How Do We Live?

...everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

I've been a student of the Bible for a long time. I make that statement to establish a fact not at all in a proud way. Sometimes I don't even like to admit it. Surely I should be further along in my journey.

No matter how long you've been a Christian it is the words of God, from the Bible, that provides the bread of life we are to live by. So most Believers believe this. Right?

When I read the Bible I have always started with the text and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, draw out its meaning. In context. Using cross referencing and the principle of two or three witnesses as a way to establish the Truth and meaning of the text.

Does this mean I am always right? or that I live it out perfectly? I'm not saying that. I'm simply stating some facts and trust that my dear readers will understand my point.

There is another way to study the Bible. It is when you start with an idea or conviction THEN search for text or verses to prove your point.

I find the latter to be quite prevelant in Believer's lives in our modern day culture.

This is the way cults justify their beliefs. It is also the way so called "sincere Christians" use this style of interpretation in order to justify greed, lust, divorce, you name it... there are countless other sins that can be justified when the Bible is approached in this way.

It is actually easy to pursue just about any lifestyle we choose, then find Bible text to argue that it is quite all right to live that way.

My sincerest heart is to form my concepts and principles of life ... my entire belief system based on starting with the Holy Writ, reverencing each word, leaning my entire personality on the Holy Spirit to help me understand it, and then LIVE IT OUT.

I've failed so many times. And oftentimes it is in the nagging sins and character flaws that haunt me over and over again. Like anger for instance. When I realize I'm angry I've learned (finally) to stop and ask myself why. Almost always it is MY emotional response to feeling hurt or helpless. Hurt comes from situations involving those people who matter to me most... helpless comes from things going on in our world (whether personal or otherwise) that I feel I can't 'do' anything about.

In my anger I could go find scriptures to justify being angry at seemingly justifiable hurts and circumstances affecting me whether directly or indirectly. I mean Jesus got angry and overturned the tables in the temple.

But when I read the Bible in context... the Bible written to New Testament Christians... I find answers. Not excuses for my sin.


Your anger can never make things right in God's sight. Be quick to listen (really great advice), slow to speak (that's a challenge), and slooooooow to get angry... James tells me (James 1:19-20).

This year I'm asking the Holy Spirit (I really mean it ... again) to help me LIVE what I know. Not by mere fact of the law... please don't misunderstand.

I get it that the Holy Spirit resides in me and He is my helper, my counselor, the one who comes along side of me. I get it that we grow only as we get our nourishment and strength from God.

I want to LIVE it. I want to be more aware of pleasing Him because of His love and mercy for me than I am in what people think or don't think.

I want HIM to be the regulator of my life in every way ... big and small.

Handmade Gifts

...everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

My best shot this year at whimsical, handmade Christmas gifts.

What about you? Would you rather receive a gift with all its imperfections made with hands or do you prefer the store bought sure-fire type?

Man-Made Christmas

...everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

It's been an interesting Christmas season for me this year. My usual mode is to get intensely involved in the hustle and bustle this holiday seems to demand. It calls for so many activities out of the ordinary. It's not like all the other regular-life things stop and we can just 'do' Christmas.

No matter how I try I never can seem to get started with all the planning, decorating, shopping, baking, wrapping until after Thanksgiving. When I think about how long I've been at this routine one would think it would get easier and I would get better at it.

If I cut myself some slack I'd probably say I have gotten a little better at managing the Christmas to-do's without stressing myself out 24/7 for 3 weeks straight. Admittedly, I had a crying melt-down the first week of December from the pressure I put on myself. Mike listened and as usual nothing he reasoned could console my feelings of "I'm never going to get it all done."

After that meltdown (that I swore would not happen this year no.matter.what.) I came full circle~~ back around to "why" we celebrate. I don't know about you but my detailed and sort-of compulsive personality always tends to make more out of just about any situation than the average human being. So even though, of course I 'know' why we celebrate, I easily get caught off guard and caught up in the stress of it all rather than the joy of it all.

Man has created a "season" that actually can distract us from the very thing we are to be celebrating.

I love Christmastime and all that goes along with it. Family, friends, lights, sparkles, music, ribbons, bows, trees, cookies, shopping, entertainment, children's programs and on and on it goes... but not at the expense of peace in my soul.

I must have peace. That, for me, requires a good look in the face of Jesus and His love and mercy washing over me in generous doses as the reality of His kindness and redemption for not only me but the entire world puts everything back into perspective.

Oswald Chambers put it so well I won't bother to re-create words that describe what happens when I carry that kind of peace around with me.

Every time you get into personal contact with Jesus, His words are real. "My peace I give unto you," it is a peace all over from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, an irrepressible confidence. "Your life is hid with Christ in God," and the imperturbable peace of Jesus Christ is imparted to you. Oswald Chambers

Don't you just love that word "imperturbable"? THAT is the kind of peace I wish for every reader. There is no amount of money that can purchase it. It is one thing you can't buy for Christmas. There is only one way to find it.

And have yourself ... a Merry Christmas!

Me and Bing

...everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

Call me crazy. Call me weird.

I play my Christmas music practically non-stop from the moment we wrap up Thanksgiving. I look forward to setting my i-pod to shuffle mode and Christmas genre, plugging it in to speakers, cranking it up and ... oh, that's right I mistakenly erased my entire i-pod recently when attempting to restore it. That was because my computer crashed over a year ago and I lost my entire i-tunes library. But this is way off subject.

Well, not totally. Because of that little mishap I'm having to resort to the use of my get this... stereo with surround sound speakers. So passé. So yesterday. Really. But it does have a 5 CD changer so that's convenient. I set the listening mode to random and it automatically skips around from song to song and CD to CD. Thank goodness I still have lots of those old standbys called CD's. Because I also lost all my purchased music from i-tunes when my computer crashed and I didn't have it backed up. Oh, there I go again. WAAAA!

Anyway, speaking of old-fashioned I love Bing Crosby. My favorite Christmas movie is White Christmas. And I adore listening to his old-timey crooning voice sing Christmas carols. I love his talking voice, too. So soothing. So gay... in a good sort of gay-way. I know, we don't use that word anymore but thought I could get by with it while I'm showing my age.

Back to pin-pointing my weirdness. This year everytime I hear him singing or talking (yes, he talks on one of my Christmas albums ~ not much but you get the idea) it gives me a little pang of sadness. It makes me sad because hearing his voice represents all that is right and free and good about America to me. I don't why but it does. The America we know and love. The America built on hard work and perserverance. An America that loved God and our fellow man and individual liberties.

It seems our America~ the America we know and love ~ is slipping away daily under this current Administration and Bing would not believe it if he were here to sing for us today. Who knew hearing Bing's voice sing Christmas carols would remind me of that.

See what I mean... call me crazy. Go ahead. I can take it.

Speaking of Gifts

...everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

"We have to realize that we cannot earn or win anything from God; we must either receive it as a gift or do without it." Chambers

Just for fun this morning I opened My Utmost For His Highest on the appropriate date. Usually I'm all over the place with it.

It happens to be my birthday. What a blessed reminder gift it was to read those words this early morning.

So because I don't want to do without every provision my Lord sacrificed His life for me to have... today I'm remembering all day long ...

"being justified freely by His grace..." Rom 3: 24
(and that's not talking about calories, peeps!)