How many of you are like me and are just stunned at the popular culture we live in today?  I’m not as young as I used to be, but I’m not ancient either 🙂  I remember the days (not that long ago!)  when good was promoted and evil was looked down upon.  We always wanted to be the cowboy in the white hat and wanted the villain in the black hat to go down. As a Christian, years ago I backslid for a time.  As the granddaughter of two pastors, I knew the Bible and the teachings of Christ well enough to know that I was in sin. I never questioned that and I didn’t explain it away as being anything but what it was.  In fact, I wouldn’t let anyone around me know that I was a Christian, because I didn’t want to cast a bad testimony upon our Lord or on the reputation of His church. Sin was sin and I knew it.  I think I shocked a handful of people who had met me during my backslidden years when I got online and started posting scripture and calls to come to Christ because they had no clue I had a deep faith deep within me that I never demonstrated while in my backslidden state.

When you turn the TV on now, open a magazine, listen in on a conversation while out and about, sin is considered good and appropriate, even (sad to say) while calling ourselves Christians.  I know those who live an “alternative lifestyle” that the Bible plainly calls sin who acknowledge their lifestyles openly and say God is ok with it and that they are ready to meet Him when they die. They embrace the thought that He approves of the lifestyle.

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We’re all so busy with the rush of daily life.  Get the kids off to school, get the house clean, go to your meeting, doctor’s appointment, get home in time to take the husband’s suit to the dry cleaners but make sure to be home before the school bus does, to get the kids off the bus.  Get the kids happy and settled and start dinner.  Serve dinner, get everyone happy and collapse on the couch for an hour exhausted, get the kids to bed and go to bed yourself.  Rinse and repeat 🙂

Even those of us who are planners and bullet journalers. We make sure to get everyone’s appointments down on our calendar.  We write down the days we need to do certain chores to keep up on it all so it doesn’t build up and come crashing down around us (because most of us know that if we don’t do it, it won’t get done, right?)

But as today’s devotional reminds us:  Don’t neglect the eternal!

In all your planning, make sure you pencil in some time for the Lord. If you don’t put Him first, nothing else will fall into place in any kind of effective way.  If if falls together physically, often we are left empty and exhausted and our spiritual and mental health suffers as a result.

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This week I would like to contemplate the phrase, “Back to Life”.  What does that mean when we consider that phrase?  Most of us Christians would first think about Jesus’ death and resurrection, of course.  Aside from that, what does it stir up in your spirit?

For me, I’m digging my way back to life after a season of deep depression.  It all started with entering menopause at the same time we lost the house we had built and brought our son into the world in.  An extremely hurting ending to a 10-year ministry and fellowship with a large women’s Bible study group happened about that same time as well and we moved back to my hometown to be near my mother who had to enter a nursing home having been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.  Being an autism mom and daughter of an Alzheimer’s mother has taken its toll.  I try to stay close to the Lord and having the commitment of reading the Bible to my son every night as he falls to sleep keeps me in the Word.

I encourage you to find a way to be accountable to read the Bible daily!

I read this devotional during my evening devotional readings on You Version after my regular read-through-the-Bible in a year plan during which my sweet son fell sleep with his head on my shoulder.  It touched my spirit and I hope it does yours as well! —>

        Back To Life

        Devotional by Mandisa

While reading this devotional the other night, in my YouVersion app, this one really struck home.  At first because of the story of Rich Mullins and his “Ragamuffin band“.  I’ve loved Rich’s music  for a long time and I came to appreciate his story so much when I saw the movie about his life, Ragamuffin.

I bought the DVD 3-4 years ago and when I first watched it, I cried like a baby.  Not only for my compassion for his relationship with he and his father, but because of how parallel it was to my own relationship with my father.  I watched part of it again last night on YouTube while preparing for this post and was on the verge of tears again when I closed it.  That heart break never goes away even though I made peace with my father before he went on to be with the Lord in 1997.  It stays with you.

I was a victim of severe bullying as child.  Not only at school (thought that was really bad) but also at home. I taught a Bible study on this and shared my testimony regarding it for my Bible study group and posted it on my YouTube Channel in hopes of it ministering to others.  It’s so much more rampant today than it was when I was a child in the 70’s and 80’s and I can’t image it being worse than it was for me, but at the same time I’m so grateful to not have to contend with cyber-bulling the kids have to endure today.

I share that to say this:  The worst part of my bullying was the divide it placed between me and my heavenly father.  It was really difficult to view my heavenly Father as a loving, giving, compassionate father, when the other father figure I’d ever know, my earthly father, was irate, berating, screaming and shaming.  Now I see that my dad was a victim of sin as we all are, and that Jesus died for him just like he did me.  My father died with us both loving each other very much.  Thank you, Lord!  However…those scars remain and those old tapes continue to play in my view of God no matter how much I fight it and stay in the Word and read the truth.  I’ve come to understand that it’s a prime weapon of the enemy to discourage me in my faith.  The thing I look forward to the most is meeting my Savior face to face and feel His arms of love around me, never again to struggle with the old tapes again.

