The Great Debates--Ushering In Questions

It's thick, like when I inhale oppressively hot & humid air in my lungs. I can barely breathe for all the tension. Can you feel it?

Every time it's like fireworks going off in my heart. A question is put to Him and I'm stumped. But then He speaks with such amazing answers; marveling is all I can do. Who knows what He'll say next!

He's good and you can't miss the fact He's good. And all those scribes huddled over there, they definitely aren't missing it either. Yet they keep asking! But His answers are better than their questions. Far better. I just can't get enough, you know?

It seems they're getting a little agitated too. They've been whispering more loudly and frequently. They seem angry and I'm not sure what it's all about. Well, there was that one story about the vinedressers killing the heir and rejecting the cornerstone. Of course we ALL know who HE was talking about. The Pharisees didn't like it. Other than that, He's been answering all the questions they keep asking. Perhaps when they get the right answer, they'll come around.

On second thought maybe not. Remember when HE said: 'Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.'? That didn't go over too well.

Whatever the case, I love listening to Him. It's like watching a ball bounce back and forth. Does your neck get tired from looking to Him, then the scribes? It's worth it though. Just when I think it can't get better, He speaks again.

I heard so much today; my brain hurts. Actually, I ran out of the house this morning without food. I heard the crowds passing by on their way to the temple. I didn't want to miss one word, so I left in a hurry. What do you suppose He meant when He said, we don't know when the master of the house is coming? He said to watch and pray. Especially to "Watch!". Or what did it mean when He said "The Son of Man must be lifted up?" The Christ is supposed to remain forever, so what does a Son of Man have to do with it?

This kingdom business is taking longer than I expected. At least we have plenty of time to hear more from Him. Even though it seems complicated, He always has the answer. Maybe we'll understand it better when He explains it tomorrow. I'm still full of hope, I just need to know more about it. Yea, that was my stomach you just heard growling. Let's eat and talk over dinner.....

(Meanwhile, Satan himself is lurking among us; yet we don't notice. Do we ever? He too is thinking about a kingdom.--Luke 21:3)


Let's pretend we don't know the end from the beginning. We are just walking there in the now, in the today, and following Him the week of the cross. Because isn't that how we live life? Even though we now have the New Testament & a comforting Holy Spirit, we sometimes still walk in what we know right now. This series is a desire to walk this week of the cross, like I only I have that day, not fully knowing the end. Because even today, my mind truly cannot grasp the fullness of the end, I can only imagine it. For the first part in this series, just click here, "Enter The City", for part three click here "Then It Happened" .
This perspective is from Mark 12:1-12, Mark 13:33-37, & John 12:33-40

For more walks this Wednesday, go to Ann's place at "Holy Experience".

Enter The City

Forget what you know. Just live in today and what you DO know are yesterdays. Very dry yesterdays, ones that lasted a long time. In fact, centuries went by in silence. Until now.

I've been hearing all about it. Who hasn't? You can feel it in the air. I have this bubbly, giddy feeling rising up and it feels so good. For such a long while our hope was quiet. But now it's here.

I could barely move, the crowd had grown to such a large size. And in the middle of it all, like a sea parting, He came. It reminded me of Moses when the sea split an opening for us to escape. Didn't you think so too? Watching the throngs part a path for Him. It was so exciting. The biggest grass roots movement I've ever seen. I think He's the one we've heard about.

The whole city is in uproar. We were pressed in on all sides as we waited at the road. Then I saw what I came for. Everybody was talking at one time. People were literally laying their clothes down. On the road, like a King. Can you believe it? They were excited; I was thrilled. The goose bumps came when I heard myself shouting, with the rest of them, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" (Mathew 21:9). We marched right into that city shouting it. Everyone was asking about us. I'm sure they could hear us all the way to the sea! Did you see the looks of the scribes? Scary.

Then He went into the temple and drove out those vendors, I think that's when I knew. I felt He was finally stepping it up in power. And with all the support He has, it's gonna be good. He's coming to bring change and part of it started right there.

Yep, things are going to be different now. I'm ready for it. He's finally here. I wonder where He'll set it up. You know, His kingdom, where should it be? Jerusalem? Bethlehem? Or maybe Nazareth? He is from Galilee, you know, so maybe it'd be there.

