Category Archives: 1 Christ is All

Jesus loves me, this I know. This category is about Jesus, the Living Word, my prayers to Him, my worship of Him, His relentless pursuit of my heart and His invitation to me to come to Him in Sabbath, my Savior, my Rest.

Blessings for My Grown Children on a Random Tuesday

March 4, 20141 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, Stuff I Actually Thinkblessing my adult children, family blessing, scriptural blessingsJeanie

[Come] and, like living stones, be yourselves built [into] a spiritual house, for a holy (dedicated, consecrated) priesthood, to offer up [those] spiritual sacrifices [that are] acceptable and pleasing to God through Jesus Christ…you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God’s] own purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 1 Peter 2.5, 9 Amp

Hey, my sweets~

These are not just hopes and dreams and wishes I have for you. And so what if they were? I love you, each of you, with something so deep that all the words I will ever speak cannot quite ever measure up. All 5 of you {my amazing children: Tara, Stephie, Dessa, Rock-man and Stormie Dae}- I remember you as a first miraculous flutter in the hidden place as God was putting you together, when you were known only as the child within, to now, full-grown and productive people who wow me with your dazzling beauty.

But these are words I speak on a Tuesday morning as a pronouncement, an authoritative declaration as your mom – an Image-bearer (a broken one, at times) of God Himself. I want to impart that mothering side of God to you and say, on a Tuesday:

Blessings, my sweets – not just a cutesy-wish or an empty word, but mammoth-sized, Biblical-proportionally-sized, heaven-sent power and help in time of need BLESSINGS on you today!

May you be answered when you call on the Lord, the truest Lover of your soul. Your help comes (present-tense) from Him! (Psalm 20.1; Psalm 121)

May the favor of God surround you like a shield, just deflecting the ridiculous assaults on our hearts that so often befall us, day in and day out. (Psalm 5.12)

Having eaten fully of the goodness of the Fruit of the Holy Spirit at the table of the Lord (prepared for you right in front of the enemy), may you also bear much good fruit in your life today and may you produce much seed and impact generations you’ll never even see. (Galatians 5.22; John 15.16; Psalm 145.4; Psalm 128)

Be forgiven, I bless you with forgiveness. Run to the Savior for forgiveness of sins. If you only confess them, He will be faithful and just and forgive them – every single one. He will cleanse you from all unrighteousness. There is no reason to live in even a moments’ bondage today. Not one. And when you call on Him, I can assure you, based on the promise in the word of God (1 John 1.19) and because of all Jesus paid for on the cross – your sins will be forgiven.

May the fullness of the JOY Jesus came to give be yours, completely, wholly, finally! (John 15.11; John 16)

May you find healing in your heart from misunderstandings or hurtful words or hard times and be agents of grace when you are on the other side of that equation. Give healing, too. I bless you with the strength to do that. :) (Psalm 147.3; Psalm 34.18)

May you reflect the Light of your life, brightening the lives of everyone in your path by exemplifying the One who has so graciously shined His face upon you. (1 Peter 2.9; Isaiah 60.1)

May you receive all the wisdom you cry out for today , all the wisdom you need to live a godly life and gain understanding. (James 1.5)

And may you know, at the end of this day, that you were fully living in God’s grace – that empowering Presence of the Holy Spirit who gives you everything you need to be who He created you to be and to have done all He called you to do. May you and your household be the blessed ones and may your loves (DP, Tris, Ryan and Jovan) and your babies (aka my “grandbebes”) get in on all of this, too! May your day be sweet.

