Month: April 2017

“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.” Luke 6:43

A very simple thought, straight forward, not a parable. Jesus calls us out: Your spiritual DNA will reveal itself in what you say, do and produce both personally and publicly. Further more, it is not that difficult to tell good from bad. Figs don’t look like thorns. (Read further through verses 44 and 45.)

Jesus had no hidden agenda. His entire purpose is to save mankind, one heart at time, through the greatest love that ever did or will exist. We must mirror this transparency of heart, and reflect goodness and love.

We can do nothing about our physical DNA. It was settled the moment we were woven together in our mother’s womb. However, we determine everything about our spiritual identity through our free will. The good news……..like Nicodemus, we can be born again, and that DNA is out of this world!

Happy Monday,

Gretchen

There is nothing better for the inside of a girl, than the outside of a horse. Today’s inspiration is a gift from my oldest child, Leah Michelle Collie, the most beautiful cowgirl God ever made.
Persistent Like Art
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we reap a harvest, if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9
My high school graduation gift from my parents was a short, red, stubborn horse I named Art. Born with the heart of a lion, Art’s passion was not in the arena, much to my dismay, but on the trail. There was never a gully too steep or creek too wide for my little trail blazer. My friends and I love to trail ride. If we ever go riding through a rough place and have a “new to riding” friend, we mount them on brave little Art. He is faithful and true.
One sunny afternoon a large group, me included, set off for a long ride through some rugged country. I was atop my trusty little steed. A few hours in we came to a large creek crossing. Art and I were bringing up the rear so I didn’t hear the instructions on avoiding a two foot, underwater drop off. When our turn came, Art plowed ahead without hesitation. In his hurried fashion we quickly met the watery hole. Art fell head first into the rushing creek submerging us both. Miraculously, he stumbled back to his feet keeping me in the saddle and getting us both safely to the other side.
After reaching dry ground my friends and I spent the next few minutes letting Art cough up water and catch his breath. For the first time ever, I saw fear in his eyes. If you have ever been around horses you know they are animals that are easily traumatized. Seeing his fear spurred my fear to life. Had my wonderful, lion hearted gelding just lost his bravery? Would he ever be the same? In addition to these worries, we had another river that couldn’t be avoided on the path back to camp. Would he cross the next creek at all? Was I in for a struggle just to get us both home?
Shaken, I saddled up and headed back toward camp. I worried all the way to the next creek crossing. Much to my delight my brave horse laid back his ears and dove off into the water without hesitation. Art brought us safely back to civilization, never letting his momentary fear keep him from pressing on.
In Paul’s letter to early Galatian Christians he told them “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we reap a harvest, if we do not give up”. As Christians are asked to be persistent and not give up in our quest to do what is good. Like Art and I learned, sometimes there will be hidden drop offs and moments of weariness and fear, but remain persist for the harvest ahead. While Art’s harvest is a bag of hay and bucket of oats, ours will be an eternity in heaven.

Happy Trails to All of You,

Love,

Leah

He remembered us in our low estate and freed us from our enemies. His love endures forever. Psalms 136:23

When in the depth of despair, your only hope is someone listening, comprehending the magnitude of your situation and bringing help quickly.

The God the Psalmist knew intimately is a champion of such people. Written in call and response (read it in its entirety!) this Psalm reads like a spiritual, or a crowd pleasing, pep rally cheer. It lists all the miraculous things God has done for His children through the ages, followed with praise for enduring, steadfast love.

Why can we and this Psalmist praise God and trust Him to the future? Well……..God had that, so we know beyond a doubt, He’s got this, whatever this may be.

Happy Weekend!

Gretchen

As for me, I call to God and the LORD saves me. Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken. Psalms 55: 16 and 22.

When I was in college I would come home at the end of the semester, crawl into a bed under my parent’s roof and sleep the deep, dreamless slumber of an innocent child. All my cares were put aside, the woes of the world were their’s to worry about for the night, I could get some rest.

This trend hasn’t changed much, although many years have past. I rely on the strength of my parents in other ways too, and just knowing we create a Power of Two or Three makes the world seems much less threatening. I want this same connection and security for my children.

What we seek in our earthly parents, what we long to do for our own children, Father God has already provided for us. Cast your cares like an exhausted, broke, unemployed and disillusioned college student home for the summer. God will not let you be shaken. Victory has been won long, long ago and there’s always room and rest at Dad’s, aka The Throne of God.

Love,

Gretchen

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

“Pay it forward” is cliche, but it is the only appropriate response to the gifts we have been given through the Grace and Mercy of Jesus the Christ and Savior. Paul’s salutation in his second letter to Corinth begins with praise to the Creator of all we depend on and we must share it to spread it.

God is the author of compassion, the need to alleviate someone’s sorrow. In Christ alone we find peace amidst the confusion of this world, comfort in times of disappointment and despair. For those seeking, the believer is the connection to Heaven, the light on the path to the Throne.

Give praise, a very personal testimony, to The God, Father, Lord, Christ…………forward, backward, anywhere, everywhere……you need it, they need it, we all need it.

Whoop! Whoop!

