Strengthen what Remains...

Every day is a day of pondering for me, but I find myself often reflecting harder and deeper as the dusky sky gives way to inky blackness over the last days of a year. What have I done with the year God gave me? Is what I have done going to be something that lasts? Have I grown in my walk with Jesus? Have I walked in the design I am created to walk in?

The other day, I was going through some discouragement and the devil was trying to tell me that my prayers go unanswered. I was not ready to fall for that and in a surge of 'anti enemy' one evening, I decided to get out my journals from the past five years (there are 10. Guess I must have had alot to say, huh?!) and see what God has been up to. I was not prepared for the HUGE encouragement I found from the first month I read! So many answered prayers, so many positive things to reflect on, things that were a real struggle/burden at the time I wrote my supplications to God and today, I see the fruit of those prayers. I was thoroughly amazed and awed at the hand of God I saw as I read. With renewed zeal, fresh courage and great reverence to God, I rise to continue in the things which I have learned and to strengthen what remains.

I read this quote this morning that really inspired me:

"As we leave 2013, these words are echoing in my heart ... 

"Nothing is wasted. You work all things for good. Nothing is wasted. Your promise remains. Forever you remain. You are loving. You are wise. There is nothing in my life you cannot revive."

Last night, Francis Chan preached and as he said the words, " strengthen what remains and is about to die", tears fell. So much "hard" this past year in so many ways .... But He is what remains in us. Strengthen what remai...ns this upcoming year ....by more time in the Bible, more prayer and worship, and more gathering with the saints. Another friend once told me, "your distraction becomes your traction" (what slows you down). What needs to go this year? Do it. Strengthen what remains. I am talking to myself here too .... Some things need to go and/or change. 

Change comes through surrender and exchange. Will we trust him to do as He has promised?"

Strengthen what remains, my friends. Get up and move forward in the things that are yours to do. Be who you are created to be whether a daughter, wife, mother, sister in Christ, part of the Body of Christ. Don't sit around waiting for all to be perfect and 'right' in your life before you get up and be the change you wish to see in the world and before you rise up and be all that He created you to be. If you wait, it will never happen because nothing in this old, sinful world is perfect. And what a waste of a life that will have been.

Strengthen what remains. If it keeps you from being fully alive in Him, then get rid of it, whatever it is (love of the world, love of 'me', selfish ambitions, unfulfilled dreams that I pine away over, hurt that I keep from wrongs done against me because I keep reliving it instead of forgiving and letting it fade away, false teaching I have from books that I may be reading, you fill in the blanks...all the ones I listed are things I have had to deal with and throw out of my life so that I could keep going forward in HIM; I have not regretted anything I have exchanged for real LIFE...not once).

Strengthen what remains, He says in Revelation 3:2. The next verse tells us:

"Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, 

and hold fast, and repent. 

If therefore thou shalt not watch,

 I will come on thee as a thief,

 and thou shalt not know what hour I will come 

upon thee."

My times are in His hands.

 The shadows of the evening hours of time 

draw long over the lands. 

He is coming soon. Hallelujah! 

But oh, I want to strengthen what remains. 

I want to:

love Jesus more

cast my lot wholly and completely with Him

turn from anything that will not make 

me love Him more

listen for His voice and promptly follow

strengthen what remains

because I want Rev. 3:5 to be my story when 

it is all said and done:

"(S)He that overcometh,

 the same shall be clothed in white raiment;

 and I will not blot out h(er) name out of the book of life,

 but I will confess h(er) name before my Father,

 and before his angels."

Jesus is all the world to me.

I hope He is to you, too.

Happy 2014, dear friends.

A Tribute to Jesus...

A friend sent me a card recently that had these words

 on its front:

JESUS

"The Answer to all our questions

The Yes to all God's promises,

The Amen to all our prayers,

He is the Giver of all our blessings,

the Forgiver of all our sins,

the Savior of all who trust in Him."

I was so blessed by these

simple, yet very profound

and deep truths.

He is...

everything of any eternal value...

