Bibliomania—Part Two

Hi! My name is June and I am a Bibliomaniac!

I'm beginning to see that I may just need to lay down some rules about book buying, even though it goes totally against my great thirst for collecting. Okay, so I went shopping at the Dallas Half Price Books again…three days later! In my own defense, when my best friend, Christi, arrived in town, being a bibliomaniac herself (as well as my partner in crime in regards to breaking the bank on book purchases), I felt she deserved nothing less than her own trip to the Dallas store.

Tuesday, Christi and I departed with great anticipation of great book deals. This was her first trip there and the excitement was obvious. Christi drove as we conversed the entire way. I'll blame the poorly marked intersection as the reason we missed our turn and not our intense conversation. On the bright side, our 15 minute detour in the wrong direction afforded us the luxury of looking at some absolutely beautiful homes and landscapes near Highland Park in Dallas.

Christi was awed when she first walked through the doors of the bookstore. I was so thankful I got to share that moment with her, as I assumed she felt much as I had on the previous Saturday. There really is a lot to take in!

We stopped to eat lunch at the attached café and to grab a cup of coffee. No use shopping while hungry. Afterward we attempted to stay together and look around but finally realized that it just wasn't working. We split up and went our own separate directions, each of us having our own slightly different taste in books. Every now and again we would text each other and meet up to discuss our latest find.

Finally we headed to a table—a shopping cart full of treasures, and enjoyed some pastries and coffee while perusing eagerly through our books. We had spent about 4 hours shopping thus far. Wow—were there ever some books! We had a stack between us.

I tried to remind myself that I had already purchased 47 books for the month and that I really didn't need more. However, I had ventured to the fiction section in hopes to find some fiction with real meat on the bones. I checked out a few authors that were recommended to me based on previous reading. To add to my challenge, I happened upon the fiction sale and clearance section. What a delicious find! So many great deals for just a buck or two. Some things you just can't pass up!

At the table, books stacked high, enjoying our coffee and calorie-free (NOT) desserts, we began talking about our discoveries. Of course I had to look at all of her books and she at mine--just in case one of us had found something that the other needed. Actually, that happened. Thanks to her I got a great mushroom cookbook on clearance and another on making salsa. I had just told my husband I wanted to start making my own salsa!

I can't tell you how painful and time consuming it was, sorting through the many books trying to decide which ones would go home with me. I was pleased that I was able to walk away with only 13 books. Hey—do you see that stack of books in the photos! I thought 13 to be conservative! And--all but three were from the clearance section. Two that were not were for my son, Wesley, in honor of my promise to bring him something home if he was good for his daddy. A little book bribery goes a long way!

It was a perfect trip for me. All six hours! My best friend, books, coffee, and sweets! How do you top that one?!!

(above: the 7 books standing up were only $1 each. The Far Side was for the hubby)

To ice the cake, Christi, Wesley, and I headed to the pool to cool off and relish the day after our Dallas adventure. We had such a relaxing time in the water. We hung out until close to 11pm.

It is what I call a perfect day full of great memories…well, all except for one mishap, but that is not my story to tell!

I'm giving it an A+

Oh—I almost forgot! Concerning the rules I need to lay down for myself (see opening line):

(Maybe) I need to read at least 4 books before I go book shopping again.

Unless there is a super sale somewhere.

Unless I have a great coupon that will expire.

Unless I just happen across something--by accident, which I simply know will make my life better.

Unless….well……

I'm really trying to stick with the 'read 4 books before you buy more' rule of thumb, but….life happens.

I'll get back with you later on this one. Until then—read a book!

Bibliomania

As a Bibliomaniac, Saturday was a great adventure for me. We started a tradition in my family that rather than celebrate our birthday for a solitary day, we get entire birthday weeks. Saturday was the last of my birthday week and celebration of turning forty-seven. To borrow and old saying—it went out with a bang!

If you don’t like books and don’t like reading, then you probably won’t enjoy reading this I finally made the thirty minute trip to the Dallas, TX Half Price Books store! I am a big fan of Half Price Books, and have wanted to go to this one for quite some time. It is huge and is made even better by its accompanying Black Forest Café where you can enjoy coffee, tea, sandwiches, and a variety of sweets. What can be more perfect than a bookstore, books in hand and a hot—or iced as was the case, latte! Oops, did I fail to mention the comfy chairs?!

