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I had some friends give me 2 tall kitchen garbage bags full of rhubarb! I love rhubarb, and so yesterday and the day before, I’ve been busy making what I call “Very Rhuberry Jam.” I made 6 batches total, amounting to 54 half-pints of jam. Jam making and canning is mysterious to some, but to me, it’s addicitve. I find several rewards from canning… I love giving my homemade jams to people for every occasion, people are always suprised and it’s like a bottle of gold to some and they hord it. I love the actual canning process, following delicious recipes to a tee, not to change a single thing so that they will turn out perfectly, or, when I find a recipe that is “pretty good” I like tweeking it with my own creativity until it turns out to something that simply cannot be improved upon. I think the most satisfying thing that addicts me to canning, is after I process my filled jam jars (process = boiling in a hot water bath for the given length of time (according to altitude) necessary to kill any remaining bacteria), is after removing them from processing, when they sit on the counter and they being to cool, hearing the sound of the vacume seal pulling the top of the jam jar in. It sounds like the click you can make by pulling your tongue from the roof of your mouth to the bottom of your mouth…. *click*.
This is the beginning of the summer harvest of fruits and vegetables, and I’m lucky that it’s addicting. After I finish up with the rest of the rhubarb tonight, I’ll wait till the raspberries are ready so that I can make raspberry jam, then the strawberries, blueberries, then the apricots from our friends tree, then I think I’ll try making applesauce this year, then the angelo sweet peaches, and then the tomatoes will be kicken in and I’ll be able to can salsa and tomato chutney. My kitchen by the end of the summer will have at least 4 stacks of jar boxes at least 8 boxes high, filled with nearly every concoction you could think of. My good friend says I’m “prolific”…. but she just hasn’t learned well enough to get addicted.
What do I do with all of these you ask? Most of the salsa we keep and eat ourselves, because it’s so good… but, every now and then, I will share a jar of it with someone, but they have to be REALLY special. Much of the jam is given away for gifts with bread, or by itself, depending on the occasion. It’s our tradition to give homemade jam away for Christmas gifts as well. It’s funny, no matter how much I seem to make, by the time of the new canning season, everything is gone. Many friends are accustomed to returning their empty jars as a deposit for the next bounty, so I usually have a good start of empty jars.
Here is the Very Rhuberry recipe:
6c. rhubarb cut into 1″ pieces
5c. sugar
3/4 c water
1 21oz blueberry pie filling
2 3oz raspberry jello
Combine rhubarb, sugar & water. Bring to a boil over med heat. Boil in a full rolling boil rhubarb uncovered for 6 min.,stirring constantly. Stir in blueberry pie filling. Return mixture to a full rolling boil, boil for another 6 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in gelatin, return to boiling, boil for 3 minutes. Ladle into hot jars and place prepared lids, wipe if necessary, then place on bands. Process in hot water bath for 10 min. (depending on your altitude). Yield 9 half-pint jars. Do not double recipe. Variations: substitute 1 21 oz. can of Raspberry pie filling instead, and use one Rasp. jello and one Strawberry jello.
I haven’t the time, but I have lots of scattered things to blog. I’ll get around to that when time avails itself. He’s growing me in so many directions, and it seems right now that none of them are complete (and may never be : ) but He is weaving it all deep within my heart.
++ Dearest Father, I beg for some solitude with just You in focus, so that I can piece the internal directions together, so that I can understand where You have taken me, and where You want me to go. Thank You for stirring me, to live in this activity You’ve provided, I’m filled with joy to walk alongside You daily.++
Today is my 10 year wedding anniversary! Appearantly the gift to give for the 10 year mark used to be “Tin/Aluminum”. I’m glad they changed it to the modern gift of diamonds, even though I don’t really need or want any, I’m glad they updated the list, but in looking at the list, if they change the 10 year to a diamond, it seems I’ve jumped ahead to the 60 year mark. Guess the diamond industry didn’t like being so late in the game, as there really is a declining number of people who get to the 60 year wedding anniversary mark. If you ask me, the whole list is a little whacky. Where did it come from anyway?
