Joy in the Journey

  Weeping may remain for a night but rejoicing comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5 For years I had nightmares. I didn’t sleep much and when I did it was fitful sleep. The demons I could hold at bay during the daylight hours plagued me at night.   I would pray as I closed my eyes to sleep that no evil or fear would find its way into my dreams but more often than not, the nightmares came. Then my life took a decided turn. More secure and more able to live in the Light I found sleep less fitful. The nightmares dwindled and eventually disappeared. Over the last several months a cousin of those nightmares has resurfaced. Rarely are they as severe as they were but now it isn’t a few nights out of a week but just about every time I close my eyes to sleep. I pray. I fill my mind with Scripture and with praise but still the dreams come.   Once again my sleep is fitful. I wake up often but when I return to sleep the same negative images await. Just today I was think...

  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:17 Years ago when my children were at the age where everything is unfair, they would complain to me ad nauseam about any and every issue. I found one answer I repeated over and over. “Life’s tough. Get a helmet.” I was reminded of that recently when I began to feel as if one by one, unpleasant things were falling on my head. For years I’d lived with the ever present sense of a shoe about to drop, as they say but for awhile my life seemed somewhat emancipated from free flying shoes. Recently it seems that footwear is once again dangling precipitously over my head. I laughed as I thought about my own words to my children, “Life’s tough, get a helmet.” Thinking about my total lack of control over said footwear I thought, “Hm, maybe I ought to get a helmet.” God in his amazing graciousness reminded me, ever so gently, that I have one. It is the helmet of salvation and it is...

   Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1:2 I began this message with the greeting from Ephesians because that is where my Bible happened to be open. I could have chosen any of Paul’s letters, as they all contain some version of the same greeting. Grace and peace. Recently I have become a big fan of Pastor Joseph Prince.   Pastor Prince is all about grace. He is also quite well educated in Hebrew letters, their meanings and significance. Many, many times I have heard him talk about Hei (pronounced, hey), that is, grace. I am a Yankee transplant. As I write this I am eight months away from having lived in the South as long as I lived in the North. The theory is, however and I do believe it, once a Yankee, always a Yankee. When I first moved here there were many Southern phrases that made me clench my jaw. To be fair, twenty-seven years later several still do. One...

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12   Reading that verse this morning I was filled with joy at the idea of being fully known by God. This is a new experience for me. Any thought of God, of my Father knowing all about me has, up until very recently, made me quite uncomfortable, even ashamed. I’m human, all the way through and as such have done and said things I so very much wish I hadn’t. But God loves with perfect love. In the verses just prior, the very well known section of 1 Corinthians, it says, “it [love] keeps no record of wrong.” Thinking about that, about always, always, always being welcomed into my Father’s presence reminded me of a little friend of mine, Brittany. Brittany’s mind doesn’t work in what we refer to as the “normal” way. She tends to grab hold of a phrase or two and repeat them over and over until something ...

  Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sind and make music in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:19-20 Normally when we think about talking about other people it carries some bad connotations. Recently I’ve had several conversations about others that have been very positive. The one that stands out is the chat I had with my husband, Otto about my sister, Brenda. About a month ago Brenda came to my home for a quick weekend visit. That may not seem notable but when you consider the contortions and the alignment of events that had to take place to make that visit happen it becomes significant. Add to that that Brenda and I are not sisters by birth. (Make no mistake, although we do not share a family of origin we do share family and are very much sisters.) We had a great time on our weekend and agreed that at least once a year there has to be a visit for j...

  Do you not know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Our bodies are temples, created to house the presence of God. Let that sink in for a minute. How did you treat that temple yesterday? Don’t worry, this isn’t a fitness lecture. Trust me, I’m in no position to give one of those! My point is that while we know that and believe it, we forget sometimes. Think of your home.   At our house there is always a project and they are all designed to enhance the look and livability of our house. To be completely transparent, I don’t do so well with the aforementioned temple. I go through phases of eating well, sleeping enough and getting a decent amount of exercise but then so many other things are pressing or more important and let’s not deny the trumpet call of chocolate. For years I knew a man named Brian who ...

  A generous man will himself be blessed, because he shares his food with the poor. Proverbs 22:9 “Where there is forgiveness of sin, there is life and all blessedness. We do not obtain forgiveness by good works, but through the forgiveness of sin come good works.” Martin Luther I don’t know if it’s because Thanks giving is around the corner or because Christmas comes right behind it, in any case I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about giving and forgiving lately. For awhile our enemy really tried to convince me that I didn’t give out of the overflow of what God has given and continues to give to me, but as a means to an end.   Just as I began to question my motives and look for guilt, (yes , look for guilt!) I read this quote from Martin Luther. Oh! That’s right. I love how perfectly and succinctly he puts it. We can give and serve ourselves to exhaustion but that isn’t going to earn us any forgiveness. Hello, the word is for give ness! But once we receiv...