Signed with love and blessings~

A servant of the Lord, your mommy and one who admires you so much,Tara, Stephanie, Tredessa, Rocky & Stormie ~ I pray these things and more for you, and I pronounce them with the authority of one called to be yours and you mine. {mom}

“Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much with affectionate longing, we were delighted to share with you and impart to you not only the Good News of the Gospel of God, but our very lives as well. 1 Thessalonians 2.6-8, paraphrased

Song for a Sunday // It’s Gonna Be Worth It

March 2, 20141 Christ is All, 5 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually ThinkJeanie

“It’s Gonna Be Worth It” by Rita Springer

I don’t understand Your ways

Oh but I will give You my song

Give You all of my praise

You hold on to all my pain

With it You are pulling me closer

And pulling me into Your ways

Now around every corner

And up every mountain

I’m not looking for crowns

Or the water from fountains

I’m desperate in seeking, frantic believing

That the sight of Your face

Is all that I need

I will say to You

It’s gonna be worth it

It’s gonna be worth it

It’s gonna be worth it all

I believe this

Oh, I’d forgotten how much I loved this song. The CD, Effortless, was a birthday present in 2002, the year I “discovered” Rita Springer.

If you’re going to sing a song about not understanding God’s ways but deciding to worship Him anyway, right in the middle of everything, then it should be this strong, this desperate, and have this intensity.

“Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, my Help and my God.” Psalm 42.5 Amp.

It’s true. I don’t understand His ways. But I’d rather be in His presence at those baffling times because He can see what I cannot.

It’s gonna be worth it all ~ I believe this…

Thought-Collage Thursday

March 1, 20141 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Thinkfbi, hymns, moslander, my jesus i love thee, ross moslander, willie nelsonJeanie

Ok….so more technical problems…today is actually Saturday (March 1), obvi..but I wrote this Thursday. *sigh // ANYHOO-such profound thinking to follow…ha!

Throwback Thursday

I noticed recently that #throwbackthursday (as in hashtag-throw-back-Thursday) is picking up steam. It’s the chance for everybody to post those hilarious old photographs of themselves way back in the day. I can TOTALLY do Throwback-Thursday today because I have been scanning old family photos and oh, man – did I find some doozies (of OTHER people, of course).

The Moslanders, my family-of-origin, #tbt

Ross the Boss, Mrs. Moss and all the little Landers, 1975 @ Robert, Louisiana (I’m the oldest. I was 16 here)

The Sunday after Thanksgiving in 1988 in Hobart, IN (Southlake Church of God). Two words: shoulder pads!

Thirteen years later, we were all married, I had 5 kids (ages 2-9) and Tami had not grown an inch in height since she was 10 years old.

Meanwhile, I’ll call this Thought-Collage Thursday because that is what this blog is, anyway a collage! :)

I think I’m being followed.

Seriously, everywhere I go, when the Wi-Fi options come up on my phone, there is always an FBI Mobile or FBI Van #7 or some sort of FBI vehicle around. I am pretty sure I am being watched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Why? I do not know. If anyone questions you about me, send me a coded text to warn me, will you? Thanks!

Willie.

I have this {I own it!}, the Willie Nelson – His Hits and Finest Performances album distributed in a Reader’s Digest collection in 1987. A former co-worker gave it to me just because I have a turntable (or “record player,” as they were known while I growing up!).

And while it is packed with all the great songs you already know by Willie Nelson, there are so many great treasures I had never heard anywhere until I got this. 53 great songs on 5 LPs. Seriously, his rendition of “Let it Be Me” is the best I have ever heard of that gorgeous tune – and it has been sung by every. body!

Any song Willie Nelson sings, with that unmistakable gravel and sophistication actually just sounds more authentic and true than anyone else who ever attempts that song again. A little raw and wholly soulful, he owns any melody that comes out of that talented heart.

Other songs he covers that I would totally encourage you to try out on iTunes or Spotify: “Without a Song,” “Stardust,” and “September Song.”

February is (almost) over.

I am surprised every single year at how quickly it is gone. Every year. You’d think I’d know by now that it is going to happen.

Speaking of things I should know

When I take a drink and sort of miss my mouth…and dribble down the side – I am always appalled. Occasionally when I am eating, I bite my tongue. How is it 50-some years down the road I haven’t totally mastered these things, having practiced SO much?!