Our plans for the day include going to Bear Lake to have a family birthday party for Mike’s Oma (German for Grandmother), she’s turning 91 I think, and then we are actually having a sitter come over this evening, and we are going out to dinner and a movie. It will be nice to get away from the kids for a short time, but we rarely have baby sitters, so there is that stress that you hope your kids are well behaved and perfect little angels. ;D Any movie recommendations?
Yesterday we went to Bear Lake, which is just through the canyon near my house, called Logan Canyon. My girlfriend, her two kids, me, and my two kids all loaded up and drove up and fared well during the hour drive and then parked on the beach. We watched the kids play, interchanging buckets of water then sand, running to and fro looking like busy little ants. The wind off the lake kept us cool, while the sun kept us reasonably warm. One thing that my friend and I both enjoyed was seeing that the kids would run in the water, then run up to the dry sand and lay down to make sand angels. My little girl doesn’t have many crevices, but the nooks and crannies she does have, were filled with sand.
It was a beautiful day and now today, my kids are asking me with expectation, with “what are we going to do today?” I better get busy and think of something other than just grocery shopping!
Just had to say bye bye to MsTick, Within, will miss reading your blogging, but I know I’ll see you here and there in the blogsphere! Hugs!
Jollyblogger blogged on How to Study the Bible – Read it carefully! I love what he relayed here: “Truly, the old adage applies – the bible is shallow enough that a child can swim in it and deep enough that an adult can never touch bottom. So, there is always more to be received by those who will take the extra time and effort to swim out into the deeper waters.”
I’ve been thinking about how I’m spending my time in the Word and wondering if there is more I should be doing to wean off milk of seeing things at the surface, and to start eating solids, by grasping at it in deeper ways, with deeper reflections. Something Doug wrote a short time ago also struck me as a way to nurture my walk through the Word… and so far I’m still working on it, but I do feel that time I spend reading my Bible is deeply watering my soul. I know I can’t touch the bottom, but it feels good to swim and let go of the dock.
My daughter will be five in November, so she’s really a sponge soaking everything. Yesterday more than days before, I heard her ask “why?” more than I think she needed too. It’s weird because in my mind I think, “she knows the answer, why is she asking?” but she still asks anyway. I’m trying to encourage her to problem solve by responding to the “whys” I know she already knows by asking… “hmmm… why do you think sweetie?” She usually looks at me for a second then I see the gears in her mind start going and she finds the answer… but sometimes she comes back with a blank look because she doesn’t know. So then I usually walk through the answer. What confuses me and eventually irritates me is when she asks “why?” for something she already knows the answer.
Sometimes it’s a challange to respond in the fruit of the Spirit consitently for every why during the day. “Why?” you ask? Because I’m a failure sometimes and I don’t even remember. “Why?” you ask? Because I get sidetracked by tasks that need to be done, and what not, all the while listening to a constant banter of chatter from my extremely talkative kids. “Why?” you ask? Because mommy’s have to do laundry, dishes, make dinner, and when the kids are talking non-stop and sometimes interrupting my thoughts, I get scatterbrained and it’s hard to refocus on what I was doing. “Why?” you ask? Because… I don’t know! Because, because, because I need a break or something. “Why?” you ask? Because I’m not supermom and I need some quiet time.
I know some people would do anything to have kids because of fertility issues, and that they would look at me and think I’m not cherishing everything. They’re right… sometimes I’m not, and I’m just looking forward to my kids bedtimes. But you know what? On other days, I wish it wasn’t so soon till bedtime.
So… I can already tell that today is another day of the “why’s?” I’ll do better today.
Today was an awesome day at church!! A while ago I wrote about …finding faith…, where I described a person in my community who left and denounced the LDS church and accepted Christ. Much has happend in the life of this family, and today, the spouse came forward and accepted Christ. I am still piecing everything together that God has done in their lives to bring them to this point! It’s amazing! The person who came forward today has an immediate family member who holds a position of high authority in the LDS church (quorum of the 70), so I’m just in awe of God, and I’m so encouraged because there have been so many people praying for this family! This reaffirms so much within me, and stirs and enkindles my hopes and deeper prayers for those near to me who I pray will enter into a relationship with Christ.
