Touching the Hem

“So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him and thronged Him…Now a certain woman …had suffered many things…When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment…‘Who touched me?’ And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. But the woman…fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed…’” Mark 5:30b-34.

This is a story of a woman who had suffered for over 12 years and had been desperately seeking healing from her despair. She had tried everything and no matter what she tried no resolution was found. To make matters worse her suffering was compounded by the fact she was considered unclean since the issue was blood. This led to isolation which I’m sure led to depression and hopelessness. Apparently, at some point she heard the buzz about Jesus and how He was in town healing the most hopeless situations. No doubt, she grabbed a garment that would most hide her face and condition and secretly moved in the crowd inching her way to Jesus. As she moved closer to Him, she caught a glimpse of His garment and knew this was her last chance to be healed. She fully understood the power that Jesus possessed and believed that even His garment carried His power to heal. As her weak little hand reached out, she touched the hem of Jesus and was immediately healed. As the crowd was pressing against Jesus, He immediately stopped and brought her secret suffering into public testimony. I have no doubt Jesus knew exactly who reached out to Him, but for the sake of bringing many people to salvation the timing was perfect for people to witness the miracle and begin following Him.

Who is touching Jesus out there today? Who fully understands that He has the power to heal? When our lives seem out of control with no hope, do we risk everything to get near to Jesus like the suffering woman? Do we move closer to His power or further away? I am sure the crowd who followed Him was full of healing needs…loneliness…illness…anger...bitterness...scoffers...prodigals…beggars.... But Jesus wasn’t too hurried to acknowledge the woman at the moment He discovered her great faith. God will always bless true faith on display, especially when the storm is raging. Whatever healing we need, there is comfort and mercy until the condition is gone. Sometimes this healing is on earth and sometimes in Heaven. I am reminded of a dear friend who lost her mother this past weekend. She shared with me the most beautiful and tender parting words as she left her mother’s side to go and get more clothes to stay with her. She said, ‘Before I left, I told Mom she had better not be there when I returned, that she had a much better place she needed to be, and Jesus, and other family members were all waiting for her there.”

Now that is a woman who has touched the hem of Jesus in the face of suffering. She fully understands that saying goodbye to her mother means her mother saying hello to face-to-face fellowship with her God...the ultimate healing.  It is only through the comfort of Christ that we are able to accept whatever is His will. When we live our lives so close to Jesus that we can reach out and touch His hem, we will be healed of whatever it is that we are suffering. And just like the hemorrhaging woman the bleeding will stop, and our testimonies will be great!

Moving the Stone

“Very early in the morning…they came to the tomb… ‘Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?’ But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away – for it was very large.” Mark 16:2-4

This morning as I read this account of Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus and Salome walking to the place where Jesus was laid to rest, I couldn’t help but to recall one night in February of 2011. My father-in-law who was suffering with Alzheimer’s had been living with us almost a year. It had been one of the toughest years of my life as I waded through the tumultuous waters of one of the cruelest diseases that remains incurable. It was a year when I felt most like a failure trying to handle my own emotions along with his challenges. I would look in the mirror and see a woman who was exhausted… irritated…frustrated…bitter. It was a constant tug of war between God reminding me who I was in Him and Satan convincing me how I was not measuring up. Finally, one morning before any light had broken through the dark, I went up into our loft and got on my knees and began sobbing and praying. I couldn’t stop and I didn’t want to stop because I felt I had held it back so long I needed to release it all. Looking back, I now understand that my tears and my prayers were expressing the same question. ‘Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb?’ My suffering was first thing on my mind ‘very early in the morning.’ I knew that the stone that lay before me wasn’t something I could move on my own. And just like the grieved and questioning women, I looked up from my prayers with a tear-drenched face and heard God’s gentle words, ‘Call Hospice…let them do the heavy lifting for you now.’ It never dawned on me to get Hospice involved with Alzheimer’s. That morning God rolled the stone away for me knowing the road had gotten too hard for me.

I know that many of you feel like your circumstances are too heavy for you to push through. I’m sure you are waking up with the challenges on your mind first thing wondering how you will get through this day…how can you move your circumstances so that the pathway can be clear? I am here to tell you that whatever you are facing, God has gone before you and rolled away the stone. He has the strength and the power and the wisdom for anything you face today. But He knows that you just might try to move the stone on your own, and He never meant for you to carry that load.

