Live in His Word

          As a little girl I memorized Psalm 23. Most good little Christian girls I knew did. I could stand there and recite that passage in King James with the best of them. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” My problem was, since I memorized it in the King James Version I was very confused. I couldn’t understand why the Lord was my Shepherd, but I didn’t want Him. This puzzled me for quite some time. Now I usually read it in the New Living Translation and it makes more sense to me- The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. I now know that it means I won’t be in want, not that I won’t want Him. I love the next few verses in this passage.     Psalm 23:2-3 “He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.”             These verses are a source ...

          Have you ever heard the statement familiarity breeds contempt? This is so often true. Have you ever noticed that when two people start dating they are very nice to each other? They put each other first and do everything they can to please one another. Then after they are married for a while and have to live life together 24/7 and share everything the story often changes. Why? Because what we become familiar with we put lesser value on.           I think we can do this with the word of God as well, especially with verses that are very well known. Take John 3:16 for instance. This is probably one of the most well-known verses of all time. We teach it to our kids, people put it on signs at sporting events, even non-Christians have heard of John 3:16. There is a good reason it is so popular and that is because this verse really sums up the Gospel, but if we aren’t careful we think of...

          I think I am a decent cook, but I know that I am not a great cook. I have been known to burn things a time or two and make stupid mistakes when I am cooking. Part of my problem is that I try and multi-task and I get distracted. If I had a dollar for every time I get distracted while I am cooking and then suddenly remembered I had something on the stove I would be a much wealthier woman. Another one of my problems with cooking is that I am not very adventurous. I have about 2 or 3 seasonings that I use on almost everything I make and I tend to make the same things over and over. If you come to my house for dinner chances are we are going to have lasagna. It is my go to company food. I know how to make a good lasagna, and know my recipe by heart. I always think I will try and be more adventurous with my cooking, but when I pull up recipes if they have more than about 5 ingredients, I usually just skip on to the next one. Every onc...

            This has been a crazy summer. In the last several weeks, we have had two storms that have damaged trees and buildings in our small town. When the storms come, one of the first things we do is turn on the television and check the local weather to see what they are saying. When there is a severe thunderstorm or tornadic weather, the meteorologist usually says something like, “You need to go to your safe place.” This means find the safest place in your home and go there.             Living in “tornado alley” we are trained from the time we are in grade school to have a plan for the storm. We even have drills in school to make sure we know exactly where to go and exactly how to act when the alarm sounds and the storm begins. In our day to day lives, we face many kinds of storms- some severe and some that are just a quick burst. What do we do when these storms of...

          Watching movies with my husband can sometimes be “enlightening”. He is a very practical kind of guy and when there are things in the movie that either don’t make sense or are totally improbable, he likes to point it out. I think that is one reason he likes the show Myth Busters. On this show, they take myths and things that happen in movies and prove whether they could really happen or not. One of the lines used in the show is, “I reject your reality and substitute my own”. While in the show he really does do that, when I hear that, it makes me think of a verse from Psalms.           Psalm 119:29 says, “Keep me from lying to myself, give me the privilege of knowing your instructions.” David knew how easy it was to lie to himself. He knew as King he could have pretty much anything he wanted and he didn’t really have to answer to anyone here on earth. We see this come into play in the...

          I know I am a touch weird. I have always been. When my husband and I were dating, there was one year we were in separate states and in one of his letters to me he was listing things he liked about me and one of them was that I was weird. So I guess I should embrace my weirdness and go with it. One thing that I think is weird is that when I watch movies- not even just Christian ones I often find some kind of spiritual take away that I am sure they did not intend when they filmed the movie.           For instance we just watched the Lego Movie. In the movie (spoiler alert), the main character gets told he is THE special one. Then later in the movie, he gets told everybody is special if they believe they are. It actually made me think of something I have been thinking about from the Bible lately and that is how Jesus made people feel like they were special. When you read the book of Jo...

          One of the very first game shows on radio and then later on TV was a show called Truth or Consequences. On the show the contestants were asked a question- if they got the answer wrong, there was a consequence- usually a funny stunt they had to do.   When I was reading about the show, it said people would often get the answer wrong on purpose because they wanted to do the consequence.                       Sometimes I feel that our lives feel almost like a game of truth and consequences, but instead of consequences it is Truth or circumstances. Every day we have circumstances that happen around us and sometimes those situations can be almost overwhelming. Have you ever been through a season in life that just seemed overwhelming and you felt completely hopeless? Maybe you are in a situation like that right now.          ...