I Love the Law {February, the Month of Love}

(My foyer vignette, with tiny original art)

I love the law more than any legalista. I love the law more than any woman who is convinced that she is "more blessed" if and when she keeps the law - whether that be Jewish ceremonial/celebratory laws, or the law etched in stone...I love the law more than even she.

Far more, in point of fact.

Legalists (and their legalista counterparts) do not truly love the law...they love their's and everyone else's perceived performance of it. If a legalist really loved the law, they would study harder in order to use it lawfully.

The old covenant is cancelled. The new has come. The law is to be used as a schoolmaster, to point inexorably to Christ.

No other use for it. None. It is no longer a source or conduit or channel of blessing.

Anyone who thinks that they are blessed to any degree by keeping the law has not studied the law in all its exacting and fierce force. The standard is a perfect standard, and only One has ever fulfilled the law....Christ.

All God's promises are "yes and amen" if you are in Christ. All God's promises are "no and maybe" in the law.

You choose. I choose Jesus.

I love the law for what it reveals to me of Grace. I may be the only person you know who has read the curses of the law (that must come upon your life if you seek to be justified by the law in any way) and wept with joy and excitement and passion.

Because of Christ, my experience in this life is one big fat "instead".

Blessing instead of cursing.
Instead of the thorn tree, up comes the myrtle tree...in full bloom. (Is. 55)
Instead of ashes...beauty.
Instead of sadness...the oil of joy.
Instead of broken relationships...restoration.

Not one curse can touch my life, because I have died to the law and am "married" to the Gospel...married to Christ. All that is His, is also mine.

Especially His righteousness. His righteousness belongs to me, as sheer gift.

Using the law lawfully has led me to utter fullness in Christ.

Written for you with love...
Sheila Atchley

All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...

"I Love...The Church" {February, The Month of Love}

In celebration of this "month of love", why not begin a short series titled, "I Love..."

Pretty open ended.  I like it.  I could go anywhere with this...

...but I will begin with the church.  I.  Love.  The.  Church.  Not just Harvest Church, where my husband is senior pastor - but THE church.  The bride of Christ.  The called-out, chosen ones.  The family of God, the people of God. 

I love the organized church. 
I love the disorganized church.
I love home churches.
I ~love~ small churches.
I love big churches.
I love mega churches.
I love interesting church buildings.
I love church history.
I love all things church.

So, I'm pretty much a church chick.  If you are not part of...and I do mean part of...a local church, I strongly suspect, nay am convinced that you are missing out on one of the biggest, most wonderful, most tedious, most awesome, most wrenching, most indescribably sweet blessings this side of heaven.  You likely think you are blessed without the local church - but that's only because you think the level of blessing you have experienced is all there is.

There is more.

Like...way, way more.

Yeah, it comes at a price.  Most worthwhile things do. 

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

AND THE WINNER IS...{Edie Wadsworth's 31 Days to a Heart of Hospitality E-Book Giveaway}

First of all, a HUGE "thank you" to sweet Edie for generously sharing two of her e-books with my readers/followers/friends.  Thank you so much!

Using www.random.org's number generator, we have winner number one:


True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:19
Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Congratulations, Hayley!!

...and now, the second winner, again using random.org's number generator is:

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:6

Congratulations, Sandi Holman!!

 Now, if you will both kindly contact me with your email addresses, I will get you your free download! Now, for the rest of us who didn't win...Edie's e-book is only $5, and so well worth that price. You can still obtain it via her blog www.lifeingraceblog.com.

And...stay tuned...because next week...sometime...I will be hosting a BIG, WONDERFUL giveaway, featuring my small-business-mentor-and-friend Jeanne Oliver!

Original Art For Sale

She's finished...beautifully framed...and for sale in my shop

Written for you with love...

Sheila Atchley

All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...

Hospitality {an e-book GIVEAWAY}

Edie Wadsworth, of  Life in Grace has graciously donated TWO downloads of her e-book to TWO Sheila Atchley Designs/Season of Harvest readers!

::cheers, confetti::

For those of you who don't know Edie (which is hard for me to believe...) she has an amazing, amazing story.  One that is still being written.  First of all, her thoughts and theology on grace are right in line with everything The Preacher and I have written/blogged/spoken about for years...the same message of radical grace that I have fought, and even little pieces of me have died for.  I will never leave the subject of grace alone.

Rest assured.  Ever.  Right along with Edie, I am "living a dream I have not earned and do not deserve."  (That was Edie's original blog tag line)

She left a career as a physician to go home, and home educate her children.  That alone makes her as interesting as all get-out, in my book.  She blogs about this part of her life, too.

She lost ~everything~ in a terrible house fire about two years ago...she, her children, and her physician husband Stevie have since rebuilt their home and their life - a life centered around hospitality.

