St PATRICK’S DAY has snuck up on me this year — so much stress and angst and change and distress because of the COVID-19 outbreak in the world and now in our beloved United States. But I realized that today more than ever we need the beautiful truths expressed in what is traditionally known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate.
Read MoreWhen in the deepest of troubles...when there is no consolation or comfort...go to the sacred place where you and the Lord live together and nothing can touch...the place of union with our God through Jesus Christ by faith (Colossians 2:9-10 ESV)...and rest in Him who rests in you (John 17:20-23 ESV)!
Hide me in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 17:8b
Read MoreRemembering where our life really is . . .
My REAL life is hidden [right now] WITH Christ IN God!
Read MoreHow do we live during this unsettling time? Is God still God? Can we children of God practice what we preach as in the times of relative peace?
Jesus comforted and warned His beloved disciples (including us) just hours before He died:
I have told you these things so that you will be whole and at peace.
In this world, you will be plagued with times of trouble, but you need not fear;
I have triumphed over this corrupt world order.
Abandoned! Left on the "doorstep of Life"...but with no Rescuer in sight! What happens next in the unfolding drama of the crucifixion of our Lord is incomprehensible!
It's an abandonment so profoundly mysterious that it boggles the mind...but ravishes the believing heart! Let's watch it unfold...
It is noon. By this time, Jesus has already forgiven ...
Read MoreIn our week’s Lenten meditation, we focus on the Lord’s care for His dear mom as His own death approaches. How tender, how like a beloved son of a beloved mom! Caring for our treasured loved ones is at the heart of “family” in the purest sense of the word.
However, we often forget that true caring can be much deeper and more needed than merely physical care, as critical as that is. There’s a caring that touches heart and soul…one that meeting physical needs approaches, but a caring that perhaps only loving words can reach.
Read MoreDear woman, behold your son...behold your mother. (John 19:26)
Jesus has a special love for His own. As we've already seen with His forgiving and saving attitude in the midst of excruciating agony, His concern was not with His own suffering. Rather His attention was next drawn to His precious loved ones at the foot of His cross, His mother and His beloved disciple John.
What agony Jesus must have seen on Mary's face.
Read MoreTruly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise. Luke 23:43
Jesus seems to have a special love for lost people. I love the stories He tells in Luke 15. The first is the beloved story of the shepherd who has a hundred sheep but leaves the ninety-nine to look for the one that is lost. Then when he finds his lost one, he calls in his neighbors and friends to rejoice with him.
Read MoreFor years this hymn has been my go to song…from the time I was “in the convent” back in the late 1960’s to this very day no matter my Christian context. And recently it has been my morning song as I awaken the dawn walking in my area — even as the darkness is departing and my neighborhood owl is singing out the final hoo-hoo of his “day.”
And so I sing…even aloud…despite the high school young people passing me by on their way to the bus stop, wondering about this weird, white haired woman softly singing. I love the focus. I love the plaintive melody. I love my indwelling God who draws me toward thoughts of HIM Alone. And I love the story behind the song…
Read MoreUntil you rest in the finality of the cross, you will never experience the reality of the resurrection, which is Christ living in and through you! Unless you rest in the fact that Jesus did it all, you’ll be so busy trying to pay off your debt—atone for your sins—that you’ll never grow and enjoy the personal relationship that Christ has provided for you.
Bob George, Growing in Grace
Read MoreHow hard it is for us to forgive, isn’t it? In our last post, we discussed some points that truly make sense in the entire process of forgiving others. But let’s backtrack a bit more and look at this as a Biblical Q & A session.
The following are notes from a talk I gave to a small group of young married women (I was the “older woman teaching the younger” Titus 2). So why not use this as your own personal Bible study and see what the Holy Spirit reveals to your heart and mind for your particular situation.
Read MoreSeveral years ago, I met with a group of moms to explore one of our Lord's first words from the Cross: Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. Luke 23:34
As our discussion went on, we talked about the struggle we all have to forgive our offenders. I shared a short section from a book that years before had an incredible impact on me in the area of forgiveness.