Gretchen

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:2

“I am nothing,” is a pretty strong phrase, especially spoken in first person. Not the usual self-assessment of the mentally well balanced person, but Paul is emphasizing love as the believers highest achievement.

Paul is setting priorities for correct patterns of thought and behavior. In Corinth, a world of Greek polytheism and pagan worship of a god for everything with an extra to spare, divination, soothsaying and worldly academia were held in high esteem, carrying monetary benefits. However, these things are worthless if love is not the center motivation and end result.

Love is about everything except you, everything else is about you. If faith in an all loving, grace granting, mercy extending God doesn’t create love, then it is not a faith worth having.

Paul implores, “Let love define you!”

Amen,

Gretchen

Do not be misled; “Bad company corrupts good character.” 1 Corinthians 15:33

Corinth was a town on a cross roads of culture. Commerce to and from Rome came through Corinth giving it wealth, but also an extremely diverse mix of pagan religions that involved every perversion imaginable. The twenty-first century hasn’t reinvented sin. Paul saw it all and wrote God’s message to these people who embraced salvation but struggled with sin’s unrelenting temptation.

Sin engages our whole being. Therefore, it is important to guard against the things and people that engage our emotions, attitudes, natural lusts and casual behavior negatively. Holiness is not something good people achieve and others fail at miserably. Holiness is a choice to live with the heart of Jesus and just like salvation, it is available to each one of us.

Friends, relationships and life habits matter. Chose with the heart of Jesus.

Love,

Gretchen

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. I Corinthians 15:14

I Corinthians chapter 15 is incredibly important to sound theology. Read it, digest it and live it.

Our belief, our faith is totally dependent on this one fact: Jesus died, was buried and rose again. If He did not, then neither will we. If He did, then such is our future too.

Have a Marvelous Monday!

Gretchen

A Woman of Conviction

When you marry you get a great many things you never saw coming. Some good, some not so much, but each thing and person becomes part of your evolution.
When I married Keith, Beverly Rooney, his mother, was part of the package. This essay is not about our relationship. It is about the things I saw her live that forever changed the way I think, love and behave.

I met Beverly Rooney when I was twelve. I became a frequent recipient of her hospitality. She managed a humble home. Her yard was noisy with three rambunctious sons and their friends. The driveway was perpetually full of vehicles in various stages of repair and her phone seemed to ring continuously with neighbors seeking comfort and assurance, because Beverly was a nurse, an LPN, and she had a gift for gentleness and healing. Her house wasn’t a showcase, her lawn wasn’t manicured but her table was full and laughter filled the air.

Beverly had an incredibly difficult childhood that included poverty and neglect. She didn’t equate the significance of this, she just survived. Her father was drafted into the Army, serving in Europe during World War II. Her mother joined the work force and Beverly became a surrogate homemaker. When she should have been playing ‘house’ she was keeping house.

I gained a higher family security clearance when I married Beverly’s son. I saw some things and seeing is knowing. Beverly worked endless hours. She left home before the sun rose, returning long after dark. She left breakfast on the stove, fed some livestock, but without fail, spent time in her Bible and devotionals before driving away to her day’s labors.

Each summer Beverly’s bountiful garden was shared among family and friends. In the winter, she kept an overnight bag packed in case the weather turned. She was prepared to stay at the hospital and serve when others couldn’t.

A day came when Beverly’s elderly, invalid father had to be placed into an extended care facility. As a veteran in an era of failed VA services, there was no expectation of quality comfort care. In response, each evening when Beverly clocked out at the hospital, she drove twenty-five additional miles in the opposite direction from home to give her father a warm bath, a warm meal and a warm human connection.

I was aware that this father had been an abusive alcoholic, leaving his wife and children destitute and disgraced. It bothered me to see Beverly drive herself to exhaustion for one such as he. So, unable to keep the opinions of my youth to myself I said, “I don’t know why any alcoholic father deserves the loyalty of his child.” Beverly didn’t scold, she just quietly said, “I knew him before the war. He came back broken and sick. I don’t blame him.” Okay……I continued, “Why do you kill yourself for a man that didn’t care for you?” Her gentle voice explained, “When I see Jesus, He won’t ask me how my dad treated me, He’ll ask me how I treated my dad. He commanded, Honor your father. And I will.”

That shut me up and changed me forever. When I see my Savior’s face He will not ask me how everything went down here or if everyone played nicely…….I also will account for how I treated others.

By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another. John 13:35.

My mother-in-law wasn’t perfect, but she was a woman of exceptional integrity and conviction I know that on the day that swallowed her children in incredible sorrow, she stood before her LORD and He said, “Well done my beautiful child, come and rest in Me.”

Gretchen

Lead me, LORD, in your righteousness, because of my enemies, make Your way straight before me. Psalms 5:8

There is right and there is wrong. This song of praise asks guidance for remaining Holy. The writer does not plead, “Make MY way straight and clear.” Instead he humbly begs, “Make Your way straight before me.”

The road to God’s Throne is not hard to find, but must be sought. God does not tease or torment with vague clues and intrigue. Ask and you will find. It’s just that easy.

Love,

Gretchen