Women are strong creatures.  God made us with a strength that is so much different than the strength He’s given to men.  Today, I want to celebrate that strength by introducing you to one of the strongest women I know.

Do you recognize this picture?  Possibly from all of my unnecessary posts on the messiness of my desk?  Well, today I want to introduce you to that beautiful woman in the frame.  She is my Grandma, Madeline.  The above picture was taken when my Grandma was still a teenager, living on the farm in Missouri and attending a sort-of dance/Prom at school.

Tags: Grandma, Proverbs 31, strong women

Have you ever heard it said that the greatest training for having your own ministry is to serve someone else’s?  I’ve probably only heard it said a total of three or four times, but in the past few years, I’ve heard it said at least a million times in my head. 

Tags: serving others, when no one is watching

I just finished watching Walk the Line (the movie).  Now, I know it’s just a movie and that the actual real-life story of how things unfolded may have been quite different than what was depicted in the movie, but… nevertheless, God spoke to me as I watched it tonight. 

This was probably the fourth time I’ve seen this movie — and, I’ll admit, much of the movie is very dark, very unfortunate and very sad.  But there’s a part at the end that brings me to tears nearly every time I see it.

Tags: 1 Corinthians 13:7, Johnny Cash, real love, Walk the Line

Did you have a nice Christmas?  I pray you did.  I pray your heart was flooded with a brand new awareness of His love for you and the complete victory that you have in Him.

It’s weird to have Christmas over, don’t you think? 

I remember a Boxing Day several years ago, when I was in high school.  My sister and I awoke unthinkably early to go capture all the good sales.  As we were driving around, waiting for a particular store to open, we switched on the radio.  Christmas music was playing.  My stomach bound itself in knots.  Christmas is over!  I shouted at the radio.  Stop playing Christmas music!  My sister agreed.  For weeks, we’d been inundated with finals in school, Christmas shopping, Christmas get-together after get-together.  We were ready for it to be over.  All we wanted now was a bargain.

Tags: antiques, Christmas, clean desk, day after Christmas, limoges

Today, I’m placing a new stake of celebration into the ground.  In contemplating what really happened on this day so many hundreds of years ago, I gain a surpassing victory.  What I’ve neglected to realize for so many Christmases has robbed me.

Thankfully, whether or not I celebrate this day with the awareness of what really took place 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem doesn’t change what actually did happen.

Christmas is not a day to celebrate the birth of a good man.  Or a good teacher. Or the most compassionate heart that ever lived.  Or an agent of change.  Or a reformer.  Or a revivalist.  Or a miracle worker.  Or a million other things that Jesus was.

Tags: Christmas, true meaning of Christmas

What were your family’s holiday traditions when you were younger?

Tags: Christmas, Christmas traditions

David ran to meet Goliath.

“As Goliath moved closer to the attack, David quickly ran out to meet him.” -1 Samuel 17: 48

Every time I read the story of David and Goliath, this verse sticks out at me.  It grabs my heart.  It challenges me.  It convicts me.  It breeds a deeper relentlessness inside of me.

David didn’t cower in the corner as he waited to face Goliath.  He didn’t take a few steps back as he realized, “Man, this guy’s a lot bigger than I thought he’d be.”  He didn’t run and hide.  He didn’t even just stand there and wait.  He ran towards him!

Tags: 1 Samuel 17, David and Goliath, don't run from your enemy, run at your enemy

I just found out something really sad yesterday.

Two people I know that were formally very strong Christians are doubting their faith.

How? I’ve been wondering that all day long.  Did they never really know Him?  Were there relationships with Him not firmly fixed on The Truth. Because deep down, I don’t understand how anyone who truly knows Him and knows the truth could ever turn away.  Ever.  Sure, I’ve had my share of questions and doubts and confusion.  But those things have only made me aware of how I still, after all these years, don’t know Him or His Word nearly enough.  They never push me away from Him.  If anything, they push me right, smack dab, into Him.  Yeah, I may run, I may hide, I may bury myself in the pit.  But… I’m like the prodigal son.  I finally tell myself, “You’re an idiot!  Even your Father’s servants live better than this.  Go home!”  And so I do… I go home.

Tags: backslidden, doubting faith, free will, prodigal son, pushing God away, unbelief

I feel compelled to show you something.

Yep, that’s my desk.  It’s messy again.  Really messy.  Can you count how many cups there are?  Four.  And plates?  Three (two of them are stacked and hidden behind the brown box).  And bowls?  Just one.  And the banana peel… eeew.  And the goldfish?  Yummy!  I think I’ll have a few since they haven’t moved since I took this picture.  Oh golly… see the flowers in the left-hand corner?  Yep, they’re the same flowers that appeared in my Messy Desk picture from a month ago.  Except… they’re totally dry and crispy and… dead.  That pile in the bottom right-hand corner?  That’s my laundry.  I do have a hamper nearby… but it’s serving as more of an end table at the moment.  I’m sorry, Grandma. (My Grandma is in the picture on the left side of my desk.)  That woman had ten children, worked nights as a nurse, cooked dinner every night and never, I’m sure, had a desk as messy as this!

Tags: messy desk

She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. … The [enemy] stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. -Revelation 12:2,4

I feel like this promise, that I’ve carried for so long, is about to be released.  I’m about to give birth to this thing that I’ve been carrying around inside of me for years.  How do I know?  I can feel the birth pains.  I can feel the contractions.

Do you feel it too?

Tags: 2008, birth pains, contractions, God's Promises, Revelation 12, year of the gate