Whispers of Truth

If someone were to walk through my kitchen or sewing room, I might look like I am sewing, but in my mind I am piecing together a blog post. You see, it starts something like this: A few weeks ago I went to a local Hobby Lobby to hopefully find and buy material to make a milestone mat for my new photography business. There are a few babies that will be here soon to take pics of. Hobby Lobby had what I needed, and a really nice (yet feisty) older lady helped me to understand how to put it together, giving me how she would do it, all kinds of useful tips like wash the fabric first, cut it “this” particular way, etc. I got home and promptly threw the fabric into the washer before gently drying it. A few days later, I am standing here actually looking at the directions that she alone had seen when cutting my fabric out. It goes like this: #1: READ ALL DIRECTIONS BEFORE BEGINNING. (I start sweating a bit. Didn’t do that! Broke my cardinal rule I always told my kids to do before starting ...

I’ve been thinking a lot about respect lately as I ponder the scriptures, as I speak to women, as I think about teaching young women of marriageable age. I am not speaking of the R-E-S-P-E-C-T as Aretha’s catchy '60's song speaks of it but rather the respect that the Bible says husbands are due inside the covenant of marriage. I promise they are two completely different things. In Ephesians 5 Paul speaks of marriage in the context of subjection to one another in Christ, a very unpopular concept I've written of before. When Paul tells women to be subject to their own husbands in marriage, he has already laid a foundation of God’s work in their lives through His sending of the Christ and Christ’s sacrificial work that redeems. He has already told men and women to imitate God (v. 1), to spend time trying to learn what pleases Him (v. 10), to be careful how they walk because the time is short and the days are evil (v. 15), to keep the joy of a song in their hearts at all time...

I especially have missions on my mind. My sister-in-love, Kim, leaves her mission today to come home for yet another ear surgery. The pull to stay behind and ignore what her body needs tugs hard, but the need to come back is immediate and necessary, already having been delayed because of the spike in COVID cases the past few months. This medical need takes her from the place she wants to be, serving, ministering, sharing, building, and it is hard.  As I read preparing for a WMU devotional tonight, this is on my mind, and it intersects with my daily reading in Thessalonians over the past few days. When God's people spend time with Him in His word, He is always good to bring connection and relevance to our lives through it, and Hebrews 4:12 speaks to this: “The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (NASB)....

A strange phenomenon is occurring. An ongoing crisis rages in our land, and our churches sit, for the most part, startlingly empty. Thousands of people in the United States and all over the world are dying daily, and instead of rushing the gates of heaven pleading for mercy, those claiming to be His stay away from each other, isolated in fear, blaming God for not stopping COVID-19 instead of imploring Him to end this plague of our times.  Think about it. After 9/11 the churches were full to bursting, the prayers being lifted high even in the abject fear of what had just happened and what could happen in the war to come. Maybe it is the rapidity with which things happened, the suddenness of the crisis that killed almost 3,000 people and injured 6,000 more in one day that drew people to God. Maybe today’s ongoing crisis that has claimed 705,000 people to date (in less than two years) and has sickened 44 million people in the USA alone has provided an opportunity for the enemy to kee...

Often in my life I have heard people mention that one can’t out-give God. This is absolutely true. Romans 8 tells me that God has freely given me all things in Christ and the chapter is chock full of what He has given: His eternal love, my very life itself as well as my inheritance in Christ, a future hope and glory with Him, the ability to overcome when I face temptations and the problems this life brings, my freedom in the Spirit, and my firm belief that nothing can separate me from Christ.   Sometimes this idea of not being able to out-give God is used to manipulate people or to distort the truth found in this chapter. This gospel I believe is not one of prosperity, not  in the sense that all things will always be prosperous and go well with me here on earth if I just give enough to God.  The gospel in which I have placed my hope is Christ alone , who died for my sins, carrying them to the cross, putting them to death so that I might live through His work. He is th...

A few weeks ago one of my former students met with me for coffee and some conversation to catch up on what’s happened since I last saw her at her high school graduation. The meeting stemmed from her asking for some advice/help with one of her papers, an offer I had left open for my students whenever they had a need or a question while in college. Honestly, most don’t take me up on it, but a few have along the way. Sometimes their confidence just needs a boost, a reminding of the things they already know but have forgotten. College assignments can quickly become overwhelming, very similar to the life for which college is preparing them in their chosen fields.  My sweet student gifted me with a beautiful book that she had signed, dated, and embossed. Then she excitedly told me what it said and that the embosser was mine. An embosser is often a very small press that through pressure creates a raised design or a seal onto a piece of paper. This type of seal validates the authenticity ...

Southerners are known for their long goodbyes.   This isn’t news. We love to visit at length with our friends, whether it be at church, in the yard, at a chance meeting in town, or at a restaurant over a meal. Letting the conversation go, leaving the ones we love, involves separation. During the pandemic that has spanned more than a year-and-a-half, the rare chances we have to spend together are even more precious to us and the leaving even harder to come by when we have them because the reality of not being sure of our next chance to be together in person, much less our next breath, is even more real. Jesus’ leaving took time too.  His disciples didn’t really have their feet under them yet . . . three and one-half years isn’t enough time to understand what He was trying to teach them—it would take their lifetimes to begin scratching beneath the surface of what He had planted in them. He had to leave to accomplish His purpose; He had to say goodbye for them to be able to unde...

Yesterday I had another wheel class at pottery, and honestly it was a little rough. I went to class already frustrated at my puppy for not cooperating with my schedule. Then, when class began, the teacher told us to prepare twice as much clay as usual to throw in our two-hour lesson because we were going to cut our pieces open and examine them.   Initially this horrified me. If I actually managed to make a piece I liked, it would be sliced in half. Ruined. Destroyed intentionally. My fear was that I would make the prettiest piece yet (still, not much to look at based on my skill level) and would lose it. But I wanted to be better than I was, so I made my preparations, c arefully measuring out the same amount of clay for four pieces and preparing each piece by wedging it, working it to make it pliable, to get out any air that might be trapped in it that would prevent our clay from centering.  Then we sat down at the potter’s wheel, our teacher watching us carefully to see prob...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reversals The stench overpowered me as I stood looking down at the rubble of the ruins that was my life,              And I knew the truth was in them somewhere.                                                                                              All that was left of all I had known pulled me home,                                                                                     ...

WE who’ve been given so much in Christ must be careful not to cause offense in a world that neither understands nor has our freedoms about which Galatians 5:13 says we are “called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” As I read again through the gospels, I am picking up more and more on the word offense as it plays out in Jesus’ conversations, probably because I am seeing more and more that the so-called Christians in the world in which I am currently living are walking selfishly, giving offense rather than doing all they can to live at peace with everyone (Rom. 12:18). Living at peace while walking in the love of Christ and His truths allow us opportunity to extend the gospel that we do not have when we walk in selfishness.  There are many contexts in the gospels for the discussion of offense.The Pharisees and the scribes are often offended by Jesus, especially when they feel He has broken one of t...