 {the 1st Tuesday of each month, beginning April 6th} We've all had one of those days when coming up with new material might actually threaten our sanity. Sometimes we'll just skip posting and carry on with our brain-drained day, content to have one less thing to think about. Being as far from a daily blogger as I am, I still love filling in the blanks with a good repost on those writer's blocked days. I'll be honest, I find myself asking the same question anytime I consider using a previous post:: Doesn't it come across as self-promoting and a tad vain to think my stuff is good enough to publish twice? No reply has handled the inquiry once and for all. Until now. I'm thrilled to introduce Time Warp Tuesday! Join me on the first Tuesday of each month as we own our writing, old and new, alike! No more apologies over sharing old news--we're making what's old, news again. As we revisit our intended reposts, we're going to add to them any new lessons and insights we've gained in the time since the original publishing. Sometimes the best way to see how far we've come is to look at where we've been through Crimson colored glasses. Sometimes we need to read the transformation for ourselves and there is someone out there who needs to read it too. Other times, we just need to recall and rejoice in a time of reaping, or of silliness, or of simple goodness. Whether a great week in writing went unnoticed in the blogging lull of a hectic season, you had an especially witty bit to say the one time your server decided to go on vacation, or you were once an invisiblogger, you've got some stories to retell!  Being billboards for Christ means each decision we make represents the name above all names. Even when we fall short of His glory, someone is looking at us as real life examples of what being Christian is all about. As I'm looking at my insecurities and their roots I'm seeing that things of darkness grow in darkened areas and it's high time I bring all of me into the light of our Lord--especially those secret sins that come so naturally that I miss them more often than not. I can't tell you SonShines what this time in Lamentations is doing for this weariness-prone heart! I feel so set free from my sin and my shame and I don't think I've ever felt this secure. The trick? I've decided to stop trying to be secure in who I am and instead place my security in who God is growing me to be. If I'm growing, then I'm getting watered and my path lit. That's the gauge I'll be using instead of other people's lives and ideas of who I should be--or even my own. The turmoil of my husband's infidelity has left a new sort of insecurity that I never knew had always been around in some fashion. Looking like a fool is one situation I just can't handle very well. I've never been one to try new things in front of others for fear I'll set some sort of record for getting it all wrong in some extraordinarily lame way. Unfortunately, this keeps me from being myself in a lot of situations. Good, safe, and healthy fun is preempted by my worries of being laughed at and not with--or worse being found out for being too lame to love. When I read verse 14 I just sighed. Just this heavy sigh of relief for being known, for seeing how wrong I am about myself, and for feeling the tug to live in my personality because I am wonderfully made! "I have become the laughingstock of all my people, the object of their taunt-songs all the day long." (NRSV) I don't know that anything has summed up the pain of discovering that you missed a million little signs of cheating for years. Everyone in your life knew more than you about your own marriage. No one thought you were smart enough to figure out what was happening in your own home. Deceiving you was part of the thrill. Manipulating the naive little twit was all the rage in your inner circle. You wonder whether they think you were stupid to stay after finding out. You just can't bare to look at how stupid you feel for fear you'll find you really are incapable of forming a solid thought. I felt that verse. I feel it still, more often than I'd like to admit. Today, I feel it letting go of its grip on me and it feels good! I'm not going to talk all morning, I want to hear from you all! One question today... What is God speaking straight to your heart through Lamentation 3 today? Tomorrow we'll be discussing chapter 4 of Lamentations. I hope you'll join us on the pages of Scripture as well as in conversation! SonShines, are you just as amazed by our God as I am right now? If you’re reading along, I’m pretty sure you’re singing His praises right along with me today. Lamentations never struck me as being a book I’d understand. And I was right. I can’t wrap my brain around it, but the Holy Spirit is interceding on my behalf to impart some much-needed wisdom. Praise God for large mercies! I’ll let you in on a secret—God directs me to this book or that and He sends me to studies I’ve never considered taking on. Were I the one choosing what to spend time on and when, chances are I’d have studied Psalm, Proverbs, and Isaiah first instead of James, Esther, and Daniel. Reason being, I’d never cracked one of those books before in my life! I was too blinded