God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. …
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 …
Read MoreOh, how I love your instructions! I think about them all day long. Psalm 119:97 NIV
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 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.
Read More… So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” Luke 11: 13 NLT
After our three and a half years in Tucson, another geographic move directed my story at the beginning of my fourth grade school year. Being so far from family had been difficult especially for my mom, so my parents packed up our family and moved back to New Jersey.
I remember the week-long trip on Route 66 in our green Plymouth sedan, now with 5 kids in tow – 3 girls and 2 boys. It had been a “fruitful time” in Arizona for our growing family. After a few months of staying with my paternal grandmother in inner city Newark, my parents bought a three bedroom house a few blocks from St. Matthew’s church and school out in the “suburbs.” (A few years later, we made a move to a new home right next to the church and school.)
Read Moreeulogy noun, plural eulogies.
1. a speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially a set oration in honor of a deceased person.
2. high praise or commendation.
Caring for our treasured loved ones is at the heart of “family” in the purest sense of the word.
However, we often forget that true caring can be much deeper and more needed than merely physical care, as critical as that is. There’s a caring that touches heart and soul…one that meeting physical needs approaches, but a caring that perhaps only loving words can reach.
We busily go through our lives, often thinking many kind thoughts and feeling loving, appreciative sentiments for our loved ones, but not stopping to put words and voice to them…nourishing the soul of ones we love.
Rather what do we traditionally do? We wait until the person has passed away to express those words, words that deep down she may have been longing to hear. We give those golden words to others in the form of a eulogy, either formally or informally delivered, at a funeral or memorial service.
Read More… may he equip you with all you need for doing his will….
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.
Read MoreLive while you are alive. (Patch Adams)
Each of us has a life … the life we were given. We didn’t choose our life. But I guess the issue is, “Are we living while we are alive?” Or, are we waiting till “things settle down,” or, “we lose ____# pounds,” or, “the kids grow up,” or ????, or ????, or ????.
“Things settling down” was always my trap in my early years of adulthood. But things don’t ever settle down, do they? Not for long anyway. They just change. And then the cycle begins again, and so then we never really embrace the life that is ours. So this is what I eventually realized: I need to …
…live the life I have, not the one I wish I had.
Read MoreIt is Finished!
There were soldiers that guarded Christ's tomb. And for them this was not just "another day at the office," because this time the death of the "Criminal" presented new problems: would the followers come to steal His body? Would He actually do what He said and come back to life? (I'm not so sure the officials really worried about this last possibility, do you?)
So the stone ... and so the guards! Until...
Read MoreA 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.
Read MoreProm time is just around the corner. Do you remember those days in your own life? The beauty! The excitement! The “romance” of it all! Rarely does it measure up to all our anticipation, and yet there is something about the dance that draws us in, doesn’t it.
As you may recall from my last blog post, the image of the dance is my favorite metaphor for the life of faith. When I said YES to the LOVER of my Soul, I became one with Him. I accepted His invitation to the dance of all dances … one that will never end and one that is all about Love.
Read MoreA few years ago, my husband and I were at some friends’ house. This couple liked to gather miscellaneous people who knew them but not each other. True to form, they asked a great icebreaker question. The particular question that evening was,
If you could do anything other than what you currently do, what would that be? Your secret ambition?
Read More
Last year, I posted this for April Fool’s Day. Even though Easter is several weeks away this year, this post is no less true. HE IS ALIVE & I am free!
He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen.
Matthew 28:6 NLT
Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live.
John 14:19 NLT
This past weekend I had the joyful opportunity to join with a lovely group of ladies from my church with the express purpose of experiencing our God on a deeper level. The group was comprised of women of all ages who were at different stages in their walk with God. Yet despite the differences, an amazing oneness prevailed. How like the Holy Spirit to join us in Christ and allow us to sense Him in and through each other!
