SelahV Today by hariette petersen

Blogger's Blight

Have you had it?  I have.  When I first started blogging, my heart brimmed with great expectations.  I envisioned designing a colorful blog, and writing inspirational stuff to encourage the masses.  Somewhere along the course of things, my hopes and ambitions withered (that's what happens to something infected with blight).  I lost heart.  Not in the Lord, mind you--but definitely in the blogging community. 

I branched out with my main blog, which I started in 2006 to keep myself from going absolutely insane over the loss of my son, Chad.  I only knew one person on the internet, so my blog grew from that core.  I started a few blogs which I have eliminated from my blogroll.  I built Feminine Matters hoping to develop some dialog with other women.  Hardly a peep.  I created Daily Impact and found most folks don't really have much to say to a devotional thought.

My stats indicate that my readership has grown, 65% of my readership is new every day.  I was greatly encouraged at that discovery.  I sure wish some of you folks would leave a comment and say hello...tell me what brought you here, how can I keep you coming by.  What interests you?  Am I accomplishing my goal to encourage, inspire, edify?

I was "stumbled upon" by someone who recommended my site to folks.  The message said,

"A member of the StumbleUpon user community previously added your page to StumbleUpon's index of hi-quality, human-powered content.

Now, each time StumbleUpon refers a user to your page (based on StumbleUpon's analysis of what that user's friends and other like-minded users have recommended) --voila! --an entry in your referral log will be generated."

I was pretty impressed with that message, but wondered if it was just one of those generic messages the cyber-search engine sites use to get you to sign up with them.  I don't know.  I'm so SEO limited.  SEO is "Search Engine Optimization, the process of improving ranking in search engine results."  Who knows for sure?  Sincerity is a rare commodity these days.  I digress (someone shoot that rabbit!). 

The online dictionary says blight is "an extremely adverse environmental condition, such as air pollution."  I thought about that and realized the air in which my blog floated for the most part was polluted--with debate, confrontations, and religious politics.  I didn't fit in.  Not at all.  I don't like that kind of stuff.  Don't like the back and forth, the analyzing of every single word one writes--the contending, the arguments that aren't arguments.  Don't like motives being presumed, attacks being lodged.  It's just not very loving.  One can get infected with that kind of writing style and opinionated dialog, and before one knows it, they are eaten up with it.  Also, it is dominated by men.  Most of the women that venture into those sites weren't like me.  They enjoyed battling it out with the guys.  Not my idea of fun.  Ask my husband.

Thus, I've decided I have Blogger's Blight.  This blight upon my heart and mind leaves me wondering.  Why in the world do I do this? Sometimes I find myself surrounded in an "air" of suffocating bitterness, anger, finger-pointing, talebearing and slander.  I cannot breathe.  The scent is overwhelming. 

I've been thinking about a remedy for this blight.  It's not like I can go down to Lowe's and purchase some kind of spray, some kind of repellant.  I've thought about how one gets rid of blighted stems on a rose bush.  They cut it off.  The healthy stems are nurtured and fed, tilled and fertilized.  Could that be it?  Chop off the blighted part of my blogging experiences?  Feed on the Word of God and develop a better root system?  Then bloom, grow fruit, and wait upon the Lord for the harvest?  I think so.

We who blog for Jesus, are the fragrance of Christ.  At least that is how I see myself in the kingdom's garden.  Lilacs, roses, hyacinths and more.  May my scent bring pleasure to my Father, and all those He brings my way.  God bless you today.  selahV

Hell Trembles, The KING has Risen!

When One Thing Is FINISHED...

We often wonder what's next when one thing is finished...from my newspaper column: COMMON MATTERS.

WRONG THINKING, What Happened to 7 thru 11 of 11?

I know.  I know.  I was writing a series on Wrong Thinking and got snatched away with other matters.  Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows.  Spirit or flesh that took me away, I do not know.  Just know, my friends, that where my attention and emotions went, thoughts about "problematic thinking" followed along.  While I was there, my spirit groaned, my heart ached, and my mind was delivered into a freshness of Life.

Sometimes we are so consumed with how we think, that a fog comes in on cat's feet and settles down around our minds.  It won't move on.  Within that fog, we lose the Way.  A bone-chilling awareness reminds us of a Presence far greater than our minds--for in His Presence we know we think amiss.  We find our mind and actions swiftly following a path we had not planned to journey upon.  In the mist, we discover God's mind, God's thoughts, God's purpose for our life.  In His midst, we recognize a sweeter, kinder, more gracious conscientiousness we had left somewhere in a "list" another had written.

This happens to us all.  We get emotionally bound to another's words.  We get mentally twisted by another's attacks.  We get physically worn by another's demands.  We get spiritually drained by another's needs.  And we find ourselves in a thick fog of indecision, quandary, hurt, and emptiness.

Basically, my friends, the 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 of this series (which I planned to address in separate posts), dealt with allowing outside influences to rob us of truth, joy, and perspective.  These problematic issues were simply self-centeredness, selfishness and inferiority.  When we give all these issues to Christ, our Lord, He takes them and compacts them into a tiny grain.  He then stomps the death out of that kind of thinking, and crushes it beneath His feet.  He then lifts His feet and places them on the footstool of peace, contentment and victory and reminds us that He is the Life of our thoughts, He has overcome the world and its strongholds upon us.

Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know.  I just know that when Jesus reaches down and lifts the mist, then discernment flows in like the warmth of a noonday sun.

I hope you aren't too disappointed in me for not taking 7 through 11 and dissecting them into tiny slivers and pinning them down like a laboratory frog.  I left the biology and psychology classroom and closed the door.  In Jesus I dwell and abide.  In Him I am complete.  And as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.  What is in a man's heart comes out of his mouth.  May we all see the grace in knowing this truth.  selahV

When We Come To Jesus

FORGET HEALTH CARE, THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED

HOPE IN CHANGE

As I read post after post on Facebook, multiple comments on "As A Mom" blogs, and listened to a bit of the diatribe on Fox News, I felt like my brain would explode with the gall fermenting in my stomach.  The fact that our country is now being forced to swallow the lies, bribery and promises of a white-washed abortion Executive Order that is impotent in the face of law, is heartbreaking.  I might cry if not for a hope far greater than any threat we face with the legislators in Washington, D.C.--a hope in the change I know is available.

My spirit is unwavering in the hope that change is in the air.  Hope is not in found in the promises of man.  Hope is not found in entities.  Hope does not lie in government.  And that is a good thing.  When people are disappointed and discouraged with misplaced trust, it opens the door to find a greater, lasting, enduring hope.

This hope is found in Jesus.

Hope is given to every person with faith in the unseen promises of God.  Hope covers fear with certainty.  In Christ we have everything we need.  He holds all things together.  Not man, not legislation.  Freedom in Christ supercedes the imprisonment of man's false liberty.  As inspiring as our country's constitution is, the inspired Word of God has the power to change lives in ways a document cannot.  I am proud to be an American, however, I am humbled to be a Christian--a child of God.  I was privileged to be born in America.  I was blessed to be born into the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ.  This country is not my home.  I'm just passing through.  I have the grace to sustain me through any tribulation that comes my way.

This is a great time to be alive in Christ.  May the difficulties and fears so many face today be viewed as an opportunity worth siezing, for us to share the gospel of Christ, and the hope He offers to all who believe in Him. selahV

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you," 1 Peter 1:3,4.

I Know What I Know

And no one can change that.  Nothing can rip it from my heart, soul and mind.  I own that knowledge.  I am a child of God.  What glorious understanding and peace I am afforded.  To know without a shadow of doubt that should I die tonight, I am in the arms of my Father in heaven.  I get to stand in the presence of my Savior, and bow down and worship His holy name.

Sometimes it is good to go back to the basics of the born-again life and recall this truth as a Christian.  "This joy that I have, the world didn't give it to me.  The world didn't give it, and the world can't take it away."   

"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God."  Romans 8:16

Does your spirit bear witness to this knowledge, too?  "Turn your eyes upon Jesus.  Look full in His wonderful face.  And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in light of His glory and grace." selahV

IT'S NOT SO NUGATORY

It's not a trivial matter.  It's not futile or vain.  It's worth taking time, spending time, and even losing time to do it.  Every single time a person shares the gospel with another person, it is an act of love.  Those moments are valuable, and priceless.  They are filled with eternal consequence.

Oh, that we would grasp its significance every waking moment as we go about our daily schedules, and follow our weekly planners.  selahV 

 

PASSIONS VERSUS PASSION

I read my friend Vicki's post in my reader today.  This lady makes so much sense.  She's a breath of fresh air.

I remember when I had my newspaper that I loved writing positive stories about things people did in the community.  My paper focused on family, faith, community and country (and, occasionally, apple pie).  Over time, several organizations (good ones mind you), all wanted coverage.  I found myself trying to champion their causes and ended up having difficulty writing the kind of stories from which my paper had become "known".   As a one-woman-publisher-editor-writer-in-chief, I couldn't keep up with the advertisement needs, the stories, and the demands from cause-oriented organizations.  My passion submitted to the passions of others.

As Vicki describes in her post, we can do this with our faith.  We can get so bogged down with all the "right" and righteous causes in life that we lose our focus (Oh how guilty I am of that).  We can so easily be caught up in the winds of politics, the breezes of community involvement and world causes, that our passion for Jesus wanes.

We can become so engrossed in counseling couples in troubled marriages, dissecting their problems, that we fail to point them to the Problem Solver--Christ himself.  We can allow the couple, the friend, the family member, to become dependent upon us and our answers rather than Jesus.

We can be so consumed by the injustice, cruelty and sin in the world, that we fight battles with rules and legislation, petitions and marches, then fail to remember the victory has been won.  The real war is within each and every soul.  We can be so enamored with the plight of man, we miss opportunities to share the peace of Christ.  We can be so involved in the battles of others, we forget to put on the whole armor of God ourselves.  We can be so enamored with the sound of our own voice, opinion and belief that we cannot hear His voice, seek His truth, or trust in His precepts.  We listen to the strategies of man.  We follow men, rather than Jesus.  No wonder we get disappointed and discouraged.  No wonder we get weary.  "Apart from God we can do nothing."  Yet we think we must be strong in our own strength, and certain in our own intellect.  We get ideas and do not take time to discern the origin of those ideas.  Are they really from God?

