Playroom of Hope

As you may or may not know my 15 month old niece Nevaeh Rae Wallace passed away April 26,2009. She was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome but had undergone 2 open heart surgeries and was doing excellent. Her heart failed her quickly and she died. She has been greatly missed.

Her parents loved her dearly and wanted to do something special in honor of the beautiful life she lived. They are trying to raise $300,000 dollars to build a playroom for sick kids to play at while they stay at Wisconsin Children's Hospital - Milwaukee. Please stop by their site: Playroom of Hope to read a fuller version of what they are doing, and about Nevaeh's life. $300,000 is a LOT of money but we are hoping and believing if people give small amounts and recruit their friends and family that they number will only continue to grow. Their cause is also located on Facebook as: Help Build a Playspace for Children. This is a great tool for you to let your friends and family know about this cause. All donations are tax deductible.

If you have your own blog, or you twitter, please consider blogging about this cause. Let's see how far social networking can get us! If you do blog, Facebook, donate and/or tweet about the cause please be sure to let me know. Each "thing" you do will get your name in my drawing for the book of the month: Waking the Dead.

Thanks for helping dreams come true,

Smorgasbord Tuesday: Refreshing Lemonade

Made Lemonade by Cote

I know I said my Smorgasbord Tuesdays were going to sit in Ephesians 4 for a few weeks (I plan on coming back to it) but this is what I needed to hear today so I decided to share this instead:

Have you ever been working hard on a hot, hot day outside? All you want after all that work is something cool and refreshing to drink. Sometimes life just gets hard. In those moments it is time to just get back to the word of God and hear what He has to say to refresh us:

Isaiah 26:12
LORD, you establish peace for us;
all that we have accomplished you have done for us.

Are you looking for peace in your life? Are you trying to accomplish something? Isn't this pretty significant ~ all that we have accomplished you have done for us. It doesn't do much good to proceed without Him then, does it?

Isaiah 26:3-4

You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.
Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.

Perfect peace? Steadfast mind? Trust in Him, the LORD, the LORD, the LORD.

Some may trust in horses, some may trust in chariots but we trust in the name of the LORD.

Isaiah 26:9 My soul yearns for you in the night;
in the morning my spirit longs for you.

Let us choose to put our trust in Him and Him alone this week. His promise back to us is that He will establish peace in our lives.

You might also enjoy reading:

Smorgasbord Tuesday: Fruit of the Spirit: Peace

Ever-present

I know several of my readers are going through a time of personal difficulty and/or loss. I wanted to share with you the Scripture God gave me last night as I was praying for you:

Psalm 46

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
Selah

The words "ever-present" really struck a cord with me. Often during times of trouble and suffering our minds immediately go to, where is God? He must not love me or care for me? Again, where is He? This Psalm answers where He is: He is ever-present. He is right there, the whole time, He doesn't miss a second. And He's not just present; he also is offering HELP. Sometimes darkness causes us to become confused. This is when and where you need to choose where you set your mind. You can accept the lies that you are alone during this time of darkness, or you can believe the truth that God is ever-present. Then, choose to lean on Him during the storm; He is there and He desires to walk with you through it.

This Psalm ends with:

Psalm 46:10-11

Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah

In your storm take time to be still and know that He is God. He is our fortress. Get into the protection that He created for us. If as Christians we were never going to go through times of storms God would not have this as one of his attributes. But storms and difficult times are a part of our life. Take advantage of the resources God has given you to get through these times.

Praying for you today,

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Smorgasbord Tuesday: Seven Layer Salad

Ephesians 4:1-6
I am in prison because I belong to the Lord.

Therefore I urge you who have been chosen

by God to live up to the life to which God called you.

Always be humble, gentle, and patient, accepting each other in love.

You are joined together with peace through the Spirit,

so make every effort to continue together in this way.

There is one body and one Spirit, and God called you to have one hope.

There is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.

There is one God and Father of everything.

He rules everything and is everywhere and is in everything.

Ephesians 4 is a powerful set of verses, so we might be here for a few Tuesdays! I am loving this section of verses because it shows a beautiful combination between faith and understanding of God and walking it out in the reality of our everyday lives.

I love how Paul starts this out: because I am in prison for the Lord do this... Don't you think we should listen to someone who is in prison for no other reason than obeying the Lord. And what does he have to say? Be sorry for me, this world is unjust, it's not worth the fight? No, he says live up to the life God has called you to!

Always be humble, gentle, and patient accepting one another in love!

I am planning on writing the above sentence out for myself this week. It is a high bar, and one I needed to be reminded of. Did you see the word at the end, LOVE. As I walk through everyday, I am becoming more and more convinced that the center is LOVE. Knowing first of all that God is love and that He loves us. Loving Him back and from that place we can launch into loving each other well.

You are joined together in peace through the Spirit,

so make every effort to remain that way.

Ephesians talks a lot about the great mystery and how we are all connected. Whether you like it or not, all of us Christians are joined together through the Holy Spirit. This verse lets us know we can stay the way God designed us to be together or not. God desires us to stay this way and this verse also lets us know it takes effort. Somehow America's version of Christianity has made it seem like everything in regard to faith will be fast & easy. But I don't think that is the case. The Bible would not have to continually remind us of how we were supposed to live, especially with one another and use words like "I urge you" and "effort" if it wasn't hard and didn't require work.

Luke 9:23

If anyone would come after me, he must deny

himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

The conclusion of this section of verses in Ephesians is the word ONE. There is one faith, one hope, one baptism, one God and Father of all. Let us live the way God wants us to live, as one with each other. As usually the best place to start working this out starts at home.

If you like this you might also like:

Smorgasbord Tuesday: The Fruit of the Spirit: LOVE

The Church

The Older You Get

Stone Cross by Svadilfari

"They" say, the older you get the less you know. I guess I'm officially getting old because I now believe and understand that statement.

We all have our nice little boxes that explain how life works and should function. Then life throws us scenarios that don't fit into one of our boxes. Now what? Do we throw away our old boxes or do we create a new box to put that scenario in?

I Peter 2:6
See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.

Currently, I am trying to get rid of all boxes and make sure that I am firmly landed upon the cornerstone, Jesus. This is the only place on which to build, the only unshakeable foundation and God's Word says, if I trust in Him I will never be put to shame.

Does every Scripture I read make sense to me? No. Do I think I understand Scripture and how it applies to life? Yes, and then circumstances come and shakes up that whole understanding. And then I'm left again saying, what am I trusting; am I trusting myself and my interpretations or am I trusting in God?

If you are looking for me in the philosophy of the mind (which translates into the philosophy of the living out life) I will be the one standing, sometimes waving my hands jumping and sometimes flat on my face on the cornerstone shaped like a cross. It's big enough for all of us, so leave your boxes and come on over.

If you like this you might also like:

When Life Doesn't Make Sense

What are You Made Of?