I was in my element! Because I savor the entire experience of shopping for books, meandering down most every isle, my husband and son, age 6, knew they needed a back-up plan while I shopped. After a bit of browsing, they headed to the nearby Dave and Busters to play some games and then visited Hobbytown USA. They were blown away by the latter as evidenced by the constant chatter all the way home over details of the store’s merchandise and cool displays. As of today, we are planning a repeat trip to a Hobbytown USA that is just up the street from us (who would have guessed—yay MapQuest)!

But back to me--the bibliomaniac, celebrating my birthday. I spent four hours perusing isles and looking through books. Prior to leaving I reorganized my iPhone list of books that I wanted. I typed it out in alphabetical order by author’s last name. I had four pages. To be extra certain, I took pictures of my present collection of books with my iPhone so that I could zoom in and check the books I already own just in case I came across something that I couldn’t recall having bought already. Are you starting to understand bibliomania a bit better?

(below: the cute journals I found--I especially love the big hair!)
After picking up two adorable journals (above), I headed to the Christian literature section. My favorite. I started at the ‘As’ and headed to the ‘Zs’. I was pleased to find several of the books from my list along with a few others. Next it was to the Psychology and self-help sections to pick up a couple more. And lastly I headed to the Literature section. I decided to go ahead and buy a couple pieces of fiction this go ‘round. I normally don’t buy fiction. I save that for library check-outs. But, now and again I come across an author I like enough to actually purchase the books with the intent to read them over and again.

In between the lovely browsing, I had an iced latte on two separate occasions and made two related trips to the bathroom. Naturally, there was a huge clearance section near the bathroom which I just simply had to browse. Lucky for me because

I found two great books just waiting for a home!


Above top: two bargain books
below: Lisa See--one of the fiction writers that I really enjoy.

All in all, I ended up with nineteen new books! New to me anyway—slightly used may be more accurate. I attempted to share my bliss with my husband and son, but they seemed to think my books purchases paled in comparison to their adventure to the hobby store and the new Terminator game at Dave and Busters. Oh, well! To each his own! I knew a few people on Facebook that would be thrilled with the news because they can appreciate books for the treasures they are!

(above: son's artwork at Macaroni Grill; he loves drawing on the table.)

Afterwards, as if I needed any more bliss, my family took me to a nearby Macaroni Grill. I ordered my all-time favorite make-your-own-pasta-dish. I had the whole wheat penne pasta with pesto sauce, roasted garlic, sun dried tomatoes, and fresh spinach. Yum! Prior to my main course, I got to try the new Mediterranean vinaigrette on my garden salad. It was truly amazing (I need to learn to make one like that!)

Heading home, listening to the details of my husband and son’s adventures, I was anticipating going through my new books, one by one, and reliving the experience of having discovered them there on the shelf. It was all I could do to listen to the conversation!

Presently the collection is sitting on the ottoman footstool waiting for me to make room for them on one of my many bookshelves. My husband reminds me that we are out of space on the shelves for books as if that is a deterrent to buying more books. I tell him that you can never have too many books and that stacks of books here and there look just fine!

I just realized that I have purchased 47 books from the Half Price Books store in a month’s time. OK, but before you judge me—let me just say that I bought them all at incredible prices and with percentage off coupons.

Happy end of a birthday to me….until next year!

I’m off to read a book!

Bib-li-o-ma-ni-a [bib-lee-oh-mey-nee-uh, -meyn-yuh]

--noun

Excessive fondness for acquiring and possessing books. (dictionary.com)

--or—

An exaggerated preoccupation with the acquisition and ownership of books.

(The American Heritage Dictionary)

Umpire of Peace

As the thermometer reading rises in acceptance of triple digit temperatures, my hope for an unusual & unseasonal bout of cold air swoons. I begin to envision things that can be done in the air-conditioned comfort of home. I plot how to avoid the out of doors and thus escape the exhausting heat. All the while I am trying my best to stifle the dread that always seems to accompany the extreme summer temperatures.

Nonetheless, I am not here to write about the heat (thank goodness), but rather another sort of thermometer that came to mind while reading Colossians this morning; an internal, spiritual thermostat of sorts. I speak of none other than the peace of Jesus in the heart of the believer.

Allow me to explain after reading the following scripture:

Col 3:15

15 And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] to which as [members of Christ's] one body you were also called [to live]. And be thankful (appreciative), [giving praise to God always]. AMP

As Christians we are instructed to let peace rule as the umpire in our hearts. What would happen if we actually did this--all the time--in everything? What if each time we faced a desire to do, to go, to buy, to say, to act—we paused first to get the reading of our heart peace? And, we listened to that small still voice inside us that often can only be heard in terms of that feeling of peace or lack of such?

