in the love of Christ

Please take a second and read this story. I promise, there will be a point. "I am standing by the shore of a a swiftly flowing river and hear the cry of a drowning man. I jump into the cold waters. I fight against the strong current and force my way to the struggling man. I gold on hard and gradually pull him to shore. I lay him out on the bank and revive him with artificial respirations. Just when he begins to breathe, I hear another cry for help. I jump into the cold waters. I fight against the strong current, and swim forcefully to the struggling woman. I grab hold and gradually pull her to shore. I lift her out onto the bank beside the man and work to revive her with artificial respiration. Just when she begins to breathe, I hear another cry for help. I jump into the cold waters. Fighting again against the strong current, I force my way to the struggling man. I am getting tired, so with great effort I eventually pull him to shore. I lay him out on the bank and try to revive ...

Sometimes (more often than not), my husband will say something that rings so loud and clear that I almost stop right there and shout. Sometimes they are things I want to hear and sometimes they aren't. More often than not, they are things we both need conviction about and he randomly delivers these meaning-packed phrases of truth in a way that shocks me into noticing their harsh difference from our surrounding conversation. Tonight was one of those times. He was going to bed and I was going to do homework (night shift, day shift, we get off schedule sometimes) and we were getting our pillow talk out before I went back to the kitchen. We talked about a few things and then we started talking about the Kingdom of God and how things seem one way to us and a completely different way to others. This happens in many arenas of our lives but it can be seen in many of the different doctrines of churches. These differences are the reason we have divisions, denominations and conventions div...

My husband and I are in a particularly difficult, though rewarding, season of life. We wake up each day hopeful for the best and thankful to not be going through this crazy world alone. In the past, there may have been one really rough trial to get through (granted we are young and our past is still the first four niches of an Olympic pool) at a time. But, today, as I sit here thankful for all I have around me in our cozy slightly sketchy apartment complex, I see clearly that we are trekking through at least three major trials. There is no need to go into detail about these trials and some you may guess from the simple fact that we are now in our second years of marriage and making major life/financial decisions and living slightly outside of our comfort zone some days. I don't need to go into detail because the lessons to be learned here are universal to many kinds of trials! "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, Blessed...

"I am clinging to the past and to my what-I-thought-should be instead of to His perfect what-will-be." (Katie Davis) Read this post: http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/2012/10/she-clings-tightly-to-edge-of-pool.html I could not have said it any better myself. I am in a season where God is pulling me to the middle of the pool, the very center of His will, and I am terrified. It is as if all His past faithfulness disappears and I doubt for a second that He really has a plan. The al issue is that I believe with all I am that He has a plan but I doubt my ability to live in His plan, to thrive in His will. Another way that my flesh fails me, always self deprecating and unfaithful to lift me up. So, why would I choose the path of my flesh (as undaunting as it may be) over the perfect peace and love I certainly know will be found in the center of my Father's Will. In my doubt, He is faithful to guide me. Why would He be any less faithful when I am in His will?

People are made with skills and passions. There are things you can read about a person, even in childhood, that signal a passion for art, dance, math, something! There are two or three things in my life that have been these foretold passions or skills of my own: nursing and singing. I have been crooning since I could walk and I have been the mothering caretaker for just about the same amount of time. In high school, my days were spent helping the school nurse and singing in the choir (and the hallways and the shower and the car). One day, I turned this a bit more around and got involved in a church that I absolutely adored. I began singing on Wednesdays on the worship team and found out that there may be a little more to this singing thing than just a potential career path. Singing became my most favorite way of praising my Father and bringing glory to God. I arrived at Western Kentucky University ready to figure out what the heck I would do with my life and to get ready to put m...

One short chapter among the may chapters of prophesy found in Jeremiah. "When Baruch son of Neriah wrote on a scroll the words Jeremiah the prophet dictated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, Jeremiah said this to Baruch: "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch: You said, 'Woe to me! The Lord has added sorrow to my pain; I am worn out with groaning and find no rest.' But the Lord has told me to say to you, 'This is what the Lord says: I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted, throughout the earth. Should you then seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the Lord, but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life.'" (Jeremiah 45:1-5 NIV)" I can't help but imagine, and please don't quote me as an authority in this because I am far from it, that Baruch, son of Neriah, sat there writing down the words of T...

I wear jeans to church. I wear dressess and khakis to church. I wear my scrubs to church. You would think that after a certain amount of time people would stop caring so much about the way people prepare their outsides for a church service and... well not care at all instead. I was going to say that maybe they should care about how people prepare their inside but I can tell you one thing...it isn't any of anyone's business. (Maybe I am a little fired up...can you tell?) Jesus rebuked the pharisees for only cleaning the outside of the cup and ignoring the inside and we have not learned our lesson. If I spend more time preparing my makeup and outfit for the day, church day or work day or school day or whatever, than I do spending time learning what the Lord has for me that day or in prayer with Him, then I have not got my priorities straight. I am not coming up with an excuse to be lazy. I am not condemning anyone for looking nice on Sunday morning, I try as often as ...