The Nut House Residents

Welcome to this week's a 2 z
and the letter

N. If you're joining in the meme, be sure to link up with us at the end of this post. Find more info about the a 2 z meme here.

Residents of The Nut House...

My husband and younger boys.

My daughters.

Me and Toby.

Below is my oldest, playing with one of his toys.

Yup. That's all of us.
Some of us in our normal state and
some of us in our goofiness
and for some of us, goofiness is our normal state.

Not that I would ever mention any names...
but a picture is worth a thousand words.
hehe.


If you're joining us for the a2z meme by posting on your blog this week about the letter N, be sure to add your name and the link to that particular post in the linky gadget here.

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Soul Quenching

The study on James will return and finish--just couldn't pull my focus together this week in the midst of everything...

The other night I didn't get Gracie, my dog, tied up when I should have and when I went out for her, she was nowhere to be found. Not only that, but she was silent, which told me my Great Pyrennes was playing possum. So, being the well trained master that I am, I grabbed her evening dog biscuit and leash, and took off for the orchard—one of her favorite haunts.

The moon hadn't come up yet and it was dark out, really dark. An amazing thing happened. The further I got away from the house and the big yard light we have, the more I could see the stars. It wasn't nearly as dark as I originally thought it was. In fact, I could see a lot with just the starlight. And not just that, things had a beauty they don't have in the sunlight.

I stopped calling for Gracie and simply stood still in the middle of the orchard. The gentle breeze blew through me just as surely as it blew through the orchard and it carried off much of the stress and strain of the day with it. I was left with the crisp freshness in my mind and soul. I didn't worry about my dog playing possum, I didn't worry about my kids' mouths or my frustration over accomplishing nothing that day. I just stood and looked up at the stars and the then at the silent orchard in the starlight. The starlight lit up the hillside, allowing me to see it in a way I don't often get to.

In the silence I could hear the whisper of the breeze and the rustle of the winter-dried grass. It was in that silence that I could finally hear my soul sigh. I didn't mind the cold, for once, I just wanted to linger and soak up the starlit silence. I wonder if that's a small glimpse of how Jesus felt when He went to a lonely place by Himself to pray.

When I was in my yard I had missed the beauty of the night because there were so many lights all around me, but when I withdrew to a hillside by myself, I found beauty, refreshment and peace. A deep, quenching peace that wrapped around me, filled me and assured me that, in the end, all would be well. God is sovereign and He loves me with an everlasting love.

And to think that I would've missed those moments with God if I had just stayed in my yard and hollered for Gracie, as I've often done. It was worth the quarter mile trek in the dark. I didn't find Gracie out there, but I found grace. Out away from the lights and noise of my yard, I found God waiting for me in a soul quenching, starlit silence.

But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray. Luke 5:16

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Mortified

Welcome to this week's a 2 z
and the letter

M. If you're joining in the meme, be sure to link up with us at the end of this post. Find more info about the a 2 z meme here.

I cannot believe it's Tuesday and I don't have a post! I was working on my manuscript and missed Monday because I missed Sunday due to this cold I have.

I'll be back with a post after awhile...Mom duty calls and we are running in to get my younger daughter her license...

If you're joining us for the a2z meme by posting on your blog this week about the letter M, be sure to add your name and the link to that particular post in the linky gadget here.

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A Worthwhile Exchange

Today is supposed to be a post on James 3:1-12 but it's not happening and I'm okay with that. See, I made an exchange...

For my parent's 35th wedding anniversary, my sister made an awesome album chronicling their lives and we had letters from their close friends over the years, with their pictures. Very special letters from special friends. The albums have been missing for several years. They weren't at my parent's house in Arizona, they weren't at either of my sisters' homes and we couldn't find them here either.

These albums are very special to Mom and Dad and it's been bothering them that they couldn't be found. Really bothering them. So when Mom asked if I would check my shed, inside their dresser drawers, I went as soon as I could find enough time to take on the shed.

Today. (meaning Thursday)

The albums weren't in the drawers but I didn't stop there. I searched through everything they still have in the shed and finally found them.

