My Utmost For His Highest...

Below, is one of my all-time favorite entries in the devotional "My Utmost For His Highest". It comes from May 15th, and is summarily the grace message of the Gospel, in that "we work out what God has already worked in". What happens, when you don't functionally believe (Meaning: the way you actually function, versus your mental and verbal assent) in the Finished Work? You have nothing to set your feet on...nothing to work out, save your own behavioral modification...which always turns into the modification of others' behavior...which puts relationships at risk of control and manipulation.

Every person I know, who refuses to let go of the law as even a small means of relating to God, is a person who, in many obvious ways, are at the "same miserable cross patch, set on their own way."

How can you tell? The Son is not manifested in their mortal flesh. Specifically, they do their own will (do not recognize authority), and they have no love for the brethren. Two things that characterized Christ were His refusal to do His own will. He submitted to God without debate or complaint. And oh, how He loves us.

And I love how Oswald said that God never has "museums". This speaks to the fact that "now" is the only acceptable time to respond to God. You are not who you were in years past, and you are not who you intend to be...you are who you are, right now. You better get the revelation that you are the righteousness of God in Christ, or you'll consistently revert to the same old chains of self will. A chain is a chain is a chain...just because you've developed such elaborate means to cope with it, doesn't make it not a chain. Just because you are completely accustomed to life with that chain, doesn't make it not a chain.

You can be free. You can work out what God has already worked in.

Don't stop short of full manifestation of the life of Christ. Work out what God has already, by grace through faith, worked in.

It's quite the adventure. No other way to live!



"That ye may know what is the hope of his calling..." Ephesians 1:18



Remember what you are saved for—that the Son of God might be manifested in your mortal flesh. Bend the whole energy of your powers to realize your election as a child of God; rise to the occasion every time.

You cannot do anything for your salvation, but you must do something to manifest it, you must work out what God has worked in. Are you working it out with your tongue, and your brain and your nerves? If you are still the same miserable crosspatch, set on your own way, then it is a lie to say that God has saved and sanctified you.

God is the Master Engineer, he allows the difficulties to come in order to see if you can vault over them properly—"By my God have I leaped over a wall." God will never shield you from any of the requirements of a son or daughter of his. Peter says—"Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you." Rise to the occasion; do the thing. It does not matter how it hurts as long as it gives God the chance to manifest himself in your mortal flesh.

May God not find the whine in us anymore, but may he find us full of spiritual pluck and athleticism, ready to face anything he brings. We have to exercise ourselves in order that the Son of God may be manifested in our mortal flesh. God never has museums. The only aim of the life is that the Son of God may be manifested, and all dictation to God vanishes. Our Lord never dictated to his Father, and we are not here to dictate to God; we are here to submit to his will so that he may work through us what he wants. When we realize this, he will make us broken bread and poured out wine to feed and nourish others.

What You Missed Today...

...if you were not at church with me...



A brand new Chinese believer, giving his testimony in sweet, broken English...






Going under - old life buried...


Coming back up - raised with Him, in newness of life!

Where I Was Today...

The view from my sister's deck, at her lake house...

Niece Erica and her girlfriends, all graduating seniors this weekend - about to go out on the jet ski...the pontoon boat wasn't uncovered just yet.

Flowers. Just flowers. Some might even say "weeds".

All in all, a great day. And now, back to the real world of ironing clothes for the Preacher, and prepping ingredients for Sunday morning's crock pot - so we can all come home after church happy, but hungry and a bit tired...to a hot lunch.

A whole lot of effort goes into making things effortless. A whole lot. I was glad for the brief respite today. The views at my sister's lake house heal me.

Congratulations, Justin and Hannah!

Yesterday, our son-in-love walked the stage at the arena of the University of Tennessee, to receive his Masters in Mathematics Education.

His Masters. 4.0 GPA. Top 15% of all who have ever..in history..taken the Praxis exams. While interning full time at a local high school. While working part time at a local fast food restaurant (some of the hardest work you can do, actually). While being a sleep deprived new father who (I can personally testify) would get up in the wee hours with his son at least once almost every night, while studying for his Masters, while interning, while working...you get the idea.

We are very proud.

Grace = high achievement. Grace has never been, nor will it ever be, an excuse for laziness or low achievement. In fact, a proper understanding of this doctrine (this way, truth, this life!)....a proper understanding of - an encounter with - the God of All Grace will ultimately motivate you to outwork and out-perform the performance-based. Because you care for the people God has placed in your life. And because you know you are fully accepted if you never achieved a thing. And because it isn't you, it is the grace of God - something the performers just don't (yet) have the faith to walk in.

The unlimited, abundant, abounding-to-you grace of God!

I'm so blessed to be able to say, honestly and frankly, that my family is well grounded in the grace and love of God...and every single member of my family has a well above average work ethic. We have found our identity in Christ Jesus, and a very hard day's work, to be completely compatible lifestyles. It is our understanding of who we are in Christ that enables us to do our stuff with all our might. My husband, both daughters, both sons, both sons-in-love...even the grandson will not stop working for something he wants badly enough.

