my house

AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE

WE WILL 
         love
          serve
           honor
            magnify
             praise
              worship
               fear
                obey
                 follow
                   trust
                         THE LORD

 Joshua 24:15





Inspired by @christinecaine IG post
                 
                                            

you are mine

While praying one day, a woman asked, "Who are you, God?"
He answered, "I Am".

"But, who is 'I Am'?", she asked.

He replied,
"I Am Joy
I Am Love
I Am Peace
I Am Grace
I Am Mercy
I Am Safety
I Am Shelter
I Am Creator
I Am Strength
I Am Comforter
I Am Forgiveness
I Am the First and the Last
I Am the Beginning and the End
I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life."

With tears in her eyes, she looked toward heaven and said, "Now I understand. But who am I?"

God tenderly wiped the tears from her eyes and whispered, 

"You are Mine."

To a woman who showed me how to have joy, love, peace, grace, mercy. Gave me safety and shelter. Showed me how to be creative. I saw her strength and yet she is a comfort. Who gave me forgiveness. And showed me Who was the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Way, the Truth and the Life...

I love you Mom!




(Poem ~ Author Unknown)

love me always

“Your goodness to me has been overwhelming. How tender you are, though I am often as tough as gristle. How patiently you have loved me since you made up your mind to love me always.”                                 ― Jan Karon, Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good: The New Mitford Novel

Happy Anniversary my love!

The Preacher Walks Into the Deep Waters To Love

Early in the morning the Preacher received the family's call. The woman who called wanted to let the Preacher know that her mother-in-law was on her death bed and was asking for prayers for her husband's family. Death would be coming at any time. The Preacher told me that we must go to see this family, to be with them in their time of need.

The nursing home, where the family was waiting, was not very far from our town. I told the Preacher that I would drive him and when we arrived that I would stay in the car and read a book and wait on him.

You see, I don't do well in nursing homes, especially when the person is in a bad way. I blame this on my mother. If she couldn't find a babysitter she would take us to the nursing home where she worked. She would leave us in the common living room with all of the 'old people'. To a young girl these people were scary. The people were sitting in their wheelchairs, some strapped in, were sleeping with mouths wide open, some would be yelling or screaming at nothing and others would drool getting their shirts soaking wet. Watching this was a very scary experience!

The Preacher and I arrived at the nursing home. I tell him again that I will stay in the car and wait. He says to me, "No, come in and say hello to the family." We were greeted by the family who were sitting in the common living room. After we exchanged "how are you's", we were escorted into the mother's room. More family members were surrounding her bed. The mother asleep, mouth wide open, trying to grasp this life's final breaths.

Me, I'm looking for a way out of the room, but the Preacher, he takes a seat right next to the sleeping mother and begins rubbing her shoulder ever so tenderly. Then he begins to ask the family questions about their mother. Questions like – how many children did she have, where did she grow up, where did she attend church, what did she like to do. All of the children began to tell stories of their mother and they began to show us pictures and some paintings that she had painted herself years ago. Their eyes brightened as they went back to a place of remembering.

The Preacher asked if he could say a prayer for the family before we left them. We all bowed our heads but the Preacher reached over and spoke the prayer words directly into the mother's ear.

The family thanked us for coming and we left to go about our day of living. Later that evening we heard that the mother, in the afternoon hours of that day, had taken her last breath and left this world to suffer no more. 

I began to think of how wonderful this man is, the Preacher. He too is not crazy about these types of visits, but unlike me, he doesn't look for a way out. He walks head on into the dark waters of fear. He is compassionate. He loves people and that love overtakes any uneasiness that he may feel.

I envy this. This love. This Jesus kind of love. I do pray that someday, I too, will be able to put behind my fears so that I can walk head on in and love like this.

Love from the Preacher and I

Be the Grace and Love They Seek

Photo taken from The Blaze website

In these times when grace and love seem to be so hard to find, we as the Church need to be the grace and love that people seek.

All this week I have been listening to the talk and observing the way various people have reacted to the horrible mass murder by a terrorist in Orlando last Saturday night.    

A friend of mine knows someone who was friends of one of the first victims killed. His heart was broken and needed some understanding but he did not see it in a church. This particular church did not acknowledge the tragedy nor did they pray for the victims. 

While in a meeting, I heard people talking about how they couldn't believe all of the publicity the LGBT community was receiving from this awful event. They were talking about how terrible the media was because they felt that if this had been 49 Christians killed, there would not have been as much of a show of support. It was as if they were a little jealous of the media attention.

I do not support the choice of the homosexual lifestyle. BUT I do support love and grace. The people that were shot and killed were fellow human beings. God loved them just as He loves you and me. He wishes that all people be saved. Paul says in I Corinthians 10:33, "For I am not seeking my own good but the good of the many, so that they may be saved."

I told my friend that I wish her friend would have been in our service on Sunday morning. Our Worship Minister and the Preacher both prayed for the victims and their families. But at the meeting I had attended, I did not speak up. I had to process their attitudes a little before I could speak.

The Preacher has said on many occasions, "If we, as a church, are always showing people what we are against, then how will they ever know what we are for?"

I'm sure you have heard the saying, "hate the sin, love the sinner". Do we say it just to be talking christianese and we feel we'll sound more holy? We all deal with our own sins every day but thank God He still loves us in spite of it. 

So as we go forward in the wake of this tragedy, let's not go forward in hate. Let's go forward in love. Let's go forward with grace. 

Be the Church, be the people that Christ wants us to be.

Love from the Preacher and I 

The Preacher Wept

The Preacher walks into the room. He is returning from his morning run. I look up to greet him when I see that his eyes are red, tears are flowing down his cheeks. I immediately ask him what is wrong. He can't talk, he just sits down in a chair. I ask again, thinking he has hurt himself, or he has received a call of bad news. He shakes his head no, none of the above. He bends over, head in his hands, crying, and he cries out, "Why doesn't prayer work?". I hold him tight.

This same morning I had been reading my devotions. The scripture that was used was John 11:35, "Jesus wept." Those two words say so much about our Savior, of who He is. 

Over the years I have read and seen movies of super heroes. Men and women who use their super powers to save the girl, save towns, and save the world. None do I remember crying. But here is Jesus, the True Savior of the world, crying.

He is crying over the death of His dear friend Lazarus. Maybe He is even crying over the disbelief of the people who have come to the graveside. Had Jesus prayed to the Father for Lazarus' healing? We don't know, but we know he mourned the loss of His friend. Even though Jesus knew He would raise his friend from the dead, there was still a moment of grief. Pain came before the healing.

The actions of the Preacher that morning say so much about who he is too.

The Preacher raises up from the chair and rubs his eyes. I ask again what is wrong. He proceeds to tell me that while on his run he was thinking of a friend whom he had been counseling. This friend had not grasped the grace that God offers and was proceeding down to a very dark place. He was in the pain and could not see the healing. The Preacher had been praying so hard for his friend.

The Preacher is not a super hero. He is not the savior of the world. He doesn't have any super powers. What he does have is his love for his friends, for his church members, for his family, and for the stranger that he meets by chance. 

The Preacher is human. He grieves with a big heart and he loves with a big heart. Maybe, just maybe he does have super powers after all.

Love from the Preacher and I