Morning!

Good morning!!! We've had our windows open all night to let the cool air come in. It feels WONDERFUL! It was hot here yesterday and it feels just lovely having the cool air come in. :) I love it! Soon I'll have to shut them because it will begin to warm up, but I'm stalling a bit longer. I can hear the chickens through my open bedroom windows (there are two of them, one on the front of the house, one on the side, since we are in the corner.) And birds! I can hear the birds! It feels like summer finally. Maybe today I can work in my little flower garden and see what I can get done. :) Everyone else is still asleep. They don't know what they are missing. It is beautiful in the mornings when everything is so still and quiet. The bird sounds are so pretty. :) And the sun is just starting to light up the valley. It is at moments like this that I wonder how anyone could ever say there is no God. How could they believe that such beauty is only chance?

 

Oh! The sun is now coming in through the trees, sending streaks of light across the ground, which is sparking. I love this feeling, this quiet, contemplative, soft feeling of happiness, secure through something as simple as spring. Do you ever get that feeling? I do. I have it now. It’ll probably pass as soon as the others get up and the hustle and bustle of work sets in but, for a few moments, it is mine. It seems to leave the word in a soft, gentle state. I can forget about the problems out there, the pain, the heartache, the wrongs and the sin and, for a moment, one simple moment, I can get lost in something so much better. Something called beauty. I can forget all the people who are trying to force unwanted things on others. And I can see, and feel, and hear the love of God – shining through the trees, blowing through my window and carefully caressing my face, and whispering in the trees outside my window in the bird song.

 

Can you feel it?

It Matters Who You Marry

Well, I usually write my own stuff, but lately I've not written much for blogs. Now I've found one I want to share with all of you. The link is below. I STRONGLY encourage you all to read it. This is especially for all of you single ladies.

http://thechristianpundit.org/2012/08/15/it/

Mandy

What Is Love?

What is love? A lot of people think they have a great definition of it. Love is what you feel when you eat pizza, right? We love pizza! No. We do not love pizza. We love people. We like pizza.

So what is love – really? How do you know if you love someone? What about if someone loves you? I think my parents have a wonderful idea about what love is. They have been married for thirty five years if my math is correct. (Correct me if I am wrong there!) They are in love. How do I know? Because: they give everything to each other. They always seek to please each other. They help each other. They make sacrifices for each other. I think that is love.

Love is what God has shown the world. Love is sending Your only Son to die to save the lost. Love is giving up everything to reach someone. Love is risking the world’s hate and anger to break the boundaries. Love is telling someone – in this case the world – that they are sinful, wrong, stupid and have no hope to get anywhere close to God on their own. That is love. Love is blunt. Love is truthful. Love doesn’t sugarcoat, or pretend it is okay. God doesn’t. And God is love.

^“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” – John 15:13. Love is being willing to die for someone. And this doesn’t count if you say, “Yeah, I’d die for them as long as it is a painless death.” I mean, you have to be willing to DIE for them, no matter how painful, how hard, how horrible that death is. That is love.

Jesus died for us. Jesus is love.

“And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.” – Romans 15:14. Love is telling someone they are sinning, that they are wrong. That is love. Love is going to someone when it is awkward and hard and giving them the facts, even if it will make them hate you.

“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” – 1 Timothy 1:5. Love is pure. You can’t call anything sinful ‘love’. That is something else.

Love is courageous, because love is pure and love is being willing to die, and love is being truthful – all of which take courage. Love, therefore, is courageous.

Love is hard. It is hard to be pure. It is hard to be willing to die. It is hard to be truthful.

Love is a choice. You can choose whether or not to love someone. It is a conscious or subconscious decision. You don’t ‘fall in love’; you make a choice to be in love and to stay there. God decided to love us enough to send Jesus. He didn’t have to. Maybe as Christians we forget that. “He had to because He loved us. He wouldn’t have been able to live with Himself if He hadn’t.” No, God chose to love us and to save us. It was His own, conscious decision. It was His choice. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8.) God sent us His love when we were nothing more than sinful waste, broken things that, if we’d been in procession of ourselves, we likely would have thrown in the trash for our malfunctions.

Love is kind. It is hard to understand how this works, since love is also truthful. But when you love someone, you desire to make them happy. You are kind to them, because you love them. Love is giving someone half of your chocolate bar when you have been CRAVING it all day. Love is giving someone you love the last bit of the ice cream. Love is putting yourself at the very end of the line, and putting everyone else – even the people you don’t like – first. Love is caring. Love is generous.

