Whispers of Truth

This year in my read through of the Word, I am using the ESV (English Standard Version, 2011) instead of my normal study version I have used for many years (NASB, 1995). I have found the past few years that changing up the version (while making sure it is a reliable translation) I read from in my quiet time each day causes me to notice things that might have become so familiar in the wording as to pass me by in the NASB. As I finished reading through 1 Kings this morning, the ESV's stating of a verse caught my attention through the presentation of the struggle the people of Israel were having with their faithfulness towards God as an image : “And Elijah came near to all the people and said, 'How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.’ And the people did not answer him a word” (1 Kings 18:21). The NASB states Elijah’s question to the people in 1 Kings 18:21 a bit more straightforward, like this: “...

Hear and believe. It sounds simple. Learn the Word and walk it out in the faith given me. How hard can this be to do? Right? The reality is often quite different and much more difficult. When faced with the cares of the world and the reality of picking up my cross daily and following where He would lead me, the answer to how hard can this be becomes quickly evident in my blatant failures. I came to Christ as a 12-year-old girl, sheltered, untested, protected, safe, and very ignorant of the Word, even though I received my first Bible and started reading it as a 9-year-old (without a whole lot of understanding). I grew in knowledge (a little), became stretched by life (a lot), and learned to depend on God to lead me by His Word. It seems the lesson I am still learning is the part about picking up my cross and following. I fail in one area particularly— immediately responding in faith and following when my husband feels convicted to do something hard and costly to me as well. At that p...

Year after year. It goes on.  Year by year. Nothing changes.   All remains steady (and not in a good way). The ebb and flow of life can seem endlessly the same, especially when suffering is involved. When the heart is involved and nothing changes, hope can easily disappear.  This is Hannah’s situation in 1 Samuel 1. Even though her husband loves her and tries to comfort his wife, the circumstances she finds herself in outweighs all he tries to do for her to show his love and bring her comfort. Words in the first eleven verses are telling: rival,  closed womb,  vexation,  anxiety ;  irritate, provoke, wept, not eat,  prayed ; sad, deeply distressed, bitterly, and   grievously   all find prominence in Hannah’s life as her situation continues without any relief in sight. How long has this been going on? the Bible offers no way to be sureA, but any bitterness of soul and pinching of circumstances is long enough when weighed by the human...

Warning: This post is silliness itself. Sometimes that has to come out, too! :) My husband has given me one task today, and I have excitedly waited all afternoon to complete it. There is a story here, and it is my job to tell it; it is here because where else would I put it? Facebook? LOL.  One thing you should know about my husband is that he never has buyer’s regret (except maybe recently when after a very LONG time in a boot store trying on every single boot in his size, my impatient presence alone was enough to prod him into making a purchase he was unsure about; in all honesty, I enabled his buyer’s remorse because to get him out of the store I told him I would return the boots on my day off the following week if he did not like them after getting home with them. My bad. Really! Because then I had to make the one-and-a-half-hour drive to return them.) Anyhoo . . . fast forward a few weeks minus the new boots he has desperately needed for quite some time. Fortunately, ...

I am not a math person (ask any of the myriad of English students who have taken tests that didn't add up to 100 or whose papers I have graded over the years), but I have a really smart phone now that tells me stuff, and I can check my math. And honestly, there is some simple math that I can do. What I do know is that I am 53+ years old. I heard Christ’s call on my life when I was 12, so for more than forty years I have followed Him. The problem is I have not always followed Him well. I have struggled, wandered off fell, hurt myself, called out for help, and He has faithfully rescued this undeserving sheep from a wilderness of my own making more than once. He has done what I cannot do for myself. I have now spent more than forty years sojourning in a place not my home while seeking one that is yet to come. I can relate to the length of 40 years. It feels terribly long at times and terrifyingly short at others. —————————————————————————————————————————- The children of Israel tha...

While I visited Honduras, ITM ministries arranged a JLC Homes of Hope Foundation home build, even though a visiting group was not there to do it, which allowed me to watch part of the process and get some pictures of a newly minted home. Building homes within the community began in 2020 in memory of John Luke Carver, a young boy who died before his family was able to visit the ministry as planned, and the foundation provides homes for families with great need in the community. I saw tat there is no lack of great need in the community, and 206 families are currently on a wait list to have a home built. Just in the next few weeks, as two groups come down to provide labor several more homes will go up making today's total to date 64 homes, with wood already purchased for 10 more builds before rainy season begins. Before a home can be built for a family, there must obviously be people willing and able to do the building, which requires an average of 20 people per bu...