Blessings to all,

Marcia

Comfort Food for Thought...

You will be my people, and I will be your God.”

Jer. 30:22

No more comforting food for thought for me tonite than this!

How amazing is this,

that He, the Creator of all things,

would be my God?

Me,

who outside of His 

amazing grace

and

sustaining power

am unable to even 

bring Him glory?

That is powerful.

And I am so blessed.

Happy winter days, dear friends.

May the joy of the Lord be your strength.

~Marcia

PS

On another note, a friend suggested yesterday

that she and I trade 

'thanksgiving notes' daily this week.

I rather liked the idea and

already am really finding much to

notice and thank God for/about.

I leave you with the challenge as well.

If you want to drop me a note,

email me (courage225@juno.com)

I will try to post a list on Thursday this week

of what I have been finding to thank God

for this week.

In Psalms and Hymns...

Complete in Thee

As I heard the words of this beautiful song tonite,

I was struck with the thought anew of the

WHOLENESS we can have in Christ.

He is truly everything. 

The answer to it all...

And I was struck with the huge realization again

that He can only be that wholeness.

No one else can be perfectly complete for me.

I cannot be perfect wholeness for anyone on this earth.

I can be hands and feet for Him

but I cannot be who He only can be in anyone's life.

Others certainly are hands and feet for Him to me,

but they cannot ever be who only HE can be to me.

There is liberty in this realization.

Total freedom to be in Him and for Him

who He has called me to be.

My All in All..

Jesus said

"I am come to give them life,

and life more abundant."

If Jesus came to give us abundant

life, then it surely must

mean that we can

"run through and leap over"

(Psalm 18:28)

every obstacle

on the giant obstacle course

of life.

Living the abundant life

Jesus came to give

surely means that even now, 

on this side of eternity, we can live

 life with joyful abandon

no matter how many disappointments we have

from those who once walked with us in Truth

or over those who presented Truth outwardly but did

not know Him truly...

This abundant life means that we have all the Power needed

to remain calm and count our blessings in the midst 

of a trying morning where you are tired and your

scholar boy isn't having the desire needed to be 

industrious...

or when you are stunned by someone's blatant

disregard for the precious simplicity that is in Christ,

trading it up for a more complicated doctrine

laced with falsehood and denying the one,

True God you love and adore...

or when squabbling over non~essentials

is more important than serving one another...

(fill in the blank if I missed something!)

This abundant life must mean that we can keep our opinions

to ourselves if they are not edifying or are selfish.

This abundant life must mean that we can communicate 

with others without hurling accusations and rude remarks

and that we are swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger.

This abundant life must mean, then, that God's children who truly

know the Lord Jesus Christ will make every effort to follow

the Jesus they profess...

obeying Him every single day, consistently.

This abundant life means that daughters and sons are

wanted and nurtured and raised up in the Lord.

This abundant life means that we lay down our lives for our friends.

No pride of will or lust of station allowed to pass through from 

temptation to thought and action.

The reason this is so is because

JESUS is 

who He says He is and 

does what He says He will do.

Life is so not about me.

It is about Him.

So therefore, nothing my old flesh feels

is of any value when put up against

the new life of Christ,

the one that denies me and says

YES to bringing Him glory.

The abundant life, with the rivers of living water

flowing out of our innermost beings

simply cannot be reality for us if

we hold onto what He asked us to give away...

It cannot happen in our life if we

refuse to truly commit ourselves wholly to Him.

Just suppose that all the bad things 

you ever experienced

in your life:

parental neglect, sexual abuse, the brunt of mockery,

falsely accused, misunderstood, demeaned in any way,

gossiped about, rudely spoken to, beaten, slapped around

by those who were supposed to be there to nurture you,

orphaned and neglected by society, etc

can be used for good if you love God and 
can bring Him glory if we commit ourselves wholly to Him?

Just suppose we deny Him that glory by refusing to believe His

promises and by refusing to give ourselves wholly over to Him?

We miss out.

But He misses out even more.

