PATH

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

Word prompt--PATH

Five minutes to free-write about it

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I was once on a path. A very good path, I thought. A path that led to everything I had been searching my whole life for. I was so convinced it was the right path, I tried to persuade others to follow it as well. But God, in His infinite mercy and grace, did not leave me there.

It took extreme measures on His part, as I sincerely believed I had found all the answers and was no longer on a quest. But, in a most improbable way--probably the only one that would have captured my attention--He stepped in and rescued me from the darkness I thought was light. He opened my eyes to the lie I had bought into, turned me around, and set me on the path that really was the right one.

The details of this rescue mission are documented in my memoir, Sincerely Wrong: An Improbable Journey. (A free PDF copy is also available by clicking on the link in the sidebar of my blog.)

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Following is an excerpt from my book's AFTERWORD (pp 125-127):

Were I to see you headed towards some imminent danger, such as a cavernous hole in the sidewalk, it would be unconscionable of me not to warn you about it, and I would not hesitate to do so, even yanking you aside if necessary. . . . Don't be deceived, as I was, into thinking that there are many paths to God, or that we get to Heaven by being good. Although we were created to have fellowship with the Lord, Adam and Eve's sin caused us to be born into a fallen world. The Bible tells us in Romans 3:23 that "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," and in Romans 6:23, that "the wages of sin is death." Because of sin, a vast gulf separates us from our Heavenly Father, and there is no way we can cross it through our own efforts. Only one path can lead us to eternal life, and that is Jesus, "The way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through [Him]" (John 14:6).

The good news is that "God so loved the world [you and me included] that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). . . . This gift of salvation that is being handed to you can only be received by grace, through faith. It cannot be earned by good works (Ephesians 2:8-9), and as much as it is not God's will for anyone to perish, He will not impose His will on you or force you to accept it. The choice is yours.

WORDLES WEDNESDAY

 

PERHAPS

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

Word prompt--PERHAPS

Five minutes to free-write about it

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Over the years, the Lord has used my plants to teach me many things. Perhaps He is about to do so again?

Every summer I put my plants that are on their last legs out on the balcony to give them a last chance to revive or die. Usually they do perk up and thrive, like the spider plant on the left. 

A few, like these cuttings from my jade plant, however, do not. Barring an extraordinary miracle, there does not seem to be any perhaps in its future.

As for the wildflowers and tomato plant, will they have a chance to bloom and bear fruit given how late in the season I planted them this year? Perhaps yes, perhaps no.

Right now it's looking very iffy, as is the peace lily cutting, and the kalanchoe plant that was doing so well on my windowsill, but does not seem to be enjoying being outdoors as much as I thought it would.   

Pondering the uncertainty of these things fills me with gratitude that there is no perhaps with God. He has given us His Word (the Bible) so we need have no doubts.

Romans 3:23 clearly states that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is no one on earth who always does what is right and never sins (Ecclesiastes 7:20). We all, like sheep, have strayed and left God's path to follow our own ways (Isaiah 53:6). 

But God does not want anyone to perish (2 Peter 3:9). He wants everyone to repent and be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). He longs to be gracious to us (Isaiah 30:18), and loves us so much "that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).  

God did not appoint us to suffer His wrath, but to receive the gift of salvation that Jesus died to appropriate for us (1 Thessalonians 5:9-10). There is no perhaps about it. The choice is ours.

TRANSFORM

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

Word prompt--TRANSFORM

Five minutes to free-write about it

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The transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly is quite amazing. So is the way a good haircut can transform the way you look. Or how adding a couple of ingredients can transform the taste of a recipe that turned out so yucky you were about to toss it.

My readiness to toss the recipe got me to thinking of how God doesn't just toss me out when I fall short. It led to a moment of deep gratitude that He is patient, longsuffering, and never gives up on me--even when I would have long given up on myself. No one is too far gone for Him to transform.

God loves us so much that while we were still sinners He sent Christ to die for us so that we could be forgiven of our sins and receive the gift of eternal life (Romans 5:9, Isaiah 5:5, John 3:16,36). The gift of salvation is a free gift that can only be received by grace, through faith. It is not something you can earn (Ephesians 2:8-9).

When we repent of our sins and invite Jesus into our hearts, the slate is wiped clean and we become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) with a new identity as a child of God. 

God accepts us just as we are, and transforms us from the inside out through the power of His Holy Spirit. It is not something we can do in our own power.

