General

Romans 8:28-29 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

This cayenne pepper grew in my “garden.” It’s “lovely” shape was caused by growing against the wire surrounding the plant.

Do I stay close enough to my Saviour to be conformed to His image?
Do I let the trials He sends mold my life into His image?

What an object lesson!

After considerable pondering of a question that perplexed me, God showed me an answer this past week. Since a few friends have voiced the same question, I posted what God is teaching me on my chronic warrior blog. The answer is simple yet complex and a “work in progress” so to speak, but I hope it will help others as it has helped me.

So, I just recently moved into another apartment and am learning its little quirks. I am very thankful to have a roof over my head and a great place to live. I am also thankful for food to eat. And, finally, I’m thankful for the little things that God does in our lives to make us smile, build character, and teach us wonderful lessons - even if the lesson in this case is patience and keeping one’s sense of humor!

The first cause to laugh is my refrigerator. It has character. Translation: several shelves are broken along with the crisper so you have to be a bit careful what you set where. That is no problem. I just need cold food. It also has its own little song - it heralds each cycles entrance and exit with a “drum roll”. Again, this is not normally a problem except when I have a migraine and each cycle finds me scraping my body off the ceiling. Did I mention that I typically have two migraines a week? But, can I fault my appliance for its joy at being called into service and then being allowed a rest?

Let’s move on to the stove/oven. I must admit that the stove in this new apartment looks rather dubious. It is extremely old. A knob is missing for the clock and I don’t trust the time bake. But, I didn’t want to pronounce it guilty without a trial so I withheld judgment and gave it a fair chance. I mean, what does it matter if it looks old as long as it bakes and cooks, right?

Well, the oven is a bit fickle. Its moods vary from workaholic (50 degrees above temp.) to sluggard (25 degrees below temp.) during any one use. Since variety is the spice of life, my food is well seasoned!

Finally, the crowning glory- the stovetop. Each burner has five settings: warm, low, medium, medium high, and high. However, this old stove really has its own language. The settings really are: “somewhat almost warm,” “slightly warm,” “lukewarm,” “warm,” and “smoke alarm in 60 seconds or less.” Since on “warm” (medium high) water takes longer than thirty minutes to boil (I was too hungry to wait to see how much longer it was going to take to boil), I am frequently testing my smoke alarm. (Hmmmm….maybe I need to keep allowing God to work on my patience!) Thankfully, there are not many people living in this building this summer.

The apartment management is working to solve these difficulties. I know they will be resolved soon. However, in the meantime, I’m enjoying my companionable appliances - I mean, who else has appliances that take the time to make you chuckle while you work in the kitchen?

My how time flies!

This past week, my niece turned three! It seems as if it were just yesterday that we were waiting for her to make her appearance into the world. Now, she is three. (Pictures of her birthday are posted here.)

Her party was a wonderful family time with croquet, cake, and, her favorite, presents! Afterwards, the birthday girl and big brother (4 years old) helped me get groceries. Soon, my other niece will also turn three and two more children will join the family.

I’m so thankful that God has granted me such a wonderful (and crazy!) family!

This year was our first year at Mom and Dad’s new house. All 17 of us were there. It was a very special time with family as we celebrated our Savior’s birth!

Pictures are posted here. As I get more from other family members, I will update them.

In the last few weeks in our teen class, we have been learning how to love God with all our hearts (Luke 10:27) as we grow to know Him better. We are burdened that our teens fully understand what it means to truly love God with our all and to realize how amazing His grace and mercy are!

I had been praying for an example to really help the teens understand how rotten our sins are - even the little ones - and how they affect our lives even when we don’t realize that we are sinning. God gave me that example in a very unusual way - one of my chronic illnesses. I wanted to share that along with some of our lesson.

One of my illnesses is called celiac sprue - an auto-immune disease that damages my small intestine and prevents my absorbing nutrients. There is one treatment for this disease - stay away from certain foods - wheat, rye, barley, oats, and several others. It is my choice. I can either avoid these foods and live a fairly healthy life or eat them and get very, very sick. Hmmm…doesn’t that sound like our choice whether to obey God or sin?

