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Seasons change.....

Spring is my most encouraging season. I love finding the sprouts of life that emerge from the frozen ground each March. Its one of the highlights of my year. It gives me fresh hope of new beginnings. It reminds me of God's faithfulness and the splendors of his rewards. This spring more than ever I think I need to be reminded of God's faithfulness in all things.

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;

There is no shadow of turning with Thee;

Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;

As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

Great is Thy faithfulness!

Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see.

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,

Sun, moon and stars in their courses above

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

- Thomas Chisholm, 1923

Underdog- *aa*

I am so weak and I'm so tired
It's hard for me to
Find enough strength to feed the fires
That fuel my ego
And consequently all my pridehas all but died
Which leaves me
Down on my knees
Back to the place I
Should have started from
Been beat up
Been broken down
Nowhere but up
When you're facedown
On the ground
I'm in last place
If I place at all
But there's hope for this underdog!

You can call me the underdog

I'm in this race to win a prize
The odds against me
he world has plans for my demise
What they don't see
Is that a winner is not judged by his small size
But by the substitute he picks to run the race

And mine's already won

The whole world's about to change *DCB*

And the problem is this
We were bought with a kiss
But the cheek still turned
Even when it wasn't hit
And I don't know
What to do with a love like that
And I don't know
How to be a love like that


When all the love in the world
Is right here among us
And hatred too
And so we must choose
What our hands will do


Where there is pain
Let there be grace
Where there is suffering
Bring serenity
For those afraid
Help them be brave
Where there is misery
Bring expectancy
And surely we can change
Surely we can change
Something

And the problem it seems
Is with you and me
Not the Love who came
To repair everything

Where there is pain
Let us bring grace
Where there is suffering
Bring serenity
For those afraid
Let us be brave
Where there is misery
Let us bring them relief
And surely we can change
Surely we can change
Oh surely we can change
Something


Oh, the world's about to change
The whole world's about to change

more than ever i want this to be what defines my life. i want to love. i want to be love in the lives of the ordinary and the broken. i want to be loved.

Sold Out

Every day it happens. Some days more than others. Christians "sell out" to the world.





Its something that perplexes me. I dont understand it at all. I have done it too.




After 20 years in ministry positions, I have witnessed this on so many levels. Some Christians sell out to politcal ideals, others to the compromise of a sinful society. Some sell out their faith for a rational view of academia, forgetting that the basis of rationalism falls into the hands of the finite and fallen human thought. For whatever reasoning, every generation of Christianity sells themselves out for some "modern" concept or ideal, or contempory crisis.



God's word tells us that He never changes. It tells us that He is the Alpha and Omega, omniscient, omni-present and omnipotent God. Circumstances are not a surprise to him. Situations and personalities do not perplex Him. God is the same yesterday, today and forever.


Somehow, Christians have forgotten this. They think that everything that happens in this life is up to us. But it isnt. Its up to God. We have free will to do as we choose, but God is still above all. He doesnt need our permission, ideas or opinions.


Many Christians live as if God has changed his mind about the fundamentals found in the Old Testament. He hasnt. The Ten Commandments are still His Commandments. He is still Jehovah.


In the Old Testament, to be forgiven of sin, priests drew lots to determine who would go into the Holy of Holies. If the priest who entered had any sin in his life, he would be struck dead behind the veil and would be dragged out by a rope tied to his ankle for that express purpose.


In the New Testament, God sent his son Jesus as the final sacrifice for sin. No longer do we need a priest to enter the Holy of Holies on our behalf, but Jesus himself intercedes for us. He is our direct line to God. Our bodies now serve as the Holy of Holies and a temple for the Holy Spirit.

God didnt change his mind about sin when Jesus died. He still has the same disdain and intolerance for sin as he ever did. Jesus death did not give us freedom to sell out and compromise the sacrifice. It brought redemption to those bound with sin and guilt. It brought forgiveness for our unrighteousness. It was Christ's love for us that brought him to the cross so that we may be the living temple of the Holy Spirit.

Many Christians live their lives as if freedom in Christ means a person can live anyway they choose. I am not sure where this postmodern Christian thinking came from, but I can be sure of one thing. God will remain the same. His word never changes. He is the only way the truth and the life, and no one comes to God except through Christ's forgiveness and grace.





