The Same Glory as Christ

I attended the Ted Dekker “Outlaw” tour event on Friday night. He said something that I hadn’t given much thought to:

In John 17:22, Jesus says “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one…”

Wow!  We have the same glory as Jesus? God has made us that special?  That floored me. 

Amazing love.  Amazing grace.

I'm Back!

I figured September would be a good time to get back in the swing of things. For the first time in YEARS I took a few months off. I joked that God gave me a sabbatical, but indeed He did! He gave me June and July and most of August off to write a novel! I am so excited about it!

But literally as soon as I typed "The End" I started getting calls to speak and do book signings. God has clearly taken me off my sabbatical and put me back to work! So it's gonna be a busy fall!

Helping Others is my theme for this month. Mostly, I'm focusing on my family. I've been so busy in the past doing this and that for volunteer work that I've once again let my own house slip. So I'm trying to get the kids more organized and take some of the work load off of my husband.

I've also experienced the help of others helping ME. I have a lot more to say about that, so will post that later, but sometimes we need to receive help instead of give it.

I'll be away from my desk for a few days....my sister-in-law passed away yesterday morning. She died with a smile on her face so we know she's with Jesus now. I have more to say on that too, when I've got the energy. Right now it's time to grieve and help where I can.

Blessings to you all.

God Love

            While I was washing dinner dishes one night, my youngest grabbed a paper plate and pen and ran upstairs. When my husband Duane and I went in our room to go to bed, there was the plate, sitting on our pillows. In elementary school print, our son had written "Mom and Dad - I love you, Logan".  It was so sweet that I saved it.

            Nothing prompted Logan's note, and it wasn't a special day, but Logan is known for leaving little love notes around the house for us.  He also writes notes to God, and blows kisses to God at the end of his bedtime prayers.

            I look at Logan's joyous, unselfconscious expressions of love and think of God.  God loves us with agape love - an unconditional love.  No matter what we've done, or who we are, or where we've messed up, God is willing to take us back into His arms and remind us that we are His children.  After all, He loved us enough to die for us.  It's hard to love on a greater scale than that.

            I am blessed with a good husband who never forgets holidays and hugs me daily.  But no matter how much Duane loves me, there will always be a void in my life.  Love notes, love songs, and warm embraces still leave me wanting more.  There's a reason for that.

            We were created with what I call a "God-space."  It's an empty place in our souls that only God can fill.  God wants to be first in our lives.  He wants us to love Him with abandon, just like Logan loves his parents.  Only when we go to Him will we receive that deep, unfilled love that takes away loneliness, fear, emptiness and more.  He knows our innermost thoughts and our deepest needs.  Only God can love us like we really need to be loved.

            Over the past few years while I worked on my book A Kid At Heart:  Becoming a Child of Our Heavenly Father, I've explored what it means to let God love us on that level.  We can depend on Him, trust Him, and run to Him for comfort.  We can laugh with Him, share our secrets with Him, and know that no matter what, He will never quit loving us.

            He wants to be our Prince, the love of our life.  Let Him love you as only He can.

It's Free!!!

God’s

Riches

At

Christ’s

Expense

My favorite thing about grace is that it’s free. Christ has already paid the price. All we have to do is accept the gift. It doesn’t get much easier than that. Makes me wonder why there are so many people who don’t want it. 

I’m rejoicing on this beautiful summer day for grace!  Are you?

Grace Isn't Just Somebody's Name

        With the end of the school year, we've been a bit flubbergusted (is that even a word?) with getting all the loose ends tied up before the actual "end" arrives. (I'm not talking about the Second Coming.)  Why are there so many parties and final projects and graduations and teachers' gifts and just STUFF this last week of school? I think we should have a week in April when we get to do the "last week of school" and then the following weeks could just be school work until the "end" arrives. That would give me a breather.
        Anyway, with all the STUFF, we've been a bit edgy. "GRACE AND MERCY" has been my mantra to my kids. (It's in capital letters because I am usually yelling it.) Grace and Mercy. When Dad forgets to give you hot lunch on your hot lunch day and Mom has to repack it in seconds while we're already late for school. GRACE. Or when Mom forgets to bring your violin to school after she promises (since you forgot it FIRST) so you have to be bored during music class. GRACE. How about the fact that you didn't have any clean LONG pants to wear this morning and it was only 42 degrees outside so you had to wear shorts and "just cover your legs with a blanket" in the car?
         And it's only Tuesday.
         Thank God for grace! I often talk about the grace God has for us, but what about the grace we should have for each other? The dictionary describes Christian grace as "the free and unmerited favor of God". I'd like to see some of that in this family this week. I know I'm not mom-of-the-year right now, but just love me. And I'll love you even though your socks don't match (I know...the other "mate" isn't washed) or the fact that you said you didn't have homework last night so you could go outside and play but, "discovered" that you did this morning and did it at breakfast.
         GRACE. That's my goal today (or this week). Grace.
         Join me?

