Archive for December 2013
What My Basket Holds – 2013
Posted on: December 31, 2013
Insightful thoughts on a year in review, from my friend, Susan Powell Henshaw. Be sure to check out her blog, “Simply Life Lessons.” Leave her a comment.
It has been a year since I started my blog, Simply Life Lessons, and lately, I have been so busy learning life lessons that I have not taken the time to stop and tell you about them.
My 5 1/2 years in Colorado have been “Smack in the Face” hard and the most memorable and enjoyable that I know. There is no way to sugarcoat the trials nor the lessons that have come my way, but, if we all handed in our basket of troubles to exchange, I would take mine back, and if there ever was a place to surround yourself with kind, giving, caring, loving friends and healing strength and peace, it is Estes Park, Colorado.
A glimpse into my year . . .
I laughed, cried, cursed, questioned, promised, succeeded, failed, and learned.
- Stephanie got married. Beautiful wedding. Happy couple. Good life ahead.
- Zia started kindergarten.
- I…
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When God Came Down to Die
Posted on: December 24, 2013
Mary wrapped her little child
In cloth she swaddled Him;
She breathed the sweetness of His breath
And kissed His cheek again.
Oh Baby Jesus on the hay
How sweet the lullaby;
That Mary sang to Him the night
When God came down to die.
Angels sang, announced His birth
Sent to the Shepherd men;
Come see the Christ Child that has come
To take away your sin.
The fullness of the Deity
Became the Holy Child;
Fulfilling God’s own prophecy
To those that sin defiled.
For God so loved, He sent His Son
To earth that Christmas Day;
His purpose was to take our place
And for our sin to pay.
Rejoice O man, for God has come
Lift up your weary soul;
The Babe that sleeps so peacefully
Redemption’s plan unfolds.
And as the words were prophesied
Of pain and suffering;
The cross foreshadowed Bethlehem
Upon the new born King.
Oh Baby Jesus on the hay
How sweet the lullaby;
That Mary sang to Him the night
When God came down to die.
© 2009
Amazingly, when Mary held her Child, she held God in human form. Limitless Power in flesh and bone. Creator became the creation. It is incomprehensible to imagine, the God of the universe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in human arms, being kissed by the woman he would call mother.
This is the story being told to you. The God of the universe loved you enough to leave the expanse of heaven, be born of human, sinful flesh, to become the very avenue that would bring you back into right relationship with with God.
“Greater Love has no man than to lay down his life for a friend.” John 15:13
Religion is man-made rules and regulations which tells mankind what work he should do in order to be accepted by God. Jesus said, “Come to Me and I will give you rest.” There is no work to be done. Simply accept what he did and you’re there.
As you celebrate this Christmas season, remember a time when God inserted himself into the affairs of man.
The wisdom of God devised a way for the love of God to deliver sinners from the wrath of God while not compromising the righteousness of God.~John Piper
This is why we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Because God so loved… He came to die to make the Way.
Merry Christmas!
The Judge and the Pedophile.
Posted on: December 20, 2013
I was on a rampage last night.
I had read an article stating the American Psychiatric Association was going to re-define pedophilia as a sexual orientation.
I saw red.
I wanted to blast the APA.
Then today I read this:
“APA stands firmly behind efforts to criminally prosecute those who sexually abuse and exploit children and adolescents. We also support continued efforts to develop treatments for those with pedophilic disorder with the goal of preventing future acts of abuse.”
You can read the entire article here:
I made a huge mistake.
I let my emotions take over instead of researching it totally.
I let my anger rise up and wanted to lash out.
Especially when I read things like this: An Italian Appeals court reverses a 5-year prison sentence against a 60-year old pedophile because the 11-year old girl professes to love him. They were found in bed together, naked, at his seaside cottage. What makes this worse is, the child is from a disadvantaged background and the man, who works for social services took her in.
The Italian court will further victimize this girl if they allow this man to go free.
Then I read this: Where a convicted pedophile has YET to serve out one day of his 43-year sentence due to a rare bond that allows him to remain free while the case is tried on appeal, which could take years. Meanwhile, the victim lives in fear and the father anguishes.
And then there is this one: where a judge gives such a lenient sentence for a convicted pedophile, even after the judge heard letters from the girls and how the abuse affected them.