Christians have corrupted the new temple by selling out their ideals and opinions without regard to what Christ himself would want in the temple. The unfortunate truth in this is that being that their bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit as part of the trinity can not reside with sin. Christians who compromise truth as God designed it also in turn compromise the Holy Spirit's ability to work or be present in their lives.






"Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it," declares the LORD

Jeremiah 7:11

Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.
Matthew 21:12


Should God then reward you on your terms, when you refuse to repent?
Job 34:33

Producing Fruit

At some point last winter I hatched the idea of growing my own seedlings for my garden.

I don't have a tremendous vegetable garden. I don't necessarily have a "green thumb". I just like to doodle around with plants and see what happens.

My husband bought me some heirloom seeds and in February, I started my seedlings. They were off to a treacherous start, however, as I had started them in our shed hoping that the light from the window would warm the shed enough to start the seeds. I really wasn't sure of what I was doing, and figuring that my venture may fail, I planted and over sowed my seeds into the seed starter pots. To my amazement, I think they all sprouted. Broccoli, tomatoes, zucchini and lettuce. I was pretty proud of myself.

One March afternoon, however, I came outside to find my seedlings dead. They had been removed from the shed to access other tools and not put back inside. Some of the seedlings actually had been spilled out onto the brick patio. All the plants were destroyed.

As I swept up the seed starter soil and cleaned the patio, I was discouraged. I had high hopes for these plants. I was looking forward to a summer of delicious fresh vegetables. I would harvest seeds from them from the next year's crop. I was left only with frozen seedlings.

After the first frost, my husband took me to the nursery to pick out plants. Knowing the area we live in, and knowing the soil we had, I hadn't many hopes for the plants at the nursery. He encouraged me to buy replacement plants for the ones I had lost. I hesitated, and then consented. I purchased the plants I wanted and brought them home along with fertilizers and some soil treatments to help grow.

Time passed and my garden was thriving. I had more zucchini than I knew what to do with and the grape tomatoes were ripening like wildfire. I was happy for the harvest, but wished for the lost seedlings. I wanted to collect their seeds. I wanted to sow them the years following.

As brick patios often do, my patio became in need of weeding. Weeds began to sprout between the cracks of the bricks. How anything can grow in such limited space so quickly is truly beyond me, especially as the cracks are sand packed, and are less than a few millimeters wide. Aside from those conditions, thick and rocky Virginia clay lie underneath the bricks. It doesn't take much for the weeds though. They have enough stubborn to succeed I guess.

As I was weeding, I made an interesting discovery. A tomato plant was growing from between the bricks on the patio. It was growing in the same place where the seedlings had spilled over. Not only was it growing, but there were blossoms on it, and there was a small tomato too. It was less than eight inches high, but its stem was broad and so were its branches.

I was amazed. I couldn't believe that after all this time, a tomato plant from lost seedlings from 4 months earlier took root. A bird didn't find the seed. It had been "sown" onto bricks. The patio had been well swept from the topple of the plants. Yet here stood this tomato plant. It was thriving. It was producing fruit.

Last Saturday I picked the biggest tomato from my garden all season. I had other plants that had been pampered, watered, caged, and fertilized. Yet the plant who had the least produced the best fruit. It took longer than all the other tomato plants, in fact they are all finished for the season. Not this tomato plant, though. It has more blossoms on it and another tomato in the making.

I cant help but think that God has a lesson for me in this. In this life, God honors the faithful. He gives strength to those who need it and protection for those who need it so that all may bear fruit. We may have the best circumstances or the worst circumstances. That doesn't matter to God. He can grow fruit anywhere He chooses in any circumstance He chooses. He honors obedience. He honors diligence. He honors humility and humble circumstances. The end result is the fruit of His Spirit.

Accepting Change

This week I said good bye to some of the dearest friends I have ever had and began a new journey at a new church body.

It has been an adjustment this week settling into a new place with new duds and new challenges. I am really not good at change. I guess I will have to get good at it soon.

Some of my friends in Northern VA have told me that our former home is on the market again. I think they are trying to tempt me to move back :)

But with God's plans, there can be no turning back. I can't look back to where I have come from and get to where He needs me to be. I need to focus forward: focus on the goal He has set before me. Trust completely. Let go. Lay it down.

Exciting things are happening at the new church. God is making His move there. He wants me to be a part of that. I must accept the challenge. I am excited to be a part of what God wants to do at Northridge.