Advent

Laying on the word of God!!!!

     Waiting is not something that comes easy. Did you know that a Christian's life is supposed to be filled with waiting? In a world that is spinning out of control I sit in the dark this morning and I try it.....I wait!  I am longing to know Him more this season. I am wanting to teach the girls the fullness of the value and meaning of the mystery of Christmas!

It starts in the wee hours of the darkness.................that longing...........that nudge to "come away with me."  So I struggle...........but I step out of the warmness of the sheets into the cold dark floors and grab my bible and a pen. It's my heart that I want changed. "A transformation!"

It's today that I think about Mary and the struggles she had. She had to ride that donkey for days with a swollen belly that was carrying the KING OF KINGS! She recognized His presence in her. She BELIEVED!

We live in a world pregnant with HOPE!  Our waiting is not passive but a active waiting.

ADVENT = "the coming."

We celebrate the coming of the Christ child and what God has already done. But we live life waiting for His return. With the eyes of our hearts seeing, learning, and praying.

I  wonder is it dangerous to always live in comfort?

Jesus knew suffering and pain.

I reach out to those who are lying in a hospital bed dying............and I think; "Christmas is coming and people everywhere...............God's people will know suffering and pain."

Longing to know Him is not enough this season..................He is asking each of us to stretch ourselves a little more. Having a heart transplant is painful...........it takes time to heal.  But the great Physician is working overtime................souls are at stake.

This season................. I am learning even when life doesn't make sense I am going to trust HIM!

 As I walk through the hospital and life seems so unfair with people dying alone...............children losing their parents.........parents losing a child and I realize it is because we live in a broken world.

 I ask myself why did he allow himself to die like that for all of us?  The answer is simple; because of  LOVE the one word that most of us can never truly comprehend. Our God who put on skin who was born and died all for us. Who chose to taste the pain of death and all it's ugliness. Just for us.

Beauty, love and pain surround us all this season.....all of them from Him. And through it all it's me that longs for those quite moments away from everyone to sit in His presence this season. Begging and pleading for me to die to self. Wanting  a transformation this advent season. Learning to slow the pace and wait.

Maranatha! ("Our Lord, Come!)

all of grace,

Robbie

 

God is the Gift this Thanksgiving

Ephesians 5:20

²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is to ponder.............shouldn't everyday be Thanksgiving?

As I prepared to host Thanksgiving at my house with the changing of sheets, the scrubbing of bathrooms, the cleaning out refrigerators, tripping over dogs toys, the kids screaming their hungry, husband asking me questions.............  my head was spinning me a bit disoriented....................but isn't that the time to give thanks?

Life is pounding hard against me.........a test........not enough hours in the day.

I grab hold of the vacuum cleaner in front of me and it is resentment that traps me.

Four tweens.............17, 16, 14 and 12............who don't lift a finger.

Where is my gratitude? In this mundane living of this race we call life.

Jeremiah 29:11

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Even in the ordinary days of our life..................He has plans for us!

I set out their journals again............encouraging the tweens to join in.

We have to train them to leave their mark of gratitude.

Proverbs 22:6

 Start children off on the way they should go,
and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

When we give thanks in everything the good the bad and the ugly..... it turns our eyes towards the King. Being changed is the name of the game. Transformation of the heart is what we need! 

I ask myself today........."couldn't everyday be Thanksgiving?"

I scurry to find my gratitude journal.........why did I lose my way?

I start by reading from my gratitude list and water swells within my eyes.....how soon we forget to be Thankful in the everyday!

Help us Lord to see through your eyes........today and everyday.

I stick to the Kitchen floor as I walk past.........(freshly mopped an hour ago)...........it is then that I see the red kool-aid dripping from the frig. Yes I will give thanks that we have kool-aid to drink.

I smile as I wipe up the mess.

Thankfulness should be the very breath that we take.

It is then that I notice that there is blood on the floor from the 16 year old dog.

I murmur it quietly........"please Lord, not now........don't let him die with all my family coming today."

Why do I give thanks only in the good times?  Is it; "Selective Faith?"

I rub my hand across the 16 year old dog............and my heart tears. I start the flood of memories from the past. Just a few more days Lord, please.

Why do I "the taker," only hold my hand out to accept the good?

And it's me who prays to be more godly.

And so from this day forward I am making a decree.............to restart my gratitude journal because....."giving thanks in all things paves the road to giddy grace!"

In thanking God for everything that happens to you or to me.......deep wounds begin to heal and gratitude turns this life into blessings.  Joy finds it's way into your life after all happiness is only circumstantial. But true Joy is from the Lord.

 So move over and let God work His miracles and watch Him turn sorrow into joy.

Through life the heart will continue to ache...........but the ache of the past is eased over and over again by giving THANKS to him in all things!

Thank you Jesus;

for a family who drives to spend thanksgiving with us

for the extra dogs every family brought (all of them around 100 pounds!)

For the peaceful passing of our sweet precious hound.

For advent that is right around the corner

For a pastor who teaches us what absolute surrender really is

For all the help in the kitchen from; my mom and sister-n-law

For nieces and nephews who love

praise and worship at church

 finding our gratitude journals

2 turkeys (deep fried)

praying as a family

the lab who lays at my feet in the wee hours of the morning while praying

clean sheets for everyone

brownies in the oven

all of grace,

robbie

Thanks- Giving

Do we really " Give Thanks on Thanksgiving"?

