Peace in the Midst of My Hurrying

This week offered me my last chance to finish up a few things that still required my attention before Winter puts his icy fingers into our soil and coats everything with a blanket of snow. I put leaves provided by Autumn onto the flowerbeds, and cut back some of the raggedy odds and ends, added a large contribution to my composting bins, and pulled up the last of the canalily bulbs. I also had many things that needed attention in the house as well. It certainly kept me very busy but getting it all done was so very satisfying, and being that busy you would think I had no time to waste being online...but I did, and I hope that it wasn't a waste of time, but God only knows ;-)

A few days ago I stumbled into a conversation by a Seventh day Adventist on the topic of the SDA church starting to enter into the eccumenical wave. His remarks about it revealed that many Adventists believe their church is not susceptible to what is happening worldwide, but it said nothing about the greater problem at the root of Adventism: Ellen G. White and her false teachings about Jesus. I shared my thoughts regarding these things, and gave about 3 or 4 replies in answering 2 Adventists who desired me to back up my "false accusations" (which was probably at least 2 too many replies) before giving up, not before sharing that I am praying there might be some (even if only one!) whom the Lord might give sight and understanding.

In previous strivings for the truth I would get very upset and even angry with the "blind ones" for not seeing what I'm trying to "bless them with", but over the past year the Lord has blessed me with a peace even in the midst of such striving that it is no longer striving! Praise be to God! And also the work that needs doing around the house and garden, work that used to often be drudgery is now joyful and wonderful to see these things bringing harmony and goodness and blessing as benefits reaped from the hard work accomplished.

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!!!

First Snow of This Season

So much I haven't gotten to yet outside, but we are supposed to get a couple of warmer days this week so maybe I'll be able to do it then...

The pure white of the snow reminds me of what the Bible says about being washed by the Lord’s blood:

Isa 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.


Now, back to work on my needlepoint :)

We Can Always Do More....

Yesterday in the comment section of someone's blog  who is always more than happy to point to everyone else's faults (all too human a trait that I confess I succumb to much too often) I was accused of being lazy and thereby letting my laziness dictate my behaviour of a pseudo-religious tactic of hiding behind my husband...if she truly knew me she would see how ridiculous that accusation is, in so many ways, lol, but it had me thinking and praying on the topic, and it makes me wonder how much is too much and how little is too little, because we can always do more,  in fact works based religions work their parishioners to death with zero benefit to their salvation. It also brought to mind the sheep and goats parable, the goats reminding Jesus of all the good things they did in His name and Him having to sadly say to them "Depart from me you workers of iniquity, I never knew you", because it isn't our works that saves us, it is His grace and our humility in the understanding of the  huge chasm between the two.

In pondering the accusation of my quasi-pseudo-religious laziness/hiding under a bushel by "hiding behind my husband"  I considered Sarai who went along with Abram's silly notion of hiding the fact that they were married and didn't rebuke him for it. She trusted God, she had to have, because if I was in that situation I would have had some very choice words for my dear hubby, God bless his patient soul for putting up with the likes of me! But God did turn it all out for good (as we are told that the Lord does so in Romans 8:28, a blessed Bible promise indeed!)...and yet we are told of Abram/Abraham's faith as being the example we are to follow!!! Really? But he messed up so badly! Yes, but his faith in God had nothing to do with his human lack of sound judgment! Praise God!

In sharing the "good news" (gospel) do we? Do we share the good news? Or do we continually dwell on the bad news and think it our "godly duty" to bash everyone over the head continually about it? And how much bashing is enough to say one isn't lazy about bashing everyone over the head about the bad behaviours and false teachers out there?

Thank you Jesus that you are sufficient and all of our striving adds nothing to what You have done for us.

Can Jesus Do It?

In my internet wanderings I have come across several “former Christians” that I personally see as never truly having surrendered all to Jesus, never having completely confessed their inability to save themselves, and humbly receive the finished work and thereby sealed by Him forever, justified and sanctified by that mysterious union that can only happen through a complete spiritual rebirth. Why then, considering all these many whom I have encountered who also have fallen away, do I feel a special torment and suffering for Alice?

That is a question that I have been asking myself and the Lord for quite some time, and the reason I came back to it here these last couple of weeks is for that exact same reason.

Thankfully, Frank’s comment on my other blog shook the answer loose in my thoughts which kept me going in a circle with this. Thank you Frank, for being so...Frank, lol.

Frank said (among other things) that perhaps the Church had somehow let people like Alice down, allowing her to “slip through the cracks” and there’s the rub. I believe that deep down I think that I am responsible for having let her down by not preventing her from slipping through those cracks, or perhaps even in my flesh, my sinful mortality, saying or doing something that pushed her away from The Truth, the one she claims to still be seeking after.

 In a comment to another blogger I suggested that we won’t change the evil we see all around us but need to take Jesus at His word that He will make everything beautiful in His time, and to continue to rail against all the things we see as wrong does nothing to change it. I need to take my own advice. I need to trust that Jesus HAS THIS under His control as well. I pray for Alice and her family that has been suffering as a result of her “transformation”, and pray that I can honestly let this go and leave her to Jesus to deal with her truly. Amen.