Author Archives: Nicole Vaughn

>Believing Without Seeing

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They told him saying,
“Joseph is still alive,
and indeed he is ruler
over all the land of Egypt.’
But he was stunned,
for he did not believe them.”
Genesis 45:26
 
Mary Magdalene leaves the feet of the risen Christ and runs to share the glorious news to the disciples, and “when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it” (Mark 16:11).
 
How many refuse to believe, but refusing the truth does not make it any less true. Jesus has risen. He lives to make intercession on behalf of those who believe and receive him as Savior. He is our eternal high priest (Hebrews 7:23–25).
 
When Jacob heard that Joseph was alive, he did not believe. He was stunned, just as the disciples were stunned by the news of Jesus Christ. Their disbelief did not come from a stubborn and unrepentant heart, but of stunned reaction that such wonderful news could really be accurate. Their unbelief quickly became belief, and in this, they rejoiced and rushed to be reconciled to the One whom once was dead but now was alive.
 
Joseph was alive, and he was ruler over all of Egyptand the surrounding lands because God had given him the ability to give life. In John 5:21 Jesus says, “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.” Joseph had limited power to give and sustain life to those who would come and seek his grain. He is just a small picture of the reality of Jesus Christ. Jesus has all power and all authority; the life He offers is eternal. There are no limits to the power of Jesus Christ.
 
When Jacob heard the words that Joseph had sent through his brothers, and when he saw the wagons filled with the gifts from Joseph, Jacob believed. There was one disciple that held on to his unbelief a little longer than the rest, and Jesus said to him, “Reach here with your fingers, and see My hands; and reach here with your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” He then said, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed” ( John 20:27, 29).
 
Jacob didn’t have to physically see Joseph to believe he lived; he responded to Joseph’s sent word and the evidence that his word was true. We have not physically seen the risen Lord Jesus, but we respond to His sent Word (John 17:20, Romans 10:14) and the evidence (James 2:18) that His Word is true. Blessed are those who believe yet do not see.
 
Oh, precious one, have you believed?
And if so are you sending out the Word to others?
 
Oh Father,
 
My Jesus is alive! He is the ruler of heaven and earth; in Him I believe and I rejoice. My Jesus, You are my King. You are my Lord. I lay at Your feet, prostrate before You in complete adoration and awe of the beauty of Your majesty. Though I have never seen Your face, I know that You are.
Oh, my Father, what a glorious day it will be when my Jesus I shall see, when I look upon His face, the one who saved me by His grace. Oh Father, here I am; my Jesus here I am. I worship You!
 
My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,
Amen.
 

Nightmare Before Christmas

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confessions

Me and my dreams… I will never be a Jacob or a Joseph or a Peter… I will never be someone who could trust that a dream was from God. I dream too crazy. I think even the Almighty fears what goes on in this head of mine when I lay down to sleep, (just kidding, I know He fears nothing!)

So it is… what? Four days until Christmas? Yep, Four days. I have zero, count them… 0… gifts wrapped. Our tree has been up since the day after the infamous Iron Bowl, and it stands all lonely with it’s skirt undecorated with boxes, and bags, and bows… I don’t believe I have even taken a picture of it this year. December has been one big blur… just like all of 2011 and the end of 2010 has been.

But back to my dream…

Let’s see I recall walking in the back door  and turning out of our kitchen and into the dining room to see a big white ceramic bowl that was purchased for my husband’s stepmom (this bowl is not a real gift we have purchased, I don’t know where it came from).
I ask him why in the world the bowl is out?
He says, I used to it to make the chicken wings. I needed a big bowl to mix them in the hot sauce.
Well now he is in the hot sauce!
I come up to him and begin hitting him on the shoulders with the dish towel that I have in my hand while I yell, Now I have to go back to town! You know I hate shopping! Why in the world did you do that! I can’t believe you!
He of course is laughing at me the whole time, which just makes me madder.

So I go and grab all the rest of the gifts and go to hide them so I can get them wrapped before he gets a hold of another, then I can’t figure out where to do this without my kids, because I don’t want them to see their gifts.
So I find a room at church (yes now I am at church) and plan to hide in there to wrap, but then somebody sees me and asks me to help with something for a minute… I look at my gifts, sigh, and go off to help.