God’s promises are for you and for me, just like they were for the women who worried about the heavy stone they would never have to move. We can trust that God will remove the things that worry us at His determined time and in His perfect way. He has been doing it since the creation of time, and He will never pull back His saving hand during our journey.

No Regrets

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us." 1 John 3:16

Eight years ago, when we purchased our townhome on Folly Beach, I was astonished by the story that went along with the man who sold us his townhouse. He and his wife had divorced and had three small boys who attended school in the area. The property owner had decided to move to California with his job. Before he left, he purchased this townhome to create a place where he and his boys could be together when he came into town and share in their relationship until all three boys had graduated from high school. For seven years, he flew in one week a month and they stayed at the townhome and enjoyed each other. We closed on our townhome the same weekend the last child graduated. I’ll never forget at our closing he had to write a check for $80,000 because he had sold in a low market but purchased in a high market. I felt so bad for him and even told him that. He looked at me and said something I will never forget. He told me that he had no regrets and would write that check all over again to gain what it bought him…fellowship and deep relationship with his children. No regrets even though it cost him dearly. I was considering how sad it would have been if his children would have not made time for him that week or made excuses for minimal time with him.

I began thinking how God removed His royal robe and put on flesh stepping down in a sin-soaked world to pay the price for our fellowship with Him. He wrote the largest check ever written with His blood to provide a place for us to be in communion with Him. I was considering how high the price was for Christ and we sometimes made little time with Him. We use excuse after excuse to give Him a fraction of the time He deserves. But even if we never visit Him, He still would have paid the price for us and written the check. The reason is because His sacrifice was not based on our performance or availability. His sacrifice was motivated by deep love for us, and obedience to His Father. He understood that with the price He paid, we could gain eternal fellowship and live in a home that wasn’t built by human hands. I’m so grateful that Christ has no regrets and wouldn’t take back the cross for anything because it gave us everything!

“For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.” 2 Co 5:1

Redeeming our Ticket

“I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.” Isaiah 44:22

One of the events that I look forward to on Folly Beach is Folly Gras when our dinner club gets together for the weekend. It is tons of fun as we stand on the side of the street watching the colorful parade filled with interesting costumed people and animals. This weekend is Folly Gras and I went on line to purchase my tickets. A little while later I received an email with a link the event representative will click to redeem my ticket, allowing me to enter through the gate. I paid the admission price, but he holds the power to allow me to enter the event once he presses the redeem button.

I began thinking how Christ paid our price to experience ongoing fellowship with Him on earth, and eternal communion with Him in Heaven. He paid the price on a debt for which He did not owe, and we are blessed with the benefits of that payment. When we enter into His presence, He doesn’t remind us of the cost, but loves and chooses us from the overflow of the sacrifice. God sees our debt as paid in full, but Christ is the one who offered His life to redeem our life and enter through the gate. I can't even imagine the parades of Heaven as the clouds of witnesses march along the streets of gold. I love worship music and cannot wait to hear the beautiful melodies and harmonies of the angels as they worship the Trinity. I just know my loved ones will be marching in the parade of reunions with arms wide open welcoming me. My mind can get lost in the blessings of Christ's gift of redemption.

The gratitude and humility of what was done for us by an innocent man should be ever before us and forever in our hearts. If God never gave us one more blessing, the one that Christ gave us would be much more than we ever deserved. That is how much our Father loves us…that He surrendered His son who surrendered His life so that we could have life. When Christ arose with our freedom in hand, He punched our ticket of redemption forever. May we live out the remainder of our lives with a heart of surrender to the Ones who surrendered for us.

The God Who Sees

“Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness…And He said, ‘Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?’ ‘I am fleeing…’” Ge 16:7-8

This morning several dear friends came to mind when I read Hagar’s broken spirit… ‘I am fleeing...’ I remember several times in my life when those words were my feelings. Each morning I would arise to the same cruel set of circumstances whether it was facing my child’s rebellion or facing the needs of my father-in-law’s Alzheimer’s when he lived with us. It didn’t matter how much I prayed or studied the Word, the circumstances remained cruel and overbearing. Like Hagar who fled her master’s home due to a challenging situation, I was an emotional runaway. Oh sure, I was still physically present but emotionally in the wilderness. But time after time, God met me in that wilderness and tended to my needs and comforted me. He poured His strength and love into my weakness and weariness and helped me face another day. Like with Hagar, He didn’t calm the circumstances, but He calmed the storm that raged. Like Hagar, I had to get up from my knees and return to the same circumstances, but the return was always covered in new mercies.