In the last chest.
At the bottom of the stack.

I was looking for one white album but found three. None of them white, LoL, but very much the album(s) we've searched for many, many times, in three states.

God is so good.

Dad's battle against the bone cancer is...well, it's not pretty. It's so hard. As I write this, he's in ICU with a new filter in his abdomen to catch the blood clots in his lungs. They weren't able to get all of the clot in his leg.

I don't know what's around this corner, but I do know the ending: Dad wins. He gets to go to Heaven. He'll be running and leaping and praising God.

So, I made an exchange today--the anniversary albums for a James post.

It was the right decision.

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A Year for Learning

Welcome to this week's a 2 z
and the letter L. If you're joining in the meme, be sure to link up with us at the end of this post. Find more info about the a 2 z meme here.

This has been a year full of learning for me. Learning from some very unexpected places...

Our garden. I was out-voted 6 to 1 and we had a large garden that did well, despite the drought. I learned many lessons from this garden I didn't want.

One was how much I had forgotten about canning. LoL.

Canning was another lesson all its own... one that's not done yet.

Then I was able to visit my sister in Puerto Rico... Wonderful discoveries turned into lessons--object lessons, the kind I remember longer. Sea glassing was one. Blue glass has always been my favorite and each little piece I was able to find and hold onto is special.

And shell hunting was another learning time for me. What a treasure to find the beach loaded with Sea Urchins.  These things have long fascinated me, and to find them, whole, on the beach amazed me. What amazed me even more was how they came to be on the beach, and then their wholeness, in spite of it all, amazed me even more. Yes, what I learned is a post all its own...




And this fella has taught me many things. I'm constantly learning him.

After 30+ years of wearing glasses, I went a week without them (hence no glasses in the pic above) because a wave taught me yet another lesson when it crept up on me and stole my glasses. Really made me feel silly because I KNOW how waves are prone to do that, even when you're only in up to your calves. It was another lesson I learned while sea glassing.

So tell me, what are some things that you've learned from this year?

If you're joining us for the a2z meme by posting on your blog this week about the letter L, be sure to add your name and the link to that particular post in the linky gadget here.

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Real Faith...In Action - James 2:14-26

Faith and works go together like brownies and ice cream, but is one any good without the other? James launches us into this passage with two important questions:

• What use is it if someone says he has faith but has no works?
• Can that faith save him?

Paul clearly says in Ephesians 2:8-9 that it's by grace we're saved, through faith, not works—so where and how does all this fit together?

Real faith is more than accepting head knowledge and spouting words.

James is about to show us the difference between real faith and false faith, and what he says fits together beautifully with Paul's teaching on faith and works, contrary to what Martin Luther thought. Luther took exception to the book of James being canonized (included in the Bible) because he could not see how James' view of works fit with being saved by grace alone. Thankfully, as we dig in, we see that both men, Paul and James, mean the same thing even though they use different terms to explain things.

The first example James gives us is building on what he just spoke about at the beginning of the chapter—how the poor are treated. A person with false faith will offer nice sounding words when authentic action is needed. The Message version of this passage put it so well... “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?

James tells us right out that faith without works is dead faith (vs 18). Real faith will step forward and do more than offer flimsy words. Their faith will show up as good works, works that flow out of their faith and love for God. It's the deeds that show the difference between dead faith and real faith. Just like a body can be dead or alive and still be called a body, so faith can be dead or alive and still be called faith.

Real faith is more than just submitting to God's power.

Even the demons have faith in God! They acknowledge His deity and the Sonship of Jesus. They know He is real and they even obey Him, but they are not saved! They refused to submit their wills and live for Christ.

The man with dead faith was touched only in his intellect, but the demons are touched also in their emotions. They believe and tremble. … A person can be enlightened in his mind and even stirred in his heart and be lost forever. True saving faith involves something more, something that can be seen and recognized: a changed life. ~Warren Wiersbe

James uses a play on words to make his point memorable...
Faith without works doesn't work.