My Jesus, I Love Thee, verse 3

I love old hymns and find restoration, when I am frazzled and shredded by life, in just singing them. Modern worship is wonderful, but I am drawn to lyrics deep and timeless, to melodies that have been sung by voices before me and which will still be drifting heavenward long after I am gone.

William R. Featherston wrote the well-known, “My Jesus, I Love Thee,” as a poem when he was somewhere between 12 and 16 years of age. How does such a young man know how to communicate such depth of love?

I was playing the keyboard and singing this song the other morning and the 3rd verse caught in my throat for a minute as I wondered: Will I love Jesus as much in my death as I do in my life? Because I love life, too, really. And what if I am not happy with the whole death process? Will it make me love Him less?

But as suddenly as I questioned myself, I realized, we’re already dying anyway. Part of our living is dying. And if I am loving Jesus wholly each day in my living, then when I step through the door of death from this realm, and actually see Him face to face, Oh, yes. I will be loving Him more fully, more truly than I have ever been able.

I’ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,

And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;

And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow,

If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

Adoniram Gordon added a melody to the words in 1876. And William R. Featherston died at age 27 never knowing his words would become a hymn of the deepest devotion, sung around the world and included in almost every hymnal for years to come.

Live Stream Ransomed Heart Event!

1) Get the book and read it! 2) Sign up for Live Stream HERE 3) Saturday March 15, 9am-3 pm…4) While you wait, enjoy archived events from Ransomed Heart Ministries.

That is all for today. Enough.

With me

February 25, 20141 Christ is All, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Thinkanne ortlund, anne ortlund quoteJeanie

But “Immanuel” means “God with us,” and it’s more appropriate now than ever. Standing on the mountain in His resurrection body, ready to go back to heaven, Jesus said something He’d never said before: “I will be with you always” (Matthew 28:20).

He is with you right now, as you read this. Fix your eyes on Him.

The light of Christ surrounds you.

The love of Christ enfolds you.

The power of Christ protects you.

The presence of Christ watches over you.

Wherever you are, Christ is. ~ Anne Ortlund, Fix Your Eyes on Jesus

His light, His love, His power, His presence – right where you are, right now. Wow!

Song for a Sunday // Finally

February 23, 20141 Christ is All, 5 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually Thinkgary chapman the singer, song, song for a sunday, staci elderedgeJeanie

Finally by Gary Chapman.

“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror…” 1 Corinthians 13.12 What if, regardless of the deep-seated belief that we are not worthy of the love of God, that we have gone too far in sin or been too much of a disappointment to Him; what if the torment of the accuser and the heaviness of self-doubt, the negative things we believe about ourselves (whether self-imposed or heaped upon us) and the things that so easily beset us and keep us imprisoned and afraid could just be wiped away by one glimpse of ourselves in the eyes of our Maker, our own true, most genuine reflection? What if it could change everything?

I wish my mind wouldn’t argue with my heart

It splits the day apart

Into time well spent and time just thrown away

I wish my heart would please make up my mind

I’m wasting so much time

Gotta catch a glimpse of how it’s gonna be

When finally I look inside Your eyes and see

Reflections of Yourself in me

The way You always said it would be

When finally, I’m loving You like You love me

It happened oh, so easily I looked at You and it came to me ~ finally

Backstory {mine, anyway}

This song by Gary Chapman was an early-80s hit for T.G. Shepherd and I never thought of it as anything more than a country love song with a great melody – until about a year and a half ago, that is.

I’d read some research disproving what we’d always been told, that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” meaning as we age, we’ve lost brain cells and the ones we have are set like stone. What a horrible prognosis to believe that whatever we are, have thought and believe based on life’s input so far is just it, as if we are in a trap we can’t escape.