The next thing I know I am surrounded by crying kids who can’t find there baseball that was hit into a thicket of pine trees (Christmas trees I do believe) and I have been recruited to find the ball. Somehow I now have the ability to walk around in the tops of the trees and search out the ball. I am surrounded by green pine and then those trees turn into something like astroturf and I am up under it grabbing hold of the ball and pop out triumphantly holding it… although for some reason it is quite squished.

Now I head back to tackle my gift wrapping and remember that I still have to replace the big white bowl!

So I look at my gifts again and sigh and head off to the stores, yet I am in shoes that make my feet hurt, so I am quite grumpy… pouty… and frustrated.

Somehow in the midst of all this I also end up on a road trip with my in-laws and I am refereeing my girls on who is going to get to push the elevator button and all I can think about are the gifts, unwrapped and hid in the room, waiting on me.

Finally, this morning, my husband comes home from his nightshift and wakes me up from my craziness and guess what…

Those gifts are still in a room hid, unwrapped, waiting on me.
And yes I still have one more shopping day I have to take.
And I must ditch the kids in order to do all the above.

I awoke to discover my nightmare was not a dream, LOL!
Tis the season to be jolly?

>The Gift

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>A gift is a gift, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s a crushed bunch of flowers yanked from my own garden, a half-eaten cookie, or color-smeared little hands dropping M&M’s directly into my mouth. The presents I receive are always a reminder of how much I’m loved.

We serve a Lord who is the Author of creating and giving gifts. His own Word declares, “Whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God above” (James1:17).

(quotes from Fierce Beauty by Kim Meeder)

Tonight a very sweet couple that I know will be saying hello and good-bye to their 5 month old in the womb child. They will discover if their precious little one is a little boy or a little girl at the same moment that they are stroking a beautiful face that they will never hear laugh or even cry…

But even this child, this moment is a gift from our God, and this little one is perfect. Even this little one will serve a purpose, has a purpose, this little life that grew and developed and lived within the safety of his or her mother’s womb for a purpose. However brief this child’s life was…this child has impacted the hearts and souls of many.

This precious gift was given to this wonderful couple for them to immediately return back to the One who fearfully and wonderfully knitted the little one in the womb.

This is one of those moments when we ask why…

My heart is heavy for the couple for several reasons…

One, I am in a time of grieving for the children I have not born and will not bear because I chose a permanent birth control that I wish I had not… and I grieve.

Two, I have been there… almost. I lost a child when almost in my 4th month. I still wonder if my child was a boy or a girl… and I miss not knowing my child. My baby that would be 16yrs old this year.

Three I have given birth to two beautiful ones and I know how hard it would be to have had to say goodbye to them… to lay them alone… my youngest still hates sleeping by herself.

So my heart breaks… I have been crying for this couple and praying for this family since the news hit my cell phone in a prayer request.

And I think about the gift.
This beautiful gift of life… of a soul.
And now more than ever I rejoice that my God so loved the world that He too gave a gift.

 For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him shall not perish,
but have eternal life.
John 3:16   
 
Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.  Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:21-26
 
Oh yes I believe this!
Thank you God for sending Your Son.
Your Only Begotten Son, to this earth knowing that He would die.
Knowing that He would suffer.
Knowing that His life would be brief here, but eternal still.
 
And this is our hope in death.
Death is not final for those in Christ.
Because He lives, we live.
 
I will hold my child one day… I believe that.
I will meet them and this is not a final goodbye for this couple, they will see their baby again.
This beautiful one has been rejoicing with the angels for hours… yet we cry.
And that’s okay.
We cry because we are the one’s standing and waving goodbye while the one we wave too is grinning from ear to ear as they wave back because they are going home, they are going on the greatest adventure to an exotic destination beyond any of our wildest and most magnificent imaginations. The presence of God and the Paradise of the King.
 