The testimony of God drawing this family actively demonstrates that He is active and that although I may not see how He is working in the heart of my husband, I am so encouraged and refilled with new hope and patience in God’s proccess of drawing him in.
++Father, thank you for loving me personally and being my greatest cheerleader. Thank you for drawing my friends to you, so that they are now my family in You… I am so excited to welcome them and to grow with them in knowing you. Please continue to work in Mike’s heart, draw him to Your pure love.++
We skip along from one holiday to the next, and tomorrow, it’s Father’s day. Wow. My dad died when I was 7 1/2, and it seems like lifetimes ago… but if I let my mind wander a little, so many memories flood my mind of that sweet time in my life. I fondly remember:
Casey from The Limitless writes on “What is the purpose for Holy Spirit Baptism?…”, it’s a thoughtful post, and great followup in a way to the previous post of, “I Hate Witnessing”. Casey says that “the purpose of the infilling of the Holy Spirit, which happened in Acts 2:1-4. It’s not for the feeling, (although it feels pretty good sometimes), or the emotion (and it can be quite emotionless). The purpose is to receive power to be a witness, first in our own neighborhoods and areas, then to our nation, and then to the world.”
So, if we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we already possess the power to be a witness to Christ, but we need to remember the key Casey pointed out in “I Hate Witnessing”, that “we must BE the love of Christ to everyone we meet. We must BE his patience, charity, compassion, acceptance, forgiveness, and mercy.”
Thanks for sharing the Spirit Casey and the reminder we have to couple everything with love.
How many more people will share this same fate? This man Paul suffered at the hands of murderers. Extreme warning, GRAPHIC IMAGES CONTAINED WITHIN THIS LINK, DO NOT VIEW UNLESS YOU CAN HANDLE IT….
Although I am deeply saddened and disgusted by this cruelty, I’m paralized and without the knowledge of how this brutality going to stop happening. Will the “withdrawl” of our troops decrease this? Is there any way to stop Al Qaeda?
We didn’t find him in time for rescue. How many more times will this occur?
++Lord, I pray for your comfort to pour generously on Paul’s family and friends as they process this tragedy. In my immature mind Lord, I can’t quite see the ways that You will use the outcome of this horrible murder, but I trust fully in Your plan. Please use this aweful act to glorify only Your name.++
Tim at Challies.com discusses Two Or More based on taking the verse Matt 18:19-20 out of context. Worth reading.
A friend wants me to camp on this for a while…John 17:13-26
“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Jesus Prays for All Believers:
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
When Jesus prays, he does not ask amiss, and the Father is faithful to answer. He prayed ahead of time for all the believers who would come to Him through the Word. So, the believers who have accepted Jesus, have the love that the Father had for Him, within us! He wants us to know that and live inside that everyday, and share it to others to draw them unto Him.
The Bible Answer Man has two radio broadcasts archived, which cover the topic of “How to Witness the Truth in Love to Mormons,” just for future reference. The dates were 6/9/04 & 6/10/04, about halfway down the page.
The Christian Carnival XXII is up at Belief Seeking Understanding, and this is my first time submitting, after a cordial invitation from Douglas. I’ve been reading the Carnival since I saw it announced by Rebecca a little while back, and I just gave it a try. Enjoyable and thought prompting reads, and well worth the time to check them out! Thanks all : D
I love creative people… they really inspire me to emulate them. Michelle and her son spent some awesome God-time tagging the walkways around their local campus with what she termed Terrorist Evangelism! It really charged my heart with how I could implement this Terrorist Evangeilsm in my Mormon community. I can just see it now, icthus fish swimming freely, crosses daring someone to consider…. I’m scheming of when, how, and who I could employ to join me in tagging sidewalks around here. The only thing I’m scratching my head on, is that I’m wondering if Michelle waited for a forecast with rain, and planned on that for her timing, or if it was a spur of the moment thing? hmmm… I wonder what kind of reaction people would have? God would sure love to see their suprised faces! Thanks for sharing your enthusiam for Christ Michelle! xoxo!
