Beauty from Ashes - A Continual Process

gives us true hope. We don’t have to have life figured out. We can’t figure it out.  We can find comfort in just breathing the next breath as a gift.  And then the next... I’ve recently been learning to build strength in my body and manage fibromyalgia through yoga.  This practice reminds me of the truth God taught me a long time ago...live in this very moment, live in the presence of our amazing God - right now.   One way we can be present with Him is to soak in His love letter to us.  That's what I'm sharing today, His Words to our hearts. I'm not sharing my specifics of my story today, only enough to say, God does redeem all the hard...and will be redeeming the hard until heaven. I know that each of us have a story.  My hope is to encourage you today. He is faithful to turn many sorrows into many strengths, each time building our faith muscle.  The strength often comes slowly.  Just like the muscles we b...

The sun is shining in Kentucky this Labor Day weekend.  But it doesn't feel like it to some.  Do you see them?  Are you that person? "Do you know someone who needs encouraging in their faith today?"   The reply  of  the unknown reader was "yes, me."    I froze for a moment. I have been there, have you?  That place where you can't encourage your own heart?  You are too numb to think.  You pray to God, you read His Word, you listen to worship, and yet it's so dark.  You're screaming, but it's silent..., you feel no one would want to hear it. It's just not true.  We care, there is someone ready to listen.  We are meant to be here for each other, to help share the load, better yet, to shift the load to God's shoulders. "Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.   But exhort one another every day, as long as it is...

It was 6 am Monday morning, May 20, 2019.  Steve and I were quietly sitting at the kitchen table, candle lit, Bibles opened.  We each read different passages so we are together, but not reading out loud. It is peacefully silent, apart from the burning wick.  It's been a gift to sit by this man and meet with Jesus side by side in the quiet of the mornings. On this particular morning, 3 weeks ago, Steve's sister called us at 6 am.  We both knew before he answered.  Steve's mom had gone ahead of us to be with Jesus.  By God's grace, she went quietly in her sleep in her own bed.  I had prayed for her peaceful release from earth, but honestly, I did not have full faith when I prayed for that.  It could not have been more peaceful. We were instantly in planning mode.  We had had our bags packed for 3 months because of many last minute medical trips.  But ironically, we were not packed that morning.  For all the planning, you a...

God doesn't love us because of what we do.  He loves us because we are His - and that's all!  So if you feel like your emotions are not measuring up to God's standards today, remember that God is not measuring you , or measuring out His love for you.   I don't know about you, but looking up to my loving Father instead of looking out at "how am I handling things" brings such freedom.  Just be His, and He will do the rest.  Feel the joy, feel the pain, feel the fear, feel the safety.  If you are His, it doesn't change a thing.  But clinging to His Word is what can change us! By staying in His Word, the truths go deeper and deeper for those days when we feel shallow... "The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it." 1 Thessalonians 5:24 Being a child of God, and truly understanding it can be two different things.  Looking back over the years I can see how God has been building my faith to know that I am His...