3rd Week of Advent: EMMANUEL, Our God is WITH Us

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3rd Week of Advent: EMMANUEL, Our God is WITH Us

If ever we needed to know God is WITH us in every possible way, it's NOW, after another year of the unanswerable "why's" of life.  We struggle to make sense of all the violence, suffering, and injustice we see all around us.  Though we can't know the answers, we can turn afresh to the One Who has us in the palm of His Hand. The God Who became One of us...flesh and bone and joint and sinew...who experienced every emotion possible, raw and gripping, tender and affectionate!  He felt it all!  And He feels our current struggle with us too!

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Reflections on Emmanuel, God WITH Us

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Reflections on Emmanuel, God WITH Us

Emmanuel…a Christmas Reading
by Kathy Compton

Christmas means different things to different people. For some, it is a difficult holiday because of memories that are cherished…but they are just memories now.

There is an emptiness about Christmas. 

For some, it is the delight of family and friends, of decorations and cards, of cookies and carols. There is a fullness about Christmas.

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2nd Week of Advent: the Really Good News -- GOD with US!

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2nd Week of Advent: the Really Good News -- GOD with US!

"The Good News isn't just that Jesus died for our sins.  The Good News is EMMANUEL...GOD WITH US!"  So declared Deb at the end of our Bible Study.

As John and I drove home that evening, we reflected on her statement.  We recalled a conversation we had had years before when we were discussing what the heart of the gospel ("Good News") is.   The Good News isn't just that our sins are forgiven so we can go to heaven someday (and now we just do the best we can in the meantime).

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Of the Father's Love Begotten ... Emmanuel

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Of the Father's Love Begotten ... Emmanuel

For the past several years, I have been following an Advent devotional by a British author Tim Chester. One of the unique things that the author does is quote some “unknown to me” hymns and carols. However, the other day I recognized the final lines of each stanza in the quoted hymn of the day. Sure enough! I had been listening to that very carol each year on an old Christmas CD in our collection.

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1st Week of Advent: O Come, O Come, Immanuel

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1st Week of Advent: O Come, O Come, Immanuel

When I was a child, I always loved Advent.  There was a melancholia, a longing...but mixed at the same time with anticipation and hope. How did I get all that as a child?  I'm sure I didn't, except to say that maybe all the sights and sounds and smells...all the scriptures and songs and prayers and stories of the "liturgical celebration" weren't entirely lost on me, nor on many of you.  The reality of our God-Man Jesus has grown in me over the years as I've walked and talked with my Savior.

But whether you have had that sort of background as a child or not, why not journey with us these next weeks.  Take it all in as if for the first time...all the sights, sounds, and smells...all the scriptures and songs and prayers and stories.

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50 Years Ago: a Wedding and a Marriage Revisited!

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50 Years Ago: a Wedding and a Marriage Revisited!

November 27, 1971

Dear John Loyd, Thank you for 50 years together of “married bliss.”

Fifty years of struggling to learn how to do life together… to care for one another … to throw off the lies we believed about what marriage was all about … like those lies of the extreme views of the total headship of the male and the extreme submission of the female — those lies just about killed the love we started out with, didn’t they?

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Thanks-Giving Again

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Thanks-Giving Again

Thanksgiving will not be the same for many of us this year. There have been losses of loved ones and changes in circumstances. And even the thought of it may cause pain. For others of us, things may have opened up compared to last year, and we are grateful for that change.

But a friend reminded me of this song of thanksgiving last year. It applies this year and every year. And so I decided to rest here, acknowledging HIM. I’m letting my heart and mind well up with gratitude for all HIS benefits … no matter what is going on around me.


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Walking Wobbly in this World . . . Again

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Walking Wobbly in this World . . . Again

I had a major vertigo episode late last night, as I was finishing a tutoring session online. I pushed through the last few minutes. But for the rest of the evening and through this morning, I have been nauseated and wobbly and less than stable.

By God’s grace, I fell asleep last night and have been resting ever since. So now I’m revisiting where the Lord took me a little more than exactly two years ago. Why not join me as we hear what HE says about walking wobbly in this “out of kilter world.”

. . . I’m walking wobbly these days. Intermittent vertigo and bouts of mild dizziness have been mine as I go about my daily life — difficult because I never know when it will hit (two times while driving were terrifying).

So changes have been made, especially since the testing determined that a couple of small strokes (past) in the balance area of my brain are likely the cause of my symptoms. Scary but good to know and now to process.

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Learning from the "Littles"

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Learning from the "Littles"

Jesus books . . . one of my most precious treasures (along with my mother’s hope chest). These little books date way back to our son Jeremy’s (1977 +) and our daughter Beth’s (1983+) babyhoods. Little by little, I would add to the collection each time I stopped at the Christian bookstore, first in northern Virginia and then in Dallas.

As you can see from the picture below, they were handled and read with “enthusiasm.”

