Stumbling Blocks or Stepping Stones?

by Dianne Sackrider

My Pastor preached a great sermon on Sunday about taking time to look back over the past year and to ask ourselves what could we have done better…

Now my first thought was to pat myself on the back for a year of good choices.  After I got past my puffed up self, I really began to look at the year with a heart of truthfulness.  I remembered there were some places that I stumbled and got tripped up.  There were some situations that caught me off guard as well. 

But also in that time of reflecting, I was able to see that God walked with me through some very difficult times.  Like my mother being diagnosed with inoperable stage 4 lung cancer.  I had to choose to look beyond the facts of that diagnosis and put my faith in action to trust God for her healing.  And you know what?  She is cancer free!   She is alive and living a victorious life.  Another difficult situation I faced was having my youngest daughter and her husband move out of state.  That was tough.  It became even tougher when I found out she was going to have a baby and I was not going to be able to walk with her through this joyful season.  It stung.  Yet, she and her husband are doing wonderful, the baby is growing strong and healthy and we will get to go meet our newest granddaughter in April.   

I also discovered as I looked back, that God had completely healed my broken heart and brought restoration to many of the broken relationships that had resulted from that broken heart.  Just that reminder alone brought a great big smile to my face!  The job I had lost 2 years ago was replaced this year with one that is better than I could have ever dreamed of.  The location is less than 3 miles from my house.  The people are all precious and love God wholeheartedly and the increase in my salary is incredible!

So, those stumbling blocks that the enemy meant for harm, just proved to be stepping stones that God used for my good!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

by Ev Horne

Is it me, or is Christmas just the most wonderful time of the year?

I love Christmas time. Beginning at Thanksgiving and going right through Christmas and New Years.  It just seems people seem a little “lighter” at this time of year.  They seem more friendly and courteous.  Oh, I know, you can’t go a day without the news making sure you are aware of every tragedy and every unjust thing in the world.  But really, in your own little corner of this earth, doesn’t it seem just a little brighter?  It does on my corner anyway.

I was talking with a friend last night. We were talking about how much I love this time of year.  I love eating turkey from Thanksgiving to New Years.  I told her I think people are just a little nicer; they seem to smile more and be friendlier.  She said, “Why do you think that is?” Well, I think it’s because at this time of year, everyone tends to worship God, even without thinking about it.  We sing Christmas songs all the season long.  Radio stations play Christmas songs.  It reminds me of the story of when Jesus rode the colt of a donkey into Jerusalem in Luke 19:38-40.  All the people were saying, ”Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”  But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” (NKJV)

All across the world, people are singing Silent Night, Holy Night, We 3 Kings, Go Tell It on the Mountain, O Come All Ye Faithful.  I’ll bet there might even be an Atheist accidently singing one of those songs! It was a special time when our Savior was born.  The spiritual world must have been abuzz with what was going to happen.  Angel choirs getting ready to sing at the proclamation of the living God come to earth.  WOW! Stands to reason, why celebrating the birth of our Savior is a special time and we can’t help but sing songs that worship Him.  So, sing your heart out and remember, He inhabits the praise of His people.

Merry Christmas!

Hope

by Jessica Grimbleby

Christmas always brings out the feeling of hope in me. When I think about what was going on in the world when Jesus was born, I imagine the hope that people felt just knowing the savior had come. Sure he had yet to die for them (and us), but it is like a light at the end of a tunnel. THE SAVIOR HAS COME! 

This hope is still such a beautiful and amazing thing. Even though I wasn't around when the original Christmas happened, I still feel a renewed sense of hope (and joy) each Christmas season. It's a beautiful thing to think about, the gift that is Christ Jesus. So often I think we get caught up in everything else and forget to remember what Christmas truly is about. That baby laying in a manger, born through miraculous circumstances, means so much more than hope. He truly is our everything. He is my hope, my joy, my peace, my comforter, my savior. 

I never tire of the renewed sense of hope I feel every year when I get to celebrate my savior's birth. 

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called wonderful, counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

What Christmas is About

by Gayle Thornberry

Upstairs in my Cape Cod home, we utilized the space behind the knee-walls to create long, well lit storage bays, the largest of which is in my den behind my sofa.  Christmas lives up there -- inside the many tubs and boxes.  It’s always a special time to crawl in and pull out each tub, box and angel.  Because they are all marked indicating which ones will decorate the upstairs, the downstairs, the porch and the lawn, I sort and stack them at the top of the stairs before making the necessary trips down, one load after another.  There is something magical as I open and unwrap each fragile glass ball, porcelain King, or china angel.  I look lovingly at each item as I unpack them one-by-one as if I had never seen them before.  Nothing but joy do I feel as I as I work away placing each item in its designated spot.  I take great pride in decorating my tree as if it were a show piece with its extreme use of lights and decorations. I spend two days decorating the tree and house, and another two days decorating the porch and lawn . . . and then I sit.  I sit with a cup of hot cider, or coffee and just look at beauty that an ordinary house it transformed into when the extra-ordinariness of Christmas arrives. 