I know many of you are having a very difficult time right now, begging God to take away your suffering and challenging circumstances. I know that it must feel like each day is a year, and each tear is in vain. But God is very clear in His word that He loves us with every part of His spirit, and in that love, He will deliver us from all our circumstances in due time. His thoughts are so much higher than how we think, and His ways are seldom the way we would want. But I don’t want a God who thinks on my level, and I certainly don’t think my way is best…I’ve seen the messiness that my way has created in the past. All Hagar had was her son whom she loved, and trust in the One who loved her. She was her son’s advocate, responsible for everything about his life. But what she realized is the same thing we must realize as we care for others. God might have entrusted us with caring for someone, but He is the true Caregiving over our spouse, our children, our parents or any other person in our life. He makes a much greater Savior than we do, so victory is ours when we lay down our ways and thoughts and allow Him to be the same God as He was for Hagar.

“Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees;” Ge 16:13

Shaking Things Up

"You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.'" James 4:15

When I was a little girl, one of my favorite toys was Etch a Sketch. I would sit there for what seemed like forever creating and designing a picture of whatever was in my head. Sometimes it would turn out pretty good while other times the image was unrecognizable. No problem – I would shake it up and down and just like that…the design would disappear right before my eyes. I loved the blank slate because the possibilities were endless…a new picture…a new surface for designing.

Eight years ago, this month Bruce and I began searching for a place at Folly Beach. We weren’t completely convinced on buying something because Bruce had retirement in his sights. But after months of prayer we felt that God was with us in this endeavor. Everything went great in the process and the doors blew open without any problems. Over the past 7+ years we have thoroughly enjoyed our time here along with sharing it with friends and family. But all seasons must come to a close and it is time to hand this one back to God with deep gratitude and peace. On Thursday, the realtor’s office sent a woman who ‘staged’ our place instructing us what to get rid of and what to keep. Supposedly it will help potential buyers picture their own things in our home. Secondly, the carpet steamers came to get some tough stains out and the afternoon ended with a cleaning crew. Pictures were taken down and all personal items were removed. I suddenly became so emotional as I scanned the kitchen and living area. Someone picked up my Etch a Sketch and shook it until my design was completely erased. As the cleaning crew wiped away any dirt or dust, in my mind my life here was being erased. I told Bruce that by the end of the day my touch had disappeared from this place.

But this morning I am reminded that God is the one who lovingly shook up my Etch a Sketch. He has a new surface on which to create. His loving touch will create and design a new picture...one I can trust...I've seen the beautiful things He has created. With the beautiful life He helped us design at Folly, He will help us create a new beginning. We will be completely committed back in Charlotte which excites me since most of those whom I adore live in the general vicinity. The devil would try to convince me that seasons are going to last forever, the bad and the good which is erroneous. The devil has tried to convince me that we are losers in this transaction. But I know that God has defeated Satan so all he has left are lies. I will gladly hand over the Etch a Sketch of my life and excitedly watch the Creator draw a new picture with new blessings.

Whatever your picture looks like this morning, God has an even better one up ahead. His blessings are cumulative and progressive as one builds upon another. Try not to see your picture as complete for God will continue to connect those beautiful lines that form your life.

Remembering the Crown

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.” John 15:12-14

Yesterday was cold, windy and overcast for most of the day. Bruce and I didn’t even think about going out on the screen porch to watch the sunset. I kept glancing over my shoulder as if I was going to miss something. Suddenly a cloud shelf formed and for the next 30 minutes God displayed a canvas of colors as if His paint inventory exploded in the heavens. Many of you saw these pictures on Facebook last night but it wasn’t until this morning that the gift really came. Robin Cole, a friend of mine from high school commented on one of the pictures pointing out a crown on the horizon. I couldn’t believe that I missed the crown last night when looking at these pictures. On the eve of Valentine’s Day God displayed an image that gave expression to the words of John 15:12-14. Greater love has never been shown than when 1/3 of the Godhead stood up, removed His crown in Heaven and stepped down to earth. He had to lay down His crown in order to lay down His life for you and for me. And yet, we sometimes need that reminder of the crown and what it means to us.

