The Wobbles

a devotional by Debra E. Marvin

Image via WikipediaWhat do birds and house painters have in common? Your first thought might be “big white splotches”.
Doesn’t sound like a nice way to start a devotional does it?

Well, what I was going for was “balance.”

Birds line up along my utility wires, socializing, and I thought little about that skill until the day I noticed a young mourning dove’s repeated struggle to get it “just right”. Wobble, wobble. I was compelled to watch, like a crowd witnessing a high wire acrobat with comments of ‘whoa, ooh, watch it, oh no’ as the performer defies gravity.





Think of it. How do some of those big birds perch there without just spinning forward or backward on that tiny wire, and find themselves hanging upside down? I’ve lost balance and found myself spinning. Barely hanging on. What about you?

Our lives get upside down in the blink of an eye, don't they?

My mention of the house painter’s balance came not from the work of stretching to paint the eaves, but from the day I moved my longest extension ladder. Sixteen feet. It’s a bit heavy. Dragging it would be very awkward. But if I find the exact middle of the ladder? Voila! I can pick it up easily. Balance.

Balance, it seems, depends upon knowing where to hang on, what to grasp hold of . . . knowing how you center your burden, or how you center "yourself".

God promises to be with us through the valleys and the mountaintop. His word tells us
how to be concerned but not worry,
how to follow our goals without being driven by success.

We need to be content with where we are in the things we can't do anything about, but unsatisfied in those things we can. Free will, remember? Looking down at the path disappearing just ahead of our feet, but remembering to raise our head and move forward, sometimes in the dark, toward what God has for us. It’s not easy.

It's a balancing act! But it can be done.

When you get the wobbles, reach for your Bible and hang on.

Philippians 4:12-13
I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.

Psalm 91:1-2
He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust.

Would you share a verse that helped you during your last case of the wobbles?

A Simple Amish Christmas by Vannetta Chapman

by Gina Welborn

Several months back on FHL's Finish the Book writing list, Vannetta asked for influencers for her first Amish romance. I sent her a note congratulating her, while adding "not me!"

Being the optimistic gal she is, Vannetta said, "Take a chance and read it."

Several exchanges ensued vaguely similar to "no," "yes, trust me, you'll like it," "I won't, and you're insane," "seriously, you will," "uggh, what part of 'I don't like Amish stories don't you understand,'" "just read it," and "grr, okay, but I won't like it."

Vannetta did the crazy thing and sent this Amish-book-disliker a copy.

My first thought, "Cute cover, but I still won't like it."

My second thought, "Egad! I'm gonna have to find something nice to say about it because I agreed to endorse it (despite Vannetta's e-arm-twisting)."

Well, I read page one. Hmm. Not bad. But I didn't have time to read the book at that moment; thus, I set it aside.

Cherry Crest Farms
click HERE to visit

For our family vacation this year, we took the kids to Lancaster, PN, to visit our non-Amish friends, the Connells. (Actually, all are friends are non-Amish, or as my oldest son says "nomish." Not that we aren't open to having Amish friends.)  On day one of vacation, we went to Cherry Crest Farms...while, along the way, hubby sated his fascination with taking pictures of all the Amish folk.

"They're not animals in the zoo," I said in hopes he'd stop. He didn't.

Despite my uneasiness with his picture-taking, here's one that I'm glad he took:

Yes, that Amish chicka is wearing transition lenses. And she doesn't look too happy with the dude driving the buggy. Hubby and I then had a debate about their "story."

Courting? Or irritated siblings?

Hubby finally said, "They're probably supposed to look somber all the time. An Amish thing."

What?! Oh please.

No, I insisted the girl was vexed at the guy...and he's not too happy about it. Or her.

Next came several buggies with couples laughing or just looking like they're having a lovely time being together. One buggy had a chicka sitting in the doorlesss opening...and resting her leg--HER BARE LEG BECAUSE SHE'D HIKED UP HER SKIRT--on the front wheel beam.

"Did I just see that Amish chicka's naked leg?" I asked hubby.

"Yep."

I wish he'd have taken a picture. Get this. The next day, we saw an Amish chicka (maybe late teens, early 20s) smoking a cigarette. Oh yes, we did!

I felt like God said, "Gina, you've had this narrowed-view of the Amish. Lemme shatter it." Ouch! I'm glad He did because I'd brought Vannetta's book with me to read on the way home from Lancaster.

