Lord, I have asked You for eyes to see the world the way You do. I have seen some huge need and great struggle in the lives of many over these last weeks. Lord, I'm feeling so small. I am just one person... but You, Lord... goodness with You, I can move the mountains! Lord, thank You for speaking to me in the book She Did What She Could... that my hands came to find it resting on the bookstore shelf... I'm thankful for the few moments You gave me to read the message You had waiting for me - tucked in it's pages. Please show me what You'd have me to do. I know everything you'd have me to do, is EXACTLY what I could do in the lives of those around me. May You be exalted and lifted up, Holy Father. I'm trying hard to follow after You and so I ask You to keep speaking to me... I pray to have an open heart and willing hands. I'm waiting on You to show me what You'd have me to do next.

Amen.

When our world is shaking, Heaven stands!

This song's lyrics say so much...

What doesJesus want for his birthday?

These last weeks I have been heavy with thought...feeling God's pull to undo all of what I know Christmas to be. Yielding to His prompting to lay everything I know Christmas to be, down on the alter. That in giving it all back, I might allow Him room to make it what He'd have it to be.

but it's feeling so different, hard, a bit messy... this process of dying to self...

I find myself praying over and over, "May there be less of me, and so much more of You." But I confess, He is still feeling crowded out of my Advent season - crowded out by gift lists, grocery lists, to-do lists...

This Christmas season is all about Him... or is it? Is my Advent season reflecting that it's really all about Him?

What if everything I've always known Christmas to be was erased? What would happen if I let go of everything familiar and set out to embrace the holiday season as He would have it? What if I allowed Him full access to everything from family traditions and memory-making to meal planning and gift-giving? Just what would happen?



What could happen?



He came to change the world... to transform her landscape forever ... Might He change my world this season.... transform the landscape of my heart forever? I hope so. I pray so. Undo me, Lord.

I was reading Ann's ideas and something in me wanted to sing...Yes, all gifts in this family of six could be just for Him... giving to those around the world in need... children circling items they want...

not for themselves, but for others...

Yes, Lord, go ahead and undo my version of Christmas ... build it up new.... may it be Your Christmas. May my own heart be the first gift You open...

The God of New Beginnings

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away;behold, the new has come"

Why is it that I cling to the old self and am fearful and hesitant to embrace the new things God brings my way? I can think of many times in my life where God went ahead of me, carefully unfolding His plan to bring forth new life in me. He was waiting, ready to show me all the things He had in store, but I was clinging dearly to the old and familiar. I was fearful of letting go... and the process hurt. God had to take my clenched fist and remove each finger, one by one. He kept whispering, "Come, Child. Be not afraid. I mean for all things to work for your greatest good. I have no plans to harm you, Child. I love you."

In this holy season of advent...as we prepare for the coming birth of our Savior, so often I'm caught up in a lengthy "to do" list....the endless preparations... but what am I really preparing for? Gift openings and endless meals? or am I preparing a way for my Lord? To welcome Him into the fabric of my day to day life with sincere willingness to be changed from the inside out? am I caught up in commercialism or God's wondrous miracles? Am I clinging to the familiar or embracing the new?

I was blessed to visit the home of a sweet couple this weekend. A man who's body is giving way to the cancer. His bones and frail frame will not bear the weight any longer. He lays flat in bed day after day, unable to move himself. His tenderhearted wife ever near to meet his day to day needs. In the world's eyes, this tender couple doesn't have much to speak of... Oh, but they are rich. If you didn't have eyes to see it, you'd most certainly miss it...the true beauty and bounty that surrounds them. They seem to possess everything on my wish list this year... tremendously rich faith, refined by trials and testing, tender hearts filled with grace and mercy, peaceful minds at rest in Christ. It is a gift to know them. I aspire to be more like them. This season, you will not find them rushing here and there, gathering up trees and tinsel. There is no real place for such things these days. The endless shopping lists, cookie varieties, holiday cards no longer seem of any significance....for they understand, all too clearly, now is the time to embrace...to gather 'round the manger together...to draw close, arm in arm and receive our King with hearts wide open.

