Uncompromising love!

I got to hear Steven Curtis Chapman on Dr. Dobson's program today. It was a comforting broadcast, even entitled, The God of ALL Comfort. Steven emphasized that the Bible states that God is the God of all comfort and that that truth has helped his family cope with their grief. He also said that he was not angry at God, but angry at the enemy of God. I could totally relate to that point. As Satan has almost kept at an attacking stance on me and Zach and lately David, it has been apparent to me that the enemy is wanting to work overtime right now to attack the people who have been most open to doing things for God and to pouring His truth into the lives of those around them. Satan is attacking and we need to attack back. We need to have an uncompromising love that says, "Not my marriage Satan, and not my children Satan". This is a time of heated up battle in the spiritual realm, and the Lord has called us to not faint or grow weary, but to believe and fight the good fight with the armour of God. The battle is the Lord's but we must be dilligent in our prayer life and in standing firm with our family and friends in prayer. I am reminded today that God's love is not changed or shaken because of great tragedy or Satan's attacks. God's love is unshakable and we are vessels the Father's love is to flow through. So, today God, in honor of Maria Sue, and my wonderful gifts David, Zachary, and Andrew, I offer myself as a living sacrifice and state that your love can flow through me in spite of what is happening in the physical realm, and that I will not be shaken if I hold firm to your word, your voice and your people and your songs! Thank you that the TRUTH will set you free and that what Satan has meant for evil, you will use for good. Alleluia to the Lord! He is mighty to save. All will bow to Him one day, and He is the Lord of Hosts! Let my love not be compromised because of people who let me down or hurt me. Let me love as Jesus loved, unconditionally and fully! Love covers a lot of sins and it draws all to the Father, the author of love! Jesus we praise you!~ We lift up your name! We know that Maria Sue is dancing in heaven, and we look forward to the day we can all dance with you! Thanks for the ministry of the Chapman family! Bless them today and pour out your perfect peace on their hearts and their homes. Fill that home with a joy unspeakable, because you are able and because you care about their hearts. Let not their hearts be troubled, as they claim that they believe in you and that you have OVERCOME the world! Praise be to the one true God. His love can comfort anyone in any situation! Thank you Lord for your sacrifice and your saving us! Help us to keep sharing your love with the world! Maria Sue, you are not forgotten, but I think many will come to know your dad's music who never would have, except for the news that your passing to heaven brought to the world. May many souls be saved and Satan paralyzed in his attempt to bring down the Chapman's ministry. Bring reconcilation Lord and healing! Love, L

love one another and you will see a new light shining

This was a song my church sang when I was very young. The end of the chorus was "a new light shining in thee." God always calls us to do the opposite of what seems right to our flesh. Loving our spouse in times when they are stressed and maybe not very loving to us, can get a new light shining within us. So many times we don't choose to show love in the face of stress, but when we finally do, we are surprised that we are the ones who are uplifted and encouraged. Showing and giving love are always the keys to the greatest joy. Take shopping, for instance, I can love to shop with the best of them, but not even an awesome day shopping for myself compares a bit to the feeling of giving a gift to someone else. To go further, nothing brings more joy than to give a gift in secret. One year I gave some gift cards to people I knew needed to have money at the holidays or in the summer for clothing for their kids. The cards were sent anonymously from the retailer, and I had such joy knowing that they would open their Secret Santa card and not know who listened to the Father's prompting to give. Do we really get the verse that says, "Give and it will be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, give and it will be given unto you!" I don't think we do, at least I know I don't always get that down deep into my soul and actions. At times of great financial stability, it was easier to live that giving lifestyle, and it brought great joy. However, to give in times of financial uncertainty certainly also would bring the same joy and would be so needed by the recipient. So, let us love one another as Jesus loves us, and that is by giving all He was for us. Enjoy giving until the enemy does not know what to make of us. Let's give and trust the Lord to sustain us. L

serve one another

Who can serve? Anyone can serve. However, we often choose to look at how we are not being served, instead of how we can serve. Why is that human nature? I guess, in our humanness, we keep score, and especially notice when someone whom we have been serving does not serve us in return. If we are not believers, then that issue is important, as giving more than you are getting is a problem. However, if we are believers, then God has said that we should do good to our enemies, give to one who takes our coat, turn the other cheek, and let someone in need borrow without expecting to be repaid. These ideas run contrary to our culture and certainly contrary to our human nature. However, if we trust that God sees all and that He does work all things for our good, then we can let go of the fear of being taken advantage of, and we can know that serving and doing our best unto another is seen by our Father in heaven, and that is the only one whom we need to be concerned with anyway. Lord, let me have a heart of a servant. Let me trust that you see all and that when I serve you notice and you will honor those who honor you. As a wonderful song stated, "Make me a servant today." If Jesus served those He came across on earth, then certainly no one is unworthy of my service. Change me, shape me, mold me Lord. L

Sold out!

