Wake up my Heart!

Last week a chapter of my life closed. It felt weirdly final as I left Barnes Jewish Hospital for the last time. Our current insurance won’t cover anything there…not to mention it is 8 hours away! To really put the stamp of closure on it, I used my last parking garage pass. As I walked to my car Proverbs 3:5-6 kept running through my head, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” I am at a funny stage in my life. I think I am actually healthy! Crohn’s Disease in in check. My uterus seems to be cooperating with our home remedy treatment. I am sleeping at night. I can eat. But it is times like this that I am used to waiting for the other shoe to drop. Waiting to see blood when I go to the bathroom. Waiting for something unexpected to go wrong. Just waiting. But God doesn’t want me to wait. He wants me to trust him and NOT attempt to glean what I can from my own understan...

Scripture: Genesis 2: 16-17 And the  Lord  God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;   17  but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,  for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” In doing a current bible study I am reading a New Bible Commentary which adds an incredible amount of insight to Scripture. The point made about the verses above was a light bulb, of seemingly epic proportions - it made me understand sin in a whole new way. The writers' comment was that "Throughout Scripture, the essence of sin is to put human judgement above divine command."  Isn't that it? We decide on an almost (or for me - really daily) basis to put our judgement above what God tells us to do. This can be in the form of worry (your Heavenly Father tells you not to do it...so why do we?) Or it can be in the form of something big like one of the seven "deadly" sins. Anytime we sin we are doing something wrong a...

Scripture of the Day:     “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart! I have overcome  the world.”  John 16:33 Spicing things up today with a song lyric that reminds me of that verse! MercyMe has a song called "Greater" that I absolutely love. Lyrics are:  "There are days when I lose the battle...grace says that it doesn't matter because the Cross already won the war." I have bad days. Days when I yell at my son more than I should and my patience has run out before I get out of bed. Days when the future seems dim and it is hard to focus on putting one foot in front of another. Days when I am so focused on seeing the plank in other's eyes that I can't see the one in my own. Those are days when I lose the battle. What I find most refreshing about the verse and the song is that they remind me that it is OKAY to lose the battle. Christ already won the war by saving our souls....

Luke 2:19  But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.   I am one week into a three year (that's right...year!) bible study. The great thing about that is we read really tiny snippets. In today's reading I noticed that not once, but twice in Luke Chapter 2 he comments that Mary treasured up in her heart. I have somehow only noticed one time in previous readings, but the repetition seems significant. Today the verses, and the context, seemed particularly fitting. As the children I babysit were napping this afternoon, I was sitting on the couch with my son on my lap. And, my, how I treasured that moment! Pretty soon, I fear there will be less of that - due to increase in age, and the amount of laps available with the increase of family around!  Now as I write, I am thinking about how I am also treasuring up my years in Bloomington/Normal. These years will live in my heart always. They have brought me to Jesus. They have brought me to my hu...

So...if ever I was reminded of God's sense of timing, it was just a minute ago! One of my last blog posts was on John 1:12-13 and putting on my "child-of-God self." Not having remembered that, the post I wanted to write today was on John 1:12-13, for entirely different reasons! Apparently, He is trying to tell me something! Here are the verses: But whoever did want him,      who believed he was who he claimed      and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves,      their child-of-God selves. These are the God-begotten,      not blood-begotten,      not flesh-begotten... I haven't written in far too long. The list of reasons for that could be lengthy...but they would all be excuses and not worth sharing! The bottom line is I simply stopped. God didn't ask me to, I just did it. And in not writing, I have been unhappy for months...and have been neglecting my heavenly ...