God Makes All Things Beautiful!

Fall is in the air this morning! There's a cool breeze and it smells like dry leaves; it's the kind of weather that makes me want warm cozy blankets, hot chocolate, and ooey gooey warm cheesey dinners. Fall, I think is the most comforting season, and it seems that every time fall hits, I need some comforting. God know exactly what we need and brings us through our seasons at just the right time. This past week has been a week of loss...On Monday, we helped Bailey, our sweet dog of 15 years out of pain and out of this world. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I am so thankful that God prepares our hearts for times like these and fills them with His love, mercy, and grace. I still have an empty feeling when I think of her and am reminded she's no longer here, and I imagine that will linger for quite some time.

Then, on Wednesday, I found out that someone close to me is "moving away", and we will no longer be able to be "so" close...Last, on Friday, I said goodbye to nine of my students (that's half of my class) as they "moved up" to their new class, some of them had been with me for almost a year-and-a-half, this prooved to be more difficult than anticipated. The comfort of this fall breeze is more than healing than I can describe! Sitting in my living room with the door and windows open, getting close to grabing a blanket, looking forward to the new week and new season ahead.

I was reminded this morning of the verse that says

"And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”' Revelation 21:5

"He has made everything appropriate (good, beautiful) in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but man cannot discover the work God has done from beginning to end." Ecclesiasties 3:11

Our God is in the business of transformations...think of the swan, for example. The swan duckling is often reffered to as "the ugly duckling," we've all hear the children's story of how the ugly duckling is laughed at and teased and them grows and matures to become more beautiful than his taunting counterparts...(looking at the picture above, these litte swans are not so ugly, but for the sake of illustration, lets pretend)  I believe this is a beautiful picture of God 'making all things new.' God can bring beauty out of every situation, good or bad, and works all things together for our good, and does not allow anything that does not fit into or fulfill His will and final plan. So, I like to think that God is in the business of swan-making! Which he is. He made the swans, afterall. :) What I mean is, even after my seemingly terrible week, I know that just like the swan, just like this cool fall morning after a crazy-hot summer, God is renewing and refining my heart through every season He wills for me to go through. Therefore, I must be thankful, even for this past week, because God is using it to transform my heart and my life so that I, too, may one day become the "beautiful ending" he has planned for me!

Blessings, friends! As I look forward to my beautiful ending and the journey of life that will take me there, I pray that God will reveal something beautiful to you this week. Just as Ecclesiasties says, He makes ALL things beautiful in its time!

Off Track...

Have you ever struggled with a season of apathy? I believe there are seasons for everything, Ecclesiastes tells us much about seasons...this season, my heart is steeped in apathy...many times I find myself not wanting to do anything say anything feel anything...Even this email/post/devotional*as some of you have termed SWS* I've been putting off for two weeks. My mind babbles like a river with phrases and ideas that may or may not be filled with wisdom and I compose and revise and think through sentences and paragraphs of next week's blog and when Saturday comes around I seem to find other things to do...avoiding the calling, the tug at my heart to share what God has placed on my heart. So, as I struggle through not wanting and not trying and not enjoying I force-feed encouragement to myself in an attempt to grow to change to move forward to...something...only to feel like life has thrown another curve ball aimed at my heart...God never said life would be easy. In fact, just the opposite, Christ assured us that we would have trials and storms of many kinds and people would hate and persecute us. And life is hard friends...SO hard. I am SO grateful to God for sending the Holy Spirit to enter my heart and HELP me through this life.

My weeks since my last blog have been difficult and I suppose I've used that as an excuse to neglect my commitment to you...Bailey, my sweet dog, got sick last weekend and has been steadily declining, this week, after 15 years of loving furry friendship, we will say goodbye to our dear pet. I am heartbroken. I LOVE that I have a God who I can CRY out to and He will heal my heart! This God who healed Naaman of his leprosy, raised Lazarus from the dead, kept Jonah alive in the belly of a great fish, flooded the earth, parted the red sea and SO many other miracles send Jesus to earth to die on a cross and be raised from the dead so that YOU and I can have life/healing/restoration/and joy everlasting! What wonderful comfort in this truth! So, even in my apathy and lack of passion, I can run to the arms of Jesus and feel comfort and healing...through prayer I can communicate my heart to the One who already knows everything about me and as I draw near to Him, He draws near to me and I begin to feel my passion returning-my desire renewing-my will conforming- and I find myself ultimately in the center of God's will! And no matter how hard life seems to be going, no matter how low or painful or lost life feels, I know I can turn to Christ in prayer and He will ALWAYS rain down comfort and healing! And THAT is a truth worth sharing!