Oh! We have to go! The priests and scribes just said something to Him and now He's leaving. I'm so glad you came. Let's hurry. I think He's heading to Bethany......


Let's pretend we don't know the end from the beginning. We are just walking there in the now, in the today, and following Him the week of the cross. Because isn't that how we live life? Even though we now have the New Testament & a comforting Holy Spirit, we sometimes still walk in what we know right now. This series is a desire to walk this week of the cross, like I only I have that day, not knowing fully the end. Because even today, my mind truly cannot grasp the fullness of the end, I can only imagine it. For Part 2 in this series, just click on the "Great Debates--Ushering in Questions".

(This perspective is from Mathew 21:1-17)


For more gratitudes visit Ann Voskamp at "Holy Experience".

Oh my gratitude, what a way to begin this week:

82. He began. The earthen Vessel in an earthen stable.

83. He spoke. His beautiful words filling up the air with Life.

84. He remembers. Although I may forget, this mind that wanders over chores and errands, He never forgets. We’re never out of His thoughts.

86. He loves. From the bowels of love, He clothed it in skin.

87. He came. Dusty feet and traveled roads, He walked among us.

88. He went. Searching any who would hear Him, teaching any who would receive Him, sharing nourishment with any who would love Him.

89. He knew. Even when we do not, He does.

Lost In The Move--Wandering Desolate Places

The list is long. The change is much. The places are many.

I adjusted to it. Moving every year in school, meant I rarely took final (or semi-final) exams. It meant starting over. Then starting over again. Change was moving, and moving was always.

Friendships ended about the time they began. The next move promising to be better than the last. But they never were and yet my hope continued for it's promise.

Moving so frequently (every year or less) growing up, had become the great escape. Each next place the new adventure. Exploring it's surroundings and settling in for a brief stop.

All the years of dangling from house to house, city to city, hit me as a senior in high school. I was graduating with total strangers. Wasn't this year supposed to mean something? No shared memories, no enduring friendships, no "I remember when we were in 3rd grade", no familiar roads leading to that night of graduation. I felt the loss.

It's funny how life catches up to us, when we let it. I'm living near two of those stops. One is down the road, the city of my church, where I also first received Christ. A place off a main road.

The other stop is here, where I now live. This farm. It's the only constant location I've had in all my years growing up. I visited here often with my family. Then as an adult, it was like a solace of quietly rocking with my Granny and catching up on all the small things in life.

Coming back to the Lord as an adult, I realized even more how much I've missed in others. Perhaps I didn't feel I had much to offer or perhaps I didn't see the point in investing in something so brief.

With Easter approaching, so many things come to mind. Grace, sacrifice, shed, alive, fear, love, darkness, elation, and home.

I've been grounded. Firmly planted and rooted in good soil. My wanderings were numbered. From the places where I was scattered, He brought me back into His fold. In His loving care, He delivered me home.

We are grafted to Him and in Him is also His family. No longer idling wandering, the cross makes a home. He gives us our dwelling place. Where love desires to keep His word and the Shepherd's love keeps watch, the flock. Home. It's more than where the heart is, it's where He is.



"Jesus answered and said to him, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.'" John 14:23

"'Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered... 'I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick'" Ezekiel 34:11-12&16

"They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way; they found no city to dwell in. And He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city for a dwelling place. Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness.." Psalm 107:4 & 7-8

"You number my wanderings..." Psalm 56:8

Ps. Christ has blessed me with some dear sweet souls of friends. Ones I never had the time to invest when I was younger. Where there was once desolation, His Presence now dwells. He redeems. Present tense. Because His love continues and I'm without words to fully express the depth of it.

The Day My Steeple Died

It's not a building, nor a door, nor glass stained just so, it's not a pew, or a chair, nor a steeple high in the air. Church isn't those things. As a child, I thought they were.

As an adult with my own family, I realized how important these things were to me. Several years ago we arrived to a new area (a theme in my life), my Husband wanted to try 'this church'. Researching their believes, doctrine and origin, I found one near where we lived. I wasn't excited and frankly was out of my comfort zone. My biggest comfortless item: no steeple.

They met in random commercial buildings. Not very church-y in my wee little mind and too 'radical' for my taste.