by my own notions of the stories that lie therein and I suppose I thought they’d be too heady for me to handle on my own. Boy, was I right…and oh so wrong. Sure, I’d never have made it through any of those studies on my own. Truth be told, I don’t think I ever would have tried it on my own. Had the Lord not lit a fire under my cushy tush, I’d still be sitting here thinking I’d never be able to understand the Bible. Today, it hurts to look at my life prior to living in the Word, but in a good way that reminds me of how God is continually growing His children. What a blessing the Living Word of the Living God is in this fallen world! Lamentations 2 paints us a revolting, heartbreaking image of the realities God's chosen people faced due to that first fall and our resulting bondage to sin. Divorced from the Lord and dejected by the world, they were starved and hopeless as the atrocities ran rampant in their lives. Still, some held out for God's wrath to end in His mercy. Beautifully, these people knew their God and prayed for His love to overcome His anger toward them. Owning their sin wasn't enough, repenting wasn't enough, only Jesus would prove to be enough to mend the divide created by our transgressions. Divided by God, we can barely stand in this world. Delivered by grace, we soar! That grace comes not for our sake, but for God's. He loves us and wants us and continues to give us grace for His sake, we'll never deserve it but our Father finds us worth every bit. I think these two verses speak far beyond the historical documentation they hold, straight to the very heart of our need for the Savior. "My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out on the ground because of the destruction of my people, because infants and babes faint in the streets of the city" (Lamentations 2:11, NRSV). "Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street" (Lamentations 2:19, NRSV). Our utter depravity when left to our own devices is gut-wrenching, heart-shattering, and destructive. Mankind hasn't changed. Devouring the dead in order to cling to life is widely considered a harsh but necessary way to survive in the worst of circumstances, even today. Desperation didn't die with Jesus. Desperation dies when Hope is alive in us. Salvation means never acting in desperation again and it must mean helping others to see they don't need to make decisions they can't live with either. Being the hands and feet of Jesus cultivates an awareness of Christ--it gives Hope to the weary. Here are a few questions to consider as you read and share your heart, but please know you don't have to stick to these suggestions! Share what the Lord is showing you and He will work wonders among us!
I hope you'll join us on the pages of Scripture as well as in conversation! “How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal” (Lamentations 1:1, NRSV). A vassal. The word just invites you to read further, but let’s linger a moment to grasp the reality of this prophetic scene God has painted through the author many scholars believe to be Jeremiah. Amid the definition of the Hebrew translated to vassal, one aspect leaped off the screen and straight through my heart. Levy. From princess to levy. That’s bound to be profound if we just look close enough. Yes, I really think like that, it’s a tad weird, but it’s rooted in a hope that does not disappoint. We’re dealing with an infallible God and His word selection is just as incapable of falling short of Divine. Time for a bit of definition. No matter how familiar a term, digging is sure to unearth some Scriptural treasure! That’s Biblical booty, for you pirate types. By definition, a levy is an imposing or collecting, as of a tax, by authority or force. God is collecting the debt of our sins by force due to our inability to redeem ourselves. He’s out to repo the souls lent us the moment He first breathed life into man. For your good and mine, by force but not against our will. We’ve got to accept salvation, but it is the sheer grace and force of God that brings it to fruition. The southern church girl in me just needs to interject a hallelujah here! Can I get an amen? SonShines, I am finding this book absolutely fascinating. Being a poet at heart, all books of a poetic nature just shake my soul. When you add the power of prophecy to the writing, you know you’re in for a real and True treat--and Jesus is buying! Debt paid in full. Let’s keep sight of that gift as we tap into our own lamentations. We can’t ignore our pain or our sin, but we can give every bit of it over to the Lord and He doesn’t mind our lamenting. Am I the only one relieved by not having to pretend things are fine when I’m talking to my Father? God wants the real us, the true to the soul us, and that includes are unique voices. The Harper Study Bible’s introduction to the book tells of how “all chapters except 3 have twenty-two verses; chapter 3 has sixty-six” and “part of the book follows an alphabetic acrostic.” The Author’s Word, the writer’s voice. I just love it! Enough from me, let’s talk about this first chapter! Here are a few questions and thoughts to ponder, but don’t feel limited by them. Share your heart! See you in the comments!
