Contemplations of a Mommy "Monk"

She had a choice . Everyone around her seemed unaware that their sinful lifestyles had brought them to this day of consequences crushing in upon their cushy lives. The fear was palpable in the air around the city as they realized that forces greater than they had ever seen were hovering outside their doorstep. They all had a choice that day. But, fear of destruction and even death was not enough to change their hearts from their rebellious nature. She was, however, different. She stood out from the crowd. Not because of her pure unadulterated lifestyle, but because of her heart. She was a sinner just like everyone around her, but she made a choice to overcome her fears, to give in to God, and to trust Him with her life. You probably know her story from childhood songs about a courageous man named Joshua and his conquest of the walled in city of Jericho. The song we sing with lusty voices as we march around the table in our living rooms with hand made construction paper horns blown at r...

The king perused the valley far below and saw a multitude of white canvas tents. From his perch on the mountainside, it looked like daisies littering the green valley. He estimated the troops below and took stock of his army. Too many against too few. What should he do? How would he face this formidable force of three kings joined together to defeat him? Immediately, he knew the answer. The wise young king gathered together all the people of his kingdom and told them the battle was more than they could handle alone. He commanded them to begin fighting this battle before they went down into the valley by fasting and praying. And so, they waged war on their knees. They disciplined themselves to abstain from the pleasure of eating until they knew this battle was won. They prayed and they sought the favor of the Lord; they brought their pleas before the the ruler over all kingdoms and the One who holds power and might in His hand. They implored Him for victory over this evil because they h...

I was walking and praying about my next post and the Lord reminded me that He is a God of second (and third and fourth and....) chances and then I stumbled onto this awesome blog! I have been reading Lee Strobel's questions (in The Case for Faith) about God's wrath in the Old Testament - it's hard to understand why He allowed such brutal things to occur. But when we realize how long He waits for people to turn to Him and how eager He is for us to repent, His retribution is balanced with His love and patience. In Jeremiah's time, the Lord continually spoke through His prophets and pleaded with the people to turn back to God. It's amazing for me to realize that God's requests were very simple: He required that they worship God alone first of all and He asked that they treat each other with kindness. Don't you think the people of Israel could have done that? Again and again He warned them of the consequences of disobedience but they ignored Him and conti...

The phone call literally brought me to my knees. Sometimes when devastating events occur outside of my personal world I can easily put them out of my mind. But this was different: the little girl who was deathly ill was the same age as my son (18 months). Although I knew the parents, they were not close friends so I can only explain my heavy heart as a burden from the Holy Spirit. I cried out to God for her deliverance – I pled with Him for her salvation. Tears ran down my face as I sought God’s blessing over this dear child that I didn’t even know. I believe in the power of prayer and I often pray for the needs of my friends and family. My experience with prayer has shown me that God is sovereign and I must trust Him to make the best decision. I sense Him prompting me to pray in a certain direction – for healing as an example, but I don’t always see what the end result will be. Prayer is such a strange thing because I know God will make the right decision with or ...

Could God actually be pro-choice? You’re shocked to hear it, of course, and your religious political training is rebelling against the idea. Let me be clear; I’m not trying to make some big political statement about abortion (I’ll leave that hot topic alone)! This is much bigger than one issue – God’s mode of working among humankind has always been pro-choice within the confines of His ultimate sovereignty. Let’s begin at the beginning. When God created human beings, He made man and woman in His own image which means He gave us freedom of choice. God’s decision to give mankind the choice to reject Him has always perplexed deep thinkers. We wonder why He would allow people to follow a path of self-destruction when He could have intervened in His power. Instead of forcing us to obey Him, He gives us space to make our own decisions and the freedom to fail. If you are a parent, you understand both the agony and the necessity of freedom. At the beginning of life our children have no real fr...

Lee Strobel, a journalist whose atheistic thinking was converted to faith by serious investigation into the claims of the Bible, is a rational logical reasoning man. My own personal struggles with faith, however, have come more from the apparent disparity between my emotions and my beliefs. While Lee has successfully found reasonable answers for many of life’s difficult questions, I continue to wonder why I don’t feel satisfied by God even though He promises to satisfy my every need. Both reason and emotion can be a barrier to faith and both reason and emotion can be overcome by faith. Faith is believing in something, SomeOne, that we cannot understand completely, we cannot perceive with our senses and we cannot always predict. The writer of Hebrews gave us the truest definition of faith: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). As the author of Hebrews described faith to us, he gave example after example of men an...

Blessed Be Your Name by Matt Redman album: Where Angels Fear To Tread (2002) Blessed Be Your Name by Matt Redman - - - Blessed Be Your Name In the land that is plentiful Where Your streams of abundance flow Blessed be Your name Blessed Be Your name When I'm found in the desert place Though I walk through the wilderness Blessed Be Your name Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise When the darkness closes in, Lord Still I will say Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be Your name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be Your glorious name Blessed be Your name When the sun's shining down on me When the world's 'all as it should be' Blessed be Your name Blessed be Your name On the road marked with suffering Though there's pain in the offering Blessed be Your name Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise When the darkness closes in, Lord Still I will say Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be Your name Blessed be the name of ...