Wholeness Lived…

We have been gifted with WHOLENESS…RESTORATION…PEACE  through the Wounds of Christ.

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WHOLENESS given is now WHOLENESS lived out in our earthly life.

Sometimes there seems so much messy brokenness in the WHOLENESS…

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Let not doubt have a room under your roof!

Glory is your foundation…Built sturdy to withstand the messiness!

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The power of LOVE is the mortar that builds the temple of God who you are…

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yes, WHOLENESS given is WHOLENESSs to be lived…

in the here and now….step by step by step,

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HOME.

“Rise up in splendor! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you.  See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples; But upon you theLlord shines, and over you appears his glory.” Is 60:1-2

This Man…

This man was scourged, crucified, and killed;

But an unspeakable love resurrected Him from death and from infamy;

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It placed Him in a glory of love that never weakens and that finds in Him peace, honor, and joy even to the point of ecstasy.

This man was pursued by an inextinguishable hatred in His suffering and in His tomb;

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But He asked for apostles and martyrs to His name in every generation, and there has been no age without them.

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This man is the only human being ever to have founded a kingdom of love on the earth;

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And this man is you, O JESUS CHRIST!

(Father Henri-Dominique Lacordaire +1861)

Have a blessed Easter Week…May you rest in the joy and peace of His resurrection glory and be an apostle in His name!

The Hush of Holy Saturday…

The hush of Holy Saturday descends up on the world..

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As we await with expectant hearts the event that split time in two…

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BC. and AD…

And changed our lives eternally.

The apostles and holy women awaited with hearts in chaos of grief, despair, doubt, confusion and fear.

We await with hearts of expectant joy, praise and thanksgiving.

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We know the VICTORY has been won.

Let the good news burst forth..

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and water the hearts of those in disbelief around us.

Questions…

It’s not that God doesn’t answer our questions..

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It’s more..

Do we have the COURAGE to ask the questions that need to be asked?…

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And the HUMILITY to accept the answers?

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“Probe me, God, know my heart; try me, know my concerns.  See if my way is crooked then lead me in the ancient paths.” Ps 139:23-24

“I Will Make You a Light”….

Jesus is the LIGHT of the world…

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Those who live in His LIGHT…share in His LIGHT…become His LIGHT…

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Do we bring His LIGHT wherever we go?

Do we bring His LIGHT into the darkness about us…

To lead others home?

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“It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” Is 49:6

Lay Down Your Cloak….

Palms waving…”Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest.”

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Cloaks laid down to honor the King.

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The King up on a lowly donkey entering Jerusalem to do His Father’s will…

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Ascending upwards to His throne…

His throne up on the Cross.

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Will we too in gratitude and humility lay down the cloaks of our lives?….

                      And follow Him who chooses the Cross as His throne?

“Rejoice heartily, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king shall come to you; a just savior is he, Meek and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass.” Zech 9:9

“I Will Draw All”…

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“Look at this cross,

So much bigger than the man whose body will be stretched to fit it.

So much bigger than the height of the man who will be lifted up above the earth on it and who,

being lifted up, will draw all peoples to himself.

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Christ receives it with joy because he knows that this is the dead weight that must have crushed humankind had he not lifted it from their backs.

This is the dead wood which at his touch is transformed to a living tree.

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 At His touch, the hewn tree takes root again, and the roots thrust down into the earth, and the tree breaks into flower.”

Caryll Houselander (+1954) British poet and spiritual teacher

“And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself” John 12:32

When We Forget…

When we forget to worship….

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we forget who we are.

When we lose sight of God…

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we lose sight of what we are.

His Image and His likeness.

(this is what I am listening to today : )

Take Me into the Beautiful by Cloverton

“Then God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Gen 1:26a

Your Name is Safe…

There was a study done a few years ago when professionals asked children ages 4 – 8 years old , “What is love”? The answers given from the “mouths of babes” were insightful and inspirational. One of my favorites…

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“When someone loves you the way they say your name is different. You just know your name is safe in their mouth.” Billy age 4

Scripture tells us that there is power in the name of Jesus…”that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:10-11

Names are important. Your name is important as well.

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Have you heard the Lord speak YOUR name in the depths of your heart?

For our heart has ears to hear the Lord call our name.

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And there is peace, and love and affirmation when the Lord calls us by name.

In the chaos of your day….in the busy-ness of life…in the din of the everyday…

Make time to sit still and listen and with the ears of your heart hear the Lord speak YOUR name. And rest in the wisdom that “YOUR name is safe in His mouth”.

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“The gatekeeper opens it (the gate) for him (the shepherd), and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by  name and leads them out.  When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.  But they will not follow a stranger, they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” John 10:3-5

Sifting Sugar…

Have you ever had one of those weeks when you felt like you were a human experiment tested to see how much could possibly be thrown at you, how much would stick like velcro and you could keep walking?

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Yes, it was one of those weeks…and so in the random way “fromtheheartofj” thinks…

I thought about making frosting.

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When you make  homemade frosting it’s very important to sift the powdered sugar.

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Why?

If not you will end up with hard bits of sugar in your frosting making it gritty…

And who likes gritty frosting?

So it is in the journey of the heart.

Often God has to sift us…shaking us out of our comfort zones or out of our hiding places.

He sees all the hard bits of potential sweetness within us.

So ever so gently he sifts us…

And then when added to all the other sweet souls in this body of Christ we blend together smoothly.

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We become the icing on the cake…God’s crowning glory of sweetness.

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(can you read into this some serious sugar cravings? Ahhhh…Lent is half over!)

“Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:31-32