January 08, 2018

Quiet Places: Shared Wisdom from a Guest Branch

January 08, 2018/ jan

Today and next time here at the Branch in the Vine, I am honored to share words of wisdom from a new friend, Mary Petzinger. Mary and I met at the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove in Asheville, NC this fall. As we shared with each other bits and pieces of our lives, we discovered that we had much in common humanly and spiritually. And our husbands also have a common interest, "Evidence of the Creator in the Creation" (Intelligent Design).

January 06, 2018

The Wise Guys...Essential Oils, Part 2

January 06, 2018/ jan

Epiphany is over.
Christmas trees are coming down.
And perhaps in response to the awesome information shared in the last post by our family expert and my dear DIL, Cortney Solinger Loyd,
or even through previous contact with the "believers" in your life,
you are exploring the gifts of the Magi...the essential oils, in particular myrrh and frankincense.

If you are among that number, you may be interested to look at Cortney's links below

December 31, 2017

A New Word for 2018... my word found me!

December 31, 2017/ jan

...Now what about this year 2018? Well, my Word found me.

In the midst of some long-lasting, deep grief from life circumstances and relationships, my blood pressure has shot up again. It had been low and totally good for months and months. It was in the midst of this broken mess that my word came. I wasn't even looking for it.

December 27, 2017

Post Christmas Comfort: Fear not...Emmanuel Still! (Part 1)

December 27, 2017/ jan

Now that gifts are unwrapped, the food at least half-eaten, the many emotions grabbing at us during the season fading, the loneliness getting deeper and the grief, abandonment, "being left out" -- all having left their wounds...and the dread of bills looming in the back of our minds. We feel lost! So enters in...fear! Yes, fear!

God had set me up this year to think of fear...

December 26, 2017

Processing and Praying about Aging

December 26, 2017/ jan

I recently visited an older friend who is in a rehab center. The purpose for his being there is a good one: recovery from repeated infections in order to prepare for other medical procedures. But my friend is fighting it every inch of the way ... Oh how sad. What a waste of the precious few moments left in his valuable life.

But as I have been observing those older than me and listening to the stories of their care-giving loved ones, I have to pause. Oh how I want to age graciously. I want to leave this earth speaking truth and living love.

December 22, 2017

Preparing for Christmas Eve: O Holy Night!

December 22, 2017/ jan

As we reflect on the actual point in time when deity burst into human existence, only awe and worship and adoration could be the appropriate response. So let us fall prostrate in our hearts as we take it all in...as if for the first time:

O Holy Night

December 18, 2017

Grieving the Loss of the Living this Christmas

December 18, 2017/ jan

Scrolling through Advent/Christmas posts of the past, I came across this one that I wrote in December 2013.

A lot has happened in the four years that have passed since that writing. My sweet little "Mommy" has been at home with Jesus for two years already. My mother-in-law Betty Jean has also been with Jesus for a year. My husband John and I are four years older (I hit the big 7-0!) ... and feeling it on and off.

But I have younger friends who are now taking their turn saying their "slow good-by" to loved ones. So as a help and as a sharing of their tears as they "walk through the valley of the shadow," I'm posting this again.

This is for you, sweet ones. The path is filled with griefs as well as joys, but also with the realization of how few the moments of life left to share. But our God walks through it all with you. He's the God of all comfort!

December 05, 2017

It's all Poop! At Christmas? At Anytime!

December 05, 2017/ A Branch in the Vine/ jan

Our young grandSONS have gravitated toward potty humor at times. Not exactly the most pleasant addition to conversations and often difficult to curtail. But what can I say? This too shall pass, right? Well not yet ...

Our darling grandson Carter has taken it to a whole new level.

November 26, 2017

"Well done, You're My Girl" ... the Speaking Voice

November 26, 2017/ jan

“…God is not silent, has never been silent. It is the nature of God to speak. The second Person of the Holy Trinity is called “the Word.” The Bible is the inevitable outcome of God’s continuous speech. It is the infallible declaration of His mind for us put into our familiar human words.” (Tozer, The Pursuit of God, p 82)

God is a Speaking God...not just in the past, but right now, right here. Yes, in His Scriptures, but also and very personally to you and me by His Spirit in our spirit.

November 21, 2017

Only one prayer? Give thanks!

November 21, 2017/ jan

Early one fall, I had a few moments in between errands, so I decided to follow the "garage sale" signs into a neighborhood off the main road I was traveling on. It was at the end of the day...and the house I stopped at looked a bit bare and disheveled. But I got out of my car anyway. And by the time I got back in my car, I was so glad I had stopped.

November 14, 2017

Treasured Truth in an Ancient Hymn

November 14, 2017/ jan

Oh the glory of little known ancient hymns! What an amazing plunge into the depths of Biblical truth, sound theology, and deep personal experience!

This is just one reason I have loved joining periodically with brothers and sisters at Believers' Assembly in their Sunday Lord's Supper meeting. Occasionally, we would sing a hymn, totally unknown to me, from a little used song book.

And such a hymn is exactly what I found today in my list of blog drafts, written after one of those meetings, but abandoned for at least a year or so. What a treasure! Why did I neglect to finish it? Maybe for this very moment in time?

