Sweetness

Last week I received a charm that I love.  As soon as the little box arrived in the mail, I opened it and put it on.  Handstamped with a heart and "love" on the front, the back has ashlynn haven stamped on the back.  I'll post pictures one of these days; I just haven't taken it off long enough to take a picture.

My 2 year old son loves to hold it and talk about the heart on it.  I explained that it was love and that I loved him and baby Ashlynn.  I showed him her name on the back.  Now sometimes when he talks about it he says, baby sister, baby Ashlynn without my prompting.  I LOVE THIS.  I can't explain the sweetness there is in hearing him say her name.  I tell him he will meet her one day when we get Home to heaven.  Big concept for a little boy, but one day he'll understand.  I'm glad to tell him of our real Home.

Possessing Everything

"6:1 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says,

“In a favorable time I listened to you,
and in a day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3 We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; 7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything."  2 Corinthians 6:1-10

Today this passage really hit.  As I read while waiting for church to start, my heart literally filled with joy from this passage.  "Yet possessing everything."

Life seems to deal an unfair hand sometimes.  This passage speaks of much hardship and many harsh circumstances of Paul; afflictions, hardships, calamities,  beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, imposters, unknown, dishonored, slandered, dying, punished, sorrowful, poor, and having nothing. But mysteriously it is all turned around in Christ.  In contrast with that almost unbearable list, Paul mentions; great endurance, purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, the Power of God, weapons of righteousness, honor, praise, truth, being known, life, spared, rejoicing, making many rich, and possessing everything.

It almost seems that the two contrasting lists go hand in hand, like there cannot be one without the other.  What I mean is that through living and enduring through all of the hardships, Christ is all the more glorified and shines that much brighter as Paul pours out his heart to the Corinthians and to us.

God's promises sustain me.  In the grand scheme of things and from a worldly perspective, I really don't have much.  However, in Him, I have everything.  My life is truly full in the abundance of gifts that God has granted me and I look forward to a life of fullness with Him for all eternity.  I have come to realize that the hardest parts of my life contribute to this fullness.  Though my list of hardships comes nowhere near Paul's, may God get the glory through each joy and each pain that comes my way.

"11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold
from those who walk uprightly." Psalm 84:11

   

Thankful

"Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones." Proverbs 16:24

Today I am thankful for a good friend who made my day with "kind words."  It is awesome to have friends that walk through life's ups and downs with me. 

Victims of Comfort

Here is another good song.  It is by Keb Mo called Victims of Comfort.  I'm not much for the images in the video, but love the song.  I think it goes deeper than what the images suggest.  I think the real challenge is that we stay in our own comfort zones and don't reach others with the love of Christ and don't follow Him into places that are "uncomfortable."  See what you think.  I'd love to hear!

The Way

If you ever want to be tested in something, pretend you already know about it and then explain what you think you know to others.  The day after I wrote the last post about comfort, I hit a wall.  Nothing major happened to bring on my extreme discontentment and discomfort, while at the same time it seemed so much stacked against me. Maybe some of it could be blamed on the hormones of being a woman, but nevertheless, I have not been in a good place.

Today I caught myself  carrying on a conversation subconsiously, like it was on the back burner of my mind. I found myself asking how to achieve the peace that I had just explained to others on my blog.  I questioned, "What is the way to bring me out of this funk?"  The lights came on as if Christ was speaking to me, "I am THE WAY."  "Do you KNOW me?" "Are you SEEKING me?"  Often it is easy to become a story teller about God and Jesus.  Even easier I can live outside of KNOWING Christ in a daily committed walk WITH Him.  What I know can get in the way of what I do as I think about things, separating myself from the heart of the matter.  I know the answers, I know the source, but my heart closes to experiencing relationship at times.

 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.  In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.  And you know the way to where I am going.”  Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.  From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:1-7

Just like Thomas I get distracted and I want extra proof, as if the walk I have had with Him up to this point is not enough.  He should be the focus.  He should be the core.  He should be my goal.

I love to write and I love to share about God's work in my life.  May I not just be a storyteller, but be one who acts on the promises of God.

Here is a quote from the the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.  Very good book.  Written as letters between demons in their battle to outwit Christians, it gives good insight into how our enemy might be thinking.

"The great thing is to prevent his doing anything. As long as he does not convert it into action, it does not matter how much he thinks about this new repentance. Let the little brute wallow in it. Let him, if he has any bent that way, write a book about it; that is often an excellent way of sterilizing the seeds which the Enemy plants in a human soul. Let him do anything but act. No amount of piety in his imagination and affections will harm us if we can keep it out of his will. As one of the humans has said, active habits are strengthened by repetition but passive ones are weakened. The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel,

Your affectionate uncle
SCREWTAPE"