When you experience apathy, combat it with prayer and ALWAYS remember who you are in Christ! You ARE a saint, made perfect, loved, healed, forgiven, restored, redeemed, and washed white as snow! (among so many other things). No matter what pain I may feel, no matter how hard I feel life gets, no matter how many times I turn away, no matter WHAT, God pursues me with the answer! What sweet love :)

I'm sorry that this week we seem to have deviated from out normal pattern of discussion, but this has been my heart for two or three weeks now so I figure God wanted me to share! I hope you've enjoyed our little journey into my heart...I know I needed it!

Made New in Christ

Sunday again and a beautifully sunny morning (how fitting! Sun for Sunday)! This week has been FULL of lessons learned and lessons still to come. And, of course, Saturday has somehow gotten away from me...So, good Sunday morning! I love the creation of nature! I can look out the window when I wake in the morning and see trees and grass and sunshine and birds...all of which have no ulterior motives, nothing to hide, and ALWAYS glorify their creator, God...this is not so of humans! As you may have noticed, people are a bit harder to 'read' and understand than a tree. "Duh," you say...but stick with me on this...there's beauty in the end!

What do you see when you look at someone. Typically, when we look at people, whether we know them or not, we see their appearance (face, body, clothing, etc...) Just as when we look at anything else, we see the outside. All mind and soul function are hidden from our eyes. People are complex. They can hurt us, comfort us, encourage us, lie to us, manipulate us, show emotion, and a vast array of other things...some good and some sinful. How wonderful to be created with so many different attributes! Now, we can know a person as we spend time with them and see the overflow of their heart in their actions and words, but this usually refers to a small, tight knit group of people we would call friends. At face value, we see a 'picture' of a person...a picture void of soul truth. So, what does God see when he looks at us?

Our God is magnificently all powerful and all knowing and all seeing...when God looks at us, he sees our sin. Every sin: past, present, and future...God sees the heart, therefore God sees your sin. "For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." 1Samuel16:7. I love the poetic phrasing in Isaiah64:6:

"All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away."

"Well, great," you say...when God looks at us He sees filthy rags! But that's not the end of the story, my friends! This verse in Isaiah comes from the Old Testament, and though in our New Testament times God still sees the heart and still sees our sin (for He is UNchanging!), we have great hope! See 1John1:7:

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,

we have fellowship with one another,

and the blood of Jesus, his Son,

purifies us from all sin."

"The blood of Jesus PURIFIES us from all sin!" What a blessing! And, what a relief! God sees all...and because of our sin we were separated from him...enter Jesus! God sent His only son to die the worst death so that IF we accept this gift and allow Jesus to rule over our hearts, our sins are washed away! We are made clean! God no longer LOOKS at our sin (though He can still SEE it ALL), now he LOOKS at Christ, and welcomes us...no longer separated! There is NO GREATER love than this!

This past week I have struggled with an idol I have created...All the while I could hear that 'still small voice' (the Holy Spirit) call to me, pleading with me to turn away from this idol that was causing me to take my eyes off God, and I ignored it...I kept on in my sin, enjoying the pleasure it brought me (forget that it left me feeling guilty and alone at the end of the day). I tried to excuse it away, tried to tell myself "It's not really a sin...I'm not hurting anybody...I'll turn back tomorrow..." feeding myself lies, giving Satan room to redecorate my heart. It doesn't take long for Satan to see the smallest window of opportunity in our heart, the smallest turning away and rejection of God becomes Satan's widest opening...he swoops in and begins to redecorate our hearts and our lives and before we can see what's happened, we are knee deep in a sin we had no business giving our life to. Hallelujah, God has sent Jesus to save us! AS SOON AS we repent of our sin and turn back to God, we are made new. We are cleansed. God welcomes us back with loving open arms! Of course, it's not easy to drop the sin or tear down the idol...but God gives us grace and time to work at it, knowing full well if and when we will falter again. And, dear one, He's already agreed to take you back, pick you up, brush you off and clean you up when that happens! BEST of all, we don't need to do anything! We don't need to tear down those idols on our own. We don't need to purge our lives of that sin by ourselves! If we ALLOW God to work, HE will do it WITH us! What beautiful truth!

Remember, brothers and sisters, no matter how deep we dig ourselves into a sin, God is ALWAYS there to pull us out and help us fill in the sin-hole with

Jesus!