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Sunday Selection: The Blind Man
Today begins for me, like every other day for the past decades, in darkness…
Can you imagine? The first thing you ever see?
Jesus’ face.
Beautiful.
You can read the rest of Mark Altrogge’s amazing blog post here.
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Funkified
I think the 70’s look pretty good on us.
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Wednesday Worship: The Glory Of It All
He created.
We destroy.
He came.
We run.
He forgives.
We sin.
He repairs.
We fall apart.
He is there.
We leave.
He rescues.
We cry.
He finds.
We hide.
He redeems.
We repent.
He lives.
We live.The glory of it all is that it is all about HIM.
How am I living for His glory? Every. single. day. It’s all about Him.
This song is my anthem.
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Artist: David Crowder Band
Song: The Glory Of It All
CD: Remedy, 2007, Six Steps MusicAt the start
He was there, He was there
In the end,
He’ll be there, He’ll be thereAnd After all our hands have wrought
He forgivesOh the Glory of it all is:
He came here
For the rescue of us all
That we may live
For the glory of it all
For the glory of it allAll is lost
Find him there, find him there
After night
Dawn is there, Dawn is thereAfter all falls apart
He repairs He repairsOh the Glory of it all is:
He came here
For the rescue of us all
That we may live
For the glory of it allOh He is here
For redemption from the fall
That we may live
For the glory of it all
Oh the glory of it all
The glory of it all
Oh the glory of it allAfter night
Comes the light
Dawn is here
Dawn is here
It’s a new day
It’s a new day
Everything will change
Things will never be the same
We will never be the same
We will never be the same
We will never be the same
We will never be the sameOh, The glory of it all is
You came here
For the rescue of us all
That we may live
For the glory of it allOh You are here
With redemption for us all
That we may live
For the glory of it all
For the glory of it all
Oh the glory of it all -
Maintenance Mode
“What is happening with your treatment?”
That is one of the many questions I am often faced with when I am in public, and after today, I can thankfully say, “In maintenance mode.”
I saw my oncologist Monday, as I have every month for the past 20. After today, I am now on an every two month rotation for follow-up, and I have no scans, tests, etc. scheduled until June! It is so amazing to think I could not see a doctor for two months! Although I am feeling very insecure without the constant monitoring. All the “what if’s…” creep in.In June they will scan my neck again to see if the treatment I received in January worked. In the scan right before that treatment, they found a piece of thyroid tissue (presumably cancerous) that was under scar tissue right by my vocal cords. A neurosurgeon at that big hospital over the mountain took one look at it and said, “I don’t want to touch it unless I have no other alternative.” So they gave me the huge dose of radioactive iodine to hopefully kill it off.
In June we will find out if it worked. If it didn’t, then I’m looking at surgery again. Very sketchy, possibly dangerous surgery.
I won’t lie.
That scares me. A lot.
But I cling. As I have every day for the past almost two years. God hasn’t changed one iota since the day I heard my doctor utter, “There’s no easy way to say this…” He has held me and given me eyes to see my future hope in the midst of present darkness.
Still, every day is hard. And I believe hard is an understatement. I wake every morning in pain. Pain that the doctor told me yesterday will probably never resolve itself because it’s been almost two years since surgery. Pain that comes from so many nerves being severed in their quest to remove the cancer. Pain that will be the thorn in my flesh to remind me of His faithfulness.
It is easy to look at today and be defeated or look at the future and fear instead of celebrating the joys around me.
So today I celebrate this step.
Maintenance mode.
Won’t you celebrate with me?
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STEP BACK, Girlfrien’
Yes, she has the spiritual gift of sass.
“We are doomed,” I say. “Doomed.”
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Sunday Selection: Relevance
We don’t make the Bible relevant; it is inherently so, simply because it is God’s Word. And after all, how can anything God says be irrelevant?
~John MacArthur
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It’s All In A Name: Part Five
Yes, it is about me.
No, I did not write it.
Natalie wrote it.
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. (Romans 1:16)
When I asked Angie if she was going to write a Part 5 in her “It’s All in a Name” series, she said she wasn’t planning on it, mostly because she had no idea what to write about herself and her name meaning “Angelic.”
