Category Archives: Stuff I Actually Think

A Savior @ Christmas!

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 7 Keep Christmas, Stuff I Actually Think,

The scene outside my patio this morning: chilly, crisp, foggy and a sweet frosty coating on the world

Sometimes a name is just a name, and
sometimes a name captures someone perfectly. The ancients inclined to choose
names carefully, so as to make a lifelong statement about a person’s identity.
“Jesus” is a name so familiar to us, that we easily forget that it was a name
with an extraordinary significance. The name an angel announced should be given
to Mary and Joseph’s new child. And what a name! “Jesus” means “the Lord
saves.”

He does indeed.

Call him Jesus, the angel said, “because he will save people from their
sins.” None of us can save ourselves anymore than a person sinking in a rowboat
can save himself by pulling up on the side of the boat. We need a savior, and
not just a theoretical savior, but one who really has the power of God to
separate us from the tyranny and the guilt of sin.  ~Mel Lawrenz (from a www.BibleGateway.com Christmas Joy devotional)

Jesus saves.  I love that.  I need it.  He saves.

In other Christmas news…

The chalkboard…not exactly what I was hoping for.  I dipped regular kid-style sidewalk chalk in water to intensify the color and made my own “liquid chalk” for the color red (a teaspoon of water, a teaspoon of corn starch and a quarter- teaspoon of red food coloring).  I would re-do it, but I don’t have anything else in mind, anyway.  Got the idea off Etsy.com …any chalkboard artists out there??

Aaaaaawwwww…..

Candi B. and Amy Jo were at my house the other night while I was away (rehearsing for The Christmas Party) and thankfully, I got home in time to see them.  But just in case, they left me “love notes.”  So sweet!

Oops, Candi’s is blurry.  My photography, I fear…

Gemma May’s pre-schooling takes on a decidedly Christmas-y flair

Pink tutus are our school uniform.

I think she decided to ampersand the “and”…at 4!

So thankful today for a Savior, able to save me from {Satan’s snares} and even from {maybe, especially from} myself.

Refuse the Scrooge Spirit by Jack Hayford

1 Christ is All, 7 Keep Christmas, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

This is the link to an article by one of my all-time favorites in the Kingdom, Pastor Jack Hayford.  I love his {always} gracious message.  I especially embrace Jack Hayford’s teachings on Christmas and every year he imparts new understanding to me.  So I wanted to share it.  Please click on the link below and read it!

Refusing the Scrooge Spirit {click here}, www.jackhayford.com

 

In his usual gracious and wise way, Jack Hayford looks at some of the reasons we are tempted to withdraw from the celebration of Christmas in these days and times and presents some awesome reasons to “let the fresh joy of the season infuse” our spirits, renewing us in our worship and welcome of the Lord during our happy, holy days!  You just cannot help being inspired by Jack Hayford when he encourages you to not only be joyful in the season but to be like the Wise Men, who, having travelled many miles over lots of months, found Jesus and “rejoiced with exceedingly great joy!”  That is the kind of joy I am after in my worship during Christmas!

He ends the short article with this prayer that yes, I am praying!

“Lord, I’m not only here to worship You, but I want to depart from this season different from the way I entered it.”

I am all the way over-my-head in, because my friends and familia – Jesus is not only the reason for the season, Jesus is the reason for celebrating the season with great gusto, gratitude and wholehearted devotion!  So thankful for a Savior, so happy to share Him this Christmas!

 

 

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me // Comfort @ Christmas

1 Christ is All, 7 Keep Christmas, Stuff I Actually Think

Sometimes the heart needs comfort.

“Tidings of comfort and joy.”

“God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen,” was never on my top-10 list of most loved Christmas Carols when I was a kid.  Or even as an adult.  It seemed stuffy, quite formal.  Certainly old-fashioned.  In fact, there echos in my memory of the song a rather foreboding, dirge-like pipe-organ rendition.

But I do so love a hymn and enjoy contemplating what the writers of those old words, meanings changing over time as they do, were feeling and communicating.  And my thanks to Jack Hayford for pointing out the absolute power of the blessing of encouragement of this old “Merry Gentlemen” hymn.  I was rather surprised to learn that it dates to  the 1700s and was rather shocking, as old English Christmas carols go, as it was danced to and sung in a very upbeat manner.  Obviously not the death-dirge I imagined as a kid.

Regardless, I embrace the good news of it now. For the heart of the song is: God rest you (no striving, no panic and fear).  Don’t let anything cause you anxiety or alarm.  Remember?  Jesus came and and has redeemed and rescued you.  You have been saved from Satan’s power over you.  This is good news, my friends.  Jesus came and this should fill our hearts with comfort and joy, comfort and joy.  Oh yes!  This is the good news filled with comfort and joy!

