Tag Archives: scripture

The Truth. In Love.

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Speaking the truth.

I used to hate when some one would trot out that scripture from Ephesians 4 that included the phrase “Instead, speaking the truth in love…” because its’ reference usually preceded a round of scripture-ammunition aimed to pierce the heart and kill the soul.   BAM {huge criticism fully bloated by cynical opinions = you are a big-fat-failure} + followed by  “I’m just speaking the truth in love.”  *Harumph.

If you read that last sentence and winced from the memory of it, it has probably been hurled at you, too.  If you looked it and made a mental list of people you’d like to speak-the-truth-in-love to, you are probably the BAM-aid.

It is sad to see such an amazing exhortation reduced to a justification for calling out the slightest infractions against fellow believers when in fact, Paul was inviting us to encourage and motivate one another about the reality of our high and holy calling in Christ, which was what the whole first part of Ephesians was about.  This is how we HELP each other – we remind each other (because of love) of our amazing and glorious place in Christ!  See Ephesians 1-4, s’il te plait.

What Ephesians 4 actually says is:

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.

Instead, speaking the truth in love,

we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.   From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

And I am finding that my words are never more true than when they are spoken from the depths of my love.  Then, even though  they are hard to say and possibly even  difficult to hear, they set people free.  They loose the chains and bondages the enemy has been heaping on.  Speaking the truth in love-with love-because of love-by love causes people to grow (life surging through their veins), green and fruitful, established and strong.  Speaking the truth in love brings a maturity in those around us, a connection to Jesus rather than a condemnation that sends them running the other way with fear and shame.

{Credit} J T Lowry

And the truth you speak in love?  It is your truth.  Tell on yourself.  Admit your own stuff.  Tell your truth so you can help others avoid your pitfalls.  Tell your truth about how the enemy has come at you so other people won’t feel like they are on the ledge alone, but then be sure to tell the part about the faithfulness of God who has never left you nor forsaken you.  When we come clean, speaking the truth of how we are weak (and He is strong), of how we have failed (but He has been faithful), about how we have been the biggest sinners (and He has become our most wonderful Savior), then – we will become the “body,” the Body of Jesus Christ…

joined…

and held together

by every supporting ligament

growing-growing-growing

being   b u i l t   up in L O V E

as each part does its’ work

And guess what?  Speaking the truth in love is a ministry of all of us Jesus-loving, New-Testament believers.  We get to join our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in shattering an accusation-ridden religion we can never hope to keep and step into the power of an overwhelming love from a Father who will not let us go.  Oh wow.

Richly

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Summer Bible-Reading Plan

From www.thesaurus.com (a website I wholly adore!):

Main Entry: richly

Part of Speech: adverb

Definition: sumptuously

Synonyms: abundantly, amply, handsomely, largely, lavishly, opulently

Who thinks I did not fall behind during Heaven Fest and its’ aftermath?

Um, well, I did.  And I bet you are not surprised.  But I intend to eat all these words up in short order!  But let’s do this (just in case anyone else has fallen behind) : start right on this week’s.  That can be one beautiful meal a day.  Then if you’re still hungry later, serve yourself up some July 24 or July 31 goodies.  The main thing is to get the delicious sumptuousness of the Word into you; to be lavishly and abundantly filled up as if you have just had the best meal e-v-e-r!  We’ll get everything we need for life and godliness, yum!

Don’cha just love how I can turn anything into a food-thing???  Well, Beth Moore started it.  I once heard her say something to the effect that the Word is to be consumed like food to feed your spirit and how you can and should enjoy it like a menu at your fav restaurant.  She said sometimes, you’re on the go and just need an appetizer, other times a light salad, but then you will sit down and consume the 5-course meal.  And btw – you do NOT just eat once a day for your physical body.  I wonder why we think the spirit part of us just needs “one quiet time” per day?  I mean, come on – let’s eat!  A bowl of cereal here, a soup and salad lunch, a small cone from the DQ on a summer afternoon…a steak meal there…

Bon appetit!

Summer Bible Reading Plan…NOW I am woefully behind…

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I am NOT throwing in the towel for anything!

Gritted teeth determination.

Neither life nor busyness nor a “massive music festival” shall cause me to miss the best meal of everyday:  The Word of God!

Your words came and I ate them.

Summer Bible Reading PLAN: read through the New Testament and the Psalms over the 14 weeks of summer.  Ideally, about 4 chapters or 20 unhurried minutes a day.  Meditate on them, internalize them, live them and be renewed and restored by them.

Ahem….right.

Reality and true confessions:  I have “skipped” a few days and then can’t catch up on my-self-imposed “catch-up days,” AND I have zoomed through chapters, realizing later, I have no idea what they even said.  So then, how could I possibly meditate on them???  Couldn’t.  So, I must re-read…Am I supposed to confess this publicly?  Well, I did.

colossians 3.16

Pray for me, friends and fellow-sojourners.  And catch me when I slack.