Sunday’s message at church was “Scorpions and Prophets Don’t Mix,” and it was really thought provoking for me. It was given on Ezekial 2, and I have been thinking of it since Sunday, and because it has stuck with me, it deserves blogging.
From Ezekial 2, we learn three lessons and are given two warnings.
The lessons are:
1. The initiative is the Lords - in those days no one wanted to obey, as they were rebellious, but God continued to send His prophets, which demonstrated a clear sign of His mercy.
2. The mission is the Lords - God is the one who sends (v. 2). He sent the Spirit for the prophet and then sent the prophet to the Isrealites. God calls those He wants to serve Him.
3. Message is the Lords (v. 4) - Listen to My message, and translate it.
The two warnings given:
1. There is pressure to change the message:
The message God gives does not depend on the audience, rebellious or not (v. 6-7). Don’t change the message according to the audience and try to make it “more user friendly” depending on who we are relaying it to, or according to our own personal image of God. We need to keep the message as He designed it, we are made in His image, not Him made in our image. He has to be the same as He says He is, and we have to transform, not us transform Him depending on our needs, or the needs of others.
2. There is pressure to change the messenger:
His message doesn’t depend on the results (v. 7), whether they listen or not. We are not responsible for the results. We are called to faith, not popularity, and our success is in spreading the message, not in the results of spreading it. There is a danger of changing the messenger (v. 8), don’t rebel like them. If ministering is hard and difficult, we may become tempted to change and assimilate to the group. Ezek 33:20-33, Ezekial became a laughing stock for Isreal, the people came to him but didn’t listen and do what he said. The pressure was there to change the messenger (Ezekial) to blend in with the people.
Do we hold a Biblical world view? How many people consult the Bible when they have questions in life? The statistic quoted was that only 9% of Born Again Christians have a “Biblical” world view, meaning that they consult the Bible when problems arise, to look to God’s Word for the answers and guidance. The other statistic was that only 49% of Pastors did the same. So, the question arises, where are the other 91% of Christians, or the other 41% of Pastors getting the answers to the questions or the guidance for the problems that arise? Culture? Oprah & Dr. Phil? Have we submitted to the pressure of the culture so much so, that many fail to search and stick to the Biblical answers that God has provided.
The audience is changing the message and the messanger, which leads to spiritual battles. We need to be careful not to let our culture shape us, and instead let the Bible. God defines the message. Come to the Bible for the answers to your life questions.
What does God look like? This sounds like a question that you would hear from a young child, but it’s from me. I’ve been curiously thinking lately about how to visualize God, so I will blog the processing of my thoughts, for my further reflections. I’m sure that upon meditating on His appearance, I’ll have more to add to this, because I anticipate He will reveal more of Himself to me in the days ahead.
Every now and then, when I pray, or still myself with God and just sit in His presence, I try to visualize Him. When I try this, to see Him in His own image, I’m confronted with nothing other than Light, brighter than the spark from a magnesium flint. His Light I see is white-hot and brilliant radiance, which cannot be contained, as it illuminates and blinds everything. This is all I see, just His brightness and glory, I can’t see His own unique face, or even form a face for Him, based on my impressions and knowledge of Him from His Word. I’m left piecing Him together and asking myself, “What does He look like?” as well as the follow up question of “Why can’t I picture Him?”
The Bible says God looks like us, because He made us to look like Him. Genesis 1: 26-27 says; “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” So, I suppose that in looking around me to others, and in my reflection, I can see what His image contains, but I still know it’s not an accurate grasp of Him.
