Month: August 2008

What would blow your mind? I was thinking about that this afternoon because I had been reading a mother’s sharing of healing happening in her son who has autism. A member of my family has also been afflicted with this condition so we continue to hope for improvement month after month and now year after year. As she told her story some of the details involved really stretched the mind for faith. Personally I read them with hope because sometimes faith is believing what you can’t yet see with your natural eyes.

I found myself hesitating though about sharing it with others. Not because her details were too fantastic to believe but more because I did believe them. No, I hesitated for sharing with friends or family because I’m not really sure if they are ready to believe such fantastic possibilities!

Now doesn’t that seem hypocritical, to go forth so boldly to share the gospel but yet pull back when it comes to sharing what Jesus has done in someone’s life to heal a disease? Clearly I have some prayer time ahead of me but I am thankful each time these inconsistencies are exposed to my consciousness. To me it means my Father still wants to show me places where I am holding back on Him.

I know I will share this woman’s story because it offers hope where there could never be enough hope, and that’s for a family member to be healed of autism.

The days keep zooming by like some kind of train picking up speed don’t they? That is until you anticipate and look forward to a specific event. I can waiver between wanting the days to slow up and feeling tired enough to ask the heavens to come this very hour. My delay tactic is not for me though, it’s for the unsaved. Many do I love and who touch my life in some way or another and I earnestly seek for them to do all they can in this hour before the dawn.

My heart aches for those who are called and yet put off coming home because they feel like they will miss out on something great. How awful to know the greatness they are already missing. I know well what I speak because I once put off the greatness for things offered in darkness. I gave my endless joy over to things of small use and small reward only to be left empty again and needing my next “break” in life.

I have wasted so much time chasing the “almighty dollar” or my material idols. When I finally did accomplish gathering some of my desires the results were draining of happiness. I share openly what I have done with my time in hopes to inspire another not to be so wasteful with what is so precious. As the song says, “Everything I once held dear I count it all as lost”.

Early in the morning I seek out the strength I will need to combat whatever may be put into my path and prepare myself for blessings, whether they be for me personally or if I am to be used for another’s blessing.

Psalm 1:3 He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.

My husband and I were listening to a talk on faith this morning and how our faith can really be tested in times of trials. I know my own trials are at hand and I can hear the enemy whispering his lies in my ear to confuse me about why I am not yet through the current trial. His lies try to condemn me for not being good enough but I have been honing my ear to hear my heavenly Father who speaks louder still when I read His word.

I don’t always understand the trials we have to come through but something I heard this morning gave me pause for thought. The message was saying that perhaps our own trials come so that we aren’t leaning upon the faith of others. To really have faith we need to learn how to lean upon the Lord for ourselves.

As I witness the faith of others I notice how sometimes in the heat of the battle they speak out of fear of limitations for who God is. I got a picture of a small sized cane where they can barely stand to face their enemy, but then I also got a picture of the full sized crutch giving us the ability to see our enemy face to face. I have no shame to admit Jesus is who I lean upon throughout my life and in the battle I will stand tall upon his saving grace.

Our mouths can really screw us up don’t you think? We mean one thing but yet something else comes out. I want my mouth to be loaded with an “auto-rewind” feature complete with a “memory erase” button for those I am talking to. In this age of techno-talk I would think it’s totally possible, don’t you? Picture the conversation….you get input from someone and merely reply, “Hold on while I filter possible answers through my lip gear.” After speaking from your fleshly lips, if there is any sense you didn’t speak correctly you merely push the appropriate button saving your butt from the ultimate “faux pas”.
James 3:8 (The Message) but you can’t tame the tongue – it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer.

Rebuilding Iraq is a common phrase we hear almost daily in a news snippet. My own thoughts sway like a pendulum between “squandering dollars” to “helping those in need”. It can be difficult to understand the truth of what is really happening on this foreign soil if all I can get for input is what’s on Fox News or the repetitive chatter of CNN.

I am blessed now and again by personal notes from friends who have family stationed in the distressed areas. Personal stories of helping real people, not just marionettes in some puppet theater.

Unlike Saddam Hussein who tried to rebuild the city of Babylon upon the old ruins, there is real hope for those who seek actual rebuilding of ourselves, but the bricks must be laid upon the cornerstone of faith.

Zec 10:4

From Judah will come the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler.