I am sick with the flu.  It started Sunday night and has gotten worse ever since.  Hopefully, the weekend will bring rest and relief. Please keep me in your prayers.


Peace and Love 
Blessings and joy,
Elizabeth

A Little Note

A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver ~ Proverbs 25:11


I wanted to let you know that I have not abandoned my blog or you.  I love that you have hung in here with me even though I have been distracted.  I have been so overwhelmed by what the publishing world tells us writers to do that I have done very little writing of late.  I am lost in the tech world and I pout because all I really want to do is write.  Creating websites, learning how to market myself, and feeling like a deer caught in headlights because I am told publishers want writers who are also excellent speakers have kept me occupied along with all of the daily duties we all face.  I run from appointment to errand to housework and have cut out everything I truly enjoy for the sake of time constraints.  I have tried to force myself into a schedule that doesn't fit who I am, all for the sake of bettering myself, only to find out that it has backfired on me.  I have felt drained and exhausted and need a time of renewal to get back to my passion for writing and studying about God.  I love writing my blog and I love that you read and comment and share it with your friends and family.  I don't ever want it to feel forced because it is really all about God and living in harmony with Him and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide my words.  Most of my problem is I have starved myself of my quiet time with God.  Glynnis Whitwer with Proverbs 31 made it clear during a class that I can't feed you if I don't feed myself.


I haven't been feeding myself and my blog has suffered for it.  For that I am truly sorry.


First and Foremost, I want to be obedient to what God has called me to do.  He has called to write.  I am working on a blog entry that will post early next week and I pray and hope that you will find it was worth waiting on.  Maybe one day He will call me to speak or market myself in a certain way.  But for now, I am going to wait on Him.  God can be very tenacious when He wants me to do something His way and for that, I am grateful.  I don't serve a God that is quick to give up on me, but that will nurture me so that hopefully you find nourishment when you stop by.  I have set a goal for myself to write two blogs a week for now.  The rest of the time will be spent writing my book.  Unless the Boss gives me different instructions, and if that happens, I will be writing about it so you will be the first to know.  He has placed people in my life that are especially important to my writing.  I am a horrible speller and my grammar could use some work.  Sometimes I tend to cram too much information into a sentence and my reader gets terribly confused.  The friends that God has placed in my life are helping me to be successful to His calling in my life.  So I have an grammar checker and I have a real live spell checker.  I have encouragement specialists and I have prayer warriors.  God has set me up for success so the only way I can fail is to not be obedient to Him.


So be patient with me as I finish up my new posting and hopefully the words will be like apples of gold in settings of silver.......


as always,
May you find peace and love, happiness and joy in our ever present God,
Elizabeth




p.s. If you haven't already, be sure to sign up for delivery of my blog to your e-mail.  After you sign up, I believe you will receive a confirmation e-mail.  Let me know if you encounter any problems.

Autumn's Sweetness

To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1 (nkjv)

Summer has passed away again and Autumn has gracefully and rightfully taken her place.  The trees sway in the breeze and their leaves are turning from emerald to amber and maroon, copper and scarlet.  The sun is peeking through the last of the thick rain clouds leaving shadows at my feet.  The wind's chill cuts through my sweater and suddenly I feel alone and cold and sad.  All the monarchs and grasshoppers, dragonflies and butterflies, honey bees and bumblebees, are either dying to the cold or moving on to warmer climates.  Winter is coming.

Here in my neck of the woods, the debate rages on:  Will it be the same or worse than last year or will our winter be mild?  Everyone has a different opinion, but only One knows what ultimately will be.  Still, I check the weather everyday and read the Farmers Almanac trying to create a prediction of my own - one that I can tolerate, one that I can accept.

We live in a world of predictions and uncertainties; a world that shifts beneath our still feet as we look up to the One that can give us guidance.  Yet, I still look to the world(or worse, myself) to fix my problems, many times leaving God as a last resort; the One I will turn to when I have exhausted every other possibility.  I long to be the woman that turns to God immediately; one that never waivers or questions, but trusts in His wisdom and guidance of my steps.  I desire to be blind to all the world offers me, but somehow, in the midst of my self-driven chaos, Jesus gets lost and fades into the background where ultimately I lose sight of Him.  It is then, that I am most aware of my brokenness and it creates a hollowness in my soul that can not be satisfied with the selfish pleasures I evoke.  There are so many counterfeit gods in the world that give instant gratification, that sidetrack me and before I know what has happened a month has passed and I am parched.  I am thirsty for something real and tangible, something true and honest and worthy. 