As for me, I have not regretted for one minute

the choice I made to give myself 
wholly to Him.

And the more I give Him,
 the more contented and trusting 

I become, willing to sorrow for what is unrighteous and lost

but serene and standing firmly on Christ, the solid Rock.

Arise, then and live that abundant LIFE...

What fire would stir in both our own hearts

and spread to others whose hearts also need to be stirred.

The beginning of the verse I quoted
 from John 10

says that the enemy comes
seeking to kill, steal and destroy...

To be wary of that enemy every single day,

to hide under the shadow of the wings
of the Almighty

and to choose Jesus every day is to 

defy that enemy and to deny the flesh that naturally

serves the enemy.

What lies we let the enemy tell us...

Lies like

helping us to fear that we will lose our true self

if we give ourselves completely to Him.

Lies that help us to stay stuck

because we don't believe that He has

abundant life for us,

only hardship and dullness.

THIS IS NOT TRUE!

Life in Christ is never ever dull.

It is beautiful,

peaceful,

and full of light,

to say the least!

I know that I need to climb still higher in this

abundant living,

being changed from glory to glory

as I walk thru this dark, old sinful world

on my way Home.

And as I told someone recently,

I am determined to live my life for Jesus

with purpose

intensely

and no matter what obstacles I face.

He is worthy...

In Christ Alone

Thanksgiving on Thursday...

Memories came flooding back to me when i saw this on a friend's Facebook page today.

I was 15 years old and a mess...

Deeply distressed about life and hypocrisy,

I went to some friends and asked life questions.

The couple was concerned for me and interested in my situation,

two qualities I had never experienced to that degree.

The brother had prepared some Scriptures for me,

one of which was this one.

At 15, heart torn apart by grief and questions,

confused, scared, angry and alone,

that was probably the best thing he could have done:

point me to the One who has my life planned and

in whose capable hands I could trust.

It would be another 10 years until I knew in my heart 

the One who never changes,

but to this day, I am deeply thankful that

someone cared.

Today I am deeply grateful for the people

God used in my life to bring me

to Himself.

Thank you,

A and J 

for being kind to me

and for being willing to be

 fools for Christ

and have your reputation ruined for

a young woman who needed help.

Inspired by Ephesians...part 1

I've been thoroughly enjoying Ephesians the past few months...so much practical teaching that God took the time to preserve even to this generation...so much help for me as I walk this journey Homeward, with all its shadowed, rocky trails and its many voices crying to be heard and heeded.

Eph. 1: 7-13 really struck a chord in my heart the day I came across them.

"In Him we have redemption (deliverance and salvation) through His blood,

 the remission (forgiveness) of our offenses 

(shortcomings and trespasses), 

in accordance with the

 riches and the generosity of His gracious favor,

Which He lavished upon us in every kind of 

wisdom and understanding (practical insight and prudence),

Making known to us the mystery (secret) of His will 

(of His plan, of His purpose).

 [And it is this:] In accordance with His good pleasure

 (His merciful intention) 

which He had previously purposed and set forth in [c]Him,

[He planned] for the maturity of the times and the climax of the ages

 to unify all things and head them up and 

consummate them in Christ,

 [both] things in heaven and things on the earth.

In Him we also were made [God’s] heritage (portion) 

and we obtained an inheritance; 

for we had been foreordained (chosen and appointed beforehand) 

in accordance with His purpose, 

Who works out everything in agreement with the 

counsel and design of His [own] will,

So that we who first hoped in Christ 

[who first put our confidence in Him have been 

destined and appointed to]

 live for the praise of His glory!

 In Him you also who have heard the Word of Truth, 

the glad tidings (Gospel) of your salvation, 

and have believed inand adhered to and relied on Him, 

were stamped with the seal of the long-promised Holy Spirit."