And, this past summer, Better Homes and Gardens featured her home in their magazine!  I swear, I was as thrilled for her as if it was me gracing the pages!  Her home is lovely...so...so Edie.  Quirky.  Different.  Beautiful.

Edie recently blogged about hospitality for 31 days straight, this past October.  (I have yet to scrounge up the courage to take that "October 31 Days Of _______" blogging challenge...kudos, Edie!)  It.  Was.  Wonderful.  Truly, I read every word, every day.  And her tomato soup is to die for.  It has blue cheese, honey, and hot sauce in it, and it changed my life.

In a manner of speaking.

I want to keep this giveaway simple.  If you would love a FREE copy of Edie's E-book (which is such fun to say, twenty times, as fast as you can..."Edie's E-book. Edie's E-book, Ed....never mind)  please simply:

1.  Leave a comment

That's it.  

If you tweet or Facebook about this giveaway, come back and leave an extra comment and let me know.  I will count you twice.  Or thrice.

If you become a follower of my blog, that's another chance to win.

So you have anywhere between one and four or so chances to grab yourself a free copy of this sweet book.

TWO winners to be announced on Thursday!

{A Peek Into My Digital Art Journal}

And I've been dabbling in digital art...using a free app called "53 Paper". Here is a peek into my new digital art journal:




I can't tell you how fun it is to have yet another avenue to test out ideas and color schemes, and just a place to "mess around"...without making a mess at all! I can paint in bed!

Written for you with love...
Sheila Atchley

All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...

Experiences Versus Identity - Another Post in a Series on Middle Age

There is something about turning forty-something.  You suddenly realize that the years you look back on are more in number than the years you likely have to look forward to.  You suddenly realize that in some areas of your experience, there are no do-overs.  And - I do not care who you are, or how wonderfully you think you lived -  you slowly realize you were not the daughter...or spouse...or parent...that you really, really wanted to be.

Because you filled all those roles the only way sinners know how - imperfectly, at best.

Suddenly, you have accumulated a cache of very, very painful experiences.  What to do with the pain?

I have a friend, a dear friend, who came to the devastating realization that a grown child had slid into unimaginable, deviant sin.  With all I have personally been through with my sons, what this friend discovered made me feel like I'd raised angels.

Regret.  Even though none of it was her fault, the instinctive reaction was searing guilt.  Don't we all feel it?  When crisis hits one of our children, we suddenly remember every wrong, hurtful, thoughtless, weary, selfish thing we've ever done - accidentally or on purpose - in the course of our short season as mothers.  No matter how hard we  tried to do all we knew to be right...we, each and every one, fell short of the mark.

When you are twenty-something, and you fall short of the mark, you somehow think you have a few do-overs in your future.  When you are fifty-something, all you can do is remember how you wasted a good many of your do-overs.  Trust me on this.  You better tap into the grace of God, now!

If there was ever a time to identify with who God says we are - middle age is the time.

In the Biblical account of the prodigal son, we call him the prodigal son, but he was really simply a son.  We even sometimes refer to the father as the "Father of the Prodigal", but he was really a dad like any other dad.

Sometimes our perspectives are so skewed by our mistakes, our sin, and our devastating experiences, as to entirely misplace our identity.  The "adulterous woman" was someone other than that to Jesus - just as a sterile man named Abram and his barren wife Sarai were to God the progenitors of nations.

Having a prodigal child is a difficult...beyond difficult...human experience.  Unfortunately, it is an experience common to parents dating back to the garden of Eden.

But it is not an identity.

Being a single parent is a difficult experience - but it is not an identity.

Financial struggles are difficult - but they cannot be allowed to define you.

Losing someone you love to suicide is difficult.  The urge to identify with the event can be compelling.  The Preacher can tell you all about that - his father killed himself when he was eleven years old.  As painful as the experience was, and still is, for him, it is not a part of his identity.  He has never allowed it to be.

"If any man be in Christ, then he has become a new creation..."

No matter what we have already experienced - no matter what we will experience in the future - our true identity must not be those experiences, but rather we are to be found in the Gospel.

Dear one, your life is hid with Christ in God.  You are not "the mother of a prodigal daughter".  You are not a bankrupt human being, regardless of your bank statement.  You are not a recovering alcoholic, a grieving parent, the child of an abusive parent, or even a cancer survivor.  You may be experiencing one (or more!) of those events - painful beyond description, but your experiences must be kept separate from your identity, else you can never rise above the pain.

You are a much-loved daughter of a Father whose power and greatness is all surpassing - you are written into the Father's will, right alongside Christ Jesus.  If it belongs to Him, it belongs to you.

You are righteous.  You are blessed.  You are favored.  You are a delight.