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Showing posts from April, 2016

This one's for the boys

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My favorite, and I mean favorite , Bible stories are those that show Jesus' human traits. How He threw a holy fit in the temple courts. How He questioned Mary when she bossed Him around at a wedding. And the time He made breakfast for the boys...between His resurrection and ascension - He took time to cook breakfast for the boys...there is something about this one that simply makes my spirit smile. I can visualize Him sitting on the bank, warming His hands over the fire. Cooking fish over a spit. I smile when I think of how excited the boys were when they finally realized who it was on the bank. When they realized that He loved them enough to share one last meal. Can you imagine Jesus and the boys sitting around a campfire fire, talking about work, fishing, boats, and life.  Maybe it's my country heart but this story makes me cry and my spirit soar. One day, I will get to meet this Man face-to-face. But until then, whenever anyone asks me why I believe that Jesus loves me

Words, they're just words

I woke up thinking about a goat. For those of you who know my fear of goats, you understand why using a goat as a source of inspiration is just plain weird! But God likes to use the simple things in life to teach us great lessons. So if He prompts me out of bed to write a blog using a stomping goat as my inspiration, well I ain't gonna argue the point: so, today, a goat it will be. Apparently goats have very useful hooves. They use them to climb, dig, and tamp ground. When you cross the memorial bridge into Hardy County, WV, you can see exactly what I mean. There are several goats on the hillside, it's not as sheer a face as some photos I've seen, but for us locals, it's as good as I can think of. Anyway, I woke up thinking, no, let me rephrase that, God woke me up earlier this morning with the visual of a goat tamping the ground and I heard "That's what you all do to one another" and I got the feeling that He wasn't pleased. You see, when we tamp

They Called Him Oral

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"If you want to be healed, stretch your hand toward your television set and repeat after me."  I looked at mom as she stretched her hand toward the tv. I'm not saying I did, but I probably shook my head. I was getting ready for work. Night shift at Rockingham Poultry. It was 1986. It was hot. The trailer was stuffy. Mom was in pain. A broken ankle that wasn't set right in 1965 would swell up twice the normal size on any given day. Hot and humid or cold and damp, it didn't seem to matter. Her ankle was gonna swell. This particular night, as she was praying along with Oral Roberts, I witnessed a miracle. Maybe it was how she was praying or the tv's blaring that got my attention, but I was looking at her ace-wrapped ankle. The bandage was too tight. It was leaving indents. I will never forget how that bandage slowly fell away from her ankle. There I stood, watching that thing appear to grow longer.  And in the remaining years of her life, I never-ever reca

It's an Eagle!

This afternoon I was sitting under the hickory nut tree watching two birds soar overhead. Assuming they were both buzzards, I focused on one and watched it swoop and glide.   My goal was to just watch those birds, tune out the traffic, and be still before God. To absorb as much of His majesty as I could- it seemed like a good goal to me! After a couple minutes, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the other bird coming in closer so I turned to look directly at it - you know, shifted my focus a little. Suddenly, with the excitement of a child, I exclaimed "Oh my God, it is an eagle!" and I felt Him smile on me- because He knows how much I enjoy seeing them in the wild. And every once in a while, because God delights in the praise of His kids and cares about everything in our lives, He lets me enjoy seeing one fly over my own front yard! Now seriously, how awesome is that?! And I sat there with a huge smile on my face, watching both birds but from different angles. Now y&#

Psalms, Milk, Cookies, and Sin

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So John and I have made some lifestyle changes this year. Mostly a change in eating habits, recipe modification, and watching every calorie (I promise Laurie, I haven't forgotten you or Plexus!). But sometimes, I just want something sweet (or a Mt. Dew)! Tonight after supper, I started craving a no bake cookie. Instead of  walking around wanting something I shouldn't have, I switched up the recipe and made a fifty-nine calorie cookie, which I totally enjoyed. And BAM! my craving was satisfied. All I had to do was give in and this ole flesh was easily appeased by a quarter-sized cookie-wanna-be! As I was cleaning up, it occurred to me that my little cookie was a lot like those 'little sins' we talk about. Although the cookie still had calories and carbs, its size made me feel like it was okay to enjoy it. Now I am not saying it was a sin for me to eat that cookie - but if one leads to another and to another...well, suddenly it becomes a big cookie and my self-contro

Please breathe on me...again.

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I am a firm believer in self-reliance, self-control, and self-development. I honestly believe that each of us should develop ourselves into the best version of "us" that we can be.  To me, it just makes since. But...according to the Bible, it is only through Christ that I can become the person I   want  to be. And that scares me. Not that God can't mold me and form me to look more like His Son but that somehow, the picture I have of myself is not who I really am. I worry that the me I see and the 'real me' are two different beings. That my reasons for doing what I do is selfish or for personal gain. And this makes me wonder if I'm just going through the motions of being a Christian; that somehow I am outside of God's will doing life on my own.  I can't fully explain it but honestly, it scares me to think that I am missing something.  That the works I am doing are being done under my own strength and knowledge, for my own satisfaction. And not by Hi

Your Life...Your Story...Write It.

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"I can still see the look in the teacher's eyes as she tore up my spelling test. I was horribly embarrassed and humiliated, but mostly ashamed. But to be honest, I don't know if I was ashamed because I was caught cheating or of my undocumented, but still legit, learning handicap.  Feel sorry for me yet? Or maybe disgusted?  Well, hold on and then decide... " - Coach Kelly I am a firm believer that each of us have a role to play toward promoting God's kingdom; that everyone has something in life that can become a stumbling block or a stepping stone, hindrance or motivation. Each of us are presented with unique problems. We can allow them to define us or enhance our character. The Bible has a lot of stories where the least likely candidate is selected to fulfill God's plan. Stories where God uses the weak things to stump the wise. Stories where He uses the most ordinary folks to become extraordinary characters. There is even a story about talking a donkey