From My Heart

From the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David the son of Abraham... "...Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar..." Matthew 1:3 "...Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab..." Matthew 1:5a "...Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth..." Matthew 1:5b "...David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife..." Matthew 1:6 Think genealogies are boring? Guess again. All kinds of gems in this one... First of all, just the fact that women are mentioned at all is huge. In the Jewish culture, no one traced their bloodline through a female. It was a patriarchal society - all about who your daddy was. But then there is the fact that it was these women...women with a past...women with a skeleton or two in their closets. Let's open their doors... Tamar's story is in Genesis 38. She was a widow and the daughter in law of Judah. He didn't want to marry her off to another son ...

This is a list of scriptures I have been compiling to pray over Jared as he is deployed. Of course, I also pray it for his friends and those who are deployed in his unit with him. Thought some of you might like to use them as well. I will continue to update as I come across more. Psalm 140 remains my favorite. The entire Psalm can be crafted into a prayer and is so right on for what they are dealing with. Psalm 3: Be his shield, sustain him, strike his enemies on the jaw. Psalm 4: Shine Your face on him, make him to dwell in safety - to sleep in peace. Psalm 5: Let him take refuge in You - spread Your protection over him. Surround him with Your favor as with a shield. (Love this one!) Psalm 9: Cause his enemies to turn back - to stumble and perish before him. Be his stronghold in times of trouble. Psalm 17: Keep him as the apple of Your eye, hide him in the shadow of Your wings from the wicked who assail him and the enemies who surround him. Psalm 18: Arm him with strength...

Mark 1:40-41 "A leper came to him, begging on his knees, 'If you want to, you can cleanse me.' Deeply moved, Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, 'I want to . Be clean.'" (The Message) In the time of Jesus, leprosy was a curse in more ways than one. Certainly, the primitive medical knowlege that they had did not contain the information that a simple antibiotic was the cure. Once you had it, you were sentenced to a long, disfiguring and painful death. It also made those who bore it to be social outcasts. Because of the contagious nature of the disease, those afflicted were considered "unclean", sent to live outside the city, they were ostracized from any kind of social setting. Everywhere they went, they had to cry out, "Unclean! Unclean!" to prevent others from coming into contact with them. Often, people would throw stones or other objects to keep them from coming too close. I don't know how long the man in the first cha...

Hebrews 4: 15-16 "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in out time of need."       I have been going through a difficult time. That is one reason the blog entries have been somewhat sporadic. There are days I don't want to write and there are others that I don't feel that I could come up with a positive or uplifting word to say. It has been hard.      We all go through seasons of life where things are just not as they should be. During those times, we need someone who can come along side us and support us in our difficulty. I am not talking about condoning sin, or not holding someone accountable for a wrongdoing. I am simply talking about being there in the hard times.      Rece...

  Twenty-seven years ago today at this time (7:41 pm), my first child was about two hours old. He was a stunning baby - no prejudice at all on my part, you understand. I used to hear a lot of "he's too pretty to be a boy" and " wish I had eyelashes like that" and "what beautiful hair" among other varied comments on his appearance.        Around age three, he had a school picture taken at preschool at our church. He looked like the picture of innocence. Huge blue eyes looking at the camera. So cute he could just rip your heart out....That was about the time he kicked a hole in the bathroom wall and got himself kicked out...of the church daycare....lol.      I wish I  could say that was an isolated incident and that all the years after that were smooth sailing. Not so. We fought our way all the way through high school and I spent days wondering and nights crying about what would ever become of him.      I d...

Acts 16:22-26 "The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. After they had been severly flogged, the were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly, there was a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. AT ONCE all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose."           I've really slacked off on going to choir practice lately. I have EVERY "legitimate" excuse: I have not been feeling well, I'm tired, I work long hours, I am at the church every Tuesday for FAITH, and besides, I already know all the songs, anyway. What it all comes down to is this - I didn't feel like it. I just d...