It isn’t true! I was fascinated to learn that science now proves the neuroplasticity of the brain, meaning our brains are not static. Our brains can be retrained to catch up to truth. The neural pathways can grow and be renewed and the grooves and driven river of thought which has cut defined paths into the landscape of our brains, sometimes taking us down painful passageways again and again, can be changed and healed and our beliefs and responses can be re-routed. Our minds and hearts and souls can be healed and set free of negative emotion and erroneous belief. Science caught up to the Word of God in proving we can, without a doubt, be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12.2), which is incredibly good news!

So, as I pondered the mind-blowing, brain-healing, course-altering, change-potential, joyful-relief possibilities – I came across this YouTube video of Gary Chapman singing. And the words represented the dilemma so well ~ the battle between our perceived reality and the hope that something can be different and that we are wholly, deeply and totally loved and accepted. If only we could finally grasp what is the truth of God’s heart towards us, wouldn’t it just alleviate the fear, the battle in our hearts and minds – wouldn’t it just bring relief?

I may or may not have mentioned {quite a few times} that I am reading Staci Eldredge’s Becoming Myself and it reminded me of that revelation and this song when she spoke of having a magnifying mirror that reveals all the things you’d rather not have revealed, but that the truest reflection is what we see in the eyes of Jesus, who He sees us to be.

Because you can just kick back and relax and enjoy the abundant life He came to bring so much more if you know you are everything God created you to be and are doing what He actually created you to do (rather than wrestling and clawing and scratching to try to do or be what you or anyone else thinks) and you just reflect Him like crazy – which is SO the point!

Finally!!!

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3.18 NKJV

Oh man – if we could just believe and receive His love. Wouldn’t it change everything?

…You’re my harbor in the storm I looked at You and the love in Your heart cut right through to me And my eyes can see ~ finally. -Gary Chapman

My prayer for you today, friends and familia~

“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.” Ephesians 3.18 Yes, may you be able to grasp it all…finally. Me, too.

The Plan

February 21, 20141 Christ is All, Stuff I Actually Thinkbreath, breathing, healing prayerJeanie

I told Dave this yesterday, but in case he forgets and because a written contract is always better, I have made my decision.

I do not want to (ultimately) die with anything that requires me being unable to breathe for months or days, or for even a few seconds, really.

The following is a list of ways I don’t want to die and includes, but is not limited to:

I don’t want to have bronchitis or pneumonia or any combination thereof.
I don’t want fluid in my lungs.
No lung disease.
No lung cancer, please.
I don’t want the air permanently knocked from me while sky-diving, mountain climbing, repelling or falling down the stairs.
No shortness of breath due to some unknown disease or deadly allergy, please.
No killer sneaking up from behind and covering my mouth and nose with his hand, nor a pillow smothering me.
I don’t wish to choke alone, unable to manage the Heimlich on myself. Worse – in a room full of people who cannot remember how to do the Heimlich Manuever.
I don’t want a rib (or any other sharp instrument, knife or bone) puncturing a lung.
I don’t want my alveoli poisoned by emphysema.
I refuse COPD.
I don’t want pulmonary hypertension, and no advance in the asthma they try to pin on me now.
I do not want blood clots in my lung arteries. Not. even. one.
No epiglottitus or blockage of my air passages in any way, shape or form, please.
Keep the croup away from me, too.

I have a pretty high pain tolerance. And I realize we cannot always just die peacefully in our sleep (or soaking up the sun on a beach in Maui) without experiencing some discomfort on our way out. But if I can put in an order and have it come true, well – this is mine. I want to be able to breathe until I can breathe my last. I need air.

Disclaimer & prayer: I am being a little silly. But sometimes, I don’t think we realize how important good oxygen is {in the form of a good, deep breath} to everything about our health and how being able to breathe, really breathe, is such a gift. It’s a GIFT! It seems like too many people we know face breathing problems and lung sicknesses when they are already otherwise sick or suffering, maybe even battling cancer and it makes it all the worse. Let’s not take even one breath for granted.