On this Valentine’s Day I will certainly lift my gratitude to my Father for precious friends and family whom I adore. They are such incredible blessings from God as expressions of love, laughter, joy and fellowship. But as I continue to think about the crown in the sky last night I am left with humble realities. God loved us so much He sent Jesus to show us how to live with love and how to die with love. He showed us that love can be extended to our haters and through Him we have the power to love the unlovable. He invites us not just into eternity but into a personal friendship with Him sharing every detail of our life. As God gently placed the beautiful crown on the horizon last night, He was saying, ‘Don’t forget about the Crown tomorrow when considering love. Don’t forget that Jesus allowed Himself to hang on a criminal’s cross although He was sinless. And least of all don’t forget that Jesus arose with your freedom in hand and ushered your position in eternity.’

No…greater…love! May we all have a beautiful Valentine’s Day as we remember that since He laid down His crown we will pick up our crown one day.

Breaking Through the Eyewall

“In the eye of the storm, you remain in control…In the middle of the war, you guard my soul. You alone are the anchor, when my sails are torn. Your love surrounds me, in the eye of the storm.” Eye of the Storm, Ryan Stevenson

Over the course of almost 8 years at Folly we have been on hurricane watch a few times a year. We even were given a Hurricane Card as residents to present to re-enter the island after a strong hurricane. I am always amazed at how the calm eye is surrounded by devastating winds and epic amounts of water, some out of the atmosphere and vast amount from the ocean. I looked up the explanation of the surrounding areas of the eye. It states, ‘The eye is a region of mostly calm weather at the center of strong tropical cyclones. It is surrounded by the eyewall, a ring of towering thunderstorms where the most severe weather and highest winds occur’ Wikipedia.

I began considering my friends who seem to be experiencing their own eyewall during this season of their lives, surrounded by a ring of towering and severe circumstances. The details must seem chaotic to them with little control in their hands. Their visibility I’m sure is very limited and their faces are probably chapped from the tears. The rain keeps coming and the water level keeps rising. But with every hurricane there is an eye where God resides doing His best work. It is where calm and peace exist because it is connecting to the One who holds back the eyewall from collapsing on us.

If you are experiencing that ring of severity, don’t despair because on the other side of the eyewall is God Almighty who controls all the storms. The eyewall is nearest to the proximity and presence of God. Push through the most severe part of your hurricane and reach out to grab the hand of Christ. He will pull you in and surround you with His calm enduring love. Only He controls the length of time and the severity of the storm as it swirls around you. But He gives us a place of refuge…a covering for our pain…a place of rest for our soul no matter what is in the eyewall.

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.” Psalm 32:8

Attention to Details

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow” Matthew 6:34, The Message.

There are five words that command immediate focus when announced in any given situation…May I have your attention? Most of the time no matter what is going on, our circumstances are briefly halted to prepare for the rest of the sentence. What follows can certainly be an announcement of something to celebrate, however many times it can be important instructions to apply caution. God is the creator of those words. He commanded attention from the sun, the moon and everything else under His authority instructing them where to go, when to go and how long to stay. The unique attention He pays as He forms each baby in their mother’s womb is another beautiful example of His attention to details.

I began considering how I am measuring up when it comes to paying attention to details with God.  Am I looking for God tomorrow and ignoring my attention on Him today?  Am I forming prayers on my lips for next week’s event when today has looming consequences?  Why on earth is it so easy to give our attention on future events with fear, anxiety and impatience?  What does, giving our entire attention to God right now look like?  It looks like the caregiving woman who needs strength for the moment, so she pushes her crowded thoughts away and whispers ‘Lord, I need you right now.’  It is the fearful spouse who lives in the future scared and insecure from past unfaithfulness.  She pushes through her insecurities and begs, ‘Father, help my unbelief.’ It is returning to our knees the moment we feel scared…lonely…sad and affirm ‘Greater are you in me God than any of these emotions.’

There is so much attention that must be given to this moment…this morning…this afternoon...tonight.  What blessings and comforts from the Lord are we missing out on when we set our hearts on tomorrow?  Lord, help us pay close attention to today and the plans you wish to show us so that we may not miss one detail. The fruit of our fellowship with God is guidance, wisdom, peace and joy apart from our circumstances.

Inexpressible Joy

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith…” 1 Peter 1:8-9

What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘joy’? Images of other people or the condition of your heart? So many people confuse happiness with joy and the two cannot be further apart. Joy is anchored and rooted while happiness is fickle and fleeting…joy is a permanent heart condition while happiness is the external pursuit of a moving target. ‘A joyful spirit is a powerful witness in the world. Joy is the inner state that results from knowing and serving God. Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and should be evident regardless of the circumstances. Biblical joy is clearly different from earthly happiness. Joy is eternal, while happiness is temporal. Joy is based on confidence in Christ, while happiness is based on circumstances.’ Life Lessons from Women in the Bible, Rhonda Harrington Kelley, p. 82.

