Outcast and Judged?

The woman at the well came at mid-day to avoid the jeers and derision of the other women of the village. She had no girl time, no fellowship. She had no one to confide in and share her deep heart secrets and troubles.

In an attempt to come and go unnoticed, she was noticed by Jesus. He was able to look into the deep crevices of her broken heart. There was no secret too dark. He already knew it. Yet He offered life abundantly.

Sometimes in our attempt to cover up our sins, mistakes and bungling, we isolate. This is an open door for vain imaginations. The sin grows bigger in our mind. I can remember thinking if anyone knew who I REALLY was, they wouldn't like me, much less love me.

I would put on my plastic face and greet the world with a saccharin smile. Inside I was bleeding from the wounds I had taken in.

 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship:

for salvation is of the Jews.

But the hour cometh, and now is,

 when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth:

 for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

 God is a Spirit:

 and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh,

which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.

²⁶ Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

John 4:22-26

 

When I put on my plastic face, I worship what I know not. For I am opening the door to a fabricated personality and isolation. Either will keep me from being who God has called me to be.

 

Are you hiding behind your stuff today? Are you willing to tear down the walls and be real? This is the real closet we need to come out of. Just as Adam was unable to hide from the Father in the garden after he sinned, neither are we. He sees the real you and loves you and is willing to meet me right where you are. You don't have to clean up first.

Today be real. He will show you how wonderful and beautiful you really are.

 

 



You Are So Beautiful to Me

Phil Driscoll like me is a trophy of God's grace. I was fortunate to being living in Jacksonville, FL when he made an abrupt turn back to his roots and began to glorify God with his music.
Phil opens this video with a little background and the real heart behind this song.

So much of this is what your Father sys about you, too.

Who Will You Be When You Leave the House Today?

All too often, especially on Mondays, we put on our plastic smile, get out the door and go do what we gotta to. We have our outside box we operate in.

However, the word says, Christ in me, the hope of glory. What if I spoke what was on my heart. What if I spoke words of truth in love instead of being afraid of hurting someone or being politically correct. What if I shared words of life? Words of hope.

What does Christ, the hope of glory look like in your life? In your words?

So what if you are vulnerable to someone's criticism or sarcasm? Would you rather have your life look like a to do list or a vibrant journey

 

Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will,

according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

Ephesians 1:8-9

 

 

He has already made known to us the mystery of His will. If we don't know the will of God for our lives, it must be covered up with disappointments, the cares of the world, Unforgiveness or who knows what. The point is it is our job to discover it.

 

I praise God for the For My Life program at Be in Health. It helped me remove a lot of the things that were covering what God has in mind for my life. I am still in the discovery stage.

 

As I peel off layer upon layer of generational iniquities, self-righteousness, pride, doctrinal error, I am finding the real me. I am finding my voice and I am learning to use it.

 

You are on assignment today. Will you be BRAVE, and speak words of life to someone and bring them that "Christ in you, the hope of glory"?

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Are You Ready for a Name Change?

Twenty years ago at 5:30 in the morning I would go to morning prayer at Church on the Rock.  As I drove along the service road of I-20 in Rockwall County, this song would come on the radio and I would sing along.

 

It was my heart cry.

I will change, will change your name
I will change, will change your name

I will change your name
You shall no longer be called
Wounded, outcast, lonely or afraid

I will change your name
Your new name shall be
Confidence, joyfulness, overcoming one
Faithfulness, friend of God
One who seeks My face

 

I was all of that: wounded, outcast, lonely or afraid - wounded by years of abuse, the family black sheep, lonely in so many ways because I counted on Ray to complete me instead of the fullness of the Father's love and afraid of never being good enough to be accepted.

 

Oh, I kept up a brave front and I was very religious but actually had divination that I thought was a prophetic anointing. 

 

My husband was a truck driver and gone up to three months at a time. I had three teenagers. Frankly, I was a mess.

I took this song as a promise, but I never allowed God to complete the work. A name change is a journey. Like the fruit of the spirit all have to manifest. This name change requires that not only my name be changed, but first, I must be changed spirit, soul and body.

A couple of years later, n the middle of the process, someone presented me with the idea that I should help out a ministry in a small kingdom called Lesotho which is surrounded by South Africa. What a challenge! I felt special, chosen. You see when you are wounded, outcast, lonely or afraid, you need to be validated. Now I found my value.