We can debate points.  We can argue.  And we can strive.  But until we rest in Jesus and allow His Spirit to flow through ours, we achieve nothing.  Our work is in vain--and often becomes vainglorious.  And our passion loses its fuel, its power--Jesus Christ.  When we see discord, strife, deceit and confusion--we know Christ is not present.  We know this because God is not the author of confusion.  God does not lie.  And all my busyness should magnify Him--not me.  Not some organization or "cause".  Often we reverse the order which creates disorder.  Christ doesn't magnify the organization, the cause or us.  He magnifies Himself through us and in us as we seek His face and focus our attention upon Him.

May we all seek the fullness of His Spirit and wallow in His glory each new day.  selahV

[Visit my friend Victoria Gaines at WINDOWS TO MY SOUL.  She's a precious woman of God who seeks Him in all she is and all she writes.]

SOMETIMES IT BAFFLES ME

Since July 31st I haven't written a post here (excluding the near-nothing previously posted).  Wow!  That's 11 days!!  Thanks to all who continued to read me and search my archives.  Bless your hearts!  Thanks for your emails of concern.  I'm humbled that you read me regularly.  I just couldn't get my muse to work together in my brain, my spirit, my heart and soul.  Yet, the entire time my blog remained void of my near-daily opines, commiserations, and laments, I have rejoiced.  And sometimes that baffles me.

Though a dark spirit chained my power to think with clarity, I saw light in the shadows of my heart.  Though assaulted by verbiage that challenged my every positive view, my mind praised God for all He is and Who He is in the evil of this world.  Though my trust in others is strangled by skepticism, my hope in the integrity of Christians grows and lives.

A study I'm doing in 1 Thessalonians 5:15-22 clarifies, to me, how it is possible to go through the darkness, pessimism, negativity and pain of daily living.  I'm going to do a series of posts on what God is showing me.  Maybe it will give encouragement to someone else.  First up:  "REJOICE"

"REJOICE ALWAYS!" vs. 16

Why should I rejoice when the prince of this world controls and seeks to destroy every iota of peace and joy I have on this earth?  Why should I rejoice when the clutches of death attempts to choke the very seed of hope lodged in my heart?  Why should I rejoice when I'm troubled on every side? 

The Spirit and God's Word tells me why.  The world belongs to Jesus--His death and resurrection has overcome the world.  God has made His enemies His footstool.  The Cross crushed the serpent's head.  It's so amazing to me that, ultimately, battles are swallowed up in Victory.  Victory in Christ.

Yet you might ask, "rejoice?"  How, when I have no idea how I'm going to pay my mortgage.  How, when I've just buried my son?  How, when I lost my job?  How, when the church I attend seems so cold and lifeless?  How, when my country is so divided?  How, when I'm dry and dead spiritually?  Ah...that's the whole point in the above verse and ones to follow.

Sometimes I'm baffled because my heart cannot let go of the joy I have in Jesus.  I suppose it is because I am so in awe of all Christ is and how much greater He is than all my problems.  He is my strength in my weakest moments.  He is my hope in my deepest fears.  He is my provision in my greatest lack.  He is my peace in my most unsettling confusion.  He is my refuge in my hardest storms.  He is my protector in hateful assaults.  Jesus.  How can I not rejoice always, when I own so much in my Savior and Lord?

In the midst of my darkest hours, He is my Light.  So I rejoice; I am not alone in despair.  I am not without someone who lifts me up when I slip and fall.  So I rejoice; my Lord is able.  When my faith wavers in the continual flow of waves that seek to push me back and pull me under, I have a faithful God.  So I rejoice in His promises.  Jesus is my all in all.  He keeps me, defends me, protects me, guides me, sustains me, and someday will come back and bring me into His holy presence forever and ever.  And I am baffled sometimes because He is far more worthy than I can ever credit Him.  selahV

OFFEND ME NOT

"Where there is no offense, there is no effect."  Adrian Rogers

"I came not to this world to bring peace, but a sword."  Jesus.

Basically, Dr. Rogers and Jesus are saying that the Gospel message is gonna divide folks and leave some along the wide road as others head down the narrow way.   Accordingly, to expect that Christian preachers proclaiming the Word will not offend, is ludicrous.  The Holy Spirit will quicken (bring to life) that which is dead in sin.

Ever had your leg go to sleep?  Hands get so cold they were numb?  When circulation returns to your leg, and warmth returns to your hands, there is pain.  When the Gospel penetrates the darkness within us, the Light exposes the depravity of our souls, and we are stricken with heartache and moved to repentance.

Yet, all too often we hear...do not preach this, or teach that, or say this, or say that.  It will offend someone.  I don't think the Lord was too worried about who he was offending when He destroyed Sodom and turned Lot's wife into a pillar of salt.  Nor was Jesus too concerned with offending the Pharisees when He cleansed the temple and told them they'd made it into a den of thieves. 

May we all grasp in our hearts the enormity of the need to share the Gospel with boldness, clarity and love.  selahV   

THE REST OF THE STORY...

I reprinted and published a post at SBC VOICES today.  And this is the "rest of the story" that I didn't include in that post regarding a confession of sorts as a pastor's wife.