I wish to be diamond-dripping RICH with the indwelling word by summer’s end.  You, too, I hope!

As Kent Henry sings (and we sing along!)
Lord, I live by Your Word
Lord, I live by every word from Your mouth
And I’m like a tree by a stream
I’m bearing fruit, my leaf is green
All that I do is prospering
O, Lord, I live by Your Word.

Summer Bible Reading June 26 – July 2

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I am in northwest Indiana today. It is the part of Indiana not in Indiana time zone, but actually part of the greater Chicago-land area? You know that part?

Moslander Family Reunion!

I woke up this morning (it is an hour later here than home) and started listening to the audio Bible on www.biblegateway.com to wake up gently, when Tara shook me from my good times with, “Do you realize what time it is?!?”  I keep forgetting about that lost hour!  Geesh.

So, as for all the rest of you, keeping up on my plan for the summer is a challenge, but it so worth it – even the catch-up days!  So worth it!  Hang in there, everybody!

This past week:

Wow.  As much as I adore and love Romans 8, I wonder how much more weird and confusing Paul could have been in Romans 7???  Geez-Louise!  Yet, on the topics he covered, I would be talking in those same circles, I fear!  The Book of Romans…I HAVE to read it again before the end of the summer and then I’ll be back!

Psalm 27.13-14, I will take this!  It is mine.  But I will share, too:

I remain confident of this:

I will see the goodness of the LORD

in the land of the living.

Wait for the LORD;

be strong and take heart

and wait for the LORD.

Psalm 34 is an thoroughly encouraging, full-of-truth and crazy-great-hope Psalm which includes the most amazing, rich declarations including:

…I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. {even just my fears}

…Fear the LORD, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing.  {I have everything I need}

…The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry {He hears me}

…The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.  {all!}

…The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all {ALL!}

And those are just a few.

NEXT UP for the  week of June 26

1 & 2 Corinthians and Psalms 35 – 46

Because of reunion, I may or may not be a few days behind.  But I’ll catch up.  You will, too!

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.  In me, too!  :)

Love like this

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Love never fails. 

If I have the words of men and angels and can argue all my cases and can even do God’s bidding for Him, but I don’t have love (to give), I end up just being a bunch of loud, imposing and worthless communications.  And if I have the gift of prophecy and can reveal to everyone what God’s next move is, let everybody know the secrets of the ages, and yet do not love people {{what?!? a prophet without love?  is that possible?? // pure sarcasm}}; and while we’re at it – what if I am the latest, greatest spiritual- hoo-ha, laying hands on people and moving mountains, or totally different – what if I am dancing all over injustice and rescuing the exploited and raising money for the poor and saving everything in the world and on the earth that needs saving, but I can’t manage to love…can’t just put it into action {{love.is.a.verb. so sang DC Talk}} towards the person in the room with me, then what?  What is the point if I can’t show it, be it, live in it, allow God’s own love through me…to you, then?

I don’t get love, after all this time, still.

1 Corinthians 13.  Image taken by Stormie.  From her view while lying on the patio swing.  On a sweet Sunday afternoon.

God, help me learn to love like this, no hidden agendas, no manipulating, just free of self-focus and selfishness.  Teach me to be hope-full, trustful, protecting at all times.  Give me opportunity to become patient (but be merciful, too, here, Lord, please) and by the end, can You help me to be, so I will be remembered for being, kind?  I so appreciate kindness, I would like to be kind, too.  I really would.  So I wanna learn to L O V E like this, like 1 Corinthians 13 talks about.  It will have to be Your love.  Yours.  Through me.  Let it be.

the princess and the past

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“I live with nostalgic regrets about everything.”  Sarah Ferguson to Dr. Phil about her self-image after the sting operation last year that brought her to her lowest low after years of making mistakes and messes of her life for the upcoming docu-series on OWN.

Should it define her – that one horrid moment, or even the series of them that brought her there?  Did she do the best she could have with the resources she had at the time?  Or what if she did the worst she could have, knowingly and rebelliously?  Is there no redemption?  Ever?

Robin wrote this last week: 

As moms, we often let the times we act like we wish we wouldn’t, define us.

I get a bit melancholy.  I tend toward “nostalgic regret.” I guess I am thinking about what defines me these days, in my early 50s, getting older and trying not to let the enemy of my soul make the regrets bigger than God’s faithfulness has been; nor bigger than the times I have lived under His wing, in His plan, doing what He chose for me to do beforehand.  God has been good to me, so good. 

