Mount of Olives, Israel
Matthew 8:1-4
1 When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. 2 And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 3 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
The blog is picked out when I'm on vacation or on the run from the two thousand posts published since 2007. Prayer accomplishes the picked post before the post is read. Today's post is June 27th, 2008. The man photographed on the sidewalk on the Mount of Olives reminded me of our Pastor. This was his first trip to Israel.
Actually the post from June 27th, 2008 did not have a comment on the reading. I remember that particular day I felt very lonely. Who likes to admit to loneliness when in June of 2008, I had a house of youth ministry boys and dishes to wash. Heck, who likes to admit to loneliness. But I was and left the title as "Lord, if You will."
Loneliness has dogged me since I hit puberty. And I shared that with my very well read grandmother Anita. Who quoted me from her favorite book, "The Yearling" which has a quotes saying, "We all get lonely, we just go on."
And you know, life has seasons. My dad used to say the Sunday Blue Laws gave him the Sundays - a restless boredom not easily filled. Loneliness isn't always isolation, according to James Dobson. Loneliness can be insulation. How to share what's in your soul and who to give that to.
Scripture says Love covers a Multitude of Sins. You can get stuck inside yourself. Really stuck. One more reason to get off the American fed rear end and move that to Church.
We need to love. Love. To reach beyond our boundaries and truly care. I did Youth Ministry. That expanded my world a good bit. You let in the good with the bad when you increase your boundaries. Youth Ministry has had two almost fatal car accidents, an unplanned pregnancy resulting in good marriage, counseling crushed teens in good and bad dating, lots of bbqs and breakfasts. And we had an entire tent donated to us after my oldest son stood up and sprayed his younger brother's friends like a sprinkler system with thrown up - regurgitated Vienna sausages. Needless to say, there was A LOT of screaming, it woke up the entire camp site. Unfortunately, our employed Youth Minister did not see the humor until I almost passed out, I laughed so hard. He couldn't stay mad too long as I was starting to roll on the ground kicking my feet up in the air - the madder he got and the more the story progressed. To his credit, we both laughed till we cried.
And then, I just was still lonely. Which goes and comes, with this blog post ending in -
Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will"
The next significant thing in my insulation isolation or whatever you deem that - was our Church Needlepoint Group. Bing. HIM. What we share a significant amount of in our Needlepoint group is parental misbehavior. All of these grown women discovered we had this in common. We had in our midst a lady who now tells us she was wiped out - her stories reflected an abuse we don't even often see in the Media. And I realized, we had a duty to listen to these hard stories pouring out. Sometimes this is hard to listen to - it's easier to just be friends with the people who sparkle. And this group began to be a haven. Lives were changed. And the group began to go back to being a Needlepoint Group from time to time - because - old hurts were being... Healed.
This group made a change in my heart. Sometimes the group was... not fun. Sometimes there are things that are dark, lurk and not healed. And you, sadly, can't touch that. And we kept going and even touched upon some things you just have to give to Him. And the Truth is - He is in charge. This Light is still shining for this group.
Life has seasons of change. Which, oddly enough, is surprising. We've welcomed new family in our lives and I've felt my heart grow like no other time. And still this is a season of change and more looking at His Word for love to be good influence.
And I'm sitting here still proclaiming -
Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will"
This Post finds our Paster returning from Israel and I'm looking vastly forward to hearing Clark tell about new developments in Israel of men and women discovering God is good all the time.
And today, I do believe Love has permanently expanded my heart. Finding a voice for my soul. Loving the people I know with less judgement. Kicking tail when I have to. Volunteering at our local Pregnancy Assistance Center and finding out the privilege of finding sausage biscuits brought to the volunteers that instead went to feeding a homeless pregnant woman intent on hearing a Christian message and seeing her life change there. (Lord Jesus Christ be with that dear women who now is a new mom.)