Annie Weaver always planned to return home, but the 20-year old RN has lived in Philadelphia for three years now. As her time of rumschpringe is about to come to an abrupt end, bringing for Annie an overwhelming sense of loneliness. She returns home and finds herself face-to-face with a budding romance with an Amish farmer and Annie has several important choices to make.

Took me barely two hours to read the book. And I didn't skim a single page. That's a big deal right there because I freely admit I'm a skimmer. I figure it's an author's responsibility to include passages to sate my bad habit.

Only Vannetta didn't get the memo. (Neither did Laurie Alice Eakes in her Avalon historical, When the Snow Flies, but that's a review for another day.)

I liked A Simple Amish Christmas.
Didn't think I would back before Vannetta sent it to me.
Don't have to find something nice to say.

Because it was a sweet, satisfying romance.

One of the things Vannetta does well as an writer is layering in emotion of all her characters, not just her leads. That's key because in other Amish romances I've read, I never sensed much physical attraction (okay, emotion) between the hero and heroine. Annie and Samuel had a physical, emotional, and spiritual connection. Nice! That's what I want to read in an inspirational romance. In fact, I'd like to read a non-Amish romance by Vannetta to see how she handles the sexual tension without the uber-conservative Amish parameters.

I've been reading The Moral Premise by Dr. Stanley Williams. Great book for novelists and screenwriters. Has Vannetta read it? I don't know, but in her story is a line that sums up the moral premise of A Simple Amish Christmas.

"Love doesn't take time, dear. It takes giving of yourself."

Of course, the novel is a wonderful demonstration of living a life of grace.

I encourage you to read Vannetta's debut release and see how she applies the moral premise throughtout her stories and through her leads and several secondries.

A Simple Amish Christmas is an October 2010 Abingdon Press release. The more Abingdon novels I read, the more impressed I am with the variety (and quality) of novels they're putting out. To learn more about Abingdon, click HERE.

A Simple Amish Christmas
by Vannetta Chapman
ISBN-13: 978-1-4267-1066-7
Softcover
Copyright 2010
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Releases in October, 2010
Visit your local bookstore...or find it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, Christian Book, and Lifeway.

Gifts from a Jar

by Gina Welborn

Cardamom and Browned Butter cookies
Click HERE for the recipe!

Two school-years ago, I had this grand idea to send my four school-age kids’ teachers a home-made goodie each month. Three elementary teachers, seven high school teachers.

My oldest son’s teachers were shocked that a student would bring them a goodie (mini pecan pies that you can click HERE for the recipe) on the first week of school, so his action made quite an impression.

Sadly the boy decided taking baked-goods to school was rather embarrassing. Uggh. High schoolers.

His teachers only benefited one month.

However my other kids’ teachers fared much better. And we had such a fun time baking for them. (And sampling what we baked.)

This year I’m gonna do some jar gifting thanks to a yard-sale $1 find of which I talked the gal down to 50c (my motto that day was "offer 1/2 of asking price"). The find? An excellent gift book called...

wait for it...

Gifts from a Jar: Cookies and Muffins

You saw that coming a mile away. LOL.

Get this, it has the main recipe on a page then two other pages with “tags” for six gifts. The concept, if you aren’t familiar, is layering the ingredients in the jar. I've received gifts from a jar in the past, but have never given any myself.

Let's say we want to make Rocky Road Brownies Mix. (And we do!)

So we begin with pouring in layers in a jar (Mason or reused Paul Newman spaghetti sauce one that we've thoroughly cleaned and sanitized)…

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• ¼ cup coarsely chopped walnuts
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa power
• 1 cup miniature marshmellows (place in plastic baggie, seal, and add as final layer)

Put on lid, tighten. Cover the top of the jar with cute fabric and attach the gift tag recipe with raffia or ribbon. Granted the gift receiver will still have to add to the ingredients items (in this example, butter, buttermilk, egg, and vanilla) to complete the recipe. But what we’ve given is only the beginning.

It's up to the gift receiver to do something--or nothing--with the gift.

Life is a gift from a jar.

As parents, we invest in our child’s life by equipping her/him with the skills, education, and moral values s/he needs. But it’s up to our child to decide what s/he’s gonna do with those “gifts.” Sit on the shelf and expire? Or use the for what they were created for, by adding to them items that will help create a yummy, gooey batch of Rocky Road brownies. Metaphorically speaking.