{breathe deeply here…thank God you can}

Today, I am praying for everyone I know who is experiencing breathing problems. May the Breath of Life {Himself} bring you deep oxygenation today – an intense concentration of O2 be released in you throughout your bloodstream. I pray respiratory relief as you breathe in and out, and may you experience peace as your pulmonary function finds its rhythm. I pray the *ruach-life-giving-breath of the Creator into your body, in Jesus’ Name.

The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life. – Job 33.4

*Ruach: the active power of the Spirit of God in the life-giving breath imparted to us.

The Lost & Found

February 11, 20141 Christ is All, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Thinkbecoming myself by staci eldredge, being found, being lost, o love that will not let me go, staci eldredgeJeanie

I once was lost, but now I’m found

In her book, Becoming Myself ~ Embracing God’s Dream of You*, Staci Eldredge says that on our journey to becoming who we were really created to be, we get lost now and then. I know that is true, because I have been lost several times. Each time I gather my bearings and get set back on track, I think it will never happen again – I’ll never be that far away from where I should be again.

“The road of life is filled with many tempting parking places.” – seen on my high school music room chalkboard…I may have been the person who wrote it there

I thought that was a hilarious quote when I was a teen-ager. But it hasn’t been the parking places that have gotten me off-course so much as my need for speed and the desire to get a move on – even before I know where I am really supposed to be going.

I got lost in the late 80s, then again in the early 90s (really lost). I got slightly off course in my late 30s and ended up in outer Siberia in 2006! And {true confession} I have been trying to find my way back to civilization in this most recent year or so. I got lost. Again.

And so – I LOVE this, yes, I do.

“For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” Luke 19.10 NLT

And I think of those paintings of Jesus with that one lost lamb in His arms and I realize I have always thought that meant He’d come for you before you were one of His actual followers, but then – you better stay in the flock. I thought each sheep got one pass for being found. Now I know – He comes and finds us every. single. time.

click image for source

His eye is on the sparrow – and I know He watches me

Not too long ago, in a time of deep soul-searching, pain and regret, I was questioning the love of God at all for me. Why would He, how could He (?) when I can make such a terrible mess of things, hurt people I love the most and somehow manage to ruin His entire plan of salvation for the whole earth by my ineptitude? (ego, anyone?)…I was having one of those snot-filled, Bible-clutching, for-such-a-worm-as-I moments declaring my utter worthlessness to God. My thought was – well, He is surely finished with me now. I won’t have more chances, He’ll discover what I always knew – I wasn’t worth saving to begin with. I have let Him down, for good.

Oh, it was ugly.

Suddenly, a very clear picture was in my mind. I won’t say it was a vision, except that I can still see it vividly and I do feel the God of the Universe imprinted something into my heart for good. I like to share it so my friends can remind me when I start feeling melancholy and sorry for myself – when I go off-track again.

Here is what I saw, in full-color:

A mom with a toddler entering a Target store. She puts the toddler on the floor for just a second with the instruction to stand right there while she gets the seat ready and cleaned and hoists her bag into the back of the cart. The toddler looks at her and down the aisle. And of course – that baby girl takes off down the main aisle between Health and Beauty and the grocery side. The mom calls out, the little girl looks back, but keeps going, passing aisle 6. I see the mom disentangling her hand from the straps she had been preparing in the seat for the little girl’s safety. I see customers strolling nonchalantly in front of her as she tries to break free and go. The little girl looks back, passes aisle 7, then aisle 8, then darts to the left. But the mommy knows exactly where she is, for in spite of all going on in that store, even though people were in her way – her gaze never lifted from her tiny treasure who was running madly down that store aisle. That was her girl, her baby and she pursued with gusto.

And I saw that scene in my mind’s eye and with it came the understanding. She had told that baby girl to stay right near her. But when the little one took off, she did not say, “Well – that’s fine. If she is not going to obey she can just go then. I am going home. I don’t need this.” No – the mom watched, and stayed focused, never losing sight and went to get her daughter. I think of the old hymn,

“O Love that will not let me go…”

Sometimes we do run out ahead. Sometimes we take off like a bat out of hell to go do good things, things we think will please God and we have darted to the right and then to the left and then when we crash we think we’re alone, but the loving gaze of the Father has been on us all along.