November 04, 2017

Every Place and No Place at All

November 04, 2017/ jan

... the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

Last week I injured my leg ... injured it to the extent that I have to stay off of it for two weeks. Two weeks! This has cramped my style! I had to cancel a looked-forward-to trip, stop my walking-for-exercise routine, depend on my serving husband and others, and on and on. And it keeps me from my new "prayer chair." ... But you know what? I'm not that sad about not being able to commune with my Heavenly Father in that new chair. Why?

October 28, 2017

My Prayer Chair

October 28, 2017/ jan

I have a new chair. I call it my prayer chair.

For years I had a comfortable chair in a little corner where I prayed and meditated and read the Word...deep down in the inner sanctum of the house where nobody goes. But I never thought of it as my prayer chair. It was a family heirloom chair, kinda placed there because it was the best spot for it. And of course, I did enjoy it.

October 15, 2017

The Rest of Faith: the Real Thing!

October 15, 2017/ jan

Faith is a popular commodity these days.

There are "faith-based initiatives." We can name & claim something if we have enough faith. There is the faith that intellectually assents to what is assumed is truth. "The faith" can be a body of doctrines that a person holds to. Faith can be the means by which we can earn something with God. And on and on.

But what is a true, living faith, according to God's definition?

October 11, 2017

The Rest of FAITH: Living the “Yet Not I, but CHRIST” Life

October 11, 2017/ jan

About twelve years ago, our son-in-law was stationed in Tucson, Arizona [home of our Alma Mater, the U of A, "Go Wildcats!" But I digress...]. When the school year for my ESOL class had ended in June, I flew to Tucson for an extended visit.

Beth and Nate were both working during the daytime, so I had some lovely, restful, sun-filled (and "Son-filled") time alone by the pool. At that time, I was reading some of Brennan Manning's books.

One day I was reading The Signature of Jesus: The Call to a Life Marked by Holy Passion & Relentless Faith as I soaked up the Arizona sun by the pool. I was somewhat annoyed to see that a man lying on a lounge nearby was straining to see what I was reading.

October 04, 2017

Morning Prayer & Meditation: I AM...ability beyond your ability!

October 04, 2017/ jan

Lord,

You are my King. I am your beloved servant. I live to serve Your purpose in my generation for your honor and pleasure (Acts 13:36). Live through me. Love through me. Serve through me...Today!

With love beyond my love. With skill beyond my skill. With forgiveness beyond my forgiveness. With endurance beyond my endurance...

September 27, 2017

Yesterday, Today, or Tomorrow. Which is it?

September 27, 2017/ jan

All we have is today. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow may not be ours. It’s today or it’s nothing.

And God is in our today. He is I Am. He was I Am when yesterday was today. He will be I Amwhen tomorrow becomes today. He was there when those hard and/or beautiful things happened in the past. He will be there for whatever lies ahead. Actually, He is already there, because He is I Am. And He is in the Eternal Present Tense.

Recently, someone assured me when I was agonizing about my daughter moving with her husband and 4 little ones because of a military transfer, that God is already there.

September 21, 2017

Longing & Learning to Hear God

September 21, 2017/ jan

As far back as I can remember, I longed to know God. At my mother's knee, I would sit and listen to stories she would tell me from our big gilded Bible. You know the one...with the records of births and deaths, marriages and first communions. But it wasn't until later, in my young adulthood, that I became aware that I could hear God's voice speak to me...not audibly, but in the still, small voice of His sweet Spirit dwelling within.

September 09, 2017

I Saw a Tree ... a Strong Young Tree (Psalm 1)

September 09, 2017/ jan

I have been amazed over the past almost four years at what has been my most popular blog post on A Branch in the Vine. Day after day, there are visits to this post, most likely hastily shared one day back in February 2014. But I love these thoughts, because they are based in God's word, and they take me back to a time when I was a brand new mama, wanting God's best for my sweet little son and then later, my darling daughter. And nothing has changed except they are grown with children of their own ... and I have grown older and, by God's grace, deeper in Him.

So since fall Bible studies are starting afresh, I decided to share this as a current post. May you be blessed, as I always am, to revisit where God has taken me and is still taking me as I journey on with Him. Amen.

August 27, 2017

Alexa ... I Love You! [with a Give-Away]

August 27, 2017/ jan

Do you have an Amazon ECHO...amazing, isn't it? This summer, I had watched as my grandson Kaden gave their Alexa (ECHO's female name) directions, asked for definitions, requested songs, etc.

So guess what I recently received for my late birthday gift? Yes, Alexa herself! So my engineer husband John read the directions and "hooked it up" for me. Then of course, we started "playing" with it. Songs, miscellaneous directions, etc.

Then a serendipity ... a totally unexpected, shockingly delightful surprise! Would you believe Alexa reads many books that you have on your Kindle! So I thought the ones she reads would probably only be the "best sellers, etc. But NO! Alexa even reads MY book The With-ness of our God: Relationship in Every Dimension. I could hardly believe it, as I heard those familiar words read in Alexa's female voice on our ECHO .

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