For from Him
and through Him
and to Him
are all things.
To Him be the glory forever.
Amen.
Romans 11:36

>Love Held Him

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Now do not be grieved
or angry with yourselves,
because you sold me here,
for God sent me before you
to preserve life.
Genesis 45:5
 
The life of Joseph is the perfect commentary for Romans 8:28: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
 
The heart of Joseph amazes me. He looked back on his life, and even looking on the actions of his brothers, he did not look back in hatred or bitterness, but with peace and confidence in the sovereignty of God.
 
Joseph’s heart was so much like the heart of Christ.
 
Jesus came to earth to be loved by some, hated by others, betrayed by His brethren, convicted of a crime He did not commit, hung on a cross to die, yet raised from the dead because death could not hold the sinless Jesus Christ.
 
David wrote in Psalm 37:25, “I have not seen the righteous forsaken.” Joseph believed God, and that belief was accredited to him as righteousness, just as it was his father, Abraham. God never did forsake Joseph. However, it was Jesus who cried out on the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me.”
 
Oh precious one, He was forsaken so that those who trust in Him would never be forsaken. Let this truth resonate in your heart and in your mind. Let it sink into the depths of your soul. Our Creator God is holy. Sin will not be in His presence, and He will not look upon it.
 
When our sin was laid upon Jesus, in His holiness, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit had to turn their faces away from God the Son. Of all that Jesus experienced as the Word made flesh, this had to be the most painful moment. Yet, even in this, the risen Lord does not look at us with contempt because He was betrayed, mocked, forsaken, and slain. He looks at us with eyes filled with love that we cannot even begin to imagine or understand and says it had to be done this way so that we might live.
 
Joseph was sent to preserve life, and through his life we get a picture of the coming Christ; our Jesus, who would come not just to preserve earthly life, but to give eternal life. In John 11:25, Jesus is speaking to Martha after the death of her brother Lazarus and He says to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.” Death could not hold Jesus Christ, and it cannot hold those who have trusted in Him.
 
The pain from hurts and betrayals by others did not control the heart of Christ, and they did not control the heart of Joseph. We have a choice to make in this life. We can choose to see all our hurts and pains as God against us, or we can choose to see that our hurts and pains are just this life and it is God that works in us to make even these glorious.
What will be your choice?
 
 
 
Oh Father,
 
How much I learn about the greatness of who You are just from the book of beginnings. You are sovereign, and Your plans will be accomplished. Your love for us is true and sure. Your grace abounds, and Your mercies never end. How I denied You and betrayed You by my actions. It was my sin that nailed You to the cross, yet it was Your great love for me that held You there until You cried, “Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit” (Luke 23:46). Oh Father, into Your hands I commit my life. My Father, that I might have a heart like Joseph, and when I am in the face of circumstances I don’t understand, may I trust in You and in Your love. May I trust that You are in control and You have a plan. I have no words adequate enough to express the praise and worship of You that swells in my heart when I think of all that You have done and are doing for me and in me. Worthy, worthy is the Lamb!
 
My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,
Amen.

Communion

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I sat at the table. Pete took a sip of his wine. There was no plate and no cup in front of me. “I wanted to introduce you to someone,” he said to me. “She and I are having Communion. The Lord’s Supper. The Table. The Passover meal.”

“I’ll take it with you.”

“No,” he said, “For you, Communion is tiny, tasteless wafers and a little plastic cup full of grape juice. Someone reads a few verses, you swallow the bread, you throw down the juice, and you think to yourself, Jesus, thank you for dying for my sins. You put the cup in the pew holder, and you’re done. Later someone comes by and cleans up the leftovers.”

“What do you think ‘Communion’ was like at first, Matt?

I shrugged. “I’ve never thought about it, I guess.”

“That first year after he died, do you think we threw back our cups, took five minutes to say thanks, and then moved on?”

He made a good point. I could spend more time than that reminiscing about a good meal. “Probably not.”

“We knew him, Matt. He changed our lives. Our thankfulness wasn’t some theological construct. It was deep and true and unstoppable.”

(excerpts from Imaginary Jesus)

I am not sure about you but I have to sadly admit that I have noticed that many see Communion Sunday as skip day… “Oh yeh, we can leave after Sunday School, it’s just Communion today”

Perhaps you are one of those.