How would things change? What would be different?

Can you think of anything that you would not have done or would have done differently? I can think of so many. Items bought and never used that on impulse I felt I needed. The fitness club membership that I added that was never used but quite costly. That thing I said that I felt so uneasy about and now wish I could recant. Regrets: Regrets from failing to let Peace rule!

Sometimes I think we become too good at reasoning, justifying, making sense of why we should carry out our plans all the while ignoring the uneasy, unsettling feeling we have deep inside. Or perhaps the unsettled feeling just doesn’t make any sense. Perhaps that which we are looking at and longing for is truly needed and would appear to be such a blessing to us—it’s so sensible, but yet—that nagging lack of peace is consistently on the peripheral. We can’t explain it, so--we ignore it! Been there and done that one time too many.

Listen to what God’s word says about this peace in the following verse:

Phil 4:7

7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. KJV

The peace which comes to us is not a peace that comes from our own doing, our own reasoning, or our own intellect. Quite the contrary. This is a peace that comes from God which transcends our understanding and our reasoning ability. We are assured that by following it, it will keep our hearts and minds.

Being sensitive to the Spirit and the leading of the Spirit is often as simple as listening to our heart. I’m not referring to the heart that we so casually refer to which is the same as the soul of man which is comprised of the mind, will, and emotions. For it is here that the root of fleshly lusts reside and our sinful nature wishes to rule! I speak of the heart that refers to that core of the believer, his essence—man’s spirit, where the Holy Spirit resides. It is here that we find the small, still voice dwelling of which I speak.

The peace of Christ is a powerful indicator. Sometimes it is as simple as the unrest that we feel--even when it doesn’t make a bit of sense that we would feel such, cautioning us not to proceed as planned. Or, times when we have total peace over a decision (that also lines up with the Word of God) and are prompted to proceed forward in spite of the fact that it seems to make so little sense to the natural man. Or, in spite of the fact that it may seem so politically incorrect. Stay-at-home moms come to mind. I recall many stories of women feeling prompted by the Word of God and His Spirit to stay home and be moms first and foremost. That heart peace was so evident in their decisions and yet they knew it didn’t work on paper and didn’t make sense to the world that puts emphasis on possessions over all else. And yet, their stories are remarkable as they dared to live as they were led by the Spirit (evidenced by the peace), and the awesome ways that God supplied needs, opened doors, and even restored strained marriages! Somehow, through it all—God always knows best (imagine that)!!

At times when we find ourselves in a seeming constant state of unrest in our spirit, it would do us good to stop and examine ourselves before the Lord. It would be a good idea to pray and ask God to show us where we got off track and stopped following His will. When the peace leaves, more often than not, we are out of the will of God and following our own path. Somehow we have begun to follow our own desires and failed to seek the reading on the spiritual heart thermometer.

I can’t afford to live without the peace of God! It is the evidence of God’s promise that my heart and mind is being kept—kept in line with God’s will for my life and on the right path—the one that leads ultimately to the final prize of eternal life.

Stop and listen! Examine your own heart. Are you comforted by the peace of the Lord? And peace does not mean that your life is sailing smoothly without a trial. Not in the least! In the midst of our trials, our struggles, we can still find the heart peace that assures us that we are in His perfect plan!

If you find that you are lacking such peace and have been for a while, I encourage you to seek the Lord. He cares and will show you where you got off track and help you step back into His plan. We all find ourselves, from time to time, in places of unrest where God’s peace is nowhere to be found. Places where our thermostat readings have gone askew and are in need of adjustment. God will adjust us if we allow Him. We can’t conjure up lasting peace. Only the peace that comes from God, our Father, is genuine and able to carry us across the finish line!

Loving Father—thank you for the peace that you have promised us through Jesus Christ! Tune us in, Lord, making us sensitive to our inner heart—Your inner workings, and acutely aware of Your leading. Let our minds and hearts be kept secure in the peace that comes only from following Your will. Let that will-- Your will, be done in and through us!
In Jesus name we pray. Amen!