Having said that…this week’s devotional:

In Awe of Love

Creation discloses a power that baffles our minds and beggars our speech. We are enamored and enchanted by God’s power. We stutter and stammer about God’s holiness. We tremble before God’s majesty…and yet we grow squeamish and skittish before God’s love.

 

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This week we’re talking about a topic that most of us know really well:  Anxiety.  So many of us seems to fight it on a daily basis.  If not, we give in and let it overwhelm us while we climb under the covers and hope it will go away.

I’m definitely a resident of Anxiety Avenue. I was bullied badly as a child and young adult (a post to come about that soon) both at home and at school.  Most recently, in the past 12 years:  my then-baby son was diagnosed with autism, my husband had a heart attack, he went into kidney failure and endured 5 1/2 years of dialysis, had a kidney transplant, years of therapies for my son (who is 14 years now and still non-verbal but sweet and smart and very present.  After two years of fighting tooth and nail, we lost the house we built and lived in for 12 1/2 years, moved back to my home town to be close to my mom who had to be put in a nursing home suffering with alzheimers.

I’m very acquainted with the beast of anxiety 🙂  I’ve come a long way and continue to be taught that God knows best and will guide us through the times of life that feel like our heart will be ripped out of our chest.  It didn’t take Him by surprise, and He will bring us out the other side and we will look back and be thankful for the things we learn through it that we could never learn any other way.  That’s a lesson we take with us into eternity and for that much, we can be thankful.

I hope this week’s devotional will minister to you and I both!

From the devotional, “Healing Negative Emotions“, by Kimberly Taylor in her book, “Take Back Your Temple”:

Feeling Anxious

When I read the 23rd Psalm, I am taken to a place of tranquility and peace instantly. My anxious thoughts quiet down at just the first sentence: “The Lord is my Shepherd.” I love the image of God being my Keeper, Protector, and Deliverer. I am not alone. I have His Presence with me at every hour of the day.

Have confidence that the Lord makes you to lie down in green pastures, which means that He is taking you to a place of rest and stillness in Him: “Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).”

If you are always running around and don’t have quiet time with the Lord, then how can you receive restoration in your mind, will, and emotions? Modern life can drain you dry if you let it. That is why so many people are emotional wrecks. They are running on empty. But God promises to restore us.

Once you receive rest and restoration in the Lord, then you can walk with Him as He leads you in paths of righteousness. He shows you how to think right, believe right, and live right.

Even though your circumstances may make you feel like you are walking through the valley of the shadow of death, you will not fear because you know the Lord is with you. God’s goodness toward you will be so visible that even your enemies will see His handiwork upon your life. They will see God’s grace abounding toward you.

What is God’s grace? Grace is everything God is and God has made available to you. In old movies about royalty, you see people addressing the King or Queen as “Your Grace” as they bow down. Jesus is “Your Grace.” He gave His very life for you. In Him, you have a new identity as the beloved of God.

In Jesus, you have forgiveness of sin and victory over sin. In Him, you have peace and joy because He left you with both. In Him, you have love and with His love, you are empowered to love your neighbor as yourself. When you consider this, then you see that material things cannot compare with the riches of His grace! Because Jesus is your Shepherd, then you indeed shall not want when you meditate on all you have in Him.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Psalms 23:1‭-‬6 ESV

You can read this reading plan on YouVersion –>

I can really relate to today’s devotional.  It’s so true that our minds are a battlefield!

I got myself a traveler’s notebook from Chic Sparrow for Christmas and since I wanted to use it for journaling and planning,  I chose the Patina line and had Philippians 4:8 put on the front:

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”

It seems like the ideal verse to be reminded of when you’re about to pour out your heart into words 🙂 This devotional takes that even further and I encourage us all to meditate on it this week 🙂

“From Dreaming to Doing”

Growing up, I heard today’s verse interpreted in negative terms. Take sinful thoughts captive and keep them out of your mind. And that is half the battle. But if we focus on the negative implications while ignoring the positive possibilities, it becomes a half-truth. It’s also about capturing creative thoughts and keeping them in our minds. Simply put, it’s about stewarding every idea inspired by the Holy Spirit.

This is the first of my Mindful Monday devotionals on this blog. I look forward to sharing devotionals weekly in hopes to bless all of you and growing from it myself!

Have you ever been in the wilderness?  That place where you’re sitting there wounded and wondering,”Why me?”, “Why is God allowing this to happen to me?”,  “What’s the purpose of this?”  It seems like everything that can go wrong, will and IS!

Friend, I sure have been through my share of the wilderness and I’ve been there asking the Lord time and again, the whys and the whens about when a time of refreshing will be back around.

I’ve been in and out of the wilderness enough to know that what the prosperity preachers are spouting from the pulpits or TV microphones is a bunch of baloney. The full fat, greasy kind 🙂

God allows us to go through hard times because in going through that wilderness, it teaches us to

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