“That’s a silly excuse! I have plenty to say on your behalf,” I told her.
If you were wondering, Angie (Angela Marie) wasn’t named after anyone in particular. Just a strong Italian name! Maybe I’m a little biased, but I can appreciate a strong Italian name.
Angela is from the Greek for “angel” or “messenger/messenger of God.”
Angie. Messenger of God. Someone commissioned to spread the truth of the Gospel, the Good News.
A messenger of God. Someone eager to share with others how God is working in and through her own life.
Over the months, Angie’s story has been filled with so much pain and suffering. Her stories have often brought us to tears, and her pains have become our pains. Yet, I am constantly amazed by her utmost concern to share the truth. The truth about how God is working through her sufferings. The truth about God’s unfailing love.
On her weakest days, Angie has reminded us that He is our strength and hope. And He will never fail us. If we put our trust in Him, realizing that our lives are messy and we are far from perfect, only then will we begin to understand the truth of the Gospel. That His love IS perfect. And His message is overflowing with hope. A hope for a glorious future.
Thank you Angie for your eagerness to share with us, as our messenger. You have directed our gaze toward Him. Only when we look upon Him can we begin to cherish the truth of the Good News. He will never abandon us.
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
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It’s All In A Name: Part Four
For thus the Lord GOD,
the Holy One of Israel, has said,
“In repentance and rest you will be saved,
In quietness and trust is your strength.” (Isaiah 30:15a)
My Brian.
Noble. Strength.
And a ruthless trust that has led me through the darkest days of my life.
I stood with a friend last week in my kitchen. She was catching up on life with me and she reached out, touched my arm, her cheeks dimpling as she smiled, “Aren’t you so thankful you have your Brian?”
My eyes filled up with tears, “I can’t even begin to describe it. 20 months of this, and I can’t remember ONE time that he has complained. He has hated it, he has suffered, but he has never complained. He has only loved.”
That, my friends, is noble strength.
In her book, Cold Tangerines, Shauna Niequist writes:
I had thought that we became a family the day we were married. What I have found, though, is that the web starts as just one fine filament on that day, and spins and spins around us as life presents itself to us day by day. And on some days, the strands spin around us double-time, spinning us like a top and binding us like rubber cement…
That’s how family gets made. Not by ceremonies or certificates, and not by parties and celebrations. Family gets made when you decide to hold hands and sit shoulder to shoulder when it seems like the sky is falling. Family gets made when the world becomes strange and disorienting, and the only face you recognize is his. Family gets made when the future obscures itself like a solar eclipse, and in the intervening darkness, you decide that no matter what happens in the night, you’ll face it as one.
Quietness and trust.
Noble strength.
Words that epitomize my husband. The face that I recognized in the darkness. The arms that held me during the eclipse. The man that I will call my family forever.
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It’s All In A Name: Part Three
He has shown Thee, O man,
What is good
And what the Lord requires of Thee,
But to do justly
And to love mercy
And to walk humbly with Thy God.
(Micah 6:8)
Micah 6:8 is one of our favorite verses of Scripture, and I am amazed at how our little Micah embodies mercy and humility. Always willing to serve. Never one to brag about his own accomplishments. Always ready with hugs of forgiveness when brother or sister hurts. He happily lives in his world capturing each day with excitement and zeal.
Micah. “Who resembles God.” He is the picture of our Father in his mercy, love, and humility, and in his joy for every day.
And darn it, he sure is cute, too!
I love my Bear.
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It’s All In A Name: Part Two
Asher is most blessed of sons…
Your sandals shall be iron and bronze;
as your days so shall your strength be.
(Deuteronomy 33:24-25)
We shall be given shoes of iron. We shall find the unendurable, endurable, the impossible, possible… Not all God’s children, I suppose, have iron shoes–only the ones who need them. Lord, you know what we need…
There is in Him no variableness or even a shadow caused by turning. If it’s iron shoes we need, they will be provided.
~Elisabeth Eliot, Keep A Quiet Heart
Little did I know when we chose his beautiful name, what a daily reminder he would be of the strength and grace God gives us for each day! Praising God for the iron shoes He’s given me and dreaming the impossibilities of every day with my little man.
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A Spring of Joy 