Far From Home, But Not Alone

     This morning as I watched birds of all varieties filter into my yard to begin their morning feeding routine, one bird stood out among the crowd.  Unable to identify him, I reached for my trusty paperback book entitled Guide to Birds. A quick search led me to the page precisely picturing the newcomer to my backyard. Without doubt this new beauty was a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak. Hang with me a moment before assuming I am about to go into a crazy "bird lady" rant. There is just one thing I want to share with you about this bird.  He is native to the western Untied Sates not the Deep South where I live. That is why he stood out in the crowd.  That is why he was alone. 

     As Christians making a stand for Christ in this world, we can somewhat share the situation in which this exquisite creation of God finds himself.  He is far from his intended native environment. We, too, find ourselves in a like predicament. This world is not our home, we are just passing through.  Allow me to quote Laura Story from her book What If Your Blessings Come Through Raindrops.  "We have a blessed hope: that we will spend eternity with our Father in heaven. But until then, we remain strangers and foreigners here on the earth, reminded constantly of the bittersweet truth that we are not yet home." We have a hope and a future beyond the constraints of this fallen world!  Praise God!
     Secondly, this Rose-Breasted Grosbeak was the only one of its kind among all the other birds present.  Hopefully we, too, stand out in the crowd-- a child of God, a testimony of His love, a light in a dark world. But unlike this bird we are never alone though Satan tries to convince us otherwise in our darkest of times. We are accompanied by the presence of God without fail. "I am not alone, because the Father is with me." (John 16:32)    
      Amazing how God can use an out of place bird to speak to me.Or perhaps this little fellow was at just the right place at just the right time.  Look around and see what the Father may be using in your everyday life to speak to you. Seek Him and you will surely find Him. Listen to what He has to say to you today.  His voice may be heard in nature, a rush hour traffic jam, or the smile of a child. Oh, how He loves you!  To God Be the Glory!

     

     

            

Short , Sweet, and Profound

     I presently find myself immersed in the book What If Your BLESSINGS Come Through Raindrops? by Laura Story. At the end of each chapter there are scriptures that support the topic of the chapter and quotes from both men and women of great spiritual note and influence. Today I simply want share with you one of those quotes from C. S. Lewis:

"God is not hurried along in the Time-stream of this universe any more than an author is hurried along in the imaginary time of his own novel.  He has infinite attention to spare each one of us.  He does not have to deal with us in the mass.  Your are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created.  When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you have been the only man in the world."

I will leave you with that explanation of the unfathomable love of God for you and the absolute accessibility we have to our Heavenly Father. Mind blowing!  To God Be the Glory!


FYI:  This is an Indigo Bunting. How beautiful! 

You Belong...Happy Earth Day!

 

   My computer informed me that today is Earth Day.  These verses of scripture immediately came to mind. "The earth is the LORD'S, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him." (Psalm 24:1) "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it." (1 Corinthians 10:26)  There you have it, not once but twice in both Old and New Testaments.  As I look out my window today, we could not be having a more beautiful Earth Day.  Every direction I look is a display of God's beautiful creation.  The sunlight glistens like diamonds off the water on our lake. The newly budded leaves on the trees that seemed to return overnight are a testimony of life and beauty. At least ten species of birds, each intricate in design, feast from the bird feeders behind my house.The songs God appropriated to each specific feathered beauty composes a choir for my listening pleasure.  In silent beauty a yellow butterfly flutters into and out of the scene. The sky is a color of blue for which no crayon exists. God created all this and it belongs to Him, and each day we are privileged to exist in these exquisite surroundings.  Look up from your cell phone today, notice your surroundings as you sit impatiently at a red light or in traffic jam. Allow the masterpiece God has painted today to give you pause to praise Him and center your thoughts on His love for you.

