Journey into Forever

"I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world!" -John 16:33 "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." -Isaiah 41:10 When we think of Christmas, we think of a lot of things.  As Christians, of course we think about the miraculous event that gave us all a chance for eternal life.  The blessed baby who lived and died for us.  But honestly, there are a ton more things we think about at Christmas too.  Family, friends, gifts, parties, a long "to-do" list....and on and on and on. Because of our dependence on media, we see a lot of the "perfect Christmas" stuff saturating our feeds or televisions.  The girl finds her true love right at Christmas.  A happy family gets together, sporting warm Christmas jammies, by a fire and

"Consider the work of God; for who can make straight what He has made crooked?  In the day of prosperity be joyful, But in the day of adversity consider: Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, So that man can find out nothing that will come after him.  I have seen everything in my days of vanity:  There is a just man who perishes in his righteousness, And there is a wicked man who prolongs life in his wickedness." -Ecclesiastes 7:13-15 I have to admit, I'm not a big studier when it comes to the Old Testament.  Oh I read it, and there are many things to learn from the Old Testament.  But I am so fascinated by Jesus' life and the New Testament, that it is what I usually dig into.  Recently, however, my church had a ladies' bible study on the book of Ecclesiastes.  I was not able to go every time, so long after the study is over at church I am still reading Ecclesiastes.  And, as usual, God is speaking specifically to me through this book.

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Ephesians 6:12 (NIV) Saturday, we bought a new red truck.  David was pretty excited to be able to do it.  But this post won't be about havng a new truck, or being thankful for the blessings that allow it, although all of that is true.  This post will be about something I experienced that day that made a much larger impact on me than a "thing" we purchased. It took us a while to make up our minds to do this, but by Friday we decided it was a go.  We had to go back Saturday, because we didn't have some things in place.  We waited for a while, and it was finally time to go back to the financial office and do the paperwork.  I had previously heard about the situation with this particular man we dealt with, so I mentioned I had heard he had just ret

" The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles.  The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit." -Psalm 34:17-18 "And the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered  a little while,  will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast." -1 Peter 5:10 We all watch them...well many of us  anyway.  You know, the Hallmark movies.  The "happily ever after" ones where eveything works out in the end, everybody gets along with everyone else, and all is right with the world.  They are "feel good" movies, because watching them does make you feel good.....unless..... Unless in our own lives things aren't all sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows.  Unless we have problems in relationships that are  too painful to talk about to others, so we stuff them down and suffer in silence.  Things like

   "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Come near to God and he will come near to you.  Wash your hands,you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded."                                - James 4:7-8 California is burning again.   When we went there last year, my husband and I were shocked at the devastation we saw in the fires' aftermath.  Nothing left. Nothing.  Lives forever changed by the impact of a long drought followed by a devastating spark.  That's all it takes - a spark- when the drought is long and hard.  After months without significant water, the vegetation dies, dries up, and sits as tinder waiting to fuel the next big fire. To be honest, that has been an analogy of my life the past few months.  I could offer any number of excuses...about illness,events, and attitudes that contributed to my spiritual drought.  Many of those I might offer could be REALLY GOOD excuses (if there is su

"Wisdom belongs to the aged, and understanding to the old." -Job 2:12 "Come near to the Lord and He will come near to you." -James 4:8  I have to tell you I'm not a super big fan of aging. It seems to get harder each day, more aches and pains, tired all the time, illness seems to abound. And then you start hearing it.  Just this week, I heard of two high school friends who are ill. One has cancer, and one has Parkinson's. Those are just two in a long line of people I know my age who are not doing well. I hate it.  You know the old saying, I wish I had known I was really going to get older, I would've taken better care of myself. Yep. Agreed. There are a couple of other things that aren't great about aging. Losing weight seems to require eating one very small meal a day for year.   Or, you can be sick and go to the hospital. That will do it . When I do crossstitch, I have to use my mother-in-law's magnifying glass which I swore

"Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay, " says the Lord. Romans 12:19 There was a show on Netflix last year that I just loved.  It played out all of the fantasies those of us might have who have been deeply hurt by someone .  In it, Emily Thorne returns to the Hamptons where she previously lived and an incident ruined her family.  She portrays herself as someone completely different, and becomes a member of the inner circle of the high society she was once a member of.  Once there, she plans vengence on all the people who hurt her family, and she doesn't care at what cost.  The plot twists and turns are very interesting, and one by one she destroys the people who were responsible for her family's pain.  One can't help but cheer her on, as each "bad guy" drops according to her plan. I guess we are drawn to a show like this because all of

"Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.  And even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, until I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come."         - Psalm 71:17-18 We saw a cardinal today.  It was perched in a tree right outside the window.  We were at my nephew's house for his wife's baby shower.  His house that used to be my mom's house.  We were missing mom.  She would have liked to be at this shower. It was the first time my daughter had been in this house since mom has been gone. She was recalling lots of memories that took place in that house.  The cardinal in the back yard (my mom's favorite bird) reminded me that she would have loved to have seen this new baby - the second born since she's been gone.  And although her house looks completely different as my nephew's house, the memories still popped up left and right throughout the mor