MM Meditation - Want Your Suffering to End?

The following is an exerpt from A.W. Tozer's book I Call It Heresy!  I always appreciate his insights and his powerful way of speaking the truth in love.  He does not tickle ears, nor did he bask in having a following and creating a name for himself.  He only desired to elevate Christ.  You may receive a email daily devotional with Tozer exerpts here.

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But He knows the way that I take;

when He has tested me,

I shall come forth as gold. --Job 23:10

God has said He will exalt you in due time, but remember, He is referring to His time and not yours!

Some of you are actually in a fiery furnace right now. You are in a special kind of spiritual testing. The pastor may not know it and others may not know it, but you have been praying and asking the Lord: "Why don't you get me out of this?"

In God's plan it is not yet "due time." When you have come through the fire, God will get you out and there will not be any smell of smoke on your garment and you will not have been harmed.

The only harm that can come will be from your insistence that God must get you out sooner than He plans.

The Lord has promised to exalt you in due time and He has always kept His promises to His people.

As children, we can always afford to wait. A saint of God does not have to be concerned about time when he is in the will of God. I Call It Heresy! pp. 116-117

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I love Tozer's line that "there will not be any smell of smoke on your garment."

When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were tossed into the fiery furnace,

they proved this is true.

Daniel 3: 26-27

So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire,

 and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them.

They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies,

nor was a hair of their heads singed;

their robes were not scorched,

and there was no smell of fire on them.

What made this happen?  The answer for these men and for us is in verse 25:

"He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire,

unbound and unharmed,

and the fourth looks like a

son of the gods.”

The pre-incarnate Christ was their strength and their protection.

We will not be alone in the flames,

if we know the Son of God as our Savior.

Take heart in your suffering, dear friends,

we will be delivered

in "due time."

Lights Ya' Leave Up Year 'Round

 Christmas lights are one of my favorite holiday decorations.

They add  feeling to the decorating.

When they're vintage, I like them even better.

(click on any pic to enlarge)

What could be cuter than plastic "candles",

very plastic holly,

and little elves falling all over?

I only had one Bubble Light that fit,

or I would have put them in all the candles.

This is how my dining room glows at night.

My Christmas tree has vintage white tinsel

that really picks up the lights.

What a find!

Each window is topped with greenery and white lights,

decorated differently each year.

This year I'm tired. I didn't add much.

We leave this up for awhile after Christmas.

Sometimes a long while.

I love to sit in the living room,

basking in the cliched glow from the Christmas lights.

It is a cozy, warm feeling, that invokes the

joy of Christmases past,

the love from Christmas present,

and the hope for Christmases future.

The little lights brighten up the room so much,

that's why we leave them up for so long.

We have the same job in the world,

ya' know, 

as those little white Christmas lights.

Philippians 2:15

 that you may become blameless and harmless,

children of God without fault

in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,

among whom you shine

as lights in the world,

May God give us the strength and grace,

to really let our light shine.

Only these lights,

should never be packed away in the attic.

A Few of My Favorite Christmas Things

Anne of Green Gables once said,

 "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

If that's true,

this Christmas,

there's a whole lot of flattery going on.

Bevy did something beautiful I had to copy-cat.

She claims she copied others.

Hop back the blog trail we created for some beautiful decorating ideas.

I also love imitating Bevy's faith and her devotion to her family,

so read more than just her decorating tips.

You'll be blessed.

Jars like this hold my baking supplies,

sugar, powdered sugar, brown sugar, and oatmeal.

You get to use beautiful old things,

but you also know instantly when you need to restock.

One jar had to be emptied for this project.

I'll probably be sorry when I start baking.

Great combination.

Vintage Shiny Brites, a score from a thrift store in North Dakota this summer.

They were carefully toted home in a beautiful vintage picnic basket.

Can you see where this is leading?

A few crotcheted snowflakes from my Gramma Geneva were added,

a few doilies tossed around,

and the elves I adore.

Side and top view.

Because there was another box of Shiny Brites

wanting to be used, a canning jar was filled.

These funny non-lightable acrylic candles were found last year.

A week later, the funny acrylic candle holders were found.

They look like they were made for each other.

Sometimes, favorite things are pieced together with patient shopping.

A recent thrift store yielded four metal frogs for flower arranging.

They hold vintage Christmas cards very well, too.

The buffet will probably be reshuffled a few times,

as I enjoy arranging with a few of my

Favorite Christmas Things.

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(The buffet with gray and red.

The buffet for Thanksgiving.)

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Linking up with
Show and Tell Friday
on the blog
My Romantic Home

Sugarlicious Sugarfest!

On our previous friendly holiday celebration,

 Kelly-Across-the-Street and I

let our young kids smash things with a hammer.

At this event,

we were as equally irresponsible,

we gave them bowls of candy.

Big bowls of candy.

We admit a love/hate relationship with the tradition.

It's amazingly fun.

It's a huge amount of sugar.

It wouldn't be quite as fun building with broccoli and cauliflower,

so we let our drive for healthy snacks take a backseat,

while we all nibble on sugarlicious.

Who can resist oodles and oddles of delicious, colorful candy?

None of us.

We were trying to make Gingerbread Houses,

our annual tradition with a heavy emphasis on

TRYING.

With several years of failure and hot glue gun rescues behind us,

this year we found the BEST kits-

pre-made houses at Costco with more than enough

mixed frosting in a plastic bag and a lot of candy.

Norah was very free in her style.

Avery's fine motor skills have impressively improved.

