Diving Back Into My Utmost For His Highest

Back in college (I think) I started reading the devotional My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers.  I don't remember how I picked up on it.  It is very good.  It is not trendy and doesn't necessarily speak to any sort of specific issue of the day or particular struggle.  It is deeper than that.  Rather academic.  Or maybe it just feels that way because it uses bigger more academic sounding words.  Fluffy it is not. It is not necessarily something that encourages in a way that just puffs up.   It can cut to the core in a way that challenges.  I've recently started reading it again and it has not disappointed.  Here's an excerpt from today:

 "What our Lord wants us to present to Him is not our goodness, honesty, or our efforts to do better, but real solid sin.  Actually, that is all He can take from us.  And what He gives us in exchange for our sin is real solid righteousness."

Buy it here.

Also, if you go to the My Utmost For His Highest website, you can read today's full reading.

What Really Changed After The Resurrection? (A Challenge For Lent)

What Really Changed After The Resurrection? (A Challenge For Lent)

The post above echoes some of the thoughts I've been having lately.  If I am claiming to follow Christ, then what should that look like?  What should be my day-to-day actions?  If my faith is only in my head and even in if it's in my heart too what good is it?  The Bible says that faith without works is dead.  It also says that nothing I can do can earn my place in heaven, it's only grace that gets me there.  I can't earn my salvation, but do I really have a faith that's changed me if my actual actions don't show it?  Hands and feet.  Hands and feet of Jesus is what I'm supposed to be.

Spring Break Unbusy

We are in the middle of spring break.  In the midst of all of our snow days, we now have a week off.  The positive side of things is that the outdoor temperature is in the mid-20's today.  Our days have been easy.  We've slept in, hung out, watched t.v.  We had dentist appointments that resulted in having to schedule more dentist appointments.  Laundry is always part of the day and apparently my children can't practice their music lessons without leaving their music on the floor when they're done.  Today I made cookies, which I rarely do.  I am finding myself itching to be able to hang the clothes outside on the line, but the winter view out my window tells me that's not happening.  So we keep busy....or not so busy inside on this wintery spring break day.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am sure that neither life nor death, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,

nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

~Romans 8:37-39

Links to Explore on the topic of Lent:

40 Ideas for Lent 2014~Rachel Held Evans
The One Big Question Today is Really Asking You~Ann Voskamp, A Holy Experience

Sometimes You Find Out You Don't Really Know Everything About Someone

"This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person he puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only he can see."   ~Corrie ten Boom