Inspirations

I woke this morning with a heavy heart.  I was concerned for my children even though they are adults.  I want to be sure my children walk with God.  So, I was praying and asking God for wisdom.  I was sitting in MY chair and listening to the Bible.  When God whispered, “Rest.  Just sit back and let ME care for them.”   Sometimes in the Bible, God had the people fight their battle.  At other times, God said, “This is not your battle, this is my battle.”  Today God whispered, “Elaine, this is not your problem.”  I felt such peace knowing that my God, who loves me, also loves them.   He reminded me that while they were home, I tried to make sure they knew God.  Now, my job is to rest and trust God and them to live as God would want.   That’s hard!  I like to see the evidence and my children tend to be private.  I only get snippets of conversation, and it’s like seeing one piece of a puzzl...

Today has been a quiet, meditative Easter.  So I've been sitting here in my “comfy” chair and thinking.  I was reflecting on Jesus’ death and how it must have seemed so final.  It was the end.  They were beginning to trust this Jesus and then he died a horrible death at the hands of his enemies. They were just beginning to have hope and then “bam” it was snuffed out like a candle.   I was thinking of their confusion when the women ran in saying that Jesus was alive.  They wanted to believe, but the situation must have seemed so bleak, so unlikely, so impossible that it was just too much to think about right at that moment.   Then later, Jesus joined them in the upper room.  Imagine their joy!  As I was thinking about how overjoyed they must have felt, I couldn’t help weeping myself.   I was weeping for the unimaginable joy that they must have felt when they realized Jesus was alive.  I was wee...

It’s Easter Saturday the day sandwiched between “Good Friday” and “Resurrection Sunday.”   There are dinners being planned, Easter egg hunts, and all kinds of other plans being made for our celebration of Easter.  I imagine the scene the first Easter was quite different.  No one was planning meals; they were making burial plans perhaps they had even dispensed with eating.  The disciples were somber.  They had watched Jesus die a horrific death one day earlier.  They thought he was going to be a king, but now he was gone and for all they knew, they were the next ones on the list.  The mood was quiet, there was no busyness only uncertainty.  The uncertainty of what they had witnessed and what they should do now.  They had no grand expectation of Jesus rising from the dead.  What they had on Easter Saturday was the finality of death; just that and nothing else.  So as we think about Easter Saturday lets quiet out hearts and foc...

It's Good Friday.  The day my Lord was crucified.  Two thousand years ago, more or less Jesus was hung on a tree and killed and I am amazed.  What amazes me is not the amount of pain he suffered, not the way he died, not even the humbleness with which he endured shame and pain.  No, what amazes me is that he chose to suffer a cruel beating and death for me.   He didn’t have to die.  He had other choices.  What amazes me is that when he was dying on the cross, he was looking through eternity past, present and future and did not see a people who loved him but people who hated him. He saw sinful, stubborn, rebellious people; that’s what we all are apart from God.  If I’m honest with myself, I know that I’ve done things worthy of death. Knowing all that in advance, Jesus still said, “My child, I love you enough to die for you.”  I know how sinful I can be, so I amazed that the creator of the universe would die for me.  It...

equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him I’ve been building a closet in our bedroom.  I started about two or maybe three years ago; I lost track of time.  This project started well, but then I lost steam and ground to a halt. Last year, we had so many other expenses that it took a backseat.  Last week, I finally decided to revisit that project.  I hate leaving a project half-done.  I purchased a jigsaw to finish the project.  I could have used my hacksaw, but It would have made the job harder AND I can not cut a very straight line with a hacksaw.  One thing I’ve come to realize is that how well a job turns out, often depends on having the right tools for the job.  I can use a bread knife in place of a screwdriver, but a cordless screwdriver is much more enjoyable.  In our spiritual life, we need to have the right tools also.  God says that he provides us with the tools we need t...

Growing up, one thing my parent would often say is, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”  Way back then, I thought it was a funny saying.   Now as I cross the half-century mark, I realize that it is waaaay truer than I would like to thing or admit.  There have been times in my life, that I have felt the need to give a word of encouragement to a friend, give something to a ministry, or perhaps talk to a friend about God.  But…. I didn’t act right away to the spirits leading, I put it off.  I told myself that I could do it tomorrow.  Do you know what the problem with that philosophy is?  Yepp, tomorrow never gets here.  I had put it off indefinitely.   I watched the opportunity to do a good deed slip right through my hand like sand just because I put it off waiting for a better time.  It was stretching me a bit, and I was uncomfortable.  I am convinced that  the one word that Satan love...

  “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   Ok, I have a confession!  I am addicted to craft and Do it yourself projects.  I love a first-rate “Do It Yourself project.”  I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment when I look at a finished project and say, “I did this.”  My problem is that I don’t have just ONE project going, no I have at least 10 in various stages of completion.  Most I do manage to finish but not all of them.  Occasionally, there have been some projects that, for whatever reason, never did get finished.  I've ended up putting the project in the closet because  of the clutter.  I intend on working on it but, for whatever reason, it seems to get derailed.  I end up with a project sitting for years because I do not have the heart to give up, but I also do not have the ambition to finish the task.   As I look at th...