Discouragement

Sometimes it’s all too easy to get bogged down, overwhelmed, and discouraged by our circumstances. We may find our self, if not careful, deeply involved in our own pity-party. Discouragement—such a powerful tool of our enemy! It so easily swallows us, robbing us of hope and distracting us from our purpose. Our focus, amidst the discouragement, begins to shift until we become totally fixated on our insignificant smallness in contrast to our mounting obstacle of circumstances. And this is exactly what the enemy hopes for. But, as always, the enemy uses a twisted truth (thus a lie) as bate on his hook when hoping to lure us into despair. The truth is—we are much smaller than many of life’s challenges. Inept at handling so many crises on our own. But the truth doesn’t stop there, unless the only voice we hear is the enemy speaking through discouragement.

The truth is—life is bigger than we. Period! But, we are not in this alone! We are not cast off, allowed to struggle unavailingly on our own. We have an awesome God! Psalm brings this into focus.

Ps 61:2-3

2 From the end of the earth will I cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed and fainting; lead me to the rock that is higher than I [yes, a rock that is too high for me].

3 For You have been a shelter and a refuge for me, a strong tower against the adversary.
AMP

This was the little nugget God handed me this morning after a day of pity-party throwing yesterday. I needed just such redirection! There are times when life seems too big--like an ocean tide that swells and comes crashing down upon us. The sand grabbing frantically at our feet—pulling us and knocking us down. We are swept away. We cough and sputter with mouthfuls of water, gasping for air. On our own we would surely drown. Enter our Mighty God!

How comforting to know that during these times, He is our sheltering rock. He lifts and places us high above our stormy situations. He places us securely on the rock. A solid place. A firm foundation. He becomes our shelter, our refuge, our strong tower in which we find peace and hope. He shelters us from our adversary, who sometimes comes disguised as overly large doses of discouragement and self-pity.

If only Satan could keep us here—we would remain defeated, he being our victor. And, oh, how he tries! But, God always makes a way of escape. And, if we find our self feeling too weary and overwhelmed to stand or fight the waves, we only need to call out to Him. When we realize we have no strength to climb into that safe place of shelter from the storm, He has promised to ‘lead [us] to the rock that is higher than [we]’.

In our own strength we fail. Looking to Him and leaning into His strength, He is able to lift us above the tossing waves to a place that is above ourselves, ‘yes, a rock that is too high for me’. A place our spirit can find rest that is only obtainable with the intervention of our very personal God. We could never arrive here on our own! But, God is our Rescuer and Refuge!

How thankful I am today of this simple reminder in Psalm 61 that when I feel like a failure, stuck in my dead-end pity-party, overwhelmed with the demands of life, I only really need to stop and call on Jesus. Whatever I need to accomplish that is impossible in my own strength, I can and will accomplish in His. He is able to place my spirit in the quiet refuge under the Father’s wing, allowing me to surrender my weaknesses unto Him until I am emptied and able to receive His power! And, it is there, high on the rock of His strength, that the enemy is defeated and my victory is won!

The Irony

There is no denying that warmer temperatures have danced in and out lately. And, no denying that I've had to switch the air from heat to cold. As I look around I see and smell the trees blooming and flowers opening. I would love to see it all with more enthusiasm, but it only reminds me of the hot summer that lays ahead. We are known here in Texas for our blistery summer days with triple digit temperatures! I know some of you out there love that. I despise it to the utmost!

But, today is the 1st day of spring and I awakened to seven inches of snow. What a contrast to see winter's snow masquerade spring's beginning off-shoots. What a sight! I don't know which one shone more brightly--the white covering on the ground or the huge smile across my face. I told my husband that it is obvious God has a great sense of humor to shower us with so much snow on this 1st celebrated day of spring! And I thanked the Lord wholeheartedly. I told Him I knew He had not sent it just for me but I was certainly thanking Him as if He had! I ADORE the snow!! I was born for the upper states. I know it! I was not born to live out the heat in a Texas town. The heat can dampen my spirit quicker than almost anything!

But this is not about me or the snow or the heat. It is about something entirely different, but something that I was reminded of while relishing the beauty.

God has the final say, doesn't He? No matter what others may say, or what society may dictate, or what the rules declare, God is God. He is in control! He can do whatever He will. He can make it snow when Nature has already opened her arms to receive the spring. And this thought, snow out of season, brings me hope.

No matter what, it is not over until God says so. He has a way of making each day new. Each day can be a fresh start. Just as the snow blankets everything giving it a clean, glimmering look, God comes into our lives daily with new mercy and new blessings.

