"Enlarge the place of you tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes" ~Is 54:2~

But Lord, I am just one person, and I have many of my own to take care of, and great responsibility....excuses I use. But God wants my home to be enlarged, to stretch out the curtains of my dwelling to take care of others, to make my home the place that little children feel welcome, and adults feel safe to kick up their feet, be themselves, have peace, and still be loved for who they are. This passage of scripture is entitled in my Bible: A Perpetual Covenant of Peace. Perpetual, on-going. Covenant, promise. Peace, priceless. Not just for me, and my children, but for all whose life I can touch, all those around me. I can be grafted family for others in need. I can love beyond my own. I don't have to worry that my resources should be hoarded up for my own...God calls me to share all I have with the poor, and the poor in spirit, trusting Him to fill my mill barrel-as I serve Him by serving others, it will never run dry. I have received so much from Him, and from others around me. Lord knows, so many times I have needed someone to just take me in, graft me in as family, take care of me even just for an evening, share the peace in their life for a day that it may cover me, so that I could draw strength to face my own life just one more day....now it's my turn to give. I can be that well for someone else to draw from. Lord, fill me that I may overflow to others in great need. Lengthen my cords, strengthen my stakes.

"Oh, remember that my life is a breath! My eye will never again see good." ~Job 7:7~

Oh, my Job...how well can I identify with your feelings here. So many days, my life feels like it may never again see good. Too often I'm reminded that life is only a fleeting breath and passing me by. Job, I know this day in chapter 7 was the darkest imaginable. I know your heart ached with loneliness and grief. I know you thought you could not face another second in this life alone, not another moment to face those circumstances. I've known these same days in chapt 7 of my life.....I'm just so glad that we know the end of your story. I'm glad your life wasn't over in the 7th chapter, but that God Almighty somehow, some way found a way to inject hope into your heart to endure until restoration arrived. Oh, God, help me see that there are many more chapters yet to be written into my life! Don't let my heart faint within me! Yes, my life is just a breath, so don't let me take it for granted! I want to soak it up! And I want to live with hope in my heart of the chapters yet to come, when my restoration arrives. "Then Job answered the Lord and said: I know that You can do everything and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. You asked Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful from me, which I did not know" ~Job 42:1-3

"The Lord has done great things for us and we are glad" ~Ps 126:3~

You know, we will get there....someday, when all the smoke clears and the dust settles....the winds will stop raging and peace will settle, the waves will stop crashing and become still waters in our life. The Lord has done great things for us...HE has set wonderful things in motion. One day we will look back at all His hand has done and be amazed how He orchestrated it all, like fine tuning a priceless instrument for His praise....us. The Lord HAS done great things for us...praise Him for it today and be glad.

"For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise" ~Heb 10:36~

Lord, I know this is my cry...I have NEED of endurance. Help me stay on Your path. When I stray, draw me back quickly, don't leave me there. I want to do the will of You, my Father. I desperately want to receive the promise

"For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself....And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise." ~Heb 6:13&15~

As I went to receive my 15 yr service pin yesterday for 15 yrs of employment on my job, it was more than just a physical event. My mind was flooded with all the plans God had laid ahead of me all those years ago....nearly half of my life. He knew I needed to be a nurse instead of an English teacher. He knew that my life would hold many unexpected twists and turns...death of my first child, divorce, open-heart surgery of my teen-ager, and many other things along the way....Yet HE planned some cornerstones of stability in my life...my faith, my relationship with Him, my children, my home, my job, relationships with my co-workers, my church family, my community, my friends. His promise in verse 14: "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you"...and HE did. Everyone of us can look at our life and see His hand of abundant blessing. We are the recipients of the promise. Don't let the devil steal your focus of that today. Jesus is the anchor of our soul. HE is our hope, sure and steadfast..."This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast..." ~Heb 6:19

"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him..." ~Ps 37:7~

In the words of the song playing in my living room: Rid me of myself, lead me to Your heart, lead me to the cross where Your love poured out, I lay me down....It's so easy for me to be self-centered, so easy to grow impatient for God's promise...I want it now Lord! You know, I tell my kids the meaning of patience is "waiting without whining"...ouch. I could learn my own lesson. God, help me rest in You all day and all night. Wake me in the presence of Your Holy Spirit, help me abide there all day long. Help me wait without whining on the things You are lining up for my life's future.

"And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" ~Phil 4:19~

Lord, You more than prove this over and over in my life. Whether my need is healing, financial, or even as small as encouragement, You send just what I stand in need of...and always just on time. I praise You for all the open doors that are only possible by a miracle. I thank You for divine appointments, divine interventions, and especially for caring about the smallest details that matter to me. You notice when I'm down, and You lift me up. That has been a large task over the last 2 yrs that You've had to repeat a thousand times over...yet, You love me so, You never mind to fill my heart with hope just one more time......... My God, your God....supplying all our needs according to His very richest glory...thank You Jesus

"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!" ~Ps 150:6~

The kids & I went to sleep last night, enjoying the night's gentle breeze with the windows raised as we have for about a month now. A peaceful sleep, with Christian music softly playing in each bedroom. Then, a little before 5:00 this morning, we were startled out of bed by a very loud bolt of lightning. It must have hit something. We all jumped up, and several little kids piled in bed with mom til daybreak. It rained and stormed all morning. But the funniest thing is that the birds didn't mind. Even with no beautiful sunshine day, they still woke chirping and singing loudly, in the pouring rain. I never really noticed that before....they still found something to sing about despite the storm. Am I like that? Do I run to God, like my little kids, and crawl in His lap when I am afraid? Do I find something to praise the Lord for, like the birds, even when I cannot see the sun? Does my life take the attitude of praise, regardless of my circumstances? Can I find inner peace with the Father, focus on The One Constant joy of His companionship, and praise Him for all things past, present and future? Do I sing in the storm? ....teach me Lord, to be like the birds....I want every breath I have to praise You.

