Strength...

Strength… Is it strong muscles? Physical power?

Is it emotional toughness? An ability to resist?

I’ve never had much physical strength, although I once thought I was pretty tough. The older I get, the more I realize my weakness, the more I come to understand the Source of any strength whatsoever. And I don’t have it.

Jesus said that His grace is all I need. He says that His power is strongest when I am weak. (2Cor. 12:9) What does that mean?

To me, it means that I can choose my own ‘strength’ or I can choose to lay that aside and trust His way. I can choose to stay away from the knowledge that He has forbidden. (..the knowledge of evil.)

I can depend on my human tendency to choose and act poorly, or I can choose to follow what He has said. Simply because He said so…

(By the way, His way sure doesn’t make sense sometimes, and is seldom what I ‘want’. It’s the enemy’s same Garden of Eden tactic…. take a ‘look’, then question God. )



“…the serpent said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'? ……..When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. " (Gen. 3:1,6)

Yes, God did really say….and if she had forgotten or not paid attention….she could have asked HIM for clarification.

Instead, she fell for the enemy’s twist on what God had said, and the tactic that encouraged her to doubt God’s motives.

Instead of simply doing what God said …simply because He had said it. Instead of trusting that He had a very good reason for His instruction.

You see, God is not mean and nasty. He doesn’t say stuff just to take the fun out of life. He has said what He has said for a single purpose. To protect me. And you.

To protect us from evil.
To protect us from choosing the knowledge of it…from experiencing it.

Once that happens, the consequences fall. And strength is not something we gain from it.

Wisdom. Yes.


We are so foolish to believe we are strong enough to dabble in what God has forbidden and come away unharmed. That is another devil’s lie.

Only God can repair, restore, redeem and produce good from our wrong choices.

Only God can clean up the mess we make and restore purity.

But He wants to.

Will you take your brokeness to Him?

Will you just trust what He says?

He is always and only ...good.

Perfect...

Perfect… Wouldn’t you love to be perfect? Have a perfect life?

What would it take for you personally? Less temper and more patience? Skinnier and prettier? Smarter? Richer? Well mannered children? Doting spouse?

Is it even feasible? Is it possible to attain?

I think not. Enough is never enough. People will always be humans who fail. There is only One Who will never fail. Only One Who provides security and sure foundation.

Jesus told this story: "The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop….
I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones…. and I'll say to myself, Self, you've done well! …. Take it easy and have the time of your life!'

But then… you die. And your barnful of goods--who gets it?'

"That's what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God."

Jesus continued, "Don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes …or if the clothes in your closet are in fashion.

There is far more to your inner life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body.”

"Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch?

"…. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things.

Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

Get yourselves a bank that can't go bankrupt, …The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
(Luke 12 asst. verses from The Message)



Again Jesus speaks….“These words I speak to you are not mere additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundation words, words to build a life on….work the words into your life…

But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a dumb carpenter who built a house but skipped the foundation. When the swollen river came crashing in, it collapsed like a house of cards. It was a total loss." (Luke 6:47-49 The Message)

Lord Jesus, thank You for chiseling away at me….for the perfecting work of Your Spirit.

I continue to be a work in progress.

Joined....

Joined… 37 years ago, the preacher said something about ‘what God has joined together…’

Joined. Connected. Fastened together.

Yep. That would be me and my man. I can’t fathom life without the extension of my self. After that ceremony 37 years ago, we were pronounced ‘joined in holy matrimony’. We now begin the 38th year of marriage.

But that ceremony isn’t what did it. The ceremony and following physical events had little to do with it. All of those things could not and would not have joined us together as we are today. But it was the beginning…

To our culture, I became his wife on that day, because of a legal document and ceremony.

To me, I became his wife on that day because of the choice I made to trust his love and commit myself to him.

I have joined few other things in my life.

I joined a sorority, for about a month. ( I was young and ignorant. )

I joined a network of pyramid sales, for about 3 months. ( I was young and ignorant )

I joined a gym, for a year. ( I had a son who wanted to work out…and the contract called for a year or I surely would have quit sooner! )

But God didn’t join me to those things. My checkbook joined me to them for the most part.

God did join me to my husband, and He did not do it through a legal document or a physical act. Only He can do that, only He can really join..…and it’s a pity that so many people don’t include Him and experience the power and influence of His Holy Spirit in their lives.

God has also joined me to Himself and to His children.

“There is one body and one Spirit………one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Eph. 4:4-6)


If you wear the Name of Jesus the Christ, our Father has joined me to you, together with our Savior, in His One Body. Not by some ceremony, not by some legal document, not by the power of some state….

But by the power of the cross.

“His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity ………… in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross.”(Eph. 2:15-16)

Retreat...

Retreat… I’m attending a ‘retreat‘.

Webster stays it’s an act of withdrawing oneself from a place. OK….I am withdrawing from the place of my routine life.

Webster also says its a state of privacy or seclusion from noise, bustle or company. Privacy? There’s supposed to be 3000+ people !

I’m not a fan of crowds. I have a bit of attention deficit so its hard for me to concentrate with so many people to distract me. I have sensitive ears so the noise is bothersome. I get cold usually. Whine whine…

But retreat I will. In the midst of the throng, I intend to retreat.

