Soul Sister Time

I’m learning to become excited about Jesus’ ifs .  If I want what Jesus wants for my life there is one thing I can count on.  It is that what He wants for me is not what I want at first glance.  It makes me feel much better to know that the leader of the disciples, Peter, reacts to Jesus’ ifs that way too. I really appreciate Peter.  He always opened his mouth and said what everyone else was thinking but may have been afraid to say.  I would rather risk ridicule than to live in ignorance. Even though Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus did not fire him from being the rock on which He would build His church.  He gave Peter far more than a second chance; rather He gave him every chance he needed to make him into the kind of man that legend tells us watched his wife be crucified for her faith, and then asked to be crucified upside down since he didn’t feel worthy to die in the same manner as his Savior.  I love this about Jesus.  He doesn’...

             Psalm 66:5 says:  Come and see what God has done,   his awesome deeds for mankind!   Those words say it all about who God is to us.  He is always for us.  He has our back.  Even in the worst of circumstances we can find His goodness. Our enemy, the devil, is the one who wants us to think that God is against us.  The reverse is true.  The devil wants to blind our eyes to what God has done and how His awesome deeds are always for mankind!  Are you aware of how much God constantly woos you?  Do you have any concept of what He has done for you?  Do you know that He does what He does for you? Spiritual breakthroughs happen when you get the concept that you are loved by a God who never does anything that is not based on His love for you. I know what you are going to say.  Why did that baby get raped?  Can you think of anything worse?  What is the worst event that h...

            On the church calendar, Eastertide is the season between Resurrection Sunday and Pentecost Sunday.  Just like Jesus appeared to them for forty days after His resurrection until His ascension, we need forty days to allow our souls to adjust to Easter Sunday each year.  Resurrection Sunday is a day that calls souls to church.  Our church offered nine services to accommodate all the people who enter the church.  Some come alone; others as part of a family obligation.              During the weeks of Eastertide those same souls go back to their lives.  They don’t let the light they sensed drawing them to church continue to burn and reveal what is greatest about life.  They return to their life as they love it without consideration of their church experience.  It is a place where they are more comfortable.  They might fee...

Every Easter season God shows me something personal and meaningful about the familiar story.  This year I was led to focus on the love of Easter.  In doing so I noticed more about the love that led Jesus to embrace His cross. Being egocentric and as vain as I am, I thought it was for me that He died.  While He was hanging there, He was thinking about how He couldn’t spend eternity without me.   Oh, yes, and I thought He had you on His mind, too.  I could understand the love He has for the whole world.  I knew it was love that held Him—nothing else could hold the One who created the Universe to a shameful cross. But John 14:31 shed more light on the love that fastened Jesus to the hard wood of the cross.  It was His love for His Father.  John writes :  But the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.   Come now; let us leave .  That was that.  He left the upper...

            As Jesus walked to Jerusalem on Holy Week, He gave us an example of how we were created to walk in love every week of our lives.  He demonstrated one of the greatest loves of this world, surrounding Himself with good friends on His journey.  He could have walked alone.  He could have saved the world in a different way, but everywhere He walked during Holy Week, He walked with His closest friends.  He walked with His eyes wide open to God’s beautiful universe and all the lessons it contained.  He walked with His heart wide open to the people who walked beside Him and the people He passed along His way.  His love penetrated the hearts of the ones who loved Him back and darkened the hearts of those who rejected Him.  He walked with His Spirit fully fixed on the good plans for the salvation of mankind and the possibility of expanding the Oneness experienced by the Trinity to all who wou...

            God’s love is so powerful that it can even penetrate the hearts of us puny humans and enlarge our capacity for love.  We see this in the Easter story.  Those who show their love for God do so in irrational ways at Easter.  It makes me think, what has been my most irrational act of love?             Though the Pharisees followed each word of the Bible, they followed irrational commands without love that led to emptiness.  That is not the love I’m talking about.  There is no soul transformation in that kind of behavior.  True acts of love are not done to make you think you are worthy of God’s love.  They are not done to make you feel better than other people.              The infectious love of Easter is never found in human effort.  It only begins with an ir...

            The love Jesus showed at Easter invites us to conceive of a love far beyond the boundaries of the universe.  It’s a love worth exploring.  It is a love you must really want if you have any hope of recognizing it.             The cross is the most obvious place that we see the love of Easter.  But something struck me about the love of God from one small phrase Jesus said to His true disciples during Easter.  It was a part of what is known as the Olivet Discourse.  During Holy Week Jesus followed a specific pattern.  During the days He openly taught at the Temple; then in the evenings he would travel with His close companions back to the Mount of Olives to spend the night.  At the Mount of Olives Jesus taught differently than at the Temple.  He focused on encouraging the disciples for the weeks after Holy Week.  Jesus’...