My heart fairly leaped at those words! You see, I am just simple enough to believe that if God tells me that if I follow Him and that He sent Jesus to be new life for me so that I could reflect Him for His glory, and if He tells me that if I am one of Christ's then I also stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit...then I believe it! And I also am simple enough to believe at face value the promise that he LAVISHES on us every kind of wisdom and understanding (practical insight and prudence), so that we can know the mystery of His will which simply is to unify things in Christ...

Then i thought of the worn out excuses I have heard from many corners of my world... 

"You have not been (fill in the blank: adopted/abused/wronged/robbed, etc) like I have and therefore you really cannot help me/counsel me/tell me God's plan for me in this." Or "You have not had the training to counsel others so I really don't think you qualify to speak to me about my (fill in the blank)."

Oh really? Go your way, then, my friend but according to my Bible, those who are in Christ, He intends to equip with the Holy Spirit so that they may be LAVISHLY bestowed with wisdom and understanding...

It comforted me to read this again. You see, I am simple enough to also believe that the Great Commission is for every single one who becomes a disciple of Jesus Christ. It is my responsibility to tell the Good News that He lives both by my words and by my life. It is also my responsibility to help those who come by Him to me to observe ALL things whatsoever He commanded...balanced in all things by Jesus Christ Himself.

I am a huge fan of the simple. I believe that some of the apostles were ignorant and unlearned men (according to Acts 4:13) and yet they were used of God to bring thousands to repentant faith in the Lord Jesus. So I am just simple enough to believe that I, a housewife in the quietness of my home, need only the qualification of the Holy Spirit poured out on me after I choose repentant faith in the Son of God, to help me fulfill the Great Commission in my small allotment of time in the corner of the Kingdom He has placed me, but ultimately affecting GENERATIONS.

My children are a mission field. My neighbors. And friends. All around me is a huge mission field, with fields waiting for weeping over, praying for, loving and reaping. 

I look back over my life and wonder what it would be like today if I had not chosen to heed the counsel of a simple Farmer husband and simple housewife sisters whose hearts burned with the fire of the Holy Spirit. What would have happened, I wonder, if I would have used the excuse: "Oh, but you don't know what it's like, what I have to deal with, because you never experienced what I did..." (and it's true. They had not experienced what I had...but they know Jesus and could share with me based on who He is and what He says...which is what I needed more than for them to have actually experienced what I did).

I find it fascinating that God uses people to accomplish His purposes. I think that part of it must be to keep us humble, both as the helper and as the one needing assistance! It is true that those who have helped me have their own share of shortcomings but somehow, I urge us to look beyond the clay that makes up the person on earth and see the Divine...the touch of God in their lives, as they are true followers of Christ. I think He gets alot of glory from turning vessels of clay into vessels of eternal usefulness when filled with the Light of life.

Counsel does come sometimes from those who have some seeming glaring character flaws. Am I willing to hear what they have to say, then take it to the Lord for direction, thankful that they are committed to Christ and to climbing the Golden Heights as He calls them to do it ? Do I realize that not everything about me is perfect and yet, He calls me, a woman still being changed from glory to glory, to share with others the blessedness of His counsel? 

Be encouraged with me, friends, that if we are following Christ, we CAN know and understand and pass it on...Let us do just that, growing in His grace and knowledge so that we can give others the blessing of simple, Gospel truth along the way...humbly because He gave us anything and everything we have to offer!

Oh, and by the way, in case I was in doubt when I was pondering all this, I had some confirmation further on in the chapter:

"[For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

the Father of glory, that He may grant you a 

spirit of wisdom and revelation 

[of insight into mysteries and secrets]

 in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him,

By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, 

so that you can know and understand the hope 

to which He has called you, 

and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints

 (His set-apart ones),

And [so that you can know and understand] 

what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness 

of His power in and for us who believe, 

as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength..."

(Eph 1:15-19)

That sure left me without any doubt that if I am called to do the

work of the Lord, that I will be equipped and able through Him

to handle anything that comes my way.

God bless.

~Marcia

The Call of the Reapers

PS

Just to be clear...I am thankful that God is a God of patience and mercy...I look back over my life and wish I had listened to the wisdom of my parents and other older people in my life at the time it was given, but I had a huge chunk of pride that God needed to deal with. I am thankful that He is a God of second chances!

