Something About The Joy

"He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world."   Ephesians 1:14 When Dennis had his stroke, in the first ten minutes before the ambulance came, I had the strangest experience.  It seemed as if time were suspended, as if Dennis and I were alone together in the universe, with no awareness of any other place outside that spot on the bedroom floor where he had fallen, no awareness that anything existed outside our own present experience.   I had no thoughts of the past or the future.  I was not yet grieving or even afraid.  I was suspended in shock, and obviously anxious, but not for what might be coming, only for what was happening right then.  My mind and heart were rooted in that present moment, in that present place.   I believe in those few moments Dennis and I were existing, together, not in time, but in eternity.  We were existing in the state in which we had been chosen by God, before "time" and "space" were created-...

So, I'm going to break this writer's block stage I've been going through for over a year now--this dark winter's night of the soul.  I'll do it by posting, with determined consternation, my devotional thoughts--here, where God and everybody can see them.  At least I'll try this.  We'll see if it breaks the dam. Today I've been reading Romans 8 in The Message .  This passage speaks to a problem I often have with boredom and listlessness, both precursors to despondency and depression, helplessness and stagnation.  (ie: writer's block)  The solution to this problem is both obvious and easy.  Why do I keep forgetting? Romans 8 says, Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life.  Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them--living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention...

Peace is the sense that everything is as it should be. It's the deep conviction that a wise plan is unfolding,             step by step, moment by moment,                         in time and in tune with the heartbeat                                        of the Creator. It's found in the eye of the storm,             where stillness enfolds us in loving arms                         even as we watch the world  spin wildly                                         out of cont...

Well, yes.   That's a hard title to defend.  I have no evidence that the Bible is the most misunderstood book on the planet.  Many other books, particularly religious ones like the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita, are probably misunderstood as well.  Religious books are prone to be misunderstood for two reasons.   First, they are complex.   Like jigsaw puzzles, you can put together pieces of them in small sections, but the sections don't make sense until the whole puzzle is completed.   But the second reason religious books are misunderstood is, I believe, more common.   These books are usually misunderstood because most people don't bother to read them.   And that's surprising to me, especially when you consider that at least one of those books is so amazing. The Bible is amazing!  It's been the world's best selling book every year since the invention of the printing press, and for good reason.   This book ha...

"So we fix our [spiritual] eyes not on what is seen [with our physical eyes], but on what is unseen [invisible to the human eye], since what is seen [with the naked eye] is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."    2 Corinthians 4:18 "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."    Hebrews 11:1 Nothing puts us so intimately in touch with unseen realities as the death of a loved one.   Dennis' death nearly six months ago has gently skewed my perspective toward heaven.   That's one of the many good things God has brought out of this great grief He has allowed into my life. When our physical lives go on uninterrupted, day after day, it's easy to lose sight of what is ultimately real.   We become so focused on the present moment in our own small corner of the universe that we forget how small a sphere that blip on the radar screen really is.   It seems like the whole universe to us, but it's not. ...

This evening I found an old article written by Dave and Linda Olson called, "Hearing God."    The byline said, "We may imagine that He only speaks about deep, intense matters, or commands.   However, God's preferred way is conversation." What a sweet thought.   My heart was lonely.   I reached out and said, "I'd love to have a conversation with you, God." He said, "We did have a conversation today.   It was when you were reading your Bible this morning." This morning I'd been reading the story of Nehemiah, thinking how much he is a model for how we believers should be living and working faithfully in the secular society of our Western world.   Thinking about how badly our spiritual walls need to be rebuilt, and how difficult it is.   Then I thought, "But the walls were rebuilt, against impossible odds and overwhelming opposition." That was a great thought, and I thought it was my thought.  I...

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. . . ."   Matthew 16:24-25 One of the great, mysterious dichotomies of the Christian faith is that we can only find our life by losing it.   Jesus told his disciples this when he was on earth, and at first it must have sounded like nonsense.   How can we find anything by losing it? Though on the surface this truth does not seem to make sense, we actually experience the reality of it in our lives.   Experience teaches us that holding on to things too tightly will cause them to slip through our clenched fingers.   If we love something, we have to let it go. But it's so hard to let go of our life.  Life is the thing we love the most, sensing at the core of our being that it's essential--the essence--the ultimate...

When news of the sudden death of my husband came out on Facebook and people learned more about his life and his faith, some friends expressed an interest in knowing which books Dennis had read that had finally convinced him of the truth of Christianity.  I said I'd write up a short bibliography for those who are interested, so here it is.  Dennis was a staunch agnostic until 1980, when a series of incidents led him to begin an intellectual investigation of the claims of Christianity.   The most crucial claims of Christianity--the Incarnation and the Resurrection for example--can seem outrageous to scientists who are used to looking at all reality through a materialistic microscope.   The assumptions behind their materialistic worldview often keep them from rationally studying the evidence--historical and scientific--that supports the supra-rational claims of the Bible.    Dennis was a detail person.   He could, and often did, rattle off the...