“You're my place of quiet retreat; I wait for your Word to renew me.”
(Ps. 119:114 The Message)



“ How blessed ….O GOD, …is the woman you instruct in your Word…providing a circle of quiet within the clamor….

Who stood up for me against the wicked? Who took my side against evil workers? If GOD hadn't been there for me, I never would have made it.

The minute I said, "I'm slipping, I'm falling," your love, GOD, took hold and held me fast.

When I was upset and beside myself, you calmed me down and cheered me up. …..

GOD became my hideout, God was my high mountain retreat…” (selected from Ps. 94:12-22 The Message)

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jer. 29:13)


He is my retreat and He can always be found when I seek Him with an undivided heart….

…..even in the middle of Dallas, Texas with the bustle and noise of 3000 other people.

Tolerate...

Tolerate… Some days I can tolerate more than others…wonder why that is?

There are days when things just don’t bother me much. Other days, those same things just drive me nuts. I could knock somebody’s head off !

Occasionally, it might be because I’m over-tired, didn’t sleep well…perhaps I’m not well, feel a little sickly.

Most often though, and even in those times, it’s because I’m not going to The Source of my strength for help for the day.

Like the manna that fell in the wilderness, (Ex.16) strength falls from heaven daily for me…I just have to pick it up. I have to feed on it.

There will never be a day that is impossible to tolerate….because there is One Who is ready and willing to bear the load, provide the way, supply the strength. He has gone to such great length to salvage His creation.

That would be ME.

And YOU.

There is always always a way to tolerate any situation or circumstance.

Because He CAN. And I am His.

Are you?

Bridges...

Bridges… We now have a bridge across our ditch. It’s not a deep ditch, but sometimes it stands in water. Sometimes it looks a little snake-y with all the leaves and such that gather there. Now I won’t have to wade or jump to cross.

God didn’t need to build bridges to cross over wet places. He caused the water to part and the bottom of the body of water to appear. Dry…not mushy and muddy. People just walked right thru. And snakes…well, he put them on their belly! (Gen. 3:14…wonder if they walked or flew before then…hummm…..)

Joshua 3 & 4 tells an amazing story of the water of a river piling up instead of running downstream. Exodus 14 tells another story of such an incidence. I encourage you to read them for yourself. Check to see if your Bible tells it like mine does.



No.. God didn’t need a bridge to get across something. He just made a way through. (After all…He IS God….He IS in charge….He DID create every single thing that is reality to us..)

It is you and me who need the bridge…a way to get back to Him…like it was in the beginning…in the garden.

I am not like God. You aren’t either. And no thing we do enables us to cross the gap that is between us and Him. We can’t un-do the sinful condition we are in. We can’t press thru it, can’t swim it, can’t stop it’s force.

I couldn’t roll back the waves of sin and guilt that engulfed me. I couldn’t manage to stop the rush of it, it just kept coming over me. No matter how hard I tried, and believe me I did try….it just kept happening. The more I identified sin, the more sin I saw in myself !

I am in good company…my brother Paul had the same issue.

“The law…. started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of "forbidden fruit" out of it. …..The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up….

But the law code itself is God's good and common sense, each command sane and holy counsel.…. "Does that mean I can't even trust what is good [that is, the law]? Is good just as dangerous as evil?"

No again! Sin simply did what sin is so famous for doing: using the good as a cover to tempt me to do what would finally destroy me. …...

What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise.

So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary. But I need something more!

For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help!

I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it….. but I can't do it.
I decide to do good…. but I don't really do it.
I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway.
My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions.
Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
It happens so regularly that it's predictable.
The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up.

I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?” ( misc. Romans 7, The Message)

…Praise God, there’s been a bridge built to allow us to Passover this horrible problem we humans all have….


“The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.” (Romans 7:25 The Message)


Won’t you choose that path? It’s a glorious path !

Fallout...

Fallout… I remember as a child being taught in the classroom about protecting ourselves from nuclear ‘fallout’.

It was a big deal. The threat of nuclear war and all that meant was hard for a child to understand…I only understood fear.

We had tornado drills and fire drills. I had a little real life knowledge about those. I had in my mind that ‘fallout’ would be something like falling hot cinders, or falling debris.

As an adult, I understand more fully what the threat is about, this ‘nuclear fallout’.

As an adult, I understand the threat of ‘fallout’ of many kinds. The nuclear kind being the least.

I’m talking about the residual consequences of an action. The residual consequences of a nuclear accident or explosion is what the news is focused on today…the ‘fallout’ and threats to life. Will it reach me?

The residual consequences of a fallen world seldom has any focus on it, especially from the media. But it does reach me. And you. And every human ever to exist.

There is ‘fallout’ from the garden, and it’s still falling, and it’s still deadly.

What can we do to protect ourselves? Absolutely nothing. We need outside intervention.

And so He came. And He provides a way.

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.

God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.
Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; Anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it.

And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

"This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God.

Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure.

But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is." (John 3:16-21 The Message)

“For God loved the world SO much….that He gave His only Son….so that whoever would believe in HIM shall not perish…” (John 3:16NIV)