He saw you….


“He saw you cast into a river of life you didn’t request. He saw you betrayed by those you love. He saw you with a body that gets sick and a heart that grows weak. He saw you in your own garden of gnarled trees and sleeping friends. He saw you staring into the pit of your own failures and the mouth of your own grave. He saw you in your own garden of Gethsemane and he didn’t want you to be alone … He would rather go to hell for you than to heaven without you.”
— Max Lucado

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. – 1 John 4:9-11

He loves us, He really loves us! Hard for me to comprehend a God having this kind of radical love. The same God who can create and destroy with a breath would actually go to these lengths to save me and bring me back to Himself…..there are no words to express it.

Help for depression


A prayer for those depressed today…..
You feel just getting out of bed is a tremendous struggle, and small decisions are overwhelming. It is tangible, this presence, like a heavy cloak you can never get out from under….You are tired of carrying sacks.

Tired of carrying heavy sacks. Sacks of regrets, sacks of wrong choices, sacks of guilt for not feeling happy, not feeling like the free child of God that you are.

Life has become like flat gray fog of going through motions without joy; limbs feel impossibly heavy, like slogging through mud. You feel sad about this but helpless to do anything about it.

Even things that you should be looking forward to have become a burden and a worry.

Startlingly, you realize that it has been an incredibly long time since it has been springtime in your heart; although you can remember when it was and it feels like a distant dream, like maybe it happened to someone else, not you.

Take hope today, for He has heard you and already answered.
Please know that it will not always be this way.
Especially know this, you are not alone.

It takes tremendous courage to keep going, know that about yourself, you have not given up! Take hold of this one shred of evidence and take comfort.

And never believe the lie of Satan that tells you that you are this way because you don’t love God enough, or not as close to God as you should be, that you are doing something wrong.

Most of all, do not try to go through this valley alone. It may be that God’s answer to your prayer is the hand of a friend or loved one helping you out of the pit.

Get help from others who have walked this path and found their way to the other side. Most of all, know that you have placed your faith in the One who has conquered all shadows forever!

Remember the stone that was rolled away for you and me; may His healing power bloom life back into your heart today. Amen

Romans Ch. 8 v. 38-39. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Depression comes in many forms. I am no expert, just one who has felt these feelings from time to time in my own life. Sometimes it comes as a result of a tragic circumstance; sometimes it is a result of habitual negative thinking that forms a lifelong pattern. Hormones can play a big part too especially for women. The kind I am writing about today is the kind that comes for no particular reason, it just comes. I pray that if there is someone reading this that they confide in someone and get help, not try to fight this alone.

For one Pastor’s experience, go here

Confession


A few years back the Pastor of the church I was attending was giving a message on confession. In the sanctuary strategically placed were four huge wooden crosses. I didn’t pay them much attention figuring that they must be part of the set for the upcoming Easter celebration. At one point during the sermon we were told that if we had anything that we needed to confess to God, anything at all, we should write it down on a small piece of paper. “By the cross,” he said, “you will find a hammer, just nail your confession to the cross and leave it with Jesus.” People started going forward with their scraps of paper. At first there was some tentative tapping from the first few. A little ping here, a gentle tap there. As it went on though, the tapping turned into what sounded more like angry pounding. It began to sound like a construction site as the hammer blows echoed off the walls!

It was there that my very strange sense of humor betrayed me and I let out a muffled giggle. I was instantly elbowed. I couldn’t help it. I was positive I was going to hear an electric drill fire up next. Maybe it was nervous laughter. After the service I found out that some people were extremely moved to tears as they heard the pounding of the nails and were relieved of their burden. The next Sunday the crosses were still there, the confessions plastered all over them. I suppressed a morbid urge to go up and read them. Is it because I want to know that others struggle with the same things I struggle with?

With all church practices, we need to go to the Bible to get our rules about Christian conduct, for that is our “rule book” per se. So I did. I came up with 53 references in the New Testament and 51 references in the Old Testament, right off the bat.

“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” James 5:16

So according to Scripture and all the references I found, it would seem that God cares a great deal about confession, both confession to Him and one another. What is it about confession that is SO difficult? We try to stuff it down and it just gets bigger, like a self inflatable mattress in our soul. We think maybe we will ignore it. It takes on a life of it’s own and begins to affect everything else in our lives.

It used to be a common practice to stand in front of the entire church body and confess. Could we even imagine that happening now?

Satan knows that confession makes us free and he will try to do everything he can to keep us from unloading our burdens. He whispers all kinds of scary scenarios to us to keep us from being free. He wants us to think we can fight the battle alone in isolation. Confession is the beginning of restoration, and there are times we need to confess to God, and there are times we need to confess to one another. There is tremendous power in it!

I confess with tears today:

Forgive me Lord for lying.
I tossed out what I thought was a
harmless lie, but I know that no lie
is truly harmless, it hurts You and it
hurts me and the one I lied to.

When I told that man that I would look
at his petition at the library “on the way
out” I knew that I had no intention of
stopping. Why didn’t I just say I was
not interested?

