Journey into Forever

"Jesus plunged into a sinkhole of dreadful agony." Mark 14:33 (MSG) We've been reviewing the Max Lucado book "Fearless". It's a great book that I have not done justice. I hope you will get it and read it though. He has such a way with words. He can say in a couple of words what I can't say in 100. When I started this post, I planned to put a few chapters together. Combine them. As I began writing though, I found I couldn't. There's too much Mr. Lucado points out to ignore. Needs to be said. So I guess we'll be parked here for a few more weeks. Some of the subjects he talks about in the rest of this book are looming ever clearer in our horizon. I don't know if some of these things will happen in my lifetime, but then I didn't think something like 9-11 or the Boston Marathon would happen either. I was mistakenly sure we were safe on our own soil. My policeman son-in-law tells me we aren't safe anywhere, and af...

We just bought a car. It's my favorite color,green. I know that's an odd color to love, but I do. My car is a gray green, which satisfies 'green haters' because it's not an 'in your face' green. Anyway, because we just got it, it gets top priority in the garage during storms. My husband's truck is second, which leaves our suburban outside. No big deal until a storm with hail. We've sold the suburban to our son, so we really don't want it in the hail either. Consequently, my husband is planning what to do in case of the storm we're expecting. Where to put vehicles, how to get ready, etc. More planning for this storm than one I've seen in a long time. We don't always plan for storms, and when they happen we frequently don't know what to do with them. That's me. There have been a lot of times that I have been a 'glass half empty' kind of girl. Rather than being able to look for positives, solutions, ...

"'Don't be afraid,'He said. 'Take courage. I am here!'" Matthew 14:27 Storms. It's the season for them. As I sit in my "sewing" room, which performs multiple duties, the weather is dark with storms headed this way. After our experience with Joplin 2 years ago, people in Missouri tend to take storms more seriously. I know I do. When my oldest grandson was a toddler, I remember standing in the middle of our street, holding him, trying to see tornados that were passing north of town. Even the night of the Joplin storm, I was at my moms and we didn't run and cover. But since I went to see what a tornado can do, I'm taking warnings much more seriously. The devastation was unbelievable. Storms in our lives can leave devastation as well. So much so that a storm can become a complete life changer. Max Lucado devotes Chapter 6 of his book "Fearless" to the storms we encounter in life. Because one thing is...

The title today is an expression I use. It describes how I have felt for 37 years. Once I held that baby girl I my arms, I knew from that day forward I would be living with my heart outside my body. Tht she and later my son would have my heart with them for the rest of my life. It was absolutely no longer mine. And it hasn't been since. I have to admit, today's "fear lesson" is a tough one. I've grappled with it quite a while, and I still am not sure that what I have to share with you is the way I wanted it to be. It's one most of us have experienced, and continue to experience on a regular basis. It's one we may not conquer on this side of heaven. I know I have a hard time with it. It's begins the minute you discover the news. Seven or eight months from now you will be a parent. That's when it starts. The feeling in the pit of your stomach that will never leave. And even then you don't know the full extent of it. Max L...

Well. this is an interruption to our regularly scheduled program. Note...the EMS is activated! Beep! Beep! Beep! Sometimes, when you have finally realized your spiritual gift, and you try to use it for the Glory of God, you have a tendency to get so involved in that area that you forget a few things. Like, #1, you are a human being, and you are going to stay a human being. Well, I feel very human today. VERY human. I'll bet you can relate. Ever have a problem, a bump in the road that you drive over, get on the other side of it, and lo and behold! The same bump is in the road just a little way down the road. I have a bump like that. A thorn in my flesh that God likes to find glory in. A bump that no bulldozer or other 'road equipment' can fully get rid of. A situation where God teaches me each time about how I should be more like His Son. A burden He hasn't lifted from me. though trust me I have tried to convince Him to! Begged Him to. Eve...

Today's subject is worry. Before starting here are some quotes I thought you might enjoy: "Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength." - Corrie Ten Boom, Dutch woman whose family helped Jews to escape Nazi Germany, then became a prisoner in a concentration camp when caught. (By the way, if you haven't read her story, you should) "I am an old man, and have known many troubles. But most of them never happened." - Mark Twain - author and humorist Now for the best quotes: Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV): "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? An...

Sometimes it's almost funny how God puts things in your life to test and grow you about a subject you are studying in the Word. It's almost like He says, "Ok, you think you have this under control? Let's see what this does!" Since starting this study on fear, I have had a number of events that would have normally put me under with worry and fear. But I have to tell you I'm doing ok. So, I may be growing a bit! In chapter 3 of "Fearless", Max Lucado addresses the 'Fear of Disappointing God'. He speaks of a football player for the University of Texas back in 1941, Noble Doss. In a very important game, one that might lead the team to the Rose Bowl, Doss dropped a pass. He felt he cost the team the national championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl. Although Doss had a very productive, happy life, when speaking of that game 50 years later he cried as he spoke. We're like that with God. Many times you hear people speak ...