     Now there is a part two to the verses above.  Not just the earth , but all its people belong to him. All means all, not just the people who go to church, the people who live in nice houses, the people who have seem to have it all together.  All means the ones of us who have messed up lives, addictions, fractured families, and a list of failures a mile long.  But wait, truth be told, what seems to be two very different groups of people in the above two sentences are actually the same. We are ALL sinners saved by grace no matter who we are, where we live, or what we have done or not done. Praise God, that what he sees is our heart. What he sees is the righteousness of Christ bestowed on us if we have asked forgiveness and invited Jesus to be Lord and Savior of our lives.  What He sees is the masterpiece that we are in His sight. What is left for us to do but rejoice in belonging to Him?  "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God. And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1) 

     I do realize that I have taken liberties by loosely adapting the meaning Earth Day to my own liking. Thanks for rolling with me on that!  Now go rejoice in God's creation and and even more so in knowing that you have a place in this world, and you belong to God. Rebuke Satan and the influences of the world when they try to convince you otherwise, and seek refuge in the arms of the Jesus where you belong. People will fail you, this world will fail you, but He never will. To God Be the Glory!
     

           

A Mother's Heart for Her Autistic Son

     In my last post I shared with you the upcoming surgery of my son, Ben, who has high functioning autism.  Today, I take this opportunity to share about the exceedingly abundant grace that God bestowed on us through that experience.  I was so proud of Ben.  Despite a five hour wait for surgery, he never became agitated or overly fearful.  I could feel the prayers of our friends and family working in each moment of the day.  God granted me the peace for which I had petitioned of him and there was a calmness that washed over me the entire day.  Grace and peace were the elements that permeated  my being as well as Ben's.  Praise God!  His recovery has been splendid and he has enjoyed a healing time of sleep and rest at home.
     April is Autism Awareness month and the month of May will follow with Mother's day. I want to incorporate both of these by sharing with you something I wrote on the day Ben turned seventeen.  I cannot explain why I chose that particular year since it is not the more celebrated birthdays of eighteen or twenty-one.  I only know that God laid this on my heart most likely to minister to me and possibly to others down the road.  Share it with someone who you feel it might touch.  Thank you for allowing me to share a moment of my heart.

To My Son, Ben, on His Seventeenth Birthday

How can it be that you are already seventeen? The years, though often trying, have somehow slipped by. Seventeen will be so different for you as it will be for me as a parent. There won't be any speeding tickets, expensive auto insurance to pay or car wrecks to worry about because you will never drive a car.

No punishments for broken curfews, high school proms, or Friday night football games as there will be for most your age. There will be no need to search for the right college and make decisions for a career.God has different plans for you.Plans that I don't understand, that I have often questioned through tears and anger, but am learning to accept.Because of your special needs and disabilities, you see and respond in this world as one half your age.

For almost two years now you have lived away from home at a "special school"--

a facility in which you have made progress and had needs met beyond our capabilities at home. 

That's where we'll be celebrating your birthday today, with the friends you have there that you would never have found at home.  Friends who see life much like you with whom your can play basketball, share music and laugh. At seventeen, God has provided you with the absolute best gifts for your life.

Despite your vast differences, He had a plan for your before you were conceived-and His hand is on you.

Though not viewed as "normal" by the world's standards, you are just as God meant you to be and perfect in His sight, and today we will celebrate seventeen years of just that--

With your friends at your school, with the Garfield cake you wanted with the toys on top you can keep to play with, with your dad and I who love you so very much--who miss you being at home every day, who grieve the things you will not experience in life, who trust the Lord to continue to keep his hand on you.  

He can use you just as you are, just where you are to fulfill His purpose in your life. Your limitations are no obstacle for Him. So for what you will not experience as the average seventeen year old, I look forward to what God will accomplish through you.  Now and in the years to come, thank you for how you've already been used by God in my life to deepen my faith and trust in Him.  Thank you for being such a special gift.  

Happy birthday, my Ben--I love you with all my heart!

Mom 

  

     

What Keeps You Alive?

