My love

I am not the mushy type and my mom has often gott'n on my case(in a kindly way) for not being romantic enough. LOL I suppose back in the dating days, with Ben, I was a little more romantic, writing poetry and sending love notes and all. Well, nowadays the love notes are few and far between, But my oh my do i love him;) LOL (Hi Honey) and I say it to him at least once a day. Anyway, from then to now and after all our years together, What is love? I had a friend say to me "I just don't know what love is anymore." and it got me thinking. I know love in so many ways in my life. What Ben and I started out on, in fact what we all started out on when we met our Significant other, was a passion and feeling we called love. It came so naturally in the beginning and then after the love note/mushy stage, the work began. Love became a choice. So What is love? Love is a feeling and a choice.... yeah that choice to love has not always been easy for me, been a few bumps in our marriage, but as I write this I have a trickle of Joy in my eye, to say I love my Love so much.(now i am getting mushy) We pushed through some hard times. I wonder how I possibly deserve this wonderful love in my life, Ben is so good to me, a wonderful husband.
For you and me, when hard times come and when the feeling of love is in rare supply we have to choose to love. The truth is, to make it through the hard times we don't even have the strength on our own, we need God. We need God right from the beginning because the real-back-to-the-basics answer to the question "What is love?", is - God is Love. And if or when we separate ourselves from God by not walking with him, we separate ourselves from knowing love and then it becomes harder and harder to choose to love our spouse. I know that is how it happens for me, in all my relationships, when I don't walk with Love(God), it becomes difficult to walk in love. So my challenge to you is to, first, keep connected to the source of love,God, and don't forget it! Then love the one God gave you and none other, tell them how much you love them and act on it. And third, keep choosing to love even when it's hard.
For me, I praise God as I close this entry because He is the one to credit for my wonderful life, my wonderful Love.
One last note - I Love you Ben!

Will God really have a word of direction for me?

God thrills me. He is so so amazing....
When I am agonizing over an issue and my heart is breaking and I begin to think and mull over the issue. Maybe you too are like this, you know you need to go to God, but you delay, at least I do, it's almost like I fight it. Then eventually as if I've exhausted all other avenues of help, I do it. What the reason is I do not know because I know my God is more in love with me than I can imagine and he wants to help me. (And that is true for you too) so I Go to God in prayer and to his words. But there is a thought in the back of my mind "Will it really help?" I open the bible to the place I last left off which sometimes seems more random than planned... will God really have a word of direction for me? I do this yet I know I have a very close connection to God, You too may feel it, but yet we all seem to have this innate nature, our sin nature I guess, that wants to go it alone. This morning I was like this and then I read the words I needed from scripture. He is truly amazing for his words are living and active, sharper than any double edge sword it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. and nothing in all creation is hidden from God he knows everything in us. (Hebrews 4:12-13) Which is also some scripture that God showed me this morning. I am not telling you these things ever to bring glory to myself but to God and actually to get you, yes you, to go to God, the living and active God who knows everything anyways. Like I said I struggle to get there too but once you go to Him he has a word of truth to speak into your heartache, illness, broken relationship, confusion, anger, daily grind. don't delay because here is the words I was given from God today
Hebrews 3:12-14 " See to it brothers(and sisters), that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. but encourage one another daily as long as it is called today. so that none of you may be hardened by sins deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first."
Today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts.
It may not be daily but these words from God plus the agonizing issue I am dealing with right now only drives me more to share this hear.
The answer to the blog title: YES!

Everything Must Change

As I mentioned in my last blog post I was working on finishing this book by Brian McLaren, Everything Must Change. I finished today. Some quotes from the book.

Today, for the first time, I see what Jesus meant by the kingdom of God. I see that it's about changing this world, not just escaping it and retreating into our churches. If Jesus' message of the kingdom of God is true, then everything must change.

This is our call to action, our invitation to move mountains and to reshape the social and spiritual landscape of our world. Yes, change is impossible through human efforts alone. But faith brings God's creative power into our global crises, so the impossible first becomes possible and then inevitable for those who believe

It was a challenging read but worth it and so glad to have finished it, now I have to start seeing how I can live it's message...the hardest part.