We both know, I never have to be parched.  We both know that when I shut down and walk away from the daily grind for whatever length of time it takes - that I should be communing with God not excluding Him. For the last month, I should have been running to God and resting in Him.  I should have been still.  I should have listened.  Instead, I ran the other direction as fast and hard as I could.  Why?  Because when I become overwhelmed, it is just what I do.  I drop from sight.  If looking for me, one might find that a sighting of Bigfoot would be more likely.


Only God knows where I am and He speaks to me.  He meets me right where I am. God knows what I need and He gives it to me.  God knows just the right time to call my name and exactly what to say to awaken me from my hibernation.  The days grow short with the tick-tocking of the clock, yet I know that winter is a time of renewal for me. A time of writing and studying and listening to God.  I have struggled for weeks to write on this blog, to find the right words that your e-mails tell me you are eager to read, but with every day that passed, fear invaded my days that I might never have another thing to write to you.  I wanted to write and I prayed everyday that God would give me something.  Anything.  After uttering that prayer, I would walk away from my computer, my Bible, my paper, my pens - and straight to whatever task was at hand.  I don't remember ever waiting on God to actually answer me.


God has gently reminded me that I must be patient.  I must wait on Him.  His timing is perfect.  His ways are higher than my own.  He can be trusted.




Blue patches of sky can now be seen through the breaking clouds and the weather man reports that tomorrow will be warm and sunny.  A good day for writing under my new tree by my new rock wall.


May we trust we are exactly where God wants us to be, and as my mom likes to say, may we bloom where we are planted.  May you enjoy the days of Autumn and all of God's painting until the first midnight snowflakes begin to fall.

a note to my faithful readers

I apologize for the delay in getting a new post ready.  I have some personal things that need my attention right now and it will be another week before I post again.  I appreciate your patience and checking back. 

Peace and love,

Elizabeth

Football already?

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. ~ Hebrews 12:11 (niv)


I love summer vacation and this summer has gone away entirely too quickly.  I feel as if I have floated through the entire summer oblivious to time.  I know that I have been very, very busy and right now I have that little kid feeling that school is just around the corner and I am fighting to savor the last few days of summer vacation before schedules and rituals creep in. 


I am leaving today and heading to Georgia to visit family and friends and I already know that the week will pass too quickly. Suddenly, Labor Day will be upon me: my sign that I must buckle down and stop living a carefree summer existence.  The past few days have felt more like autumn than summer and I have even watched a few pre-season football games (which by the way - I never watch. I mean really - who needs that agony?).  But I feel this longing for September to arrive.  I am actually looking forward to getting back into a routine because deep down I know that I am ever so much more productive when my days are structured.  


Hebrews 12:11 says this: No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. 


It is so difficult to create any discipline for myself, especially in the summer.  I know for a fact that if I am not careful,  I could find myself wasting uncountable hours. Not necessarily doing nothing at all, but just becoming distracted by all the things that need to be done or gardening or well, just, things.  That is exactly what has happened to me this week.  All of the sudden it is Friday and I find myself wondering again, "What happened to the week?"


I look out the window and the sky is blue and the sun is shining all the warmth of a perfect summer day.  A good day.  A great day. A perfect day to take a road trip with my husband.  A last week of summer vacation for creating perfect memories to treasure through the long winter months that are sure to be here all too soon.  But for now, I will enjoy this last sweet taste of summer before it is time to settle in and watch football and cook chili and pick apples and pumpkins and watch the leaves begin to turn into a beautiful display of red, orange and gold.  For this summer girl, this year autumn can not arrive too soon.  And I know why.  I am ever seeking a harvest of righteousness and peace, but it only comes after discipline has been instilled.  To be disciplined I need structure and my structure always arrives the Tuesday after Labor Day.  I do not know why God built me to need the structure of a school year, but crave the freedoms of summer. Maybe one day He will reveal the mystery to me.


This will be my last post until I return.  May the last week of your summer be the sweetest of your life.  


Peace and Blessings,
Elizabeth

Like Sweetness in Honey

How shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace who bring glad tidings of good things. ~ Romans 10:15 (nkjv)


Friday, I found God in a dream.  

I find Him there sometimes in the wee morning hours before dawn, but this time was different. The sunlight streamed through the window, warm and sweet, as I lay napping.  It is a rarity that I ever nap.  Sleep often eludes me even as the rest of the world is tucked in tight not letting the bed bugs bite.  But this afternoon, as I struggled to write, my eyes heavily blinking, finally drooping, it was then that I finally gave in to sleep.  I tucked myself into bed, snuggled under the covers.

God gave me a nap.  And it was good.

