God is mustering a beautiful army. To the world, we are anything but. But then, beauty has always been in the eye of the beholder. For each member of this beautiful army, there is only one Beholder whose opinion counts. Oxymoron that it seems to be, the beautiful army of God – covered with His blood and one’s own […]
Rest On Every Side
Before Tolstoy ever lived to pen his epic War and Peace, God had already put into operation the ebb and flow of wars fought, battles lost, victories won, and then… peace. Last week’s post about Jehoshaphat and the vast army that came against him and God’s people (The Place that Overlooks the Desert) was full […]
The Place that Overlooks the Desert
There are times the Lord allows the perfect storm because He alone has the perfect strategy. We are a less-blessed people if we engage the belief that the desert is simply a desert…a dry, dusty, tiresome, boring, miserable, endless trek with no good purpose. Even the desert has its times of victory! However, the only […]
Undivided Loyalty – Without a Double Heart
Before he became king of Israel, God made sure David had plenty of friends. It was no small thing, this taking of a kingdom. So He sent David no small cadre of fighting men. Saul was not making any brownie points; the icing on the chocolate chunk was his death by his own sword in […]
Desert Days – Standing at the Border
Earlier this week I came across a teaching that is the capstone my spirit has been waiting for to bring closure to this series on Desert Days. Instinctively, I’ve known for several weeks that the shift was coming but recognized that waiting for God’s timing was key. On the Jewish calendar there is a specific […]
Desert Days – The High Stakes of Inheritance
One man stands out to me when I read about the children of Israel frittering away forty years in the wilderness: Caleb, Joshua’s partner in clandestine operations. The two of them, along with ten other men – one from each tribe – were commissioned by Moses to explore the territory of Canaan, the Lord’s land […]
Desert Days – A Heart Set on Pilgrimage, Part 1
One thing God intended about deserts: we were never meant to linger in them longer than necessary. “Necessary for what?” you might ask. To come to the realization that desert journeys are not just ‘part of life,’ as we blithely remark. More than that, they are purposed as a Divinely-orchestrated thoroughfare (in spite of the […]
Desert Days – When You Have Forgotten the Words
“A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.” Last December I needed my friend, and bless her heart, she came through. The email she sent me in reply to my cry to ‘sing my song back to me!’ fairly […]
Faith: Trampling a Path Under Foot
While I’ve been off on ‘God-ability’ (much better than just medical disability!) during this second bout with breast cancer, I’ve had plenty of time to reflect about a number of things. One of the matters I’ve found myself being quite passionate about is a seemingly straightforward verse found in II Corinthians 5:7 – “For we […]
In the Train of His Triumph
Another three-week cycle has passed this Sunday night and tomorrow afternoon I get to high-five my oncologist after my fourth and final round of chemo, praise God! I have been waiting for this day and have finally gotten there – one day at a time. The down side is that round three’s accumulation tuckered me […]