God Opens Doors

All at once all the prison doors flew open and everyone's chains came loose.  Acts 16:26b

I had the privilege to go to Legoland, CA this past weekend with five amazing kids who had made it to the North American Championships with their robot.  Because they had poured hours and hours into their project, the robot had been scoring 630 points in practice. When they got to CA and used their one practice session allowed to them, the robot's color sensor wasn't happy with the stage lighting, and our robot became erratic.  The kids went right into problem solving mode - Can we shield the sensors? Reprogram the robot? - and they worked hours on solutions. They came up with three plans, but were unable to test them until the competition. For each round (there were three), they used a different plan, and the robot responded in various ways, but their final score was only 435.   The winning robot got 605.

What amazed me about these kids is they didn't give up and instead of looking at this is a failure, they turned it into a learning opportunity. While disappointed, they are already working on how they can improve their robot for next year.

Sometimes when failure strikes, it's hard for us to move forward and see the other paths. I think what these kids showed in their problem solving can be used in daily life situations. Don't quit, and just because one door closes, doesn't mean another hasn't opened. There are always other answers. Look around - not down.

God's Wisdom

This says it all:

The Power of Prayer

Spiritual Warfare by Ron DiCianni | Christian Art - Christian Framed Prints | Tapestry Productions          

           As a praying parent, this is one of my favorite paintings.

         April’s Princess Project topic empowers us. God doesn't send us out alone to face the world and the Enemy. He not only backs us up but He equips us with His armor. Your prayers are important too – your prayers bring angels to defend and protect you. Notice the details in the painting - the battle raging outside the window.

         Remember whose side you are on this month, and who is on your side.

Our Body, God's Temple

            The book I’m reading on healthy aging devotes an entire chapter to stress and how it can harm our bodies.  We obviously can’t eliminate stress from our lives, but we can modify our stress response. 

            In the two years since my car accident, I’ve kind of taken up meditation.  I say “kind of” because I do it for awhile and then don’t. This morning, for example, I have a sick child home who was well enough to take the laser pointer and shine it on me to make the kittens pounce on me while I was meditating.  It’s hard to focus when that’s happening.

            I’m not talking about meditation in the middle-eastern Buddha sense. I mean mindfulness, where you sit quietly for about 15 minutes and focus on your breathing and the sensation of your body, like relaxing your shoulders. If any other thought comes into your mind, you are supposed to ignore it and go back to focusing on your breathing.  This simply gives me a few minutes of doing nothing, which is so rare in our culture and yet so healthy. Remember the days as a child when  you’d sit on your back porch step in the summer and play with a dandelion, just spending time blowing the seeds across the grass, and maybe watching a bug crawl across the sidewalk?  I imagine that’s close to meditating and some days in the summer I simply sit on our swing outside and watch the birds.

            But this active form of meditation, of making time to focus on your body and your breathing, has really helped me.  Once you capture the feeling of being that relaxed, it’s easy to take a few breaths during the day and recapture the feeling, throughout stressful moments.

            Stress is toxic to the neurons in our brains. It’s a major cause of heart disease, inflammatory disease, digestive disorders, headache and other ailments and chronic conditions.  It can make us tired, dizzy, and achy. Unchecked, it destroys our body.

            If Christ is in us, we need to take care of our bodies, inside and out. It’s a command.

            Here’s a sobering verse:

                        Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?

            If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.  1 Corinthians 3:17.

            What do you do to keep your “temple” healthy for God?

Beauty

       I'm working on myself this month both inside and out.
  I've joined a fitness club and am doing water aerobics and tai chi in the water. (Fun class!) I'm also reading Dr. Andrew Weil's book on Healthy Aging.

