God.  The Bible is full of His promises, kept.  He never waivered in doing what He said, whether it...

I am currently in route to Washington State.  Plans are for me to stay a few weeks to help our eldest child with her family while she settles into her new role with the National Guard.  My dear husband and I prayed and talked about what we could do as grandparents and this is one thing we felt would benefit the boys as they adjust also. Many times in our married life (we just celebrated our 32nd anniversary) we have had to adjust to new direction.  We met in the small church of Christ in a tiny mountain town in California where he worked in radio and I was the new school teacher.  I smile as I remember those early days of shyness and uncertainty.  Little did we know when we committed to one another that hot day in June where the road would take us. We could not have begun to imagine the places or experiences we would visit. He eventually left radio to begin training for pulpit ministry.  God blessed us with children. He also blessed us with loss, not on...

Let us hold fast the confession of   our   hope without wavering, for He who promised   is   faithful.  Hebrews 10:23 We know that God speaks to us through His word.  But have you ever heard that 'still small voice' nudging you when you begin to doubt?  Let me assure you, it just takes a little of that doubt to settle in and soon the mind becomes  paralyzed by fear.  I was privileged to hear a Ladies Day speaker a few weeks ago who challenged me in my weakness. "I want to leave you with two words today, "Trust Me."  She reminded us of what God had already said, but my own thoughts drowned out.  I shared a few of her thoughts with my husband, but left this one out. Maybe I was feeling guilty over my lack of trust and faith.  I don't know.  But Sunday evening I heard him say, "God is telling us, 'Trust Me.'"   It made me squirm!  I knew I was being reminded that I was wavering and needed this reminder!  Ag...

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no  children.  And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar.  So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the  Lord  has restrained me from bearing  children.  Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.   Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan.   So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. ----Genesis 16:1-4 What is written in the scriptures is there for our instruction in Godliness.  When you consider Hagar, several issues that we as Christian women should consider come to mind.  First:  although Abraham and Sarah were God-fearing and faithful, Hagar never, apparently, comes to an understanding of who God really is. ...