I can image the same joy filled the heart of the creator as God placed each tree, planted each flower with the words “tulips, you go here and day-lilies, you go there.”  I imagine all of heaven was a-buzz as the world we know was transformed from an ordinary void of chaos into something as spectacular as mountains, lakes, valleys and deserts.  I imagine God sitting back on day number eight and admiring all that was created … you and me!

Christmas – made up of two simple yet profoundly spectacular words, Christ and mas.  Christ, the miracle and gift of Christmas, and “mas(s),” that service observed in worship of the king of Kings.  God’s very self, embracing the brokenness of creation as the babe in the manger later stretched forth arms on wooden beams in undeserved sacrifice.  Magical, mystical, and the mysterious work of love.  Is there anything ordinary about Christmas?  Anything ordinary about that kind of love?  Anything ordinary about the extra-ordinariness of the beauty of this season?

This year, not one tub came down the stairs.  No outdoor lights, no greenery on the white porch railing, no manger scene on the lawn.  No Christmas tree, no silver kings or brightly colored angels … nothing but a wreath on the door, a painted antique sled on the porch, a vase of poinsettias on the granite island in the kitchen and a 12 inch wooden tree on the piano.   This year an over-extended schedule necessitated the simplicity of Christmas for me.  At first, I stressed about what it meant to have Christmas without all the trappings.  I wondered if I would be considered, by my neighbors, a scrooge or simply a slacker!  I thought that perhaps it wouldn’t feel like Christmas at all.   I found myself judging Christmas by my ability to manage the vast chaos that swirled around me and my inability to call all of that into some kind of order, trappings and all.  And then, as I lamented the reality that I could no longer don the “super-woman” cape and make it all happen, God spoke.

The still small voice of my redeemer God, the soon coming King, broke through the haze of condemnation and question that warped my Christmas spirit -- with words of “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace among those whom He favors!” (Luke 2:14) 

I was reminded that there is something ordinary about Christmas after all.  It’s pretty ordinary that we women tend to place extreme expectations upon ourselves, especially during this extra-ordinary season.  We expect to be able to decorate the house, bake for church, school and office, wrap individually every pack of gum we plan to put into stockings, prepare a Paula Dean type Christmas feast, and make memories other than negative ones.  We expect to figure out how to stretch every penny, write everyone we’ve ever known a Christmas card, and get them all out on time.  We expect that we should be able to order our world with efficiency and it goes without saying, that is must be done with excellence!  Bah-humbug!  Christmas is about realizing that we are not da-vine, we are just da-branch!  When we find ourselves so over-functioning that Christmas is measured by our doing . . . we come into the reality that we are not abiding in the vine . . . when that happens, we are not glorifying God in the highest heaven, and there is no peace for us, on the earth.  Perhaps this year, we need to simplify in order to glorify!  Perhaps this year, we need to realize the trap in all the trappings, and be set free from all the doing, in order that we might be found among the favored so that peace on earth would abound in our homes.  Christmas is about the goodness of God come down to man.  It’s about the babe born of a virgin, placed in a manger, hung on a cross, and rose from the dead!  Ladies, beware of the trap in the trappings, and have a very Merry Christmas!

I Decided to Write a Book

by Dianne Sackrider

So I decided to write a book.  My vision for this book was to help women get set free and delivered from offense.  I’m not talking about the kind of offense that is presented to us everyday…like when your girlfriend says “wow, your hair looks great TODAY! and you wonder to yourself what she meant by that.  Does my hair normally NOT look great every day?...and then you have that choice to make not to walk in offense and so you know you must extend grace to her because she did not mean to hurt your feelings.  No, I’m definitely not talking about that kind of offense.  I’m writing a book to help women walk through those DEEP offenses like betrayal, rejection and slander. 

I used to wonder why it was that God put women in my life who had been deeply wounded.  I would hear their stories and my heart would grieve with them.  I would wrap my arms around them and love on them and walk with them through their pain.  I found that I was very often used by God in these women’s lives.  He gave me a heart of compassion for those who had been cut deep.  I could always spot them.  It was the look in their eyes.  The look that said “I will let you know only a part of me, because I will never open up and be transparent again”, or the look of “I’ve got it all together on the outside, but I’ll never let you see what’s on the inside”.  God has given me discernment for women like that.  I believe it’s because I used to BE one of those women and I could identify with what I saw in their eyes. 

I had been betrayed, not once, but numerous times….. (I’m saving the rest of my story for my book J), but let me just say that as soon as I spoke the words out loud “So I decided to write a book”, every  dart the enemy could throw my way to sideswipe my efforts was hurled my direction.  But in the process, the most amazing thing happened!  I began to chuckle.  Then I began to laugh out loud!  That stinking devil doesn’t have any new tricks.  He was still using the same old tricks and I had just caught on.  I made another decision that day.  I refuse to give up or give in.   A line has been drawn in the sand and I’m moving forward.