God did the same for us. Only His gift was full and complete. Still it’s up to us to decide what we’re going to do with it. Add to it? Let it sit on the shelf?

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
~ 2 Corinthians 4:7 (NIV)

What this treasure? The Gospel of Christ. That we can find freedom and forgiveness from our sin and have an abundant life. In Jesus. Though Jesus. Because of Jesus.

According to Merriam-Webster, abundant means, "1: a : marked by great plenty (as of resources),  b : amply supplied : abounding, and 2: occurring in abundance : ample."

Plentiful. Bounteous. Cornucopian. Galore. Generous. Plenty.

Overflowing.

Can you--can anyone around you--look at your life and say that Jesus is overflowing in your life?

Or would people say you've put a lid on and decorated it with an In-the-World-Not-of-the-World-so-I'm-not-getting-involved swatch of fabric?

God filled our jars with freedom and forgiveness and the added a dash or tablespoon of spiritual gifts. Let's take the lids off our jars so that we can give of our overflow. Kinda like Amish Friendship Bread. (Click HERE for the AFB recipe and to learn more about it.)

I think God also wants us to add to the ingredients in our jars. I'm not saying we add to our salvation so we're more saved or to ensure we stay saved. Salvation is a gift from God, not of works so that no one could boast about his/her goodness.

No, I'm talking add to who we've become so we can become more.

Overflow.

How do we do that? The easiest answer is "read your Bible daily and spend time talking to God; get to know Him." Amen!

Beyond that, what about doing a Bible study? The church I attend offers a handful of Bible studies for women (members of the church and not) to particpate in. I'm planning on doing Precepts: Ephesians. It's heavy on homework...which I like. In the past, I've done...

Beth Moore's Breaking Free; Esther: It's Touch Being a Woman; the Patriarchs: Encountering theGod of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and To Live is Christ: the Life and Ministry of Paul

Blackaby and King's Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God

Blackaby and Blackaby's When God Speaks

Now those were all with a group of ladies. A few times the Bible study options weren't ones I was interested in taking or couldn't because of the timing. So I went to Lifeway and found studies to do on my own. No support group. Just me and God.

Cindi Wood's The Frazzled Female: Find Peace in the Midst of Daily Life

Elisa Morgan and Carol Kykendall's What Every Mom Needs: Balancing Your Life

Vicki Courtney's Get a Life: Debunking Six Myths in the Quest for Contentment

Yes, it took me three studies to finally learn the message.

Confession time: As I was looking though my stack of Bible Study books, I found two I'd bought and never done. Eeks!

Nancy Leigh De Moss's Walking in the Truth: The Companion Guide for Lies Women Believe

Alice Bass's The Creative Life: A Workbook for Unearthing the Christian Imagination

At various times in my life, my jar has felt depleted. Empty. I have nothing more to give so leave me alone. When God didn't fill me back up with a Bible study, He used books to speak to needs, flaws, and scars in my life. To bring healing.

Read Excerpt HERE

Strong Women, Soft Hearts by Paula Rinehart

Lies Women Believe by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Choices by Mary Farrar

Captivating by Stasi Eldredge

Intimate Issues by Linda Dillow and Lorraine Pintus

The Great Work of the Gospel by John Ensor

Fathered by God by John Eldredge

Choosing to Cheat by Andy Stanley

The Air I Breathe: Worship as a Way of Life by Louie Giglio

God created us to be vessels though which He accomplishes His work. But we will have nothing to give others if we don't have anything in our jars...or if we put the lid on...or if we take the gift we've been given and let it sit on a shelf to expire.

You are a jar. Lemme say that louder.

You. Are. A. Jar.

Take time to be filled.

Becuase you were made to be filled.

Because God wants you to overflow.

So you can be a gift to others. So you can fill others.

Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. --Matthew 7:7 (NLT)

Serious Question of the Day: Like doing Bible Studies? If so, name a favorite one and a life-changing truth God taught you through the study. How is your life changed?


Quasi-serious Question of the Day: Got any inexpensive gift ideas for this holiday season?


Non-serious Question of the Day: I'm making lined-fabric sandwich wraps for my kids' school lunches. If I made baggies, should I attach velcro to seal them closed or sew on tie strings?