He imparted to my heart that day – where are you going? I’ll go there. If you turn right, I’ll turn right. If you go left, then I’ll follow you left – I am not going to lose sight of you. I have got you in my sights regardless of which way you go. Where do you want to go, Jeanie?

Scandulous, I thought!

Even if I make my bed in hell

My heart was pounding with this image of a small girl and her mommy in Target – wondering if I had concocted some imaginary view of Almighty God to make myself feel better, but His word confirms this for us:

Where could I go from Your Spirit? Or where could I flee from Your presence? If I ascend up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol (the place of the dead), behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. Psalm 139.7-10 AMP

I love how the NKJV translates verse 8, “If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.” Talk about a love that does not let go!

So, be encouraged…

Feeling lost? Did you get a great idea and take off down the aisle trying to move mountains for the Kingdom and finally end up in a place you can tell you don’t belong? Are you through trying to justify how you got here and willing to admit that your personal GPS failed you and you need directions? Can you admit you are desperately, wholly lost and need rescuing?

I have so been there. So just stop for a minute, and listen. He has not wiped His hands of you. The scar remains – the signifying mark of His dying and undying love for you. He has not cast you into utter darkness for disobedience and He totally, completely knows how to get you back to the narrow road. You are just lost. Listen:

“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’” Isaiah 30.21 NIV

And just like that! *snap of the fingers You are found. And that is some pretty amazing grace.

{{Learning to trust Jesus, learning to love Him because He first loved me, Jeanie}}

*CLICK HERE: Becoming Myself ~ Embracing God’s Dream of You, is available for Kindle for only 99-cents through February 19, 2014. Get it!

The countdown

February 10, 20141 Christ is All, Stuff I Actually ThinkJeanie

We have already used up the first 41 days of this “new” year. We have 324 left. I have 8360 goals on my to do list and haven’t even written down my resolutions yet…

When I think of time in chronos-mode, I freak out a little. *!*!*!*

“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Ps. 90:12

I don’t want to just live in some crazy pre-occupation with my own goals and dreams or New Year’s Resolutions and self-imposed disciplines to the point that I miss something simple and sweet, or that I end up just zooming past the things of real importance. I am a crazy list-maker and I hate the thought that I could make thousands of lists of admirable things to do and to be and totally miss the sweetness of the life God actually planned for me before I was even one day old (see Psalm 139).

“For David, after he had served God’s will and purpose and counsel in his own generation, fell asleep [in death] and was buried…” Acts 13.36

Obviously, I am past the halfway mark in the days I have left in life. How far past that mark, we don’t really know. I’m not being morbid-just realistic. But what I do know is that I wish to possess, before I am gone forever, a heart of wisdom, some lasting treasure I can leave behind that will bless the people I love who remain. And geez-Louise, I HOPE part of my eternal epitaph will be that I served God’s will and purpose for my generation while I lived – not my own or anyone else’s!

“One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts.” Psalm 145.4 NKJV

Coca Cola made this commercial.

Wow. They did a good job. You have to read the subtitles, but do. Watch. Listen to an old man with fresh wisdom. I’ll add the script below again.

This is a true story. In these hard times we bring together the oldest man with the youngest baby.

Hello Aitena. My name is Joseph Mascaro. I am 102 years old. I am a lucky guy. Lucky…for having been born. Like you. For being able to embrace my wife. For having known my friends and for having been able to say good-bye to them. For still being here.

You will ask yourself what is the reason I have come to visit you today. It’s because most people will say to you what a bad moment you’ve chosen to come in to the world. We’re in crisis, that’s not a good thing…Well, it’ll make you stronger. I’ve lived worse moments than this one. But in the end, you’ll remember only good things.