Then the phone rang.  I sat up straight in the bed and gasped for air.  I am certain my heart was close to exploding. I felt confused and disoriented as I sat there.  I tried to recall what I had been dreaming, but all I could see in my head was white script on black: Chapter 33. Then images flooded my mind: what some would call Bible thumpers and Jesus freaks holding placards with bold words – the end is nigh, save yourselves; people permeated with fear rushing about the city streets screaming.  It was complete and utter chaos.  And it was not the quiet kind I am ever-seeking.  In the midst were people standing still, quietly, diligently, praying and watching the pandemonium unfold.

For the next two hours, I struggled to find the significance of Chapter 33.  In the middle of dinner I finally made the connection. Sometimes during my quiet time with God, instead of working on my designated Bible study, I will open my Bible and read for a while.  That morning I had opened The Message and it fell open to the first page of Ezekiel. On the left page there was a description about Ezekiel and on the right was chapter one.  Before I started reading, there were only two things that I knew about Ezekiel:  First, he was a prophet and second, God called him son of man, made him eat a scroll and Ezekiel wrote to us that it tasted like honey in sweetness (3:3).  So, I began reading what Peterson had to say about him:

Catastrophe strikes and a person’s world falls apart.  People respond variously, but two of the more common responses are denial and despair. Denial refuses to acknowledge the catastrophe. It shuts its eyes tight and looks the other way; it manages to act as if everything is going to be just fine; it takes refuge in distractions and lies and fantasies.  Despair is paralyzed by the catastrophe and accepts it as the end of the world.  It is unwilling to do anything, concluding that life for all intents and purposes is over. Despair listlessly closes its eyes to a world in which all the color has drained out, a world gone dead.  Among Biblical writers, Ezekiel is our master at dealing with catastrophe. When catastrophe struck…denial was the primary response. Ezekiel found himself living among a people of God who stubbornly refused to see what was right before their eyes (the denial crowd).  There were some who were unwilling to see anything other than what was right before their eyes (the despair crowd).

But Ezekiel saw.  He saw what the people with whom he lived either couldn’t or wouldn’t see.  He saw in wild and unforgettable images, elaborated in exuberant detail – God at work in a catastrophic era.  The denial people refused to see that the catastrophic was in fact catastrophic.  How could it be?  God wouldn’t allow anything that bad happen to them.  Ezekiel showed them.  He showed them that, yes, there was catastrophe, but God was at work in the catastrophe, sovereignly using the catastrophe.  He showed them so they would be able to embrace God in the worst of times. The despair people, overwhelmed by the devastation, refused to see that life was worth living.  How could it be? They lost everything or would soon…Ezekiel showed them.  He showed them that God was and would be at work in the wreckage and rubble, sovereignly using the disaster to create a new people of God...

There, I stopped reading.  I am constantly in awe of the things God will put directly in front of me.  And this was one of those moments.  I have told you that I am writing a book.  My book is about finding God in the midst of tragedy and affliction.  It is about not finding Him on the other side of the trial, but finding Him walking beside us with every step we take.   It is about knowing that God will never allow our destruction, but will rebuild us into newer and better people,  stronger and wiser people, people prepared to carry out His will.

And I know about denial.  I know about despair and desperation and affliction.  Six years ago, tragedy struck our family.  A truck rear-ended me at 70 mph as I was stopped in traffic.  I was 8 months pregnant with my first daughter and my 2 ½ year old son was in the car with me.  I spent months in the hospital recovering.  My husband, my oldest son who is now nineteen, and I walk a road that many before us have walked.  We aren’t bad people and the question has been posed to me often, “Why would God allow this to happen to you?”  Then the inquirer waits for an answer as if I have some secret access to God’s mind.  But maybe the access is not secret.  Maybe I am just willing to see God in places few are willing to look. Bit by bit, He reveals to me the things He wishes me to know creating a wiser me.  He walks beside me creating a stronger and more faithful me.  He performs miracles that leave me breathless and in awe of His sovereignty.  He teaches me to see Him in all of His glory as He breaks through desperation and despair and denial and affliction.  So you can see why I felt an immediate connection to Ezekiel in this moment. The words that Peterson wrote describing Ezekiel resonated with me and it was as if God was speaking to me. “Hey. Don’t give up.  I am working here.  Hang in there.”

Now I know that you are hanging on and saying, “yeah, but what about the dream???”