Ray and I left for another continent. It was a good idea just not a GOD idea. It wreaked havoc on the lives of many family members. Oh, there were some good things that happened. Quite a few actually. But in just under a year we were home in Florida, repairing the damage our leaving, our detour, had done.

Our value is never found in what we DO for God.

Our value is found in who we will BE for God.

I will never know what would have happened if I had stayed my course. All I know is as I submit once again, already a 12 year process, at Pleasant Valley Church and Be in Health ministries,  I am beginning to see His promises of:

Confidence, joyfulness, overcoming one
Faithfulness, friend of God
One who seeks His face.  

It is one thing to want to have your name changed. It is quite another to not only submit to the changes but stay the course. It is not a microwave moment, but a journey. 

Are you ready for a name change?

 

 

Can You Be Still?

When you wake in the morning do you have to turn noise on? Television, computers, iPads, mp3 players added to the mix is the noise of the other family members.

Your spirit needs quiet every bit as much as it needs fellowship. To begin with noise is to splash ice water on your face. It jolts you into your day.

For me I have to slip out of bed before others get up. Sometimes it is four a.m. and I just sit on the edge of the bed talking to the Father and then I listen. I enjoy the quiet. I hear birds singing. It is a way for me to begin with gratitude instead of demands. More often than not, I will then lie back down and get the sweetest ninety minutes of sleep. Now when the alarm goes off, I am ready.

I so understand that may not work for everyone. Another quiet time I have is when I come home from work an hour before Ray. To sit in the family room and listen to the birds, enjoy the flowers and sometimes the little children playing next door unhooks me from my job and refreshes me.

Others find solace in a bubble bath or a walk.  It doesn’t matter where you find your quiet time. What matters is that you do.

It allows your body to come into homeostasis. It allows your mind to slow down and not race over to do lists. It really helps make you a happier person, because you are no longer wound up tighter than a banjo string.

Try a three day experiment of purposefully finding quiet. Carve it out where you can find it. Make it a priority and see if you better understand the Father when He says, “Be still and know that I am God.” You will find that some of the things you have been carrying are not yours to carry. Lay them down and Him handle them.

For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel;

 In returning and rest shall ye be saved;

in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength:

 and ye would not.

Isaiah 30:15

When I run to Daddy, rest in His everlasting arms, I shall be safe and I will be strong enough to face whatever comes my way. I do not want to hear Him say, "Ye would not."

 

 

 

All That and a Bag of Chips

Not sure where we get the idea sometimes that we have arrived. Life is a journey and if we have indeed arrived, we are finished.

Yet sometimes in the midst of our journey, we park. Not for rest, but to wallow in complacency or self-pity. Self-satisfied that we have done the work. It's time to just enjoy.

It reminds me a child sitting in a berry patch and eating, eating, eating. Instead of picking the berries, cleaning them, sharing them and preserving some, it is all about the moment. Eat, eat, and then comes the belly ache of regret. It is the regret of selfishness, of taking and holding life for yourself only.

We were created for fellowship. Sometimes that fellowship is as much fun as walking across sand spurs. Quickly, we learn that our feet must be covered with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

How much of my journey is spent in preparation? Or because I have been a Christian for years, do I assume I am ready? What pride! Even Jesus drew away in the early morning.

They say that you can see a person's real heart by looking at their checkbook and seeing where they put their resources. I contend that you can see a person's heart also by how they (that includes me) spend their time.

If you kept a diary for a week of how you spent every hour, what priority would God be given. There, of course, is work and sleep. But those other 8-10 hours, who gets them? Is there time for the preparation of the gospel of peace?

I know that is an area I have to work out. A place to begin is Psalm 119. Read and study one section for a week until it gets deep in your heart. I promise it will change your life.

A recent study showed that if a Christian was to be different from others, they must commit to meditating on four verses a week. To help me I sometimes write them on index cards and carry them with me or leave them where I can see them.

I am embarrassed to say that I thought I had a lot of Word, could quote a lot. I was all that and a bag of chips. Well, chips are easily crushed and left out go limp, then rancid.

Let's take a verse today and meditate on it. Let it change us and our perspective.

 

 I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.

 I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.

Psalm 119:59-60

 

 

No worries? Really?

Some people say they never worry about anything. Often they are the same folks who are stressed to the max.

