Christian Author and Speaker
You know how it is when you’ve gone someplace you were really looking forward to – then you head home. Oftentimes that drive home is simply a boring drive. There’s nothing more to see. Your trip is over and you just want to get home. I did not want to end this awesome month-long journey in that manner!
It has probably always occured, but it’s especially common during these recent seasons ~~ Christians “watering down” the Word of God.
I expect it from nonbelievers. They do it to rationalize sin, to explain compromise, and to find fault with Christ followers. When this happens, it doesn’t surprise me – or bother me – or even offend me. But and I am saddened and disturbed when believers “water down” the Word. I don’t expect it from the believer – from those who have supposedly trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior.
Today is her birthday –
in heaven.
Happy Birthday, Mama!
When she passed years ago, just one month after Daddy, I hoped I might adjust to life without them. Then I saw a multitude of Facebook condolences, and I heard the words spoken as they hugged me at the visitations and wrote on cards of sympathy:
Luke Chapter 10 – Advent Reading
The Lord Jesus sends us out. We’re among the seventy-two. We might be “lambs among the wolves,” but He sends us, nonetheless.
We can count on God’s promises! Cherish each one. Make it personal. Write them down on lined paper – every promise in the Bible that you need., so that even if your mind seems cluttered with so many obstacles – even if you can’t always remember where each promise is found, you will be able to see the promises and speak the promises.
I recently posted about the importance of deep roots, established and rooted in Jesus Christ. Additionally, another type of root system is also vital in the Christian life – that of “connection.” Scripturally taught throughout the New Testament, this lesson was reinforced in my mind when, of all places, Ron and I traveled through the beautiful Redwoods in Northern California. Let me explain . . .
From Oregon, we drove just a short distance south into California before gps instructed us to turn east onto Highway U.S. 199 toward our destination campground. I had booked three nights here, which I thought gave us two full days to go into the parks to see the beautiful Redwoods ~ our purpose in coming to this southernmost point of our journey. I assumed we would reach our campsite, set up, and visit the parks the next day, but – once we made that turn onto U.S. 199, we discovered were already in the Redwoods:
The northwest has called us, and I invite you to come along!
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.”
~ Rachel Carson
“In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Yes, all of nature is connected and has purpose. As we headed west from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula via Hwy 2, a fellow RV’er advised us not to bother driving through North Dakota and Montana – he said it was boring with no striking views. But, you see, Ron and I like to make the connections; we like to see what others might not.
I tired of her. I was busy with my young children, my housework, and giving piano lessons.
She required much of my time. She was needy. Often invited herself over. I couldn’t get anything else done. I talked with another friend and asked advice about the situation. She offered a suggestion.