Sacrifice Shines

      The early morning light awakens me. I turn to prayer. Time passes, but the natural golden glow of morning is missing. Something is strange. 

      Finger finds phone: 1:47. No wonder. I drop to my knees before the window which illuminates my room. What I find is obviously not the ruler of the day, but that of night. A halo of brilliant light, hemmed with pastels, encircles the glowing sphere, full and beautiful. I gaze in admiration for the Creator of it all. 

      All of a sudden, my eyes see something beyond the circle of light. Beams pierce through the dark of night in a veritable cross-roads of light. The giant reflector is not only surrounded by a circular glow, but in the center of a cross of light. The lines are distinct. I blink, but it’s still there. My gaze continues. 

Gentle voice: When you behold Me with your full face -just as the moon is full-, that is when I am reflected the best in your countenance. When you are on the cross, that is when your life shines the brightest of the cross.

“On the cross? ...we’re supposed to pick up our cross and follow You.”  We wouldn’t be on the cross then, right?

Again: Did you expect to take the cross and never die? What is the ultimate end of crucifixion?

Thoughts swirl. The darkness of death begets the brilliance of birth. The Prince of life took His cross to the place of death. A cross borne after Him has but one end. 

Quietly: Sacrifice shines. If you want to glow like the sun, stay in the center of the cross. 

A rhyme for the time: NEWSTART Health Summit

Good Nutrition, Exercise,

Water, Self-control;
These things make one strong and wise,
In body, mind, and soul.
Sunlight, Air, and peaceful Rest,
Trust in Heaven's care,
For our health this is the best-
Above, beyond compare.
Take these principles of health,
As your very own;
You will find them greater wealth,
Than anything you've known.
If you want it with your heart,
There is One who will impart,
You can have a brand NEWSTART,
But only this in Him!

Every Word...

Do you have a burden you can't carry?
Do you have a sorrow you can't bare?
Look to Jesus, not your adversary,
Even sparrows do not lack His care

Do your problems rise up like the mountains?
Do your questions seem to never cease?
Rest you case beneath the living fountains,
For they overflow with heaven's peace

When your daytime seems as black as midnight,
When you cannot see a way to go,
Turn to Him who's brighter than the sunlight,
In His time your pathway He will show

• • • • • • • • • 
Trust in Him, whose goodness changes never,
Take His word in calmness or in storm
Every promise given, stands forever,
Every word He's able to perform!

                      Every word... ;)

Heaven's Mending Basket

      I looked in surprise at my bedspread, needle and thread in hand. I knew it was coming apart, but not quite that much! :| The ever so small section of a separating seam no longer was. All the more reason to mend it, I mused. 

      Mending is a task that proffers ample opportunity to think, and as duty called to the former, I settled in to do some of the latter. 

      First of all, I knew the condition of my bedspread. It had had a hole. Yet this knowledge was not sufficient stimulus for correcting said deficiency right away. So finally, priority has uncovered it. How often do I wait for a more convenient season to attend to a hole in the soul? How often do I brush aside the knowledge of my flaws with the self-assurance that it will be okay for today? ...that it is "good enough"?

      Secondly, I did not know the condition of my bedspread. The true state of its disrepair might as well have been a mystery. What's startling about this is that the hole was right under my nose. Literally. Top blanket, middle section, as plain as stain. Getting worse all the time, but yours truly was in complete oblivion. Let me just say that naturally, I am conscious of such things... all the more reason this comes home. "Because thous sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; (my blanket is practically fine, really!) and knowest not that thou art wretched” (your blanket really is not fine). - Revelation 3:17. The holes may be unknown or ignored, but that by no means alters the reality of their presence, or the progression of disintegration. 

      Lastly, I know the condition of my bedspread is better than it used to be. It had had a hole, but no more. “…He which hath begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” - Philippians 1:6. There is a solution to the pollution of a soul. We don’t have to remain in stained, hole-ridden garment. There is a robe to be had of one piece, purest white, no cuts, no stains. But we have to buy it. There is a price. It is costly. Obedience, not ours, but Another’s obedience, molded out of our life. The Amen, the beginning of the creation of God, the first and the last, the I AM, He, humbled Himself; the One who was, and is, and is to come, He, “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” - Philippians 2:8. … so that He could give us a garment without holes… a character that won’t fray… an obedience above compromise.  Amazing doesn’t begin to tell it.

      Well, the stitchery is done, but the character is still in the making. In the mean time however, praise God for heaven's mending basket! :)

The Best Choice

Today we have a choice to make,
That marks our course forever
Which path of servitude we take,
Will flavor each endeavor

We cannot cleanse our hearts from sin,
Or pure a service render
But we can choose to let Christ in,
Our will to Him surrender

When Christ is given full control,
And our will is His alone
He can bestow our heart and soul,
With victory all His own

O choose today! I choose the Lord,
To serve Him with soul and mind
Let Jesus be alone adored,
'Tis the best choice you will find!