I used to love that Steven Curtis Chapman song, "Sold out believer". I still love the song. I have been watching Perry Noble's series on marriage online. It is the best, serious, direct, get real series on marriage that I have ever experienced. You can tell Perry's heart is to fight back against the enemy to keep marriages together. He talked often about how Satan attacks marriages and how we need to be ready as married couples to fight back against Satan. To hear that it is to be expected for Satan to attack one's marriage is reassuring to hear, only in that it puts things in perspective. You stop blaming your spouse or yourself for all of the craziness, and start telling the enemy that he can get behind you b/c you are not surrendering your covenant relationship. This series put hope and a framework to how to get our marriage stronger. For anyone married a day or 50 years, this series is wonderful. Check it out at http://www.newspring.cc.org/. To David - I believe in Jesus's power to make our marriage stronger and in His power to change us and shape us into the type of spouses He wants us to be. I pledge to you to not return evil for evil, but to do good to you even when you mess up and are not nice, and ask you to please do good to me when I mess up and am not nice. Let's be doers of the word so that Satan cannot gain a foothold. Let's walk in love so much that Satan can't get us to take his bait anymore. Thank you God for loving us first and help us to love each other with that same unconditional, undying, ever committed, waters cannot quench love. With God ALL things are possible! Thank you God for our marriage and for your work you want to do in and through us. To our best year yet in our marriage - by faith I claim that! L

Keep on keeping on!!!!

Inspired by a sermon on marriage I watched tonight on the web from New Spring churches series called " I Want a New Marriage", I wanted to share a few things. One, it is right to listen to that little voice inside, for believers, the HS, saying, it is better to trust God and obey Him than to seek divorce for God hates divorce and He is greater than any problems we face in marriage. Two, commitment to our spouse is supposed to be like Christ's love for us, unconditional, not based on our spouse's response, etc. The culture does not support that, but that is the love we are called to have. Three, a covenant is a promise to be the spouse God called us to be until death. Four, marriage is work and Satan will attack it often, but God's ways are powerful and He is able to help us kick butt against the enemy's attacks to fight for our marriage, family, etc. Fight for your marriage, kids, home, etc. Fight with God's word and with faith and with tennacity. The Lord reigns and nothing is too hard for Him. He can preserve marriages. May I be mindful this week of what God wants me to do in my marriage to make it better. I rely on Him for that wisdom and the obedience to follow through.

To the one who gave love that we might have love, I praise Him and rejoice that He has made me glad and that His love can conquer the enemies of my marriage. L

What Is Love, Anyway?

Ah, the day of love! It seems to mean a lot to chics and not be something men really get into as much, but they can be great creating a romantic date to celebrate. But, on this day, I ponder what is love? In the beginning of a relationship, it is a high like no other. Romantic gestures are natural and overflowing. Chemistry is strong and life seems richer and fuller, and it is. Later, things get more subdued, and the opposite traits that once attracted us like a moths to a flame, now are our biggest irritation. When those opposite traits clash and we wonder what it would be like to not have to deal with this or that trait, that is when it is time to re-create love moments. What came naturally in the early stages of love, now has to be planned or done with the mind intentionally and not just the heart. However, we will find that feelings follow action. So waiting to feel like doing something loving for our spouse will mean we wait forever sometimes. But buying flowers anyway, giving a massage anyway, saying something loving anyway, can stir up the loving feelings. In fact, that is why affairs can be so tempting, as that person is usually complimentary, fun, and stirring up good feelings.

While we live in a society that says, leave the marriage if the "feelings are gone" or find someone else while you are married so you can be happy, those actions don't resonate with what God's word says about love. Isn't it just like God, to teach us and cause us to do the opposite of what we feel like, only to then, after we have obediently done so, to bless us with more loving feelings than we could have gotten by seeking a worldly way. So, today I am reminded that Love is not proud, it does not boast, it does not demand its own way, it always bears things, and love never fails. To our flesh those descriptions sound like we would be misearble if we followed them, and of course, that is always Satan's trick to get us to focus on the flesh and refuse to follow some of God's most anti-flesh commands. Yet, when we do reach out and not demand our own way, when we bear ALL things, when we are not prideful with our mate, then it is a miracle to watch what Jesus does. He honors those who honor Him and when we humble ourselves to love the way God loves and moreoever, in the way He teaches us to love, then, and only then, do we really experience deep love. We can re-create the passion and fire of from when we first fell in love with our mate. But it takes deliberately choosing to act first, and then like a big surprise, all of a sudden, love shows up again. Today, as many are on tighter funds than before, let's remember that love bears all things and to see our mate the way Christ sees them.