Which Neighbors?

by Niki Turner

Quick... who are your neighbors?

It's one of the very first lessons taught in social studies, and it's a frequent theme on children's programming.

It's also one of the lessons we seem to be very quick to forget as Christians. We spend most of our time safely ensconced in our cozy churches with those who think and believe as we do. We're generally surrounded by our tidy suburban neighbors in our well-designed communities. And we remain immune to the homeless man with the "will work for food" sign at the intersection by keeping our eyes fixed on the light, our windows up, and the music on.

We're pretty darn choosy about who we designate as "neighbors." But what should our according-to-the-Bible definition of a neighbor be? I decided to look in Vine's Expository Dictionary for a Biblical, New Testament definition. After all, how am I going to keep the second most important commandment given by Jesus, "love your neighbor as yourself" if I don't even know what He meant by neighbor? 

The first word is geiton. It means "one living in the same land."

The second word used is perioikos, defined "dwelling around."

And finally, the third word: plesion. "The (one) near."

That's all pretty straightforward, right?

I thought so... until I kept reading. 

This and Nos. 1 and 2 have a wider range of meaning than that of the Eng. word "neighbor." There were no farmhouses scattered over the agricultural areas of Palestine; the populations, gathered in villages, went to and fro to their toil. Hence domestic life was touched at every point by a wide circle of neighborhood. The terms for neighbor were therefore of a very comprehensive scope.

(from Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright (c)1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers)

This comprehensive term is seen most clearly in the story of the good Samaritan. Have you read it lately?

The Good Samaritan by Van Gogh

One day an expert on Moses' laws came to test Jesus' orthodoxy by asking him this question: Teacher, what does a man need to do to live forever in heaven?"

Jesus replied, "What does Moses' law say about it?"

"It says," he replied, "that you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. And you must love your neighbor just as much as you love yourself."

 "Right!" Jesus told him. "Do this and you shall live!"

The man wanted to justify (his lack of love for some kinds of people), so he asked, "Which neighbors?"

 Jesus replied with an illustration: "A Jew going on a trip from Jerusalem to Jericho was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes and money, and beat him up and left him lying half dead beside the road.

"By chance a Jewish priest came along; and when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Jewish Temple-assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but then went on.

 "But a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw him, he felt deep pity. Kneeling beside him the Samaritan soothed his wounds with medicine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his donkey and walked along beside him till they came to an inn, where he nursed him through the night. 

The next day he handed the innkeeper two twenty-dollar bills and told him to take care of the man. 'If his bill runs higher than that,' he said, 'I'll pay the difference the next time I am here.'

 "Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the bandits' victim?"

 The man replied, "The one who showed him some pity."

Then Jesus said, "Yes, now go and do the same."

(Luke 10:25-37 TLB)

Which neighbors? Did you catch that little comment about the scholar's reason for asking the question? He didn't WANT to love certain people. Maybe he hated his mother-in-law and was hoping family members would be excluded from the definition of neighbor. Maybe he was more prejudiced against the Samaritans than most (the Hebrews despised the Samaritans). Perhaps he was ethnocentric about Israel (since it is God's chosen country and people group). Whatever it was, this dude wanted Jesus to give him an "out," a way to justify his hard heart.

Ouch. I'm stepping all over my own toes. Don't we do the same thing he did? We withhold our pity, our compassion, our mercy and give ourselves holy, righteous reasons to justify our cold hearts. The bum on the corner with the cardboard sign doesn't earn our pity because he's probably an alcoholic. The AIDS victims in Africa doesn't get our sympathy because they probably contracted the disease through prostitution. The immigrants from Mexico trying to escape a country ridden with violence and corruption don't have our compassion because, after all, they've entered illegally!

The word translated "pity" in the Living Bible is the word "compassion." You know all those places in the Gospels where it says Jesus was "moved with compassion," followed immediately by Him healing, or teaching, or ministering to, or delivering someone from something? Same word. It's the feeling you get when something turns you inside out emotionally, when your heart is splattered naked all over your sleeve, when you can't help yourself from responding. It's a word that requires - nay, demands - some sort of physical action, not merely a thought or a casual word!

I've got to work on this. I've got to start seeking ways to love my neighbors with actions that demonstrate my faith in God, and His love for them.

How about you?