That Good Part

This is what I do most Saturdays, and not a few other days of the week as well. It does not involve a mall (but it does involve the occasional Starbucks), it does not involve a church building (but a lot of ministry happens) and it does involve a rockin' good time! Sonia's husband Oscar took the pics, which is why I show up in them occasionally, and he did the video too.

Sound ominous, huh? I've been reading through Luke in my devotions, and something new caught my eye. Don't you love reading the Word and suddenly, a passage you may even have memorized has a newness to it that blows your mind? Reading the account of Jesus healing the man with the withered hand, (previous God bomb: the guy put out his hand immediately when Jesus told him too, he didn't say "hey I can't!" Note to self: stop telling God I can't) and this time, these words jumped off the page... "But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man who had the withered hand, " Arise and stand here ." And he arose and stood." He knew. He knew they were waiting, those people who always have a problem with Him, waiting to find an excuse to discredit Him, run Him out of town, even kill Him. And He did it anyway. Fulfilling His calling, bringing glory to God, touching the lives of broken people, it was worth doing no matter the cost. (Note to self: s...

Blogs are fun. I have some I read daily, because their authors are more inspired than I am and post regularly. I know it's not very interesting to check a blog for days (or weeks) on end only to see the same thing-sorry! One of the things I like about these blogs is reading what walking with God looks like in the lives of sisters whose seasons and callings are different from mine. A new blog I'm following is by a gal who is both like me and different all at the same time-Muffin! Yep, my daughter Ashley has a new blog you can check out here, The Newlywed's Notebook. She is having the most fun in this season of life, married almost two years already! I can't wait to read what God is showing her about life, marriage and kitchen utensils. If you're a newlywed, an almost-wed, a want-to-be-wed or want to remember what it was like, check out my muffin's blog: and yep, the picture in the banner is from their wedding-aren't they cute!

In December we sing a song about the twelve days of Christmas. If I were a lyricist I would write a song about what currently brings me joy- THE TWELVE DAYS UNTIL DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME!!!! Yes, that's right, it's the most wonderful time of the year. Nothing says spring time like being blinded at the dinner table because the sun is still high in the sky. Living in SoCal, we don't really have crocus coming up through the melting snow, or robins returning. On my street, we don't even have tulips blooming, because my neighbor, get this, has tulips all year in their garden. How is this possible, even in sunny California? BECAUSE THEY ARE PLASTIC. They have real flowers too, but one bed in their yard is all plastic flowers. Weird. But I digress. Mark your calendar and sing a little song, break out your Cobians and get a new beach umbrella at Costco, cause spring is almost here!

My friend Debbie reminded me that I hadn't blogged anything since November, and that's because I spent December trying to avoid all things technological. I had sort of an electronic meltdown between three blogs, a zillion digital pictures, two new websites to work on and finicky printers and disc burners. Like most of you, December was really busy, so if I had five empty minutes, I wanted something with pages made of paper. Our women's ministry has also just begun a study in the book of Joshua, which is shaping up for me as one of those books of the Bible that is like a good action movie-lots of fights, things being demolished and the good guys always win. I'm in the teaching rotation so that has kept me from blogging, too. It's a great book to be in for a multitude of reasons, but one that hits me today is the constant example of God's faithfulness. Joshua chapter one lays a great foundation for who God is, what He promises, and how He accomplishes what He inte...

From Oswald Chambers: "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17 What idea have you of the salvation of your soul? The experience of salvation means that in your actual life things are really altered, you no longer look at things as you used to; your desires are new, old things have lost their power. One of the touchstones of experience is - Has God altered the thing that matters? If you still hanker after the old things, it is absurd to talk about being born from above, you are juggling with yourself. If you are born again, the Spirit of God makes the alteration manifest in your actual life and reasoning, and when the crisis comes you are the most amazed person on earth at the wonderful difference there is in you. There is no possibility of imagining that you did it. It is this complete and amazing alteration that is the evidence that you are a saved soul. What difference has my salvatio...