Thursday, June 25, 2015

Why Do We Try?


"Fayette Historic State Park" by Rachel Kramer is licensed under CC BY 2.0



...in heaven and on earth.
 There are no secret places where you can hide from me.



The ones who know the Lord know that there is no place to hide from God and yet we still try.  Our lives are filled with places to go and people to see. Our jobs are overwhelming.  Our family responsibilities are endless and then
we still need to clean the house.
We put things before God and believe that He will understand.
We are hiding from Him behind all the stuff.

Yet...
in the game of hide and seek
he continues to call to us.
"Ready or not, here I come.
Ha, I found you!

Now, let's play Follow The Leader.
I'll be the Leader.
Do what I do."


Saturday, June 20, 2015

How Fragile


"Greater Lansing Orchid Society" by Christine Cimala is licensed under CC BY 2.0



...roots that reach
  down to the water,

 and with leaves
  that are always green.
They bear fruit every year
and are never worried
 by a lack of rain.


Our lives are like the orchid...a hot house plant that needs specific care with just the right light, feed and water.  It takes a master horticulturist to raise this beauty because it is so fragile.

Our lives are like the orchid...tender, needy and reaching for the Light...dissatisfied with our earthly existence and longing to be fed with more than we get from our life here in this world.  We need strength, nurturing and love and are always seeking.  

The world will fail us.  We will continue to search but will not find it here unless...
we look to what God left for us when He took His Son to be with Him...
His Word.
Oh, what comfort for my fragile soul.



Thursday, June 18, 2015

Set Boundaries






I placed the sand for the boundary of the sea, a perpetual barrier beyond which it cannot pass and by an everlasting ordinance beyond which it cannot go? And though the waves of the sea toss and shake themselves, yet they cannot prevail [against the feeble grains of sand which God has ordained by nature to be sufficient for His purpose]; though [the billows] roar, yet they cannot pass over that [barrier]. 
Jeremiah 5:22 (AMP)



We have barriers in life, too.  Yet, how many times have I chosen to try to cross the barriers only to find myself floundering and sinking in the ocean of life.  God gives us His boundaries in His Word and we must respect them and live by them if we don't want the waves of life to bury us.  It would do us all well to live within the boundaries.


Friday, June 12, 2015

The Art of Being Still

Photo by Sally L. Smith

Be still, and know that I am God: 
I will be exalted among the heathen, 
I will be exalted in the earth.



Shhhhhh.



Saturday, June 6, 2015

He Knows My Name


But now, this is what the LORD says—
he who created you, O Jacob, 
he who formed you, O Israel:
 “Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
 I have summoned you by name; 
you are mine.”
Isaiah 43:1


When I'm feeling forgotten, I can always remember that God calls me by name.  It gives me a sense of belonging and love.


Photo from personal files