And love is faithful. When you love someone – really, truly love them – you won’t ever leave them. You won’t get ‘bored’ with them or their habits or ways. When you really love someone, you stick with them. You never let them go. You get into their lives, invade their personal ‘space bubble’ and you look out for them even if they hate you for it. You do everything you can to make sure they are happy. And you never, ever leave them alone – even when they want to be. Why? Love is faithful. Love doesn’t leave people to themselves when they need help.

“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19)  

Love is what God is, what He has shown and what He has done. It is his being, his actions, and his words. Everything that God does radiates his love. If we strive to be like God, we will learn to love like God.

I have a whole lot to learn. I don’t always love like I should. It’s hard. It’s painful. I still get a million and two things wrong every day. I can’t love like God. On my own, it is impossible. But I am not on my own. God lives IN me. “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25) I live in Him and He lives in me. That is the only way I can please Him and I can live like He wants me to live. Otherwise, I fail, all the time, over and over.

Mandy

P.S. I’d like to let people know: if you have anything to add to my articles or saw something wrong and would like to let me know, you can always use the comments place below. I am always willing to learn!

My Wonderful Mommy

My mommy is the best mother in the whole world, in my opinion. She is talented, kind, loving, and yet willing to correct where needed. I smile ruefully as I look back at the years when I hated the idea of a spanking, and realize how it shaped me into the person I am. I look at all the teenagers of my time, and know that this world needs more mothers who are willing to spank their children, to discipline, to teach right from wrong. And because she was willing to do that, I am the person I am. Thank you, Mommy.

My mommy passed down to me her love of arts and crafts. When I see a blank paper, I have to put a pencil or pen to it; otherwise it sits there and calls to me. I get my abilities to actually do well at it from her, too. She has taught me how to sew, to knit, to draw. She showed us how to cook, to clean, to do everything to the best of our abilities. She taught us of God’s will, His love, and His work. Thank you, Mommy.

But in the last seven years, since an accident, she has been almost completely disabled. Tremors racked her body, making her unable to hold a fork, a spoon, or a glass. Dressing herself became impossible and her balance was so far gone she could not stand properly. Talking was hard and took all her energy – energy she simply did not have while she tried to calm the tremors. All the crafts she had once loved so much were gone. But, yet, she never once gave up. She never blamed God. She never let it define her. She was still Cheryl Eggers. She was still God’s child. She was still MY mommy.

And we loved her, all through the years, even as we fed her, we took over all the house work, and we found small ways to help. Her face lost all emotion. However, we kids never realized, in our hearts, that it was hard. If Mommy needed the help, then it was our job to help her. Because: we love her. She is our mommy. “It is Essential Tremor,” the doctors told us. They tried medication after medication, nothing worked. Herbs, minerals, vitamins – all of them tried, all of them failed. More doctors. “It is Essential Tremor, there is nothing we can do. Not unless you want to try this expensive, experimental surgery.

And suddenly, seven years after all this began, a miracle happened. Not the type that happen with a bolt of lightening, a huge bang. It was the type that cost $18.00 at a pharmacy, and a movement disorder specialist. When mom saw there was a specialist in town, she called to get an appointment. Several months latter, she got in. The doctor looked at her, did a couple simple tests and told my mom, “You have Parkinson’s. Take this pill and come back in a month. We’ll see how you progress.”

She took the pill. She is playing the piano again, dressing herself, standing in place without problems, drinking tea without a straw – and holding the cup herself! She is signing her own name, helping chop pears for canning, cleaning the house, and driving the van. Her face is showing emotion again (at first it looked really funny) and she is practically floating about the house, proclaiming triumphantly, “I can do this again! I can do this! Did you see that?” We loved her when she could do almost nothing. She is our mommy. We love her now, when she can do almost everything again. She is still our mommy. She will ALWAYS be our mommy.

God gave us a miracle. Not the fancy, suddenly nothing is wrong type. But the type you go to your local pharmacy and buy a month’s supply of pills for $18.00. It is, as my Aunt Miriam put it, our $18.00 miracle.
Thank you, Lord.

Mandy

My People

It is different for me, as an author, I see things that my readers can simply never see – I feel things that they cannot understand. My characters are a part of me, each and every one holding a place in my heart, and each one having one of my faults, my characteristics, and my hopes. It is even different for me concerning my bad guys. My readers might feel the satisfaction of seeing them fall to good and right, but I feel something else, because I understand, they’re gone, they cannot be saved. They weren’t the good guys, but they were my people. I could have saved them, but I didn’t. It is always for a reason, but it still hurts to see them go. Is that how God feels when the unsaved die? Mandy

Wild Horses or Tamed Kittens?

My pastor gave a wonderful sermon a couple weeks ago that I wanted to share. Thank you, Pastor Nick.

