Trekking with Me

Recently I have been reading in the Book of Luke, and just the other day I was in chapter 23: Jesus' trial, the walk to "the place of the skull" and the crucifixion.  It's interesting what Luke includes in his gospel.  One of the few who includes the part that a man named Simon carried the cross for Jesus.  In this moment, women who loved Jesus were weeping for him as he followed the path.  What Jesus did and said caught my eye as I read through the account: Jesus turning to them said,   “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children." " Weep for yourselves... ?"   Jesus knew the time of judgement was coming.  Jesus knew the time was short.  Jesus knew what His destiny was... and "for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross..."   His trial, his pain, and his death was only temporary! This past weekend I listened to some messages by Francis Chan ; he shared the perspective God had burned ...

The Lord has really encouraged me this week.  It's been a week in which offensive moves were being made, moving forward without much assurance that this is what I am suppose to do yet believing moving forward is the right move, as opposed to freezing in my steps.   A few darts came flying in my direction to cause me some unnecessary fear; that is where God strengthened me to hold up truth, stand as His Girl, and keep stepping. This came home today, even more so, in my "Time With Abba."  Tucked away in Judges, chapter 7 to be precise.  The story of Gideon; it's worth a look if you want to go re-read it for yourself. The part that particularly grabbed me is squeezed between God slimming down his army to 300, and the ludicrous trampling of the Midianites with horns, broken pots and shouting in the middle of the night.  Here see for yourself in verses 9-15: "Now the same night it came about that the  Lord  said to him, “Arise, go down against the cam...

I have just begun reading a book called Searching For Home by M. Craig Barnes.  The first chapter has brought me to tears as he describes the common human plight and deep desire for home, that wells "up from the soul." The first chapter ends with these words about hope: " The entire biblical story depicts men and women roaming from one disconnected experience to the next, unable to be at home where they are, uncertain that they will ever find where they ought to be.  Eventually, we just built a tabernacle or a temple and occasionally worshiped a God who seemed far away. But just as God was never one to settle or remain in exile, neither can he resist entering the dark wood to find us and join us on our nomadic, meandering journey. We thought we were stuck in just another day through the purgatory or hell from which there is no escape.  But from the perspective of heaven, there is purpose and even direction to our days.  If may be hard, after all these years, t...

I have made a new discovery. I like raisins. Raisins and I have not always had an amiable relationship.  I enjoyed them in breads, homemade GORP, or in cookies, but standing alone, we tended to keep our distance.  Though, I would try to befriend them, as they are full of iron and said to be good choice snack, yet we never really hit it off.  I thought I stumbled on one kind that I did enjoy, golden raisins, but not enough to remember them at random. Anyhow, a several weeks ago I was shopping at Earth Fare; now you must know, a trip to Earth Fare is not just any grocery shopping experience.  I enjoy it with every sense of my being, it is medicine and joy to my soul to just think about going to Earth Fare.  Indeed, I love it!  But, the fare's at Earth Fare, make these trips infrequent and sporadic.  Still, it makes my heart smile simply to walk through the wonderful place. So, my last visit to Earth Fare, I happened upon some raisins at a good pr...

I hope you are enjoying a Sabbath's rest today, every day.   He is our Rest.   I can't help but share what God gives me, when He rocks my world, or touches me to tears.  This happened this morning.  I was driving to church, accompanied by my new roommate, Megan.  We were noticing the beautiful fresh baby green leaves filling what only a week ago was barren and naked limbs.  How quickly it seems these little leaves fill the trees, filtering the early morning sunlight;  it was radiantly beautiful.    It triggered a memory of something God impressed upon my heart a few years ago.  Growing up in Florida, I lived very close to a pretty large fresh water lake.  Several years ago, we experienced a drought and a huge explosion of land development in my area.  Both of these factors affected the level of the lake to sink significantly.  The waterline was a good 50 to 100 feet beyond the closest dock, which in normal rainf...

It's Spring Break in the district I work in.  I am thoroughly enjoying time at home, sleeping in past 6:30AM, sitting in my ugly orange chair sipping coffee and reading the Word, listening for Him.  The last few weeks have been laden with heavy worry which I posted about; it's such a gift to have time to rest, reflect, breathe, do my laundry, and roll my worries into His hands.  Slowing down helps me do that... naps do too.   So here are a few things I have done this week in my free time, besides three loads of laundry, pulling weeds and raking my yard, washing my car inside and out, organizing my kitchen (my new house mate helped, what a gift!), and going shopping at Trader Joes! I practiced a little photography! I just like this picture. :-) These looked like they were having fun in the sun on the Congaree River.  What do you think turtles say to each other?  Notice the turtle head sticking out of the water at the end?  Almost as if...