long overdue

I have to apologize for the lack of blog writing as of late.  It's not that there hasn't been "stuff" to write about...there's always something we can talk about.  It's more like I have had a bit of writer's block...or maybe just no desire to do it.  Anyway, I don't want to keep that habit up and so I am forcing myself to write this tonight.

So much has happened in the past two months, it's quite hard to decide where to begin.  I probably won't really begin anywhere, except with Christ.  He is the beginning and the end, anyway, so where better to begin!  And, as I begin with Christ, I am recalling AGAIN, how He loves me.  How He loves US, His Bride, His church...ah yes.  This is a great place to rest...and truth we can hang our hats (and hearts) on.  The more I grow in Him...and it just seems that I've only scratched the surface of His love for me...the more I realize how Biblically illiterate I am and as I look about the country as I see things people write and say, it just astounds me, time and time again, how little WE know the Word of God. How little we hold it as final authority for our lives.  People who claim to have been Christians their entire lives...and they're left fumbling and grumbling and doubting our good and great God.  I don't know and I am left feeling like an idiot.  Maybe I am wrong?  Maybe I have the poor theology.  I don't know.  So, as I have grappled with this for a couple months now, I have come to a place of rest in my Lord.  I can pray and I can read His Word, it gives me comfort and it gives me hope...and I don't think there is anything wrong with hope.  Without hope what do we have?  Maybe when I'm 70 I'll be hopeless and doubting...but I really hope not. =)  The Scripture that I continually come back to concerning God's love and hope and glory and weakness is Romans 8.  And, if you're not familiar with Romans 8, I would highly encourage you to go get your Bible and read it and read it and read it and let it sink into your skin and into your heart and cry out to your Lord if you struggle to believe it.  "For God works all things out for good to those who are CALLED according to His purpose (v.28)"  Now many teachers of the Bible claim this as a prosperity verse...but I highly disagree with that.  If you read all of chapter 8, you'll quickly see that Paul is talking about suffering and weakness and so the word "good" does not mean "good" as in nothing bad is ever going to happen to me, but more like, "good" in the sense of my ultimate good...which only God knows.  Therefore, we can TRUST Him.  He is good and He loves and only desires good things for us.  But, as James is quick to remind us, sometimes those good things are brought about by suffering.  You can't get too far in the Bible without seeing this played out again and again...and really, you can't get too far in life before it's played out in our world as well.
So, I guess I just want to point you, you who are reading this, keep those eyes fixed on Christ.  He is faithful to complete what He started in YOU...He is good, the Father is good and we can trust Him.  Don't doubt His love, and if you are, tell Him, cry to Him and be like the father of the demon possessed boy in Mark 9 who cried out, "I believe, help my unbelief!"
I will leave you with this song by the David Crowder Band that I just love...may you be encouraged today in whatever you might be facing, big or small, joyful or mourning, that Christ loves you.