As I wrote there, it made no sense.  I'd been born-again all of 8 months.  I sat in an auditorium in Ridgecrest, North Carolina listening to Bertha Smith challenge us all to pray for the Lord to bring forth laborers for His harvest.  That tiny gray-haired lady charged us to pray that people hear and heed the call to missions, to ministry, to evangelism.  She exhorted us with Isaiah's words: "Here am I, send me".

I prayed for others.  I asked God to call men to ministry.  Then I heard a voice say, "You."  I'm hearing things.  Bertha Smith must have said that. 

But it wasn't her.  Everyone was praying.  I peeked.  I resumed praying for God to call men to missions and ministry and evangelism.  Again, I heard, "You."   I questioned, "Is that You, God?"  In my heart I heard what made no sense to my mind:  the Lord is speaking to me.  And it wasn't just about the everyday service I was already doing as a Christian.  It wasn't about going to Sunday School, taking parts in WMU programs or Training Union.  It wasn't serving in VBS recreation.  No.  And it wasn't simply visiting the sick with my preacher's wife and taking meals to homebound members.  It wasn't attending this Ridgecrest conference on missions, either.   God was calling me into full-time ministry.  And it was ludicrous!  I'm having an emotional high.  I can't be in ministry without my husband!

I decided I had to be hearing what I wished were possible if I were good enough, smart enough, wise enough.  If my husband was educated enough, experienced enough and bold enough.  Otherwise, it made not one iota of sense to me.  My husband was a precision gagemaker.  He honed and polished metal gages the size of a human hair which measured spaces and sizes for hightech aircraft parts.  He hadn't even been to college--much less seminary.  Furthermore, our lifestyles prior to our recent faith in Jesus as Savior were so far the opposite of Christianity, it bordered on insanity to think we'd be fit to serve God in such a way.  It was simply impossible.

Months and months lapsed before I shared my experience with anyone.  Even though my minister's wife had become my best friend.  When I finally shared it, she smiled, "Oh, but with God all things are possible.  I've known for a long time that God has set Bob apart for something special."  It still didn't make a lot of sense to me.  When Bob first went to Sunday School, he was told to open to the book of John.  He was totally disheartened.  He had only purchased a Bible.  He didn't know he needed another book.  That is how little understanding my dear hubby had of all things Christian.  He had no traditions nor theology from which to draw upon.  He'd been baptized Catholic because his paternal grandmother was Catholic.  He'd never gone to church at all.

I, on the other hand, had gone to church all during my childhood.  Even though I stopped when I became a teenager, I did know that the Bible had multiple books inside it---John being one of them.  My knowledge of what they all instructed was another story entirely.

However, from the moment I heard the Voice say, "You", I buried myself in Bible studies, and books by Oswald Chambers, Watchman Nee, Manley Beasley, and Clyde Francisco.  I devoured books by missionaries.  And I waited.  I waited on God to change me and work in both our lives.   I became restless and impatient.  I wanted to see God move faster.  I questioned the validity of that Voice.   God kept working on me, sanding down the edges, humbling me.  Cleansing me, establishing my walk.  He put unlovely people in my path who I learned to love without condition.  He placed burdens upon our family which added strength to my faith.  He placed mountains and walls and seas beyond my control to bring me to Him for His sufficiency.  He repeatedly showed me everyday mini-miracles and manifested Himself in ways I found difficult to explain.  But my husband was still a gage-maker.  He did not have any desire to go to college.  We had children and he was the sole supporter of our family.

I finally concluded that the call had not been real at all.  We were extremely happy serving Christ, teaching, leading and following wherever He led us in our lives in East Hartford, Connecticut.   My husband was an ordained deacon working a Deacon's Family Ministry plan.  We were co-directors of Children's Worship.  I was speaking throughout New England with WMU.  We were part of lay-led revivals in various churches.   I actually gave up the thought of full-time ministry.  Then unbelievable things began happening to us.  Too many to share in one post.

Three years after I'd heard Bertha Smith's challenge, my husband surrendered to the call of God to go to Boyce Bible School in Louisville, Kentucky.  He was scared to death.  The intimidation and fear of studying books, writing papers, and passing tests were only surpassed by the terror he held at the thought of standing in front of people to speak any words worthy of a pure and Holy God.  Suffice it to say, my quiet husband's entire month's worth of conversational communication could be written double-spaced on two sheets of paper.  He just didn't talk that much.  He still doesn't.  Yet, when he does, it's worth listening to.

Our lives are pretty much a miracle when we look back on them.  I know that I saw a miracle every time I listened to my husband preach.  And in my estimation, there'll never be a better pastor to the children of God.  But then again, I'm prejudiced. 

And that, my friends it the rest of the story minus a gazillion blessings and great experiences as a pastor's wife.   selahV

A BRIDGE TO SOMEWHERE...ARE YOU?

So I went to my daughter's to babysit the other day.  It was pouring rain.  I turned down the country road leading to her home, drove about 100 feet and was met with the scene pictured above.

"BRIDGE OUT".  "BRIDGE OUT."

