My New Favorite Plate

I found this plate at a resale shop for $1 and fell in love!  I have very few physical possessions that I cherish: my tea pot with all its memories...and now this beautiful plate.

Here it is with apple cake...

And here it is on a regular day, sprucing up an ordinary meal.  To make a simple side dish, I sliced oranges, sprinkled them with nutmeg and placed them on this plate.

I've always tried to use LOVE as a main ingredient in everything I cook, and now I have a plate to serve it on!

Open Hands

"Father, let me be weak that I might lose my clutch on everything temporal.  My life, my reputation, my possessions, Lord, let me lose the tension of a grasping hand...  Rather, open my hand to receive the nail of Calvary--as Christ's was open--that I, releasing all might be released, unleashed from all that binds me here."       
---Jim Elliot

Does This Sound Right?

Just before falling asleep last night, I was reading the book Live Life on Purpose, by Claude Hickman.  It was my second time through the book.  And then my eyes sped across a sentence...then backed up and read it again slowly...and then one more time very very slowly, trying to make some kind of sense of it...

"There are 600 churches and 460,000 Christians for every one unreached people group."  

Those words just stood off the page as if on fire.  I made an audible, "WHAT?!"  I was overcome with disbelief.  Really??  The fact began to sink into my heart like a knife piercing through layers and layers.  REALLY???  Do those numbers make any bit of sense?  Does that sound right??

All I could do was close the book, turn off the light and cry.  I cried myself to sleep, praying, "Oh, God, forgive us!  Forgive ME!"

I don't even have words to say this morning, except to simply put those numbers here in my journal...to read them and reread them until it reaches my feet and hands and whole being.

The Rest of Faith

Andrew Murray

QUOTE by Andrew Murray:

This is the rest of faith in which a man rests from his works.
      *With the unconverted, it is, "Not Christ, but I."
      *With the feeble and slothful Christian it is, "I and Christ: I first and Christ to fill up what is wanting."
      *With increasing earnestness it becomes, "Christ and I: Christ first, but still I second."
      *With the man who dies with Christ it is, "Not I, but Christ: Christ alone and Christ all."  He has ceased from his work: Christ lives in Him.  This is the rest of faith.

Giving Up Everything

"Let us give up our work, our thoughts, our plans, ourselves, our lives, our loved ones, our influence, our all, right into His hand, and then, when we have given all over to Him, there will be nothing left for us to be troubled about, or to make trouble about."  --Hudson Taylor's Choice Sayings: A Compilation From His Writings and Addresses.  London, China Inland Mission, n.d., 52.

Seeking and Finding

A new school year has me up just as the sun is starting to shed its very first bits of light on our property.  I slip outside to do some power walking.  Power praying.  My heart rate goes up for the necessary 20 minutes.  One foot in front of the other.  Up hills, down hills.  It's just the morning sounds in the woods and my own sounds.  Breathing in, breathing out.  And with heart rate up, I raise my other heart up also.  All the worries, all the cares, all the heartache, all the questions.  I raise them up for those 20 minutes.  Praying, pleading, wrestling...breathing.  Just a daughter sharing her heart with her Father.  At the end of the 20 minutes, my steps slow and heart rate goes back down and cool down begins.  Likewise, my prayers wind down, and I close with this: "I roll it all over onto You, the One Who knows.  I exchange my burden for Yours because You say Your burden is light.  I exchange my yoke for Yours because You say Your yoke is light."  

I head to the porch swing, where my Bible and notebook are waiting.  And anticipation surges in me.  I have just poured out all my prayers to my Father, and now it's His turn to share with me.  This is the secret I have missed most of my life, but now that I've discovered it, I cling to it like breathing itself.

His Word says we can come to Him boldly.  And I do.  I tell Him that now I wait in anticipation for Him to share His Heart, His secrets with me.  I open my Bible and pull out my notebook.  I write down whatever it is that I'm seeking...a question, a concern, a plea for wisdom.  Seeking in all sincerity.  I write and then, with a blank page, I ask Him to please share with me whatever He wants to share.  And as James says, we are to EXPECT Him to answer when we ask Him for wisdom.  So, my notebook sits open in expectation...my little sign of faith, knowing He will surely answer.

And He does.  This is the mystery that many never seek long enough to find.  A quiet voice louder than words.  Verses that stand out and speak volumes to a spirit that is tied to His.  Comfort. Correction.  Direction.  Confirmation.  Wisdom.  Priceless bits of jewels from Heaven...something I'd never trade for anything on earth.

I leave the porch swing, with thankful heart swollen with the nectar of His love.  How do I thank a Father that cares enough to share living Words with me...simple, sinful me?


I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. Proverbs 8:17 (ESV).

Am I Willing?

I've been away from my blog for awhile as I was caring for my mom after surgery.  While away, I spent 3 weeks out of my typical surroundings.  This, I think, is something everyone should do from time to time.  A change of scenery and routine is a wake-me-up for all the senses.  In those 3 weeks, God answered something in my life that I've been seeking for several months, but that is another (LONG) post for another day.  (Soon...really!)

But today He led me to something that simply had to bubble up and spill out...

Luke 1:38  "Mary responded, 'I am the Lord's servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants.  May everything you have said come true.'  And the angel left."  

I've read this probably a zillion times in passing.  I've even stopped several times to comb those words slowly.  I have it underlined in my Bible.  But today, it sunk into my spirit on a different level.

Those 8 words hit me as if I had never fully understood them: "I am willing to accept whatever he wants."

WHATEVER He wants.  WHATEVER...

Am I willing?  It's easy to say I'm willing.  But, with all conviction, could I truly say those 8 words and really mean it?

Isn't it a loaded statement?  That unclear word "whatever" is where the throat constricts and the feet begin to step back.  What if the "whatever" will turn my world upside down?  What if that "whatever" is something I'm not ready to accept?  What if that "whatever" goes against every fiber of common sense I have?  What if His plan involves a "whatever" that I'm simply not comfortable with?  Or worse...something I've said I'd never ever be able to do?

If only the "whatever" was outlined so that I could read it ahead of time...like a contract that needs careful inspection.  If only I could see the details before I agreed.  That would allow me to be able to put any amendments on the table before signing the dotted line.

But that's not faith.  When God called Abram to leave his hometown and travel to the land that God showed him, He didn't tell Abram where the land was.  Abram had to choose to trust God without the details.  He chose to obey and to step out with no solid evidence to rest his mind upon.  It's no different today.  The people  God can trust are the ones that say, as Mary did, "I am the Lord's servant, and I am willing to accept whatever He wants."

This is where He wants us.  This is where He is leading me.  I believe He has a "whatever" that will rock my world upside down, and why would I want anything less than that?