Soul Sister Time

            There is nothing else in the world like the peace that only can be received from God.  I have never known so much peace as I experience in the midst of my deepest suffering.  God has asked me to trust in Him through some very unexpected and unwanted circumstances.  Those who know me understand that my struggles might lead me to literally curl up in the fetal position in the back of my closet.  I may sound dramatic, but it is what my flesh would want to do in response to my circumstances.  God asks me to take a spiritual path and ignore the desires of my flesh.  When I trust in Him, He offers me a peace that I wish I could bottle and share with others.  The peace of God is offered to everyone, but it cannot be transferred.  It is a personal peace given only by a personal God.             The peace of God is the thing that cannot be taken away, which Mary had and that Jesus longed for Martha to embrace.  In Luke 10: 41-42, Jesus answered, Martha:  You are worried and ups

            God wanted it to be completely clear that Jesus was placed on the cross in the middle of two criminals receiving their just punishment for how they had lived their lives.  Their crimes had brought them to Golgatha—the place of the skull.  It was the garbage heap of the town.  It was a place meant for those who lived their lives for themselves and ignored the laws of community.  Their deathbeds were crosses with no loved ones gathering around them.  Their personal choices in life had led them to the crosses on which they would die.  Both criminals found themselves nailed to crosses, experiencing one of the most excruciating deaths one could die.             Into their predicament came Jesus.  He was nailed to a cross just like them.  They knew Jesus was the reason all these extra crowds have come to their crucifixion scene.  With all these people no one seems to care that their own lives had come to this.  They were like nobodies.  No one cared about the crimes that

                        I have been telling people for years that the cross has all the answers for any problem we face in life.  Jesus demonstrates how to walk through anything that we must face in life by the way He, Himself walked to the cross.                         Surviving, loneliness, hurt from your father, sexual abuse, mockery, bullying, abandonment, injustice, death, singleness, betrayal, denial, separation from God, and all the realities of sin have become part of our lives.  We can look to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2) to endure the crosses we each are asked to bear as a part of living in a sinful world.  Every answer to every problem is found in the cross.                         Today my problem is my inability to cope with technology and being taken advantage of by what the Bible calls usury or being ripped off.  How can a problem like that be answered in the cross?  Jesus didn’t live in the technological age in which I live.  H

            Community is the love of Christ.  It has the power to calm a tsunami of out-of-control emotions.  Feeling alone and forgotten overwhelms a soul.   Sometimes we need Christ with flesh.  He chooses to show up in the real life presence of friends.              I have been a friend in need and I want to be there, but I often feel so small compared to the immense suffering my friend is facing.  I find myself overwhelmed because there is very little I am able to change.  I can’t stop cancer from raging through a body.  I can’t will a person to come back from the dead.  I can’t make the agony of losing a child, spouse, friend less ravishing in the wake of emptiness it creates.  I can’t remedy families torn apart by divorce More recently, I have been the friend in need.  I have experienced my friends as a huge buffer to the pain and torment my soul has experienced.   Through each of them I felt a stronger sense that Christ was right there with me, quietly, confidently assuri

Ash Wednesday is February 10!- I wrote a Lenten Bible Study that is available on Kindle and can also be printed from Amazon by next week.   I encourage you to prepare your heart for Easter by taking time to walk with Jesus during Holy Week.   You can preview the first two chapters on Kindle for free from the Link below.   I started a discussion in Kindle where we can share our impressions and insights from the personal study.   I will also be teaching through the study on Thursday mornings from 7-8 a.m. (no childcare) and also from 9:30-10:30 a.m. (with childcare available by reservation) at Park Cities Baptist Church.   See link below to church address and more information.   May you have a Holy Lent. Amazing Grace--the story of Easter Week is a six-week Bible study to prepare your heart for Easter. You can use it every day during week of Holy Week or study one chapter each week of Lent. It is written to help deepen your understanding of God's love for you demonstrated at