     My son, Ben, has a pulse generated, battery operated device called a VNS (Vagal Nerve Stimulator) that was implanted in his chest five years ago. The VNS sends signals to his brain through the vagus nerve in the neck to help reduce the rate and duration of seizures much as a cardiac pacemaker signals the heart . Due to an increase in seizures and a decline in behavior of late, his doctor felt that the stimulator battery, which has a five year life, may be running low. Time for a new, improved VNS with a full battery charge which requires an out patient surgical procedure.
     Hopefully I did not loose you in all the particulars there, but the info is pertinent to what God has placed on my heart. We, including Ben, were aware of the need for surgery almost two weeks prior to the event.  We had had a terrible time with Ben a couple of years ago getting him through a gall bladder removal surgery. Fear welled up inside of me as I had flashbacks of that scenario, and my
focus became seeking God's strength and grace for that day.  Ben's autistic focus, however, became his very life.  He mistakenly believes that this VNS  implanted in his chest is what keeps him alive no matter what we say to the contrary. All he could hear was that the battery of this thing was running low, essentially dying.  All he could think was that if it died he died. He was inconsolable.
     What do you believe that to be true about in your life?  What is "life itself" to you?  Is it your family, your job, your financial security, your leisure activities, your accomplishments, your friends, your addiction? Into what basket have you misguidedly placed what you believe to be the essence of your life, that which you believe you could not live without? Just as Ben would be alive despite his VNS battery function, you would be alive if you lost any of the above listed, but would you feel "alive?"
      How precarious life is if only anchored to the things of this world. How sad that we choose to walk that tightrope of desperately clinging to our fractured view of what gives life, and joy, and meaning when these things are only found in Jesus who gives life both spiritually and physically. And not just an average run of the mill life.  Ephesians 3:20 says this, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to the power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Jesus Christ throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen"  Now if that isn't enough to make you throw off whatever the "battery" dependence in your life might be, I don't know what is.  We just think we are living!  "...more than all we ask or imagine..." Now that sounds some kind of awesome!
     That is what I want for me! That is what I want for you!  Ground yourself in this life and in eternity to come by choosing  all that Jesus has to offer you. Open your hand, release what you so desperately cling to for security and grasp His.  "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power with all the saints, to grasp and know how long and high and wide 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." (Ephesians 3:17-19)  To God Be the Glory!
     

Sometimes It Hurts

     I have had this little narrative tucked back for years and wanted to share it with you today. Truth be told, I needed to read it myself!  It is my hope that at whatever stage you find yourself in the molding process that this will bring you hope.  God Bless!

The teacup looked like an ordinary teacup until it spoke..."You do not understand. I have not always been a teacup. There was a time when I was nothing but a piece of clay... My master took me, rolled me, and patted me over and over and over.  I yelled, "Leave me alone."  But He only smiled and said, 'Not yet.'  Then I was placed on a spinning wheel and spun around and around and around.  I screamed, 'Stop it! I'm dizzy!' The master nodded and said, 'Not yet.'  Then He put me in the oven, and it was terribly hot.  I thought I would burn to a crisp.  I yelled and knocked on the door...'stop it'...'not yet.'  Then He took me out of the oven and started to paint me, and the fumes were horrible.  I cried, 'Stop it, stop it!...'Not yet.'  All at once He put me back into the oven- twice as hot.  'Stop it!' I begged and pleaded and screamed...He only said, "Not yet.'  Just when I knew I would not make it, He opened the door and placed me on a shelf.  An hour later he handed me a mirror and said, 'Look at yourself.'  I was beautiful, really beautiful.

As I gazed at my beauty, my master said, 'I know it hurt to be rolled and patted, but if I had left you, you would have just dried up.  I know it hurt to be spun around and around, but if I had stopped you would have crumbled.  I know it hurt in the oven, but if I had stopped you would have cracked.  I know the fumes were bad when I painted you, but if I had stopped, you never would have hardened.  But now you are a beautiful  finished product.  You are what I had in mind when I first began with you."

Author Unknown

           

Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. 

We are the clay, you are the potter;

we are all the work of your hand.

(Isaiah 64:8)

To God Be the Glory!

Monday, Monday :)

     Ah, Monday!  If a day of the week could possess feelings, Monday would surely have a complex as it seems to be the most dreaded. Songs have even been written to brand it..."Rainy Days and Mondays Always Get Me Down." (Some of you Carpenters fans from the '70's may remember that one!) Yes, we are once again back to responsibility and the daily grind, surviving until the upcoming weekend or at least Thursday when we can see the daylight of Friday. However, today we have a choice. Will we simply muddle through, groaning and dragging our feet, or will we on this day be equally as sensitive to the movement and call of God in our lives as any other?
    Yes, your work on Monday as any other day goes far beyond the nine to five job that gives you a paycheck. It should probably begin with thanksgiving for that much taken for granted first breath we take on Monday morning as we pry ourselves from our comfy beds, climb into a shower of clean water, and open our refrigerators to choose what we will eat for breakfast. Thank you, Lord!  Let those blessings sink in and bring a smile to your face that when shared with a a passerby may be all that person needs-- to know that someone acknowledged their presence. They are not invisible! "Each of you should not look to your own interests, but also the interests of others." (Philippians 2:4)

