PuttingTruthFirst

My husband is celebrating his 67th birthday today.  He enjoys having people fuss over him.  As for me I would really prefer to stay hidden behind the stuff.  I am glad that that is where I have been most of my life.  I like to think, read and study.  You can't do that very much if you are always seeking some sort of recognition.  We have a society that has moved a long ways from anonymity.  It seems that everyone wants every detail of their life out there for the whole world to see.  This is so different than it was when I was much younger.  Privacy was something that people really appreciated.  No one wanted to know the private life of others unless they were gossips and enjoyed spreading things around.  Privacy was greatly valued.  It showed a respect for oneself and for the lives of others.  Granted there were things hidden that should have been revealed for the safety or sanity of others, but most lives were dull and ...

The day looks a bit grey.  Clouds are blocking out the sun.  I know that somewhere the sun is shining.  We just can't see it today.  It is hard to accept that good things can come out of bad.  We see grey and that is all we see.  The reality is that all things do work together for good for them that love the Lord.  He can give us the strength to look beyond the grey and see the blue.  That bright ball of yellow that shines down on us so warmly is sometimes dimmed by the clouds of grey but in the background, the sun is shining.  What do we do when troubles come?  Do we allow ourselves to believe that there can be an answer to our difficulties and problems?  Answers are there we just need to know how to see them.  When the clouds of doubt and despair grip our thoughts, we must determine that we are not going to allow them to wipe out the brightness that is there.  It is to easy to be suffocated by the shadows but shadows wo...

The Lord has blessed us with refreshing rain.  Our long brown and dismal yard is now green with life.  The birds and butterflies visit roses covered in blooms.  It is delightful to see everything alive.  My if we could only see the beauty of life that we have been given when Christ died for us.  He took a dismal brown existence and made something rich and beautiful take its place.  How blessed we are!  What a privilege to be the child of our gracious and loving Heavenly Father!  My heart rejoices in His presence!  For many of us life is just a meager existence.  There is little joy and peace.  When happiness does arise for a brief moment it can be quickly swept away with an unkind word or a cruel act.  So many live in the realm of despair and futility.  They have no idea of all of the wonderful things that God has in store for their lives if they would only choose Him.  I am often saddened by the struggles that I s...

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 (NKJV) 9  The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10  and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11  And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12  that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.  I have often wondered how people could believe the big lie.  The lie that is described in 2 Thessalonians gives us some insight into the way people think.  My first real notice of peoples' ability to believe things that were not true and could never be true was an observation of my middle child at around five years of age.  I noticed that he paid a great deal of attention to a pair of tennis shoes that were advertised on TV.  He would watch as the man wearing ...

Today, I wondered if a woman had ever been instrumental in starting a war.  I can't think of an incident.  Perhaps someone with more knowledge than me can.  It seems that once again America is allowing itself to be dragged into another "war".  Just an incursion they say, "limited" involvement really.  I cannot understand the mindset of people who feel that war is even an option.  America is in debt on every level.  You would think that by this time someone would wise up and say can we really afford to do this.  How many lives must we surrender to this process that really helps no one?  Doesn't the Bible say that we are to pursue peace, chase after it.  Yet it seems the only way we can understand what it means is to hire another big gun to go after people in a land far away.  America is definitely on a downhill slide.  I am beginning to feel that the terrorists have won.  They have managed to kill three thousand people on ...

It is time to rejoice!  How blessed it is to be able to rejoice in the presence of our precious Savior and Lord.  Today I rejoice in Him!  The birds are singing His praises.  All creation is sounding out the news!  Let the redeemed of the Lord say so "I am redeemed!"  May we never take for granted the privilege of grace that has been so generously bestowed on our lives.  I am so thankful for all that God has done for me and for all of His dear children. The scripture tells us that we are treasures of the Lord.  We are also trophies of God's grace.  Bought with a great price, God has bestowed upon us all that pertains to life and joy.  Each day I stand in awe of what He has done.  Today, our society is fully consumerized (that's a new word, I just made up).  We were people who were content with one another to a certain degree but than we began to hear thousands, no millions, of ads day after day, hour after hour, minute by mi...

It's Monday It's Monday, time to recover from a busy weekend and look at all of the tasks that lay before us.  What a pleasant weekend it was!  My little eight year old grandson, Axel, did his Piano Book Recital.  He performed perfectly and brought joy to our hearts as well as a bit of laughter.  He is quite the ham!  Our church finished a special project that we had worked on all week.  It went extremely well but I expected that some in our Sunday School Class would miss due to all the time they spent at the church last week.  Most were there even though I knew they were just as tired if not more than I was.  We looked at the next attribute of Christ's mind in our lesson: peace.  What a joy it is to have a peaceful mind!  To not be troubled by all of the things going on about us is a real privilege.  In Christ we have that.  For  He tells us in John "My peace I give unto you, not the peace that the world gives but My...

It has been over a year since I took the time to write in my blog.  The last year offered many barriers to overcome both physically and emotionally.  My brother passed away at the end of 2011 and I became swept up in all of the affairs associated with that.  Grieving at his loss was hard to do when daily reminders would arrive at the house in the form of letters addressed to him.  I learned that  my adrenal glands no longer worked and I have Addison's Disease.  This was a real surprise.  It seemed hard to believe.  I found that I was extremely fatigued.  I also, lost my appetite finding it hard to eat anything.  I simply was not hungry.  I thought I was experiencing depression and am so thankful that a friend pointed out that something must be wrong.  I went to see an endocrinologist and learned that I had adrenal insufficiency.  Anyway, after many months I am finally beginning to feel alive again.  All of my brother...