I am so thankful for my parents' having raised me in a home where the Word of God was taught and lived. Without it as a way for living, we really mess things up. Cheers to all who are in love today and for those without a special someone, know that the Greatest Love of your heart is there and He can and will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory. So let Him love you, as He has to be the foundation for the way you will love another human being eventually anyway. So, Happy Valentine's Day, and let's remember that the greatest commandment Jesus gave was "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind , and soul AND love your neighbor as yourself.". Choose this day to love.
L

Commitment against all odds. It was fairly easy to commit to love forever when my adorable husband and I first fell in love. We were energized, and had everything "going" for us, as far as our health, working out and being in top shape, financially very stable, etc. Years later, we have been through a lot of trials. The amount of trials and the stress would break most any couple. We are very weary. We are physically tired, mentally exhausted, and emotionally depleted. Only because the Holy Spirit lives in us, have we had the strength lately to say, we will not quit on each other. We have endured attacks on all fronts, but we will not surrender to the enemy's attempt to destroy a testimony to the power of God to blend two into one flesh to mirror Him to the world. It has been said that a man and woman in marriage, when the couple is walking in Christ, is a rare example for all to see of who God is. The traits of a strong man, who is a defender of his faith and family and the traits of a merciful woman who is a great unconditional lover of her family, show the incredible characteristics of our God. He is merciful and mighty.

So, we are still standing and knowing that God will see us through. We may struck down, but are not destroyed. The Lord is the strength of our hearts and our fortress forever. Together, we claim the promise that no weapon formed against our family shall prosper, and no kingdom raised against it shall stand. The Lord is our rock and our salvation, and we have OVERCOME by the blood of the lamb. So, we will shout,shout for joy, shout, shout for joy, for the Lord has given us the victory!! Satan the blood of Jesus is against you, and what Satan has meant for evil in our lives, God will use for good.

This post is dedicated to my never give up husband. Though things have been so tough, he is committed to our marriage and our children. David has shown great character and the power of the Holy Spirit at work within him. David has shown unconditional love to me, beyond what a person can possess in their human power. David has shown Christ's great love to me. My husband is my best friend and we have a friend that sticks closer than a brother, Jesus. What a friend we do have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer.
In His unshakable love,
L

Blessed be the ties that bind

Well, frugal and frivolity have certainly collided lately. With the economy the way it is, our stress levels in our marriage are sky high. It can be good and bad I guess to be under maximum pressure. The only good seems to be that with so much overwhelming pressure, we can see the black and white of our choices and of our circumstances. Our different styles clash so much normally, but in times of economic stress, our differences stand out even more. Yet, God is soooo incredibly faithful to us, and merciful to us. We have lost our cool and blamed each other and even thought of running away from the problems, but in those moments of complete despair we stare right at the fiber of who we really are and what our 2 choices indeed are, to stay committed NO MATTER WHAT or to break our vows. At those moments, when we know that running means leaving a legacy of another divorce to each of our children, who watched our first marriages go under, and that it means breaking our covenant we made to our God, not just to each other, we are quickly brought to our knees. For, we may struggle and kick and scream to be free, but our bond is deep. God has brought us together and He is doing a work in and through us to make us more like Him, IF WE ARE Willing to be changed. When we repent and say to one another, I am so sorry for lashing out at you over financial stress, we see God do wonderful, miraculous things. We see how selfish and jerklike we really were, and how merciful and forgiving God is. The ties that bind us to our Saviour are never broken. God's word tells us that nothing can ever separate us from His love. That lifeline of His love is what we are bound to in our marriage as well. Because His tie binds us each to Him, we are bound to each other and to Him. He is holding us together and when we really see that as clearly as if we could see it physically, then we realize, the plan is for us to keep this covenant to each other and to our God and that He will see us through. Blessed be the tie that binds ....The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. Jesus, we are so grateful for your mercy that has kept us afloat and kept us bound together. We know that you deserve all the glory, for were it not for our bond to you, we would surely have been torn asunder long, long ago. Thanks for carrying us when we have no more strength and for your promise that We can overcome by the blood of the lamb. In Him, L

The calmness (mostly) after the storm

Merging a very, very frugal guy and a very, very frivolous chic, was like merging the sun with the moon. One is bright and likes to shine and is very bold and the other likes to be muted in the background with a calm, steady role. Like any couple we went through our honeymoon period where each thought the other was soooo awesome, especially since the other one seemed soooo cool because the other was sooooo intriguing. Fast forward one year and you would find us arguing over everything from whether it is ok to buy a bottle of water or why scrutinizing prices on every item to buy at the grocery story seemed like torture. We had a tug of war for years seeing who was going to win. No one won, and I am sure God was waiting for us to eventually see that. We wore each other out until we said, ok, maybe the other one is not going to change and become like me. I guess I may have to find a way to cherish the differences, not perish them!! Ha. Over the last year we have seen many changes in our relationship. We have come to see that our bond is greater because we hung in there through the toughest differences and through trials and stresses, through outside threats to our bond, and through total depletion. We hung in and found that underneath all of the stress and strife, we had a marriage bond that ran deep. As the verse we have come to understand deeply states, "Many waters cannot quench love." This blog is dedicated to the author of that truth and to the keeper of our opposites attract marriage. May all who visit here be refreshed and renewed.

God bless,
L