Healed

Just because things aren't going our way, or we feel under pressure- does NOT give us the right to blast anyone- especiallly the people that love us the most or want to help us.

We should never ever take our frustrations out on anyone. We wound others when we do it, just like we were deeply wounded when someone spoke to/ treated us that way.

I've been there. I've learned how to wound deeply by being deeply wounded. I was spoke to in anger and frustration and made to feel stupid and worthless. And I spoke to those I love the most in anger and frustration and I made them feel stupid and worthless.

Someone has to break the cycles of abuse. Let it be me, O Lord.

Psalm 30:2 O Lord my God, I cried to You for help, and You healed me.

Psalm 41:4 As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me; Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”

Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.

Proverbs 3:7-9
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
8 It will be healing to your body
And refreshment to your bones.

Isaiah 53:5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.

Mark 5:34 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”

Simplicity

Do you feel like your life is too- complex? Maybe you feel like your life is too layered?

Sometimes I do. Sometimes I feel like I've got too much on my plate. When I was a lot younger and my children were little I told Nick that I just couldn't work a fulltime job, be the mother I wanted to be and keep our house/yard like I wanted. There's just so much a person can do. I just didn't have it in me to be Superwoman. I still don't.

I like simplicity. I like a simple life. That's just me. I like to get up early and spend a little time with the Lord. I like to read and study the Bible. I like to write and teach. I like to work in my yard. I like to hang out in my She Shed. I like a clean house. I love having my family over for family dinners. I like being with our friends. I love being with Nick. I like things orderly and neat.

Complexity messes up my mind. Which in turns gets my emotions all off track.

I also find when my life is simplified- by my own doing- I find greater rest and truthfully it is easier to abide in Christ. Now, I know there will come times when life will get complex and complicated, there was nothing I did to bring it on and there was nothing I could do to prevent it.

When Paul was writing to the church at Corinth he wrote, "But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your mind should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." 2 Corinthians 11:3

I looked up the word "simpliticy" in Helps Word Study. Basically it means "not fold". Like a piece of cloth unfolded, not compounded or over-complicated (needlessly complex).

I know this for sure. The more complicated, folded, my life becomes the more my mind is led astray from the simplicity and devotion to Jesus. Why? Because my mind becomes focused on what I think is lacking in my life. And I want. I want things of this world, what others have, more than I want simplicity. I move from a life of faith in Jesus who IS Simplicity to being corrupted by the craftiness of the enemy who wants me wrapped up, twisted and overwhelmed by complexity. Complexity messes up my mind, which in turns sends my emotions on a totally different track- the track of doubt and unbelief.

So I'm choosing, in the moment, the simplicity of Jesus. And my mind and emotions rest which lead to experiencing joy and peace- which is now, because of my new birth in Christ truly normal and natural for me. It is unnatural for a believer to not rest, or abide, or yeild, or surrender. It unnatural for a believer to not have joy or peace.

So believer, you new creation in Christ you- choose Simplictiy.

Is there life after death?

What happens when we die?
What happens to us; a person, an individual when we die?

Have you ever thought about it?

Is there life after death? Is this life all there is?

And how do we really KNOW what happens after we die? I mean, all the different religions have their idea of life after death. Cults have their idea of life after death. Even Christianity is so mixed up at times. I get on facebook and read what some Christians put, and although I am no Bible scholar a lot of what they put I've yet to read in the Bible, where are all these "Christians" getting their idea of life after death? So who is right? Is there more than one right?

And where do I start to know?

My heart is truly that you come to know truth.

First, seek God. If you truly want to know the answer to these questions then God will truly reveal Himself because you see, He is the answer, the only answer to these questions.

Although God is speaking to the Israelites in these words they have long-reaching implications, because ultimately, God's eternal purpose is that we come to Him and He gives Himself to us.

The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you. There you will serve gods, the work of man’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell (false religions and cults). But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.- Deuteronomy 4:27-31

And these words from once a religious fanatic, even to the point of murdering Christians to one deeply in love with the One True God:

So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”- Acts 17:22-31

It helps to actually READ the Bible : )

Just to clarify.  When people die they do not become angels, or angles as I've seen some post : ) nor do we gain wings.  Never is that said in Scripture. 

Today!

Today I am thankful for 29.5 years of marriage. Yep, why not celebrate half anniversaries? It's 9 degrees, I wonder what it will be when we celebrate our 30th 6 months from today? 😀

I am also thankful for a husband who can thaw out frozen pipes so we can have water!

I am thankful for this 15 year old heat pump that loudly keeps chugging along.

I am thankful for gas logs throughout the house that supplements the heat pump.

I am so thankful for God's faithfulness to us in 2017 and I am confident of His continued love, faithfulness and guidance in 2018.

As I look out on the frozen earth I know that there are seasons in life, just as on the earth. Years ago I was complaining to my Dad, the farmer, about how much I hate winter. How I dread the cold, being stuck inside- kind of like being caged in, and need the sun. I'm telling this to the man who has to get up early, dress in coveralls and warm clothes head to toe to tend to the animals- and he told me, "Yes, me too but we need the seasons."

We do, you know. We need seasons in life. Life isn't about sunny, 70 degree days. We need the frozen days, like it or not, just as much- if not more- than we need the sunny, birdsong, warm breezy days.

Rejoice in today! Rejoice is the outflowing of inner grace and joy.
Grace is God freely extending Himself to me, freely giving Himself to me- His tendency is to be near me.
Joy is the awareness and recognition of God's grace to me.

So to rejoice is the outflow of the inward awareness of God giving Himself to ME.

THIS- cold, frozen and beautiful in it's own way- is the day the Lord has made, Let us rejoice and be glad in it!- Psalm 118:24