joy in knowing He will keep us

" To Him who is able to keep (us) from falling and to present (us) before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy - to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! " Amen.

If I were to write nothing else on my blog, this should be it. What more is there to say? Life is challenging, but God will keep us, if we have given our lives to Him.

I am off to my wonderful next Adult education training course in Barrie today. How good to look forward to something knowing it will be well done, challenging, and full of benefits, yet not too overwhelming with all that is already on my plate. Then my sister and I meet and go on to Toronto to see a friend and encourage her. I would be happy to stay home today by the fire and rake the leaves and get some more rest...ahh that would be nice. But I will have strength for the day, and peace, and trust for His keeping power, and His protection.

I am learning more and more to "stay in the day", and trust for tomorrow. Then I can find my joy in the moments, along the way, savouring all that He does as He keeps me, safe in His loving care.

joy in having the Christian choice

My daughter and I watched The Hours last night, based on the life and work of Virginia Woolf. As writers, students and teachers of literature, and creative people we responded to the acting and presentation of the film and story but were appalled by much of what happened. There was a romanticization of immoral choices as well as a stark dramatization of the harsh experiences of life and relationships. I admired and appreciated the acting and the sensitive portrayal of the characters and their settings. But I could only feel as a Christian that this was another example of the hopelessness of life without Christ, and the amazing possibilities that would have been available for the characters in Christ. Whatever the existential struggles I have known and still do, my fundamental worldview is a Christian one, and I know who I am in Him, and the security of my hope. I am so grateful, and am renewed in my commitment to help others to know Him and to grow in Him.

joy in knowing God's strength is enough

I am getting ready for another day of supply teaching. The crush of various responsibilities hits me at once in the midst of family, deadlines, and all that I leave behind undone as I go out to do work that I am grateful for. And I don't know what kind of day awaits me. As I grow in my capacity to handle my new supply situations with less anxiety, I can enjoy my days more, and have more trust for the future. Of course it certainly helps that my husband is getting the medical preventative attention that he needs and that nothing drastic is happening at the moment.

So much of our lives are like this. We each balance our own combination of pressures and pleasures, and trust for God's sufficiency and strength. That is all we can ever do. And certainly the increased crush reminds us of our dependence upon Him. And yet we are always so.

"All of you is more than enough for all of me....For every thirst and every need..." So the words go. They were ringing in my ears as I got up this morning. Let's share them together on video from You tube. May we count on His "supply" today!

joy in remembering we are preparing for destiny

Just checked the devotional team blog I write for on Wednesdays, http://www.whateverhesays.blogspot.com/. Yep, there is my post, written last night, and scheduled to appear at 7 a.m. on that blog. It's exciting what this technology can do. I don't enjoy or understand technology except in the limited way I learn to use it to assist what I want to do. So, thanks to our wonderful blog editor, Belinda, I am learning a little more, and being part of a wonderful team of bloggers. We call ourselves the blog princesses. We shall be meeting face to face in November. For me that involvement, as this blog, is a little piece of the destiny God has called me in to. I didn't know where each step would lead, but I sensed His leading when I began. And it was part of the fight I was engaged in to move on from where I was, and to work with and against my difficulties in order to become stronger and more effective. These principles were all described in the devotional we heard on Saturday morning at the worship conference I attended. It was such an important word that I used it for my devotional for today on Whatever He Says because I want others to hear it for themselves. We must prepare for our destiny by fighting against the three D's. Please read all about it below, or by going to the blog itself at the address link above. Thanks to all of you for assisting me in reaching my destiny, and joining with me in our battles.

Preparing for Destiny

"Now we must fight". Fighting words for a morning devotional speaker at a worship conference. But there she was, obedient and petite, small but mighty, giving forth the word the Lord gave her in much prayer before she came up from the U.S. to bless the many hundreds of worship leaders who gathered in Cambridge this past weekend for the Unite in Worship conference. Tricia Rhodes, recent author of Sacred Chaos, had a word for all who are being beleaguered by the three D's: Discouragement, Defeat, and Despair.

Using I Samuel 17, the David and Goliath story, as her basis, Tricia powerfully spoke into the tired hearts of many who are struggling to maintain vision and remain hopeful in the midst of too many difficulties. Tricia sees the three D's as an onslaught on the western church, a systematic undermining of Christians of all levels. Sharing from her own journey, she described her loss of dreams, her setting aside of the many promises and prophetic words that had been spoken over her life, and her deep pain over her son's abandonment of his childhood faith.

Tricia urged us to respond to the three D's by fighting, as David fought Goliath. We are not to be intimidated by the size of the enemy, his taunts or his weapons.

She gave three reasons to fight:

first, because God's worth demands it, secondly because our need requires it, and thirdly because our destiny dictates it.

The honour of God's name is at stake. We must fight, even if we don't win, in order to honour God. If we don't fight we will be defeated before we know it. We must fight because if we don't we will not obtain what we need to do what we are called to do. And our destiny demands our fight because that is what will take us on to the new level of effectiveness and intimacy that is His constant desire for us.

The battles of today are the victories of tomorrow. They are the preparation for our destiny.

And it is our intimacy with God which will fuel our fight. That is where we will find our courage, our energy, our strength. He will be the source of our joy to keep us fighting.

Our weapons, of course, are prayer, and His word. And prayer is not some complicated deafening rush and hyped up meeting type of onslaught. It is simply an embracing of our need, an acknowledgement that we can't do it on our own. It is just a leaning on the Lord. And it is His word that gives us what we need to learn to trust the God who gave it to us. When we know Him through scripture, then we know what He can do, and wants to do, for and with us.

That was the message for the conference. But it is really a message for all of us, every day, every hour, every moment. We must fight. It is the preparation for our destiny. And it is the only way. The alternative is unthinkable.

joy in sharing with family

This morning we have snow in the air and on the ground. Our cat was taken aback when the door was opened for her to have her morning airing and she saw a white wet blanket for her paws. No go for her. But I was happy to put my boots on to go out, and to laugh about the lawn chairs that still have to be put away. We all agreed it is beginning to feel like Christmas. And I am going to have my sorting load lightened by sharing it with Sarah who is at home a lot with fewer shifts for work. The days when I am not teaching I can get into that more. My sister and I went through more of Mum's papers and photos last night and it is so much easier to share these heavy things. And it is wonderful to have family who understand implicitly and have their own interest. These are precious gifts from God. Today I am so grateful for a cozy day with the snow outside to make it easier to work in the basement sorting with Sarah. Enough for the day, and to live in the moment in the task in the relationship, knowing it is all part of God's care and goodness.

joy in turning to each thing

I had never thought of the passage in Ecclesiastes 3 in terms of boundaries. But today I did. As I mused upon what to write about, I realized that my experience in this moment in this day and this week is one, as it is so many moments, days and weeks, of turning to the next thing that needs to be done. The capacity to do that is God given for each of us, and the peace to set aside what we have been doing and move to something else and then revisit the other things is a requirement of coping with life.

I have done a lot of thinking about boundaries lately, and I realize that there are boundaries around all these things. And as always with boundaries, they are there to keep things in, and keep things out. And that is what we need in so many ways with situations, relationships and tasks. If we have elephants to eat, we need to take them one bite at a time, and likely in small doses, with lots of other types of tasks in between.

I am grateful that today I can turn to other things. I have much to process from the worship conference, much going on with many relationships and responsibilities. I am glad that some other tasks which are important or urgent have come forward to be tended to. Focusing on them helps me to step back from the intensity of other things.

There are many aspects of the Time for Everything passage in Ecclesiastes. I am just musing on one, but I find it a helpful focus as I set about my day. May it be helpful to you too.