Victory is Sweet!

Proud Mama reports that the Covenant College Lady Scots have secured the title of Appalachian Athletic Conference Tournament Champions and Champions of Character of the Conference.  They beat Tennessee Wesleyan College women's basketball team.  They will go on to the National Championship Playoffs in Sioux City, Iowa March 11th-17th.  Congratulations Girls for a heart stopping two days.  They join the King College Ladies in representing the AAC in Iowa. This is the farthest the women's basketball team has ever advanced in recent history,  at least in the seven years Coach Roy Heinz has been there.  He was smiling almost the entire game. Covenant was ahead all but about two minutes.  

Sioux City here we come!!!!  (Lord Willing).................Lynn

Basketball Championships

Ken, Bekah, and I are in Bristol, TN watching Margaret play in the AAC Basketball Championships.  They have won the first two games, and there is only one more to go!  This is for the championship game to see whether they will go on to the National Tournament in Sioux City, IA next week.  Coach never took her out of the last game.  It was very exciting.  They beat King College in overtime.  Great game to watch.  I will let you know what happens today at 4:00.  

The Martyr's Song by Ted Dekker

As I have said before, I am not a fan of Contemporary Christian Fiction.  I have read quite a bit, too.  It's not like I have just tried one book or series of books and then made the judgement.  Years ago when I began reading Classics on a regular basis, the CCF that I had read in times past just did not measure up.  I thought the plots were predictable, the characters were not always grounded in reality, and the books themselves were not lasting.  I could read through them very quickly, but then when they were done, there were no lasting thoughts, no dilemmas to think through, no trying to figure out how the character was just like me, or not like me.  I would love to hear your thoughts.  I am open to change.  

Oliver gave me a book a few months back that he said was terrific.  I let set on the shelf and did not pick it back up until Saturday.  I read it in about an hour or two, and could not put it down.  It touched me deeply.

The book, The Martyr's Song by Ted Dekker, deals with a the story of an older woman that survived WWII in Yugoslavia.  She shares her story to a young girl who believes she is ugly.  Eve (the old woman), tells her about an attack by the hands of some Serbian Soldiers on the priest in her village.  If I tell you all about it, and who the characters turn out to be, then you will not enjoy the story if you decide to read it.  

The next day, the girls in my life (Karen and Rebekah) were bickering constantly.  So, I sat them on the bed with me Sunday afternoon and we read the book together.  We all ended up in tears and had a good time of prayer together.  The two main themes of the book are beauty and sacrifice.  This spoke to all of us.  Also, the story begs the question; "What are you willing to die for?"

It was a fast read, and very enjoyable.  I also thought it was well written.  I have already ordered the other three books in the series.  I plan to read them to the girls as well.  

Thanks Oliver.........................Mom

 

Great Books

When I went through Chuck Colson's Centurian Program, one of the seminar speakers was a man named Ken Boa. We were assigned his book to read, Conformed to His Image.  He also, through Prison Fellowship, does a Great Books Series.  You can go to:  Prison Fellowship's web page and type in Great Books to find it.  I tried to put the link on here, but it was too long, and would not let me type after pasting it in.  I don't know what I was doing wrong.  Anyway, he takes the Great Books of Western Civ., and analyzes them on CD's.  It is a wonderful way to be introduced to some of these marvelous classics.  It will whet your appetite for more.  Below is a list of the books that he discusses this year.  

July 2008:   The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer

Aug. 2008:   The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Sept. 2008:   A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life by William Law

Oct./Nov. 2008:   The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Dec. 2008:   The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer

Jan. 2009:   Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Feb. 2009:   My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers

March 2009:   East of Eden by John Steinbeck

April 2009:   The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

May 2009:   Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

June 2009:   City of God by St. Augustine

July 2009:   Faust by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Aug. 2009:   Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross

If you have never "gotten" into Classic Literature before, now might be the time for you to taste and see. 