This weekend I was reminded just how impossible it is to embrace the baby Jesus, when I'm holding stacks of groceries, holiday party items, and packages. In glancing around their home, some might conclude they aren't ready for Christmas... the eyes of the world certainly wouldn't find it anywhere, but their home is brimming with Christmas...

is mine???

Christmas is the tender touch.
Christmas is the thankful heart.
Christmas is the hope of Christ.
Christmas is the offering of self.
Christmas is the prayer offered.
Christmas is the true, lasting peace.

He came unto His own, but they received him not...

Lord, give me eyes to see! Help me to bend a knee at the manger....to ready myself to embrace the King of kings. I want to see You clearly... to see Christmas through Your eyes. That I might let go of all that is old and familiar, and rush to the new, unfamiliar path you have set before me. Father God, I am so richly blessed. Thank you will never seem enough...You have freely given me the greatest gift I have ever received... Christ, my Savior is born!

Treasured/God Gave Us Blog Tour

Treasured: Knowing God by the Things He Keeps by Leigh McLeroy

From the back cover:
Cigar boxes. Refrigerator doors. Scrapbooks and sock drawers and top shelves. These are the places we store our treasures–the keepsakes that tell the story of whom and what we’ve loved, how we’ve lived, and what matters most to us.

God is a collector, too, whose treasures are tucked securely into the pages of his book: a golden bell here, an olive leaf there, a scarlet thread, a blood-stained cloth, a few grains of barley. Each of these saved artifacts reveals a facet of his heart and tells the story of a Father whose most precious possession is…us.

In Treasured, Leigh McLeroy considers tangible reminders of God’s active presence and guides us in discovering evidence in our own lives of his attentive love.

***
I really enjoyed this book. I used it as an evening devotional, reading a chapter before bed. It proved to be a quiet way to draw close to the Father and gain fresh insight into His heart and character. The book takes you into familiar biblical stories and draws from details you might not have otherwise considered. Even in what might appear to be a small detail to us, God offers tremendous insight into who He is. We all face hardship, struggle, and disappointment in this life. At times, we all have experienced difficulty seeing God clearly in the depths of our time in the refiner's fire. He's there...look for Him in the details... such details as an olive leaf, a dry water skin, or a bloodstained piece of wood. In the end, every detail, when more carefully examined, shows His amazing love for us.

To find out more or purchase this book click here.


God Gave Us Christmas & God Gave Us Love written by Lisa Tawn Bergren

These two books are great! In God Gave Us Christmas, the story helps children understand the true meaning of Christmas. When Little Cub wishes to find Santa, Mama speaks of finding God. So together, they set out to find God at Christmas...which is, after all, who we should be seeking during this blessed season. In God Gave Us Love, Little Cub and Grandpa talk about different kinds of love and how God wants us to show love to everybody. Little Cub finds it difficult to always love. Grandpa explains God wants us to show love for others even when we don't feel loving toward them. Both books offer a nice place for parents to begin a heart-to-heart chat with their youngsters about the God of Christmas and the God of love.

Click for more information or to purchase God Gave Us Love and God Gave Us Christmas.
These books were provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

Blessed Thanksgiving...

Come to my Rescue...

John 14:18-19a: "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me.


And See Him we, most certainly, did! These little girls transformed the landscape of our home for a weekend and our hearts forever. I pray our children will have the impact on the world in one day, as these girls did...all by the power and working of the Holy Spirit. Praise be the name of the Lord!

Our God is the most powerful ALMIGHTY! And in His rich tenderness and mercy, He stoops low to hold us, His children, close to His heart. We were all, at one time, lost and wandering alone...in desperate need of someone to care for us...Someone to bind up the wounds and lavish rich love over us. We needed to be rescued.

How blessed are we who can proclaim His goodness and mercy! We who are called, children of the Most High God! What privilege it is to call Him our Father...to reap the heritage of His heavenly kingdom as He has chosen us to be His own...He came for us. He rescued us from the depths of sin and death, and gathered us up tightly to His chest. Oh what love is this, that He would willingly give all He had to love me and include me in His heavenly family?!?

At this time of thanksgiving, I am yet again at a loss for adequate words of thanks or praise - words that might bebig enough to stretch over all that I feel in my heart. I am humbled by His mercy and grace. He is my everything... Thank You, Jesus.