He has been good!  His smile warms my life.  In spite of my own self-sabotage at times, He has entrusted things to me, things that, had I been the distributor, I’d never have given.  I wonder why.  Other people do too, I am sure.  And yet, He planned a life for me too good for words.

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.  Ephesians 2.10 NLT

The refrain of my life: He is faithful.  He is so faithful.  Has been in all things past, and is, right now. 

Praise the LORD, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
       
Praise the LORD, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit [this is GOOD NEWS, Sarah Ferguson!]
and crowns you with love and compassion, [You can still be royalty-you can still have it all]
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
       
The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.
The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
       
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
       
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
The life of mortals is like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
       
But from everlasting to everlasting
the LORD’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—
with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.
       
Praise the LORD, my soul. 
Psalm 103.1-6,8-18, 22b NIV

Why live in regret when the story of God’s faithfulness isn’t over yet?

Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping….

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Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.  Psalm 90.12 niv

When I get the time…

Where did the time go?

There aren’t enough hours in the day…

Time flies when you’re [fill in the blank].

I don’t have time for this.

An “alarm” clock.  Is this why time alarms me???

A quote I have kept for years…

“Don’t ever say, ‘I don’t have time.’  What you mean is ‘I haven’t arranged my life so I can make the time to do more of the things that are meaningful to me.'”  ~Alexandra Stoddard

I continue to work on discerning the difference between the apprehensive, nerve-inducing “what time is it?” and the more important “what is it time for?”  I wanna be doing the right thing at the right time.  Ecclesiastes 3, says,

1 For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.

2 A time to be born and a time to die.  A time to plant and a time to harvest.

3 A time to kill and a time to heal.  A time to tear down and a time to build up.

4 A time to cry and a time to laugh.  A time to grieve and a time to dance.

5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.  A time to embrace and a time to turn away.

6 A time to search and a time to quit searching.  A time to keep and a time to throw away.

7 A time to tear and a time to mend.  A time to be quiet and a time to speak.

8 A time to love and a time to hate.  A time for war and a time for peace. 

9 What do people really get for all their hard work? 10 I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. 11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

I don’t want to get all the way to the end and realized I wasted precious time, not one minute of the plan of God for my life. 

There is a TIME { f o r } everything, even if this isn’t exactly the time right now.  A mystery I am pondering.  If I had it to do all over again…

Teach us to number our days, our hours, our minutes and seconds; teach us to discern and organize our very lives, Lord, in a way that welcomes You (Wisdom) and heals our hearts….Every morning, every evening, all our days: May Your favor rest on us.  Establish the work of our hands, yes – establish the work of our hands. 

From Psalm 90, a Prayer of Moses, the man of God

If I could put time in a bottle, the first thing thing that I’d like to do….

NOTE TO SELF:  So, ummmmmm….in light of the previous post (from yesterday), it must be time for Heaven Fest.

Lust {not love} Hurts

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From Half-Broke Horses, a book she is reading, Erin shared this quote:

“By loving you, I have destoyed you” he said. 

 “…you have a mighty high opinion of yourself,”  I told him….You don’t love me and you haven’t destroyed me… You dont have what it takes to do that.”

What we were taught:

We spent an entire 2 days in junior English at Hammond High School dissecting the words to the Nazareth song, Love Hurts, its’ imagery, its’ angst.  I heard it every single day on the school bus, to and from home.  It sunk into my heart as fact – if you love some one, it will eventually hurt you – irrepairably.  Having been around the block, I know now this is not true..  This is not love. 

But if you replace the word “love” with the word “lust,” the song holds a lot of insight.  Because while lust comes to take, to consume, to use, {true} LOVE comes to give, to nurture, to sacrifice.  It isn’t that there isn’t risk and pain in maintaining true love, but love, real love, covers so much.  It is the greatest thing of all that will remain (1 Cor 13).  Lust is a passing-fancy while love is an unbroken covenant.  Lust hurts, but love heals.

LOVE HURTS by Nazareth

love hurts, love scars,

love wounds, and marks,

any heart, not tough,

or strong, enough

to take a lot of pain,

take a lot of pain

love is like a cloud

holds a lot of rain

love hurts, ooh ooh love hurts

I’m young, I know,

but even so

I know a thing, or two

I learned, from you

I really learned a lot,

really learned a lot

love is like a flame

it burns you when it’s hot

love hurts, ooh ooh love hurts

some fools think of happiness

blissfulness, togetherness

some fools fool themselves I guess

they’re not foolin’ me

I know it isn’t true,

I know it isn’t true

love is just a lie,

made to make you blue

love hurts, ooh,ooh love hurts

ooh,ooh love hurts

Truth:

1 Corinthians 13 (New Living Translation)

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

4 LOVE IS patient and kind. LOVE IS not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. [LOVE] does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 [LOVE] does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 LOVE never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But LOVE WILL LAST forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and LOVE—and the greatest of these is LOVE.