I was at a gathering not too long ago where a couple of the women were talking about Contemporary Christian Fiction.  I had tried to engage them into a discussion about Tolstoy.  I promptly remarked that I really didn't care for that genre of literature (with my nose in the air).  I can be just like some of the characters in Tolstoy's novels.   My son Oliver had brought me a book and told me, this had been some time ago,  I had to read it.  It was written by a Contemporary Christian Fiction author.  It sat idly on my book shelf for months.  I decided to pick it back up the other day...................more on that tomorrow.  

Keep Reading............................Lynn

Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy

Have you ever had the experience of picking up a book that you thought was going to be captivating at the least,  or just one great spiritual insight at the most?  Before I read Resurrection, I had already read Tolstoy's War and Peace, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Anna Karenina.   I expected Resurrection to be the best one of all.  I probably put this book down in anger three or four times, not intending to pick it back up again. Only to have to finish it, because I was again drawn to it, out of a sense of "duty" to complete a task or because I wanted to find out what happened.

I am a political hack, so, every time Tolstoy would seemingly  favored socialism over capitalism, I would say to myself, "OK, that's it.  I am not going to finish it."  One of my literary heroes was slipping off his white horse. 

Frustration reigned until the very end, I truly could not figure out exactly where Tolstoy was going, where his viewpoint would lie, and whether he would land on the true Gospel.  

A Russian nobleman, around the turn of the twentieth century, finds his life in a shallow rut.  Not knowing what to do about it, he apathetically succumbs to his surroundings.  He is called to serve on a jury and his past meets his future. The trial he is assigned to is the trial of a girl who is accused of poisoning a man to death.  As the girl comes into the courtroom, his world turns upside down. She is a girl that he forced himself on ten years before.  She, since that time, has given into the vision that she thought he had of her and has become a prostitute. This begins his journey of redemption.  

The book has as many twists and turns as a Jack Bauer episode of 24, yet not so much with plot turns, as with emotional, psychological, political, social, and spiritual twists.  One minute I would think that Tolstoy's answer to life's evils was a political answer, then I thought he was advocating a new social order, etc...etc.....At one point I was so frustrated with the main character I wanted to scream.  He was arrogant, self-absorbed, and self righteous.  This is exactly what Tolstoy is brilliant at.  He knew human beings and human nature. I also knew that in this novel Tolstoy was expressing his point of view.  It was the last novel he ever wrote.  It honestly did not come together for me until the very end.  

I learned a great deal about the Russian experience of that time.  It comes across abundantly clear why the Bolsheviks were able to take over at the time that they did.  The nation was truly ripe for "change" and revolution.  Something had to change, the system was broken.  

I have given you my impressions without giving away the story, because reading it is a must, and I do not want give it away.  

It is considerably shorter in length than some of his other novels, so if you haven't read Tolstoy yet, this one might be the one to read first.  It would, I promise, be the #1 book of the year in a book club, because it would be the source of the absolute greatest discussions.  Give it a go!  

Rest?

Hebrews 3 and 4

Read the following two illustrations, what do they make you think about?

1.  A woman lays down her head on a park bench. She has a slight smile on her face as she descends slowly on to the hard surface. Gradually she tucks her feet under her and places her hands underneath her head to some what symbolize a soft, feather pillow. She is wearing an overcoat made of loose fitting wool. It flows softly, deftly over her shoulders, torso, and legs. Before five minutes is up, she is softly breathing the rhythm of sound sleep, even as she wears the delicate smile on her face, making her eyes, although closed, twinkle.