Forgive me also Lord for wondering why
certain individuals are still on the
earth.

Who made me God? What makes me think that
my days are any more important than theirs?
You number all of our days, Lord. You hold
them all in Your hand. If they are still
living, breathing, then there must be a
reason, for it is by Your great mercy
that we all still live.

Their time is no less precious than mine.

Help my heart be open to see and address
needs of others in my path….

In Jesus name, Amen

Ezekiel 11:19 “And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh….

Sounds of life…..


I have never had any sense of smell. When I was very small, I found it curious when someone described smells. I thought maybe I wasn’t concentrating hard enough, maybe smells were so subtle that you had to really be paying attention. I would hold things up to my nose, inhale…..nothing. Every now and then I will still try, with the same result. Finally my Dad told me that my Grandfather, his father, never had a sense of smell either.

Maybe that is why I am so in tuned to sounds. They have always been a big part of my life, my memory bank. Thomas Merton describes some sounds he remembers too in his journals.

Noise of the cook chopping or pounding things in the kitchen at Douglastown. Noise of tires singing past the house on the road outside, in winter or in autumn when the road is light and bare and hard. Noise of a fire, cracking and snapping in the grate, just lit. The sheaves of sparks that rush up the chimney from time to time. From “Run to the Mountain”, the journals of Thomas Merton

They were part of his memory bank, a well that he drew upon from time to time, I suspect, as we all do. So now I will add some of my own, starting with yesterday morning. All these adding to the multitude of blessings I continue to chalk up.

#221 The gentle pit-pat of rain on the roof, sporadically increasing to a roar from time to time….making cats very nervous so that they run for comfort.

#222 Soft piano, coming from the radio….music, always music.

#223 Birdsong that breaks through, ushering in the morning and bringing in the dusk of evening….day done, rest from labor, no more regrets of the day.

#224 Song lyrics that bring joy and comfort to the hearer. Makes you feel you are not so alone, that others feel these feelings too.

#225 Loved ones or strangers lifting their sweet voices in song, to me there is no more beautiful sound than the human voice singing, laughing, it lifts hearts, makes you want to laugh even though you have no idea what is funny. There is something universal about it and it brings people together.

#226 Thankful for the memory that brings certain voices back even though they may be long gone….what once brought sadness and grief can now with time passing bring a smile.

#227 Two simultaneous purrs from very contented cats, one sounding very much like a pigeon or dove, and the other louder and deeper in tone, sounding more like a small muffled motor. Hence his name, “Briggs” for Briggs and Stratton motor company.

#228 The squeak of the floor by the door when you hit it just right; that means coming home after a long day, or just coming home from something else, but it is always a sound of welcome.

#229 The squeak and bang of my parent’s old screen door. This happens about 50 times a day at their house.

#230 Always, always the wind in the trees. Some sounds are more noticeable for their absence. I miss this sound a lot, not many big trees where I live. When I go up north or back to California I drink it in like cool water.

I wonder about the sounds of Heaven…..I anticipate that nothing down here can even come close. Another thing to look forward to there, as well as getting a nose that works!
Still counting blessings because He is worthy of our counting!
holy experience

Holy Places

Love this photo taken by Jenn posted on Arizona Central

This is typical of the weather in Arizona. I had blue sky on one side last night coming home and a black cloud on the other….blessed blessed rain. I know many tire of it, but not us. We need it, we crave it, we long for it!

There was a chill in the air this morning so I put on my “big” robe from L.L.Bean, the one that never fails to take the chill off.

As I lit my candle in my prayer closet, also known as the shed, I looked around. I love this place because He meets me here; amongst the tools, garbage can, shelves filled with storage boxes, saws, Christmas decorations, and everything else that can be crammed into a very organized 10 x 15 room! Anyplace can be Holy where God is, and He is everywhere!

I heard the mourning doves calling as I opened the little door window. I sipped my first cup of coffee and prayed, “Thank you Lord, that I can share my first cup with You.” He smiled.

I think He loves my prayer shed too.

I heard the morning bird call and then….could it be? I heard little gentle rain drops blessing me with their presence. I kept praying. It was a troubled prayer because it was something I was worried about. Then, as if God made His reply in the rain, it came magically, steadily, beautifully down on the roof.

I lifted my arms in praise, that is answer enough for me, Lord! I didn’t miss it today…..thank you God for giving me this moment, a Holy moment. I got to sit and listen to the rain in Your Presence.

What an unspeakable gift.

I’m glad He picked the early morning light to come back from the grave in. Thank you Lord, for the hope of the morning.

Small Miracles


Thank you, Lord for small miracles. Help me never to take them for granted. Let me not lose the sense of wonder in every day things like watching a sunset or birds singing for no reason, or the calm and stillness of the end of the day; a full moon. Today out in the parking lot at work I heard the call of geese. When I hear that I always stop and look up to see the perfect “V” formation in the sky. In this case there were only two geese calling to each other, but as I watched them fly, each in perfect symmetry, talking their private language, I let them carry me away. Sometimes even far from nature, in our manufactured world of noise, dirt, and buildings, nature breaks in and finds us; seeks to remind us who we are and where we came from. At times like that, I try to pay attention.