Oh how easy it is to be thankful when everything is going " our way". However..... when life gets hard- we find it harder to be thankful.

Do we have a thankful attitude towards God when times are hard? When we are hurting... In those times we need to stop... and pray for a thankful heart.

Ask God to help you to understand  his love and his plans for your life.

A Thanksgiving Day Prayer.....

Lord, so often times, as any other day

When we sit down to our meal and pray

We hurry along and make fast the blessing

Thanks, amen. Now please pass the dressing

We are slaves to the olfactory overload

We must rush our prayer before the food gets cold

But Lord, I'd like to take a few minutes more

To really give Thanks to what I am Thankful for....

Even though my family often drives me crazy- I am thankful this year, that we made it through this year with the safety and health of my kids, husband, parents, and rest. Thank  you father for all you do- to protect me and my family. We have no idea the daily battles that go on all around us.

This year I want to be different-

Father - grant me a kind, gentle and thankful heart.

Amy

Surrender

Hebrews 12:1;

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Why is it so hard to run this race called, "life," with perseverance?  Is it my fear of suffering? Or my refusal to suffer?

For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. (2 Corinthians 1:5)

But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.(1 Peter 4:13)

Perhaps my greatest sin is not surrendering my all?
Surrendering........... a powerful word...............meaning wreck-less abandonment to the King.

He was reclining on the floor eating as it was customary in those days...........a women worked her way through the crowd in the Pharisee's house............. she stood behind him weeping...........for her sins were many....................her tears begin to fall like a river that runs through............. raining down upon his feet. She in the most intimate surrender of all broke her most valuable possession and poured it out on His feet.

She had nothing to wipe his feet with. It was the truest surrender of all.......... without caring what one thought of her.............she reached up and dropped her hair down and began wiping his feet with her hair..............and kissing his feet over and over again. (a women's hair was the most intimate thing she owned back then) Completely exposed.............open..............vulnerable. She recklessly abandoned all. (Luke 7: 36-50)

Her FAITH............. Her love!

I whisper Jesus' words.....“Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Wanting this to be my very own heart beat.....His words to flow through my veins.
It's a new day...........surrender............be willing to abandon your all. I am quiet this morning before dawn..........I close my eyes and say it out loud.............visualizing that I am waving a white flag....and I murmur it softly......"I surrender."

My heart will be your altar.

all of grace,
Robbie

All of grace

The quieter you are the more his grace can evade your life. The world we live in deafens us with it's endless noise.


May this weekend be one of sitting in silence for a moment in time.
Silence can sometimes awaken our very own soul.

There is a time to listen and a time to speak. We are always listening to something............but are we really hearing?




All of grace,
robbie

Trust

Jeremiah 17:7-9

⁷ “But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.
⁸ They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
⁹ The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?




all is grace,
Robbie

When your ready to flee from yourself

Is Thanksgiving really almost here?  It has happened so unexpected.............the leaves falling from the trees all changed.....Life continues to be a gift but I can't seem to escape from the "self."

It's my exaggerated sense of self that keeps me putting my schedule ahead of the King.
But remaining empty and craving fullness.

   I am starving my very own soul from the eternal food...........it's where the darkness and disobedience go hand and hand. Who am I really I scream?  Me the wretched woman and mama.............who is the want a be Christian. With my hand held out being a taker always the taker........and then it's grace that whispers.......come, take..........receive GRACE...........from the one where atonement comes. Our blessings are secure in Him.................He is faithful even when we are faithless.

Jesus is the road less traveled where you will find His mercy and truth meeting together.
 Righteousness and peace are entwined together and upon all of that sits:   "The Throne of Grace."

Our God gave up His throne to put on skin...............skin like ours.......he became human........to walk humble............but HOW do I follow in His footsteps.............humble? Me who claims to know my God!

Why do I make an effort to avoid people who hurt and not make an effort to love those who hurt me?
PRIDE............seems to rear it's ugly head over and over again.  I am no better than a Pharisee!
It's a daily battle............and it's my very own SOUL that's at stake.

And if it's me that claims to know God better than others..........then it's me that is feeling like I am the better............and that's not God at all that I am following!

Praying for the living waters to flow through me..........But how? Sometimes I want to give up........surrender from the life of Faith. It seems like "pipe dreams," impossible to reach.

The road less traveled gets steeper and steeper winding you deeper and deeper until you feel you just can't go on............and just when you think you can't make it another step..............  the glory of the resurrection descends upon you and the false sense of self begins to fade. It's the revelation of who God really is that starts to surface.  It happens when I stop holding out my hand for the taking and start
 following......... in His humble footsteps.
So how do I walk before him blameless?...............Surrender...................giving up and allowing Almighty God Incarnate to work in us and through us.

Our human relationships are the very conditions in which the glory of God should be exhibited!
Love more...........Forgive more..........walk balmelessly before the Lord.

Genesis 17:1-2 “Walk Before Me, And Be Blameless”

all of grace,
Robbie