2.  Nurse, I think we are going to have to take another x-ray of the left lower quadrant of her mouth. Yes Sir, I’ll set that up. Ma’am you’ll have to sit up one more time so that we can get another x-ray of your mouth. Just sit up straight so we can get a good picture. That’s it. Now be still. Great. Now lay back down, ok…you look pretty comfortable. Ma’am can you open up your eyes for just a second so that you can get better situated. You seem to be all slumped down farther than you need to be. Now that’s it. Open up; look over to your right with your mouth open. It might help if you can keep your eyes open for just one minute more. Ok, that’s right. Now you can close your eyes if you would like. Bringgggggggggg, grundnnnnnnnnnnnn, ringgggggggggggggg, ringggggggggggggggggg, bringgggggggggggggggg. Nurse we need some suction. No over on this side. RiNGgggggggggggggggggggg, BrfingGGGGGGGG, Uh Oh, she’s sliding again. Ma’am you have got to stay awake. You came to me knowing that I am the foremost in my field. Can you not pay attention to what I am doing? The woman looks up at him her mouth filled with gauze flowing over with saliva, and says, “The reason why I can relax is because you ARE the foremost in your field”. She then relaxed, one more time, and closed her eyes.

Parts of Hebrews Chapters 4 and 5:  

            

7So, as the Holy Spirit says: 

"Today, if you hear his voice, 

8do not harden your hearts 

as you did in the rebellion, 

during the time of testing in the desert, 

9where your fathers tested and tried me 

and for forty years saw what I did. 

10That is why I was angry with that generation, 

and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, 

and they have not known my ways.' 

11So I declared on oath in my anger, 

'They shall never enter my rest.' "

12See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. 

 19So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

1Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. 

How do we as believers enter into rest?  How do we cease from our works?  By Faith.  Faith then, Faith now.  Faith for salvation, faith for everyday EVERYTHING.  We cease from our works, by not trying to earn it any longer.  If we are still trying to earn either our salvation or our sanctification, then we are trusting something other than the God of the Bible.  

Christians....preach the Gospel to yourselves today...............Lynn

One Missionary's Story

 

I had my quiet time this morning. I do not say that to brag in anyway, but I used to. I would check it off the list, feel good about myself, and think that God was obligated to give me a good day.

To follow up with what I wrote Monday on Matthew 5, during the above time in my process of sanctification, I would visualize myself with a Bible in one hand, over my head, and a devotional book in the other one holding them like barbells at the same time doing deep knee bends. Discipline, that was the word, discipline. I started having my doubts when in the course of my disciplined day I would sin grievously. I would then beat myself up, and discipline myself harder than before. Some where along the way, I became desperate. All my discipline was not getting me "better." I would cry and ask God why He made such a looser, after all, all I wanted was to be good for Him. Then I had to teach Matthew 5.

At about the same time I also was introduced to an old hymn:

1 Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched,

Weak and wounded, sick and sore;

Jesus ready stands to save you, Full of pity joined with pow'r:

He is able, He is able, He is able, He is willing; doubt no more;

He is willing; doubt no more.

2 Come, ye needy, come and welcome, God's free bounty glorify;

True belief and true repentance, Ev'ry grace that brings you nigh,

Without money, Without money, Without money,

Come to Jesus Christ and buy;

Come to Jesus Christ and buy.

3 Come, ye weary, heavy laden, Bruised and broken by the fall;

If you tarry till you're better, You will never come at all:

Not the righteous, Not the righteous,

Not the righteous,

Sinners Jesus came to call; Sinners Jesus came to call.

4 Let not conscience make you linger, Nor of fitness fondly dream;

All the fitness he requireth Is to feel your need of him; This

he gives you, This he gives you, This he gives you; '

Tis the Spirit's rising beam; 'Tis the Spirit's rising beam.

5 Lo! th'incarnate God, ascended, Pleads the merit of his blood;

Venture on him, venture wholly, Let no other trust intrude:

None but Jesus, None but Jesus,

None but Jesus Can do helpless sinners good;

Can do helpless sinners good.

Look especially at the fourth verse. I dreamed of fitness, my own. I dreamed of my own discipline that would "make me better." If I had one more quiet time, if I was more consistent, If I just pleased Him more. When you have this mindset, then everything bad that happens is your fault. Matthew 5 showed me the way out of my own "spiritual prison."

3"Blessed are the poor in spirit,for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."

I couldn't and can't make myself better. Only Jesus can. I please Him now. Does that mean that I don't practice the spiritual disciplines any longer? Yes, I do, but with far different motives. Does this mean that now my motives are always right, no far from it, but the eyes of my heart see things differently now, and I will continue to bear the effects of sin this side of eternity.