Verses 1 and 7 (of 7)

God rest ye merry, gentlemen

Let nothing you dismay

Remember, Christ, our Saviour

Was born on Christmas day

To save us all from Satan’s power

When we were gone astray

O tidings of comfort and joy,

Comfort and joy

O tidings of comfort and joy

 

Now to the Lord sing praises,

All you within this place,

And with true love and brotherhood

Each other now embrace;

This holy tide of Christmas

All other doth deface.

O tidings of comfort and joy,

Comfort and joy

O tidings of comfort and joy

Sometimes the heart needs comfort.

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me

I am thinking about comfort.  One part of God I am just beginning to see, after all these years, is that He comforts.  Sadly, when screwing up royally many-many-many-many times in my life, I have the Adam and Eve tendency to run away from Him trying to hide instead of running to Him, where, as this www.biblegateway.com search of His own Word shows us: HE COMFORTS (click here). In spite of us and even in the face of our ridiculous unfaithfulness, He keeps pursuing and comforts us.

His rod (the Word, the beautiful scriptures outlining His great love) and His staff (the leading of Holy Spirit – right there, never leaving me), well, they comfort me.  They are there to comfort me, anyway, even though I often resist or run from them.

2 Corinthians 1 NLT

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 5 For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. 6 Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. 7 We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.

Tidings.  Good news.  Here’s-the-latest-grace-report:  Jesus, our Good Shepherd, our God of ALL comfort, by His birth and life (Is. 61 foretells Jesus’ coming and His purpose being “to comfort all who mourn”) and death and resurrection has made way for great comfort and joy! Oh, tidings of comfort and joy!

Sometimes a heart needs comfort.  And comfort is what Father gives, still.

““I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.” John 10:14-15 NIV

Merry Christmas.  Tidings of comfort and joy!  And I mean that!

Peace @ Christmas

1 Christ is All, 7 Keep Christmas, Stuff I Actually Think

“Peace is so much more than the absence of conflict. Maybe you can lay your
head on your pillow tonight and thank God that you experienced no conflict, but
that is not the same thing as experiencing peace. If a husband and wife get
tired of shouting at each other and both slip into an icy indifference, that is
not peace.

In Hebrew, the word for “peace” is shalom,
a well wishing that says it all: may you be healthy, whole and complete. May you
know where you fit in the universe, and may you find tranquility there.
Augustine said that peace is “the tranquility of order.” When you know where you
fit into God’s world-that you are higher than the animals, but less than
God-that is the sense of order that brings tranquility. ” Mel Lawrenz

I cannot even imagine how Christmas would be different if Jesus had not been foretold as the Prince of Peace, and if the angels had not confirmed that from on high with great a loud, sure declaration of ~

PEACE ON EARTH!

I am not unaware that at Christmas the battle among individuals and families to find that Peace and live and walk in it rages, maybe even more than at any other time.   And isn’t that just like the enemy of our souls?  But I meditate on the booming loud and heart-stopping words of the the very  Angel-of-the-Lord and the warring hosts sent by the heavenly Father .  Settled in heaven and declared to man, I also am in awe and tremble at the power of the message (Luke 2):

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

14“ Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Mary Jean has shared this translation interpretation for peace: nothing missing, nothing broken.

So, Father, for the one on my heart who so desperately needs to know Your peace today, to finally be healthy, whole and complete after years of the ravages of the enemy against his heart, I pray peace-shalom and all it means. And for the places in my soul that long to be complete and ordered aright, Your peace is my heart’s cry. Prince of Peace, I welcome You here.

Every time a bell rings

Everytime a bell rings,  you hear Zuzu say at the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” an angel gets its’ wings.  That is sweet, but o-so-much-less powerful than from the words of the old Christmas carol by Bing Crosby, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” and I tell you I love that KOSI 101 plays this and it is declared with authority over the radio waves annually (both by Bing and now the newer version  by Casting Crowns:

“Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

“God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,

With peace on earth, good will to men.”

Every time a bell rings during these blessed Christmas days, I shall recall His promise.  He is not unaware of the enemy’s battle against our peace.  He sees and He is at work.  What He sent the angels and army-hosts of heaven to declare the night Jesus was born is ever more true and is not dissipated by the age or times or depths of our despair.  His Word will accomplish what it was sent forth to do.  There is for us a remaining promise of peace. on. earth. and good will from Father to us all.

 

NOTE ABOUT DAVE: It is hard to blog about peace when he is  making so much noise.  Hahahaha.  Getting used to having him around in the mornings before office time.

May you be healthy, whole and complete. May you
know where you fit in the universe, and may you find tranquility there.