Even when everything in your life dictates to you that you should give up, or that it is over, or that there is no more need to try in your situation. Even then, God in His perfect timing, shows up with Mercy and Hope--dusting over all the failures, questions, & pain, making the slate new and clean again beckoning us to believe once more. To try anew and not give up! He declares to us that there is hope and new possibility each and every day.

I love the first glimpse of the morning snow before anyone has walked through and disturbed it. With my 1st glimpse today, I just stood there in amazed appreciation, and then I thought about how much this is just like God. Each morning we wake up to a clean slate and only when we begin to drag our baggage of yesterday's failures and disappointments through it do we begin to see the freshness and newness sullied by our past. If only we could savor such newborn moments. Keep them fresh in undisturbed beauty. If only... Yet, we must decide what we will do with the new day of fresh snow. Will we make snow angels and snowmen to enhance the beauty that much the more? Will we rejoice in the new day upon us? Or will we clutter it with yesterday's shortcomings and the cruel dictates of Life that tell us we are finished?

Each day that we take a breath is a day to celebrate. We never know what it holds for us. Yet we know that God is there with us. Guiding us. Today may just hold the breakthrough you've been waiting for! Don't pick up yesterday's leftovers and drag them into today. Determine the path that you will make. Decide carefully where you will step. Lean into the Lord and follow where He leads.

This is the day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it!

Mindsets

Many have situations or things about themselves they would like to change. I mean, do we ever not have something? I have my doubts. But, how do we go about changing? Where do we start? We can find the answer to this in Ephesians--take special notice of vs. 23.

Eph 4:22-24

22 Strip yourselves of your former nature [put off and discard your old unrenewed self] which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusion;

23 And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude],

24 And put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God's image, [Godlike] in true righteousness and holiness.

AMP


To change our behavior we must first change our mindset!

We must change the way we think about whatever it is we want changed. We must daily renew our minds! It’s a simple mathematical equation really: wrong thoughts lead to wrong actions and right thoughts lead to right actions! Sounds pretty simple when put that way.

So, what area in your life are you struggling with today? Take inventory of the thoughts and attitudes you hold toward that ’thing’ you are wanting changed. What do you see? You might be surprised. What we think is a powerful thing. Our thoughts, held long enough, become the truth that we respond to--even if our thoughts are far from truthful. Even when they are askew, we will embrace that which we think on long enough as our own truth. To break the cycle, we must take an honest look at ourselves.

A word of caution: It is easy during self-reflection to begin to compare ourselves to others and create for ourselves an atmosphere of defeat. Or, to use others to help us feel justified in our wrong thinking and acting. When we begin to lay out the pieces of ourselves, we must be careful to lay them before the Lord and to compare ourselves only to His Word. It is in this process of being open in fellowship with Him that true renewing of our minds occurs.

Our minds are renewed when we begin to see through eyes of faith. When we begin to see things as God sees them. Daily we must seek after God and be renewed. We need a fresh vision to take residence in our minds! We need God’s vision!


I applied this principle recently to a problem area in my life. When dealing with my own personal struggle to lose weight, I had to capture a new mindset for myself. I had to change some warped thinking. I had to quit telling myself I couldn’t do the work to lose weight because of the one hundred plus excuses I came up with. And--I had to quit waiting for someone to come along and do it for me.

I had to go before the Lord and ask for help. I desperately needed to be delivered from some very self-destructive habits!

And, I discovered a very powerful thought that frequently sabotaged my efforts. I noticed that I used excuses for overeating. Birthdays. A friend’s visit. Movie night. The weekend. Lots of little ‘celebrations‘. And each time, I would tell myself to go ahead and blow it off and start new tomorrow. Pretty soon I saw that each tomorrow seemed to hold its own celebration or excuse as to why I should, once again, put off eating right and exercising, until the next tomorrow. This was a very unhealthy pattern. One that left me needing to lose over 100 pounds!

One day as I was reading about the Proverbs 31 woman, I came across the scripture in verse 17 which states:


She girds herself with strength (spiritual, mental, and physical fitness for her God-given task) and makes her arms strong and firm.

That was a light bulb moment for me. It was as if the Lord jumped right off of that page and spoke those words directly to me. I realized that I was not trapped in an overweight body without the power to change. I realized that I was not on this journey alone. God wanted me to be physically fit! He would not call me to do something that He would not empower me to do. I was not alone! He was my strength. He was not asking me to do it on my own, but asking me to surrender to Him to do it in His strength.