I don’t understand this.
It boggles my mind.
Not to mention what it does to those kids who were brave enough to break the silence in spite of their fear.
What kind of message do we send the victims when Judges are lenient? Or worse, when they ignore the abuse altogether?
I know eventually there will be a judgement seat where all sins are judged righteously. There will be no political correctness; no media spins; no threats, just God requiring of every man and woman an account of their lives. Then true justice will be served.
Until then we must speak up.
We need to take the power away from those who abuse little children.
The silence must be broken.
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He Saw My Days Before The Pain
Posted on: December 10, 2013
(Courtesy 123RF)
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed Psalm 139:16 (NIV).
It was a struggle for me to understand.
Before I was ever born, God knew what would take place in my life… and he let it happen. He knew what those men would do to me, even before they were ever born… and he allowed them to be born. He allowed them to grow into men who would sexually abuse little girls.
Why?
That question plagued me for years. It was the source of my discontent with God. The wall that separated us.
Why? God seemed distant. Cold. Uncaring.
Why became the reason of disbelief.
Why? You must not love me. If God loved me, he wouldn’t have let this happen. He would have protected me. He would have answered my pleas for help.
Why became my reason for rebellion.
Why? If you don’t love me enough to keep me safe, then I won’t love you. God doesn’t deserve my devotion. I will live my life for myself. I will do what I want to do. I will use men the way they used me.
Why became self preservation and protection.
Why? Since you don’t love me enough to protect me, then I will live for myself. No one will get close enough to hurt me that way, ever again. I will keep relationships at an arms length. I won’t be vulnerable again.
Why became the fuel for my anger.
Why? You don’t care! God doesn’t care, so why should I? God doesn’t protect people, he is a distant, angry, uncaring deity that doesn’t deserve me. In fact, I hate him! If I could, I would slap him in the face for tricking me into thinking he did care about me.
Funny, even in my anger I didn’t deny God existed…
It’s hard to reconcile a loving, caring, personal God with the bad taking place our lives. One who knew everything there is to know before we even existed. We associate love and protection together. We love our own children and we protect them… or, we love our brother, sister, spouse and we protect them. We do everything we can to make sure they do not suffer. So, when bad things happen to good people (especially) we can’t wrap our minds around it. It is almost unfathomable to us that an All-Powerful God, who certainly has the ability to stop bad things from taking place, doesn’t.
It’s taken me the majority of my life to come to terms with it. Why? no longer haunts me. Sure, I still have questions, but those questions don’t stand in a gulf between God and me. God really doesn’t mind the questions.
In all of the days God saw for me, before even one of them began, just as our verse states, some one else was making plans. Someone who did not have my best interest at heart. Someone whose plan was to destroy my life with God before that relationship ever had a chance to begin.
The scriptures tell us, in 2 Corinthians 4:4, Satan is the god of this world.
Look at what I John 3:7 & 8 says:
GOD’S WORD® Translation
Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you. Whoever does what God approves of has God’s approval as Christ has God’s approval. The person who lives a sinful life belongs to the devil, because the devil has been committing sin since the beginning. The reason that the Son of God appeared was to destroy what the devil does.
By his Word, we know those who are not following God — obeying his commands — follow Satan, whether they accept it or not. Those men and women under Satan’s power are influenced to behave as he would have them behave, to accomplish his end. He [Satan] used those men, in their sin, to create havoc in my life. The ultimate purpose was to destroy my relationship with God (See John 10:10). To thwart the good plans God had for me (See Jer. 29:11).
God gave those men in my past a choice. They chose to sin against God by disobeying his command. And, they chose to sin against me by giving into their sin. Their choices had no bearing whatsoever on God’s intention for me and my life. Not then, and not ever.
Does that make sense?
One of the greatest things God gave us, other than his Son dying for our salvation, is the ability to make choices. We aren’t robots. We have a conscience that should help control our actions. But, when sin has such a grip on us — and child molesters are definitely held in the grip of that sin — personal control may or may not be that easy.
In my opinion — and this is just my opinion, I haven’t done any research to back this up… yet — Sexual sins are harder to control because of the physical pleasures they produce. The chemicals exploding in our bodies during sexual pleasures are very intimate and personal, and once they begin, are hard to get back under control. This is how I view my rapist, and my molesters. Men, so deeply trapped in their sexual sin, unable to resist the urges that plague their minds and their bodies.