Having a bright eyed young client tell me of homelessness, a handicapped six year old son, an unemployed new husband, a need for medicare specialist ob-gyn to discern the needs of her unborn daughter who was flagged as Downs Syndrome. With bitter anger to her mom for not helping her, when her other five siblings receive help. I prayed for her and she gave me a look like bitter uh-huh thanks. That made me wince a little. And our Director said - give this beautiful Cherry Changing Table to the next client. And our bright eyed young client said, "I will find a way to pick that up today." I said, look, forgive your mom. And do some of our homework on forgiveness. She said she would and she needed some forgiveness homework.
Prayer. What a thing. Last resort - hardly.
3 weeks later - bright eyed young client has returned. With .... her mom. And her mom is thrilled too. This young mom is getting a new trailer home from her mom to put on her mom's "beautiful" land! Our bright eyed young mom is glowing. Her husband has found steady employment. And... and... and she found the medicare specialist who said the Downs Syndrome was a false positive. The treasured six year old is thrilled to find his sister is going to be okay.
Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will"
And your blogger, she has had quite a day today. A request for prayer for a young lady who loves her mom and time will be spent at dinner looking over her wedding reception photos at our house. A request from Church Family and a dear lady to bring her family to swim again. A sister-in-law calling about scheduling a niece to spend the night. A family cousin's cousin is getting married and that will be fun! A great dinner with family out of town where my son who is twenty-four sparkled and passed a mom test to see if she'd press her daughter to meet my son. A Needlepointer calling to say we had a great couples weekend. And oh, God, HIM, my mom is coming to visit. Prayer is a good thing. We just had a family reunion. And and I had my house cleaned for the first time ever. With the ladies at Walmart recognizing a cart loaded with cleaning supplies congratulating me again and again that having your house cleaned is - Wonderful!! Then hearing from another far flung niece - who wants to meet the bride we mentioned at the top of our paragraph. God creating circles of love.
Father God, may all my family be blessed knowing that the Light that shines in all mankind is living, active, joyful, ready waiting, with open arms - to always love and care and rejoice in good events we look forward to in ... Hope, Faith and Love. With the Greatest of these being Love. Because. God is Love. In Jesus Christ. Amen.
The blog is picked out when I'm on vacation or on the run from the two thousand posts published since 2007. Prayer accomplishes the picked post before the post is read. Today's post is June 27th, 2008. The man photographed on the sidewalk on the Mount of Olives reminded me of our Pastor. This was his first trip to Israel.
Actually the post from June 27th, 2008 did not have a comment on the reading. I remember that particular day I felt very lonely. Who likes to admit to loneliness when in June of 2008, I had a house of youth ministry boys and dishes to wash. Heck, who likes to admit to loneliness. But I was and left the title as "Lord, if You will."
Loneliness has dogged me since I hit puberty. And I shared that with my very well read grandmother Anita. Who quoted me from her favorite book, "The Yearling" which has a quotes saying, "We all get lonely, we just go on."
And you know, life has seasons. My dad used to say the Sunday Blue Laws gave him the Sundays - a restless boredom not easily filled. Loneliness isn't always isolation, according to James Dobson. Loneliness can be insulation. How to share what's in your soul and who to give that to.
Scripture says Love covers a Multitude of Sins. You can get stuck inside yourself. Really stuck. One more reason to get off the American fed rear end and move that to Church.
We need to love. Love. To reach beyond our boundaries and truly care. I did Youth Ministry. That expanded my world a good bit. You let in the good with the bad when you increase your boundaries. Youth Ministry has had two almost fatal car accidents, an unplanned pregnancy resulting in good marriage, counseling crushed teens in good and bad dating, lots of bbqs and breakfasts. And we had an entire tent donated to us after my oldest son stood up and sprayed his younger brother's friends like a sprinkler system with thrown up - regurgitated Vienna sausages. Needless to say, there was A LOT of screaming, it woke up the entire camp site. Unfortunately, our employed Youth Minister did not see the humor until I almost passed out, I laughed so hard. He couldn't stay mad too long as I was starting to roll on the ground kicking my feet up in the air - the madder he got and the more the story progressed. To his credit, we both laughed till we cried.