So, I say to all those women who have been wounded like me, “C’mon girls, let’s keep moving forward, no matter what is thrown our way, and let’s walk into our destiny!”

James 1:12

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

A Life Interrupted

By Jessica Grimbleby


I always felt like I was a go with the flow type of gal. You know, roll with the punches. All of that changed, or more the truth of my life smacked me in the face, when I had kids.

Having kids is like getting on a roller coaster you can't get off. There are slow times and fast times, sharp turns and long straights, ups and downs. And no matter how much you plan, those little people throw your plans out the window. Parenthood has really shown me new perspective on my life with God because that's kind of like our lives with God.

In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.   Proverbs 16:9 (NIV)

We plan and plan and plan but God has other plans. We want to go one way and God wants us to go another.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declared the Lord. "As the Heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."   Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)

I am constantly reminded of this. I am a planner. I like to map out what I think my life is going to look like. And I am reminded time and time again that just because I want something for my life doesn't mean that is what God wants for my life. Sure, I can fight Him and still live my life my way. But I would much rather live my life in the way He wants, with his blessing.

Just because God planned something for me doesn't mean it is going to be easy. In fact, so often I feel he chooses the hard way for me. But those hard ways have always proven to be fruitful and so perfect for my life. Every day I have to consciously give my life, my plans, to God and see where He wants me to go.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. Psalm 32:8

Moments of Waiting

By Gayle Thornberry


Her heart was beating like Congo drums in her ears, as she stole away across the fields she had earlier helped glean. The 'thump, thump, thump,' in her gut was mixed with equal amounts of fear and excitement at what she might soon encounter, but it was the possibility of God's promise of future that kept her pushing on as she stumbled over dirt clods and splintery tufts of un-harvested barley. But, finally all the preparation of the day; the bathing, the perfuming, the anointing . . . and certainly, the praying, had brought her to this place. For here she stood standing just inside the darkness, but outside the light of the threshing floor. She was able to watch the activity of those on the night shift guarding the barley harvest, without being noticed, like one who was "casing out" her coming reward. She could almost see, and all but touch, the work God was doing on her behalf.

In this place of tension between the "almost" and the "not yet," she had decisions to make. She could press on, sneak in and cover herself with the hem of his garment, or she could allow all the questions about "how can this be any part of God's plan?" make her turn around and run. Did she have the fortitude and faith to press on when the plan now seemed more ridiculous than righteous? Would she even question now in the cold emptiness on the night hours her very relationship with the Almighty? Or, would she take the risk of being wrong, or worse, being rejected by her intended bridegroom?

As for the Biblical story of Ruth; we know she pressed on. She quietly and humbly slipped in and lied patiently under the covering of the bridegroom's hem awaiting his approval of her actions. The night must have seemed to go on forever. Those minutes ticking away with the beating of her heart, that tick, tick, tick . . . seemed endless.

Listen to the text found in Ruth 3:7b-10a:

Then she came stealthily and uncovered his feet, and lay down. At midnight the man was startled, and turned over, and there, lying at his feet as a woman! He said, "Who are you?" And she answered, "I am Ruth, your servant; spread your cloak over your servant for you are next-of-kin." He said, May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter; this last instance of your loyalty is better than the first . . . "

Then, the true test was to come. She was wrong about her facts. Boaz was NOT her next of kin, in fact there was another . . . and even after the risk she had just taken, it could be that he, not Boaz might become her husband. She had to wait once again in the tension of the "almost," but "not yet." What would her waiting be like? Would she fret over her questions about what in the world God was doing?"  Would she resort to her past stand-by questions regarding God's love for her, His acceptance of her, or even if His promises were even true?  After all, she had been faithful . . . she took a huge risk and did what she felt called to do, and all for what? Why would God create this mess? Didn't God know the facts? Why the wait? Why this moment? Why not just a reward for faithfulness?

Unfortunately and fortunately, this is a story we can all relate to, the almost and the not yet, the yes, but wait moments of God, where we are challenged with lying under the hem of His garment, patiently and without question. But, everything seems to be so big to us. Everything is such a crisis of faith. We don't know how to just lay there without trying to wiggle out from under the very plan and covering of God that we've prayed for. Ruth waited. She had no choice, for she was an unwelcome foreigner, with no resort except to trust God. We too, are unwelcome foreigners in this land and we need to learn how to wait and trust without it being a crisis of our faith. It's a crisis of our faith, because we don't have proper perspective. If we had lived through a drought, the death and only provision of a husband, barrenness, rejection of the community of faith around you, hard, long, hours of field work in order to eat . . . we might look differently at those moments of tension between the "almost" and the "not yet." We might actually view them with potential and excitement rather than discouragement and doubt.

Would it be that we would not kick off the covers that God is working to place over us. Would it be that we would lie still, quiet and patient under the working, invisible hand of God as he prepares the garment of praise with which He desires to cover us.