2 Corinthians 5:11-21:

"11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. 12 For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart. 13 For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. 14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. 16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. 17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold , all things are become new. 18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

As Christians, we should be like wild horses for God, not tamed kittens that just anyone can stick in a box and make silent.

What is the goal of missions? To proclaim Jesus to the world, to shout it from the roof tops, to tell it in the streets, to whisper it to our children as they fall asleep. "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." (Matthew 16:15) We are supposed to tell them of Jesus - of his life, of his death, of his resurrection.

Why? Why do we tell them? Why do we bother to throw ourselves into awkward postions, hard places, just to tell others? because we know the fear of God. The unsaved will die an eternal death and be seperated from Our Lord and Savior forever. There will be a day of judgement. So we tell them! We don't tell them for some self gain. We tell them, to save them.

And, yes, by doing this, we are going to appear utterly crazy to the world. They are going to think our cheese has slipped off our cracker, that our happy meal is a few fries too short (thanks to all my friends for the sayings.) To the world, we're crazy. And if we're not, there is a problem. Christians should disregard every part of self preservation. Christians should be the first ones to dive into the banged up lives, the dying people, the run-down, rat-infested places of the world. Why? To help them, to tell them! We should jump into angry, infuriated mobs! Why? To help them, to tell them! We should welcome dangerous people into our homes! Why? To help them, to tell them! We should give to others even if we have nothing! Why? To help them, to tell them. Our job in life isn't to protect ourselves. It is to show others, no matter the personal hardships it might cause, the Love we have found, the Hope that we now have as our own. It is to go to the worst in this world and to tell them about the Best that our world has ever known.

This is crazy. A sane person would not give away their food if they don't have enough to feed themselves. A sane person wouldn't dive into the world's worst places to tend to their poor. A sane person wouldn't give up luxury for pain, suffering, illness, hurt. They wouldn't be willing to risk the emotional pain to become attached to a bad, sure-to-disappoint person so they could tell them of God's love for them. Sane people, don't do such things. Sane people stay home. Sane people see the worst of this world and quickly walk the other way. Sane people do not willingly risk illness or death to go to the people in jungles or swamps.

Sane people do not see a drunk and go over to talk to him and tell him of Christ. Sane people don't invite the homeless into their homes to have a hot meal - or go farther and help them find a place to stay, a job. Sane people don't get involved. Sane people stay away.

But Christians aren't supposed to. Christians are supposed to look at the worst and see a price tag on their clothes saying, "God's Blood." That is their worth to God. That is what He has given. We are supposed to give with everything we have. Why? For Jesus. For Jesus.

Love hurts. Love is stepping between the guns, the fights, the hurt, the greed, the sticks and stones, and the harsh words. Love is telling a sinner he is wrong. Love is getting into someone's life, invaiding their space with every ounce of your power, and learning what is happening in their hearts, even if it breaks your own. Love is telling someone about God, even if they will hate you for it.

That is the love Christ has for us. That is the love we are supposed to have for everyone else. That is the love we are supposed to display towards everyone, even the people that we hate, that annoy us, that have hurt us. It is not our job to judge them. It is our job, our life, our gift, to love them - as Jesus loves them, as he loves us.

Are you willing to be a wild horse, that will always do what God wants, no matter the risk? Or are you going to be a tamed kitten, locked in a box, silent, sane, preserving yourself from harm?

Mandy

Don't Judge - Speak Up!

Today, many people are saying, "Shh! Don't say anything, don't judge!" Christians look at Romans 14 and immediately assume this is correct, proper and right. God does say not to judge. We should work hard to not look down our noses at our family and our friends. But is that whole sentence true? Lets take a moment to look deeper.

Don't you just love the Greek and Hebrew langauges? Each word has several very special meanings so you can know exactly what they mean! The particular "judge" used here means: to decide mentally, or judicially, to try, to condemn, conclude, damn, decree, and sentence. Basically what you think when you see the word but so far as I saw, there was absolutely nothing about being silent when you see someone sinning!

Now, lets look at a new passage - just a chapter over! Romans 15:14 says, "And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with knowledge, able also to admonish one another."

Lets take a look at "admonish" and see what this word has to tell us. This word in particular means, "To put in mind, to caution or rebuke gently. Admonish, warn."

What does all this mean? God is not saying, "Hush!" when He says "Judge not!" Paul, and God, expect us to tell others when they are doing something wrong. They may not be aware of it, or they may just need someone to help them hear their conscious again. What it does say, however, is that we should reprove, or admonish, gently. Yelling at them isn't the right way to go about it. It probably won't get you anywhere anyway.

I don't know about you, but this is extremely helpful for me. There are times when we have to put this to use. I know first hand that it is painful and hard to tell someone you love that they are sinning.

I hope this helps you! Thanks for stopping in!

Mandy