Even though I understand what happened back then, it neither excuses their behavior, nor does it absolve them. I believe, with every fiber of my being they will be held accountable, and if the blood of Jesus has not covered their sin, that particular sin of rape and molestation will be the nails securing the lids on their coffins. They will have to stand before the Living God and answer to him.
Yes, God saw every one of my days, including the ones where terror and pain existed, before even one of them ever came into being. He saw them and provided the way in which those days could be overcome.
Isaiah 61:1 Jubilee Bible 2000
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to preach good tidings unto those who are cast down; to bind up the wounds of the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those that are bound;
That is the message today. God saw every one of your days, before they ever began. He knew the pain and terror that would fill some of those days, and he provided the way for you to overcome. He provided Jesus, not only as salvation for your soul, but as healer for your heart.
Be Blessed and #WalkInTruthToday
I read a blog today that kind of got my ire up.
I have to say that I agree what this woman writes. You’ll have to read it yourself, but the gist of the blog is over Dave Ramsey’s blaming the poor for their circumstances.
There are some things that are out of our control… such as the loss of a job, the loss of your home, the loss of your vehicle… the inability to land another job… in my own situation, my faith could not be stronger than it’s ever been before in spite of what I have been through. Just because I have landed on hard times does not mean I am lacking in faith. When my boss said, “I can’t pay you anymore…” I didn’t lose my faith, I leaned more on God. When I couldn’t find a job, my faith didn’t bottom out, it remained intact. When they came to take the stuff I made payments on, I didn’t walk away from God, I ran closer. Having more faith does not mean I will have more money or more stuff or become insanely wealthy, not even becoming debt free will make me extremely wealthy…
Faith is faith. It isn’t something that can be conjured up, it is given to us by God. It isn’t dependent upon the amount of money I have in the bank or whether or not I am in debt.
I think the mentality of “I am blessed by God because I have so much money in the bank, or a big house, or a nice car” is a slap in the face to those impoverished who continually beat themselves up mentally and spiritually because they haven’t been able to “conjure” up the faith enough to rise above their situation. I’ve seen the impoverished single moms working their tails off in order to supply their children with food, clothes and a roof over their heads, only to be left with too much month at the money. I’ve been that single mom. I’ve worked myself to the bone, plus went to school full time, only to be beat back down by one set of circumstances or another. All through my life I have always hung on to God and His word. I tithe (except now since I still do not have a job) I have given with the expectation of a 100 fold return… and yet, I am still in the same shoes… living with my sister and her husband… with my faith intact in the God I know who loves me beyond my circumstances.
Do we really think God will say, “Well done my good and faithful servant. You lived in that big house. You ate choice meats and drank choice wines. You slept in that Mahogany bed and wore the best clothes. You drove that Mercedes and were able to take your kids on the best vacations. You never had to worry whether you could pay all of your bills in any given month. You have done well for yourself while your neighbor did not make it to your status.” I don’t think so. Remember the rich man and the beggar Lazarus, who sat at his gate and the dogs licked his sores? The rich man was told that he received his comfort while on earth, and in death, Lazarus received his (See Luke 16:19-31).
Notice in the story of Job how his friends assumed Job was sinning and that is why God took away his wealth, health and prosperity. In those days prosperity in Israel was a sign of God’s blessings, but not so in the New Covenant. The New Covenant says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God” (See Matt 5:3). The “richness” we receive is not the wealth of this world, but of the one to come.
Money is good when used properly. Anyone who wants to live in this world must have money in order to do so, but it really angers me when I see all of the so called “Faith Preachers” informing everyone all they have to do is “give” (to their ministry of course) and God will bless them up to 100 Fold.
Don’t get me wrong. I believe in Dave Ramsey’s practices. I believe in getting yourself debt free. I believe in giving to the work of God (not to a building or one individual, but to a purpose of advancing the Kingdom of God and helping the less fortunate). What I don’t believe in is selling a “False Hope” to the poor; taking their money while one person gets stinking rich. Promising them God “WILL” bless them for their faithfulness, yet, the majority of those who faithfully give are still living in poverty so extreme it is not funny.
… Stepping down from her soap box.
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