Bless the Lord, oh My Soul...

I love how God moves in mysterious ways...His wonders to perform. Putting the right people in my life at critical times, taking me through the wilderness and pruning times when He sees it is time, and letting me read books to make me reflect on where He's brought me from and where I might have been had He not 'struck me down on the road to Damascus' and brought me under His arrest that day 12 1/2 years ago.

That was my day yesterday. I had heard of the book "Trust or Control" by Dorcas Stutzman but as of yesterday had not read it. For 'some reason' yesterday was the day to buy a Kindle edition of it and oh my, I could hardly put it down! I read between classes in school with my children, I read it instead of taking a nap  yesterday, and I read it while waiting for a friend at the airport last night.

This book is an honest and much-needed look at women being in the design God created especially for them with a clear and honest heart cry for women to depart from living the sinful 'out of order' nature we inherited from Eve and put on the new life of Jesus Christ which makes us able to fulfill with joy the purpose God has for us: to love and bless our husbands and be true helpers to them.

As I read, I did much reflecting...

12 1/2 years ago, when I got born again at age 25, I had already been married 5 years. I was devastated from many hurtful things that had happened in my childhood, and in looking back, very unprepared for marriage. When the eyes of my understanding became enlightened, I was horrified to know that I was a woman tearing down her house instead of building it up and I went in repentance to God and to my husband.

Ever since that time, God has been showing me how to be a godly wife. On wobbly feet at first, being a brand new Christian, but as time goes on, with much steadier step in tune with Him I go. My personal testimony is that it is WORTH all the dying and the laying aside of my own will to adopt His. It is worth all the thought that we can put into our marriage relationships.

It took a number of years to build what I had torn down in my marriage. (I am married to a very loyal, and kind man! However, there is a reaping that comes when a relationship is destroyed by anger, pride, and selfishness and rebuilding can sometimes take awhile.) Now, I am reaping the benefits of laboring to build my house. Though I do not deserve mercy, I have been given much! The heart of my husband does safely trust in me. There is a comfort and a security in knowing that our marriage is blessed by God because we are living His design for it!


Reading Dorcas' book gave me a good nudge to pause and take stock of where I am in this whole wife thing. And to soberly ponder what my home would look like if I had continued the path I was on before I started over and chose the right one. I am not perfect but being perfected daily by the hand of One who never changes nor ever stops calling for me to come higher with Him.

Life is not perfect. No marriage on earth will ever be without its temptations to stoop to the lowlands of petty pride and disorder. BUT...I am here to shout it from the rooftops that JESUS makes the way clear and He makes it possible to live in the highland meadows of love and peace always...

Wives, read this book for a good refresher course, or a wake up call, whichever is needed. I strongly urge us to be an example of the believers in our marriages, so that GENERATIONS may be blessed by it. Our daughters~and our sons, too~ need to find the comfort of a godly mother. Our husbands need good helpers and friends in their wives. Satan is walking about seeking whom he may devour.

God has work for our husbands and children to do. Why would we mess with that calling by tearing down our homes and causing them to spiral into sorrows they would not need to deal with if they were in homes that are being nurtured and built up in Him?

Bless the Lord, oh my soul! I will forever be grateful for that Damascus road happening in my life that brought me to the highlands by His mercy and grace. I am so very thankful for the forgiveness of my husband and that he still let me in after all the times I have wronged him. I am so thankful that God brought me under His arrest when my daughters were still very young so that I could have more time to be an example of godly womanhood to them. What mercy, what tremendous mercy!

Bless His Holy name...

Love,
Marcia

Ten Thousand Reasons

Gracious Words...

Some of us have more problems than others when it comes to letting our speech be gracious...yes, I have been guilty as charged of this many times in my short little life! The past few years, I have especially asked the Lord to grow me in gentleness, especially when dealing with fatigue (as I did for many years!) and the 'against the flesh' moments that come when raising children.

