Breaking Open the Flask

 I’ve been in “reconstruction” for 131 days since losing my bestie and her husband. In today’s reading from Nehemiah 6, for me the realization of the 52 days to rebuild the wall symbolizes my grief journey. Not my first great loss by any means but because of those previous losses, I knew this journey would have to take it’s own course as the others had some 16 years ago.  I cling to this one short and simple phrase in the NLT: “…the enemies lost all confidence!” They were frightened and humiliated because This work was a work of The God whom they did Not trust.  In the darkness of grief, it is not unusual for the enemy to attack with all vengeance; I’ve had my share. YET because my friends were saved, I’ve been comforted in this truth: “God is Sovereign from the Beginning” => my bestie and her husband are perfect and complete, lacking nothing in Heaven w/ Jesus. Therefore, I t is in God alone, I find My comfort. Though my heart is lost without our coffee chats, water workouts and th

 Nehemiah 5:4-5, “And others said,‘We have had to borrow money on our fields and vineyards to pay our taxes.  We belong to the same family as those who are wealthy and our children are just like theirs. Yet we must sell our children into slavery just to get enough money to live. We have already sold some of our daughters, and we are helpless to do anything about it, for our fields and vineyards are already mortgaged to others.’ ” (NLT) Selling my kids… could I even do that?!!! It only takes a split second before I ask myself a bigger Q: What might I have “sold” my children off to?! Devices!! Knowingly??? NO!!! We couldn’t KNOW what we didn’t KNOW! It was JUST a flip phone; an “Emergency Contact” BUT what it quickly became… a source of pornography!!! We had no idea until we heard about a couple of kids arrested!!! JH boys & JH girls sharing “innocent” photos on flip phones. And back then, parents could only monitor phone #’s! 🙄 Nowadays, I quiver to think what young eyes left unatt

 Happy 1st Birthday in Heaven, Dear One! 🩵🎂🎉🥳🎈🩵Oh, I can see your face clearly and hear your infectious giggle, Sheri 🩵💞💝💞🩵 What it must be like to dwell in the House of The Lord!! What it must be like to sing there!!! “What a Mighty God we serve, angels bow before the Mighty One we serve! Lord, You’re Mighty! Lord You’re Mighty! You are Awesome, Awesome!” Carpooling to our MK meetings together is really where our friendship began nearly 20 years ago. You were the perfect “partner in crime.” One who could fill my heart with joy while distracting me from deep grief after So Much Loss! One who could make me laugh again. You’d go anywhere with me to keep me above the struggle 💓 and it was always a party to be with you! 🥳 We’d be singing to the top of our lungs back and forth everywhere we went, back then! And I was in heaven when you got that Lexus with the sunroof that I had never had! You’d open up that roof, our voices rising to the Heavens, “My God is Awesome, Awesome, He

       Today's entry is a direct quote from "Still Higher For Highest: March 22 Bane and Blessing in the Cross" Matthew 10:22, 24, 25 by Oswald Chambers.     Most of the time when I read anything by Oswald, I am awestruck by its timeliness. Words written years ago could not be anymore fitting for the present times we are living in. With that, I quote his entire devotional entry for March 22nd. Still Higher For His Highest,  March 22, Bane and Blessing in the Cross by Oswald Chambers  Passages from the ESV Bible:      Matthew 10:22, "and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved."     Matthew 10:24, "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master."     Matthew 10:25, "It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household."   

  "Alone with The Divine Teacher," from Oswald's, "Still Higher for His Highest" was the title of my opening Devo this morning. Mark 4:34, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed." I stared at the words go and be for a moment... curious about go in peace followed by be healed. It seemed to me there was an important message in the order of these words. The Devo went on to reveal: simplicity comes in allowing the Holy Spirit to speak through the scripture, alone : The Scripture itself is the very Truth that the Holy Spirit wants to reveal to the reader: truth for our mind, heart and emotion. And in His Truth we discover our shortfalls. That's where I began to consider the order of "go in peace and be healed" further. God is His infinite wisdom gives us the free will first to be open or closed to the realization of sin in our lives and secondly to verbally acknowledge it to Him. If as we read the word

  Today's Takeaways, * Return to your 1st 💗 * As Believers, we Called to testify to God's Sovereign Work * Believers Go Forth, Go Up, Grow Up in the Liberty and Boundless 💗 God has given us * Believers receive the Choicest of Care from our Redeemer & Savior * It's time to Open my 💗 to breath in the life He has put in me 💯 💗 💯