James

God is so good to speak through His word!

Today it was through James 1:21-25 for me:

"Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does."

Let's ALL become obedient active listeners, doers of the word, walking the walk, glorifying God because "we were created to be satisfied with nothing less than the fulfillment of our original purpose." -Beth Moore

By the light of my camera screen...

On this cold December morning, hours before light seeps into the dark horizon, I had an epiphany as I sorted through smiles of children, happy moments and dear memories. I am positive, no I HOPE it is certain that many others have had this same desire and idea, and I am so glad God whispered it into my heart as well. I share that you too may be inspired to participate!

I am going to start a new blog project where I will begin documenting 1000 gifts via photos I take personally! Awesome, right?

After being loaned the book One Thousand Gifts by a long-time friend and sister in the Lord, I was moved so deeply by Ann's words.  My overall outlook on life so drastically changed, that I decided I MUST begin a list of simple daily gifts I for which I am most thankful.  I walk through my day now, thanking God as I go often but do not always take the time to scribble the memory down, or snap a photo to remember it always by. God has blessed my family richly, but I intend to dig deeper, look closer, open my heart's eyes to new and previously un-noticed gifts and be thankful in every moment of everyday for the small glimpses of God in everything and every situation. Not just the "good" gifts, but every touch, word, moment, manifestation, and situation that our Creator lovingly lets come our way. 

"Eucharisteo – life-filling gratitude – the practice of which is exercised in recording blessings, one by one." 

I am SO thankful and EXCITED! I hope you will follow my blog; the one thousand humble photos of things, people, places and those little moments of life that I am thankful and grateful for. They will fill it's pages over the course of this coming year(and beyond) until I have at least 1000 "gifts" recorded. You can check out my up and coming blog Eu.char.is.te.o and maybe even be inspired to start a list for yourself if you haven't already! Let's all, friends, choose to be thankful. Choose to live a life drenched in life-filling gratitude. Let's all make a choice to live a life of eucharisteo soaked in gratitude,  giving thanks and praise to God in the midst of even grief, loss and uncertainty; for He Is all good, in all and holds all things together.Though darkness spots His rays of beauty, He is light complete. Always light. The kind of light that fills the deepest darkest cranny's of our scorched souls and brings life to our hopeless wastelands.

Blessings to you, and merry CHRISTmas!
Mommy

"How I want to see the weight of glory break my thick scales, the weight of glory smash the chains of desperate materialism, split the shell of deadening entertainment, bust up the ice of catatonic hearts. I want to see God, who pulls on the coat of my skin and doesn't leave me alone in this withering body of mortality... isn't He the face of all faces? He is infinite and without end, without jaw or sockets, everywhere eye. The face of the moon, the face of the doe, the face of derelict, the face of pain, His, the countenance that seeps up through the world, face without limitation, face that "plays in ten thousand places."


All beauty is only reflection.
And whether I am conscious of it or not, any created thing or person of which I am amazed, it is the glimpse of His face to which I bow down. Do I have eyes to see it's Him and not the "thing"? Satan came in the scales that gleamed, a thing of beauty, and he lured the first woman and she was deceived. Beauty, the disguise can slide dangerous. True authentic Beauty requires of us, lays claim to us, and it is this, the knees bent, the body offered in obedience. A pantheists god is a passive god, but omnipresent God is Beauty who demands worship, passion, and the sacrifice of a life, for it is He who owns it. Do I have eyes to see His face in all things so I'm not merely dazzled by the trinket, glitzy bauble dangling for the ogling, till it flakes and breaks and I strain for more to lie prostrate before?"


~One Thousand Gifts

Why are we constantly as Christians lifting up and magnifying the names of the vessels, those "good" outspoken saints and not the only worthy One, Jesus Christ, God, Spirit within us, Creator and illustrator of ALL things good?  Let's be amazed at Him, not his children! Let's scorn Satan and his tactics and leave the judging of radicals and sinners to the One true Judge over all and only One who intimately knows all men's hearts!