After, by His grace, I began to learn these truths, my perspective changed. I even read the Bible differently. All those passages that I thought meant, "Lynn you are not good enough, you are just not fit, you are not obedient enough, "whatever" enough, etc...etc...." I even saw those things in a different light. No, your right, I'm not good enough, fit enough, or obedient enough, but by His grace I am HIS, and He is good enough. My quiet times blossomed, my "work" for the church took on new meaning, I was His! Oh blessed thought. God wanted my humility, my dependence, not my misplaced pride. He loves me. He was bringing the trials, the hard things in my life BECAUSE He loved me. I thought if I was His, He would take away the trials, since He didn't I must be bad, or not doing something right. Was I wrong. These simple truths have changed my life more than anything else. Imagine a prison where everything but perfection alone let you have peace.

Come ye sinners poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore.....Lynn

Testing

What does a time of testing produce in our lives?  What is it that Christ wants us to know, to learn, to unearth in a time of trial?  

Daily now we hear on the news how desperate peoples lives have become.  Our real estate agent was relating to us that it has gotten so bad in her business that people are beginning to act irrationally, almost to the point of having mental breakdowns.  She is referring to people who make their living buying and selling homes, and also a great deal of people who are loosing their homes because of job loss and foreclosure.  We have looked at some houses in Charlotte that were huge, 4000+square feet, that are going for a song, because they have been taken over by the banks (of course, you that really know me, know that I could not handle a house that big, I can't even keep the one I have now clean).  She said it has been common even in million dollar homes where the banks have taken them over to find that when the people moved out they destroyed part of the home.  They will make holes in the walls and splatter paint all over the carpet and floors.  I was aghast.  These are desperate times.

Christ calls us to a different way of doing things.  In our society where the dollar is king we can be an example to desperate people in showing them how to live in a world where materialism will always leave you bankrupt in more ways than just financially.  That's exactly where our trials come in to play.

Matthew 5

The Beatitudes

1 Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them saying:

3"Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek,

for they will inherit the earth.

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called sons of God.

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

*It is no coincidence that right after Jesus speaks of the above, He links them to being salt and light.  (my note)

Salt and Light

13 "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

During my devotions this morning I found some encouraging quotes that echo what I am trying to say.  The first one is from RC Sproul's Tabletalk Magazine, 

"Christians are no longer under the curse of the Law (Gal. 3:13-14).  Yet until we are glorified, the presence of sin within us clouds our minds, preventing us on many occasions from seeing the truth about our own deeds and motivations.  Reading the Mosaic law and its interpretation in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) remind us of the thoroughgoing nature of sin and helps us see the evil still within us so that we might repent of it and put it to death."  

The other devotion book I have been reading is Sam Storm's To the One Who Conquers, which is a devotional centered on the Seven Churches in Revelation.  Storms summarizes a sermon by Jonathan Edwards as follows, "All the good that we have, said Edwards, is in and through Christ.  It is through him alone that true wisdom is imparted to the mind   It is by being in him that we are justified, have our sins pardoned, and are received as righteous into God's favor.  Through utter dependence on Christ alone we have true excellency of heart and understanding and our actual deliverance or redemption from all misery, as well as the bestowal of all happiness and glory."  This quote comes from a series of sermons by Edwards in Sermons and Discourses ed. by Mark Valeri.  

The Beatitudes is about repentance and dependence .  It is a little like the Law of the New Testament, it is meant to open our eyes, ears, and hearts to the reality of indwelling sin.  As we see God for who He is, and see our sin for what it is, then we repent, and can truly be salt and light to the world.  Of course, this is not a one time event, it is a pattern lived over and over.  We would all be struck down on the spot if Christ showed us the depravity of our hearts all at one time. In His mercy He shows us a little at a time, and if we are truly repentant then we are made more and more dependent on Him alone.  