"For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God, and Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you will hear His voice......Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God" ~Heb 3:4-7&12~


Every house is built by someone...who am I building my house on? Am I like Moses, faithful in all His house as His servant? What will be the testimony spoken of me afterward? I am of the house of Christ, do my children see that in me? In our home? ...I'm holding fast the confidence in Him....do I let the enemy rattle my peace too easily?.... I am rejoicing in The Hope, firm to the end....do I speak words of doubt and unbelief concerning promises He has shown me? The Holy Spirit says the rejoicing of this hope can be mine today, if only I will believe with my whole heart

"So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; ...the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to naomi, 'Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a close relative; and may his name be famous in Israel! And may he be to you a restorer of life, and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him. Then Naomi took the child...and became a nurse to him'....and they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David" ~Taken from Ruth 4:13-17~

As Naomi returned to her hometown, this is what she told them: "Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home again empty" (Chapt 1:20-21)....such words of pain...But Wow, who could imagine? This same woman, Naomi, who had buried her husband and 2 sons, now has a family once again...daughter-in-law, her new husband, and a baby to nurture and help raise!...And just look at Ruth. Boaz spoke of her: "And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you request, for all the people of my town know that you are a virtuous woman" (Chapt 3:11)...new husband, new baby...what a wonderful reward for her faithfulness! God doesn't forget us. There is never anything lost that God cannot replace, especially our joy for living. Open your heart, and believe He will.

"So she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, 'Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?' And Boaz answered and said to her, 'It has been fully reported to me, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know before. The Lord repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge" ~Ruth 2:10-12~

Ruth was just looking for food, and hoping to find favor in the sight of this man Boaz to allow her to gather the leftovers from his fields. She couldn't imagine that Boaz would already know everything about her. Following God's will leads us right into the path of people He has prepared to help us. He goes ahead and touches the hearts of many to meet our needs. God doesn't let our good deeds go unrewarded. He has us covered....under His wings we find refuge.
"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." ~Ps 46:1~

"But Ruth said: 'Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me" ~Ruth 1:16-17~

I love the story of Ruth. I took time to read it again last night. Many of you will recognize these words from wedding vows and songs. These are the words from Ruth to her mother-in-law Naomi. I can hardly read them without crying...the passion, the commitment, the depth of love. Her heart was solely turned toward her cherished loved one, Naomi. She did not waiver. She did not look back. She did not think selfishly of herself and what would reward her life most. She did not seek the easy path. She struck out on a journey unknown, trusting God with whatever lied ahead. She could not see the hand of God, but she trusted His heart, and she trusted Him with her future. She knew somewhere deep inside that no matter what adversities lied ahead, as long as her heart was true to God's will for her life, He would bless her, and peace would surely follow. She had no idea how they would eat. She had no clue how they would survive. But she learned to live by faith day by day. Even following devastating loss of all other loved ones, in great sorrow her faith stood strong. She just knew the Master was in control of it all. Wherever they went, He would be there. Wherever He is, peace, provision and comfort abide. She could not in her wildest dreams imagine what lied ahead....a kinsman redeemer! ...What is God calling me to believe? What is God asking me not to waiver in faith & trust? In what area of my life is God calling for my devotion, trusting Him for whatever lies ahead? He does not waiver. He does not change His mind...He is asking me not to
"Every good gift and every perfect give is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning" ~Jam 1:17~

"And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" ~John 3:19~

Abba Father, how do You see me? How do You feel when You look at my life? Does Your chest swell with pride, or does Your heart sink in disappointment? How do I see myself? Do I see the areas that are dark for what they really are? Lord, give me Your eyes...give me Your heart. Cause me to desire light in every area of my life. Cleanse me, keep me pure. Make me a vessel You can fill and dwell in. Make me an instrument of Your love.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it" ~John 1:1-5~

I would be in total darkness if not for the Lord. I cannot comprehend it, all the ways of God, but I believe nevertheless. He is in the beginning of all things, nothing is created without Him. His Words are life to my soul. His life is the light to us all, to lead us out of the darkness. Hallelujah!

"But to you who fear My name,The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings..." ~Malachi 4:2~

This verse was on the front of our bulletin at church yesterday, with the most beautiful sunrise scene on the water, and a man sitting in the shadows on a pier. It reminded me of another verse: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding" Prov 9:10....When we fear Him, know who He is, and accept that His way is right, that's where wisdom begins. The only way we can make good choices in life that lead to joyful existence is thru His wisdom. Only He can open our eyes to the path we need to be on. Only when we obediently seek Him can we witness Him arising with healing for us in His wings. Knowledge of the Holy One will give us understanding.

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" ~II Tim 3:16-17~

As I read an essay my younger son wrote about my older son, alot went through my mind. He talked about how his brother's life inspired him, and about the quality character traits he sees in him. I thought about my life....what do people see in me? Do I inspire anyone to desire a closer walk with God? Do I let the scriptures inspire me to draw closer to Jesus? Do I listen when God inspires me to do something for Him, like the men that obeyed to write the Bible? Do I lean on the Bible for reproof & instruction? Do I know enough about the Bible to be thoroughly equipped for His good work? Through Him, I can be equipped...for every good work that He calls me to, not limited by man...and I can be equipped for every situation life brings before me.