Pressed Between the Pages Of My Mind

Today I came across an old, minute flower pressed between the pages of my Bible. It reminded me of another day many years ago when the storms of life were seemingly raging at every turn.

I remember strolling through my backyard--heart consumed with grief; unending tears, not splashing but softly flowing rivulets urging recollections of happier times. I tried to encourage my soul to think on good things as the Bible tells us to do but couldn't seem to tear my mind away from the negative thoughts.

Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.

The end of verse 9 goes on to say "and the God of peace will be with you."

I knew as a Christian I was not supposed to be in such turmoil in my mind and heart but could not seem to find anything lovely or good to think upon. About that time, my foot grazed a tiny, delicate creation. Upon further investigation, I noticed that this minute lavender design of God had not one flaw. I was overwhelmed at that moment with the sovereignty and majesty of God. That He would take the time to design and create and place at my feet at that particular moment in time so perfect a flower, was more than my heart and soul could imagine.

For what seemed like a very long time I gazed upon the pastel translucence of God's handiwork. My soul settled down, my heart took on an attitude of gratefulness and my mind was renewed. The problems didn't change at the moment but I did. Only God and the power of His Word can make a change in us that stands the test of time.

Maybe you are not in the middle of any serious storms in your life today. However, it is always good to think on the good things in life with which God has blessed us. If you haven't yet today, won't you take a moment and reflect upon His blessings and let your heart, soul and mind be renewed by the power of God's Word?



2010-The Year of Longings
Even though He tells us to come boldly before the throne of grace in our hour of need, I long to run to Him daily, not just when the storms come. He always welcomes us, but how He must love it when we come to Him willingly while the seas are calm--just because we love and appreciate Him so.

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4:16 NLT

A repost from the archives

Photo taken yesterday, May 16, 2010 right after a storm had passed--yes, the storm had passed.

Weekend Worship at Highland Park Courtyard

I wanted to take you inside this week but the courtyards were so pretty, I just couldn't leave them out. I wish I had had time to just sit down and truly soak in the presence of God while we were there. But looking at the beauty through these pictures while meditating on His Word will have to suffice. I pray that God meets you here in His courtyard preparing for the inner beauty of His sanctuary next week.
High Park United Methodist Church, Dallas, Texas

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 100:4-101:1

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come into his courts .
Psalm 96:8

My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.

Psalm 84:2

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;

planted in the house of the LORD,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.



They will still bear fruit in old age,
they will stay fresh and green,

proclaiming, "The LORD is upright;
he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him."

Psalm 92:12-15



Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

from Psalm 84

For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
from those whose walk is blameless.

from Psalm 84

Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth.

Psalm 96:9

Dianne
2010- the Year of Longings

You know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God, don't you? You do not belong to yourselves.
1 Cor. 6:19

Lord, we know that these beautiful edifices of bricks, mortar and stone are not the places where you truly live. In all humility, we know that it is in our bodies that you reside and that is so hard for us to comprehend the God of the Universe being pleased, even elated to be at home in us. But we do thank you for their beauty and realize that just as there are great churches of the world and very lowly ones, all believers together make up your body and not one of us is more important than another.

I am linking to Spiritual Sundays, an inspirational place to visit.

faith while suffering--guest post

'A
nd now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.' From Philippians NLT

For quite a while I had been thinking about asking my blogging friend, Sandy, to guest post on my blog. Today when I read her post, I KNEW that I wanted to post this for you, dear reader.

How blessed we are when we find a true, loyal, loving, devoted friend. I have found that in Sandy. While I have never laid eyes on her, I couldn't love her more if we were blood sisters. In fact, the other day she said as much in one of her comments to me. "We are blood sisters--His blood."

You can access Sandy's blog here but for now enjoy her inspired writing right below.

Faith While Suffering


When someone speaks of faith, what does it
mean to you? How do you define faith?

Now faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen.
-Hebrews 11:1
NKJV

Now faith is being sure of what we hope
for and certain of what we do not see.
NIV

There are all sorts of reasons why we are in
need of faith. Sometimes it's for a financial
breakthrough, or for a special word from the
Lord, or for a situation to change, for some
type of direction. Of course we must have faith
to receive our eternal salvation.

But what about suffering in these physical
bodies? What about faith to be healed or
delivered? What do we do when we feel we
have done all we can do?

To me, having faith means I take God at His
word, then go on.The Bible is His word, His truth.
I take it as His personal word to and for me, then I
"do the next thing", as dear Elisabeth Elliot said,
after the death of her martyred husband, Jim.

So, what must Christians do when suffering comes
and lingers long? When there seems to be no way,
day in and day out, but suffering? When these
hard circumstances seem not to change no matter
how long and hard we storm heaven's gates?