A mixed bag of thoughts ran through my head.  I needed to get to my daughter's.  I'd have to turn around, drive another mile down the highway, take an unfamiliar road, watch for an adjoining connection, double-back down the road and hope for the shortest route.  Not too big a deal, but a bit aggravating.  The inconvenience didn't serve to fill my life with much sunshine on such a rainy day.  As I drove on, I thought about that tattered bridge.  I was still thinking about it when I crested a hill and a stop-sign loomed into view.  I hit my brakes and skidded to a halt, barely making the stop.  My heart thundered in my chest as my tires refused to grip the wet road.

Now, I was really thinking about that bridge and its inability to meet my needs. 

For months I'd passed over that little country bridge constructed of huge wooden railway ties.  The worn pavement barely covered the ties with tar any longer.  Tractor-trailers aren't allowed over it.  I'd think as I crossed, "This doesn't even seem safe for a car, never mind an eighteen-wheeler."  There are no guardrails.  If two cars, unfamiliar with the bridge, met there on a dark rainy night, one, or both, would tumble into the ravine.  It's simply not wide enough for two.  "Someone ought to fix it."  And now, someone was doing just that; but it irritated me.

Life is like that bridge.  A bridge usually closes a gap between two spaces.  It makes one side accessible to another.  While one can cross with care, two would surely fail.  Sometimes it's not strong enough to hold the weight some might expect it to hold.  Sometimes we can continue to cross it, but eventually the wear and tear of storms and traffic presents an impassable moment.  That's when we must stop and recognize the danger.  That's when we must take steps to fix the problem.  Or in my case, find another path.

Bridges from past to present.  Generation to generation.

Bridges of understanding are built to aid in communication and relationships.  Yet all too often, we take those bridges for granted.  We assume they will always be there for us to get where we're going.  Often we do not want to wait for another to cross, we want to go first and make them wait on us.  We think the heaviest of confrontations should take another route.  We even think if we do some re-routing that all will be well--till we get flying along with our own destination in mind and "crest a hill".  Suddenly, without warning, we're met with a stop sign.  We take for granted the road we choose will be a friendly one--without confrontation.  That thinking is as dangerous as believing we can continue to cross a bridge without stopping to repair the wear and tear upon it.

As Christians, God gave us a Message--Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son.  He gave us the ultimate Bridge Who stands at the gap between man's sin and Himself.  He is perfect in construction.  His foundation is certain.  He is able to meet time's wear and tear of ridicule, rejection and man's weight of apathy.  He is able to make right any path one chooses to take to temporarily avoid the crossing.  The stop signs of life will meet us when we least expect them.  With the Holy Spirit of God, our brakes are secure.  With our faith in Jesus, we always find our way.

We may be the bridge for another to find their way.  When their paths cross ours, will it hold the weight of criticism and opposition so many carry in their trunks?  Will our knowledge of Truth be sound?  Or will folks find our bridge is out and turn away in search of another route?   selahV

[© SelahV Today,hariette petersen, 2008]

OPEN LETTER TO THE WORLD:

If you are looking to President-elect Obama for help, you are looking in the wrong place.  If you are trusting in Obama to change the world, you are trusting amiss.  If you are relying on the American government to fix the problems in the world and bring about peace on earth, goodwill to men, you are going to be sorely disappointed.

Only Jesus can meet your needs.  Only Jesus has the power to change from within to effect the peace we long for.  Only Jesus is the Truth to be trusted, The Way to follow, and The Life to seek.   selahV

DIRTY LINENS, HEARTS, AND TEMPLES

"JESUS, COME INTO MY HEART."

I was only seven years old when I first uttered those words.  Then, I believed Jesus came inside me and cleaned up the stuff inside me like He cleaned out the money changers in His Father's House. {see Matthew 21:12-14).  I figured that evil things lived within me like germs in my mouth that needed brushing away from my teeth. 

Later my stepmother asked me if I knew what I was doing when I was getting baptized. I remember staring in her face and saying, "Yes.  Jesus came into my heart and washed it all clean, and now I have to be good for Him."  Even at seven years of age I knew being "good" meant not lying, stealing and other stuff God said not to do.

It wasn't until I was twenty-eight that the full impact of Jesus coming into my heart through the front door met me at the back door of my life, also.  Then I realized that no matter how good I am, I wouldn't be good enough to enter heaven and escape hell's condemnation.  It took Jesus to make me righteous before God.  My righteousness is what Jesus Himself did for me when He died on the cross.  He became sin, so my sin could be canceled out.  I didn't understand righteousness, justification, sanctification and glorification at seven.

But did that keep Jesus from coming into my heart?      

At twenty-eight I realized I had not lived up to the childhood commitment to "be good."  I had failed in my efforts to keep commandments and follow His leading.  But I found that the Jesus I asked to come into my heart was able to keep my little heart till the day He could fill it completely and help me understand the full measure of grace He offered in attonement for my sin.

As I grew in faith and wisdom through study and in His total and complete redemption of my soul, I came to understand a greater need.  Even a hunger.  A hunger to know Him in all His fullness.  I liken it to a guest I invite to my house for dinner.  While I do not fully know this Person, He was introduced to me by some really wonderful people who knew Him quite well.  When I was told that He could clean up the stains in my linen-draped life, I accepted it by faith that He could and did.  After He came to my house to dine, I'd visit with Him occasionally and be reminded of the once stained cloth that He'd cleaned.  I liken that cloth to the soul Jesus washed as white as snow.

