Dear Ones,

Over the last few days, I have taken your names with me on my walks in the storms that hover over the Pacific Northwest. With my rain jacket, my battered umbrella, and my Bogs rubber boots I am trekking through puddles and delighting in the strength of these storms.

~Delighting in the One who delights in showing us His strength in the midst of storms.

As I have walked, I have felt the weight of your sorrows. I believe that your cries for the Father to free you of burdens too great to bear have been heard. From the mother whose children won't stop bickering, to the silent ones who cannot say why, and everyone who has written to me asking that I bring them with me on my talking-to-the Father walks.

Your longing to come with me on this Way of Delight is a giant step towards taking hold of “the life that is truly life” (I Timothy 6v19), that life of abundance (John 10v10) Jesus holds out to each of us.

These words are for you~

"I will... fear no evil... for You are with me."

Psalm 23v4

I will. 

I will choose to let go of fear, to push off shame, to run free.

I will choose to fill my soul with delight.

I will choose the way of love even when I feel unloved and unlovable. Even when I don’t want to and think I can’t.

I will choose with my will fully surrendered, not allowing my wild and untamable emotions to choose for me.

I will choose. Every day. All day. This day.

I will.

I will fear no evil.

Because perfect love casts out fear— all fear.   

Fear of what people might think, fear of what someone might do, fear of rejection. Fear of failure, fear of shame, fear of aloneness. Fear of not-enoughness, fear of too-muchness, fear of powerlessness.

With my will I will choose not to fear even when my heart is beating and my hands are shaking and my body betrays me. Even then I will choose not to fear. I will be wise, alert, discerning and assertive— and free of fear. By choice.

I will fear no evil.

I will fear no evil for You are with me.

Always. Even when I cannot feel You or see You or hear You. Even to the end, especially at the end.

I will make room for Your presence to sink deep within me, breathing deeply of Your Spirit. I will make space for You in my every days so that I recognize You and turn to You on the days when evils stalk and temptation lures. I will open my eyes so I may see You. I will tune my ears so I can hear You. I will draw close so I can feel you.

And when I fail and fall back to fear, I will come to You in sorrow.  I will sit with You there, confident in Your love, without fear of condemnation, assured that Your love is greater than my fears.

I will fear no evil, for You are with me.

From a heart filled with faith in a Father whose love will never let you go,

Diane

P.S. For everyone who asks in the comments, I will add your name to my growing list of people to bring along on my walks with the Father. This brings me unbelievable delight!

(source)

repost/2012

There is a story tucked inside a bigger story that grabbed my attention this morning and just will not let go. I keep seeing me there, and some of you. Maybe a little of all of us.

And I wonder what the Father means by it.

It is a story of a people who grew up with nothingness. No houses, no pantries full of special treats, no rich memories of a place to come home to.

Their fathers had messed up badly, their moms right there with them. Even though they’d seen the miraculous, been set free from horrendous enslavement, heard the actual voice of God, still they just couldn’t… or wouldn’t believe. Not really.

And they raised a generation who watched all that. These kids saw the suffering caused by unbelief. Experienced the consequences of their parent’s faithlessness. Smelled the scent of fear that caused a generation to turn away from God.

And chose different.

When these men and women grew up they decided to follow hard after God. No compromise, full on faith-filled obedience.

Over their tent doors hung cross-stitched motivations like:

Love the LORD your God,

Walk in all His ways,

Obey His commandments,

Be faithful to Him,

And serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Joshua 22:5

And then these men and women were offered a rich land to live in. A land unlike the dessert they’d known all their lives.

Instead of tattered tents, they’d live in cozy cottages clustered within the walls of friendly villages. The women would gather each day around a well with an endless supply of fresh water. Instead of that tiresome stuff to eat each day that they’d grown up on, they would have fresh vegetables, meat, fruit, maybe even a glass of wine.

Bliss.

I can just imagine their hunger for home.

For hope.

But for a small segment of these young men and women, that hope would have to be put on hold for a while.