While shopping last week, I saw and smelled some delicious looking samples. I dutifully checked the ingredient list - twice - to make sure I could eat it. I didn’t see any off-limits foods. Ohhh, wow, that mini-taco was good! They were hot and cheesy and wonderful. I picked up a box of them to buy. Then, it tasted so good that I wondered if I had checked the ingredients thoroughly enough. When I reread the ingredients, I groaned inside. There it was, buried in the list. I had somehow missed it - wheat flour.

It was just a little bit of wheat flour. I had obviously read the ingredient list too quickly. Would that change the results? No, it wouldn’t. The pleasure of that taco for a moment on my tongue will affect me for the next three to six months. It will affect every part of my life, not just my intestines. My other chronic illnesses will begin to flare up as I get weak which means that in the next few weeks, I will battle stomach-virus like symptoms. Then, for the next three to six months, I will

* gradually become weaker
* have trouble sleeping
* experience weakness in my lungs bringing a constant battle to stay ahead of my asthma
* have increased problems with migraines
* battle cramps and weakness in my muscles
* have bruises all over my body
* have painful sores on my skin
* have the skin on the roof of my mouth peel away
* have pain throughout my body
* have to miss things that I would like to do because I am so tired
* have some of my hair fall out

At first, I look fine - no one can tell anything is wrong. Then, it becomes obvious. Was it worth it? NO! I choose not to eat those foods for a reason. This time, I missed it - not on purpose, but the results are the same.

Sin is very similar. We can choose whether to obey God or to sin. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it].” So, we do have a choice. If we decide to sin, it will

* keep us from the Bread of Life/from learning His Word
* provide momentary pleasure
* make us malnourished spiritually even if we are studying His Word and praying - going through the motions
* have long-term consequences
* affect every area of our life and those around us
* affect us even when we don’t realize that we are sinning by either neglecting His Word or just not paying attention to His Word, our Pastor, Sunday School teachers, parents, etc.
* allow us to “fake” being spiritual for awhile, but then problems will definitely show.

In Isaiah 59:2, it states that our iniquity separates between us and God. Even a small sin, a small moment of disobedience will affect us until we make it right. It is very serious. This sin could be anything that does not honour what God has commanded.

Wow, you say, this is sad and depressing. But wait….that is not the end of the story. Think about 1 John 1:9! “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” For sin, God provides forgiveness, mercy in not giving us the punishment we deserve, and grace in restoring a relationship with Him! What an awesome, wonderful God! This restoration of fellowship is amazing even as we suffer the consequences of our sin. God is patient with us and longs to help us - how awesome!

God is gracious, merciful and patient (Ephesians 1:7, Psalm 69:16, 1Timothy 1:15, 16). As we know Him more, we should draw closer to Him (Ephesians 3:14-20), strive to live a holy life (Romans 6), and treat others with grace, mercy, and patience (Matthew 18:21-35)

What about you? Are you loving God with all your heart, keeping a short account of sin, studying His Word, obeying His commands, and showing His love to others? He has given us so much. He deserves our love! What joy and peace come when we are restored with Him, love Him with our all, and let Him control our lives!

I stumbled across this hymn in a blog and was touched by its words. When we trust God completely, we can echo the words of this hymn and experience the peace that only He can give!

WHATE’ER MY GOD ORDAINS IS RIGHT, Words: Sam­u­el Rod­i­gast Music: Gas­tor­i­us, Sev­er­us Gas­tor­i­us

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
His holy will abideth;
I will be still whate’er He doth;
And follow where He guideth;
He is my God; though dark my road,
He holds me that I shall not fall:
Wherefore to Him I leave it all.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
He never will deceive me;
He leads me by the proper path:
I know He will not leave me.
I take, content, what He hath sent;
His hand can turn my griefs away,
And patiently I wait His day.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
His loving thought attends me;
No poison can be in the cup
That my Physician sends me.
My God is true; each morn anew
I’ll trust His grace unending,
My life to Him commending.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
He is my Friend and Father;
He suffers naught to do me harm,
Though many storms may gather,
Now I may know both joy and woe,
Some day I shall see clearly
That He hath loved me dearly.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
Though now this cup, in drinking,
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it, all unshrinking.
My God is true; each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart,
And pain and sorrow shall depart.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
Here shall my stand be taken;
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet I am not forsaken.
My Father’s care is round me there;
He holds me that I shall not fall:
And so to Him I leave it all.