This morning, we ladies in the household were discussing with a visiting friend the differences between personalities in sisters and how to learn to blend them and appreciate each others differences. My daughters got to talking of their younger days when one would be feeling blue about life and the 'unfair treatment from Mom' while the other one (much more practical of mind and not as prone to emotional outbursts) would, in her sister's words, very practically shoot each 'unfair' complaint down one by one til there was nothing left to complain about. :-)

This discussion led to how some of us are more 'public' with our emotions than others and have trouble with 'flying off the handle' sooner than others. One of my daughters, who has been told different times that 'flying off the handle' is not acceptable for consistent expression in our home (praise God for victory both for her and for me as we grow in this area!), shared that she puzzles over where that expression came into being, and that in younger years she would try to envision herself in a frying pan circling round and round faster and faster til finally she flew off the handle. :-)

So I decided to 'google it' and found a fascinating bit of history for the expression:

"fly off the handle
-An Americanism that goes back to our pioneer days when axes were most often handmade, frontiersman whittling their own handles and attaching ax-heads that had been shipped from the industrialized East coast. Because they were often crudely fitted together, ax-heads were known to fly off the handle while being used, often resulting in injuries to the user or those near-by. The suddenness of an ax-head being flung off - and the resulting trouble it caused - naturally suggests a sudden, wild outburst of anger, the loss of self-control, or losing one's cool, all with a possible threat of harm. The expression is first recorded in John Neal's 1825 novel Brother Jonathan; or the New Englanders as off the handle. It was not recorded in its modern form, fly off the handle, until 1844 when it was used in one of the Canadian Thomas Haliburton's Sam Slick tales. The character of Sam Slick is a Yankee who expressed his often satirical views of human nature and national relations in a newspaper column in the Novascotian."

 

So, we concluded that just as an ax head flying off its handle would injure whoever was the unfortunate recipient of its destination, so our harsh and quick-tempered words can wound the heart of their target.

 

"Let the words of my mouth,

and the meditation of my heart

be acceptable in Thy sight,

oh Lord,

my strength and my Redeemer."

I have always found it helpful to remind myself and my children

through Scripture

when we are struggling with character flaws and sins that

need Jesus. The verse above has been oft used in helping us in

our home to be mindful of the words that we speak,

and that before they are ever spoken, they are formed

from the thoughts we think.

 

Jesus said,

"As a man thinks in his heart, so is he."

If I allow myself to consistently think selfishly,

then I will speak selfishly flavored words.

If I allow myself to be disciplined and think unselfish,

servant thoughts,

then those thoughts
 will be reflected in my speech.

 

I have needed to ask God again and again for

the spirit of awareness that helps me to be

alert to danger in this department of speech.

I find that when I am living with my priorities in the right order

for me and the tasks I have been given,

then I can remain calm and speak kindly to my family.

 

But when I am busy, doing a half dozen good things

but not in the right order,

then I get restless in my heart and troubled in my spirit

and flighty in action and words do not come gently.

 

If we are to be as Paul admonishes in Col. 4:6,

"Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt,

 that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man,"

then we need to pray much, follow hard after the Master Teacher,

and be as James tells us in James 1:19:

"my beloved brethren,

let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:

For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God."

 

 

Our families need to know Jesus.

Do they hear Him in our speech?

 

I was blessed and challenged by the conversation
at my house this morning.

Thought I would share the challenge with you.

God bless.

~Marcia



When All Around My Soul Gives Way...

...He then is ALL my hope and stay!

The reality of life sometimes rises so dark and looming, threatening to squeeze the very Life out of my heart...I stood recently at the edge of a great abyss, the blackness of that hole yawning and clutching at my very feet to pull me down into its bottomless emptiness. So many people not living God's design for their lives, creating ripples that spread to GENERATIONS, causing heartache, division, reaction, trouble, sorrow, bitterness and confusion. So many generations rising up without clear vision of that design, so perfectly designed by the Creator of us all. So many children, growing up without clear direction, or only knowing selfishness from parents who are either abusive or passive. So many...