Don’t waste time with nonsense. There’s plenty of it. And go and find what makes you happy while you can since time slips away very quickly.

I’ve lived 102 years and I’ll happily live a few more. Because I promise you that the only thing you won’t like about life, is that life will seem too short. You’re here to be happy.

And while, yes, we live for much more than the fleeting happiness an ice-cold Coke can buy us (does my churchy-upbringing roar as loudly in your ears as it does in mine?), I think the observations of a man who has lived all the years he was promised and then some ring pretty similarly to the writer of Ecclesiastes. The “teacher” in the Bible concludes that life isn’t about the pursuit of contentment through what we accomplish career-wise or through the accoutrements of wealth and fame. It doesn’t come through pleasure-seeking, and there is even futility in seeking knowledge. We just try so many things and in the end, there is so much of all we have toiled and strived over that just doesn’t matter.

He seems to suggest we should go, before we’re too old. to enjoy life (the word “joy” is in there). And eat, because bread was made for laughter, one translation expresses it (and feast for strength not for drunkenness, btw). Drink, enjoy, do, work hard (whatever work you do – do it with all your might) and give generously, open-handedly. Ecclesiastes says to always be clothed in white and always have your head anointed with oil (the anointing of the Holy Spirit) which is a reminder to strip off the black clothes and ashes of mourning and sorrow. And to wear the clothing of celebration and new life – that is how to live!

Good things I want to do everyday

I really want my everyday list to be so lofty that it is actually, physically impossible. Yes. I admit it. If I told you what I really always try to put on the list (and fail so miserably at), you’d see, like I am finally seeing, it is too much. I am only human, with limited hours in a day. You, too. But maybe I could manage a list like this, every day:

Be kind.
Sing my head off.
Love deeply – because why else?
Worship God with all I’ve got.
Dream big.
Smile like crazy.
Laugh ’til I cry.
Encourage a friend.
Give grace.
Share joy.
Create beauty.
Pray without ceasing.
Cultivate courage.
Work hard.
Rest easy.
Enjoy life.

But ~ the conclusion when all has been said and done – is to love God and keep His commandments. {Ecclesiastes 12.13}

It is really the final word on the matter of this little thing called {abundant} life. The BEST question I ever ask myself, the one that keeps me on track is not, “What time is it???” but rather: “What is this time for?” Try that on for size.

Go. Read Ecclesiastes. In one sitting. Because it will only take about 35-40 minutes at pulpit-reading pace. And there is wisdom there.

Colorado on Ice

February 7, 20141 Christ is All, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually ThinkJeanie

I am freezing here in Colorado!

Ice crystals on all the trees. Pretty.

It is like we are living in the Disney Frozen movie! Perhaps partially because today I’ll be fashioning a 3-foot “Olaf” combination cake/Rice-Krispie-Treat for Averi’s 6th birthday celebration and there just happens to be a 4′ backdrop painting of Olaf here, too, courtesy of Grand-poppa! So besides actually being beyond-believable COLD, Olaf is hanging around my house.

{Big Frozen party Saturday! Because Averi is 6!}

Um, The Broncos lost.

But didn’t Gavin do a nice chalkboard, anyway?

And I don’t like football anyway – how did I get sucked in to that horrible game? But Payton Manning seems like an honorable athlete. Here is a win, though – my friend Pearl carved a snow sculpture in her front yard before the game. Cool, huh?

So Donald Miller opened {this} can of worms the other day

“I Don’t Worship God by Singing. I Connect with Him Elsewhere.

“It’s just that I don’t experience that intimacy in a traditional worship service. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of sermons I actually remember. So to be brutally honest, I don’t learn much about God hearing a sermon and I don’t connect with him by singing songs to him. So, like most men, a traditional church service can be somewhat long and difficult to get through.

“So, do I attend church? Not often, to be honest.”

