Welcome to the Third Pew Back!

I am really proud of myself.  I cleaned out our closet and I feel great!  It has been needing a good, thorough cleaning for quite some time but you know how it is.  You get home from work and there's just no time or energy left to deal with such chores.  Well, tonight, I just dug in and got it done.  I have four bags of clothes and one of shoes to take to Goodwill tomorrow and just one small bag of trash.  Not bad.  Now, there's so much room, my husband and I need to go shopping.  :)

Wow, a whole month has gone by already.  Work is busy and the days seem to scurry away faster and faster. 

I need to slow down a bit, savor the moments, listen for God's direction in my life.  His voice is soothing, His touch is calming, His love for each one of us is so amazing.  Be still...His word tells us, "Be still and KNOW that I am God."

When was the last time I was still with my God?  When was the last time I really listened? When I fail to spend time alone with the Lord, life tumbles and swerves and throws punches.  Just my thoughts...and now to go spend quality time with my Jesus. 

God sent me a message through Elizabeth's own words.  Turns out she was counseling a mutual friend regarding the tragic death of the friend's son and Lizzie told her, "Don't focus on how he left the world, focus on where he is now."  When her friend told me this, I was amazed.  It is like Elizabeth counseled us all on how to handle her death ahead of time.  So I don't focus on the way she left the world, I just see her in heaven with Jesus.  Amen, Lord, amen.

She was my co-worker, my friend, my cubicle neighbor, my sister-in-Christ and she is gone.  It was a senseless, brutal act and I don't understand why.  She was such a sweet person with a smile as big as her heart.  She reflected the light of Christ to all she met.  We loved the Lord together, sharing Scripture and prayer at work.  For the good days, for the bad days, for all the days.

They will bury her tomorrow.  I know she is with Jesus and that He spared her the pain of the attack and the horror of it all.  I know He did and I thank Him for His mercy and grace.  Now I ask Him for the strength to get through the coming days and weeks and months without Elizabeth in my life.  It is so hard to go into work and not see her there.  The silence in the cube next to me is deafening.  I can smell the roses on her desk.  I sigh. But then I see her smile, I see her doing her happy dance for Jesus, and I know it is well with my soul.

These photos were taken at a conference held at the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove in Asheville, NC. 

The chapel through the winter woods.

The Shepards Inn

 The hush of an empty chapel.

The pulpit waits.

The wall in the upper prayer room.

The Way of Dreams

Dreams vanish in the dusky dawn,
Like woodsmoke spiraling on the wind.
Our minds reach out in futile attempts,
To grasp the images within.

Then a touch, a taste, a fragment,
And you're teased into feigned recall.
But just when the dream starts to return,
There's no recollection at all!

© 2009 DEG

© 2009 DEG

I am involved in a Bible study using the book "Seeking Him" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Tim Grissom. I am working my way through the chapter on repentance and what a journey it has been! One thing that caught my attention was that before sin can become an act, it is first a thought. I hadn't thought about temptation in quite that way before and now I can't quit thinking about it. Thoughts are so powerful and striving to control them is difficult.

A phrase that the Rev. Clint Pressley used to use quite often in his sermons at Hickory Grove Baptist Church was "personal holiness." It keeps coming to mind so I've been working on personal holiness and today, I failed miserably. However, God led me to the following Scripture in 1Peter 1:13-16:

13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

I will prepare my mind by being in my Bible each and every day which will give birth to self control. I will set my hope on the grace of Jesus Christ which will lead to obedience. And I will pray, "Oh, dear God, make me holy for I cannot do it on my own!"