Real faith results in a changed life.

James gives us examples from two very different people: Abraham and Rahab. Two more different people couldn't have been picked. Abraham was the father of the the nation of Israel, a righteous man, and known as the friend of God. Rahab was a gentile woman living in Jericho. A prostitute and far from righteous, an enemy of God.

Since true saving faith leads to action, let's take a look at the action that James points out...
Abraham was justified before God by faith, and by works he was justified before men and his righteousness was demonstrated. His faith was demonstrated in his everyday life.

Rahab heard, accepted, believed and she did something about it. Rahab surrendered herself to God. The result of that surrender is seen in what she did for the spies and the whole nation of Israel. The truth changed her life and her changed life translated into salvation for her family as they saw and also believed. Her action flowed out of her authentic faith.

That's what James is talking about. Action—works and deeds—will flow naturally out of a life changed by faith in the One true God.

...faith that does not impel the believer to good deeds is no living faith at all. ...when our hearts are changed, so then are our desires and actions. ~David P. Nystrom

Real faith involves a changed life which is something that can be easily spotted.

That leads us to some hard questions about our own faith.

• Is my faith saving faith?
• Has my faith changed my life?
• Would my faith fall into the dead faith category or is it like the faith of the demons—acknowledging and submitting to God's deity but not surrendered to God?
• Or, is my life bearing the genuine fruit of authentic faith? Faith that is active.

Digging Deeper

• Fit Galatians 6:10 and Matthew 25:40 into faith and works.
• Study Luke 3:7-14 and Matthew 7:15-23. What do these passages have to say about works and faith?
• For Abraham's story, read Genesis 15 and 22. Rahab's story is found in Joshua 2 and 6 and Hebrews 11:31.

Let's Chat...

• What does Paul say about this deal between faith and works in Ephesians 2:8-10 and how does it fit?
• How do James 2:19 and Deuteronomy 6:4 tie together?
•  What do Abraham and Rahab have in common?

For next week:
Read James 3:1-12 several times.

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Knickknack or Ebenezer?

Welcome to this week's a 2 z
and the letter K. If you're joining in the meme, be sure to link up with us at the end of this post. Find more info about the a 2 z meme here.

On one of my parent's bi-annual treks to visit us, they commented on the rocks I have scattered around the inside my house. It's a family thing that I came by through my dad's mother, whose window sills were full of interesting rocks, and it's something I share with at least one of my sisters. I don't know if my grandmother had stories to go with her rocks, but I do.

There's more to the knickknacks in my house than just being cute little things to collect dust, or even just interesting rocks.They're Ebenezers.

Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” ~1 Samuel 7:12 NAS

My window sill and desk shelf hold a strange variety of things, and most of them have special significance to me. They remind me of things in my life that I want, and need, to remember. Special things God has done for me. Not only do I need the physical reminder, but they're object lessons for my family.

Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, “What do these stones mean to you?” then you shall say to them, “Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord...” So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever. (Joshua 4:6-7, NAS)

Every now and then one of the kids will ask about a knickknack I have and it's a perfect opportunity for me to tell them about what it reminds me of. They hear the story of what God has done in my life, and that makes it more than a cute moose sitting on my shelf.

When my parents sold their home 10 years ago, my older sister and I were envious of our younger sister who brought home a silly little frog that sat on our mom's shelf for years. It surprised Mom that we all loved that frog, but it was such a good lesson for me, one I remember every time I go to my younger sister's home and see the frog on her kitchen window sill. It's something we can capitalize on as mothers.

Do you have a shadow box or shelf? How about just a window sill you can use? Turn it into a special Ebenezer shelf and work together, as a family, to fill it with physical reminders of what God has done for you. Not only will the children love it, but it's something they'll remember long after they've grown and left the house. Even if they don't carry the knick-knack with them to their own homes, they will carry the story with them.

Don't collect just knickknacks, collect Ebenezers.


If you're joining us for the a2z meme by posting on your blog this week about the letter K, be sure to add your name and the link to that particular post in the linky gadget here.

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