As a child, teenager and young woman, I didn't realize that the cloth Jesus cleaned could not be soiled again.  I didn't realize that the dirty linens that lay around each time we dined were ones I had soiled with disobedience and rebellion.  I didn't realize that those soiled linens could not rub off against the linen made white by His blood. I came to understand that God did not want to dine in a heart filled with dirty linens stacked on chairs of yesterday's living. Each day the dirty napkins needed to be dumped in the trash.

Again, I am reminded of Jesus cleansing the temple.  I am the temple of the Holy Spirit Who lives within me.  As each day I clear off the table of my heart and gather the linens of sin, it makes room for the food to be spread upon the cloth Jesus washed clean long ago.  selahV

[© SelahV Today, 2008]      

WHEN TRAGEDY STRIKES

On my very first blogpost as SelahV Today, a lady I've never met commented and encouraged me (I'll call her Iris for the purpose of this post).  She has been one of the greatest sources of comfort to me that I can possibly explain.  In my hours of torment and pain in grieving for my son and the turmoil that filled our lives as a consequence of his loss, Iris has been there.   We have become extremely close friends and have shared multiple prayer requests with one another.  One such request was for a friend of Iris's whose son needed our prayers.  Time and time again I've prayed for that young man (I call him M).  Today I received an email that he is dead.  I know nothing else.  But I do ask that you pray for us as we grieve and go through these next few weeks of tragic loss.  Although I never met M., I loved him in my heart.  And I have grown to love his mom, too.  Pray for my friend Iris as she ministers to his family and his mother.

This is extremely hard for Iris and this dear mother.  For me, I am caught in a spiral of emotion I cannot name.  Today, my heart is wrenched in a million pieces once again.  It was three years ago tomorrow that I received the same news about my son, Chad.  Dead.  I cannot begin to tell you how agonizing the pain is and this has resurrected much for me.  But my heart hurts most for my friend Iris's friend who has now lost her only son.  There are no words of comfort...only prayers for grace and peace.  Only God's grace is sufficient to meet the needs of this hour.  Only God's grace.  selahV 

THE CROSS I WEAR

I often wear a cross as a necklace.  I've heard the sermons telling us how the cross was not some jeweled silver thing of beauty.  It was a place of horrible cruelty, humiliation and torture.  And I do not for one second take lightly the sacrifice my Savior made for me as He endured that excruciating time over two thousand years ago.

But there was a glory in that cross that superseded the horror.  On that cross was the attoning work of God.  On that cross hung the glory of promise for all mankind.  On that cross was the Victor over sin and death.  My King gave His all for me there.  And when I wear my cross, I glory in the cross.  Had it not been for the cross, there would be no sacrifice--and there would be no life for me.  I praise God today for my Redeemer Who gave everything and became all the sin of the world so that I might celebrate Life everlasting today.  The cross I wear is in honor of my King.  selahV

[copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2008]

BROKEN GROUND

For three days now, we've had some rather rough weather.  Cold, blustery wind-gusts of over 40 miles an hour rattled my windows.  All the brown leaves that stubbornly clung to the pecan trees out back, let loose.  They lie in wait of the Processor's hands, in my yard or another's.

Today is gorgeous.  Brilliant blue skies praise the Lord and sunshine beckons me to venture outside.  I stood at my back window and surveyed the leavings of the March winds.  Hollyhock stalks, dried zinnias, mums and petunias fill the flowerbeds.  Hundreds of pecans blanket the lawn beneath the trees getting ready to bud.  My neglected compost is covered in Bermuda grass that crept over it during the winter.

Rose bushes need trimming before sap begins to fill the stems.  New beds must be dug to make way for the seedlings of my Rose of Sharon bushes.  Canne lilies and iris beds need clearing.  The garden must be turned, fertilized and prepared.  Seeds and plants must be chosen.     

It's time to get ready for Spring.

"For the Lord says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem:  Break up your ground left uncultivated for a season, so that you may not sow among thorns." Jeremiah 4:3

What else has been left uncultivated in my life?  I wonder.  What ground must be broken in my soul that I "may not sow among thorns"?  What attitudes must be discarded---what thinking uprooted?  What stubborn habits must be ripped from the branches of my life, placed in the trash-heaps and carried away?  I am not certain, but the Master Gardener knows.  I turn over those parts of my life to Him today.  And He will help me to see what needs to be done to make way for New Life to sprout and to grow.  He will give me the seeds to sow and to tend.  He will help me plan a new landscape worthy of His kingdom to come.  I'm so very excited.  selahV

[copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2008]  

BEAUTIFUL FEET

"...How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things!"(Romans10:15b)

My husband thought I was nuts when I took this photo of his bare feet resting on the Word of God.  But God said his feet are beautiful.  For over 23 years my husband preached Jesus and spread the gospel of peace.  He still does when he supplies for our pastor and others in our area.  He's a preacher who brings glad tidings of good things.

