It’s On Your Face

It seems that when my hubby is gone if something can go wrong it will go wrong.  There have been so many stressful things that have happened since he left.  On top of just being without him it has been doubly hard with all of the added stressers.  I am thankful though that I have a Lord and Savior who reminds me that he is here and I am not alone.  It is still hard to deal with the stress though.  There are days when I know I am not dealing very well with it, I pray for strength to go on.  Then there are days that seem to be almost stress free, I praise God for an easier day.  Then there are those days when I think I am fooling everyone (hehe-yeah right).

This past Sunday was one of those days when I thought I had it all together and was fooling everyone.  As I was speaking with a friend and she made the comment that she could see the stress on my face.  What??  I thought I had it all covered up!

Image by angelsk via Flickr

At first, I was not overly happy that it was showing  but then I began to be thankful.  I was thankful that someone noticed!  It is hard when no one seems to notice or even care!  We military wives are expected to just suck it up and get over it!  That is often easier said than done. It is nice to have someone tell you that you don’t have to be tough all the time and that it is okay to struggle. I tell you, if it was not for my amazing church family here (and one neighbor) I would have no support.  I am so thankful for my church family here and how I can always count on them! I am thankful for how they step in and meet our needs.   I am thankful for how they encourage me, how they remind me to point my focus back on the Lord when I begin to focus more on my circumstances. I am so thankful for the friends that I have there!  I am thankful that  they notice and they care when I have had a rough week!  They have truly shown the love of Christ to our family.

Since my hubby left I have spent so much more time in prayer!  That is a good thing!  I have not had my hubby to depend on and it has forced me to rely more and more on my Savior!  Sometimes though it is good to have that physical hug from a friend.  I am glad that I have that with my church family.  I am thankful that the Lord provided me a family here.

So let me challenge you.  If you have military families where you live (well anyone for that matter).  Take time to notice and take time to care.  If you can see stress on their faces be an encouragement don’t just turn and walk away. Make sure to remember them, their situation, and their struggles throughout the separation not just in the first month. Sometimes just noticing and genuinely caring can make all the difference in their day!

Please leave a comment and share some ways that you encourage others or what others have done to encourage you.

Such Contrast

Image by Jeanette's Ozpix via Flickr

Hubby and I once again, the 2nd year in a row, were separated on Resurrection Sunday.  It is hard to be apart but especially on days when you are used to worshiping together.  Here in Alaska the children and I went to church as usual.  We had a church-wide Easter potluck breakfast.  I woke with a migraine.  I had even considered skipping church because of it but decided that we really needed to go.  Since we were having breakfast at church and we were racing the clock, I didn’t eat.  I did however take medicine to attempt to ease the pain in my head.  We arrived at church 5 minutes late but nothing had started yet so that was good.  I was however seeing double by time we arrived.  I was weak and unsteady on my feet.  First trimester pregnancy, no food, and medication on an empty stomach, plus a killer migraine do not make one function very well.  After eating I felt much better and was only left with the headache.

We had a wonderful service.  I love singing the praises of my risen Lord!  We had a muted trumpet that morning which just added more of a majestic tone to our worship that morning.  I sang, looked at the beautiful mountains out the windows, soaked in the sunlight shining in on me, listened to the Word of the God being proclaimed, and rested in the love of the Lord.  It was a glorious morning.  God is soooo good.  I was even blessed that there were NO Easter lillies!!!! Thank you Lord!  I am allergic to them and that would have just intensified my headache.

By time I arrived home my headache was raging again.  I didn’t even cook a dinner.  I hit the bed for several hours but found it hard to even sleep through the pain.  FINALLY, I gave in.  I took some ibuprophen.  Tylenol just does not work at all for me.  My headache eased a bit and I was able to focus and enjoy the call from my hubby.  Thank you again Lord.