      Let's face it, we're all aging every day. It's interesting because his first few chapters are on ACCEPTING aging and the changes it brings to our body instead of fighting them.
       As for the "inside" I've given up being snarky with my hubby and kids, at least for Lent. I'd like to say I've given up getting mad at them, but it's more realistic to say I'm trying not to comment in a rude way when they I get irritated at them. :-)
        So....working on being more beautiful.  Glad I have the grace of God to help me out! :-)

Faithful Abandon!

An opportunity arose last week which I absolutely didn't have the funds for, although I knew I should do it.  "I can't afford that," was my instant response.  My heart told me different, though. So Monday morning I prayed about it and then opened my quiet time Bible study and the words that jumped out at me were "Why do you say 'I can't afford this or that when your Heavenly Father has all the riches of the world at your disposal?" Wow - that really spoke to me!  Oh me of little faith! So I said "Yes, I'll do it" and I've set up some fund-raising and am excitedly waiting the opportunity!  What a fun chance to watch God work!
       I know that in general I have to be sensible in my expenses and frugal with my budget, but there are times when I can throw all caution to the wind and let my awesome God shower me with blessings.  What a sense of excitement and freedom when I abandon myself to His will!

Valentine's Day Thoughts

  Most people equate Valentine's day with romance, but in fact St. Valentine was a priest who gave up his life for his belief, siding with Christian martyrs and finally being executed for his faith.  Not much is reliably known of him, but legend has it he healed his jailer's daughter of blindness and before his execution left her a note signed "From your Valentine".
    This week as I think of my Valentines, or the loves in my life, I want to remember to thank God for how richly I am blessed with them. I want to make sure they (friends, family) know how much I love them.
    And I want to remember St.Valentine, and all the other Christian martyrs past and present, who have died for their faith.

Wealthy Beyond Measure

   My 7-year-old son made me a cross out of Legos, and set it on my desk.
   "It's to remind you of Jesus," he said. "You can look at it and remember that he loves you."
    The Lego cross sits next to a jar of dried flowers. The flowers are from the various arrangements I received when my babies were born. When the arrangements dried out I kept a few of each to remind me of those special first few days with each of my boys.
     The cross sits on top of a wooden box, hand-painted by my mother. I use it to keep office supplies and small treasures in. Every time I use it I think of her.

      All I have to do is look at that little vignette on my desk, or look around my home, and I know how rich I already am. If I forget that, my little Lego cross can remind me that my life was paid for by a price.
      God has given me great riches.  Thank you, Jesus.

Secure in Who We Are

For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending or threatening nor things to come,nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us form the  love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

- Romans 8:38-39.

In my last post I wrote about women struggling with fear or low self-esteem.  Well, if we are in Christ and God's love is filling us up, NOTHING can take that away.  That's biblical. We have already won the battle, so why do we keep struggling? 

Do you struggle with anxiety? Low self-esteem? Let me know what you do to counter those feelings.  How do you find peace?

God's Love

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishent. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. - 1 John 4:18

I attended a Beth Moore Bible study class the other night and they were studying God's love.  Moore said that God's love is perfect and to be filled with God's love means that there isn't room in us for low self-esteem or fear.  Perfect love casts out fear.  But how do we fill up on God's love?  Is it a matter of will?  Or of sin? Or of letting go?  Perhaps it's simply a matter of knowing.  Knowing who we are in Christ and gleaning our security from that sacred place of grace.

Resolutions? Nope - it's More of a To-Do List!

     I have taken on the task of being princess of my castle.
     I usually work at my writing job quite a few hours per week but I've realized we are drowning in clutter and disorganization and perhaps for a short while my time would be better spent bailing us out.   So I've made a check-list of things I want to do to help my family. (These are NOT New Year Resolutions. Been there, done that.)

         1) De-clutter the house.  This is harder than you might think. I've found I have an emotional attachment to certain "things" and that makes it difficult to part with them. But... I gave eight garbage bags of clothes to charity and transformed one of my closets into a new work space. What do you think?
         2) Make a meal plan.  I used to do this, coupled with a weekly grocery list.  I've re-started by making a meal plan for the month of January and actually put together several meals and froze them.  I feel AWESOME about that!
          3) Get our finances in order.  We've always worked off of a budget, but I'm thinking of getting one of those fancy computer programs that tracks your every dollar.  ( I have to be diligent about entering all my expenses.  Am I expecting too much from myself?)  What programs do you like best?
          Empowered by the King of Kings, and a whole lot of prayer (will you pray for me 'cause I need it!) , I strive to be a more organized and calmer woman by the end of the year!