For thirty-three years God was preparing him to be a minister.  He didn't know it.  He didn't have a clue.  His life was so filled with the ways of this world and following his own way to a successful ending, that there was no room for God.   He thought the only reason churches existed were to get people's money.  He'd rarely been in a church building.  When he was, it was for someone's wedding.  He had no earthly idea why I felt it necessary to get married in a church.

Years later he and I found out how God had used that ceremony to plant a seed.  Having attained society's recommendation of 2-point-whatever amount of children, a house with a two-car garage, two new cars, a fantastic job and even a toy poodle--life was a mess.  It got worse.  And worse and worse.  That is a long story so I won't go into detail.  Suffice it to say, we had a Damascus Road experience of earthquake proportions.  You might ask how?

God brought a man with beautiful feet into our broken lives and he preached the gospel of peace; and he brought glad tidings of good things.  Jesus made it all possible for us to grow in wisdom and truth through the preaching and teaching under this man with beautiful feet.   In God's time my husband surrendered to His call.  And with beautiful feet he has served the Lord ever since.

I find it interesting that God called Abram to go.  God told Moses to take off his shoes and go.  When the priests' feet touched the water, they parted.  It was Jesus whose feet were nailed to the cross by man but man would bow at His feet one day.  God called certain men to stand.  And having shod their feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, they are given the joy to share in Christ's sufferings by taking Him to the world.  Peace--the gospel of peace.  What could really matter more?

[copyrighted, SelahVtoday, 2007]

WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS

I SURRENDER...

My inabilities.

My expectations.

My weaknesses.

My capabilities.  My failures and my needs.

I surrender all of me.  All to Jesus.

I take all my talents which He has so richly given to me and lay them at His feet.  I yield all my gifts to His divine control.  I abandon my preconceived ideas of what He expected of me when I fail to see results.

I wave the white flag and give Him all that I am--the dregs of my endeavors.

He takes my dregs and casts them into His heavenly compost heap and adds some heat to the dung of my offerings.  In time He takes a seed of His own choosing from that dung and helps me put to death my own desires to sprout and bloom with dreams of becoming a rose without a thorn.  With His own breath my death gives way to life and in the paths of others I burst forth as a thistle in the wind.  Attached upon my stem a banner waves of all He seeks of me and all I can become in the meadow of His choice.  A white flag--shaded blue--in honor of His royal purpose for me, I give to thee.   selahV

[This post is dedicated in honor of all who seek to know my Lord through the words I write in hopes of bringing glory to His name.  It is my prayer that eyes which see this rendering will know the heart of my words and the hope I see in Jesus Christ my Lord.]  [copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2008]

SUFFICIENCY AND MORE, My God is so Worthy of Praise

I've often wondered, had I been a woman in the days of Moses, what I would have thought when a giant body of water parted and winds so forceful held back its walls so I could walk across the sea on dry (not muddy) land to the other side.  I've wondered how one could experience something so miraculous and God-delivered that I could participate in dancing to calf idols molded from melted gold just a few days later.

But I have been there.  I've had the Lord part waters for me and then when faced with later difficulties found myself seeking other things to get me through the circumstances of life.  Have you?

Less than two weeks ago I wrote a post sharing a great "Sea-shore" at which I'd found myself standing.  I truly felt the Lord would give me the peace I needed to meet the hour and the provision I needed should the "Egyptians" reach me before the waters parted.  However, I had no shred of an idea how He would accomplish such a feat.

It's strange now, looking back.  How great a God we serve.  How patient, loving and steadfast.  Over and over and over again, He has proved Himself faithful to meet my needs.  And then at times, I find myself fretting over this or that.  How silly of me.  How beyond the worthiness of my Lord.  What contempt my doubt offers my Father for His promises and the fulfillment of so many in my life.

In the above post, I requested prayer for what appeared to be an impasse beyond any control my husband and I had.  The Lord answered your prayers and the dilemma was miraculously met with God's intervening hand.  The facts we'd been presented were true, but when we got to the prayer-prepared appointment, they were over-ridden by another person who worked magic with the numbers and our situation.  We rejoiced in this with so many of you readers who were praying for us.

On the heels of that post I wrote another post sharing what I believed the Lord was leading me to do to help with our financial burdens.

I am now writing this post to share the glory of the Lord!  He has supplied and supplied abundantly.  This has occurred through bloggers (who are virtual strangers to me other than a few times I've interacted with them on blogs and a few emails).

Listen, folks.  Please listen.

God so spoke through His Holy Spirit in their hearts that a series of things happened to me that has blessed my husband and I in such a way I am able to stay home and continue writing on the internet.  I now have the means beyond all expectations I could even have dreamed.

I pray as I share the details of the numerous blessings in the next few posts that you will see the glory of the Lord so manifested in the lives and hearts of my fellow Southern Baptist brothers and sisters in Christ that you will be encouraged, strengthened and lifted to new heights of praise.  I pray that you will see the power of prayer so clearly that you will be moved to pray unceasingly for your brothers and sisters in Christ and the lost in this world which God so longs to include in the Wedding Feast of our Lord and His Bride.  I pray that you will rejoice with me and place stones of rememberance to share with your children and their children.