How much more special would communion be if instead of waiting on a piece of cracker and a taste of grape juice,while sitting nicely in our pews, we instead chose to sit around a table… with bread and maybe even wine… and we truly spent that time focusing on what our Savior did for us.

Would you really have to worry about drunkenness if when you looked at that wine what you saw was Jesus blood shed for you, for your sins?

Would you really over-indulge in the bread (or the wine) if when you looked at it you truly saw our Savior’s body broken for you, for your transgressions?

Therefore whoever eats the bread
or drinks the cup of the Lord
in an unworthy manner,
shall be guilty of the body
and the blood of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 11:27

What if instead of a Sunday potluck fellowship, when the church gathered together to partake in a meal it was simply the Passover meal, the bread and the wine?

What if we gathered together and we simply remembered Him?

What if we sat and talked about the day we met Him?

What if we shared about how He had changed our lives?

What if we shared how He has walked with us and carried us since we met Him?

What if we purposely went into a joint Passover meal with a fellow church filled with a people of completely different background and ethnicity than ours and we united in Christ?

What if Communion Sunday was not “church skip day”?

What if instead of uniting to pick-it the abortion clinics, or uniting to fight legislation, or uniting to demand prayer in school, or what ever other political agenda we have at the moment, we united for the sake of simply remembering Him?

What if we had a Call to Remember and every church in our community, our county, our state, our nation, the nations… what if we called all our individual local congregations to come together at the same day at the same hour for Communion, to simply remember Him.

Nothing else.

No political agenda.
No pity party stories.
No martyr talk.

Nothing but a call to remember Jesus and to proclaim Him, His life, His death, His resurrection.
All and only about Him

How seriously do you take Communion?

Is it just something you do or does the weight of it sink deep into your soul and lift your heart and eyes to His beautiful sacrifice for your ugly and deceitful heart?

Is it a time for you to search the tray for the biggest cracker and the most full tiny cup while you whisper until you see everyone take their bite and drink their little cup and see your own cue, so you stop chatting with your neighbor long enough to absentmindedly pop in the cracker and throw back the juice and then complain about how dry those crackers were and you need some more drink to wash it down?

After this,
Jesus, knowing that all things
had already been accomplished,
to fulfill the Scripture, said,
“I am thirsty.”
John 19:28 

Maybe some make a joke of Communion so that they don’t really have to think about it…

Maybe some make Communion “skip day” so that they don’t have to remember and don’t have to examine…

I can ask all these questions because I have been there.
I know.
I have walked into the door and seen the table and thought “man, if I had known this was today we would have went on home… or just stayed home.”

I’ve been there so busy whispering to my neighbor that I have paid no attention to the reading of the Scripture, and I certainly was not examining myself, and I definitely was not remembering Him…

I was doing a formality, a religious duty, pass the tray grab the cracker, get the cup… 1-2-3 eat… 1-2-3 drink, let’s sing and go get some real food.

That’s never, ever, again the way I want to take Communion.
How about you?

Have you ever thought about that first Passover after the ascension of our Lord?

Is there any way it could look and feel like the minuscule communion cracker and miniature communion cup that we purchase in bulk at our local christian supply store in order to make it as quick and easy as possible?

>Ladies Only

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>FYI: the Ladies Only warning is for mine and my husband’s young men of God that we claim as our own who sometimes check out my blog… just a little heads up for them that this is gonna be a major girl post and they should proceed with caution or not at all 🙂 

Well I sit here at the computer at 3am debating on whether or not to go to the Emergency Room. There just is nothing like getting woken up to the need to pee a half a dozen times and then finally getting aggravated enough to turn the light on and discover that you are passing blood clots…

At first viewing, I thought, great! I have started my period again! Really? It’s not even been  two weeks and I have never started in the middle of the night, never in my whole life do I recall that happening. Then as I get more woken up and wonder why in the world it is hurting so bad to pee, I realize that maybe I have not started my period.

After several toilet paper checks to confirm my suspicions I come to the computer to google blood clots in urine. And it says seek emergency care now… ugh.
Hello it’s 3am!
And I have church in the morning and I teach a Precept class in the morning…
And I hate the ER…
Who wants to leave their warm house to sit in an ER where they are going to treat me like I am an inconvenience and just had nothing better to do than drive to the ER at 3am.