VIEW FROM MY BALCONY

The perfect ending to a day filled with promise and hope.

FACE

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

Word prompt--FACE

Five minutes to free-write about it

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This week's prompt made me think of the chorus of an old song by the Gaithers, Because He Lives.

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow, 

Because He lives, all fear is gone; 

Because I know He holds the future, 

And life is worth the living, 

Just because He lives!

A good reminder when I am tempted to feel anxious about certain situations in my life that seem overwhelming. That, plus a couple of Scriptures I came face to face with recently that I've probably read a zillion times, but that suddenly came alive . 

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:34, BSB).

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? So if you cannot do such a small thing, why do you worry about the rest?  (Luke 12:25-26, BSB)

Our brains can only focus on one thing at a time, and I have intentionally been training mine to stay focused on the present moment and what I can do right now, since there is no way I can face tomorrow until tomorrow becomes today. 

I have also been intentional about trusting in God's timing and plan, which always turn out to be so much better than mine, instead of second-guessing Him when prayers don't get answered when and how I think they should or turn out the way I expected, and trying to help Him out and rush things along. 

So many things we worry about never even come to pass, and while we are busy worrying about them, we miss the blessings and opportunities right under our nose. I wonder if that's where the idiom "Take time to smell the roses," comes from.

My five minutes is up and there's so much more I want to say, and it won't necessarily fit with the prompt, so I will start over and rewrite this on my other blog, At The Foot Of The Cross.

CIRCLE

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

Word prompt--CIRCLE

Five minutes to free-write about it

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Today is the first day of summer. The seasons have come full circle since summer 2024. This weekend the temperature is supposed to be in the 90s.

When the temperature gets that hot, I am super grateful for my air conditioner and have no desire to leave the house, but I have been told that wildflowers love the heat. And so, I put the window box of tiny wildflower sprouts that had been germinating on my windowsill on the balcony, as well as the flowering kalanchoe plant in the circular pot. 

Not even an hour later, the beautiful blue sky turned an angry gray and before I could make up my mind whether  to leave the plants outside or bring them back in, we had a storm to end all storms. The rain was torrential, and the thunder loud. I felt terrible about having  transported those plants from their safe, sunny windowsill to the middle of a severe thunderstorm. 

I said a quick prayer that they would survive, and was amazed that they did.

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An unrelated thought, but something triggered as I was writing about my quick prayer at the end of my post, was Mark Batterson's devotional, "Draw the Circle." I'm adding it here for anyone who may be interested, since it fits this week's word prompt so perfectly. It's a 40-day prayer challenge I've worked my way through many times, and that maybe it's time for me to work my way through again. Each day has a devotional containing a true, faith-building story of God's answer to prayer, a Scripture, and some prayer prompts. Anyone want to go through it with me?

PANIC

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

Word prompt--PANIC

Five minutes to free-write about it

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My plan was to skip this week's challenge, but this morning I was feeling grateful for toilets and that we don't have to squat over a hole in the ground as some folks in other parts of the world have to do. 

And then I started feeling grateful for toilet paper, and my thoughts wandered from there to the 2020 COVID pandemic which led people to panic-buy toilet paper, of all things. Practically overnight, it had been grabbed up and hoarded by panic-stricken buyers, and there was not a roll to be found.

What a lesson in not taking anything for granted--not even the availability of a commodity as common as that.

One of my friends was thrilled to find some online (I can't remember if it was on Amazon or where), but it was a six-pack, and it had cost a pretty penny. No matter. She was just excited to have been able to order it and couldn't wait for it to arrive. When it finally did--all the way from China--what a surprise it turned out to be

I wish I had a picture of it that I could have posted here. The rolls were so tiny that the whole six-pack easily fit into her mailbox.

Now we look back and laigh, but it was no laughing matter then.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

 

ANYMORE

This post was written for Five Minute Friday

Word prompt--ANYMORE

Five minutes to free-write about it

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At first, when I saw this week's prompt, all I could think of were the many people and things that are not in my life anymore, and the many things I cannot do anymore. I even lamented that the beautiful little plant in the picture does not flower anymore. It hasn't in several years--not even when I put it out on the balcony in the summer.

But then, when I searched my mind for something positive I could associate with the word, two things surfaced. This morning I was surprised by a text from someone who had been an important part of my life and who I wasn't expecting to hear from anymore, and even better than that, and the greatest positive anymore possible, was the thought that "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1, NIV. What can be better than that?