So many churches falling apart. So many people falling away from the Truth. Just like the Bible says.
So many being told lies, mixed religion that does not honor Christ Jesus in His simplicity.

I have heard their cries. I have been among the criers. I have sat beside those who wept from the exhaustion of it all and could not even pray...I have received emails, phone calls, texts and letters from those seeking answers.

And sometimes it just gets the better of me. And I need to take a few days or weeks to process it all.

Which is what happened to me recently. I stood at the edge of that pit and I could literally see the darkness stretching up its long fingers to pull me down into it. I could feel the weariness lapping at my spirit and weighing me down into what most assuredly would have the ability to keep me confined to my bed many days...

But God is faithful. Here are some thoughts He brought to me during this time and I just want to share them with you, knowing full well that many of you may be struggling too.

1. The battle is the Lord's. I am most assuredly made of dust. I am but a vessel for Him to bring compassion, hope and mercy to the multitudes. But the power and the battle is HIS. Not mine. I do not have to make the wrongs right. I do not have to fix the problems. I only need to point them to Him who never changes.
2. Discouragement renders a soldier of the Cross powerless. The enemy doesn't care how he disempowers a soldier. He just cares that he accomplishes it. There is a subtle line between acknowledging the darkness but not being sucked into it through discouragement. That line cannot be crossed as long as I am looking to Jesus and not at the waves that go under my feet.
3. If He calls me to a work, then no matter how lonely, tired, or scared I am, He will see me through it with all the tools I need to do it.
4. Praise. Always, always, in all things, despite heartache and disappointment and a grief that just doesn't dim, GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD FOR HIS WONDERFUL WORKS, and because His mercy endures forever.
5. Faith without action is dead. So..when discouragement laps at my feet, I find it helpful to combat it with focusing on the tasks at hand (serving my family, even going out of my way to do some special things just to say "I choose God...I choose life...I choose joy"; or maybe it is blessing someone else with encouragement; or taking a meal to someone who is busy or sick; or maybe just simply doing a project like sewing a comfort top or cleaning cobwebs from the doorway). I combat it with good music that reminds me of Who I serve and what He is about. I combat it with listening to good sermons and reading Scripture, writing in my journal, and prayer (sometimes with bitter tears because God understands them!).
6. I cannot possibly understand the things that go on in this life. God created perfection. Man messed it up. Christ came to restore. These things are clear. The rest is often seen thru a glass darkly. In order to not lose my sanity, it is best that I acknowledge the chaos all around me but stand on CHRIST the Solid Rock. ALL other ground is sinking sand. ALL of it, even godly brothers and sisters with whom I might be tempted to depend too heavily upon. People everywhere will disappoint sometimes. No one means to disappoint very often. Sometimes it's a difference of opinion or lack of similar perspective or even sometimes a huge character flaw that leaves people rough edged and not entirely easy to lean upon. Christ is the only solid ground we have.
7. God works things out for good to those who love Him. I cling to that hope. I believe it, even tho sometimes with faith as small as a mustard seed. But I choose hope in Him.

Dear readers, this world is not our home. Here we have no continuing city. But we seek one to come. We are not here to stay. In this world we will have much tribulation. If we radically serve Jesus, we will be misunderstood, forsaken, hated, trampled upon, rejected, and neglected. Expect it.

If we are in Christ, we have a responsibility to pass along the things He has taught us. We need to grow up in Him so that we can bring Him much glory and so that we can turn around and help someone (and hopefully many someones!) coming behind.

Weep. Grieve the losses. Acknowledge the reality of the darkness. But hold to the unchanging hand of the One who is LIGHT and in whom is no darkness at all! Praise His name forever.

Til the Storm Passes By

One day we will walk the streets of gold, overcomers by the blood of the Lamb. There will be no sighing and no crying. All will be peaceful rest. Until then, let us work and wait and expect our Jesus to come soon.

Love and blessings to all,
Marcia