So we settled. For another church, with a steeple.

But a year and half later, at no fault of those sweet steeple folks, we despondently tried 'this church'. By that time, 'this church' had one commercial building used exclusively for them. So no paying your water bill on Friday, then meet ya back here for church on Sunday, kinda-of-thing. We caved and we went.

My steeple died that day. I buried it with all those other things I thought I knew about church, God. In the middle of this former hardware store, He met me. We stayed there until a move took us to another state. Little did I know there is more to Him than what I put in four walls, and yea, a steeple.

Having visited Notre Dame, a well known church in France, I was surprised by the palatable emptiness I felt there. Bereft of Life. Not of people for many other tourists were there too, but vacant in Spirit. Barren of His Presence. My husband and I sat there on a pew, grieving. For the lost, for the building, for His absence. We understood when Jesus "drew near, He saw the city and wept over it.." (Luke 19:41).

I've learned the most beautifully adorned buildings are ones filled with beautiful relationships. Where there is brotherly (& sisterly) love, there's also a spiritual beacon pointing up to Christ. Walls can't enclose the fullness of God, nor a sanctuary contain His depth, nor doors open His knowledge, nor a roof measure the height of His love.

Church is us and us together. Because I can't do church by myself, I need you too. All of us need Christ. True church walls are the ones built with bones. Concrete walls just keep us comfortable, hopefully they don't also keep us spiritually comfortable.

I buried my steeple long ago. But it's death brought to life the true church. Where windows are in the eyes, doors are on the heart, sanctuaries are in the soul, and church addresses travel where we go.


"...Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you.." 1 Corinthian 6:19

"...For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: 'I will dwell in them, And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.'" 2 Corinthians 6:16

"...That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:17-19

"5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Peter 1:5-8


This Tuesday, I'm Unwrapping steeples. For more unwrappings, visit "Chatting At The Sky".


Ps. I have a friend who's heart beats for a church without walls. I too feel that rhythm. One that reaches beyond buildings and a people of walls.

Writing--It's About The Guts

For years, I stopped. It first started with picture drawing, later developing into drawing pictures with words. Not one who actually kept a journal, although I tried a diary once, I'd put on paper what I couldn't put on in person. Then I kept them hidden, sharing with my Sister or a close friend. Until I came back to the Lord as an adult, I stopped. Cold.

For years, my insides were changed but barely a drop made it to paper. My hands occasionally thawed for small tokens of the inward turning tides. The flood came this past December, 2009, the words. No longer stuffed away in a hidden corner, but opened here.

Written words are the very essence of our inside, out. Taking those things meditated in the safety of thought, staking them down and anchoring them in black and white. Words, those otherwise obscure letters, brought together for meaning and purpose.

In my contemplation of words, I'm learning more about their revealing. Sewn together in the fabric of who we are. They are our insides on the outside.  From our heart and experience, we place those inside things out here for others to read and see our insideout.

Today, I remembered. I was reminded of a word. Love not only is, It was, It came, It died, It lives, It writes. HE too is staked in black and white, anchoring us to Him. If our own written experessions reveal our innard workings, our very guts, then His words do even more. In them, His inside is displayed.

But there is something better than Him writing and His words--it's Him becoming the Word. Those powerful letters, sewn together brought Life from death, Jesus. Written in Him, the workings of Love. Outwardly clothed in skin, He carried the very inner essence of who He is.  If writing is about the insideout, His word birthed in flesh exposed the very guts and essence Him in Christ. No ink or parchment paper can compare to the tablet of flesh where all of Him was on Him the written Word.


"1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men......14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:1-4 and 14)

Ps. I shared this at "Heart to Heart with Holley".

Compass Living--Trusting When Disoriented

It'd be strange driving a car on a road but my body sensing to literally turn into a ditch. Strange for driving a car, but in flying it's part of training. When in the clouds or where there's no ground visual reference, disorientation occurs and careful diligence is required to return in safety.

Us feet-hugging-Earth folks aren't familiar with this thing called vertigo (aviation induced). But we may know spiritual vertigo, where we find direction in life a little disorienting. Knowing which way, where to, or how to find HIS compass for our lives. Aviators nail it down to this--Trust The Instruments.

