Sandpaper & Polish: Relationships in God's Sovereign Hands

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Sandpaper & Polish: Relationships in God's Sovereign Hands

IJohn and I have been married for 55 years. We long ago gave up our unrealistic expectations of the “perfect marriage.” But we had tried and failed and put out the efforts again and again. After all, we made our vows to God and each other.

We had bought the lie that was rampant in our early marriage — I need to kiss my personality good-bye and be the overly submissive wife to my husband who was to be the “big cheese” who always knew “the answer.” And he had to be the one to take the lead, which rarely happened.

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Remembering Stone #5: Resting in the Sovereignty of God

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Remembering Stone #5: Resting in the Sovereignty of God

Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! … Beginnings and endings, starts and finishes, twists and turns and even turn-arounds. That’s life, isn’t it? And that was true for me in those two years at the University of Arizona. Lots of twists and turns:

  • East Coast to the desert Southwest

  • Roman Catholic to Evangelical Protestant ( the entire time a true believer; a Christian no matter the church)

  • Student nun (“novice”) to a single college student, and eventually engaged to be married

Each of these changes have produced multiple stories. But since these “stones” (as my brother Conrad calls them) are describing my spiritual journey, I will stay focused. Back to Tucson and the University of Arizona …

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Sharing the Gospel: "Your heart has knees..."

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Sharing the Gospel: "Your heart has knees..."

I would like to tell you about Lou, a friend and brother in the Lord.  Lou was a "flower child" of the '60's.  He, of course, would never have missed Woodstock -- along with all his long-haired hippie freak friends.  And Lou loved to share.  What he always shared was the latest "turn on" he had discovered and enjoyed, no matter what it might be. But there was Something missing in Lou's life.  He didn't realize that it was a God-shaped Someone, and He had a Name.  His Name is our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

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Remembering Stone #4: Hearing the Gospel of Grace

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Remembering Stone #4: Hearing the Gospel of Grace

It is so amazing how the twists and turns of life are used by the Spirit of God to direct us according to His path. This is exactly what happened as I left the convent and went back home to Edison, New Jersey at the age of 21. And this is where I pick up my story …

What a culture shock when I got out into society. Everything had shifted in those two years I had been in the convent from 1966 to 1968—music, morals, dress, everything! How to wrap my mind around it all?

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Remembering Stone # 3: Learning the Holy Scriptures

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Remembering Stone # 3: Learning the Holy Scriptures

I had grown up with the belief that the best thing to do for God was to become a nun and dedicate my life to serving Him. In fact, my mom raised all of us kids believing we should all become nuns or priests. It wasn’t until later in life that I realized that some of her zeal in “encouraging” us in that direction was very likely a result of her difficult marriage to my dad* who “abused” alcohol more and more as the years went by.

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Celebrating Cancer Survivors and a Son, 28 Years Cancer-Free

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Celebrating Cancer Survivors and a Son, 28 Years Cancer-Free

Today I’m celebrating Cancer Survivors, those brave but suffering souls who have battled and prayed and cried and begged and pushed through . . . or maybe who have suffered in silence and pushed through inspite of it all. All were scared and maybe still are.

I’m celebrating the loved ones who suffered alongside and didn’t run away from the “not knowing” . . . who cried and prayed and begged and never gave up.

I’m celebrating our gracious God, whether acknowledged or not, Who in His mercy gave more days to live on this earth.

I’m celebrating life, love, and my son, now all grown up and cancer free for 28 years. Thank you, O gracious God!

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Moving in the Spirit

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Moving in the Spirit

Knowing the Holy Spirit and moving with His movements continues to draw me. I love the scriptural pictures for the Spirit and His actions in our human life…wind, fire, tongues, water, dove. These images were very prominent in my liturgical church upbringing. 

However, a picture that has come to help me understand His ways of leading in my life and how to move with His movements is the metaphor of the dance.

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Stages of Growth in Knowing our God-- reflections in 1 John

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Stages of Growth in Knowing our God-- reflections in 1 John

Years ago, when a friend had lost her last remaining parent, she said to me, “Now I feel like an orphan!” I’ve thought about her statement over the years and come to realize that we believers usually live like spiritual orphans.  We live as if we don’t have a Father Who tenderly loves and cares for us.  We live as orphans in a scary world.  But His heart is that we would live as His children in this world.

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Remembering Stone #1: Knowing God

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Remembering Stone #1: Knowing God

My story begins on the East Coast in the city of Newark, New Jersey. Janet Gale Renner (me) was born to Conrad Charles Renner and Jeanette Agnes Galuszka at St. Michael’s Hospital on June 16th, 1947. 

Born just after the end of WWII, this firstborn girl of eventually seven spent the first five and a half years in Newark. There I attended a half -year of kindergarten before our family moved to Tucson, Arizona because of my dad’s health.

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Key Word: REMEMBER

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Key Word: REMEMBER

God exhorts His people time and time again to remember, to not forget, who He is and what He has done. Why, I wonder?

“In the Bible, "remember" (zakar in Hebrew) means more than mental recall; it implies active engagement with the past, bringing it into the present to guide action, strengthen faith, and affirm God's covenant (AI Overview)

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Stones of Remembrance: Reflections on a Life Being Lived

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Stones of Remembrance: Reflections on a Life Being Lived

Dear Reader

Many of you have followed me here at “A Branch in the Vine,” since I began writing in February 2011. Thank you so much for your love, encouragement. and grace. During these years, I’ve shared my journey with the Lord in various posts and also in my two books.

Well, this past year I’ve had the opportunity to put my story into a “class,” not just blogposts. Right now a group of mature sisters in the Lord are exploring my “Stones of Remembrance” on ZOOM.

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Epiphany! Shining Light or Drama Queen?

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Epiphany! Shining Light or Drama Queen?

… we are like the star that led the Magi to Christ … or we can be. We can, in our very person, be the light that points another to the King. You and I have the King of Kings living within us. But as always it is our choice whether we allow the King to live through us and manifest His presence to seeking hearts who are walking in darkness all around us.

Author Tim Chester, in his lovely Advent devotional on Philippians 2 The One True Gift, caught my attention when he pointed out from Scripture one way that God says we can shine like stars …

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Receiving God's "WORD" for my Year

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Receiving God's "WORD" for my Year

Here we are again, friends. Another year has past, and for many it’s a time for the infamous “New Year’s Resolutions.” But several years ago I turned away from that initially hopeful, but later, dreaded “setting yourself up for failure,” tradition to a new thing altogether.

Resolutions are no temptation to me anymore. I’ve given up trying to change myself by my own self-effort. The indwelling Christ is my “Game-changer” and my “Life-changer.” And a few years ago, He brought a lovely “new thing” to my attention … the idea of a word for my year.

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Emmanuel: "Us with GOD" Also

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Emmanuel: "Us with GOD" Also

A few Advents ago, I met a new-to-me British author, Tim Chester, through his Advent devotional The One True Light. I’ve loved this little volume that has led me year by year through the first eighteen verses of the Gospel of John.

Well, this year I discovered his other two Advent books: The One True Gift (On Philippians, chapter 2) and The One True Story (on the story of Christ through the Old Testament to Jesus’ Coming). So this year, each Advent day finds me meditating through all three, each one in turn.

The books are not coordinated, but one day in reading all three, a thread grabbed and entwined me in an amazing truth: Jesus is not only Emmanuel, God with Us; He is also Emmanuel, Us with God!

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