What does this have to do with foreclosures and the grip of materialism in our society you might ask?  Everything!  We as believers are tempted in every way like the world is, except we have a "get out of jail card, free."  As we learn the wisdom of this pattern through the trials where our material goods are taken away, then as we repent, then we learn through this wisdom that we then can model and impart to those around us.  People are desperately needing this now.  Do you work in a bank, a financial institution, or a business that is holding on for dear life?  Maybe you know someone that is really struggling financially. Americans are vulnerable right now.  This might make them more inclined to hear the Gospel. It is an excellent time, not to be silent, but to model to them with our lives and our words, that this world is not our ultimate home, that we can be content with less, and that money is not where happiness is found, and we do not have to wait to have a good day according to the news.  

This is only going to happen by seeing God for who He is; He is always good, always loving, always Holy, and by seeing our depravity, and then to repent and by glad.  Hard lessons.  Hard trials.  Maybe this trial of the loss of finances is really for the Bride of Christ to learn, not so much for our pagan neighbors.  Just a thought.  

Awaiting Him who owns the cattle on a thousand hills.......................Lynn

Gandalf Speaks Once Again..........

When I am down and troubled about the state of our country, I hearken back to Gandalf and his response to Frodo in the Mines of Moria.  All their troubles, all their fears are pressing down hard on this little insignificant Hobbit,  'Frodo sighs, “I wish none of this had happened,” Gandalf’s response speaks to us, too: “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” '

I have a feeling that things are going to get worse before they get better for this great country of ours, and we as believers have to grasp it as an opportunity to display to the world just what is really important.  I say this with fear and trembling.  I do not even know if I want to say it at all.  I am with Frodo, paraphrase, "Let's go back to the Shire....."  There is no going back, and by saying we need to "grasp the opportunity, means accountability, testing, and reality in my life."  I in myself, cannot live up to this testing, and am actually afraid of it.  What if God allows my house to be taken away, my financial "security" gone, my freedom taken away?  I do not know what I will do.  Maybe I should say with Scarlet, "I will worry about that tomorrow."  Yes, that is what I will do.  After all, didn't Jesus say, "tomorrow has enough troubles of its own."  Something deep down also says, "don't worry, but be prepared."  I guess I just need to focus on living today for His glory.  Easy to say, difficult to do.  

Time Marches On.......

Maybe, if you are like me, you remember sitting in your elementary school class room listening to your teacher mention what life would be like in the year 2000.  I remember counting in my head how old I was going to be in 2000, I thought, I will be almost dead by then.  The year 2000 was nine years ago, time marches on, and I am still alive.

When I was in the third or fourth grade I went over to a friends house to play.  Her father worked for Texas Instruments in Dallas.  We were watching TV, and her father told us, someday, we would be able to record our TV shows and watch them later, and watch movies on tape on TV.  Oh, I was impressed.  I thought, though, no way.  Time marches on.  

Maybe you also remember the first landing on the Moon, the Carter years when we had long gas lines, hyper inflation, and the nightly counting down of how long the American hostages had been held in Iran.  Then came the Carter debacle of using our troops to try to covertly rescue them.  It failed.  Time Marches on.  

Maybe you remember the 17% interest rates on mortgage loans during that time.  The first home Ken and I ever bought had, I think, a loan with 15% interest, whoa!  Tough times.  Now the interest rates are at historic lows.  Time marches on, changes happen.  

In his life time, my grandfather, fought in three different wars.  Born in the late 1800's, he fought in the Spanish American War, World War I, and World War II.  He saw combat on four different continents, including India.  Amazing.  He deemed that fighting for freedom was an endeavor that was worth laying his life on the line for-three different times.  I do not think that my generation or the ones after mine, have even come close to having been tested any way near what my grandfather's generation was.  Time marches on.  

I would say that the majority of Americans today do not feel that there is anything worth dying for; not freedom, not family, not anything eternal, nothing.  How sad.  I really don't believe you can experience a life worth living, until you are willing to die for something.  Jesus taught us there was something worth laying our lives down for.  The people that want to hold on to this life so tightly that they don't want to die, don't live to the fullest either.  