And when I read it, I thought, “You crazy guy – do you know what you’ve done???” Because it doesn’t matter how many years of perfect gold star attendance pins you’ve earned, if you’re not showing up regularly now, there will be trouble!

His post got more than 400 comments , a follow-up post from Mr. Miller, himself and several other bloggers chiming in on the topic. These two are thought-provoking responses I read (but oh my goodness – there are many more out there):

Mike Cosper wrote about “Donald Miller and the Culture of Contemporary Worship” and this is a true saying, I know it.

“…Miller, like so many others, has said, “No thanks. Doesn’t work for me.” And in this sense, I don’t blame him. But his solution is no less tragic. His new liturgy will orient his life around himself or around his work, and these masters will be as cruel and disappointing as any mega-church or celebrity pastor has ever been.”

Jonathan Leeman (The Gospel Coalition) wrote an open letter, “Dear Donald Miller” and made some strong points without just launching an attack, thank-you!

“And here’s where the rubber meets the road: I don’t know how we can say we love and belong to the church without loving and belonging to a church.”

Finally, here is Donald Miller’s follow-up: Why I Don’t Go to Church Very Often, a Follow Up Blog where he answers some of the more critical comments with thoughtful explanation.

I will tell you I have stood firmly on both sides of the topic, depending on whether I was full-time church staff, honestly. Yes, honestly. I can make a great case for the importance of the Body of Christ not neglecting the regular gathering and meeting together for the purpose of encouraging each other (Hebrews 10.25-26). But I have also been a part of local churches that could have been summarized, when I finally got honest with myself, with Paul’s cutting words to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 11.17)

“Your meetings do more harm than good.”

Now you know I was born a church girl. You know my very first sentence, spoken freely and repeated with glee hundreds of times was, “I’m gonna go to church!” And I think we (me, too) especially, us Western-Church types have botched it so badly. We have made a law of church attendance, idols of pulpit-people and rock stars of worship bands, practically enacting a shunning if some one doesn’t thrive on a steady diet of programs and personalities. We’ve beat people with the church-attendance-is-the-test-of-righteousness bat or we’ve produced slick services meant to entice and lure them in with our “cool.” And maybe we have missed the point completely of the gathering – meaning we may actually be doing things wrong to begin with?

“His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ’s body (the church…

From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Ephesians 4.16

Nonetheless, while I find myself in a church-search currently, these words by Anne Ortlund in her book, Love Me with Tough Love, compose a life-guiding question (one I have asked myself many times over many years) in light of the way the New Testament describes what the Church was, and how it worked at its’ inception. And the answer to it is important – way more important than just where you are on Sunday mornings at 9 o’clock!

“Have I placed myself so deeply within a living, functioning local body that I myself am functioning in all these ways, and so living as a well-rounded, healthy, contributing member of the Body of Christ?”

Something to think about, yes?

Retweeted by Jeanie Rhoades 02.03.14

T. S. Harris?@T_S_Harris· Feb 3 “The animated Church inhales God’s power and presence and is then able to exhale the embodiment of the risen Christ.” @lensweet #mrinow

A deal you should not miss out on!

Hurry-just 99-cents for Staci Eldredge’s Becoming Myself: Embracing God’s Dream of You {click here}. SUCH a deal! Get it. Read it. Them come to my house and watch the video series she put together because Ransomed Heart sent it to me! Yayyyyy! Who is in?

Amelie Belle’s Progress Report

She knows how to pack her own lunch box. A+

She works hard. A+

She makes her Nonna happy. A+

In super “cool,” but slightly warmer news

We have been able to use our fireplace much more often this year. Usually we just don’t because it’s too hot. But this year? Very nice. Toasty.

See? THIS is what happens when I don’t blog for over a week. It all comes crashing out in a tumble of odds and ends. Whew.

The End.

Dust it Off

January 27, 20141 Christ is AllJeanie

“Chinese Christians open Bibles for the first time.”

Do you know where your Bible (or any one of the 17 copies you probably own) is?