Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Can Imagine

Thanks to BarnesandNoble for the photo.

Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Can Imagine by Max Lucado

We strive to be forgiven, to be good enough, to do enough, to earn our way into Heaven by a resume of all our time spent working to be welcomed. In the end, it leaves us drained and depraved of energy, of joy and hope. We’ve been looking in all the wrong places to give us our satisfaction. What we need, as Max Lucado points out in his book I reviewed on Booksneeze®, Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Can Imagine, has already been given to us by a gracious God. And in that adjective lies the focus of the story- grace.

Always a fan of Lucado’s books, when I saw Grace available to read and review, my fingers couldn’t click the button to choose this one fast enough. From the first page until the last, I happily reveled in Lucado’s typical lyrical, story-like language, with the gospel truth efficiently relayed in a straightforward way that brought to life for the reader what exactly this whole grace thing is all about. Broken into chapters, each starts with a scripture verse, quote and passage that appears in that chapter. Lucado’s voice is lively and vivid and puts the immense concept of grace into ways we humans can manage to understand and soak in. God’s voice is heard in his words, and he did not disappointed on his latest book.  I would enthusiastically recommend Grace to anyone who wants to dive a little deeper into the depths of God.

Take Heart

Take Heart, originally uploaded by SeaScapes12.

Take heart.
Gather His grace
in the pockets
of your soul
and comfort
your trembling self,
knowing He is
over you,
lifting you up,
daring you
to dream.

***

Daring to dream. I think God is nudging me to trust Him to take me to a beautiful expectancy.

Painted on the Page

I just received my first paycheck for my freelance writing. I wrote for a newspaper five years ago, and then somehow it stopped and I always wanted to get back in but the opportunity never presented itself. I guess it just wasn't the right time. Until now.

Since August, I've been back with the paper writing features stories about community people and happenings. My name has been printed in the byline, and my words painted on the page. And now, I am officially making money as a writer.

Praise be to the God of beautiful things! You have no idea how wonderful this feels.

Sometimes She Forgets What She Wants

Sometimes She Forgets What She Wants, originally uploaded by SeaScapes12.

She’ll leave a bit of it on the beach, half buried in beige wrinkled sand, forever discarded like a lost pair of sunglasses. Only when she is safe and sound, miles from the shore and waist deep in monotonous moments will she realize her chest is lighter, that there is an empty space where all her other pieces slide around and jostle for the extra leg room. She’ll search for it, casually at first, because she must have simply left it upstairs. But then the panic grows and she tears apart the house, the yard, the car, running through each hidden crevice it could have crawled into. When the hours fold into one another and all resources have been exhausted, she crumples onto the feather bed, despondent, fear gripping her eyes because now she’ll have to live with no fire in her heart, no passion providing her drive. It is a fate worse than death and she’ll curse her forgetfulness and rue that second on the beach when she tossed one last look behind her and blinked when her sight scanned the tall, shimmering grass that held her diamond of a desire.

Stress Point

Stress Point: Thriving Through Your Twenties in a Decade of Drama

A woman’s twenties can be confusing, crazy and overwhelming, and we yearn to know how to handle these years. I had the opportunity to review the book Stress Point by Sarah Francis Martin through Booksneeze®, and found it to deliver an in depth “how-to” on surviving the decade and finding your permanent place in Christ as situations, emotions and relationships are constantly shifting. Chapters break down according to different stress points women in their twenties experience, and Martin places interactive journaling pages throughout the chapters, focusing on the issues at hand and how to place them at the feet of our King.

                The book presented a nice layout and order, and focused on a lot of issues I could relate to, but there were also a few chapters that did not apply to me, at least in my life right now. I really liked the journaling portions, as they were helpful to bring my focus back to God, yet at times I felt like the scenarios she presented and asked which related best to me did not fall into my exact situations, and that I was often a little bit of multiple scenarios when she asked which one sounded like me. The layout is presented in a modern look that grabs the attention of today’s twenty-something, and the main focus of the book is how to find one’s fit not in each situation, but in Christ and how He will work through you and the situation you’re faced with. While it doesn’t necessarily solve all the problems of young women, or propose new and unique ways to look at the issues, it is a good book to help get back to placing the focus on God and how to anchor on Him through this changing and confusing decade.

