Be Ye Glad...Oh Yes, Even in a Pandemic
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…For you are timeless and part of a puzzle.
You are winsome and young as a lad.
And there is no disease or no struggle, that can pull you from God,
Be Ye Glad.
The Real Enemy Behind the COVID-19
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We have an Enemy. . . a silent enemy. . . an invisible enemy . . . a nasty Bully of an enemy.
And it’s not the coronavirus or any other entity that can harass our bodies and do damage in our physical world. The enemy I’m referring to is the Enemy of our souls, God’s enemy and therefore ours (because we belong to God) — the “spiritual forces of wickedness” —the devil and his evil legions.
Read MoreBack to the Cross -- our Focus in Crisis and Everyday
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I don’t know about you, but I have been so distracted these past couple weeks. So much to process. So much to try to wrap my head around. So much still going on with COVID-19 ramping up in the US. Whatever Lenten Meditation I traditionally do at this time of the year has been distracted and even sporadic.
Every Lent for the past 8 years, I have shared reflections on Jesus’ words from the cross. I love to think deeply on each of Christ’s words. And even though I wrote them down as the Holy Spirit illumined my mind and heart, I read them fresh as coming from another pen.
Read MoreAn Echo from the Past: Spiritual and Smart Advice for our Current "Black Plague"
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This entered my email inbox early today through a trusted friend. I just HAD to share it with you — the wise and practical words of one of my flawed but courageous heroes of the faith. Take his ancient words to heart…so applicable to our COVID-19 situation today.
Read MoreA New Lenten Fast -- Social Distancing in this Pandemic
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This morning I was reading the lovely Lenten book, 40 Days of Decrease (Alicia Britt Cole). It has been my habit day by day and year by year. Each day the author suggests a new fast — for instance, fasting regret, fasting criticism, fasting religious profiling, etc.
Well this morning, all of a sudden, I realized that we have a perfect fast going on…not by choice but by necessity. But we can make this fasting from social interaction spiritual by our attitude and our offering.
Read MoreCarrying or Casting? Our Choice in the Midst of Pandemic
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The situation we now face is enough to send each of us over the edge with anxiety and fear. We have no idea how this will all go globally, nationally, and personally. We watch it all unfold as our government officials and staff spell out what they know day by day.
It is then that we have to remember we have a choice. Will we carry the weight of these facts and predictions? Or will we cast our care, fling our anxieties on Him who is on the throne of heaven because He cares for us?
Read More[NEW LINK] In the Throes of COVID-19: Message from a Brother in the Lord in Austria
/![[NEW LINK] In the Throes of COVID-19: Message from a Brother in the Lord in Austria](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/564e2a34e4b0ad118963f571/1584487367423-W35IDYGXM0C3CC0ZKCGW/280px-Austria_Hungary_ethnic.png)
Hi everyone,
We are going through some unusual times.
Since I live in Europe, I feel a bit of a responsibility to write to dear friends and family in the US about the situation here and what it most likely will be like in the US in a few days.
Let me paint a picture of what may come in the next few days in the USA.
The Virus hit Europe several weeks before it arrived in the USA…
St Patrick's Prayer for our Quarantine and All our Sojourning on this Earth
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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 MoreThe Place of Immunity (a.k.a. QUARANTINE). . .Under His Wings
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When 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 MoreThe Best Quarantine Ever!
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Remembering where our life really is . . .
My REAL life is hidden [right now] WITH Christ IN God!
Read MoreLive While You are Alive . . . even in a Pandemic
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How 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.
Lenten Meditation: a Word of Abandonment
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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 MoreLenten Meditation: Eulogize your Living Loved One
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In 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 MoreLenten Meditation: a Word of Family Affection
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Dear 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 MoreLenten Meditation: a Word of Salvation
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Truly 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 MoreBe Thou My Vision -- a Hymn for my Every Day
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For 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 MoreForgiven to Live...and Forgive
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Until 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 MoreThe Forgiven Forgive: a Q & A to help
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How 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 MoreForgiveness Revisited
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Several 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 MoreLenten Meditation: a Word of Forgiveness
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Alexander 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.
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