They had made a promise, a commitment that they dare not break. They’d seen the consequences when their own parent’s choose to renege on God.

You see, two of the twelve tribes of God-followers were assigned space on the eastern side of the Jordon River. The rest got the west.

The two tribes in minority loved the land they’d been given because it was perfect for them— rich with the grazing land their livestock needed.

But their brothers in the remaining ten tribes needed their help to clear out the western lands before they could occupy it. That meant months and months more of living in those worn out tents…

They feared God more than they feared their own raging wants and so they choose to obey no matter what.

Days and weeks and nights spent being faithful when all they wanted was to go home.

And I wonder this morning how they kept going.

Every day.

Through battles and weariness and boring weeks of waiting.

How did they do that kind of faithfulness?

How do I?

And the answer lies tucked into end the story.

Their leader, Joshua, is old now. His hair is grey, his once strong back bent.

Yet fierce words of challenge and choice boom from his mouth as he looks his people in the eye.  He doesn’t cushion his speech with niceties.

Choose today whom you will serve…

All those alluring idols their parents pursued? So easy, so satisfyingly safe, so undemanding… or

as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD! 

Without the slightest doubt, this new generation of God-followers chose-

We are determined to follow the Lord! We will serve the LORD our God. We will obey Him. Joshua 24:21,24

And they did. Every day. A whole generation

They weren’t perfect. They made mistakes. But they did it.

They chose.

From my heart,

Diane

Can you tell us how you choose? Every day? What helps, what makes it possible when all you want to do is whatever you want to do?

Because I see a whole new generation of Jesus-followers who are choosing to be faithful.

May your tribe increase!

 (source)

God has told his people, “Here is a place of rest; let the weary rest here. This is a place of quiet rest.”

Isaiah 28:12 

Remember the Sabbath…

Exodus 20:18

Fog wraps the morning in magic.  Shimmering like a woman’s gown, sheer as finest silk, it hides the world beyond the trees.

And I sit wrapped in warmth, watching the Artist create. Soaking in His beauty, soul filling with wonder.

What was it I was worried about?

All those frettings seem silly now. Petty, unimportant.

So what if I don’t get it done? Isn’t this more important? This watching, waiting, listening?

And so again this morning He speaks to me.

Hush, Di, I’m working. This is My world, not yours.

Just watch a while.

Listen in the silence.

Learn.

And so I choose rest today instead of striving, peace instead of churning, less instead of more.

I choose to notice God today. All day.

To stop all my fussing and just make space for Him in this cluttered soul of mine.To push aside the messiness of my needing to do more and allow my body and my mind and my imagination to simply stroll today.

I’ll walk through His woods, crunch leaves underfoot, breathe deeply, notice the faintest fragrance He leaves behind.

 I’ll sabbath.

From a heart needing rest,

Diane

repost: december 2013

Ruth 1v6-22

The Journey (Part Three) 

(click here to listen to the second Ruth teaching)

Verse of the Week:

“THEREFORE, SINCE WE ARE SURROUNDED BY SUCH A HUGE CROWD OF WITNESSES TO THE LIFE OF FAITH, LET US STRIP OFF EVERY WEIGHT THAT SLOWS US DOWN, ESPECIALLY THE SIN THAT SO EASILY HINDERS OUR PROGRESS. AND LET US RUN WITH ENDURANCE THE RACE THAT GOD HAS SET BEFORE US.” HEBREWS 12:1 NLT

More Words from the Father:

Colossians 3:15-24

1 Peter 3:1-9

2 Peter 1:2,3

James 5:16

Hebrews 11

From my Heart:

Today, I Choose

Ruth followed a well-worn formula to rewrite the story of her life. Simply put, she repented. To repent means to “turn around and go the other way.” And that’s just what she did when she left Moab to pursue the God of Naomi.

“…Your people shall be my people and your God, my God…”

And while we love to quote her moving lyrics during weddings, her intent was anything but romantic. Ruth decided, with all the determination of a tigress, to chase down Naomi’s God and be one of His people.

