Priorities

This time last year I was still marveling over the whispers God placed in my ears and imbedded in my heart:

- “you…such a time as this”

- I rescued you from your own self, from your sins, and from your past;

your future was doomed without Me.

- You have a letter – share it boldly, in My name

- You know women who will help, pray, guide, encourage…

elicit them, ask them.

- Look, I gave you my son, birthed in the dirtiness of a barn,

what are you waiting for? Do it now, if for Me.

With the prayers, technical assistance, and encouragement of a few ladies, this site was pulled together and launched in less than one month. I was blown away by not only the help, but by the immediate response. By the need.

With the initial launch, and for the first few posts, many people visited. I looked at the site meter. Of course I did. Then two weeks later, we moved again, our second move in four months. It took some time to get semi-settled and to get things rolling here. Next, things waned here and visits spiraled down and admittedly my focus got hazy and my selfLESSness got out of whack.

I regrouped, refocused, and repurposed because your healing is what matters. Even when I have been absent in words, you have been as close as my every heartbeat. I felt (and still feel a bit awkward) that I have let you down. But then God comes and shine His bright light of Truth and I realize that if this ministry's whole purpose was to free one woman in the first week of its launch, then it all has been well worth it.

Due to the variables of my family's recent relocation saga, we moved again last month. Our third move in just over one year. So, absent I have been again. Hopefully this leg of our journey will last more than a few months as we finally found a home to buy. So, here I am once more, knee-deep in boxes, clutter, and disorganization. Folks, this is not the way I want to start a new year. Not only is my home a mess, but honestly, I fear that my heart is also a mess. Again.

I wanna start things right with the ringing in of a new year.

- Who doesn't?

I wanna be organized.

- Who doesn't?

I wanna do something spectacular this year.

- Who doesn't?

I wanna, I wanna, I wanna...

That is beginning to sound a lot like whining. And I don't know about you, but whining is b-aaad. It shreds me like moldy cheese over a grater. I do not like it. I don't tolerate it from my kid so why do I tolerate it from the recesses of my own heart? Me, me, me, I , I, I.

Like most of you, I need a Titus 2 leader in my life. Someone who speaks only His Truth, someone who encourages, and someone who understands real women seeking God. Someone who understands that the seeking and chasing oftentimes includes slipping and falling and standing and reaching, yet again.

Please take some time to either listen to and/or read these podcasts and articles by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. She is leading women along a path of PRIORITIES for the upcoming new year. Even though I don't know her in-person, I know her in sisterhood of Christ and sometimes she helps fill that Titus 2 woman gap for me.

"Now, I want to begin today, and over the next several days, to share some thoughts about how to get our priorities in the right order. We’re especially focusing on this matter of how we use our time—priorities as they relate to our time. What I’m going to do is to take the word priorities—priorities—and make an acronym out of it, with each of those letters, suggesting something that will help us get our priorities in order." (Nancy Leigh DeMoss)

I think her teachings will help me (and possibly you too?) to trade the Me, me, me, I, I, I for the Him! Him! Him! Let's trade the whining for the shining.

Your wounds matter.

The healing of your hearts and the renewing of your minds matter. You matter to me. And most importantly, to God.

Dec. 27: State of Bondage

"Asking Him to order my steps . . . Once I’ve inquired of Him, and I’ve been in His Word and on my knees and sought His heart and believed that He has directed me, then I can trust that even if that decision puts pressure on me, that there will be grace to deal with that pressure." (DeMoss)

Dec. 28: Review God's Priorities

"Now, here’s the concept that has challenged me over the years, and I have to go back to this every day of my life. If I’m too busy to cultivate my relationship with God by the means of grace God has provided for me, then I’m too busy. Then something is wrong and something has to change." (DeMoss)

In the spirit of Truth, let us join together and encourage one another, to love God, and to love others. But before we can do that...we need to get our priorities straight, not only for the new year, but for our new hearts in Christ.

Friends, please feel free to leave comments, send emails, and/or link here to Healing Hearts, Renewing Minds. What started out last year as a place of rest and redemption for post-abortion women (& men), will broaden this year to include all the wounded.

We all have pasts. We have hurts. But by the grace and love of Christ, He holds our todays and our tomorrows. Are you ready for a new year and a new you--in Him?