"Disorientation, or vertigo, is actually a state of temporary spatial confusion resulting from misleading information sent to the brain by various sensory organs. The body's elaborate navigational system was superbly designed for locomotion on the ground at a normal gait, but in an aircraft, during sudden acceleration or radial flight, it can trick you.

Spatial disorientation occurs most often in instrument conditions created by rain, fog, clouds, smoke or dark nights.

The most difficult adjustment that you must make as you acquire flying skill is a willingness to believe that, under certain conditions, your senses can be wrong." (excerpt from: http://www.pilotfriend.com/aeromed/medical/vertigo.htm)

If our senses can be fatally wrong when flying, how more so they can be in life. Spiritual vertigo can be just as dangerous as the physical one. Senses aren't bad, they can just knock us off balance at times. The thing with vertigo is our senses are so strong, we have to override those senses to trust the instrument.

If your in the clouds or the dark of night, your overwhelming senses can cause disorientation; just trust the ulitmate Instrument of Him. Eventually your equilibruim will return and your bearing will align with the Instrument. Through it all, He'll get you where you need to go; and once again plant your feet on solid ground.

Today, I'm gratefully unwrapping TRUST. For more unwrappings go to "Chatting at The Sky"

Ps. I wrote this over a week ago and was reminded of it again yesterday. God is faithful to reveal Himself in others who challenge and inspire us to go deeper.



Deuteronomy 31:8 "And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.”

Psalm 61:2 "..When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I."

Genesis 28:15 "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land (solid ground); for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”

Psalm 31:3 "Therefore, for Your name’s sake, Lead me and guide me."

John 10:27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me."

Psalm 139:10 "Even there Your hand shall lead me,And Your right hand shall hold me."

Matthew 16:24 "Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.'"

John 21:22 "Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”

Flint's Not All That--Facing Giants

If I had a face of flint, does that mean ridicule would bounce off my forehead like a ping-pong ball? In my query of why success is far more intimidating than failure (I'm still marinating here), I wonder if it's THE 'look' I fear most. You know the one, ones of dissappointment, disdain, or disagreement, perhaps seasoned with a little hate, or ones of you-are-an-absolute-idiot look. Yea, those kinds of look. Ones from the heart spilling right over into the face, for you're viewing (dis)pleasure.

So when God says "do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks..", He knew. THE look was coming. Yep, poor Ezekiel, God told him go tell these people all that I put in your heart to say and oh, by the way, they AIN'T gonna listen. Say what?

So, I'm thinking, success is overrated. For me, I've imagined success as maintaining peak form. A standard set higher each time by the former, causing more hyper-ventilating moments in the flesh. No longer a face of flint but a face with a brown bag, refer to former post "Grainy Places...." for the rest of that story.

I'm so thankful God never leaves us to become stagnant, stale, or stunted. I've faced a giant in my life this week. Exploring myself by allowing God to probe those tender areas of years gone by. In the process, I've learned about knapping. Having once prayed for myself to have a forehead like flint, did I really understand what it meant? The same material, which when struck with metal, produces enough sparks to create heat for fire. Did I really want that? Or the same material, used in many ancient ways, by flaking into sharp splinters, tools. Knappping. This process sounds painful.

Here I am, with my little slingshot and God my champion, facing my giant. I'm learning success isn't about results, but about faithfulness. It's not about maintaining a slippery standard of being good or best. Success is about being faithful with what God has put in our hearts to do. The world's idea of failure is determined by the lack of popularity, followers, money, houses, and on it goes. Success isn't in the world, oh why do I keep measuring it there? Success is in Him, that fragile relationship that is tugged by things of this world.

Perhaps I should instead ask for a guarded heart because I'm not really feeling the flint. However, should a flinted forehead rest above your brows, don't be dismayed, for flint is also the thing of toolmaking and sparking flying heat. Gratefully I'm learning, staying in Him, the true vine of success, will equip us, challenge us, perhaps scare us in the most unlikeliest of faces.


"3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me." John 15:3&4

"7 But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted. 8 Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. 9 Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.” 10 Moreover He said to me: “Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears. 11 And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse.” Ezekiel 3


"6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." Hebrews 11:6


Ps. I may still be walking with giants, but by His grace, I'm facing'em one at a time. Stay tuned for future sling-shoting, giant falling moments & together may you face yours too.