A person filled with joy is like that little child who embraces life as they feel safe and secure because of their parents. They don't have to worry about their provisions because that is not their responsibility. Happiness is like that teenager who chases their temporary emotions and desperately tries to snatch control away from their parents.  Peter gives us an idea of how to obtain true and lasting joy and its not complicated. We simply receive it since God is the one who places joy within us. When we cannot see Him in our circumstances, we are to still love Him knowing what He has done for us. When He seems absent and silent, we are still to believe in His promise that He will never leave us. When we turn to Him and draw near with our love, confidence and open heart He will fill us with joy that we cannot comprehend. How can we explain the joy within us as the season upon us is so discouraging? We can’t because our joy doesn’t come from us…it doesn’t make sense to us…it is given through Christ. Anything that is eternal is not of us, but rather for us imparted by the Holy Spirit.

Let God’s joy rule in your heart each day and you will experience peace that you cannot even explain. True joy is an inward expression of God’s presence.

Raising our Hallelujah

“Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” Psalm 106:1

One of my favorite movies of all time is Disney’s Little Mermaid. For me the scene where she loses her voice is one of the most powerful scenes that come to mind. She is in the presence of Ursula, the movie’s representation of evil. She is brilliantly and deceitfully duped into losing one of her greatest joys…singing. As the movie progresses, she fights until her voice has returned and the beauty of her life is restored.

As I considered this scene out of the movie this morning I began wondering who on the other side of this screen has lost your voice. Many of you are going through really hard times right now and I wouldn't blame you if the praise has been interrupted. You are awaking to the same trauma or challenge to which you fell asleep last night. It might be that you are in the raging storm of an illness that has quietened your song. It could be you feel that God has let you down so why lift the praise? It may be the heartbreaking grief that you are going through since your loved one is now in Heaven. The heart feels empty, so the hallelujah seems gone.

What do we do when the evil of sin and sickness steals our voice and mutes our worship? We pray to God to help us in our weakness…we affirm that God is good…we believe that the grave holds no victory…we recite the past faithfuless of God…we remember that God is for us…we choose to raise our song of hallelujah like a battle flag in our war. We start with a whisper as we raise our hallelujah to God and as praise leaves our lips, we regain our voice. "We sing a little louder, ‘Sin and sickness has no power over me.’ We sing a little louder, 'I will sing in the presence of my enemy...' cancer…loneliness…joblessness…depression. We sing a little louder, 'I'm bringing Heaven down to fight for me.'" Raise A Hallelujah, Bethel Music. The verses flow out of our spiritual arsenol as our weapons. There is an evil force that wants to take away our voice and quieten our hallelujah. But our life depends on how we sing during the storm and the contents of our worship. So if your praise seems to be a bit muted, fight for your voice…reclaim your praise…and sing a little louder!

From Potter to Clay

“But now, LORD, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. All of us are the work of your hand” Isaiah 64:8.

I remember when I was a little girl, I had this pottery kit that boasted the outcome of a beautiful clay creation. I remember the first thing I had to do was massage the clay until it became more workable. Once it would pull apart and mash down easily it was time to create. I added the suggested amount of water and began molding and spinning the lump of clay. I remember working hard at it envisioning the outcome of something beautiful…perhaps a little dish in which to place my rings…maybe a small vase where a flower can find a home. The possibilities were endless, and my optimism was high as I continued with wet gray hands to form something from the formless. But at the end of the project the only thing I had formed was another lump of clay.

Looking back over my adult life, little did I realize that I had lived most of those years trying to be the potter over my circumstances. When life delivered a lump of clay…those tough circumstances…I took them in my hands massaging and molding them into a solution I determined was right. But just like when I was a little girl the only thing that I ended up with was another lump of messy wet clay. I spent so much time trying to mold myself into an image that wasn’t who God created me to be. And finally, I turned off the light in my pottery room, closed the door and joined the Lord in His. It was nice to be in the hands of the One who could not only mold me into His image but shape me into a unique vase to display His glory. While I will show flaws until I wake up in Heaven God still sees me as beautiful and useful in His hands. The same God who molds me molds you and deems you loved and beautiful too.