I hope you'll join us on the pages of Scripture as well as in conversation! Seven Days in Lamentations::Intro 03/08/2010
All too often, I hear heavy hearts admit they rarely read Scripture. It's a confession I've bashfully made myself and I get it, really I do. I get that mornings start rough or smooth as being shot through a cannon. Later turns to when I can and soon the promise becomes tomorrow. I've been there. I've lived there most of my life, actually. That's what these seven days are all about. I want us to know how possible it is to crack the Bible before taking a crack at the day, and how life changing. I want us to stop letting the enemy deceive us into thinking our days are filled with importance that takes priority over our Father. I want us to trust that God will make time enough for us on those days we've made time for Him. Of course, simply getting in the Word is our main objective here--by getting to know our Father, His Son, and the advocate we have in the Holy Spirit, we will know Truth! As an added goal this week, I'd love for us each to strive to make God first in every day. Whether with this study or with Christ alone, let's race to see our Lord each morning this week! I know how easy it is to skip breakfast as the day takes off in a blur and how sometimes it's even easier to skip Jesus in the zip of it all. Have you ever noticed the way each food decision is affected by skipping that first meal? Once your body catches up to the day even that cardboard thingy around your Frappa-whats-a-majig seems like a better meal than none. Bad food decisions will be made, or at least harder to resist. Skipping Jesus eventually leaves us spiritually starved and wide open to bad spiritual choices. I know you've seen what I'm talking about. Maybe you've seen the inverse, too. Stepping into the presence of God leaves us fueled for the battles ahead, shining bright enough to direct a few thoughts heavenward, and equipped to make the choices best fitted to the path God has carved before us. I know you want that just as I do, so let's lift one another in prayer as we set out to spend this week in Lamentations. May we pursue Jesus, as we let the rest of the world fall away--don't worry, it won't fall apart! We've got a mighty, faithful Father, SonShines! Spending some time in the Word each day this week is sure to bless and nourish our weary souls! Don't leave things between you and the pages, bring your Bible to the feet of Jesus and let Him tell you His story. Before reading Lamentations 1 today, pray for God to lend you wisdom and then linger for a while in conversation with the King of kings! I'll meet you here tomorrow to chat all about what we discover as we read this chapter together! Bring some questions, insights, coffee, and a friend! {ps...each day's participants will be entered in a special Godly giveaway}  Caffeinated Randomness 03/05/2010
 On Spiritual Activity SonShines, I just have to share a passage I read last night from The Me I Want To Be. John Ortberg addresses a very real struggle so many of us face with feelings of guilt and obligation in regards to our spiritual activities. Mothers, teachers, coaches, mentors, ministry leaders, writers, nurses, doctors, and any number of nurturing roles such as these all share another common bond. We often feel that we are less than devout when we can't set aside an hour here or two there for deep quiet in the presence of our Lord. I'd even venture to say that some of us beat ourselves up about not having the heart that another sister or brother might have for waking up before the sun in order to ensure that quiet soaking in God's glory. Here's what Ortberg says on the matter, take it to heart and take it with you in all of life's moments! "Comparison kills spiritual growth. A mother with three preschool-age children hears her pastor talk about loving God so much that he is up very early every morning to spend an hour of quiet with him. She would love an hour of quiet at any time, but her children simply will not cooperate. What she takes away is that she ought to be doing the same thing, and so she does spirituality by comparison, living under the cloud of guilt. It never occurs to her that the love she expresses to her children might "count" as a spiritual activity." The love you express as you nurture from within the love of Christ is a spiritual activity! Taking Jesus by the hand and introducing every moment, every interaction, every person you encounter to the Truth, the Life and the Way is the very sort of living in the Presence that we must all strive for...not an hour each morning, but a way of living! Keep up The Good Work! ***I want to just add a little note here to be sure to encourage everyone to start your day with Jesus no matter what time that day may begin. I know how much more freely I receive the ongoing direction of the Lord when I've made a point to spend even just 5-10 minutes just kicking it with Christ! Please don't leave here thinking you should leave that time behind! Instead, know that it's the spirit of simply delighting in the presence of God that should drive you to your knees first thing in the morning, not a comparison to what another Christian's morning walk may consist of.*** {added after publishing} On Lamentations I am so looking forward to our time exploring this section of God's Word! I'm just as eager to share the journey with you as I am to get to the other side with a bit more knowledge, wisdom, and security in Christ Jesus! We are in for some deep conversation, some solid soul searching, and some serious laughter, I'm sure! I hope you'll come by Monday as we kick things off in the newest seven days adventure! Everyone who participates in the full seven days will be entered to win a special little something that I'll be revealing soon! {hint::it's wired, it's whimsical, it's bound to be gorgeous} On Compliments I Can't Deny Each of you dear readers who reached out in love to nominate this blog as one of your favorites, I just want you to know that your compliment is one I won't ever attempt to disprove! Our heavenly Father is at the very root of each word I share here and it is His glory and my honor to be among the top 10 daily reads, and the top 100 Christian Women's Blogs of 2009! I'll save the Oscar-esque speech and waterworks, but to say thank you just doesn't fit the bill. I'm touched and honored and humbled and fueled and rambling in true caffeinated randomness fashion!  {Head over to read from the other 99+ awesome ladies writing for Christ!}  The Painful Road to Perfection 03/04/2010