Time will continue to march on and death will eventually take all of us, unless Jesus comes first.  Do you feel in your soul that you are truly living? 

War and Peace

What a novel, what a fantastic experience I had reading (listening) to Tolstoy's masterpiece, War and Peace.  I have thought over and over how to describe War and Peace.  Do I tell you about the incredible historical aspects of this novel, the descriptions of his characters, his worldview, his understanding of humanity, or the way in which he describes ordinary people in all of life's circumstances?  Tolstoy's descriptions of all of the above are unbelievably intricate and multi-faceted.  He not only describes the surroundings of the characters, but the way they feel, think, how they are intertwined with their historical context, the families they come from and the society in which they were brought up in.  It is not until the "second" Epilogue that he explains in detail his world and life view which explains why he wrote the way he did.  Everything in the novel supports this epilogue.  It was as if he wrote down the epilogue and then crafted his characters, their surroundings, and their historical context.  Oh to be able to write in such a way.  This is the reason why this novel has stood the passage of time, and is a classic.  

Tolstoy was born on August 28, 1828.  He was born into a long line of Russian nobility.  His mother died giving birth to a sister when he was two years old, he lost his father before he was thirteen, and lived after that between aunts and siblings.  His father gave him a love of reading.  There were 20,000 volumes in the family library in thirty different languages.  At the age of sixteen he went off to the University of Kazan to study languages. When it was all said and done, he learned twelve languages.  He also studied philosophy, religion, and geography. He never finished though, because he was listless, and confused about his role in life.  He entered the service and fought in two different wars. Before he went into the military, he became addicted to drinking and gambling. As he says in his biography, he was involved in every kind of debauchery there was."I put men to death in war, I fought duels to slay others. I lost at cards, wasted the substance wrung from the sweat of peasants, punished the latter cruelly, rioted with loose women, and deceived men. Lying, robbery, adultery of all kinds, drunkenness, violence, and murder, all were committed by me, not one crime omitted, and yet I was not the less considered by my equals to be a comparatively moral man. Such was my life for ten years." 

Tolstoy married at the age of thirty four, fathered twelve children, all of them did not survive infancy.  He began writing in the army and submitted his writings to periodicals.  They were very popular, and War and Peace was one of his first novels.  

He was plagued with depression most of his life over the way that he had lived in his ten years of riotous living.  It remained with him all of his life.  After he finished writing Anna Karenina, he was so depressed that suicide seemed to be a way out.  Instead, he found the truth in his savior Jesus Christ.  This began his religious writings.  

Tolstoy dealt with all aspects of life, emotions, and also of death.  

He writes of this theme in all of his books. In War and Peace, the

characters that were the strongest were those that had faced death,

come to grips with it and was no longer afraid of it, in fact it was a

a very welcome relief. He sees this as the strength that Jesus gives us. 

Life is then lived to the fullest, in dying we find real life.  

I have now read three of Tolstoy's novels and am looking forward

to reading the rest.

In dying we live...................Lynn

Answers to prayer

The above picture is one of Ken when we were first married, he was the youth pastor in San Jose, CA.  He actually has hair!
Thanks for your prayers for Mom and for me.  She is at home and weak, but doing fine.  I haven't been over there yet, because I had to go to the doctor yesterday and have felt like I was coming down with an infection or a flu.  I feel better today though, thanks to Zicam!   Mom is not producing the blood that she needs, and one of reasons is that she doesn't drink enough, and older individual's blood marrow does not produce at the same rate of speed it used to.  She is going to be seeing a great deal more of Dr. Ellen Willard who is a good friend, oncologist, and a hematologist.  Thanks  be to the Father for the body of Christ.  Her church friends have been taking great care of her, and thanks to my brother who was able to be with her almost the entire time.  Also, thanks to two employees of Wal-Mart!  When she collapsed they followed her home and put away all her groceries for her.  I'd say that was going beyond the call of duty.  Thanks.  