Revelation time! Stress is worry. You say everyone has it? Well, we don't have to.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,

whose mind is stayed on thee:

because he trusteth in thee.

Isaiah 26:3

 

Where is the focus? On circumstances or on the Father?

 

I am not suggesting that you bury you head in the sand like an ostrich. What I am suggesting is that you look to the only person who can help you.

 

During the past two years, Ray and I have lost a daughter and he lost a brother and a sister. He had open heart surgery. Some of our grandchildren went through some fiery trials which impacted our lives because we love them dearly.  We moved from the home we thought we would spend the rest of our lives in. The van I was driving caught on fire and burned up. These are stressful events.

 

I would love to tell you that I just blithely said, Well God's in control. I didn't.  However, beginning with the death of our daughter, Carrin, we pressed in like never before and trusted at a level we had never had.

 

Isaiah 26:3 became my song. When I felt stress tightening my muscles,  it was an alarm to run to Him. Sometimes it took longer than others to recognize. Nevertheless, it was the only refuge I had for no one could fix it.

 

Pastor Anita often says, Take your peace. That is not passive. You take your peace and don't let anyone or any circumstance steal it from you.

 

For me it has taken practice and I will admit, if I am tired, I can be easily duped. But I am learning to rest in Him. I am learning to be gentle on myself.

 

Line upon line, precept upon precept, I allow the author and finisher of my faith to write on my heart. Every circumstance is simply a paragraph in my story. I believe He likes happy endings.

 

 



What Is The Price of Honesty?

Most of my life I pretended to be who you needed me to be. When I couldn't do it any longer, I would shutdown. Then weeks or months later, try again.

When I moved to Thomaston 12 years ago, I learned that was a fabricated personality. If I was going to be who God called me to be, I had to who He said I was. I was clueless.

I went to Google and googled Who Am I in Christ Jesus? I took those scriptures and began to write them in out in longhand on brightly colored cards.

Then when faced with fear, I could say, God has NOT given me a spirit of fear but of love, power and a sound mind. If I felt abandoned, I could say, He promised never to leave me nor forsake me.

It has been a process. I had to choose who to believe. What others said about me? (You are just like xxxx or You are going to be fat just like...Why can't you... You never do anything write. How many places have you lived? You will never amount to anything?) Or I can choose to listen to what the Father said about me. One brings death; the other brings life.
I choose life.

Honesty is so much simpler and brings peace. Lying or fabricating to please others brings torment. That torment brings illness through the stress of always being untrue to yourself. Fear of man or fear of abandonment says honesty is too hard. Guess what? Fear is a liar. Quit listening to the liar and listen to the truth.

We can do ALL things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us. Will you choose life?

If You Have Fallen, It Is Time to Get Up

There comes a time in life when you have to lay down everything 
 that is holding you back and go for it.

 Hebrews 12:1 says, Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about
 with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight,
and the sin which doth so easily beset us,
 and let us run with patience the race that is set before us

Our races and weights may be different, but none of us can do what God has set before us unless we lay down all of the weights that we have picked up over the years.

 

I can rattle off a dozen reasons why I couldn't be expected to a winner in the race of life. They could be as obvious as my weight or age or as devastating as being the victim of a violent crime. But those are just events.

Sometimes we can easily identify the weight. It is the "running with patience" that gets us.  I need to lose weight, but I don't want to lose a couple of pounds a week like I put it on. No, I want dramatic results in a week. Otherwise, it's too hard. I give up with a hopeless sigh.

 

When I quit trying to do it all myself and rely on His strength, then I go at His pace. I learn to be gentle on myself and I talk to myself. Yes, I talk to myself.

 

When that commercial comes on TV or the waitress asks if I want dessert (notice she says want, not need), I say, "Self, do you really want to wait another week for a win?"

 

What conversations are going on in your head? You may need to delete some old tapes. Replace them with what your Daddy says about you.

 



I find my true identity in who God says I am,
 not the voices of the past or that image in the mirror
or even what a medical test says I am.
 