I’m so thankful that we have a potter who can make beauty from our marred conditions. I’m confident that any flaw or imperfection that we have can be smoothed and refashioned once God wraps His hands around our lives. There will be pressure applied as we spin around this life, but the 'God indentations' will represent the person whom He wants us to be. We will be shaped into the vessel for which God has determined, walking out our individual purpose and beauty. We will all hold our unique blooms…the gifts and talents He has given us… if we stay in the hands of the Potter. Our fragrance will be different because God made each of us from a mixture of ourselves and His spirit. Just like vases we all have our own shapes…colors…blooms to carry out the will of God in our lives.

“But thank God, who is always leading us around through Christ as if we were in a parade. He releases the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere through us” 2 Co 2:14.

Walking out our Very Good

“God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good” Gen 1:16-18.

Yesterday our pastor began a new series about how faith and science do not have to be enemies. Our pastor highlighted that while God considered His creation as good, it wasn’t until mankind was created that it became complete. All the elements of nature reflect God’s glory and each display their unique light. Consider the sun and the moon that God placed in the sky at their prospective times of the day. He didn’t just create them but wanted to share the fruit of their existence with mankind. He didn’t create them for His own enjoyment, rather so we could share in the beauty of the sunrises and the sunsets…the ‘work of their hands.’ He scattered billions of stars in the sky to remind us of innumerable blessings under which we live. He saw how good the creation was and then He turned His heart to us…born in His image…born to take hold of the beauty of creation that He described as good. As mankind opened its eyes for the first time God must have been overwhelmed with parental love and joy. He had created something beautiful to share with His children.

And our very existence is what completed God’s perfect creation. ‘God created mankind in his own image…God blessed them…God saw all that he had made, and it was very good’ Ge 1:27, 28, 31. God’s opinion of us never changed, but sin changed us. Because God’s first desire was to fellowship with His children, He sent a way out for all of us. He applied the sacrifice of Jesus to restore our status of ‘very good.’ When I consider my past sins, I’m thankful as a believer God still sees me as very good. When you consider the bad choices you have made, through Christ God still sees you as very good. For the wayward family member who is a believer, we must try to see them through the eyes of their Creator…they are very good. I’m so thankful that we can learn from the sun and the moon that rises on the righteous and the evil. They don’t discriminate upon whom to bless because they rise to the voice of God, and so should we. May our lives do the same as the sun and moon and reflect the beauty of our Creator blessing all people. May the fruit of our existence shine brightly in the dark and beam brilliantly in the day as we walk out the very good work of God.

The Man in the Picture

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me” Rev 3:20.

As the calendar turns to February, I find myself this morning overwhelmed with spiritual sentiment. Thirteen years ago, this month marks the point of time when I heard a gentle knock on the door of my heart. The knock wasn’t frantic or excited rather one that came with simple introduction when I wasn’t expecting company. This picture below has hung in the little cozy extension of our kitchen for many years. It was in Bruce’s parents' home as he was growing up and we had it framed. It is a common picture but one that has taken life over the past 13 years.

Jesus probably had knocked many times over the course of my life, but things were too noisy for me to hear Him. Focus was too concentrated on the things of this world instead of the things of the next world which will be my home. Thankfully, 13 years ago as I passed by the door, I heard the gentle knocking and I stopped to answer. He entered my home in full and took up residence in my heart. Instead of the picture that hung I was experiencing the fellowship of the real thing. As we began spending time together life unfolded and He walked with me through each challenging season as if moving through my home together room by room…season by season. Twelve weeks after He moved in Daddy was diagnosed with incurable cancer. A week later my father-in-law was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and we began supporting him and his wife at every turn. A few years later Beth was diagnosed with Bile Duct Cancer and we said our ‘goodbyes for now’ to her 11 short months later. Eleven months after that Bud came to live with us in the final year of his Alzheimer’s. Three weeks later my precious dad died and 11 months after that Bud died. There have been more rooms since then through which the Lord and I have walked, some joyful and some heartbreaking. And that is the point of my spiritual sentiment this morning.

The Lord didn’t cause all this, but He saw the tough road that was going to unfold before me. He rushed in to prepare me and equip me since He saw my faith wasn’t strong enough for the journey ahead. That is how much I am loved by the Man in the picture…and so are you. So, for the one who is battling a disease let Him carry you. For the person who has been separated by the death of a loved one…let Him comfort you until you see them again. For the lonely heart that is waiting on love…let Him love on you. For the parent who fears the future for their child…let Him protect them for you. God loves every one of us enough to have sent His Son to become more for us than just a man in the picture.