It doesn't look like we will get the house that I really liked, but I know that God has one perfectly in store for us, at our price range.  So, it is back to Charlotte to go house hunting.  

I enjoyed the first of the new Bible study I am leading in Albemarle on Wednesday night.  I praise God for Pastor Shellnut for giving me the opportunity.  When teaching your spiritual eyes and  ears are attuned in a fresh way.  I am teaching the Beatitudes which Belinda and I have taught before.  You can never plumb the depths of those words of Christ.  I warned the women for tests, for they will come, and have already come to me.  Dying to self, is one  big test, am I right?  I love you all.  Miss you, and long for the day when there will be no more barriers, real or contrived.  

Thanks  be to God who takes care of all His children.....................Lynn

confession

Mom collapsed at Wal-Mart yesterday and is in the hospital, Karen has a terrible cold, we are in the midst of putting an offer on a home in Charlotte, I put my knee into my computer last night on the bed and damaged the screen, my house is an absolute disaster, I am beginning a new Bible Study on Wednesday night, and I have an important doctors appointment for me on Thursday morning, and as all "good" wives do, I took it all out on Ken last night.  We are to confess our sins one to another, I think I just did.  

The study that I will lead on Wednesday night is a study on the Beatitudes, you know about dying to self.  i warned myself weeks ago before I decided on the topic that I would be the one tested on the dying part.  The first Beatitude is:  3"Blessed are the poor in spirit, 

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."  Humility,  in other words, seeing yourself for who you really are, not for what you think you are.  I often tell myself, self you are a good daughter, and a terrific mother and wife, self you have really kept up with the house, and therefore, you are spiritual, look at you.  What lies we tell ourselves.  I am those things, compared to some in the world, but who am I to be compared to?  Next to the Holiness of God, I do not match up.  If I am doing those things in the flesh, Christ will show me to what depth.  Then, He corrects, I repent, and He clothes me with the humility of repentance, and I move out in His Spirit not mine.  He gently shows me where my true strength lies.  

Dying daily I renew that strength.  Why do I always forget that it is a DAILY experience? 

Dying to live..............................Lynn

Home?

I can't get our new home out of my mind.  I am constantly placing furniture, wondering what to change, then researching how to change them.  Where will I go and drink my coffee in the mornings, which for me is the best time of the day?  What will Katie think?  She has such a great eye for houses.  What will the rest of the family think about it?  My mind is consumed.  

It made me stop and think about some things.  Just how often do I think of my eternal home?  Really, not very often.  I will be there for a very long time, if you can even call it time. Since my limited mind can not wrap itself around a "time" without "time" I will still refer to it as "time".  Christ said He is going to go ahead of us and prepare the way to our eternal home. Paul said we can build it with gold and precious stones, or the alternative could be what we use in the construction could be burned up.  

I have looked at quite a few houses this last week.  Some of them needed to be burned down and started again, at least just part of the house, to get rid of the parts that were not constructed well, not usable, not aesthetically pleasing, or so out of date that no one wanted to use them anymore.  There seems to be a time in the last century when you look at houses built in the 50's or 60's and say they are now out of date.  But, if you go into an old farm house or an antebellum home, they aren't out of date they are antique and beautiful.  Why is that?  The antique homes are older than the others.  Which would you rather be an antique house with lots of memories and character or an out of date house that is just that, out of date?  The antique one makes you feel warm, inviting, and brings back feelings, mental and emotional. The other makes you want to run the other way.  If I think about my life as an old house, I would much rather be warm, inviting, with lots of memories oozing from my rafters, and the atmosphere of the house.  My spiritual house cannot just have memories.  It has to have active, alive, and vibrant happenings now.  It has to have repairs (constantly), and as things "die" in it, they must be replaced by life.  Sanctification, the process of the Christian life as we become more and more like Christ, is a process, it is a marathon, not a sprint.  

I am building a much more important house now, and it will count for eternity, forever.  How am I building it?  With precious gems like; putting God's priorities above my own, loving God's people, loving His Word, etc.....

Building for forever.............Lynn