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Category: Who we are in Christ / Identity of a believer

Am I Grasping the Height of God’s Love? Part 4 of 4

June 1, 2021
| 4 Comments
| Categories: Coaching Yourself, Questions, Thinking, Uncategorized, Who we are in Christ / Identity of a believer

Sometimes, fighting my own thoughts feels like climbing a mountain. There are slippery slopes, jagged, painful edges, and dangerous cliffs. Being out of my comfort zone can bring on thoughts that are not based on truth and, hence, a mountain climbing expedition! I recently found myself outside of my comfort zone and started questioning my worth and abilities. I began assuming what others were thinking of me. None of the thoughts were ones that I should’ve considered true, yet there I was thinking upon them. They felt high and unscalable as if they could weigh me down…

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The Greatest Perspective Available to Overcome Temptations

August 5, 2015
| 12 Comments
| Categories: Grace, Parenting, Renewing the Mind, Spiritual Growth, Who we are in Christ / Identity of a believer

 

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It’s been a lazy summer.  Delightful, easy, carefree and…I don’t want it to end!

 

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With a light schedule and easy days, there has been less temptation toward frustration in the home. I guess that is why I wasn’t prepared for it.

I became frustrated and angered very quickly at a situation with the kids at home yesterday. Afterward, I wondered aloud to God how it happened.  How had I…

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Our Entire Blessedness

March 24, 2015
| 42 Comments
| Categories: Who we are in Christ / Identity of a believer

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Do you ever foolishly stoop to drink from another fountain than Christ?

I do.

I feel Him calling me to turn away from my fleshly responses to life and back toward Graceland.  Trusting in Him fully in each moment.  JESUS is my entire blessedness.  Why do I wallow in the world and flesh?  I have Him…abundance…in each moment. 

But I must choose that.

How many other fountains are there?  Let me count the ways…

The fountain of control.

The fountain of anger.

The fountain of worry.

The fountain of fear.

The fountain of distrust.

The list of the fountains…

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The Beauty of Abiding in Christ

March 1, 2015
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| Categories: Who we are in Christ / Identity of a believer

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I live in wine country.  Grape vines surround this town and some, older than my grandmother, line backyard walkways and fences.  I’m familiar with their lush greenery and abundant fruit in the late summer and also their barrenness in the late winter.

Do you see beauty in these pictures of the barren grape vine?

I do too.  Maybe because I can relate to the barren grape vine due to barren seasons in my own life.

I don’t see vines failing to produce.  For if they were failing to produce, the vinedresser would…

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The Beauty of Your Freedom in Christ

February 23, 2015
| 34 Comments
| Categories: Who we are in Christ / Identity of a believer

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I woke up this Saturday morning to a fresh blanket of snow.  By mid-afternoon much of it had melted.  With warmer weather moving in, I decided to take a walk with my camera.

Just a short walk down a hill and I always come to this.  A rock wall and an overlook of the Missouri River.  A clear view of the Missouri River is hardly possible even past the rock wall.  There are railroad tracks, trains sometimes and the hillside is covered with gigantic trees with gnarly limbs sprawling across the view.  During the summer,…

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The Wonder of Christ in You

February 16, 2015
| 34 Comments
| Categories: Who we are in Christ / Identity of a believer

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Today was the day we had been waiting for all winter.

We spent twenty minutes locating hats, snow pants, the lost boot and the missing glove.  We made the trek to our backyard sledding hill (the alley behind our house). I listened intently to each crunching footstep. Last winter, snow was a regular occurrence.  Somehow, this winter, we have missed much of the snow that the rest of the nation has received.

Today was different.  Today we reveled in the snow. We lifted the shades higher and broke out the camera…

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Loving the Living Stones

February 8, 2015
| 26 Comments
| Categories: Who we are in Christ / Identity of a believer

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Sometimes that sweet steeple can have some ugly underneath it.  I think it’s safe to say it out loud.  I don’t know too many who haven’t been disappointed by something ugly that has happened in church.

There will be disappointments within the walls or under the steeples of our churches, but we are witnesses to a watching world in how we respond to those disappointments.

When I say church, I mean the place where we meet on Sundays, not the world-wide church, the body of Christ made up of every believer.

I’ve experienced the two…

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Our Truest Identity: Living Stones

February 2, 2015
| 13 Comments
| Categories: Who we are in Christ / Identity of a believer

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“As you come to Him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”               – 1 Peter 2:4-5

So often I equate the abundant Christian life to simply my personal relationship with Jesus: saying no to sin, yes to the freedom I have not to sin, turning toward Jesus…

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The Wonder of Your Life in Christ

May 7, 2014
| 8 Comments
| Categories: Encouragement, Who we are in Christ / Identity of a believer

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Do you ever wonder if you’re good enough or doing enough?

I do.

I have these thoughts quite often as I try to carry out my faith as a wife, parent, daughter, sibling, friend, parishioner and worker.  The list could go on couldn’t it?  All of the roles we take on in life.  When I think of them I get a bit overwhelmed.  Thoughts of all of the responsibilities come to me at once.  But what if simply being found in Christ and loving Him right where you’re at in your current situation…

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A Declaration of Dependence

July 4, 2013
| 8 Comments
| Categories: Encouragement, Spiritual Growth, Who we are in Christ / Identity of a believer, Yielding and Waiting

jesus feet I love my country and the people who serve and have served me…us…with their lives.  I join today with others with thanks to God for our freedoms and our nation.  We are blessed. But I can’t help to think each Fourth of July about how I feel a bit strange declaring our independence.   Is it because I think perhaps that is what is wrong with us?  More and more of us in this country and the culture of our country are declaring our independence from God.  It characterizes…

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