Passing on a sweet reminder of how blessed the majority of us American women are and how we can be in prayer for those who are without such handicapping conveniences, for their hard work is truly blessed work and completely fed and spurred on from above. In my ungratefulness and selfishness I may get upset that I have sick kids keeping me from my appointments all the while completely overlooking the fact that some women may be losing their little ones lives to mere colds due to a lack of money and medical care... 

I am thankful today for the things God has set before me. All of it is a blessing to walk through with Him.

Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart

Drudgery

"I must admit I feel a lot of pressure with two children under two years of age. I am committed to do it until they are in school, however, and feel it is God's will. At times like this--when I wonder if I will even be able to finish this letter with both of them screaming for something--or when I miss going to lunch or getting dressed up, everyday life seems a drudgery. I worked hard to get through college--to be a scrubwoman, ha!"

I understand this mother's cry. So does the Lord. He has given us this word: "No temptation has come your way that is too hard for flesh and blood to bear. But God can be trusted not to allow you to suffer any temptation beyond your powers of endurance. He will see to it that every temptation has a way out, so that it will never be impossible for you to bear it" (1 Corinthians 10:13, PHILLIPS).

"A way out," I can hear her say, "What mother has a way out?"

The New English Bible translation throws light on this: "a way out, by enabling you to sustain it." Think, too, of Jesus' words, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:29 AV). He is willing to bear our burdens with us, if only we will come to Him and share the yoke, His yoke.

I saw this principle in operation when I visited the Dohnavur Fellowship in India. There, day after day, year in and year out, Indian women (most of them single) care for little children, handicapped children, infirm adults, old folks. They don't go anywhere. They have none of our usual forms of amusement and diversion. They work with extremely primitive equipment--there is no running water, for example, no stoves but wood-burning ones, no washing machines. In one of the buildings I saw this text: "There they dwelt with the King for His work." That's the secret. They do it for Him. They ask for and receive His grace to do it. I saw the joy in their lovely faces.

"To occupy oneself with God's Word, talking about it and thinking about it, is also a most tremendous help against the devil, the world, the flesh, and all evil thoughts. In such reading, discussion, and meditation the Holy Spirit is present to supply always more light and new insights.
Psalm 1:2 calls those blessed who meditate on the law of the Lord day and night. It is certain that you will be offering up no incense or candles more potent against the devil than by occupying yourself with God's commandments and words, by takling of them, by singing them and by meditating on them. That, let me tell you, is the true holy water, the sign before which he flees and by which you can rout him."

-Martin Luther, Luther's Large Catechism

The Gospel According to You

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,

Are read by more than a few.

But the one that is most read and commented on

Is the gospel according to you.

You are writing a gospel, a chapter each day

By things that you do and words that you say,

Men read what you write, whether faithless or true.

Say, what is the gospel acording to you?

Do men read His truth and His love in your life,

Or has yours been too full of malice and strife?

Does your life speak of evil, or does it ring true?

Say, what is the gospel according to you?

O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more.
I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace.
I am ashamed of my lack of desire.
O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee;

I long to be filled with longing;

I thirst to be made more thirsty still.

Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed.

Begin in mercy a new work of love within me.

Say to my soul, "Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away."

Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.

-A.W. Tozer

Goodness... is loving kindness in action.

         And it does not come naturally! My dear children and husband, though wonderful gifts they are and though deeply, deeply in love with them I am, will still on occasion feel like a heavy burden or look like the fiery enemy himself just begging to be smacked, rebuked and shunned... but I am called to love them anyway.  Even when I'm tired, hurt or angry, instead of acting on my superficial feelings I can make a choice to grasp firmly onto the truths of God's Word, putting on the love of Christ, and being bathed in goodness!  Taking care of their needs, loving on them and incredibly finding that my feelings, though slightly slower at jumping onto the kindness band-wagon, begin to follow the Spirit's leading and begin to be transformed.  What a gift I can be as a wife, mother and friend, constantly aware of how I can be of help and laying down my life in service to others.  If only we all had a little more of His attitude, maybe we'd all get a little more of that goodness in return. My heart this morning:

So I've found it is not words that win over

nor mere thoughts of kindness.

