Respecting the Holy Spirit in Older Believers

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Respecting the Holy Spirit in Older Believers

Recently, I was thinking about my mother and my mother-in-law and other older loved ones in my past…wishing I had been more understanding and sympathetic with their struggle with aging and weakness and decline. Now I find it’s my turn. And now I know what it feels like to age and say “good-bye” to capacities and people and opportunities and youthful strength.

So today I’m revisiting this post…for my own encouragement and for yours too, dear reader. We are all aging. May the Lord meet you in whatever stage of the process you are in.

And let’s support one another.

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The Emptying of Motherhood: Alone?

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The Emptying of Motherhood: Alone?

It has been a lot of years since my nest emptied. But every year I can’t help but think of how it all began — so hard, but so intended. We knew the day would come, but how did it happen so soon? And did it have to hurt so much?

So every year I revisit my thoughts, my experiences, and how the Lord comforts and speaks in the entire process. Why not join me (again?) this year if you dare.

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Living in Union with Christ

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Living in Union with Christ

While all around us leaves us unsettled and empty, let’s reflect on the One who fills us … and has always been the stabilizer of our souls.

Here is a piece I wrote several years ago in answer to a dear friend’s question : How does this whole thing called the Christian life fit together.

I would love to hear your thoughts as you interact with the truths that follow … and may you be encouraged and challenged by what you read!

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Final Thoughts about My Honest Question -- "I Don't Fit Anywhere" ... in CHURCH

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Final Thoughts about My Honest Question -- "I Don't Fit Anywhere" ... in CHURCH

I’ve been thinking about the comments from my Honest Question post a few days ago.

I have one final thought — maybe it’s that some people are really reacting to “the CHURCH” more than “religion/legalism” or “God Himself.” And why might that be? What about the “CHURCH” turns people off?

I get it. We have been in many churches in various traditions. I’d like to share some of my own struggles with church. Maybe you can identify and so maybe we can all understand others’ issues.

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Another answer to my Honest Question: "The Smile that Destroyed my Religion!"

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Another answer to my Honest Question: "The Smile that Destroyed my Religion!"

I’m still pondering my honest question (See my previous post and “Honest Question”).

Maybe many people are living without a “sense of religion / legalism” but they are mistakenly equating that with a “sense of GOD.”

I get that. Religion/legalism can be deadly. BUT relationship is Life-giving.

So I’m remembering and sharing the most pivotal point in my own spiritual journey … The smile that destroyed my religion. Here is my turning point:

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An Answer to my Honest Question?

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An Answer to my Honest Question?

Back in 2012 when I was just beginning to write A Branch in the Vine, I did a series I called “Findings in the Files.” My sister and friend Tresca reminded me of this poem as part of the answer to my “Honest Question” (see my previous blogpost and the comments).

So here is a partial answer along with a beautiful response. May you be blessed as you read.

FINDINGS IN THE FILES, 2012

The following two findings are a true study in contrasts -- Invictus by William Ernest Henley and My Captain by Dorothea Day.

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Lenten Meditation: a Word of Reunion

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Lenten Meditation: a Word of Reunion

Now I lay me down to sleepI pray the Lord my soul to keep If I should die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take

So goes a traditional nighttime prayer taught by American moms to their children for generations.

It may seem odd to us today that there would be the mention of death in a child's prayer. But scientists say that sleep is the closest we come to death while still alive. The Greeks even had a proverb,

Sleep and death are brothers.

However, in the first century, Jewish moms taught their children a different bedtime prayer...quoting Psalm 31:

Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.

Sound familiar? It shou

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Holy Week: 7 Sayings of Christ with B.C. 2001

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Holy Week: 7 Sayings of Christ with B.C. 2001

A few years ago, I came across an inspiring cartoon in my "Easter" file (See enlarged image below).  I think my husband John, who had been the family reader of the Sunday funnies in years gone by, cut it out and gave it to me back in April 2001.  So there in my file, this little treasure has been tucked away for all these years.

For those of you who have been following the Lenten Meditations on a branch in the Vine, this piece serves as a fitting climax during Holy Week.

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His Qualifying Life and Death

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His Qualifying Life and Death

I just spent several hours in an exercise that I never would have dreamed would be so valuable. And so I would love to share the fruit of my “what I thought would be agonizing” afternoon and evening with you, my dear readers. My project? Transcribing just a ten minute sermon into pages of type. But in the process of it all, my mind received greater clarity and understanding and my heart just leaped with joy and thanksgiving for my beautiful Lord Jesus, who is my Savior and indwelling Life.

So please watch the video first. It is truly powerful. And then if you long to understand and relish the message on a deeper level, read the transcript that follows.

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Lenten Meditation: a Word of Completion

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Lenten Meditation: a Word of Completion

Tetelestai!* It is finished! The death of Christ on the Cross is the HINGE of human history...and nowbefore He breathes His last breath... a cry of victory,It is finished!

What's finished? It must be something BIG,...look at what happened when Jesus died:

At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead.

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Food for THOUGHT: the Battle is in the MIND

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Food for THOUGHT: the Battle is in the MIND

While we are on this earth, we struggle. We struggle with circumstances, with relationships, with health, with finances, with emotions, with disappointments and expectations and we could go on.

And if we stop to think about it, our struggle takes place in our thoughts, in our minds.

Today I would like to share with you, my beloved readers, the study that my small ZOOM group did in our last lesson.

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Lenten Meditation: a Word of Personal Need

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Lenten Meditation: a Word of Personal Need

Thirst is a primal need in all of us humans...more demanding even than hunger!  We can go quite awhile without eating, but a very short time without drinking. Jesus on the Cross had refrained up to this point from satisfying His thirst.  Instead He drank the Father's cup to the very last drop! He became sin for us...the Sinless One!  Jesus took our place, and the Father turned His back.  The punishment for sin had been accomplished...spiritual separation from God....for US!

Now in fulfillment of prophecy, Jesus expresses His own physical need:

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said ( to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. John 19:28-29 ESV

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Abba's Child -- A Spiritual Father

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Abba's Child -- A Spiritual Father

We are not cowed into timidity by death and life. Were we forced to rely on our own shabby resources we would be pitiful people indeed. But the awareness of Christ's present risenness persuades us that we are buoyed up and carried on by a life greater than our own.

The Christ within who is our hope of glory is not a matter of theological debate or philosophical speculation. He is not a hobby, a part-time project, a good theme for a book, or a last resort when all human effort fails. He is our life, the most real fact about us. He is the power and wisdom of God dwelling within us.

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