I used to think that the struggle to forgive was itself sinful...as well as the horrible feelings I had in the whole thing. But I've come to realize that the struggle and the feelings are all part of the human condition on this earth.
Read MoreAlexander Pope (1688-1744), English poet, once said,To err is human; to forgive, divine.
So true...but we humans more readily echo what someone else has said,
To err is human, but to get even? THAT is divine.
We struggle so, with forgiving our offenders! Perhaps that's why we are amazed and awestruck to realize that Jesus' first words from the Cross were ones of forgiveness.
Read MoreThe last words of a dying person are important. They can communicate good or ill to those left behind. Why? Because the last words are so final...and so revealing of what was uppermost in the person's mind as he was leaving this earth to face his Maker. I've never been at the bedside of a dying person. But I have been with a few people just days before their death.
Read MoreFrom dust you have come, and to dust you shall return.
Ash Wednesday has taken on a new meaning for me in recent years, since my 91 year old mom passed away early in November 2015. There was something that arrested me right in my tracks the day of my mom's funeral. I was undone by deep sobs of realization. And the depth of it had been helped along by the incense and the reverence afforded the treatment of my dear mama's frail little body being put to rest (or so they say).
But it wasn't the finality of it all. It had already been final when she had breathed her last, days before.
No! It was the Sacredness that came crashing through!
Read MoreI grew up in a liturgical church. So from my childhood into my early adulthood, I observed the church calendar. Ash Wednesday marked a real turning point in the calendar year. It was a turn from comfort, frivolity, and enjoyment (think Mardi Gras) to a time of repentance, self-denial, and mortification called Lent. Ash Wednesday was a day when we all remembered that someday we would each die and face our Maker. The priest would put the sign of the cross on our foreheads in black ashes and say,
Remember, Man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return. [based on Genesis 3:19]
Read MoreLent is really about thinning our lives in order to thicken our communion with God.
What if you fasted regret?
What if your friends fasted comparison?
What would be the fruit of fasting stinginess?
40 Days of Decrease is the perfect guide for those hungering to experience God's presence in a whole new way this Easter.
…As one friend said, “It sounds like Vanity Fair.” You know, the town in Paul Bunyan’s classic Pilgrim’s Progress, that contained every worldly pleasure to suck poor Pilgrim in.
Well, I’ve been reflecting. Even though this place was “to the hilt” worldly perfect in so many ways, I can’t help but think that we each have a Vanity Fair all around us no matter where we are. Our Vanity Fair beckons us to chose the world of ___(FILL IN THE BLANK)_____ rather than God.
Read MoreWow, I hadn’t heard that song in years and maybe only then for the very first time…and not since. You see, I was in Indianapolis for an overnight stay because a medical procedure…maybe decades ago. The therapist had invited me to her church that evening, and I heard it for the first and last (or so I thought) time.
Then at the Memorial service for our dear brother in the Lord Mike Sabin on Tuesday evening, I heard it again. And it brought joy to my soul.
Read MoreI pay attention to my waking thoughts.
Ever since I discovered a poem by George MacDonald, tucked away in an old notebook on my husband’s shelf, my waking thoughts have been captured and inspired by God’s Wind-Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God. I have invited Him to do that.
Otherwise, my waking thoughts were being filled with the anxieties of life, the trap of the flesh aided by the enemy of my soul. . .
Read MoreJanet Renner Loyd has been a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ most of her life. Her formal education includes a degree in education from the University of Arizona and also a degree in Bible & Theology from Moody Bible Institute. For more than thirty years, she has been involved in teaching and leading women’s Bible studies, retreats, and meetings…most notably Precept upon Precept and various studies that she has personally developed. Professionally, Jan recently retired from teaching language and writing to GED and adult ESOL students.
About her life, Jan says, “The most important thing about me is my relationship with my Father God through my Lord Jesus Christ. I am forever grateful to Him for His love, mercy, and grace to me and my family and friends...and the world.”
Jan has been happily married to John Loyd for more than forty years. They have two adult, married children and five lively young grandsons.