That moment I caught a glimpse of a much more fit me through the eyes of a loving Father. I saw that He wanted that for me. He desired that too! It was an empowering revelation. And, it was the start to my own renewed mindset concerning my body and my health.

I have cast off the old way of thinking and shredded the old habit that wanted me to ‘wait until tomorrow’ to get it together. We don’t have the promise of tomorrow. And Jesus prayed that God would give us our daily bread. Not weekly. Not monthly. Daily! He has given me wisdom concerning which new steps to take along my weight loss journey. And He has provided me the strength for each one. I even feel enthusiasm--born from the hope He placed in me that came from glimpsing how He saw me.

So--how about it? What are you waiting for? What lie(s) have you believed? What habit has kept you prisoner to a bad situation? Ask God to renew your mind. To give you a fresh vision. To help you see yourself through His eyes. Ask God to lead you and to allow you to make the necessary changes through His strength.

Feel Him beside you. You are not alone!

　

Sweet heavenly Father,

As we daily lay before you--sweep over us. Wash through us--scraping away the deposits of doubt and despair that have attached themselves. Swallow up the lies that the enemy has planted. Renew us in You and in Your purpose. Sweep our minds clean of anything other than what reflects You. Give us new vision to see ourselves and our circumstances as You do…with hope…with endless possibilities. Allow us the privilege of feeling Your presence and remind us throughout our day that we are not alone. That You are our strength. Go before us and be light to our pathway. Oh, Lord--heal us (of wrong thinking & doing) and we will be healed. Save us (from the results of skewed thinking) and we will be saved! (adapted from Jer. 17:14)

In Jesus Name,

Amen

　

　

Faith that Works

I was reading in James chapter 2 this morning when I came across the well-known verse dealing with faith and works and concluding that faith not backed by works is dead. Agreeably, I stopped to ask myself, 'what works in my life can I say reflect my faith? What deeds can I say I've done that support my faith?' And I kept asking myself this question because I could not come up with any concrete answer. I found this disturbing!

I took these questions with me as I took my morning walk. And I kept asking myself and kept feeling frustrated with my inability to find an answer.

Then it hit me--I couldn't find an answer because I was walking around looking upward into the sky for some great monumental skyscraper of a thing that I had done that had Christian written in flashing lights. I was simply looking in the wrong place.

I wish I could say to you that my faith has lead me to dangerous missions work where my life is constantly at risk. That would sound grand. But I cannot. And I realized, that is OK.

So I took a glance back on the year past and asked the question yet again, this time looking more at the path where I had walked, and the little tidbits of leaves and stones and debris scattered across it. And I saw the truth. It is in those little things scattered throughout our life where our faith can be seen--where its fruit is evident.

Simple works! Smaller deeds! And I began to see some of my faith sprinkled along the way. Times when I kept a friend's children so that she could be with her husband on an outing instead of relaxing to that movie I'd anticipated all week. Meals cooked and shared with others. A phone call to say 'I'm thinking of you' or 'you were on my mind.' An open house to family needing a place to stay--giving up a bit of privacy and my customary way of doing things to be accommodating. All these little things where we sacrifice ourselves for another show our faith in God. They speak of love. And loving one another is at the very heart of God. These deeds show our faith's attempt at embracing the whole of who God is in us.

James says it is not enough to see others in need and simply say I'm praying for you. If your brother is hungry--feed him. If he is thirsty--give him a drink. That is faith in action!

So, perhaps faith in action is demonstrated when, in Wal-mart, you allow the woman behind you with the child approaching meltdown to go ahead of you in the checkout line. In spite of the fact that you are rushed and tired and hungry. Or maybe it is surrendering the parking place to the woman with the car full of children, even if it means you will have to walk farther and it is raining. And maybe it is acted upon when you decide to cook the meal your husband really wants that takes a couple of hours in the kitchen. Even if a bowl of oatmeal would have been enough for you. And you still have a long to-do list. And your back hurts.

Are you getting the picture? In some way our life must express our faith in God, our belief in Him--our Christianity. If it doesn't then we might need to ask ourselves why. It's not enough to merely confess our faith; we must live it--out loud!

So, ask yourself the question today that I asked myself. And be encouraged when you can see the fruit of your faith. I was. I was encouraged and inspired to do more. To love more. To care more. To give more.

In the end, after all, the goal is really about becoming more like Jesus. And our faith in God and that He dwells within us should be lived out in such a way that it brings us closer to this goal.


What are you doing to live your faith aloud?




^14-17Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? (James 2:14-17, The Message)