Thanks to Barnes&Noble for the image use.

Murmurs of Silence

Murmurs of Silence, originally uploaded by SeaScapes12.

Close your racing mind,
which surges and strives
to discover life’s meaning,
trying to tuck the answers
in its tiny, cluttered pocket.
Welcome silence
and you will find
the earth murmurs
in gentle confidence.
If you breathe into its ear,
it will share hidden secrets,
and you will understand
why they have taken
so long to be told.

Now or Never

Let's do this. All for You, Lord.

Today

I just wish something would change. And that I would feel the sun in my heart.

Black As A Crow's Wing

Black As A Crow's Wing, originally uploaded by SeaScapes12.

His eyes, a midnight pool of secrets.
Angled jaw jabbering in the smothered air,
unaware how his words wrap around my throat.
He perches on my fence, claws digging in
to the splinters of my soul.
I am the scarecrow of whom no one is afraid.
He can raise his arms and strike me
with the palpitations of his pull.
Face, immovable, a stone silhouette
etched into the veins of night.
My mind quivers in the abyss of those eyes,
hovering, straight laced in laughter,
constantly drawing closed the curtain of his confidence.
I am but a fleeting fragment, fractured by
pecking against my straw heartstrings.
Each piece bends and locks in crooked lines
before he sets them straight again.
Nothing is certain.
I echo my mouth across a barren field,
his name burned into the sky.
He is miles removed, splattering a
fistful of feathers like breadcrumbs
on upturned soil,
daring me to interpret this trail
and waiting to see if my courage will
take flight after him.

Fresh-Brewed Life

Fresh-Brewed Life by Nicole Johnson

No one likes stale coffee that's been sitting in a pot for days. We all crave fresh, strong, vibrant coffee that wakes us up! Much like coffee, our hearts crave a wake up, a fresh, vibrant life that is new each day. I was fortunate to receive a copy of the book Fresh-Brewed Life through Booksneeze®, and found that this was just the pick-me-up I needed! A "God-help" book, as I like to call them, Fresh-Brewed Life is comprised of multiple facets of ourselves that are in need of a new outpouring of color, and encourages us to live up to the expectancy God created in us, to be bold and fresh in Him.

I read this book over the course of a few months, slowly savoring each chapter and marking pages that jumped out to my heart. Oddly enough, I found that when I would start a new chapter and topic, like friendships or dreams, it was related to what was actually going on in my life at that time. Nicole Johnson writes with ease and humor and includes quotes and scripture that spoke to me. Each section is neatly laid out and written in a easily accessible manner that connects with the everyday reader. Factual scriptures weave through the pages to ultimately give a message of bright hope to live the life we've always longed for, not only because God’s word encourages this, but because God Himself longs for the everyday to be turned into the extraordinary. This is one book I would give again and again to the women in my life, so that they, too, may know all of the fullest riches are at God's fingertips.




Thanks to BarnesandNoble for the image.

Whispers of Hope

And then, in the shimmering silence, whispers of hope stirred the air...

Difference

Maybe there was movement. Maybe God did hear her prayers. And maybe, just maybe, He was using her to make a difference.

Smooth the Landing

Life can pick you up, spin you so violently in circles until you lose your directional bearing, and refuse to let you go.

You are nauseous, sick with fear and worry and it eats away at your insides. All you can do is utter two words:

Jesus. Healing.

There is absolutely nothing more that you can possibly try to do. You know there is nothing you are able to do on your own. And then, with every broken fiber of your soul, you turn it all over to God. To His hands.

Because you know He is the only One who can smooth this bumpy landing.

Oh Jesus, help.