This Beautiful Mundane

                                                     Life has been crazy, chaotic, laden with emotions, slathered with fatigue, and fraught with ever "yet another thing"  Most days I grit my teeth and resolve to grin and bear it, some days I dissolve into tears telling God, my husband, my mom, my best friend, and anyone else who will listen, the burdens of my heart. It can certainly be helpful to express those things verbally to another person and to have empathy and advice being given - God made us to be relational creations. But, oh, the lack of joy and thankfulness I have seen in myself recently.  Faithful saints flit through my mind from day to day of late. Martyrs from the past, the early church, faithful ones with whom I am blessed to share an acquaintance. They've flitted through my mind and then life continues, scarcely leaving time for thoughts to develop.  Our home is a constant project these days, it feels as though it will never end: the yard needed leveling,

  I was listening to the Pure Doctrine podcast this morning, hosted by a friend, Mike Williamson, ( Genesis...Trouble in the Garden ) the passage that he references in the podcast recalled to mind a humbling realization. "Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the  Lord  God had made.  He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”     And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,   but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”   But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.   For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”"                                                                                             Genesis 2:1-5 Like Adam and Eve, the desire for what we cannot have is ing

I’ve been reading Isaiah, the nation of Israel was rampant with injustice, unrighteousness, and evil - Chapter 6 opens with this: “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your

"Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani"  My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Mark 15:34 Angels, maybe the same that heralded His birth, watched from afar. Were they pleading to be summoned to His aid? Did their hands tense over the hilt of their swords, muscles taut, ready to fall upon the enemies of their Lord? Could they even bear to look upon the willful desecration of the King of kings? What was it like for the perfectly united trinity of the Godhead to pour out their wrath upon themselves? Indeed, the suffering of the cross was much more than physical torture (though it most assuredly was that!) There was an imputation that occurred, the full wrath of God for the full weight of sin. I can't even wrap my mind around the agony that must have lead to that cry from our Lord.  Then, he breathed and said, "It is finished." And He died.  That is not what we expect!  Did Mary know that He would rise again? Did she understand what her Son had just accomplished for her

I discovered a mistake that I made - It wasn't very big, a silly mistake to be perfectly honest.  It was made in the haste of typing the thoughts that came into my head, and I didn't notice it for a year. When I wrote my book, I had intended to say, "you are" and somehow I managed to write, "your are" - And I never noticed it until the paperback back books came. Even then, it had to be pointed out to me, I was horrified by my mistake, and frustrated that I hadn't seen it before.  It made a lot of extra work, and postponed something that I was really looking forward to - the public release of my book, ' The King's Watchman ' It brought to mind some things that God has been teaching me.  Having people in your life that hold you accountable is so incredibly important! We've been going through the book of Titus at my church on Sunday mornings. The role of the older men is mentoring the younger men, the role of the older women, is mentoring th

I have battled with forgiveness for years, (for the sake of sharing this, I’ll call the person, “Reilly”) I cry because I was hurt, and then say that I forgive. I get angry because of that hurt, and what I feel is injury upon injury, and I feel bitterness in my soul against this person. Then again I realize that I need to forgive... I say that I’ve forgiven Reilly, but then I fall quickly back into a pattern of speaking poorly of Reilly, making uncharitable jokes at their expense, and having an overall bitter taste in my mouth every time that I mention them or that they are brought up.  At least, I thought that I had forgiven them, and while I thought that it was a repeated thing that I needed to do, it kind of ended up feeling like I had earned the right to equate "forgiveness" with cold civility.  As the scenario is, Reilly would never know how I felt, or how I speak about them, “I’m civil when I see them,”  I justify my civility (and nothing more) because Reilly has never

 For what shall we argue,  for what shall we debate,   for what shall we fight with word and deed,  for what shall we take a stand? In every generation, this is the question that the Church corporate, and each individual must ask.  What is something that you find yourself "fired up" about?  Especially leading up to the  2020 presidential election , and now with the results still being determined, there have been so many discussions ensuing, so many heated dinner-time conversations, and many hastily written social media comments.  I find myself quite easily falling into the same situation!  I challenge you, dear reader, to take a minute and go through the topics that are near to your heart - Even make a list on a sheet of paper, if you so desire.  Pray over this list -  What is your motivation for holding to a certain point of view?  How hard are you willing to fight for it?  Most importantly, can you back your views with Scripture?  I have been asking myself for a couple year