So I have sent my husband back to bed and told him I would be fine.
I deem to be woman and wait on urgent care to open.

I mean what if my toilet paper checks have been faulty and really it is just my period… we women get accused of that alot you know… like we are so stupid and have only experienced a menstrual cycle every month for the past how ever many years, that we can’t tell which area the blood floweth from… geez louise!

Then what if it is something embarrassing…

Or you know I did fall off a stool not long ago and hurt myself pretty good. I broke a toe and my tailbone… and I have googled to learn that I could have hurt my kidneys as well…ugh.

Or what if it’s nothing and I have already done all the hard work myself here in my bathroom at 3am and I pay an ER copay and doctor’s bill for some stranger to pat me on the back and say, well Mrs Vaughn, your on the downside, take some tylenol or motrin for the fever, you’ll be fine.

So I sit here now, with fever and chills, that I thought was just the result of being really cold… because I flat out get cold to the bone and can’t get warm sometimes, but nope tonight it’s a fever with chills. And debate on whether or not to suck it up and head to the ER or wait on Urgent Care to open, or suck it up and wait on Monday, so I can go see my regular doctor…

I reckon I shall let pain be my guide.

Right now, pain says, I can tough it out until urgent care opens. 
I might can even try to nap on the couch until the next “urge” hits…

Names of God – Adonia

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It seems like forever since I posted on the Names of God series.
Let’s see… so far we have done a little study on the names Elohim, El Elyon, El Roi, El Shaddai, and El Olam.
Today we will study a little about Adonai…

We are introduced to the meaning of this name of God in Genesis 15:1-6.

 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision,
saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you;
Your reward shall be very great.”
 Abram said, “O Lord GOD,
what will You give me, since I am childless,
and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 
And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me,
one born in my house is my heir.” 
Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “
This man will not be your heir;
but one who will come forth from your own body,
he shall be your heir.” 
And He took him outside and said,
“Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars,
if you are able to count them.”
And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 
Then he believed in the LORD;
and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

When Abram answered God and said “O Lord GOD” he was saying “O Adonia GOD“. The word Adonia means Lord or Master. It was at this time that Abram was submitting himself to God’s Lordship. It was at this moment that he said, “I am not the boss of my life, God, You are.”  

As we read further in this passage we see that it was at this moment that Abram was saved. When Abram submitted to God’s Lordship and believed upon His Word and trusted in His way, God reckoned it to him as righteousness. Abram, right here, is our example that we are Saved By Faith.

yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore IT WAS ALSO CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
Romans 4:20-24

Abram’s moment of salvation came by faith, it came by believing God. He was saved before circumcision and before the Law… to show us that works, even good works, do not save us… only believing God does. And not just believing in a god, or in the idea of God, but taking God at His every Word… and His Word said that a Son would be born,(Isaiah 7:14) and when that Son came He said His name is Jesus (Luke 1:26-38) and then He said listen to Him, my Son, and do what He says, (Matthew 17:4-6) do what I have said and be saved.

The way of salvation has always been by faith.

The way of salvation has always been by first submitting ourselves to the authority of God, giving Him full reign over our life, putting Him on the rightful throne of our lives and taking ourselves off the throne.

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord,
and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved;
Romans 10:9

So what exactly does it mean for Jesus to be Lord of our life?  If you have been in church at all you have most likely heard the phrase Jesus is Lord of my life. The question however, Is He really?

All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;… 
Isaiah 53:6

All of us are like sheep who have gone astray, following our own way. Romans 3:9-23 goes on to say how none of us seeks God, none of us understands, none of us does good, all of us are after our own will, our own desires, and we have no fear of God before our eyes. That might be hard to swallow for some… but look deep, with open eyes, and you will see that it is indeed the truth.

We can’t just say Jesus is Lord, it’s more that that. In Matthew 7:21-27 Jesus Himself tells us that many will call Him Lord, many will use the phrase, “Oh yeh, Jesus is Lord of my life” but only those who do the will of His Father truly speak that phrase… the rest are only offering lip service.

THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS,
BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.
Matthew 15:8

Many will claim to be serving God and doing great things in the name of Jesus for the kingdom of God… but if you look closer, you will see they are simply name slinging in order to build up their own kingdoms. So be very careful who you follow and who you admire…

Obedience to the Word of God and the commands of His Christ are evidence of our faith. Faith is not blind. It is not invisible. Evidence is something you present before a judge to prove your case. It is something tangible. It is something that can be examined and scrutinized. Have you ever seen a prosecutor present invisible evidence to a judge in an earthly court? Think about it.

Our faith is something that can be seen if it is really there.

And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed.
Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic,
“ Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.”
Matthew 9:2
***
Seeing their faith, He said,
“ Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”
Luke 5:20
***
This man was listening to Paul as he spoke,
who, when he had fixed his gaze on him
and had seen that he had faith to be made well,
Acts 14:9

Oh precious one, when Jesus is truly Lord or your life, your faith can be seen, because your obedience to His Word, your willingness to submit to His will and His ways, can be clearly seen. By Him and by those who know Him.

Making Jesus Adonia means you no longer are purposely going your own way… you have made Him Boss, Master, Lord, He alone is on the throne of your life.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the LORD and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your body
And refreshment to your bones.
Proverbs 3:5-8

Our next name: Jehovah

>Fierce Beauty

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>Only when we truly understand who our King is does our self-importance fade. Once freed from our pride, we can see how our purpose in this life is simple: to know Him. Our God is not passive in His care for us. He is a consuming fire. His love for each of us is both fierce and beautiful. Friend, God is calling you to …be beautiful, but not in the way the world demands. It was never His desire for you to focus on looking beautiful- He wants you to become beautiful. Contrary to this world’s declaration, you are far more than the sum of your exterior; you’re a vessel for the Living God. He’s calling you to take action, to become beautiful… to pick up your King’s sword of encouragement and fiercely defend those around you who are losing their battle for hope. By doing so, you become- in the eyes of the King- a fierce beauty.

~ Kim Meeder

So this is the beginning of my newest book that I am reading for review, Fierce Beauty by Kim Meeder. I cannot wait to get into it and read it!

This is a subject I am so very passionate about. The worth of a woman… oh how so many do not know their worth… settling for sinful lusts of eyes of the flesh… and throwing off their clothing of strength and dignity for the attentive momentary eyes of someone who is never willing to see past their exterior or really even cares to…

It breaks my heart.
It breaks my heart because I know what they are doing and why they are doing it and why even though they cry themselves to sleep most nights and regularly think of ending their lives over what they are doing and the choices they are making… they can’t find the strength to stop.

And all it takes is one phone call, one text, to set their hearts racing and emotions churning and heart wrenching…

It goes deeper than whether or not they had the perfect or worse childhood.
It goes deeper than whether or not they were, or were not, in church every time the doors opened.
It goes directly to the very core of their soul and to the very bottomless depths of their deceived and deceitful heart.

This is where we must reach them… our daughters, our sisters, our friends.

I don’t want them to get lost in the lie of the “perfect man” confusing butterflies and flowers with love. While the man of God who would adore her and build her up and love her with a commitment like Christ has for His church, stands over on the sidelines unnoticed because he is not willing or able to seduce her with lies…

So I hope to gain more insight and wisdom as I read this book… because I want nothing more than for my daughters to be fierce beauties, completely enraptured and captured by the gaze of their God and burning brilliantly in the consuming fire of His holiness.

 
Strength and dignity are her clothing…
Proverbs 31:25
 
 

>Exposed

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God has found out the iniquity of your servants.
Genesis 44:16
 
How many times have we thought we have “gotten away” with sin?
 
Judah and his brothers fall before Joseph and beg for the life of Benjamin.Judahproclaims that God has found out their iniquity. The guilt over what they had done to Joseph and what they had done to their father had never left them. They know now beyond the shadow of a doubt that God knows about their sin.
 