Yesterday was rough. My entire life caught up to me and crushed my spirit beneath the weight of one harsh, fallen world. Memories I had suppressed found their way out and the light shining off of their warped and gnarled realities has been blinding. For a moment I lost sight of the fact that God is bringing about a good work in me that is meant to bring such iniquities to the surface in order for Him to wipe them away. I'm being made perfect and all I was seeing were my flaws. Staring at my insecurities wasn't meant to break me, but for me to break free! Just when I thought I might collapse beyond repair, the promise of relief came. This morning, Beth Moore posted a quick video letting us reading together know that help is on the way. She even changed her homework plans for the week in order to get it to us faster. Oh how I love that woman! God is allowed to flow through her and I want to be that open and willing and excited and urgent about each movement He wants to make through me. What a beautiful life that will be! What purpose! God is the relief, the mercy, the healing, the security, and the rest. I just need a road map to His feet every now and again. I'm excited once again by God's promise to deliver me from the evils of my past, threaten as they might. Anything worth knowing about me isn't really about me at all. I think I love that more with every reiteration. More on that later. What relief are you eager to receive today, SonShines?  God has done some awesome stuff in the span of seven days. He made the world and even found time to rest. All in a week's time. What could the Lord do with your week? Seven days. You've got that kind of time. It's lying around the house, it's sitting in the pick up line with you at your kids' school, it's waiting next to the DVR/tivo majig. It's there and our faithful Father can use it to work wonders in, on, and through you, SonShines! We'll spend a week in various areas that cry out for growth or simply, splendidly soaking up the Living Water through studying His Word a book, a chapter, a verse at a time. We'll make it a SonShine thing. Though the frequency may remain quite random, the goal will be the same. Seven days learning, encouraging, studying to shine! Our next adventure in the Son begins Monday! We'll be spending a week in Lamentations and the time is sure to be worthwhile! In the meantime, if you plan to join in, I'd love to hear from you. Drop a comment with a suggestion for how you'd like to spend seven days with me and our fellow SonShines and you'll be entered to win a secret little something which I will tell you more about soon! SonShines, I started to write all this last Thursday and before I knew it, I was smacked with a fever that had me out of sorts throughout the weekend. That means a double dose of dealing with the insecurity demons this week...I'm not about to delay my delivery from this nasty foe! Please know that I'd never talk about myself so much if I didn't know it was at the request of my Father. You can read more on this insecurity stuff here. I've come to a strange bump in the road out of insecurity. I'm still just as stoked about annihilating this distorted self-image I cower behind, but I'm afraid the self-loathing is going to have to peak before its ultimate obliteration. Why do I only decide to respond to my circumstances when the pressure I'm under becomes too much? I'm asking my Father that very thing since I can't expect a straight answer from my sideways self. Here, I thought this was a scenic tour through my issues. Instead, it's beginning to look like a tour of duty in my own private war zone. One thing I'm learning about my own insecurity is that it all stems from one gnarly root. Trust. I found this out Thursday when it hit me once again, fresh as new, that I cannot take a compliment. I crave words of affirmation and then deny myself the gift when it's given. I simply can't believe a good word spoken about me, even when it comes through the fruit created by the Spirit dwelling within me and working His way out. Instantly, I discredit a compliment because I don't trust that people say what they mean. I seem to always look at kindness by weighing it against the reality of who I know myself to be, and the bad always out weighs the good when I'm the one gauging things. Thank God for constantly reminding me that He's the One with the scales of eternity, not little ol' earthen me! He's teaching me that when a compliment is too great for me, it's because the credit is all His! Now the goal has changed from learning to accept a compliment to learning to deflect it instead of reject it. God is due the glory for any good that He might be working in, on, or through me. I can trust that without fail! His voice above that of the world. His voice above my own. His voice is trustworthy and true and I can rest assured in that! You can, too! On the Threshing Floor 02/24/2010
 "A wise king winnows out the wicked; he drives the threshing wheel over them" (Proverbs 20:26, NIV). God is building a Kingdom the likes of which this world would have us never see. Don't despair, Sonshines, we've got a mighty God and He's using the very same world and all of its opposition to bring that Kingdom to completion. You've got to love the poetic justice of our Lord! Like grain on the threshing floor, we're in the midst of one tumultuous sifting. Life is a tool designed specifically to stomp the stalk from the kernels. Separating the sin from the sinner is a process perfected by our perfect God. We can rest easy as the world crushes us because we know that our Father uses this crushing to set us free from our sin. Wondrously, at the end of the day whole and usable grain remains and the stalk is broken and worthless on the floor. There we lie, with the fragments of our sin. Uprooted, smashed, naked before the King of kings. On the threshing floor. No longer rooted and drawing false nourishment, we have died to this world. Now the winnowing of the Spirit begins. Time and again we will be cast into the wind in order that the broken bits of sin that try to hide us from the Lord may be carried away leaving us to rest on the floor at the foot of the throne of God. In the end that is all that will remain. King of kings and the whole and useful grains He's grown, handpicked, freed, and sifted. God is building what the world can't tear down. Do not despair. |  {make what's old, news again}   Loading
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