This week, I began work on my version of Tux 500 for an Awana Grand Prix next spring. My brother is helping me with it. Yesterday, we cut out the different pieces, using various saws in the process. (Yes, I have all my fingers yet - Randy made a special tool so that my shaky left hand wouldn’t have to be near the blade.) Today, I used sanders to polish the wood.

As I was working on sanding the pieces, it reminded me of what God has been doing in my life. First, He created me with all the different pieces and materials that would make up my life. However, there were (and are) rough edges that need to come off. So, He used the coarse sander to polish those. He applied just the correct amount of pressure to knock off imperfections and make a better finish.

However, He wasn’t satisfied there. Next, He has been going deeper. He is taking the fine sander and polishing again. This one goes into the deeper crevices and hurts more, but the finish will reflect more of His handiwork. For, the finished product is a reflection of Him, not of the piece of wood. The piece of wood is just an old block on its own - basically worthless.

He still isn’t finished. He needs to put together the pieces of my life, sand and polish some more, add a coat of paint, and decoration before I will be a finished product. However, the more He works in my life, the more I will reflect His handiwork and my time with Him on His workbench.

Unlike my car which will not race until it is finished, He has me running the race now. He has a specific course/purpose in mind for me to do now as well as later after more work is done. What an awesome God!

The following Scriptures and the song “Molding a Masterpiece” (Ron Hamilton) came to mind while I was working on my car.
Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take: [when] he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

Jeremiah 18:1-4 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make [it].

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

My vacation this year was in two parts. This past week, I was able to take a trip to the U.P. and Mackinac Island with Anita. We stayed with my cousins and then went to the island. It was wonderful!

Here are some pictures from our trip.
1 - Cool car we saw in our backroad travels
2 - A wonderful ice cream parlor in the middle of nowhere
3 - Houghton Lake
4 - George, the stalking seagull
5 - Big Mac
6 - Amazing picture in a church on the island
7 - Anita’s butterfly friend
8 - Cool bugs
9 - Scenery from our bike trip around the island
10 - Ladies of the Lake
11 - With the pilot/expert of our plane trip

This past week I was privileged to spend a week with Anita and her Grandma on Gun Lake. It was a wonderful week of fishing (yes, I caught one), swimming, boating, walking, talking, playing games….just relaxing. The weather was gorgeous throughout the week with beautiful sunrises and sunsets. It made me remember how much I love country living - making it difficult to return to the city!

During the week I was able to visit my parents twice and see their new home. We had opportunity to catch up on all the news and just spend some time together.

The week was truly a blessing as it provided a time of renewal both spiritually and physically. As I reflected on all that God did for me during that week away, it reminded me of Psalm 23:1-3.

A Psalm of David.
1. The LORD [is] my shepherd; I shall not want.
2. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Praise the Lord for providing just what we need!

A couple weeks ago the teens went to a bonfire at one of our church member’s homes. We roasted hotdogs, had old-fashioned relays, a Bible scavenger hunt in the woods, devotions, and then roasted marshmallows.

The teens thought it was great fun to spread the marshmallow all over my face.

A great time was had by all.

Typically the first words I hear from Dale and Madi are “Ride! Ride!”. Not everyone has an aunt with a hugo.

When these pictures were taken, we were still settling in, but it gives you an idea of what our apartment looks like. Ummm….as many of you know, I am not a photographer.

Greetings from a snowy, cold Michigan! After so many years in Florida, I must admit I love looking at the snow while I am inside. It does make getting out and about a challenge. A friend of mine who is soon moving from Florida to Michigan stated that she has decided that she will be staying inside from October to May. Some of these days, I am inclined to join her.

The new-fallen snow is gorgeous though and reminds me of how God forgives our sins and makes are hearts white as snow. His grace is so amazing as He forgives us for our failings and sins! We are so fallible, but His forgiveness and grace are greater than all our sin!