Beauty from Ashes - A Continual Process

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...

I remember the white bunk bed, I got top bunk because I was the oldest.  My little sis would ask me to hang down my arm and hold her hand until she went to sleep.  We had a code knock with our brother who was in the next room.  3 knocks for "I love you,"  and one final knock for "goodnight."  That's a picture I'll always hold onto.  I loved that time of the day.  Sometimes we would all get the giggles and not be able to stop.  It's still fun to get the giggles.  It's so rare as adults, but so fun when you collapse on the floor, tears streaming down, laughing so hard you can't breathe!  For a moment we let ourselves be little kids again. Well, that little girl in me would crawl up into that cozy spot and say my prayers.  I would confess my sins to God.  Then I would lie there in bed,  restless, until finally I had to get up and go confess my sins to my parents.  They didn't tell me to do this, I just didn't believe G...

This is just going to be a short ramble about safety.  I don't claim to have the answers, but I do claim to ramble!  But, if you've struggle with fear for a good portion of your life like me, than the topic of  safety is important to you!  Is that a person with whom I can safely share my struggle?  Is that a group with whom I can safely hang out and be real?  Is is safe for me to share what's on my mind?  Or on a different note, is that a place where I'll be physically safe living?  Is it safe anywhere?? The only safe place to be is in the center of God's will .  That is why it is super comforting to pray this verse, as Paul prayed it for the church in Colossae: "we have not stopped praying for you.  We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will  through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,"  Colossians 1:9a It is far more dangerous to stay tucked away behind locked doors, than to l...

This post title is from 2 Corinthians 12:10.  God's Word is full of pictures to help us with this.  So many words about light and water in the WORD !  The Bible starts with "Let there be light !"  Throughout the Bible God is referred to as the "fountain of living water ."  So many stories about the power of water:  Noah, Jonah, the fishermen/disciples, etc.  I just get so excited when I sense a theme coming at me from God in a variety of directions.  I started out this year listening to Oceans by Hillsong, knowing that I would be "letting go" in so many areas of my life this year.  I have a picture of a flowering vine my friend gave to me last year the day Kristen left for college.  She said, this vine will grow and be a picture for you over the years of Kristen's bond with you growing as she continues to grow in other places.  It was a seedling last August, and now it covers my mailbox!  And let me just say, God has taken o...

I have a million things to do today, I need to catch up on everything!   And at the same time, I need to surrender and not control.   Catching up like a “mad woman” is a sign of   a “control freak” day for me. Guess what’s way more beautiful than control of duties?   Surrender to time with God , and to relationship with others!   I had the most beautiful time this morning with one of my precious friends who is moving off to college soon.   What could be more beautiful than that Divine appointment?   Nothing!   I was so blessed, thank you Lord! We all have situations in life that are beyond our control.  Control has been a big thing for me.  If I can control my surroundings, I think I will be better off.  But I have learned, and continue to learn over the years to surrender my control to HIM.  This pile you see, will not control me today, by His grace!   I’ve described this before, but Fibromyalgia is a ...

If only we could grasp this, we are LOVED more than we can ever comprehend!!  By the MAKER of the universe!!  I've been collecting these blessed passages for years...they MUST be precious morsels of every morning! Changes everything!  Ephesians 3:17-19 "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." More on this to come! Leeland Sweet Communion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLZ_JvnrKEw

My mantra for the year has been "and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it."  John 1:5.  I've seen it's application more than a hundred times this year, most recently in Honduras.  I saw the light in the dark places.  I saw it in the body of Christ serving and being Jesus to the least of these.  I saw it in an orphanage that left me aching to the bone for children.  I saw it when I saw precious Christian Honduran women telling Bible stories and singing about the love of Jesus with the children.  Their precious bodies, vessels carrying Christ, light, to little ones.  "Christ in us, the hope of glory."  Colossians 1:27.  Sparrow Mission teams visit there often, but the Lord allowed me see that He is there, in those ladies every day.  Light. In. The. Darkness. Why was I born here, and they were born there?  I used to have a lot of questions like this.  When I was in depression, I felt guilty ...