Sadly, there was much contrast between our worship service and the one hubby attended.  His worship service was not a good one.  In a manner of speaking, he worshiped alone that morning.  He did go to a chapel service but worshiping was not on the agenda that day.  He actually had the pastor tell the congregation to put their bibles away.  He turned his back to the congregation to “get into character” and then turned around and proceeded to give a monologue from the perspective of Thomas.  Hubby said he thought the reason he must have told everyone to put their bibles away was because almost everything the pastor said was made up and not anywhere in the scriptures.   He also was able to watch another pastor’s (in attendance) son run around on the stage just prior to the service undisciplined and obviously out of control.

I am thankful that even though hubby’s experience was anything but worshipful, respectful, or honoring to the Lord, he was still able to worship the Savior.  Our worship is not dependent upon others.  Even amidst the worst circumstances we can worship, praise, sing, study and read the Word, and pray.

I am thankful that even though we are thousands of miles apart I know that we worship the great God who holds us both in his hands.  There is no better place to be.  Yet, I look forward to the day when hubby is home and we can once again worship our Savior side by side.

Share with me about your Resurrection Sunday celebrations.

Something to Ponder

A people who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted because their countercultural lifestyles stick out like a sore thumb. When family patterns are reformed, it is so public that everyone notices. Family, friend, co-worker and church member are easily offended by family reforms. – Scott Brown

The Pelagian Captivity of the Church

The Pelagian Captivity of the Church

R. C. Sproul

via Modern Reformation – Print Friendly.

Pondering Persecution

Those of us who are true believers in Christ who pursue holiness and godliness we will at one time or another suffer persecution for our faith.   The ways of God are not the ways of this world and because of that conflict will arise.  Unfortunately, sometimes the persecution even comes from others within the church.  There are even those who see the amount of persecution they endure to be a mark or measuring stick of their holiness.  This lends itself to an attitude that focuses on self rather than the Lord.  Those people not only welcome persecution but sometimes even are the instigators.  Have you ever heard of being your own worse enemy??

Here is my pondering thought for you today.

There is true persecution and suffering but………

Consider this, sometimes it isn’t persecution you are suffering but the result of strife you may be sowing. It takes a very humble heart to be open to the Spirit, to recognize this, repent, and realign our focus on the Lord.  He is our standard and not our perceived level of persecution.

Your thoughts?

Ironic, Huh?

When visiting my father a year or so ago, God showed me something amazing.  It was quite a shock to my system and to be perfectly honest I have been a bit gun shy in posting about it.  Why?  Because it may receive some unwanted backlash.  But here I go anyway.

I was visiting and sharing a bit about how God has worked and changed my life and continues to do so.  My father said, “Well, that God thing works for some people but I just can’t believe that.”

I have mulled that statement over and over again in my mind.  I wonder does anyone else see what I saw?

Here a non-believer, unknowingly, stated biblical theology more accurately than many Christians do. Ironic, huh?

I am still wondering if anyone else sees what I saw?

He didn’t say don’t or even won’t.  He said can’t.  How true that is!   It isn’t that he has just chosen not to believe.  He has an inability to believe.

For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”  Romans 3:9b-12

R.C. Sproul puts it this way…..

No vestigial “island of righteousness” escapes the influence of the fall. Sin reaches into every aspect of our lives, finding no shelter of isolated virtue.

Jesus says:

And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” John 6:65

We are unable, we can’t.  It must be granted by the Father.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.  For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.   Romans 8:6-8

I will quote R.C. Sproul once more since he has a great gift with words.

For a person to be able to come to Christ, it must be granted or “given” to that person to come to Christ. God must do something for us to overcome our moral inability to come to Christ. We cannot embrace Christ in the flesh. Without the aid of the Holy Spirit, we cannot come to Christ.

So often we try and take the work of the Lord and make it ours. So many Christians rely on what they think they have chosen.  This is works righteousness.  It is all of God and nothing of ourselves that brings about and secures our salvation in Christ. It is not of ourselves or our own choosing. Simple put, we can’t, only God can.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:1-9