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully [and] wonderfully made:
 marvelous [are] thy works;
(Hey! I am one of His marvelous works! Woo Hoo!)
and [that] my soul knoweth right well. Ps. 139:14

To redeem them that were under the law,
that we might receive the adoption of sons.
⁶ And because ye are sons,
 God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts,
 crying, Abba, Father. (That means Daddy)
⁷ Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son;
(or daughter. I am a member of His family.)
and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Galatians 4:5-7

 And hath raised us up together,
 and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
(so why are we in the pit of despair? Get back in that chair!)
⁷ That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches
 of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
(God wants to show YOU off!)
Ephesians 2:6-7

 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord,
thoughts of peace, and not of evil,
to give you an expected end.
Jeremiah 29:11

What is holding us back from appropriating ALL He has for us? Fear? Unforgiveness? Rejection? Self-Hatred?

 

We have lay these weights down, get up and  run!

 

 





 

Is it Easter in Your Life?

All of us have suffered tragedy. The loss of a child, a job, a home, serious illness, and so much more.
However, Jesus died on the cross and on the third arose. As Christians we can appropriate that resurrection power in our lives!
We cannot let tragedy define us. Deny it? No! But walk through the fiery fire knowing you WILL be purified.

And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee,

 he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee:

 fear not, neither be dismayed.Deut. 31:8

 

I would love to tell you it is easy. It is not. However, it is possible and when you have been through His sieve, those rocks that I thought were jewels are separated from my life, I emerged stronger and had a resiliency I had known before.

 

Father God is our Creator. His plans for us are for good and not evil. So when evil comes, we have to trust that He is right there beside us.

 

Satan's plan is to kill, steal and destroy. All we have to do is look at what is operating in our life and follow the plan that brings life.

 

I have people say, "But it's so hard."

 

Is death any easier? Death comes in many forms. Death of dreams, hopes, death of loved ones and the progressive death of our bodies.

 

It is time to appropriate His resurrection power, rise up and take back what the enemy has stolen. Easter Sunday is the perfect day to take back your life.



 

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What is Your Mouth Saying About You?

There's an old song form the 60s called You Talk Too Much. The lyrics begin with:

 You talk too much
You worry me to death
You talk too much
You even worry my pet

You just talk
Talk too much

 

 Ever know someone like that?

 

Keeping our mouth closed when we think we know something that maybe no one knows can sometimes be hard. There is an urge to tell you, because I wanted you to think I was discerning, perceptive and, well, just plain smart.

 

There are times when God asks us NOT to talk.

 

      Joshua 6:10 And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor make any       noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then shall ye shout.

      Matthew 16:20 Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the   Christ.

 

In Joshua, because they were faithful to be quiet until they were told to shout, victory came. I wonder how many victories are lost, because we opened out mouth too soon. When we just had to tell someone what God told us, a spiritual miscarriage happens in the heavenlies.

 

That sacred thing God deposited in your heart is now common. It will have to be purged of its commonality and refined by fire to be used by Him. All the while we are wondering what is taking God is so long.

Perhaps we can move more quickly into God's perfect will for us.

 

The Strong Hands of Love

Every night when Ray and I go to bed we hold hands. As we traveled across country to visit relatives, we often held hands. I love his leathery hands. They make me feel safe and secure.
There is another pair of hands that are stronger still.
Those hands in the past two years have held me through the loss of a child, a home and even a car that caught fire while I was driving it. They held me when Ray had open heart surgery only eleven months ago. He has held us in economic ups and downs even though some were our own creation.

In fact, that is the best part, He holds me whether I am good, bad or even thoughtless.
 

Isaiah 49:13 Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted. 14 But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. 15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.

This verse is often misquoted as “I have engraved your name on the palms of my hands.”

Actually the word picture in Isaiah 49 indicates that God has engraved not our names, but our very lives, on his hands. The point is to show that God loves us unconditionally. He cares for us without reserve and He will never forget us.

I love it when Ray takes my hand at night as we lay side by side. It is a perfect prescription for a good night's sleep.

When I , accept the love of my Father, it is a perfect prescription for a good life.

Paradigm Shift

I have not written in almost two months.
A lot has happened.
Celebrations, revelations and death.

There has also been some personal restructuring going on. I have had to take classes to change directions. I will be leaving the limits of this blog and moving over to another one called Diane and Friends.

We plan to launch it February 3rd. There is a great deal yet to be uploaded, formatted and linked. So excited to have Caitlin Dunn helping me. My awesome husband, Ray, is organizing  the pictures so I can readily access them.

As I look over these 300 posts on this site, I can see how God has carried us. I can even see times when I was full of myself instead of Him. I humbly repent.