Ruth chose.

As did Peter, and Paul, and John…and Mary, and the men and women on the marquis of God’s Hall of Faith found in Hebrews 11. These are people who chose with iron-clad determination to follow God no matter the cost, regardless of their past, in simple adoration of the One.

I choose.

I choose to stop excusing my sin, and to start confessing it instead.

When I am mean and crabby and controlling, it is not really because I think no one will listen if I say it nicely.

When I am lazy and self-indulgent, it is not a sign of “normal aging.” I have simply eaten too much and exercised too little.

And when I gripe and complain, I have failed to acknowledge with a grateful heart that my King is in charge of each and every glorious day of my life.

No, this is no one else’s fault. I have allowed a virus of sin to enter my heart and take over my attitude. Much like those viruses let loose to ruin computers while they are running, my own sin is disabling my ability to be filled with the beauty and glory of the Spirit of God. And all it takes is confession and repentance…lots and lots of confession and repentance, to drive it out.

The miracle of miracles for the believing Christian is that Christ lives in me. All that He is can be mine. His kindness, His love, His patience, His goodness, His faithfulness…all that pertains to life and godliness has been “granted to us.” My identity is not in me, but in Him and who He is.

As J. Oswald Chambers wrote in My Utmost for His Highest, “Jesus Christ can put into any man who would let Him a new heredity… He can put into any man His own disposition and make him as unsullied and as simple as a child. The one marvelous secret of the holy life lies…in letting the perfections of Jesus manifest themselves in my mortal flesh… slowly and surely I begin to live a life of ineffable order and sanity and holiness.”

Today I choose to let Him.

With truth-focused eyes I choose…

to bring the desires that so relentlessly drive me…

and the sin that so easily entangles me to the foot of the Cross.

I choose.

From my heart,

Diane

ETC

Hall of Faith

Hebrews 11

“…Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen…” (vs. 1) “…By it the men of old gained approval.” (vs. 2)

Abel: Genesis 4:3, 10, Matthew 23:35, Luke 11:51

Enoch: Genesis 5:22-24

Noah: Genesis 6, 7, 8, 9

Abraham: Genesis 12-22, Romans 4:17-21

Sarah: Genesis 18:1-15, Genesis 20-23:2, 1 Peter 3

Isaac: Genesis 27:30-28:4

Jacob: Genesis 27-32

Joseph: Genesis 37-50

Moses’ parents: Exodus 2:1-1 

Moses: Exodus 2-14

Jericho: participants Joshua 6

Rahab: Joshua 2, 6:23, 25-27, James 2:25

Gideon: Judges 6-8 

Barak: Judges 4, 5

Sampson: Judges 13-16

Jephath: Judges 11, 12

David: 1, 2 Samuel - 1 Kings 2:11

Samuel: 1 Samuel 1-3

The Prophets: Isaiah-Malachi

Words

Shub

The word shub is repeated 11 times in Ruth chapter two. Ten times the translators rendered the word as return in English. Once, they used the phrase gone back (vs. 15), and another time brought me back (vs. 21). In each case, the Hebrew word is the same. The connotations of this word are weighty when we consider the redemptive theme of the book of Ruth.

Shub means to turn, to go back, to change, to reestablish, to restore. It is used over 1050 times in the Old Testament. According to one well-respected language resource, it is used overwhelmingly in the sense of repentence. It involves “man’s going beyond contrition and sorrow to a conscience decision of turning to God…and includes repudiation of all sin and affirmation of God’s total will for one’s life.”

So you see, when Ruth refused to return to her old way of life, she was in effect echoing the old and well-loved hymn,

“The world behind me, the Cross before me,

The world behind me, the Cross before me,

The world behind me, the Cross before me,

No turning back, no turning back.”

Ruth made her confession of repentence when she proclaimed to Naomi her determination to follow and know her God. She didn’t know much about Him, and she certainly didn’t have the lingo down pat, but she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that her old life was done and a new life was dawning.