Abba's Girl

The Man and I watched way too much TV last Sunday afternoon and evening. We began with John Wayne's Island in the Sky, when it was over we moved on to The High and the Mighty and as if that was not enough TV, we watched 2 parts of Lonesome Dove. I am not sure if we felt nostalgic or wanted to escape from all the bad news and political drama. We watched all this on a digital TV device - No Commercials!!! There is something wonderful about John Wayne movies, he might die in a few of them, but the good guys always win. Sometimes, I think we want God to show up like John Wayne with guns blazing and take care of the "bad guys", we do not want to wait patiently, we do not care about His timing. Do it now God is our attitude. Obviously, on occasion, we need an instant answer to prayer. But we do not need it in every instance nor should we expect it. My friend Norma used to say God answers all prayers with yes, no, or wait. I don't think we like no or wait. We want yes an...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are." It is easy to judge and not take a good look at ourselves. It is easy to think well, she____________________ , he________________, or at least I did not_________________. At least I did not fill in the blank was a favorite thing to fling at my parents when I was in trouble as a teen. Seriously, I was not as bad as my cousin, their friend's child, or some teen on the news. As if ever uttering those words helped my situation! I think as a busy adult, it can be hard to take the time to measure where our heart is, where we are compromising according to God's Word, how we are sinning. And though confessing our sin to the Lord and repenting of our sin is not only crucial to our Christian walk, it brings immediately healing to us. And face it, maybe we don't want ...

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. Eph 4:29 Christians in America would be wise to put Paul's words into action at all times, but especially now! I have never seen so much hatred and malice over politics. Many people refuse to disagree with one another and move on, instead they insult each other and insult the candidates. Nothing wrong with saying I don't agree with Mr. or Mrs. Doe's politics, but many don't leave it with that, many people start firing off curse words, casting stones, and political zingers. Much of the conversation is R rated. Eph 5:4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. Stand your ground in a godly way. Confess and repent, turn away from all the negativity, criticism, and judgment. Turn off the TV set. Don't tweet or post every salacious de...

Has this election cycle made you tired? It has exhausted me. God will not be surprised by the election results, so we should not stress, He is in control. I quit watching TV several weeks ago to avoid political ads. I quit watching the news to avoid political stories. I check the networks' and local news stations' websites, I read the stories I want to read and skip the rest. When I want to watch TV, I watch movies and TV show via my Fire TV device from Amazon. Few to no commercials none of which are approved by Donald or Hillary. Not to wish away time, but come on November 9th! I realize a large number of people are going to be irate after the election no matter who wins, hopefully, they will not be as mad and offended as they are today. I pray for both candidates. I pray they are safe, their health is good, they know Jesus as Lord and Savior, they know the Bible is God's Word and it is alive and active, sharper than a double-edged sword. I pray they will make decision...

This week the news has been filled with stories pertaining to Hurricane Matthew which is a very strong hurricane. I live in an area which experiences the occasional hurricane, our last one was a Category 4 and made landfall just over 8 years ago. I understand what the people in the path of the storm do before, during, and after. When a hurricane is predicted to make landfall in our area, most of us make preparations. We board up windows, move birdbaths and lawn furniture to the garage so they will not become projectiles, buy bottled water, non-perishable food, batteries, and fill our bathtubs with water (so we can flush toilets). We fill our cars' gas tanks, go to the bank and withdraw some cash because we might be without electricity for a day or 6 weeks. Filling the tub with water is the last thing I do. My husband says it is not real until I fill the bathtub. After the last hurricane, we were thankful we had no major damage and were amazed by the quiet because there were no...