He gets it from his daddy, I'm sure....





Justin, we are so intensely, crazy-proud of you! I am privileged to call you a "son".

May, May Go Away...

The month of May and I are not exactly on friendly terms. Every year, without fail, she over-schedules me. Every year, without fail, my Tourette's flairs up. (Not really...I don't have Tourette's. But I do wish I had an excuse for all the nervous twitching and the involuntary swearing.)

Not really. I don't swear. Much.

Busy is good, I know. An empty schedule equals an empty life, I have said that myself, and I believe it. The more involved you are in people's lives, the more full the days become. So if busy is good, then May should be my time to shine. Just please,Lord, help me get over this head cold.

The Mother's Day weekend was so, so good here at the cottage.
This is me, the night of the Art Walk. I look like I am mugging for my own camera, but really, I was trying to figure out ISO...really.

Bumping the ISO up, but the picture gets grainy...

I quit figuring out ISO, and chose instead to snap a photo of me, rocking the Maxi Dress. Boy howdy, though, do I ever need to get the ISO thing figured out...and looks like I am having a bit of a focus issue.

A snippet of life at the cottage on Mother's Day...Isaac and his girlfriend Emily at the table, and my man making coffee...


Two of my presents - a rose bush from the youngest, and gardening boots from Sarah...

(Hannah gave me books - two on DSLR photography, and one about slipcover making. I feel about forty projects coming on, everything from planting to pictures to parson's chair slipcovers! It is going to be a busy summer.)

If only I could get over this head cold. Sorry. I know I said that once already.

I would be remiss, posting about Mother's Day, without sharing about how I became a mother to begin with...

Isn't this the cutest piece of middle aged hotness you have ever seen? I'd have his babies again tomorrow, if he asked me to.

But he won't. He is loving the season of life we are in, way too much. For that matter, I am too. This was my first Mother's Day as a grandmother, and I gotta say...

...I'm diggin' it.

Now, if I can just get over this head cold...and fast-forward the calendar to June...

Deut. 1:32

"...yet in this thing you did not believe the Lord your God..."

Our relationship with our God is always defined by the "this thing" in our lives. The "now" thing. God said these words to a people who were His unique possession, who knew Him, who had seen His mighty works, and who had won many victories...in the past.

Past obedience does not accrue in some imaginary scale, absolving us from present obedience. Faith for the past thing does not accrue, offsetting the urgency of trusting God in the "this thing".

The New Covenant magnifies the sacredness of the Now. "Now" is forever the acceptable time. We can only act into the present moment. Neither guilt regarding the past, nor good intentions regarding the future are of any worth whatsoever.

Believing God in "this thing" is altogether the issue. It is easier than you could ever imagine to believe that God moved on your behalf in years past, but is for obvious reasons less pleased with you today, and therefore less inclined to bless and deliver you.

Obey God in your "this thing". Believe and apply the grace of God in your "this thing". Is there anything too difficult for Him?

Jonathan's Downtown Art Show...and Art In My Living Room

Our son-in-love has an art show downtown this evening, so Tim and I thought it'd be a wonderful night for a stroll on the streets of Knoxville.

Jonathan makes his living full time with his art. If he were not my son by marriage, I would still tell you that his work is better than most. I am quite familiar with many, if not most of the Smoky Mountain based artists, and Jonathan's landscapes excel most of those artists' paintings. And his portraits practically breathe and speak to you. (If you have ever considered having a commissioned portrait done of someone you dearly love, Jonathan is your artist.)

Having an inside view, as I do, of the life of a full time artist, they pour their hearts and souls into the work of their hands, and they have rent to pay and they get an electricity bill each month. Their art pays the bills. I want to enthusiastically encourage you to become a patron of a Christian artist...and why not Jonathan Howe?



This is after the crowd thinned a bit...for awhile, you could not walk easily through this shop...




Jonathan had several portraits of musicians on display. The top painting, up there, is actually of my son Josiah, playing at one of his local gigs last year.




Josiah, and his beloved acoustic - it used to be his pastor-father's.

This portrait is of my daughter...Jonathan's wife Sarah.

The name of Sarah's portrait...

A grouping of Jonathan's landscapes...


Jonathan and Sarah, who are still at the show, even as I type this...

It was a fun evening for Tim and I. We are proud of both our sons in law - both highly accomplished young men, who would lay their lives down for our daughters.

Last, but far from least - you will not believe what was brought to my house today, and hung in my very own living room:

Oh yeah. A Jonathan Howe original oil painting. Huge. Sofa-sized. Look at that moody sky, and those colors! I know this exact spot, too...I recognized it instantly. My beloved Smokies, from the vantage point of an overlook on Rich Mountain road, in Cades Cove.

Happy Mother's Day to me, for so many, many reasons...I'm blessed. Living a dream I have not earned and do not deserve.

Abundant grace is mine.