Over the past few months, I have been feeling led to be a bit more evangelistic.  I was raised Southern Baptist so this is not something I am unfamiliar with, however, I know it is not my primary spiritual gift.  What I learned this weekend as I read, studied and analyzed this information is that evangelizing doesn’t necessarily mean knocking on someone’s door and sharing the Bible with them.  It can, but it also means that we use our own gifts to share the gospel with others.  That can mean art or songs, it can mean teaching or hospitality.  The ways we evangelize are only limited by God's imagination and really, is there any limit there? In my case, it means writing and sharing how God speaks to me and where I find Him. It has been in the past few months that I have, as I told you before, begun opening my Bible and just reading it.  I think it is no coincidence that my Bible fell open to Ezekiel that morning.  I think it is no coincidence that I had a dream where God was giving me a message.  I am a extremely literal person.  God speaks to me in a very literal way.  I am a visual person and seeing words and pictures will clarify meaning when other methods do not work.  I am passionate about what I believe in and what I believe in the most is bringing God’s truth forward.  I have vivid dreams and I believe that sometimes, He will use those dreams to speak to me. I am not claiming to be a prophet.  I am not claiming to be any more special that anyone else God placed on His earth.  I am very simply sharing with you that, occasionally, God chooses to speak to me in this manner. I do not believe that He is urging me to stand on a street corner creating chaos and perpetuating fear, shouting, “the end is nigh.”  I do believe that this dream has certain meaning.

I live in chaos.  My mind races constantly and the racing feeds my insomnia.  I am rarely, if ever, still. It is not uncommon in the Bible that God caused people to fall into a deep sleep.  I was sleeping very soundly Friday afternoon.  I think that God just needed me to be still and quiet and without distraction for just a little while.  If it took a nap, then so be it.  In my dream is complete chaos.  Earlier I described it as pandemonium.  Now look at the word pandemonium and break it down…in the middle is this word: DEMON. What does the ruler of demons do? He creates FEAR.  People were running and screaming with fear and within all of the chaos are people standing still and praying to God.  Is scripture coming to mind?  Maybe…Be still and know that I am God.  God is sovereign and controls all situations, even catastrophe and chaos. He can control pandemonium as well if we are still and diligently praying to Him, listening for a response and for guidance.  If we are obedient, then lives are saved.  Not because we issue a threat – Repent or else, but because we show that God is good and worthy of our reverence by giving us a most precious gift in Jesus.

Chapter 33 talks about a watchman’s duty…this is quoted from The Message:

God’s message came to me: “Son of man, speak to your people. Tell them, ‘If I bring war on this land and the people take one of their citizens and make him their watchman, and if the watchman sees war coming and blows the trumpet, warning the people, then if anyone hears the sound of the trumpet and ignores it and war comes and takes him off, it’s his own fault. He heard the alarm, he ignored it – it’s his own fault. If he had listened, he would have saved his life. But if the watchman sees war coming and doesn’t blow the trumpet, warning the people, and war comes and takes anyone off, I’ll hold the watchman responsible for the bloodshed of any unwarned sinner.’ ~ Ezekiel 33:1-6

As I read these words, I felt the crushing weight of responsibility we bear as Christians.  It also reminded me of a favorite scripture in Isaiah:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Your watchmen shall lift up their voices, with their voices they shall sing together; For they shall see eye to eye when the Lord brings back Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem! For the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.  The Lord has made bare His Holy Arm in the eyes of all nations; And all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. ~ Isaiah 52:7-10

God may have made Ezekiel a watchman, but clearly, here in Isaiah, God is telling us that we are all responsible for being watchmen.  The word is plural.

So here is my question: What are we doing to bring the glad tidings of good things to all the peoples of the world? 

If we are watchmen, are we consistently listening for God’s guidance and acting in obedience when He calls?  Are we ever still and quiet enough to hear Him speak?  Are we praying for opportunity to spread the word of God to those who are seeking it?  Are we studying and preparing ourselves for the moment that God presents us with an opportunity?  Are we equipping others to save their own lives?

I wonder.

I have questions.

I pray.

Faithfully, God listens and then proclaims truth.  His truth was incredibly and undeniably sobering to me because I know that I cannot answer yes to all of those questions consistently.

You are probably wondering why I posted pictures of honey bees in this blog.  Honey bees are diligent workers.  Every day, they wake up and search out clover or flowers for nectar so that they can make honey.  Saturday afternoon, they were working away in a little patch of clover in my front yard.  I believe that we need to be more like little honey bees.  We need to diligently search out those who do not know Jesus and give them the words of God to feed upon.  Ezekiel tells us they taste like honey in sweetness.  And is there anything sweeter than God’s truth?

a little note

Hello to my good and  faithful readers.....

A blog entry is coming.  I apologize that it has been a few days since my last post.  I have been a little under the weather. I have been working on a new entry the past couple of days and it is a little different and I would like it to be perfect just for you.  It will post in the next 24 hours I promise.  Thank you for your patience and persistence in checking back in...I have been happy to see my little ticker climbing.  Thanks to all who have passed my blog on to others.  Do not be concerned that if you use the e-mail-this-blog link and receive an error message; it still goes through. I will be adding a box so you can subscribe by e-mail if you wish.

In Christ,

Peace and Love and Blessings,

Elizabeth