Pss."P.S. I shared this post on Heart to Heart with Holley."

Grainy Places--Touching Lowliness

Sometimes I just go there. I don't know why. But I do. Feeling the dust, I'm brought low. Perhaps it's a reminder of where I came, dust. Or my own arms pushing me down to this lowly place. Perhaps I need times of low so I know Who lifts me up. Or maybe success is far more intimidating than failure.

The dust up of life settles in gritty grains and I contemplate what is Spirit and what is flesh. I'm talking of humbleness, humility or the falseness of it. There is a true one (humility) but the enemy seeks to turn from truth, the lie. So I reflect on this place near dust I crawl and I search HIM on it.

Tuesday's post "Talking Fields" I unwrapped His beauty, because I need it. Need it's reminder.

This is my place today, one I've been marinating in for two days. So I lay it out here, not for you to prop me up or lift me up in pride, but for honest reflection. Nor do I wallow in condemnation, but rather, I seek revelation. I feel the dust of earth and look up to Him for where I am.

My desire is to live unfettered the life He has for me. Humbleness and humility lays it down like Christ. At what point does it cross over to the enemy's camp?

Success looms like one big hyper-ventilating episode. One I had in cross-country, back in the day, when I was coming in the top 10 at running meets. Success overwhelmed me right into a full-blown breathing-in-a-bag-I-don't-know-why-I-can't-just-relax moment at one of my cross-country competitions. Perhaps competition in general is not my thing, or worse, success is not my thing.

Whatever the case, I'm here and I'm digging. If it's His humility, I dig to go lower. But should it be my own hands, my own fears, that pull me to dust, I reach for Hands that are able to lift me out.

I don't despise the grains of grit because I'm learning in them. Learning more of me and more of Him. One day my flesh will return this dust, this soul that strives with sin. Crucifying flesh and the fetters within, I bring it all to Him.

(Last night I meditated on how I felt like "dust" or rather how I felt near it. The very word dust rolled around and I wondered, why. Then I opened His word and somebody there, in scripture, got it, got me. Actually, I got them. My heart lighted at what I read. I love it when HE does that.)


"25 My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to Your word.... 28 My soul melts from heaviness; strengthen me according to Your word...32 I will run the course of Your commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart. 54 Your statutes have been my songs--In the house of my pilgrimage. 55 I remember Your name in the night, O LORD..130 The entrance of Your words gives light.. 131 I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed for Your commandments...148 My eyes are awake through the night watches, that I may meditate on Your word." Psalm 119

For a place to link up with other virtual friends click the picture and head over to Diana's place at "The Girl Creative".

Talking Fields

Fields greening under the warmth of sun, the landscape changes with season. Creation vibrating the breadth of beauty HE's displayed. In long drives on country lanes and ever wide meadows, I embrace it.

My heart soaring with the glint of sun, the roll of grass, the peak of hills, or the glassy brightness of still waters. Everything He spoke into existence, the very breath of Life. And when enthralled by the setting before me, I also experience the beauty of the Lord.

In a church in Kentuky, inside four walls a group of us would come for worship. People meandering in and out, during a come-when-can, stay-as-long-as-you-want, leave whenever, hours of worship. Not a typical Sunday service, but a special, set apart, type service.

Inside the drab of carpet and concrete, worship music flowing, I sensed it. At first it was subtle. But the feeling grew and I knew it well. His beauty, as strong as any majestic mountain, was there and felt. I sensed, as any picturesque landscape, my heart soaring in the same way.

The seasons come and the beauty changes. Velvety meadows, rolling hills, mountain ranges, wide-open spaces, and all creation in between have more meaning. When my eyes delight in the beauty, they look into the very face of Him. Where fields speak volumes, His invisible attributes, ones clearly seen and heard inside the soul.


Psalm 27:4 "One thing I have desired of the LORD,That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple."

Romans 1:20 "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.."

Psalm 96:6 "Honor and majesty are before Him;Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary."

Psalm 90:17 "And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us.."

This Tuesday, I'm unwrapping His beauty. For more unwrappings visit "chatting at the sky".