On Friday evening, I had the privilege of sharing the opening meditation. If you were at that retreat, you may like to revisit our focus by reviewing the meditation. If you weren’t able to join us for whatever reason, please join us here now as we explore the rest we are called to in Christ, who is our Focus, our Ground Zero, our Foundation, our All!
Actually HE IS the Christian Life! Amen!
Read MoreThe indwelling Holy Spirit calls to my soul in the early morn — to turn my thoughts toward Him and away from the anxieties, fears, stresses, and “to do lists” of my weak, broken and “know it all” flesh.
Read MoreWith every morn my life afresh must break
The crust of self, gathered about me fresh;
That thy wind-spirit may rush in and shake
The darkness out of me, and rend the mesh
The spider-devils spin out of the flesh …
I used to think that the struggle to forgive was itself sinful...as well as the horrible feelings I had in the whole thing. But I've come to realize that the struggle and the feelings are all part of the human condition on this earth. Perhaps they are rather temptations to the sin of unforgiveness.
Here are the five points that Lewis Smedes writes in his bookShame and Grace. I pray these points will be helpful to you as well.
Read MoreFrom dust you have come, and to dust you shall return.
Ash Wednesday has taken on a new meaning for me in recent years, since my 91 year old mom passed away early in November 2015. There was something that arrested me right in my tracks the day of my mom's funeral. I was undone by deep sobs of realization. And the depth of it had been helped along by the incense and the reverence afforded the treatment of my dear mama's frail little body being put to rest (or so they say).
But it wasn't the finality of it all. It had already been final when she had breathed her last, days before.
No! It was the Sacredness that came crashing through!
Read MoreHi friends, no crocuses are pushing through the hardened soil here in Ohio. Usually by now, those hardy “souls” have at least given us a bit of hope of the spring ahead.
So I thought of this post and how it could “color up” our souls while we await what surely is to come. So pause with me as we revisit a post from May 2016.
Read MoreGod lives a colorful life . . . or maybe better said, God lives His life in color!
All we need do is look around. Color is everywhere . . . in nature, in people, even in feelings, ideas, and circumstances.
Much of my life I lived under the "frown of God," or so I thought. I wasn't a bad kid; in fact, I was quite religious and moral. But I wasn't perfect for sure. (For one thing, I was a terrible big sister, mean and self-centered toward my siblings.) But I knew God required perfection, so I was always working my way down a spiritual "to do list" of some kind (depending on the Christian group I was with. They each had their own, you know).
Read MoreToday I would like to share with you what has become my "spiritual survival image."
Why?
Because life can be overwhelming, frustrating (people and circumstances don't always cooperate with our "plans"...amazing!), and stressful to the point of sending us "over the edge."
So here is where the Lord always seems to take me, even in the dark, even in the not-knowing...perhaps especially in the not-knowing.
Read MoreYou are the salt of the earth.
But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again?…
Salt! What a prolific commodity!
In the past salt was valuable and rare. But now it is cheap, always there, on the table, in the cupboard ... available. And so taken for granted -- by me, at least ... UNTIL a few days ago.
Let all that you do be done in love. Sounds so easy, doesn’t it? But we know it’s often very hard.
In fact, Paul's words in verse 9 nail it on the head, don't they:
...there are many adversaries...
That's right! Enemies, opposition, struggles! All against loving...why?
Read MoreJanet Renner Loyd has been a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ most of her life. Her formal education includes a degree in education from the University of Arizona and also a degree in Bible & Theology from Moody Bible Institute. For more than thirty years, she has been involved in teaching and leading women’s Bible studies, retreats, and meetings…most notably Precept upon Precept and various studies that she has personally developed. Professionally, Jan recently retired from teaching language and writing to GED and adult ESOL students.
About her life, Jan says, “The most important thing about me is my relationship with my Father God through my Lord Jesus Christ. I am forever grateful to Him for His love, mercy, and grace to me and my family and friends...and the world.”
Jan has been happily married to John Loyd for more than forty years. They have two adult, married children and five lively young grandsons.