The Line to see Jesus

1 Christ is All, 5 Songs I am Singing, 7 Keep Christmas, Stuff I Actually Think

I am not going to re-post the video here, but if you hang in Christendom like me, you probably get an email with this very heartfelt song each year in recent history.  Maybe you have been tagged on Facebook or Youtube may have actually suggested this song/video to you.  I am not re-posting it because the singer is lovely and has a nice voice the part where she sings out about every knee one day bowing and every tongue confessing, with a children’s choir behind her, that Jesus Christ is Lord is kind of a chill-bump moment (and you know how we love those).  And she so very obviously feels the message of a “little boy at the mall” who, while all the other children are clamouring to see Santa Claus, wonders “Where’s the line to see Jesus?  It’s HIS birthday, after all”  Then disappears.

I am not re-posting it because I truly do not mean to disparage it.  It is obviously presented with an intent of provoking thought (which it has done for me, for sure), but after recieving it along with 80,000 other people on a FW:FW:FW:Fw:Fw:Subject: the Line to See Jesus list where a little hint of condemnation mixed with a little dose of shame-and-tsk-tsk over Christians merry-making or that we ever even go to a mall (which I truly do avoid at all costs), and then the ever-present dare to re-send to everyone in the ol’ addy book, I cringed a little.

You may or may not know that I CONSTANTLY pray that the Lord will not let my life cause stumbling to some one else, that my actions will not turn people off to Jesus, because nobody knows better than me how little I truly am {like Jesus}, how little I probably do deserve to be called a Christian (whatever that really means, anymore).  I am so trying to follow Him close enough that I can just reflect HIS glory.  Anything less is detrimental to His love and plan for the people in my life.  I need to pray this more, actually…

Oh we Christians are funny, aren’t we?

I just want us to be careful not to watch a video like this and just shake our heads and start condemning the world (and our peeps in the household of faith) for celebrating the Birth of Jesus in the only ways they know how.  For yes-they are celebrating His birth even when they don’t understand it.  Every twinkling light they hang, for instance, represents Jesus-the Light of the world.  He came and the darkness can never be the same!  They may not consciously realize it, but it is so.  Their hearts cry out for wholeness, too, my brothers and sisters!

Where is the line to see Jesus?

Check it out.  It is the bumper-to-bumper traffic you are forced to deal with on your daily commute.  It is the crowded bus full of anxiety-ridden, depressed and joyless people who invade your newspaper-reading territory and climb over you unceremoniously to get the window seat.  It is formed in the 15-items-or-less line at WalMart anytime this month, where every cart has at least 30 things or more and you better not say. one. word.  It is sitting next to you in class.  It is the challenging relative who attacks your faith and witness every year because they are really hoping you will prove them wrong about a God they feel somehow doesn’t see them. It is your toddler tugging your shirt when you have no time.  It is your spouse and who has been to hell and back with you.  Oh the line is there.  It’s everywhere.

Look over your shoulder, baby. The line to see Jesus is long and it is growing.  It forms right behind you.

Do they see Him?

 

Keep Calm and Merry On

7 Keep Christmas, Stuff I Actually Think

Having just emerged from “wedding coma,” or perhaps more accurately a time which could be described as this crazy-fun-season of flowers-and-vintage-and-love-and-romance-and-sister-time-and-planning-the-most-joyous-celebration-of-the-year-when Dessa-married-Ryan, I feel like I closed my eyes for a second and it went from September 23 to December 3.   But – yikes, it is actually December 5.  Omygosh!

Thus shall my mantra be:  Keep calm and merry on.

For I do so love the Reason for the season and all things Christ-mass (the worship and acknowledgement of a Savior) and even the silly ways we may mark and celebrate it, our humble attempts at being like Him, celebrating Him from lights on the tree (Jesus, Light of the World} to giving gifts (for He was a gift to us from a loving Father) to red ribbon (like the scarlet cord we see in the Word – it has always been about the blood) to the breads we bake and the puddings we make (undeniably, resoundingly remembering Him when we sit to eat),…I love it all and it ALL testifies to my great gratefulness at having been redeemed, bought back, placed in the Kingdom.  I can’t help celebrating, both the HOLY wild side and the happy-human ways we try-o-try-o-try to not only receive and consume His great love and faithfulness and then let it out: all wommply-imperfectly-and-sincerely flawed, but sincerely full of our response to His love! And our weird obsessions with sharing it.  Forgive my joy, if you must.

MERRY Christmas – that is a blessing.

I hope you will receive it from me.

 

my-words-are-in-songs

5 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually Think

“My whole life history, every event, person, place, time and thing – has a song attached to it.  Song is my native language.”

~Jeanie Rhoades, true story

So this was my just-before-waking dream this morning in the wee hours:

I was in a car on a bright, blue-sky day with a little girl.  She had a dark complexion with deep set, beautiful brown eyes and a chubby face framed with raven-black hair.  I think she was about 11 and I was fervently trying to get her to make an important decision, as important as life itself, as we drove in circles around some European town square (I guess Europe because the steering wheel was on the right).