At our best we still fall entirely short.

When slanderously provoked,

quietly bearing, waiting;

actively returning blessing for evil

seems much too impossible.
Needy gratifying of the flesh ~versus~ a higher calling to do good;
an unseen spiritual tug-of-war ensues.
It IS possible to "do good to those who hate you."

God's readily available supernatural goodness,

actively permeates ever inch of this world.

We have only to deny self, open our hearts

and let him play beautifully through

the instrument that is our life.


"The supreme test of goodness is not in the greater but in the smaller incidents of our character and practice; not what we are when standing in the searchlight of public scrutiny, but when we reach the firelight flicker of our homes; not what we are when some clarion-call rings through the air, summoning us to fight for life and liberty, but our attitude when we are called to sentry-duty in the grey morning, when the watch-fire is burning low."
-F.B. Meyer

The fruit of the Spirit is... kindness.

The Spirit produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. There is no law that says these things are wrong. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their own sinful selves. They have given up their old selfish feelings and the evil things they wanted to do. We get our new life from the Spirit, so we should follow the Spirit. We must not be proud or make trouble with each other or be jealous of each other.

-Galatians 5:22-26

~

We're called to kindness...

Excerpts, Bible verses and thoughts from and based on the

book A Woman's Walk With God and embellished by me.

 When you talk, do not say harmful things, but say what people need—words that will help others become stronger. Then what you say will do good to those who listen to you. And do not make the Holy Spirit sad. The Spirit is God's proof that you belong to him. God gave you the Spirit to show that God will make you free when the final day comes. Do not be bitter or angry or mad. Never shout angrily or say things to hurt others. Never do anything evil. Be kind and loving to each other, and forgive each other just as God forgave you in Christ.

-Ephesians 4:29-32

~

Defining kindness...

Kindness actively plans to do something, now. Kindness is: loving others more than ourselves, caring for the comfort and welfare of others more than our own, considering others more important than ourselves, and forgoes arguing.

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, a good teacher, and patient.

-2 Timothy 2:24

~

When you do things, do not let selfishness or pride be your guide. Instead, be humble and give more honor to others than to yourselves. Do not be interested only in your own life, but be interested in the lives of others.

-Philippians 2:3-4

~

Cultivating Kindness...

          Caring is part of kindness!

          Thinking is part of kindness!

          Noticing is part of kindness!

          Touching is part of kindness!

         

Kindness is the next step we are to take after we have practiced patience when wronged!  How many times my natural response to some one who has just hurt me is to react  and decide, "Well, you're off my list!  I don't have to put up with that kind of treatment!  I'll just withhold my love from you!"  But moments like these are precisely when our faith and love for others is being tested and we can have a spiritual victory simply by making a choice to do the opposite of what our flesh desires, a choice to be kind.

Kindness is supernatural, especially to those who have hurt us and it requires God, the holy Spirit, filling us with HIS loving kindness. So we can be overflowing with perfect Him instead of flawed us.

I'm busy, Lord!

I'm busy, Lord. Surely You can see

The thousand things that wait for me!

The dishes still lie in the sink-

I cannot stop to pray and think.

Lord, I know You understand,

For You gave these children to my hand;

And now they cry and need me so,

Lord, You understand, I'd better go.

Now I've got them all to sleep,

I'd better go dust and mop and sweep.

I must thaw out the meat for stew,

And the ironing is long overdue!

And kindly my Lord answered me,

"Why do you from My presence flee?

I have so much for you today.

My child I want to hear you pray.

"I love you child; I want you here

To rest and listen-to shed a tear.

What if Paul had stopped to say,

'Lord, I'm too busy to write letters today!'?

"No, My child, I'm what you need,

Through household duties you can speed,

Yet when you're through, there's emptiness

If this quiet time you miss."

Oh, thank you, Lord for reminding me

How much I need to wait on Thee.

For what's an undone dish or two

Compared to sharing time with You?!

-Nancy Stitzel