I have family and friends from Italy to Australia and this blog has helped keep us connected heart to heart. Love, tears and prayers have kept us connected,

Romans 5:5b says, "May the love of God be shed abroad in your heart through the power of the Holy Spirit." Any love I share without His power is meaningless dribble.

Pray for us and we make this paradigm shift to better share His love and with no fear of man, let the words fall out.

The Better to See You With, My Dear

In Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf impersonating her grandmother answers all the questions asked.
When the girl arrives, she notices that her grandmother looks very strange. Little Red then says, "What a deep voice you have!" ("The better to greet you with"), "Goodness, what big eyes you have!" ("The better to see you with"), "And what big hands you have!" ("The better to hug/grab you with"), and lastly, "What a big mouth you have" ("The better to eat you with!").
That certainly doesn't end well. 
Have you ever wished someone could see things clearly, see things for what they really are?
We all have blind spots.
Recently I received similar prayer requests from friends. While each situation was very different, the cry was, "Why can't they see it?"
I remembered almost twenty years ago, when the church I went to went through a horrific split. In less than a month, membership dropped from over 5,000 to around a 1,000. You can imagine how that impacted finances and the jobs of those who worked there. It was the most devastation I had ever seen wrought by church members.
One thing impacted me profoundly in this chaos. Although the newspaper was having a field day with accusation, the new pastor never publicly defended himself.
It was the first time in my life, I had ever seen someone walk out Isaiah 53:7:

 

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth:

he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb,

 so he openeth not his mouth.

 

It was certainly contrary to the way I lived my life. If you hurt or even offended me, you were going to get a mouthful and so were others.

But the interesting part to me maybe two years later when the dust had settled, we were bankrupt and lost our million dollar buildings, we continued to pray every morning at 5:42 a.m. to a different cadence.

Pastor Mike still had not accused his accusers. Now though he asked us to pray two scriptures daily.

I am going to talk about just one today. The scripture was Ephesians 1:16-23.

 

¹⁶ Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;

¹⁷ That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,

 may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

¹⁸ The eyes of your understanding being enlightened;

that ye may know what is the hope of his calling,

and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

¹⁹ And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe,

according to the working of his mighty power,

²⁰ Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead,

 and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,

²¹ Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion,

and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

²² And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

²³ Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

 

Diligently we prayed that for those who left and those who stayed. Change happened. Some was almost imperceptible. Others were healing and brought unity. The change that surprised me the most was the change in me.
What we pray for others, we saw accomplished in our own lives. I began to become more grateful. My discernment was keener. My trust level increased.
My friends along with Ray and myself are praying this prayer until the end of the year asking God to open their eyes of understanding and give them wisdom. We don't want our loved ones devoured by the wolf. We want them to know the hope of HIs calling and have the power available to them. We want their lives changed according to His plans, not ours.

.

 

 

Why Make It Complicated?

It is sometimes funny to me the things that drive people, including myself. What bothers one person isn't even seen by another.
When we put things in context of eternity, they seem to come into proper perspective. My mom is fond of saying, "A hundred years from now, it won't even matter."
How right she is!
The older I get, the more I want the simple way. Not dull, life can have panache, but it doesn't have to be complicated.
When things are simple, you can more fully enjoy them.
Let me encourage you to enjoy the every day simple things and quit straining to getting everything perfect. Perfect is generally fabricated.

Just When I Think I Have It Together Again



 

Today was a funny, weird sort of day. I found myself stuffing envelopes, certainly not on my to do list when I headed to work this morning. For some reason I find it difficult to do mundane tasks unless I can throw something in the mix.

So I put on YouTube, found Michael W Smith, and put on one of his concerts to listen to while stuffing.



 

Slowly I shifted from the mundane to beautiful time of worship. Since I was in the office, I did not sing, but the earphones cut out all other noise and it was just Daddy and me. Tears ran down my face as I interceded for a young woman who miscarried a much wanted baby; a young couple forming who they are as one; repenting for some head trash I had carried too long. I remembered the approaching holidays and it made me miss Carrin ever so much. I prayed for the daughters and their families she left behind.

One thousand envelopes later I was cleansed. .

Worship is a two way street. I praise Him because of His love for me and He gives me even more love. I do not have to ever run dry. I just have to remember I was created for His pleasure from dust. I need to make myself available to Him daily for Him to form and shape me into His idea of beautiful.

