Beauty from Ashes - A Continual Process

December 1, 2014   Here Again?! I marvel at what the Lord laid on my heart a year ago when our son Josh tore his right ACL during the 4th basketball game of the season. It ministers to me now, this day, December 1, 2014. Why?  Because Josh tore his left ACL last week, November 25, 2014, the fourth game of the new season! He worked so hard to get to this season. 6-9 months of rehabilitation. He could not wait to play and be with his friends on the court again. As my head says GRACE, my heart says THIS HURTS.  It's felt deeply on every level, physically, emotionally, and in a sweet way, spiritually. That’s what we count on. His grace is sufficient when our hearts hurt. I can’t say it any better this year than I did last year. But last year I was not blogging. I was just writing in my journal. I feel it is worth sharing now. I knew then, and I know now that "oceans" deep are where our faith grows.  I've made a concerted effort to meditate on John 1...

The thing about life is that you keep learning.  You keep taking the things you've already learned to a deeper level...it never stops.  In order for deep learning, God will take you deep.  His truths will grow deeper roots in your soul.  There is a theme of "deepness" that is the beautiful coming out of the ashes.  Isaiah 61:3  I often write about learning through the hard things.   But I need to clarify that I don't camp in those hard places.  But I've tasted of them and of HIM.  If that brings hope to just one person to God be the glory!  If you can't relate to the struggles common with anxiety, maybe you will be able to understand someone in your life who has those struggles.  We are all different parts of the body working together. The monumental shift in my life came in my mid 30's.  God did soul surgery at the deepest level.  I came out of that season on a mountain top!  I had clung to so much Scripture for ...

Psalm 51 has four precious sections to my soul.  God blessed me with this chapter many years ago.  I've been refreshed by it this morning.  One, our sins are always before us as David said, but they do not have to hold us captive.  Two, our sins are against God alone.  Three, we can pray for a clean heart and for His Spirit to revive us.  And four, we can praise even in the hard times.  Grace alone makes all this possible. I struggled with self-condemnation for many years.  I've shared in the past how I could not really believe I was forgiven.  I knew it in my head but my heart was restless.  I knew the passage, "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."  This did not bring relief to my spirit.  I prayed over this for a long time as God began to do a healing work in me.  I often pray "Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner."  But I pray out loud, "I receive your forgivene...

Not all can identify with me on this.  I'm just throwing it out there for anyone who can.  I write about everything big and small because God refreshes me as I write.  My hope is that He will refresh you with truth as well.  I also hope that you can laugh a little at this, because I can!  This is not about a major illness.   But I share it for the ones who feel alone in their big fears about small stuff.   This is about a default response to ANY visit to ANY doctor for ANY reason.  It could just be a sore throat!  I have "old tapes" that God is still re-defining in my mind .  But first, here is what I'm talking about. Today I sat in the chair in the doctor's office waiting for my turn.  The nurse had already come in and chit chatted and knocked my nerves down from a #10 to a #5.  (Here's a plug for nurses - I love you!  You walk into the room first and assess the situation, the ME!  You speak gentle words, you smil...

Waves.  The ocean.  Ever been out just enjoying the swell and role of the water out beyond where the waves crash in?  Then all at once you find yourself rolled up in one of those waves, your spinning, salt water is going up your nose, your cheek scrapes on the sand below,  your swim suit gets all twirled around as you are tossed up onto the beach!  You spend a minute quickly collecting yourself, fixing your suit, wiping your eyes, and trying not to stumble as you toss your hair.  You catch your breath and try to act like nothing happened.  As you walk towards the beach, the slowed wave sweeps on ahead of you onto the beautiful white sand and begins to trickle back out to sea.  The foam flowing backwards is now quiet.  It tickles your toes.  In a moment you've gone from a fast, furious tumble to the peace of the ocean salt air breeze and sounds of surf.   What just happened?  For a while you felt peace out beyond where your f...

This morning I was welcomed into the day with one of my favorite Psalms.   Psalm 16 says, "1  Keep me safe, O God.  For in You I take refuge..."   5-6 "Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; You have made my lot secure.  The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, surely I have a delightful inheritance..."  7 "I will praise the Lord, Who counsels me;  even at night my heart instructs me.  Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken." I just want to praise Jesus today!  I want to thank Him for all that He is!  I want to thank Him for all that He created!  I want to thank Him for my family!  I want to thank Him for the trials and the lessons of love.  God's story in my life follows the pattern set in Psalm 40. I think that's true for a lot of us.  That's why David is so relatable!  David talks about the healing God had brought him, and how he was willing to share it with everyon...

I fell in love with the Hillsong song Oceans a year ago.  I knew it would be a year of great change, and I knew every time I sang along I had to mean what I said as I sang “your grace abounds in deepest waters, your sovereign hand will be my guide…so I will call upon your name…my soul will rest in your embrace for I am yours and you are mine…Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders…take me deeper than my feet could ever wander, and my faith would be made stronger in the presence of my Savior.”   I sang it with great anticipation, a desire to grow in faith, and I knew that it would cost me something.  The things that I thought would be big were met with abundant grace.   Seeing our firstborn off to college, letting her go to Honduras a third and fourth time, and going to Honduras to embrace her calling, all met with a supernatural peace.   It was not easy, but there was peace.   Watching our son tear his ACL, and walking alongside h...

Last night in Girl’s Group, a group of high school girls who meet in our home , our lesson 2 helped us process 6 ways that we minimize sin or struggles i n our lives.    We are studying  The Gospel-Centered Life  by Robert H. Thune and Will Walker.  I love this book !  I am learning great things as I prepare for our group time.  But I was not looking for ways that I "pretend."  I was immediately interested and open, but looking?  No.  I often pray for a teachable heart for my family, myself especially!  So I was primed for a "teachable" moment!  I want to insert right here that I am just a Christian, rising and falling and testifying to the miraculous grace in my life.   If I encourage just one person that there is hope in Christ, then glory to God, because it sure isn’t about   having it all together.   It’s about God having it all together and sharing Jesus with us.   Proverbs 24: 16 says, “ for thoug...