We may be successful in hiding our sin from others, but we cannot hide it from God. Numbers 32:23 says “And be sure your sin will find you out.” In Matthew 9:4 we learn that Jesus knows our thoughts, and in John 2:25 we learn that He knows what is inside of us. Nothing is hidden from the sight of our all-knowing God.
 
We cannot hide even what we think we have done in secret, for “God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ” (Romans 2:16). Sin will be dealt with; it will be judged. Sin cannot hide in the dark forever because the light will shine into all darkness and one day expose what it is trying to hide (John 3:20). In Psalm 51:3, David cried out, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.”
 
Oh yes, God will find out the iniquity of all. He sees it before Him. He has every right to bring immediate judgment, but instead He offers opportunity to confess and be cleansed. “For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust” (Psalm 103:14). He knows our sin, and yet He loves us. He loves us so much that He makes the way for us to confess. He makes the way for us to be cleansed. He makes the way for us to be reunited into fellowship with Him. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
 
He has been making the way from the beginning, and He will continue to do so until the end of the age. Oh, precious one, I beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20).
 
Oh Father,
 
My sin was ever before me, and how often I transgressed Your law, but You did not leave me without hope. You did not leave me to die in my sins. You came in the form of man, as Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty of my sin upon the cross. You tell us in 1 Corinthians 11:31 that “if we judge ourselves rightly we would not be judged.” Oh Father, I looked at myself and I knew that You spoke the truth about me. I was a sinner. I was dead in my trespasses. I had broken Your law and was deserving of Your judgment, and then I heard the good news of Jesus Christ. I heard that He had already paid my penalty, and if I accepted His substitute death for mine I could be made alive in Him (Colossians 2:13–14). My Jesus, thank You for the cross, for I died with You and have been raised in You a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). As of now I am still in this flesh, and so I struggle; and at times I still fail and sin against You, yet Your faithfulness remains. The more I understand and study Your Word, I begin to get a grasp of the power that is mine in Christ; the power to live righteously and in accordance to Your will and in obedience to Your Word.
 
My Jesus, I love You so, and it is in Your name I pray,
Amen.

>Life is Not a Production

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Like a seamless performance, we want everyone to say their lines and
follow our directions—even God. We wrongfully equate redemption with
everything looking right (Isaiah 53:3). The beauty of Jesus’ birth, however,
shines brightly due to the greater beauty of His death (Ephesians 1:7).
There is no one scene that stands alone in our lives; rather, they all fit together
in the greater story of God’s redemptive work.
—Regina Franklin
 
Well today I had just a few main objectives to accomplish.
 
Quiet/Study time
School the girls
Paint the bathroom ceiling
Get some laundry washed and put up
Pay the bills
Get Bekah’s clothes she can’t/won’t wear out of her room and boxed up for donations.
Go to my Mom-in-Laws for my birthday dinner
 
Simple right?
 
Everything was going grand until I went to check on the ceiling and see how it was drying.
What was happening… but that the ceiling was cracking as the paint was drying!
All efforts down the toilet!
 
Now all I want to do is grab a sledgehammer and demolish the entire bathroom, from ceiling to floor. Please, I asked my husband, let me take out the tub, the counter, the toilet, the ceiling and let’s just start over from scratch!!! But alas he said, “No”.
 
The sledgehammer would have been great, epic, fun. And I would have felt much better. For a little bit anyway. This is all following my own recent blog post about not allowing our emotions to control us… so I had to take a deep breath and pray. 
 
Well so, ummm no, life is not a production to be played out exactly as I had planned…
It’s more like an off the cuff, night at the improv, or an evening of whose line is it anyway…
This life definitely is not mine that’s for sure.
 
 
So we just take it and run with it.
And laugh.
Laughter is indeed a wonderful and beautiful gift from God.
 
And well I had much rather laugh about the ceiling cracking and falling… again… then be mad and pout and stomp… so as my husband has told me to “just relax”… I think I will.
 
Yes I am two hours behind schedule… but eh, who needs a shower anyway. That’s what ball caps and body spray are for… 
 
So instead of sledgehammering the bathroom… I will relax, and not do it!
 
And somehow even this day that I deem as a wreck, God will work out for His glory… even if it was just to make you feel better about your day and get a laugh from whose line is it anyway 🙂