And may the Lord of Hosts, the Son of God, my Lord and Savior gain all glory honor and praise for all He has given me, His servant of significance whom He knew before I was born and knitted me tightly in my mother's womb.  She tried unsuccessfully to abort me.  God had a plan.  And this is part of it.  Praise the Lord from Whom all blessings flow.  He is Worthy to be praised!  selahV

[copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2008]

THAT'S NOT JESUS!

Today HayJae and I were sitting in her daddy's recliner looking through a Christian bookstore circular.  She was picking out shapes, colors and flowers.  I asked, "Where's the heart?"

"There it is!" she pointed.

"Where's Jesus?"

She snapped her head around and looked at me like I'd lost my mind.  I pointed to the photograph of Jesus pictured on the front cover of a book.

She looked at that picture and admonished me.

"That's not Jesus!  Jesus is the book!"

HayJae knows that her little New Testament is the book about Jesus.  She had just opened it about an hour before and read me a story.  Over and over again she recited, "Jesus come to my house.  Jesus come to my house."  Then it was, "Jesus loves me.  Jesus loves me."

HayJae looked up at me with her uniquely colored honey-green eyes, pointed back at the photo in the sales circular, and said, "That's not Jesus, Grama!  Jesus is the Book."

I squeezed HayJae close and hugged her tightly.  "Yes, baby!  You're right Jesus is the Book.  He sure is!"

"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1.

[copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2007] 

THE TOMB IS FULL

   

MAY THE NEW LIFE CELEBRATED TODAY bring you the abundance of grace, wisdom and love an empty tomb promises.

In that empty tomb rests all things supernatural.

All things beautiful.

All things pure and holy.

A tomb empty of death because the Saviour has victory over death.  No longer does it have a sting, no longer can it destroy life.

Life has overcome.

For Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

THE STONE was rolled away.

Stand and look at the enormity of it.  Measure the weight of that stone.  Contemplate the impossibility of moving it.  Then understand that that stone was a simple pebble in the sight of the Lord.  It shouts today of the victory yesterday.  No man can lock the Lord inside a dark cavern hewn of man.

Go build upon that Stone.  For upon that Rock is the foundation of God's power and sovereignity.  Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Oh bless the King of Kings who put life to death and transformed death to Life forever for those who trust a tomb belongs only to the dead--not the living.  A tomb holds no promise other than the cold reality of physical death.

But THE EMPTY TOMB of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior holds promises of eternal presence with God Almighty.  selahV

[copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2007]

   

I AM CRUCIFIED

"I HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST;

it is no longer i who live, but CHRIST lives in me;

and the Life which i now live in the flesh

i live by faith

in the

SON OF GOD,

Who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20

SELAH

On which cross

have you been crucified?  SELAHv

MOMENT OF TRIUMPH

Coats and garments were lain on the ground.

The King of Jerusalem was soon to be crowned.

The news of his coming was spread far and wide;

Crowds danced in the streets awaiting his ride.

Branches of palms were strewn at his feet, as children rejoiced--the king they'd soon meet.

A triumphal beginning would end as He came, from Bethlehem's stable to Golgotha's shame.

"I thirst," said the king; they offered him gall.  A sponge filled with bitterness--a gift from us all.

"Behold, John, your mother," He said with a groan, as blood-drops from Heaven cried for It's Own.

Soldiers gathered at the foot of His cross, gambling and sneering--a pity, their loss.

"Forgive them, my Father, they really don't know."  Jesus relinquished all guilt that we owe.

"My God, My God, why am I forsaken?"  Dark clouds replied, "It's man's sin You've taken."

The earth quaked in anger; the skies screamed with rage. "It's finished," He stated.  God emptied the stage.

[copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2007]

WHAT'S UP WITH SelahV?

So often folks tell me how much they like my screen-name: SelahV.  I just wanted to share with you what it means.

I've always loved the book of Psalms.  Throughout the chapters, I've often come across the word, "selah" at the end of a verse.  I learned a long time ago that selah means "pause, think about it".  Had I known Jesus when I had my daughter, I probably would have named her Selah.  But I didn't.  So when I was considering what to call myself in the Kingdom of Blog-land, I thought immediately of Selah.

However, I had heard of a music group called Selah and I didn't want to confuse anyone.  So I played with the name and thought of c' est la vie.  It's a French phrase that I had no idea how to spell, nor what it meant.  I just liked the old song I'd heard "C' est la vie said the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell".  I don't even remember any of the rest of that song.  But it is what brought me to the point of adding the V to selah.

As providence would have it, another blogger on another site told me how ingenious I was to come up with such a cool name.  And he wrote C' est la vie.  I asked him what it meant and he told me.  It means That's Life.

Unknowingly I had spelled my name like the phrase sounded.  SelahV.  I had chosen the V for victory in Jesus.  And when it all came together, I had SelahV--pause think about victory in Jesus--that's Life.  And there you have how SelahV came to be.  But the greatest part in all of this is that Jesus is my life.  I love Him so much.  If not for Him...I wouldn't be here...if not for Him, you wouldn't be reading this.  If not for Him, none of us would have life.  For in the beginning He was the Word and the Word was Jesus.  And Jesus is THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life...and no one comes to the Father in Heaven except through Him.  He is the Door to Eternity.  Jesus.  Jesus. Jesus.  Pause, think about Him.  SelahV [copyrighted,selahVtoday,2007]