I was saying to her: You have to decide the words in your hard-back book.  You have to see them and figure out what is there then you will know everything you need to for the rest of your life, but as long as you can’t see them, you’ll ever know.  What words are there?  What do they say and how are they written?  They are already there – look!

She would falter and seemed nervous, afraid to make a wrong move.  But I urged her on:  It is like a novel and this is your story, your novel.  What is in there?  What do you see in your book?  You have to find this out so you’ll know just what to do.

She was unsure.  She hem-hawed.  Then I remember feeling a pang of guilt, thinking to myself,  I never even found out what was in my book.  I never found out what my words were.  I don’t know my own answers…Still I knew that the story was already there, waiting to be discovered.

Yet, still, perhaps even driven by the fact that I didn’t know my own words, didn’t know the eternal story or what the type and font looked like in my own book, I all the more encouraged her to look, really look, really find out…

Suddenly she burst into tears of great relief said, “It’s songs – my words are in songs.  That is what is in my hard-cover book!”

In my dream, I hugged her little neck and by now we were on a soft carnival ride going in circles in that same town square, sort of flying gently through the air.  And in the dream, the second she said it, I realized that those were the words in my book, too – as if when she said it everything in my heart and soul suddenly bore witness, and had understanding.  When she said “the words in my hard-cover book are songs” I started crying, I burst into tears.

Me too, I excitedly realized, that is what my book is, too.  It is song.  My hard-bound book is written in melody!  Me, too!!

I was crying so hard in my dream, I woke up with tears in my eyes.  It was joyful, an amazing realization.

Dreams are so funny.

It was so vivid and intense.  Yet so full of holes, reality wobbly.  Then when you write it, it is like what??  It is making me laugh to re-read this.  But it also is making me think of book titles I could write

  • My Life is an Old, Red Hymnal {I grew up C of G where the red hymnal not only ruled, it caused plenty of feuding, haha.  But its’ pages paper the walls of my memory.}.
  • Whatever it Takes {the Lanny Wolfe song I sang a lot at age 14 – words so strongly indicative of my gritted-teeth determination to prove I could be what God wanted.  A million times since, I have proven that I could not do whatever it ook and that it has all been by His faithfulness}
  • My Desire {from my 1975-1977 singing, “It’s My Desire” – another loud, intense anthem declaring my life intent to follow and wholly live for Jesus}

Maybe I will write all these stories someday…in hardback editions.

SONG FOR A SUNDAY

My little sister sent this to me again recently.  It was good to hear again.

Meet up

1 Christ is All, Stuff I Actually Think, ,

When I can’t seem to find you and you can’t seem to find me,

when unity is threatened

and the oneness Jesus prayed we would have is broken and the

pieces to rebuild seem to be missing,

when the bond of peace has been compromised and

I can’t see past my own issues

or you can’t see past yours, let’s agree to meet back at the stronghold,

{a place safe for both of us}.

That way you won’t have to venture too far,

nor will I.

Let’s meet back here, at the foot of the cross, where it all began anyway…

The scripture I circled and signed in Tredessa and Ryan’s wedding Bible, from Ephesians 4:

“1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

INFJ that I am, I am drawn to scriptures about “guarding” things (“make everey effort”)…

Good Morning, Snowflakes!

3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 7 Keep Christmas, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

Perfect!

It’s snowing.  Now re-read that like Alvin said it to Dave on the classic Chipmunks’ Christmas album.  {Look, Dave – it’s snowing!}  Did you insert you very own Chipmunk voice there?  I hope so!

The morning snow delights and surprises.  Yes, even though they told us on the news it was coming.

I come downstairs to a fresh pot of coffee and Bedford Falls glowing softly, ready to thrill the grandbebes for Christmas.  Snow is falling with white, fluffy enthusiasm and the timing is perfect as now (after all the wedding excitement) we can begin to fully embrace this most joyous of seasons and do our decorating.  This is the weekend for it.

Today is our first “official” day in the office for future ministry stuff (to be announced shortly).  Meeting our new and most-amazing intern, Emilee, there too.  She could not be dissuaded from driving down from Fort Collins even for snow.  We will be working on The Christmas Party* (PLEASE COME! admission is canned goods for families in Joplin still struggling to rebuild their lives after the tornado in May).  And looking ahead with anticipation.

Then home to unveil the Santa collection, I hope, and perhaps start putting up the family-tree, the one with handmade ornaments and bits and pieces of an enduring family life.

Naturally, Dean is in my head.

 

*The Christmas Party~

Professional photographers will be on hand to snap family photos  and the variety of artists and talents represented is the best show in town!  Put it on your calendar and plan to be there!