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Rambling Thoughts about "Receiving" and "Being Received"

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Rambling Thoughts about "Receiving" and "Being Received"

Today I awoke with thoughts about “receiving” one another and “being received.” I remember my mentor/friend/home school coordinator/ Bible teacher Donna saying many times that “such and such a person didn’t receive you, did they?” Or “you didn’t receive that person, did you?”

I remember this always caused me to wonder… what does it mean to “receive” a person? It always seemed like a different/deeper thing than accepting a person or what they had to say, etc.

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Not Just Halloween : Reformation Day for Today!

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Not Just Halloween : Reformation Day for Today!

October 31, 1517… the day that changed the world of Christendom forever. German monk Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg. His action launched what came to be known as the Protestant Reformation (Or Protestant Revolt, depending on which side you are on).

Luther never intended to leave the Catholic church, but rather to reform it. But in God’s will, reform and a Biblical revolution began and continues to this day.

Luther didn’t get everything right, but he did get it right that “the just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:16-17) and so much more.

And Luther got something else right that helps us today. He got it right about how to live in the midst of a pandemic (the Black Plague) with God’s balanced, grace-filled perspective.

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"Where is the Holy Spirit in all of this?"

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"Where is the Holy Spirit in all of this?"

A mature young Christian woman goes to her regular adult Bible study class. The teachers of the class  are experts in Biblical counseling. Week by week they share from the Scriptures answers to common problems faced by individuals and families in today's culture. One Sunday after learning the "formula" for solving a particular problem biblically, our mature young woman asks, "But where is the Holy Spirit in all of this?" 

A member of a sound evangelical church is a student in a class on Christian church history.  He reads some articles ... 

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There's a Ghost Inside of Me

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There's a Ghost Inside of Me

Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
1 John 4:4 NASB

We just returned from visiting again this year with our grandson Eli and his family to celebrate his “Halloween time” birthday. Predictably, we got to see the neighborhood again filled with ghosts and goblins, scarecrows and pumpkins, punctuating yards all around. .

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Just say, YES!

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Just say, YES!

“Should we knock on the door or just leave them here?” I wasn’t sure which would be best.

John and I were just passing through on our way home from a Bible conference at the Cove in Asheville. And now we found ourselves on the front porch of a perfect stranger in a neighborhood of a city not our own.

Having checked into our hotel, we had walked out the door to build up a few thousand steps on our exercise app. After all we had been sitting in the car for hours. And in the course of our walk we found ourselves walking past some houses in an older neighborhood reminiscent of earlier times in our lives.

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Balancing Acceptance and Hope: How to Make It through a COVID Diagnosis at the Holidays

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Balancing Acceptance and Hope: How to Make It through a COVID Diagnosis at the Holidays

Early in the current pandemic, the Lord spoke to my heart about how to make it through in peace and rest in Him. I took a peek back at a post He gave me early on. I realize this is something we need everyday in every circumstance of life.

Come and revisit this post with me. You won’t regret the few moments to reflect and receive from the Holy Spirit for your TODAY.

. . . The implication was that this same balance can help us survive this present pandemic crisiS. The two things kept in balance are “accepting our present reality” and “holding on to hope” at the same time….

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The Key to the Christian Life

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The Key to the Christian Life

Christianity is a PERSON, not a procedure; the LORD, not a list! Not church attendance, not Christ-like qualities, not good works, not the Christian "to-do list" (which may vary depending on the group and "camp" you are in)...

Not evangelism, not mission trips, not a quality "quiet time," not Scripture memorization or Bible study...

Not spiritual disciplines, not prayer, not fasting, not obedience, not miracle-working faith...

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Attachment: The Secret of Detachment

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Attachment: The Secret of Detachment

Detachment, Relinquishment ... Letting go! No matter how you say it, it is hard but beautiful. And it is needed...needed, that is, in order to grow in the spiritual life. In fact, Jesuit Richard Rohr, says, "All great spirituality is about letting go." (Everything Belongs) Our Lord Jesus was the One truly spiritual Person on this earth. And He was detached in a healthy way. He was detached because He was attached to Another ... to His Heavenly Father. All through the gospels, especially the gospel of John, we see and hear this truth clearly. 

 

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The Secret Place of Communion (with PODCAST)

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The Secret Place of Communion (with PODCAST)

Where do you go to commune with your God? 

Do you go to a chapel or a church?  to a favorite place near a stream, at a mountain retreat, or on a beach? Do you go to a "prayer closet," a special place in your own home?

But maybe you are frustrated because there never seems to be a "place" where you can go. Maybe you're a mom with young children or a special needs child. Perhaps you are a working mom or a worker who needs to moonlight at a second job to make ends meet. Maybe you or a loved one has a handicap or serious illness that takes you to services and medical places that seem to consume your life. Where is the place for you?

I have good news for all of us ... 

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