Straight...

Straight…

We are offering a new service in our salon. Now, if your hair is curly and frizzy, you can have straight hair without trashing it with chemicals or frying it with a flat iron every day.

Oh if only we could get our lives straight so easily. But we can’t lay out a few bills and walk away with a straightened out mess….even for a few months.

God never wanted all the kinks in our lives. He still doesn’t. But we insist on twisting truth, bending His standards, and wrapping ourselves around ‘stuff’.

Changing the truth of God for a lie never has changed truth. “Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies…”(Rom.1:25)


Taking detours instead of the straight path only causes us prolonged periods of learning.

We can wander in wilderness, twisting around and traveling in endless circles, getting nowhere….or we can get through it in a much shorter time if we just follow right behind God as He leads us straight thru.

We can’t drive around a storm of life. But we can be delivered through it. Safely. Even stronger and better.

And we will never straighten out the mess of human life. Not without Divine Intervention.

“Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin?” (Rom. 7:24)

Thank You again my Jesus…..

Beautiful roots....

Beautiful roots....

Roots are where all beauty and strength come from. You just can’t be beautiful without being strong FIRST.

The most talented hairdresser can’t make beautiful hairstyles from malnourished abused hair.

Ps. 1 gives us a great word-picture of beauty and strength.

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked of stand in the way of sinners of sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”


A tree grows strong and beautiful when it is close to a source of water.

We are wise and ‘blessed’ when we plant ourselves near the source of life.

We want beauty and strength in our hair …

AND in our heart….

Strength manifested in a beautiful head of hair.......or strength manifested in a beautiful peace-filled, joyous, loving life.

The beauty grows out of that strong place.

Beautiful hair comes from a strong healthy scalp, well nourished.

It stays beautiful when we tend it and care for it properly. It doesn’t stay pretty if neglected or abused.

So it is with our lives. We stay strong when we are well nourished.

Roots.....

Roots…. I love roots. Roots help me pay my bills.

As a hairdresser, I see lots of roots. I make a living covering up that gray that peeks thru or the dark that demands to be seen. (Some girls are just really blonde on the inside and need a little help being blonde on top.)

You know, God made us perfect, without sin. What we were on the outside, matched what we were on the inside…. perfectly. We were intended to exist in that condition, but a bad choice was made and we all now suffer the imperfections.

Now, what we are on the inside is marred, (sin nature ) and what is manifested to the outside is imperfect. But praise God that He has a method of changing that and restoring us to what we were created to be.

Choosing to change our dark hair to blonde requires maintenance. (Changing the appearance of it does not change the natural of it…) And in the same way, while we are in this life, it is a daily, moment-by-moment process of maintenance. Maintenance…by maintaining of choosing, I mean the daily, sometimes moment-to-moment choices that we are faced with. (Joshua’s challenge in Joshua 24:15 ‘Choose you this day whom you will serve.. ’) The choices we make are vital.

One day, on THAT DAY, there will be no more ‘maintenance’…no more changes needed…no more choices between good and evil. No more temptations, no more mistakes, no more regret. “…in the twinkling of an eye…we will all be changed.”(1 Cor. 15:52)

Until then we must maintain…or call it persevere. “Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”(James 1:4)


After THAT DAY there will be no maintenance. No contrasting root line…the growing out will stop. We will be made fully mature, lacking nothing. And we’ll be that way forever.

Hocus-pocus...

Hocus-pocus… Nonsense words or phrases used as a formula


Ever been abandoned? Abandon means to thrust off. Leave alone. To be unused.

I never thought about God abandoning anyone. But…. “You have abandoned Your people, the house of Jacob…” (Isa. 2:6)

I think of abandonment as an unjust thing. But is it ? Is there a time to just back off, leave someone alone to do as they choose, or even do as they insist….even in rebellion?

“God, You have walked out on Your family Jacob because their world is full of hokey religion, Philistine witchcraft, and pagan hocus-pocus.” (Isa. 2:6 The Message)

Again this morning I am convicted. God allows me choice. Even when I choose hokey religion and hocus-pocus.

“The arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day….” (Isa. 2:17)

So I ask myself this morning….where is the hocus-pocus in my life?

Is my religion hokey? Do I use phrases and formulas?

“Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Ps. 139:24)

Idols...

Idols… ‘eliyl’ in Hebrew. It means good for nothing.


What do you highly regard that truthfully is worthless ?

In the culture of ages past, they had images of stone or wood. They put a lot of value in them, thought they had some amount of power.

In the culture of our day, we also have ‘things’ that we have made with our own hands, that we put a lot of value in, thinking they have some measure of might.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$


That dollar sign offers no real security. Let us not believe the lie that it does. The houses and cars that it buys can’t offer us anything of real lasting value.

Let us not put our confidence in our ability to accumulate money. Let us not think for one second that our own efforts will make us secure.

And certainly, let us not compromise God’s standards in order to accumulate wealth.

“A fortune made by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare.” Pro. 21:6

Reason...

Reason… To justify. Convince. To argue….and be right…

I confess. It is important for me to be right. I know…..I’m the only one. Right?

I can justify my need to be right.

I can argue until I convince you.

Or until you convince me that I’m really NOT right, but in fact, YOU are right.

But whichever it is, the key and the value in it, is the reasoning together. We are so much better off when we can do this reasoning/arguing with an honest heart searching for truth instead of just for the sake of being the winner.

Winning is empty, if the truth has been lost in the battle. We have a false victory.

And when anger comes in, the devil is usually the victor.

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord.” (Isa. 1:18)

God invites us to come to Him with issues, argue the thing out, reason together with Him…and find solutions. And when we come to Him with an honest attitude, not hiding, not masquerading or pretending…He will reveal truth. Even though it’s often not pretty and hard to accept, the truth is indeed the truth….whether we accept it and embrace it or not.

Job reasoned together with God. When all the disaster fell, Job went to God with all his questions, “I desire to speak to the Almighty and to argue my case with God.” (Job 13:3)

His friends had all the answers, or so they thought. But Job went to God.

Job was right about a lot of things. But he also found out he wasn’t nearly as good nor nearly as smart as he thought he was.

“…surely I have spoken of things that I did not understand….my ears have heard of you but now my eyes have seen you….and I repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42: 3-6)

I want to always be willing and eager to reason together with God.

Not to have my status verified. But to seek truth…..from an honest seeking heart, never just so I can be right.

HE is always, always right.

Bittersweet....

Bittersweet… I use a bittersweet chocolate in baking. It looks yummy, but by itself, it’s really pretty yucky. Bitter.

A square of that chocolate mixed with appropriate amounts of other ingredients will produce a perfectly delightful dessert. Sweet.

The dessert can’t taste as it does without that bitter ingredient.

Life is certainly like that.

The delightful is often gained by having some bitter experiences in the mix. But no matter how bitter, God is able to sweeten. “Though I …see trouble…many and bitter, You will restore…You will bring me up…You will increase..and comfort..” (Ps. 71:20)

It takes all the ingredients for my recipe. It takes that bitter chocolate…else the whole thing is a failure.

Life is certainly like that.

“Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered….” (Isaiah 38:17)

In every struggle, I want to expect the benefit.

I want to recognize every sweet thing that comes from the bitter.

I want to praise Him….before, during, and after.