     As you make step outside, drink in the beauty around you, the masterpiece God is painting as a backdrop for your day. Even in the clouds and rain, there is the beauty of witnessing God's power in a bolt of lightning or an earth replenishing drop of rain. Yes, it is Monday, but God is just as awesome and as present as He was when you sat inside of the walls your of church on Sunday. He is not taking the day off or waiting for another weekend.  Seek His face, and  ready yourself to be sensitive to His plans for you today. "The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are blessed." (Proverbs 11:25) Sounds like a win-win situation to me!!
     When the children or your boss are driving you crazy, speak the name of Jesus. Feel His presence and supply of  patience, strength, and grace needed for the moment. When you feel as though you have reached your absolute limit for the situation at hand, you are never alone. Realize that these feelings are not unique to you, and someone in your path today probably has problems far surpassing yours. Be on the watch for opportunities to encourage and listen. "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves." (Romans 12:10)
     As yet another Monday fades with the setting of the sun, may you reflect on the bright spots, the moments when God worked through you to help another, the blessings at hand in your own life. See, Mondays, though they get a bad wrap, hold just as much promise as every other day of the week.  My advice is to seek, not to survive. To walk through the day with eyes wide open and mind focused on Jesus. "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You." (Isaiah 26:3) Happy Monday!  May this day be filled with God's peace and blessings.  To God Be the Glory!

   
     

God's Waiting Room

   Hello to all, especially those of you in Russia and Germany.  How humbled I am that God might use the words He gives me to be read in countries so distant.  God's blessings on you all!  Sorry for the gap in blog posts. God as the potter has been doing some molding of the clay that is my life. Some of that molding has brought on a grieving experience through which He is faithfully walking me. He has called me to let go of something that has been a ministry opportunity in my life for many years.  Now I am in a period of waiting to see where His hand will guide me next, or am I?  In a misguided attempt to help this process along, I have literally exhausted myself physically and emotionally.  When I am exhausted, my joy begins to wane and my hope soon follows. Then I find myself exactly where Satan is most pleased...shut down.

     I should have seen it coming.  God's answers come according to His timetable, not mine. This truth has been repeatedly and lovingly brought to my attention. My time and energy have been misdirected in attempting to squeeze myself into a variety of  ministry opportunities that were not the right fit for me. Each ministry was equally important to the advancing of God's kingdom as the other, but none of them were part of God's "next steps" for me. He alone holds the road map for my life, and I blindly took over the steering wheel.
     However noble my intentions had been, the truth is that I had tried to circumvent God. Once again I am being taught patience in the waiting room of life where perhaps God has placed me for a time of healing and rest that should be embraced, not ignored, as He readies me for our next adventure. How like a disgruntled patient I have been, repeatedly reminding the receptionist of how long my wait has been and that my time is valuable. Why I have things to do for God! Sounds silly from that perspective but a precise analogy of my actions.
     As I write this post, I hold up to God my most treasured dream, that of being used by Him to write words of encouragement and love in sharing the Gospel of Christ. I do not know if this is His direction for me, but I am here again seeking His will.  He has painstakingly taught me that "numbers" are not a part of His plan.  Days often go by without anyone logging on to this sight. On those days, I doubt my ability and if this where God plans to use me.  He is, however, teaching me that if I were to only write for an audience of one that number is sufficient. It is not about me and ALL about Him.

     My hands are held open before Him as I write these words and seek to receive His power and direction. Thanks for reading as I have bared my soul. My joy begins to resurface as I type this. Please pray for me as I do for you and, if at all possible, learn from my mistakes.  Remember that "All things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)
This is my life verse to which I cling as I grieve a loss and wait expectantly for the exceedingly, abundant "good" God has in store. Let's share that path with God in the lead.  To God Be the Glory!