Help find little moments to pause in wonder at all you have created……

“He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing. He wraps up the waters in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight. He covers the face of the full moon, spreading his clouds over it. The pillars of the heavens quake, aghast at his rebuke. By his power he churned up the sea…. By his breath the skies become fair…. And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! How then can we understand the thunder of his power?” Job 26:7-9, 11-14

Church Las Vegas style


He (God) works on us in all sorts of ways. But above all, He works on us through each other. Men are mirrors, or “carriers” of Christ to other men. Usually it is those who know Him that bring Him to others. That is why the Church, the whole body of Christians showing Him to one another, is so important. It is so easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objects – education, building, missions, holding services… The Church exists for no other purpose but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other reason. C.S. Lewis

When you think of Las Vegas many images come to mind, Elvis, The Chapel of Love, Wayne Newton, Elvis, Siegfried and Roy, The Strip, Elvis…anyway, usually you don’t think of church. Recently we went to visit friends and family there, that being the halfway point between Boise, Idaho and Mesa, Arizona. We had a great time walking, well actually it was more like trotting, up and down the Las Vegas strip. With two kids and two (younger than I) parents of said kids, trying to fit in as much fun as possible in 3 days, I would recommend it as a great workout. Thankfully they had 4 tickets to the wax museum which we happily skipped so we could rest our aching feet for an hour!

I happened to be browsing through the tourist leaflets in the RV resort lobby when I noticed that they offered a church service on Sunday mornings at 11. In the Hollywood ballroom no less! We were met on Sunday morning by a gentle soft-spoken Pastor named Ed Hernandez. We sang familiar praise songs led by he and his lovely wife, both originally from the Philippines. As we went around the room and introduced ourselves I was struck once again by the fact that perfect strangers could feel like family. I guess because we really are! I pray that they will be greatly blessed by their good works. I am thankful they are there and I told them so. I am now putting the Desert Oasis Church on my prayer list, and when I think of Las Vegas I will think of Pastor Ed and his family, doing God’s work in the middle of Neon Desert Oasis.

Food for the soul


When we can’t take a few steps away from the back door and sit amongst the trees and hear their whisperings, feel the yield of soft ground underfoot, take some deep healing breaths, we are robbed of something necessary to the very health and sanity of our soul. We must leave this clattering, modern world behind us for at least a few moments a day, though an hour is better. It’s no wonder those of us who dwell in cities are stressed. We can get alone, we can pray, but God knows that sometimes nature is a healer like no other.

We need it to remember who we are, regain our place in the world, the universe. Something in us needs to look up and see mountains towering to the heavens, hear the groan of giant boughs sighing their prayers to God, our own voice joining to it. We need to hear it carried along to the four winds along with our worries. We need to hear the cleansing wash of the ocean’s roar through our soul and feel it rush over our bare feet. We need to learn to fly a kite again.

We need to remember our smallness in this universe and God’s all encompassing greatness, and in the remembering to feel the height, the depth, the love He has for everything in His creation. “One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:6
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.
John Muir

Evening bird


I never ever post twice in one day but I just heard the “evening bird” and had to ask if anyone ever wonders about this as I do. Why is there always one bird singing in the morning and one in the evening? Do the birds take a vote to decide who will take morning shift and who will take evening? I wonder if they take turns?

I first noticed this in the morning because there was always a singular melody to greet me at first light when I arrived in the parking lot at work; that silly bird always encouraged me. But since I love sitting outside when God paints His evening portrait I noticed this curious pattern again.

It is never more than one bird per area. Why just one and not two? Anyway, I am glad they are there. Maybe someone can solve this mystery.

The Peace of God


We have a God who is infinitely good and who knows what He is doing. He will come and deliver you from your present trouble in His perfect time and when you may least expect it. Hope in Him more than ever. Thank Him for the strength and patience He is giving you, even in the midst of this trial, for it is evident mark of His concern for you. Encourage yourself with His love and thank Him for everything. Brother Lawrence

In my prayer journal today…..

Thank you God for hearing all the prayers of my heart, mind and soul. The ones on my lips and the ones deep beneath the surface that only You can hear. Thank you for bringing Your family together at times when we may least expect it. May we draw encouragement from one another as pinpoints of light in a dark world.

Help me to shine forth your love so that others may be drawn to You, O Lord. Help me more and more, to be a living sacrifice for You as Paul was, knowing that you will never ask anything of me that You and I together can’t handle. I need not fear, knowing that You will lead me slowly gently at my pace and not someone else’s.

Help me to lay all of my trust in You God, knowing that Your gentle Hands are forever cupped around me, keeping me safe; knowing that whatever this world throws at me, it has to pass by You first.

“The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him; and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders.” Deuteronomy 33:12