Saturday Evening Post

After talking to many friends of mine and discovering they too had fear at night, I wanted to share last month's post about it. I was in total bondage to fear but was delivered out of it. At the "Saturday Evening Post" we are sharing one of our favorite blogs from last month. I wouldn't call this one my favorite, but I wanted to encourage others if you do have this enemy of fear, God can deliver you too. Just click on "Where the Enemy Once Slept" to read more.

Finding My Way (Home)

I tried to escape this place long ago. There was a time when I thought I'd never leave and then, I did. Once I was gone, I thought I'd never come back. But then I did. Texas. I've fallen in love with it all over again.

It was the last place I imagined to be after living in Germany and then moving to the Midwest. Places like Kentucky, Southern Indiana, & Missouri reminded me of those beautiful green hills in Europe. Even though it took a while to make the Midwest feel like 'home' in my heart, I adjusted.

My past was left behind in Texas, this place of before(s), of messes, old friends, military service, new beginnings, family travels, and my return to HIM. Although California was my birthplace, Texas was my home place. When I first left, I felt lost without it. Arriving in Kentucky (from overseas), a place totally unfamiliar to me, trying to make it feel like 'home' was strange. But I adjusted by allowing it to grow on me. However we ended up moving on and having to adjust again.

The biggest adjustment came when He called us back, to Texas. Little did we know the place He'd prepared for us would be such a sweet balm to our family. But we were to blinded by the big, neon 'sign' of HIS "Go" that shock was all that registered in the beginning. There was NO mistaken our return here. In the beginning, we stumbled our way through the hardships of cargiving my Grandmother while also trying to make a home for the family. Tough was an understatement and many a night I clung to Him through a little radio that played praise music. Tears threatened to leak when the night was quiet with sleep.

My Grandmother eventually passed on but our family continued to settle here. It's begun to feel like home again, but this time it's different. In this community, we've found friends who are like an extension of family. Although we aren't related by blood found in veins, we are related by blood found through Christ. After all, HIS blood is stronger than any DNA of the earthly kind.

We feel He was preparing us for this place here. These friends, this community, this Family of Him. They've been Jesus to us. Here we've found hugging arms, prayer interceding, emailing/facebooking/phone calling away, group gathering, meal-eating, bannana bread baking, dropping in, staying over, fitting us in, kind of folks. We gained more than some acres and a little farmhouse, we gained the very pulse of community. Though we searched high and low elsehwere, in the unlikeliest of places, He delivered us. To the heart of Texas. And the heart of Texans makes it grow in our hearts too.

Be Jesus to someone. Seeing HIM in you means more than you know.




"9...Cling to what is good. 10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; 11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; 13 distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality." Romans 12:9-13

This "Walk With Him Wednesday", I'm walking home. For more walks click here.

Pour Me Out--Please

The hour long drive down back roads of piney woods and knolly hills, I imagine being poured out. It's my prayer. Gathering my Mother from the hospital, yet another turn from tragedy ("When Death Comes Knocking"), I travel under sunny skies and celebrate life. Not the clinging to this side of Heaven, life, but living the fullest in Him life. Poured. Out. It's what rolled around, settled and seeped into me.

So is this what she meant? The great sinner who poured the alabaster jar of costly oil onto Jesus' feet. Its fragance captured by those who sat and watched. The fluid once contained in a jar, now flowing freely.

I too feel the oil. It's where I want to be. Poured out, flowing freely, seeping that place, the very feet of Jesus. A life forsaking the forms and confines of flesh. Forsaking. Allowing Him to pour me out, I pray how. I pray please.

I wonder, if when she wiped His feet with her hair if she too was there? This place my heart pictured where oil dripped without shape. I imagine the pouring of oil, was also the pouring of her.

Love calls it out. Abandons it all. Lays it down. And for a day, like the oil, I too want to be poured out from every pore of my being. I wonder if she too craved to be like oil and drip at HIS feet?


This Tuesday, I'm unwrapping the very pouring of me. I pray "Please". For more unwrappings click on "Tuesday's Unwrapped".


"37 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, 38 and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil." Luke 7:37&38

"6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." 2 Timothy 4:6&7

"5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over." Psalm 23:5