 

 

You Get Real When You Are Still

I personally love fall with pecans falling from the trees and the vibrant colors mimicking trees aflame. I love the crunch of leaves as I walk through the yard. I love a good roaring fire and sipping hot cocoa.
Perhaps it is the cocooning that is necessary to keep ourselves warm that makes us a cozier, nicer person.

When we are still, the things within us that need to be perfected

 have a chance to percolate within our soul.

 

There are things that the busyness of life impedes. When we slow down, they waft through our spirit and that longing for dreams forgotten stirs.
We are body, soul and spirit. Unfortunately, we do not give each part of our being the full attention it needs to blossom. The weeding is deferred until it chokes out hopes. It is in the slower pace that we take notice of such things.
A crackling fire can ignite our spirit and a warm cup of cocoa, our soul.
Enjoy each day fully as if it were your last. It is a gift.

 

More Precious Than Silver

Struggling with writer's block today. Funny how I can think clearly just as I drift off to sleep. So I am sharing an older post that still has some meat on the bone.

Years ago south of Dallas I attended a Worship Symposium. I took a course on writing worship songs. Suddenly the teacher, Marty Nystrom, author of As a Deer Panteth, stopped teaching and came straight to me and said, "Sister, out of your brokenness, you will write songs that will bring deliverance to many."
I have never forgotten that even though it probably was 20 years ago. I am not discouraged that it has not come to past for Moses spent 40 years on the back side of the desert. Besides the brokenness that I thought he was talking about then, has been healed in a deeper dimension today than then.
What do I know about song writing? Practically nothing. But my responsibility is not to make something happen but to listen and be available.

"Creativity does not truly come from the popularized image of the tormented artist, struggling with the muse," Michael Card says. "True creativity is born in community as men and women of God listen to each other and to Him."

So I wait and I listen. One story that Marty told that day was the song, More Precious than Silver" was written in the kitchen while the author was preparing dinner for her family. The original lyrics were, "Lord, you are more precious than french fries." She took that phrase and developed the following song:

 

 

 

.

 

Hospitality Comes from the Heart of God

We are to be given to hospitality. If that hospitality comes out of the heart of God, it should be an act of love, not a fulfillment of a need. Resentment can come in if it is just filling someone's need.

But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.
And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging. 1 Peter 4:7-9

Without grudging simply means without murmuring complaining. The Lord may have sent this person as a gift to you. He may expect you to invite the unlovely and entertain him as if he were the Lord himself.

Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; [and] them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
Hebrews 13:1-3

We need each other. Living simply may be a gift, but it must include the body. We are all a part of God's body. We need each other to be who He saw before the foundations of the world. You may be just the one to provide that missing piece in someone's life. You may have just the encouraging word they need to hear, the hug they need to feel, the meal they need to taste to see that the Lord is good.

Make time and space in your heart and your home, not for the popular, but for those who need your love. You may entertain angels unaware.

As Thyself

And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,

and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind;

and thy neighbour as thyself. Luke 10:27

 

When flying there are pre-flight instructions. It’s the oxygen mask instruction that gets my attention. The masks drop down from above you if something happens to the air pressure. They tell me I have to fit my own mask first before helping infants or the elderly. I’ve always felt that the airlines have got it the wrong way round. Surely I have to help others first and make sure everyone around me is OK before I put on my mask. That’s the right and proper thing to do. Anything else is just pure selfish.

As they run through the drill, I sit in the plane and it occurs to me: I’m of no use to anyone else if I run out of air.   I must help myself before I can help anyone else. It's not selfish at all. In fact, in the final call, I am a liability if I cannot breathe myself.

This same principle could be applied to so many parts of  life. If I want to help someone with advice, I must first make sure that I live by that advice myself!

Often in the past I’ve offered advice to others yet not taken it on board within my own life.  How can I help fix someone else’s problems if I can’t take responsibility for my own? Frankly that is just being a busy body. 

There is no sense in talking the talk if I am not willing to walk the walk. Just hypocrisy.

I have to be willing to put on my oxygen mask first!

My attitude towards God and others is colored by my attitude towards myself. 

How can I love God when I think He made a mistake in creating me?

How can I pour out love for others if I am not receiving anything from the Father's heart for myself?

 

If I hate myself, I hate God and hate others. If I love myself, I love God and love others.

The beginning is to learn to love yourself.

 

For in him we live, and move, and have our being;

as certain also of your own poets have said,

 For we are also his offspring. Acts 17:28