And then, I just was still lonely. Which goes and comes, with this blog post ending in -
Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will"
The next significant thing in my insulation isolation or whatever you deem that - was our Church Needlepoint Group. Bing. HIM. What we share a significant amount of in our Needlepoint group is parental misbehavior. All of these grown women discovered we had this in common. We had in our midst a lady who now tells us she was wiped out - her stories reflected an abuse we don't even often see in the Media. And I realized, we had a duty to listen to these hard stories pouring out. Sometimes this is hard to listen to - it's easier to just be friends with the people who sparkle. And this group began to be a haven. Lives were changed. And the group began to go back to being a Needlepoint Group from time to time - because - old hurts were being... Healed.
This group made a change in my heart. Sometimes the group was... not fun. Sometimes there are things that are dark, lurk and not healed. And you, sadly, can't touch that. And we kept going and even touched upon some things you just have to give to Him. And the Truth is - He is in charge. This Light is still shining for this group.
Life has seasons of change. Which, oddly enough, is surprising. We've welcomed new family in our lives and I've felt my heart grow like no other time. And still this is a season of change and more looking at His Word for love to be good influence.
And I'm sitting here still proclaiming -
Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will"
This Post finds our Paster returning from Israel and I'm looking vastly forward to hearing Clark tell about new developments in Israel of men and women discovering God is good all the time.
And today, I do believe Love has permanently expanded my heart. Finding a voice for my soul. Loving the people I know with less judgement. Kicking tail when I have to. Volunteering at our local Pregnancy Assistance Center and finding out the privilege of finding sausage biscuits brought to the volunteers that instead went to feeding a homeless pregnant woman intent on hearing a Christian message and seeing her life change there. (Lord Jesus Christ be with that dear women who now is a new mom.)
Having a bright eyed young client tell me of homelessness, a handicapped six year old son, an unemployed new husband, a need for medicare specialist ob-gyn to discern the needs of her unborn daughter who was flagged as Downs Syndrome. With bitter anger to her mom for not helping her, when her other five siblings receive help. I prayed for her and she gave me a look like bitter uh-huh thanks. That made me wince a little. And our Director said - give this beautiful Cherry Changing Table to the next client. And our bright eyed young client said, "I will find a way to pick that up today." I said, look, forgive your mom. And do some of our homework on forgiveness. She said she would and she needed some forgiveness homework.
Prayer. What a thing. Last resort - hardly.
3 weeks later - bright eyed young client has returned. With .... her mom. And her mom is thrilled too. This young mom is getting a new trailer home from her mom to put on her mom's "beautiful" land! Our bright eyed young mom is glowing. Her husband has found steady employment. And... and... and she found the medicare specialist who said the Downs Syndrome was a false positive. The treasured six year old is thrilled to find his sister is going to be okay.
Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will"
And your blogger, she has had quite a day today. A request for prayer for a young lady who loves her mom and time will be spent at dinner looking over her wedding reception photos at our house. A request from Church Family and a dear lady to bring her family to swim again. A sister-in-law calling about scheduling a niece to spend the night. A family cousin's cousin is getting married and that will be fun! A great dinner with family out of town where my son who is twenty-four sparkled and passed a mom test to see if she'd press her daughter to meet my son. A Needlepointer calling to say we had a great couples weekend. And oh, God, HIM, my mom is coming to visit. Prayer is a good thing. We just had a family reunion. And and I had my house cleaned for the first time ever. With the ladies at Walmart recognizing a cart loaded with cleaning supplies congratulating me again and again that having your house cleaned is - Wonderful!! Then hearing from another far flung niece - who wants to meet the bride we mentioned at the top of our paragraph. God creating circles of love.
Father God, may all my family be blessed knowing that the Light that shines in all mankind is living, active, joyful, ready waiting, with open arms - to always love and care and rejoice in good events we look forward to in ... Hope, Faith and Love. With the Greatest of these being Love. Because. God is Love. In Jesus Christ. Amen.
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