Monthly Archives: June 2019

Taken

No matter the joy
No matter the peace
All can be taken away here
All except Him

Make the Lord your joy
Make the Almighty your peace
If you do, there is shelter
If you do, there is hope

One Day we will be taken to Him.

The Holy Spirit Loves Me

The Holy Spirit really loves me.  Of course, you say.  But I mean it.  He REALLY loves me!

This afternoon, I was putting together our new weed whacker.  I was trying to be careful and follow the assembly instructions but I managed to push the main handle sections together backward.  Ugh.  So I tried to pull it apart.  It wouldn’t budge.  I sat down and pulled the handle with my feet.  Nothing.  I called my son to come out and play tug-of-war.  No go.  I tried to wedge a flat-head screwdriver between the sections.  Nope.
I evaluated the situation and realized that it was unusable.  Weed whackers do not work upside-down.  It’s not just unsafe, it doesn’t work.  I couldn’t take it back to Walmart for an exchange without telling a lie. So I started my favorite prayer:

“Holy Spirit, please help me.  I can’t do this without you.  Please help me get this thing apart.”

And I continued wedging and pulling and praying.  Ugh.  Still no success… or so I thought!
I swallowed my pride and decided to show Brian.  I picked up the weed whacker and to my surprise, it was straight!  What?  I checked again.  And again.  Perhaps once again.  Hmm… I know that it was backward and that it didn’t twist or change in my hands.  There was only one explanation.  The Holy Spirit fixed it for me.
Yup, that’s right.  He fixed it for me.  The first thought in my mind was, “the Holy Spirit really loves me!”  It wasn’t a scream or shout or burst of praise.  Just the simple thought that has been a reality in SO many times of my life.  Everything from finding lost items to figuring out tricky computer programs to giving my family a free van.  He really loves me and cares about what concerns me (1 Peter 5:7).
Thank You, Holy Spirit.  I love you, too.
-Betsy

Intro the Spection

After all the deep introspection, yeah, I see my scars. I know enough to say, “Don’t follow me”, but not enough to say, “Go this way”. Just know who you’re following.

Keep Jesus as your compass and you will be surprised at the stormy seas you will walk upon. The ‘fiery furnace’ may not be who you’d expect, nor the ‘lions’ den’.

Jesus will see you through.

Morning Prayer Time

“Dear Heavenly Father,

We receive from You (Hands are cupped together and are pulled up to our hearts to represent receiving from God,)
all that You have to bless us with.”  My daughter then adds: “And in store for us.”
I repeat her: “And in store for us.”
“We need more!  (I reach my hand up to Heaven every time I say ‘more’,)  We need more!
We need more more more more more more more more (Arms go crazy raising and falling,)
MORE of You!
Fill us all the way up (We wiggle our fingers from our feet to up to our heads,)
to OVERFLOW! (We wave our arms out like the ocean.)
You are the only One
who knows the end (We point to our left,)
before the beginning! (We point to our right,)
And we know that You are… (My kids fill in the blank with up to 10 things matching my fingers.  Some examples include:  Good, Loving, Kind, Amazing, Patient, Perfect, Generous, Awesome, Gracious, Faithful.  One hand represents for my daughter and the other is for my sons and they race to fill their quota.  Racing is fun,).
We know these things about You, so we trust in You.”
(Then I challenge my kids to pray “HUGE!!” and I give them a chance to pray their own individual prayers.)
Then I close us out in prayer.
May this help give you ideas of how to have fun while praying with your family.
God has no limits, so why should our prayers?

Isn’t Today Beautiful?

Why don’t I write about what “they” want me to write?

“In your writings, there is pain and abandonment,” yes, there is.  I get such accusations like- “he’s not writing from His relationship with the Spirit”, but I am.  It becomes the same as Peter when he sinks.  Why does he sink?  Why did Adam and Eve eat the fruit?  Why did Jesus sweat tears in the garden?  “But you talk about things ‘they’ don’t, like ‘unanswered prayer’.  The ‘faithful’ say it doesn’t exist, but you say it does.”  Either I am not ‘faithful’ and you have made another ‘pile of sticks’ you need to jump to remain so, or there is more to this than either of us know.  It would be easy to say faith = answered prayer, one proves the other.  It verifies the Truth that we can’t see and becomes little more than ammunition for Job’s friends.
 
I say Jesus shows us another form of prayer, for the ‘faithful’- Luke 11:1-12, and for the rest of us- Luke 22:39-46.  Yes, there is answered prayer.  Hallelujah!  People get healed, are resurrected.  Yes, there is unanswered prayer.  Babies die, people live in anguish and pain.  Is ‘faith’ to still say “Hallelujah!”?  Does ‘faith’ become- how much can you take and still praise Him?
 
I say: Don’t make ‘faith’ a pile of sticks that needs to be jumped.  Resist such temptation that makes it ‘us’ who made it, and ‘them’ who didn’t.  The ‘made it’ become the ones who prayed for their sick child who is healed, and the parents get to raise him/her and see the blessings of generations, while the ‘didn’t make it’ become the parents who hold their dead baby and mourn everyday carrying sorrow in their heart.  Many shake their head at such a dichotomy and abandon the ‘faith’ because of its impotence in the face of an unjust life.
 
Where is worship?  Shouldn’t it be for the victorious, the ‘us’ who made it?  No, worship was never about ‘us’, whoever we are.  It is always about Him.
 
I have witnessed the joy of leading thousands in worship, and the pain of disease that took it all away.  “In truth, I never cared for it,” is what people say to avoid the pain of devastating loss.  I want to point people to Jesus during joy and sorrow.  He is the breeze, the shade that blocks the unbearable heat of our life-giving sun.  Why must there be both?  I don’t know, but isn’t today beautiful?