I can easily visualize Him in the image of Christ. I can see myself holding Christ’s hand, and walking through expansive rivers to reach meadows filled with wildflowers, that release the aroma of freshness and purity. I see God through the descriptions of Christ sprinkled through the pages of the Bible:
“He [Christ] had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” Isaiah 53:2
And, “‘If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.’ Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’ Jesus answered: ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?'” John 14:7-9.
“There he [Christ] was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light.” Matt. 17:2
“He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” Col. 1:15.
“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” Col. 2:9.
I can further see Him in suggestive metaphors, God as a Father (John 20:17), then a Shepherd (John 10:14), as well as all the other glimpses of who He is through the Word; that He is our Creator (Isa 40:28), He is our I Am (Ex 3:14), He is our Mercy (Eph 2:4-5), He is our Potter (Isa 64:8), He is our El Roi (Gen 16:13), He is our Refuge (Psa 46:1), He is our Counselor (Isa 9:6), He is our Gate (John 10:9), He is our Healer (Ex 15:26), and He is our Gardner (John 15:1). On and on I could go, every page describes all that He is. He is everything (Eph. 4:6).
The Apostle John describes the vision of Him in Revelation 1:12-16, saying “And when I turned I saw someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of rushing water. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance”(and again in Revelation 19:11-16 for another description). Further in Revelation 4:3, John describes what he sees as he peers into the open door of heaven, “And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne.”
So….. God is just shining and radiant incandescence. He is strikingly intense majesty, glowing white, all originating from within Himself. I can see Him as such, and, I can see Him through His character that He faithfully spells out for me in His Word. He is patient, He holds justice, He is merciful, He is slow to anger, He is faithful, He is abounding in love, He is forgiving, and the best, He is constant. His breadth is fathomless to me, and so is His beauty. I don’t know why I want to put Him in a box by defining His appearance into a convenient mental picture. Is it in hopes of relating to Him when I feel His presence? Or is it Him, revealing to me, that I can’t put Him into a picture visually, I just have to trust Him and let the faith in my heart keep His picture? I know He can’t fit into the box my small imagination would paint Him into, I shouldn’t even want to try to paint His portrait in my head, but I still find that I try to conceptualize Him and His expanse. I have a picture of my kids in my wallet, as well as plastered to the fridge and walls around my house, I guess I want God everywhere too. But what I skip over is that He already is, in the faces of my smiling children, in the orchid growing in my kitchen window, in the grain of my wood floor, in the eyes of my husband, and in the reflection I see when I glance in the mirror. Yet, I know all of those are still just minimal next to Him.
Do you try to envision God? Or am I the only one?
Well, we meant well. We were supposed to go to a family reunion of sorts today for Mike’s mom’s side of the family, which Mike really doesn’t know well, and the last time we’ve seen them has been at least 7 yrs. *gasp* So, we packed up the kids, sippy cups, snacks, sunblock, bundt cake and all the other extras for a scheduled 1.5 hr. car ride each way, but we encountered a serious case of the “I don’t wanna go’s” before we even left, and it wasn’t from the kids. We still managed to get out of the house and drive nearly the distance, but then we saw the jets. F-16’s to be exact. The Air Show at Hill Air Force Base was underway, and it had just started and we both knew it promised to be a lot more fun than what we were supposed to do! So guess what? We “missed” our exit to continue on the way to the reunion, and we instead took a “detour” to the Air Show. Boy was it worth it.
F-16’s, stunt planes, and the finale, the Tunderbirds. Our kids were in heaven, and our senses were stimulated with sights and sounds of power that we just don’t encounter everyday. I am amazed at the precision of the stunts, and was truly saying prayers during the course of the events, as the crowd was huge and the planes were so close. It was a slice of pure fun even though we struggled with the fact that Mike’s mom would probably have some opinions to voice at some point. While we where there and on the way home we debated the best “strategy” to deal with our failure to attend the reunion, we decided to stick with the truth, that we just saw the jets and couldn’t miss the opportunity. So far, his mom hasn’t tried to get in touch with us yet… so, we’re kinda waiting for “the call.”
No regrets. Carpe Diem.