We realize God is, indeed, with us right there in
the middle of our suffering. He is among us.
So, we set our battle-worn hearts and minds to

carry on

keep going

move ahead

fix our eyes on Him

not look back

to persevere

press in

refuse to give up

encourage ourselves in Him

and "do the next thing" that needs to be done in
daily living.

And in His good and perfect timing, if we faint not,
we will see His hand in all these circumstances in life.

The hardest thing we go through in this life, in my opinion,
is seeing our loved ones suffer with sickness and pain.
That is even harder than experiencing it in our own
bodies and minds. When a child, spouse, parent, sibling,
or friend is bound up with a physical or mental infirmity
we suffer right along with them.

Yet He has promised never to leave us or forsake us.
He has promised to love us with an everlasting love.
He has promised that all things work together for our
good.
He has promised that joy comes in the morning.

Whatever you may be going through...take hold of
His hand. He loves you. He will see you through.


The Lord himself goes before you and will be
with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.
Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.
-Deuteronomy 31:8

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.
-Psalm 34:17

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean
not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him and he will
make your paths straight.
-Proverbs 3:5-6

You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind
is steadfast, because he trusts in you.
Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord,
is the Rock eternal.
-Isaiah 26:3-4

This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of
Israel, says:
"In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength...."
-Isaiah 30:15

From a caring heart, with love, to you and yours,
Sandy

Thank you, Sandy, for a beautiful post. The rose and scripture above represent your friendship to me. Thank you from my heart.

sharper than an arrow

See this precious little cuddle bug. Well, it's hard to believe but now she is almost 16 years old. We want to congratulate her on her many accomplishments this year but especially a specific two.

In February she came in 2nd in the state of Arkansas in her age division in archery. Last weekend she placed 7th in the nation in her age division and her team has been invited to the world archery championship to be held in Florida in the fall.

Way to go, sweet Katelyn. We are so proud of you for these achievements but more than that we are so glad that you are a sweet Christian girl and love Jesus.

Katelyn went to Paraguay on a mission trip last summer and will return there this year. She works hard all year doing fund-raisers so that she can afford to go on these trips.

Congratulations, Katelyn, we are so proud of you!

I long to have pictures of the national archery tournament--Help, Traci!

Tom, Jerry, and Larry

Can you guess who this is? I can tell you this--the guy in orange is Larry and the guy in blue is Jerry. And he won't be the ONLY Jerry I refer to in this post. So that leaves Tom, right? But Tom who? Need another hint? Maybe the next picture will help.



Why, of course, the incomparable Tom Landry of Dallas Cowboy fame.

We were in Dallas last week and went on a tour of the new Cowboys Stadium. It truly is a marvel of technology and architecture.



It is hard to wrap your mind around just how gigantic this stadium really is. Three of the old Texas Stadium's would fit inside this one. If you look past the trees to the parked cars, you can get a little perspective on its size.



The Statue of Liberty could lie inside this structure.



The top and each end of the stadium are retractable to make it an "open-air facility." One Cowboy player said, "They made the hole in the roof of Texas stadium so that God could watch His favorite team play." They were really happy when they found out that God got to watch even when the roof was closed for rain CAUSE he can see right through it. Too bad they didn't do a little research before they built that expensive opening and find that God didn't need it to begin with.

THE GIFT SHOP



The floor was too pretty to walk on.



Right out of the play book--I thought the x's and o's chart was really nifty on the wall--no ladies, those do not represent hugs and kisses--LOL. Now, don't be offended--I know a lot of ladies who know more x's and o's than their hubbies. Remember, I watched March Madness by myself.



THE INSIDE AND THE GIANT REPLAY SCREEN--JUMBOTRON, I guess they call it--



Those are banquet tables on the field. They were having a Girls' Club celebration there that evening.




The replay screens on each end were about 1/3 the size of the ones that faced each side.





Another view--I keep hoping you can get some sort of perspective on this but I think it may be impossible, really.




One more look.




Each Dallas Cowboy's locker cost $9,000--hard to believe.





And here is the other Jerry I was referring to--Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. This is a picture of us taken several years ago.





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Actually, my husband graduated from high school with Jerry and he invited his senior class and their spouses to a reunion in Dallas. He had an awesome reunion planned with dinner at the Cowboy Country Club and then VIP treatment at the game the next day against the New York Giants. We got to go down on the field, meet a lot of the players and meet the owner of the Giants. This was the first and only night I have ever met Jerry or talked to him.

And here is a picture of my friend, Janiece, and Jerry's lovely wife, Gene.



Once again I want to thank Jerry and Jane who took us to see the awesome Cowboys Stadium. Thanks a lot--especially since you had just taken another group of family the week before. We really appreciate getting to see this incredible feat of architecture.





Jerry may own the Cowboys but guess who owns the cows.

Every animal of the forest is mine,

and the cattle on a thousand hills.

Psalm 50:10