Terribly Interesting

The publisher sent me this cover for review and approval. What are your thoughts?

from A.W. Tozer "This is not a new doctrine and it ought not to sound different and strange to us. Has not Christ made full atonement for us, and should we not renounce everything that would keep us from the conscious experience of knowing and receiving the Kingdom of God within us? God's face is turned toward us. The famed lady Julian wrote long ago,'The precious amends our Lord hath made for man's sin have turned all our blame into endless honor!' Paul said it in this way, 'Where sin increased, grace increased all the more' (Romans 5:20b). It is glorious knowledge indeed that the smiling face of God is turned toward us. Why, then, do we not capture the wondrous, divine illumination of our Savior, Jesus Christ? Why do we not know divine fire in our own souls? Why do we not strive to sense and experience the knowledge of exhilaration of reconciliation with God? A cloud of concealment of our own making."

With a host of fun people we went to The Fire Hall Kitchen on 1626 last night. They have all you can eat catfish and live blue grass on Friday nights. It was much fun and comes to you highly recommended. Go check it out! Don't you love the picture?

"But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that He will stand upon the earth at last. Job 19:25 (New Living Translation)

1 Timothy 2:12 But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. (NASB) I recently reopened The Excellent Wife and in the beginning it had this scripture and said God has ordained a place for us not to teach or have authority over any men. It bothered me. I am not seeking to have authority or teach any man. It bothered me because it is ignorant. This passage perplexed me for a long time. I read somewhere around a million commentaries on it and dug into the Greek. I wish I could put here everything Spiros Zodhiates said. It is far too much. Basically, he says that the Greek used here actually is best translated wife and husband, not woman and man. It also says woman, not women. Paul also says, "I do not allow." It does not say God does not allow. He was speaking to this particular church because the women who were not Christian married Christian men and were trying to mingle their old way of mysticism in with the Gospel message. Mostly,...

Here is a fabulous " Fresh Word " from Pastor John Piper. In my first sermon after being away five months, I left something out. It was in the notes, but didn’t seem to flow with the main focus when I got to it. So I skipped it. But I really wanted to say it. So here it is. You recall that in Luke 18:9, Luke introduces the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector like this: “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.” It may seem minor at first, but notice that it says that Jesus told this parable TO some to trusted in themselves that they were righteous. It does not say he spoke this parable ABOUT them. Jesus was looking the Pharisees in the eye and telling them a parable that implied that they were self-righteous. He was not talking about them but to them. Though it may seem minor, it contains a lesson that is huge for the health of our church. Let’s be like this. Let’s not talk to others abo...

I recently bought a book because of the title, A Place To Live. I believe I heard Audrey Hepburn say that about Paris once. It is a place you come alive. A place you thrive. I do not live in Paris, but I am definitely experiencing the verdure of life. My dear friend, Emily, and I recently found the word verdure in a devotional we do together and fell in love with it. The devotional is Come Away, My Beloved. The word verdure means lush vegetation or a fresh or flourishing condition. I have no idea how I got here, except by the power and allure of the Holy Spirit. To the credit of my wonderful husband, I have not been to work in 3 years. That has left me free to read, write, paint, plant, love, and equip the saints. Emily and I will soon celebrate our 1 year anniversary of doing weekly Bible study together. I have watched her become a beautiful, captivating, Spirit-led woman. Yesterday, I got to hold Melissa's, one of my closest friends, 4 year old son, Rory, as she and her husban...

Just moments ago I turned the last page of Revelation finishing a year long commitment to read the Bible in a year. This is the first time I have finished it in exactly one year. It has been the year of tremendous growth and hearing the voice of God for me. The Word of God is living and active. It has proved to me more valuable than any Bible study or sermon. It was just Him and me. This, I believe is the beginning of a life long journey of reading the Bible each year in different translations. I encourage you to do the same. Each day you can receive emails from Bible in a Year and you can read it in your email. You can listen to it at Blue Letter Bible (and look up Greek and Hebrew) or at Bible Gateway . I often got encouraged from the daily email and read the daily portions in my own Bible. I also did Kay Arthur's inductive study marking technique.

This past week was one of the only times I have seen my husband in 12 weeks. That, in and of itself, makes the week terribly interesting. I also experienced many other lovely things I shall list to thank God for sharing with me. 1. 3 years of beautiful, wonderful marriage to my godly husband and best friend. 2. Solitude on the lake. 3. The splendor of God's people displayed at Carolina Creek Christian Camp. 4. Being in a place where God chose 730 people (out of 4,000 campers this year) to become His children and profess Jesus Christ as Savior. 5. Learning that our DNA forms itself by sound waves and then hearing the verse in the book of Genesis where God called the world into being with His voice. 6. Seeing my husband loving Jesus Christ with the gifts that are in him (and being appreciated for it). 7. Wanting to buy a tea house/bed and breakfast with Emily and Melissa. 8. Handing the final draft of my first book over to a publisher! 9. Due to pregnancy induced lunacy, entering int...

I saw this at Carolina Creek Christian Camp this week and found it quite interesting. This is at the center of the furthest galaxy the Hubble Telescope has photographed. The galaxy's massive center, the bright ball of light in the center of the photograph, is about 80 light-years across and has a brightness of about 100 million suns. Astronomers estimate that it has a mass 40 million times larger than our Sun. The concentration of stars is about 5,000 times higher than in our solar neighborhood, the Milky Way Galaxy. We would see a continuously bright sky if we lived near the bright center.

"Behold, is it a small thing that you should weary the Lord God Almighty with your complaints? Is it a light thing in my eyes that you walk in weakness when I have made full provision that you might appropriate my strength? Have you not insulted me in that I have condescended to dwell within you, and you have set me aside and quenched and grieved my Holy Spirit and walked in your own ways? Shall I commend you? Shall you escape My rebuke and displeasure? You look in vain for my smile. For you think in your heart that you can bring me some gift. “I will do Him a kindness, ”you have said, and you thought I would accept this as devotion. Do not deceive yourself. God is not to be toyed with. “See,” you have crooned, “I have brought you this basket of fruit.” Cursed be the ground that brought it forth! Have I not required blood? But you have loathed sacrifice. And I have said I will have none of your pretty gifts, for God desires integrity, and to obey is better than all your vain attem...

For all things come from You, and out of Your own hand we have given to You. 1 Chronicles 29:14 b I have recently begun research for a new book about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. As I am talking with people, I am finding that most people have little to no idea what God through the Spirit is doing for them. They think they make choices and set before themselves spiritual goals for each day. God's Word says He chose us. He calls us. He draws us to repentance. The reason I am enamored by this verse is that it confirms what God is showing me about Himself. He does everything. It is like lover's prose,"even what we give to You came from Your own hand." What ministry of the Holy Spirit do you think most people miss?

"During a time of prayer, someone I know once said,"God let us be like scarecrows approaching a bonfire as we enter into your presence and into your truth." It struck me as an odd analogy at the time but the more I thought about it the more it stuck with me til it was the image I saw every time I opened my Bible or led worship. Entering into the presence of God, be it through worship or Bible study or whatever, should be a state changing event. Like a scarecrow made of straw, we should instantly combust when God's fire - the light, heat, and consequence of the reality of who God is - is brought to bear on us. And when the smoke clears and the heat dies down, we shouldn't be the same as we were before. It's the posture and attitude we should carry into worship because it is an excellent litmus test. If you are able to walk away from the bonfire unscathed . . .either you aren't a scarecrow or there was no bonfire." -Eric Vardeman Denbigh met Eric in ...