This year I also think he put at least as much candy on his house,

as he did in his tummy.

Rebekah now likes to try to follow the picture on the box.

Jon embraces his artistic leanings when the medium is sugar.

He also figures out how to use the MOST amount of the candies he loves,

knowing he will get to eat the candy off his house

during the Christmas clean-up and pack-up ritual.

Yea! 

Another fun year! 

Another sugar high!

Another memory to add to our lives.

Follow us back...

2009 Gingerbread

2008 Gingerbread

2007 Gingerbread

The kids aren't thinking about friendships.

They aren't thinking about traditions.

They aren't thinking about memories.

They're thinking about the sugar.

 Someday, they'll look back at these experiences,

as holiday-shaping, friendship-building times.

And, I'm pretty sure,

they'll plan an annual

Sugarlicious

 Gingerbread-House-Making

Sugarfest

with their kids.

Stuffing the Stockings

I admitted yesterday-

I've hardly done any Christmas shopping

and I've hardly done any Christmas baking.

I'm a little behind schedule,

 I have a lot of company arriving prior to Christmas,

but I'm not worried. 

What gets done gets done.

What doesn't get done, we'll do together.

People are coming to see me,

not my house.

They know if they want exquisite food,

they should go to a nice restaurant.

I love having company,

I just have a have had a huge reality check

stamped on my forehead during the last six years.

There will be cookies and snacks.

There will be healthy meals.

The house will be clean at the moment of arrival,

and probably not a minute sooner,

or a minute later.

I AM praying for my company and their time in my home.

I AM praying that Christ would be shown.

I AM praying that my company would be blessed,

relaxed and recharged for the new year.

However, there is one area I am usually prepared for,

the Christmas stockings.

Sometime in the fall,

I write a name on a bag for each person.

I begin shopping.

School clearance is a great time to start for fun, practical items.

Halloween clearance is a great time to buy candy.

Small sale items are purchased and immediately dropped into the bags.

We love things like

lip balms 

bobby pins

hair items

fun toothbrushes

small lotions

small Sharpies

special pens

fingernail clippers

(this is purely selfish, I don't want them taking mine)

hand sanitizers

fingernail polish and decals

deck of cards

travel games

When the bags are full, I am done.

I know the stockings will be full.

I like to wrap the items,

but not too far ahead of time,

I forget what they are.

I already had to unwrap some gifts from the stocking bags.

For further ideas, check out this list.

Please add your best stocking stuffers below!

My Christmas Triage

Some years I am way ahead of the holiday game.

Take last year, for example.

Cookie dough was made in October in preparation for Christmas.

Yea, that's right. 

All cookies doughs were made, rolled into cute tubes,

and placed in the freezer.

The last of the doughs were baked in November.

Only problem,

 I made the dough in 2009,

baked the final batches in  2010.

Cookie dough that's been in the freezer for a year,

doesn't taste too bad.

 

Doesn't taste too good, either.

Last year, I planned way ahead to get a jump on Christmas,

and Christmas jumped on me,

and I don't think it ever released its hold.

This year, I have done very little baking,

very little shopping,

but I know Christmas will happen anyway.

It always does.

Monday is

Christmas Triage.

The Usual Lists will be slightly altered:

Things To Do

(Things I Think I Can Actually Get Done)

Things To Buy

(Can I Just Go With Sox and Unders?)

Things To Make

(How Few Cookies Can I Make and Still be Awesome?)

Then, I'll be multi-tasking.

Maybe, school will be in the kitchen,

 with Beka sitting on the counter next to where I am working.

Maybe, I'll be at the sewing machine,

getting a few stitches in while Beka is working quietly.

We don't school very often in the car,

but that is a possibility for this week.

All week, Christmas music will be playing,

white twinkling lights will bring a happy glow to the rooms,

and they'll be a cedar-cracklin' fire in the fireplace.

While I'm making my lists,

and checking them twice,

gunna' make sure

I'm not naughty,

just nice.

Because it isn't Santa who's watching,

it's my Heavenly Father,

and the family He gave me.

No Christmas Crabbies allowed!

To motivate me, I've altered the angels' proclamation:

Luke 2:14

To bring

Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth in my home have peace,

I'll have goodwill toward men my family!”

Now, to get started on those lists...

Waiting, Waiting, and Still Waiting

No one is more anxious in waiting, than little children counting the days until Christmas.

Some have advent calendars, where opening a gift or eating a piece of candy each day helps mark off the slow passage of time.

Some have advent wreaths, lighting a candle each week with the reading of relevant Scriptures.

I've even seen something as simple as a paper chain, where the child rips off one link each day.

Waiting seems to be a major theme of Christmas.
One of the most beautiful stories of waiting in the Bible is the story of Simeon.  He had been waiting for the birth of Messiah.

LUKE 2

25 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

27 So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law,

28 he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said:



29 “ Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace,  According to Your word;


30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation


31 Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples,


32 A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles,  And the glory of Your people Israel.”


33 And Joseph and His mother marveled at those things which were spoken of Him.
 

I love the picture in my mind of this dear old believer, holding up the precious Christ child, knowing and believing that He would provide the salvation for his soul.

We have the opportunity to be like Simeon, because we know the Lord Jesus is coming again. (watch this wonderful video!)

If we've seen His salvation, we wait in the temple of our bodies, knowing we can depart in peace.

Don't wait to trust Him as your Savior.  Trust Him, then join the waiting...

2 Thessalonians 3:5

And the Lord direct your hearts

 into the love of God,

and into the patient

waiting for Christ.

Are you patiently waiting?