Let us humbly pray:

Father God, You hold each one of us in the palm of Your gracious hand and You love us with a love so big nothing can compare. Some of us come to You and willingly hand over all of our tattered and ripped baggage while others cling to broken luggage, unwilling and unable to surrender the wounds. Lord, I ask that You give each one the strength to release their grasp on their past so that You will be able to heal and renew with redemption, restoration and love. Lord, let this be a place, a community where folks find Truth, encouragement and safety. Lead us by the Light of Your Truth. In Jesus' name, amen.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matthew 6:33 NKJV)

Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ (22:37)

Dine-n-Dash (revisited)

Here is something worth re-reading and tucking away into the folds of your hearts and minds. And as usual, I ask several questions...

Do you believe these statements I gleaned from my Bible the other morning?

But this Man,

after He had offered one sacrifice

for sins forever,

sat down at the right hand of God.

For by one offering

He has perfected forever

those who are being sanctified.

(Hebrews 10:12 & 14)

Do you live like you believe those Words are true?

And what about the following words?

But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us;

for after He had said before,

“This is the covenant that I will make with them

after those days, says the LORD:

I will put My laws into their hearts,

and in their minds I will write them,”

then He adds,

“Their sins and their lawless deeds

I will remember no more.”

Now where there is remission of these,

there is no longer an offering for sin."

(Hebrews 10:15-18)

Even though you know God tells only the Truth and your head believes these Biblical utterances, does your heart readily follow suite too?

Do you really believe that once you lay your sins at the foot of the cross, they are no longer yours to carry?

Chances are high that you have heard of the poor man's restaurant trick referred to as the Dine-n-Dash. Come with me, let's try it together.

I, the poor woman, and you the other poor folks, let's eat a feast (of forgiveness), then we will dash. We will run right out the door, dragging one another by tightly held hands, as we race to our car in the parking lot.

Wait a minute! Something is different here at the Divine Diner.

When we leave this particular eatery, we don't have to look over our shoulder in fearful expectation of the manager running after us, hollering, and demanding payment. No, quite to the contrary.

Guess what? We don't even have to beat feet or make haste in our departure.

Actually, The Boss would prefer we stay, meal after meal.

Why?

Because His Son already paid the bill. He even tipped the waitress.

Friends, His Words are true. And they are ever-so-filling. Ya know, like the stick-to-your-ribs wholesome food that your mamma used to make to fill your always-starving teenage stomach? Yeah, like that. God wants to fill you up just like that.

Go back and re-read the scripture above.

Now, do you believe those Words with your head and heart?

You should.

God does not hold onto bills. He doesn't keep I.O.U.s in a neat little stack. Once you come to His Divine Diner, you actually hand Him the receipt of your lifelong sin list before you sup of His meal of forgiveness. Once you eat, you are free. But God knows that these sins like to noodle their way back into your head and even your heart. So, look up. See that neon flickering sign? Yeah, His diner is open 24-hours.

See you there.


I will be the one licking my plate clean.

Let us humbly pray:

Father God, thank You for your platefuls of mercy and forgiveness. Thank You that we can dish up helping after helping. Lord, please be with each one reading this today. If they are still dragging a sin-bag, give them the strength and peace to finally hand it all over to You. And to fully accept that You paid the price already. In Jesus' Name, amen.

Broken

Despite the apparent flaws of broken people, amazingly God uses those fissures and cracks and breaks to shine His Light. In fact, it is those things of greatest repair that cast the most shimmering rays of hope into the darkness.

Some of the broken have fissures that dig deep through the skin and fleshy layers and cut to the heart. Others have shallow, surface cracks that cascade like webs, covering their whole facade. And a few are unrecognizable because only bits and shards of their former self remain.

Rather than brokenness being an act of ruin,

if we let our brokenness

be the shattering

of our own self-will,

then, and only then, will we depend solely upon God to make us whole.

Did you get that? We need to

let our brokenness

be the shattering

of our own self-will.

Simply put, we cannot reassemble our own vessels. We cannot tell God or a preacher or a friend how we want to look when we are healed and restored. If we think we must have that sort of say-so, we are not really ready for a complete restoration in Him.