Who Loves Investigation Discovery? I do! I do!

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ID: Ivestigation Discovery, just another Discovery cable TV channel among, how many now, 37 or 152?  Ah, but this one is great.  All unsolved crimes and crime mysteries and FBI and CIA and Paul Zahn-On the Case; there are crimes and I-almost-got-away-with-it cases and pretty clever criminals, but some hero-type officers of the law who investigate and solve tough situations.  It is my one TV potential-addiction.  I know this because I have already plotted, should I break a major bone and have 7 -10 days where I have to just be on the couch, I will watch ID around the clock.  It is weird to know that, but I like to plan ahead.

Last night I didn’t get to {really} watch any ID, but I did sort of land on it for a few minutes while waiting for the Papa Murphey’s pizza to bake.   What I was able to surmise, in this particular show about the FBI in Carroll Parish in Lousiana, was that some crazy alligator-wrestling swamp-guy did some bad stuff (like shooting & killing a man outside a bar while some one hed him down and claiming self-defense), but escaped from from the courthouse after sentencing and they could. not. find. him.  Why?  Because he knew how to live in the woods and the water and the swampy areas.  Even when his feet were chained and the sheriffs came out with the dogs, he knew to bury himself into wet marshes and the mud, allowed the soaked earth near the water’s edge to come up around him and they say the dogs walked right over him and couldn’t even pick up hs scent because he was covered, face down,  in the mud and water. 

Life-Changing Moments with God, Praying the Scripture Everyday by Dr David Jeremiah

My mom gave me her copy of her favorite-ever devotional book by David Jeremiahwhile I was there visiting  in January.  I love it because she jots little notes in the margins and notes family milestones.  She’ll add a song she is singing that day and definitions to words that stand out.  It is sort of her journal and very personal.  She got herself a new copy and let me have the one with the real treasures.  I pick it up periodically so I can see what my mama has been meditating on on any given day. Each page starts with a scripture, then a prayer made up of scriptures, then the scripture references are noted.  For today ~

April 16, page 119

I said in my haste, ‘I am cut off from before Your eyes,’; nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications when I cried out to You.

Lord, I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters where the floods overflow me.  Waters flowed over my head; I said, ‘I am cut off!’  I called on Your Name, o Lord, from the lowest pit.  You have heard my voice. ‘Do not hide Your ear from my sighing, from my cry for help.’  You drew near on the day I called on You and said, ‘Do not fear.’

Lord, will You cast me off forever?  Will You be favorable no more?  Has Your mercy ceased forever?  Has Your promise failed forevermore?  Have You, Lord God, forgotten to be gracious?  Have You, in Your anger, shut up Your tender mercies?  I said ‘This is my anguish; but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most high.’  I will remember Your works, Lord God; surely I will remember Your wonders of old.  I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see Your goodness, loving God, in the land of the living.

Great is Your faithfulness, Lord!  I will remember Your works and Your tender mercies.  Praise Your name!**

Yesterday.

I had one of those days.  You work hard, really hard, for a long period of time.  And suddenly, you are overcome, overwhelmed, at your end.  There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, no relief in sight.  You have done all you know to do.  You have done as much as you can and suddenly the ground seems unstable.  You sense you are sinking into the mire.  Nothing is working as it should.  Wait, what?  How did I get here?  What happened?  Did I take a wrong turn?  What is going on?

Yep.  I had one of those days.

And in reading this this morning, and having watched the FBI show about the swamp-guy, I realized it is ok, sometimes, to just surrender to it.  Burough down into the mud and let the waves and water surround.  The promise from God is that they will not overtake me, anyway.  Yes, it is a pit, but from there the Lord still hears my cry.  The Faithful One is on it.  But the enemy won’t be able to find me, hidden in the land, the land of the living.  The enemy may prowl, but I’ll be where only God can find me.

That is where I may be reached at this time.

**Psalm 31.22, Psalm 69.2, Lamentations 3.54-57, Psalm 77.7-11, Psalm 27.13 (from the book, page 119)

Lily Pad

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As I reflect on the garden of 2009, I have realized, OK-wow…I had lilies.

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They are so random and scattered and were absolutely planted here or there with no expectations.  And every single lily, whether the extremely drought resistant mini-daylilies or the exotic Easter and Asian lilies, were purchased on clearance by bulb.  In fact, I got them so cheap they were pretty much purchased with a whatever-happens-happens attitude because I didn’t even know if they’d grow.

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But now, a few years later, I am glad I took the risk and I have throughly enjoyed, considered even, the lilies.

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“My lover has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to browse in the gardens and to gather lilies.”  Solomon in the Song of Songs 6.2

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“Consider how the lilies grow.  They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.”  Jesus in Luke 12.27

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