Traveling Towards Home

My dear husband has been preaching on Life In the Valley. I guess he did not realize how much we would need those sermons ourselves! God is incredible and His design of the scriptures to meet our every need is beyond description. How often I have cried on Saturday night, only to sit Sunday morning in awe at how He speaks to me from His word, just what I needed; words of comfort and admonition. I Corinthians 6: 18-20 " Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." Flee is to run away from. But how often do we flirt with temptation and sin? We put ourselves in the way of temptation and then pray, "God don't let me give in!" I reme...

So many are posting today, I will keep this short. But today is a day we will never forget. It does not matter where you were that day, or what you were doing. Everything stopped when those planes hit the twin towers. Hearts stopped beating, minds froze in horror and disbelief, hands hung helplessly at sides, and then so many fantastic things happened. People said, Not me! I will do something. They rescued, they comforted, they fought back; fears and tears and smoke and hate cannot stop us from doing what God wants from us. As Christians, we know that there is Evil at work in this world. We long for a better place, but until it is our turn to journey to heaven, our journey here is littered with pain and suffering. We do not despair or hang our hands in uselessness. We have work to do and despite the opposition of the Enemy, we work on, not despairing. "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. we are hard-...

While I do not want to give the idea that we are 'throwing out' the checklist, actually It never was there. It is a misconception of what God demands of us. Yes, call it 'demand', or 'require' but the choice of what to do for our salvation is not up to us. He never asked our opinion, or what made us 'happy' or 'comfortable' as some of the words I hear thrown about. He is the great Creator. He made us. He *knows* us inside out. He knows the very thought and intents of our hearts (please read Hebrews 4:11-13 in context of course.) Who better to set the standard? Yes, it guides us. The struggle is not really in understanding this, so much as letting go of preconceived ideas that are 'extra-Biblical'. True understanding comes from God alone, and that through our study of His word, the only source of truth. In the beginning of Hebrews, the writer, inspired by God, tells us that at one time, He spoke to the fathers through the proph...

Several years back, I noticed on the Plaza in Kansas City a Thomas Kinkade gallery. I was excited to think that one day I might walk into that gallery and view an authentic work by this artist. Imagine my disappointment to find there were only digital reproductions. The curator assured me I would not be able to tell the difference. They started with good canvases and paints and were able to duplicate the very brush-strokes of the artist in such a way that these imitations looked exactly like the original art work. In the Christian's walk, our life must so duplicate the Master's that it is an exact replica of His original work. Just as in the world of art, we must start with quality materials, so every brush stroke must look like His. This is done by complete obedience to His will and commands. We must not think we will even be close to the original by putting in our own ideas in the same way that if the workers who reproduce Kinkade's work were to inject their own a...

Sometimes in my Christian walk, I am accused of being legalistic or dogmatic, meaning the accuser thinks I am just checking off a 'to-do' list of how to get to heaven. I remind myself (and them, if they listen long enough) that as we keep God's commandments (the perfect law of liberty, as it states in James 1:25) we do so according to God's stipulations, not our own. It is not a card-punch system, as if to say, Well that is out of the way for today! But it is a life-style. God is able to change the heart when we come to Him in truth, and we do His will out of love for Him and to share that precious story with the lost. Many times I've been accused of being unloving in that, or legalistic, as if we are able to define these words by our own standards. Although it hurts, especially when coming from someone I care deeply about, I remind myself that God sets the standards. If someone perceives my quoting scripture or sharing what God requires for salvation, is t...

Today we visited at two nursing homes in town. It is always a pleasure, because, no matter how we sound, someone claps, or at least thanks us for coming. They are not applauding our beautiful singing. They just love having us come, sing songs they remember and maybe share an encouraging word, a pat on the back or hold their hand for a moment. The cookies are an added treat, but I think even without them they would love our visits. This time, we had our 2 eldest grandson's with us and that was the best. These older people who may not see many but their elder companions at the home, see these little faces and want to talk to them, to hold their hands. The boys were good to shake hands, say thank you for all the compliments and the four year old even helped to pass out treats. Most of those greetings brought smiles. But I saw a few sad faces, looks of rememberance of their days when their own children and grandchildren were small, and the knowledge that they now might not come...

Recently, a friend told me of watching her son parachute to the earth from 10,000 feet. She proudly described his perfect landing. Even after 34 jumps, it was only the second time he had been able to land on his feet. I do not know a lot about skydiving, but I do know I've never had an urge to jump from a plane. As I listened to her, a thought came to me that perhaps seems like a 'no brainer.' But if he wanted his parachute to open, he must pull on the chord. Then as I read on the subject, I found out there is a safety feature on modern parachutes so that if the diver does not open his chute by a certain altitude it opens automatically. That's not very technical I know, and if I were more adventurous I'd actually try this to see how it works. Think I'll just take the experts word on this. Some people believe our spiritual life is like this parachute. All they must do is say 'I believe' and their spiritual 'parachute' opens. You know, if I...