In watching the memorial service for former President Ronald Reagan, I am in awe at the magnitude of this ceremony. The amount of leaders present is amazing and the show of respect is so precious.
Live is one of my favorite groups, and among their songs, I can listen to Lightening Crashes over and over again. Their new song Heaven, off of their Birds of Prey album, is worth a listen. This is a live version that Ed performed on The Late Show. The radio version is a little more polished, but I appriciate this one just as much.
Heaven
You don’t need no friends
Get back your faith again
You have the power to believe
Another dissident
Take back your evidence
It has no power to deceive
I’ll believe it when I see it for myself
I don’t need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don’t need no proof when it comes to God and truth
I can see the sunset and I perceive
I sit with them all night
Everything they say is right
But in the morning they were wrong
I’ll be right by your side
Come hell or water high
Down any road you choose to roam
I’ll believe it when I see it for myself
I don’t need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don’t need no proof when it comes to God and truth
I can see the sunset and I perceive, yeah
Darling, I believe, Oh Lord
Sometimes it’s hard to breathe, Lord
At the bottom of the sea, yeah yeah
I’ll believe it when I see it for myself
I don’t need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don’t need no proof when it comes to God and truth
I can see the sunset and I perceive
I don’t need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don’t need no proof when it comes to God and truth
I can see the sunset
I can see the sunset
I can see the sunset
I don’t need no one
I don’t need no one, oh
I don’t need no one
I don’t need no one
To tell me about heaven
I believe
I believe it, yeah
When I was growing up there were a few movies that I really loved, and to this day, I never tire of watching watching them. They have absolutely no educational value and their entertainment value is probably limited to only me, but for fun I will embarrass myself and list them! I think one summer, my friend and I watched the first three everyday, and on the funny parts, we would rewind and replay them, over and over and over and over until we were consumed by laughter. Here they are:
~Sixteen Candles
~Breakfast Club
~Weird Science
~Grease 2
~Top Gun
~Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
~Risky Business
Monday’s “Slice of Infinity” was beautiful.Betsy Childs with RZIM wrote “Canyons of the Spirit” and I’m excerping a bit because it was so delicious. Note to self… reread this Monica… let it live in you.
There is more than one way for a canyon to be formed. They can be carved quickly by the rapid erosion of a rushing river or a melting glacier. Or, they can take years to form, hewn by the steady trickle of a stream running through limestone.
I believe that the formation of a canyon bears some resemblance to our spiritual formation. The Living Water coursing through our lives leaves its mark. Many people are changed rapidly and dramatically by watershed encounters with the Holy Spirit, either at conversion or at some point of spiritual renewal…
Just as the deepest canyon can be cut by a steady stream, so the Holy Spirit has left his mark on my life. Although I have no dramatic flood stories, I have changed slowly and steadily through the years since He first found me. Some of the prayers that I have prayed for years have been answered, not all at once with a crash, but with increasing volume like the rise of a beautiful song. He has not removed any of my fears instantaneously, but He is gently coaxing them from me one by one, like a mother lovingly taking away a child’s toys as she rocks him to sleep. Although I may not have come to my senses in one moment like the Prodigal Son, the Holy Spirit daily convicts me of new sins and grants me the repentance to turn from them over and over.
I have watched other believers slowly change and mature as the Spirit reworks the landscapes of their hearts. I have seen some put aside idols and learn to cherish the things of God. I have seen others who once lashed out in anger learn to hold their tongues and forgive. I have seen souls that were once bitter or defensive become humble and teachable, all by the patient artistry of God.
No one can encounter power of Living Water and come away unscathed. Sometimes, the most dramatic canyons take a lifetime to carve.
++please continue to remap me Lord with Your Living Water. clear away the obstructions that hinder the rushing of Your life over my spirit. flow and flood the landscape of my heart. saturate me.++
I never knew about this letter, I’m glad that axion at BinaryRoadTrip left it on his blog. Alzheimers is a facinating disease and so aweful. I can’t imagine the imprisionment Regan must have felt. I wish we understood more about it.

