From Strength to Strength...Seize the Time

Hi Friends,

 

It’s hard to believe that the first week of August is over and we have rounded the bend heading into the Fall season.  Even as I write this I am sensing the change in the atmosphere as advertisers and merchants ramp up for the school days ahead.  I’m actually feeling pressured in an abstract sort of way.  Are you? 

Awhile back we offered a wonderful incentive for new website viewers entitled "Seize the Time."  Because this resource may be a help in staying peaceful and unhurried in the days ahead, we are now making it available to anyone who would like to check it out.  Just hit the tab below and remember the beautiful words of encouragement in Psalm 31: 14-15:

But I trust in You, O Lord;  I say, You are my God.  My times are in Your hand …”   

Also, the book “Traveling Through Menopause:  What’s God Got To Do With It” is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble websites.   If you, or someone you know is starting on this journey it may be a great way to fill some of that time you’ll be seizing.  Oh, and if you found it helpful, please write a comment for others to be encouraged.

Do enjoy the rest of your summer and God bless you!

From Strength to Strength...Fresh Iced Tea in the Welcome

Hi dear friends!

It has been awhile since we’ve talked and I’ve missed you all.  I just made a fresh jug of iced tea and placed it in the refrigerator.  Would you like some?

Keeping iced tea on hand has long been a labor of love for me and has always served well in making friends and guests feel welcomed in our home.  I’m smiling as I remember times when those dropping by would not even wait for the offer, but would simply ask, “Any iced tea made?”  This was especially true during the warm spring and summer months.  So fun!

Our version of that hospitality has always been unsweetened decaff tea and fresh lemon.  Very simple!  However, the vital secret of that flavor being released is in the boiling water.  It must be poured directly over the black leaves and sliced lemon…and left to steep.
  
Our lives are “kinda” like that, you know.  So much of what we’re struggling with seems complex and difficult, but the answers are often simple.  They’re found in the release of God’s work in our hearts.  Yet, often this can only take place when some of His “heat” is poured over our lives and our response is simply to wait. 
 
I’ve told a story of a personal life-season like that in my new book: Traveling Through Menopause:  What’s God Got To Do With It?   If you’re a woman in your mid-thirties or older and noticing some changes in your thinking or body that you don’t understand, you may find answers in this read.  Did you know that peri-menopause actually begins in a woman’s life around age thirty-five?
 
The book is very conversational and for sure, informational and encouraging.  Do check it out on the above tab…or go directly to Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
 
Meanwhile, is there a pitcher of iced tea in your refrigerator? 

“Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation;
I wait for You all the day long.”  Psalm 25:5

From Strength to Strength...Spring Up O Well

Dear Readers, 

Lately the chorus of a wonderful little hymn has been resounding in my spirit:

Spring up, O well, within my soul.

Spring up, O well, and make me whole.

Spring up, O well, and give to me

That life abundantly.

A few blogs ago we talked about Gerar and the unstopping of the well of “open spaces.”  I hope that had meaning for you.  In my life it has meant the release of joy…with fresh energizing from God’s Word.  This has been especially true in my morning devotions and the significant time I generally spend in the Psalms.

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Often my “routine” has taken me to a familiar and reverent read of the “five Psalms of the day”… by date.  (For example: on June 1 I’ll be reading Psalm 1, Psalm 31, Psalm 61, Psalm 91, and Psalm 121; …on June 5 it will be Palm 5, Psalm 35, Psalm 65, Psalm 95 and Psalm 125,….. etc).

More often, I may begin there, but sense an invitation from the Lord to camp out in one particular Psalm.

Most often,…. I’ll find myself landing in favorite Psalms, and spending time digging deeper.

Lately, I’ve been drawn to Psalm 119,….with its beautiful acrostic verses filled with wisdom and high worship.  This is a song almost certainly composed by David.  The 176 verses are divided into 8-verse sections, arranged according to the order of the Hebrew alphabet.  Consequently there are twenty-two, 8-verse stanzas, each beginning with the corresponding twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

 

Further…nearly every verse contains one of eight words for God’s revelation: 

• Instruction
• Decree
• Precept
• Statute
• Command
• Judgement
• Promise
• Word

For those of us who rejoice in God’s high order of creation and revelation, this Psalm provides incredible depths for mining and heights of pure worship.

Writing now, I have been paused on verse 18: “Open my eyes so that I may contemplate wonderful things from your instruction” (HCSB).

Having dinner with the disciples after His Resurrection, Jesus said to them: “…These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you - that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.  Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.’”  Luke 24:44-45 HCSB

This Pentecost, may your eyes and your mind be opened to be made whole.  May your response be a geyser of abundant joy.

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 Spring up O well…