Healing hearts and renewing minds is not about smoothing wrinkles, lifting saggy places, or plumping lips, it is about:

humble hearts

contrite spirits

and complete surrender...

to the One and only God who can make us whole. The restoration comes only after the breaking.

in the breaking-

Gideon's men shined

His saving light

in the breaking-

a widow poured

His blessing oil

in the breaking-

Mary's alabaster spilled

His righteous perfume

in the breaking-

a boy shared

His humble bread

in the breaking-

Esther's faith rescued

His chosen people

in the breaking-

our God revealed

His precious Son

in the breaking-

in the breaking-

Jesus.

Throughout the Bible God used broken things, like bread and lanterns and alabaster flasks, but more than that, He used broken people. And He continues in this manner today, using the broken to shine His greatest light of glory & love & redemption & healing & salvation.

Are you ready?

Are you willing?

Have you set your own self aside?

Have you endured the sharp places long enough?

Come. Come to Christ with a humble and contrite heart. Whether is is barely cracked or it is completely shattered into dusty hunks and sharp shards, bring it. Bring all of your broken parts.

Now, give it up. Every single little piece. God wants to meet you there, in the breaking. In the already broken. He has been waiting for this time with you, dear one.

Have you noticed that candlelight not only illuminates a dark room, but when it shines forth from a cracked glass jar, it bounces and shimmers and dances? Have you seen this? It is this sort of flickering light, shining through fissures and even cascading web-like cracks, that brightens rooms with unique beauty.

You there. Yes, you. You, be that that beauty. I am here to listen. And pray. Please leave a note in the comment box or just go on your silent way. Just know that I have covered you in prayer this day.

Let us humbly pray:

Father God, oh how I come to You with a heart that wants others to feel and know and breathe Your healing and restoration. Whatever caused their brokenness, set that aside and continually whisper Your Truth into their ears. Fill them with Your beauty. Your love. Your freedom. Shine Your light into all their nooks and crannies. Use the willing and the ready to shine Your light into and onto others who desperately need and seek Your healing. Lord, lead the broken to Your feet just as You did with me. Let Your love shine through all of our broken places. In Jesus' name, amen.

Truths:

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,

A broken and a contrite heart—

These, O God, You will not despise.

~ Psalm 51:17

For thus says the High and Lofty One

Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:

“I dwell in the high and holy place,

With him who has a contrite and humble spirit,

To revive the spirit of the humble,

And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

~ Isaiah 57:15

Humble yourselves

in the sight of the Lord,

and He will lift you up.

~ James 4:10

For all those things My hand has made,

And all those things exist,”

Says the LORD.

“But on this one will I look:

On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit,

And who trembles at My word.

~ Isaiah 66:2

* brokenness quote in bold credit: Brokenness, Surrender, Holiness by Nancy Leigh DeMoss p. 44

* all scripture taken from NKJV

* Darlene's "in the breaking" poem inspired by "Streams in the Desert" by L.B. Cowman;

Oct. 15 reading

* image: taken by me (aka A Simple Country Girl)

Beautiful Truth

"Finally, brethren,

whatever things are true,

whatever things are noble,

whatever things are just,

whatever things are pure,

whatever things are lovely,

...

meditate on these things."

~ Philippians 4:8 (NKJV)

make for yourself

an alone place

with empty space enough

to reflect

and to pray,

for this is where He seeks

your upturned face,

perhaps glistening wet with tears

because you felt His gentle

and loving embrace.

in the silence

of this day,

open your heart

to hear

what Truths He has to say,

for it shall be

in such a way

that healing flows

swift with

His bountiful,

merciful,

beautiful

grace.

Friends, please forgive me for neglecting this place, this sacred space. Although my heart, my mind, and my focus wavered and fluttered, my faith has stayed the same. I am forgiven. I am free. I am a new woman in Christ.

And I desperately want to share this gift with you.

Your healing matters to me.

I know not the plans or the route or the fellow travelers on this journey. The only thing I am certain of is His presence.

His forgiveness.

His strength.

His mercy.

His grace.

His heart.

Him.

That ole nasty enemy would like discouragement and confusion to reign, but I am praising God and asking for His Truth to fall from the heavens and water our searching hearts so we can blossom fully into the beautiful women He created us to be.

Let us humbly pray:

Father God, turn each woman's heart to you this day. Fill any voids with Your Truth and mercy and love. Pour Your thoughts into these hearts so that they spill over with Your love. Grant every woman some quiet time each day so they are able to fully grasp Your gifts of forgiveness and freedom. Focus each mind on what is beautiful and True, both in them and in You. In Jesus' precious name, amen.