Glories of an Early Spring

Picnic on the lumber pile.

Barefoot in March

Survived the winter

Promise of the Resurrection

Getting out of Nod and back to God. (Cain #3)

I have found grace in the eyes of the Lord.  In my life I have experienced His everyday, epic, everlasting and extended grace.

I experience His grace everyday that I wake up and breathe.  He extends his grace to me everyday. His mercies are new every morning and every day is new day of grace.  I love my Glory Days - bright blue weather, bright red leaves, the sunshine gives me a bright smile.  Glory days - the common, everyday grace of God that is far from common.  It is glorious.


I believed in Jesus as a little girl but at some point in my life I got confused and turned around. I was on the threshold between the land of God and the land of  Nod facing the darkness.  I hadn’t left the presence of God but  my focus was backwards.  Like Cain I became angry and downcast.  Talk about extra grace required, I had a very volatile temper, I was moody, I had jags of crying myself to sleep nights on end.  I was afraid and did not relate well to others. I lived in a gray world. Life was an upstream struggle all the way.  I lived this like this for about 30 years. In 1991 our 2nd son, Leroy (the Runner) died in an accident in my mother’s back yard.  A few weeks later I told my brother “If someone else is taking care of my kyds I am fine but if I have them I am in a panic.”  He said “You are blaming yourself for Leroy’s death, don’t do that.” So I had added the guilt of his death to the upstream struggle I was already having.  “Don’t do that”…but I  didn‘t know how to not blame myself .  Many months later, perhaps even a  year, I was driving down the road, and had this simple  thought: That is why Jesus died for me, I am not a perfect mother and I will never be a perfect mother.  Epic Grace. In that moment His grace flowed down and covered me. I knew that Jesus died for my sins but this was so real, so close to my heart so everyday relevant to my struggle . . . amazing.  I don’t remember crying or laughing or shouting or even telling anyone at the time but it was a quiet turning point.  A little light started to shine and I started to turn away from Nod and towards God.


Are you still wandering in the land of Nod?
Lost and yearning, away from God?


Are you cast down, your back to the light?
Weary and trembling facing the night?
Turn . . .
Behold!  the grace of God.
His everyday
epic
extended
everlasting  grace.

Cain: #2

Cain:
Dishonored God with the manner of his sacrifice
Got angry and depressed
Killed his brother
Did not take responsibility for his actions
Whined about the consequences
Walked away from God


At anytime God could have just went: ZZZZZZZZZIIIIIITTTTT and sizzled him right there.  God had every right and the power to end the line of Cain before it began.  God did not zap Cain right there.  Instead He offered grace.  He placed a mark on Cain so that no one would kill him.  He allowed him to have life, to have the comfort of a wife and son and  a new vocation. Cain was evil and did nothing to gain God’s favor yet Cain found grace in the eyes of the Lord. 

That is epic grace.
Grace that is above and beyond.
Amazing grace.


To be continued.

Legend of Cain

Adam and Eve so the story runs
Had a couple of squabbling sons

Abel kept some sheep on hand,
Cain was a tiller of the land.

For them both it was the thing.
To bring the Lord an offering.

For Abel only the first born lamb would do
Cain plopped down a veggie or two.

God was pleased with Abel’s gift
But not with  Cain’s, that caused a rift.

So Cain got mad and killed his bro
When asked he answered “I don’t know”

His cursed land would nothing grow
So Cain was always on the go.

He wandered east away from God
And settled in the land of Nod.

Cain found a wife, had Enoch, a son
Named his city after  that one.

Sons had sons down the line
Lamech tho’t he was mighty fine.

Lamech took himself two wives
His three sons led busy lives.

Jabal, Jubal and Tubal-Cain
Made music and tools and roamed the plain.

“Adah/Zillah: listen to me
Wives of Lamech: Attention please!

I killed a man for hurting me,
He was just a boy you see

If Cain gets even 7x o're
Then I’ll get even 70x more!”

Cain: the legendary man from Nod
But the only real hero is  God.

To be continued.

Grace and Mercy are Sisters

Quote from:  “Captured by Grace”    David Jeremiah

"Mercy runs to forgive the Prodigal Son. 

Grace throws an extravagant party.

Mercy bandages the wounds of the man beaten by robbers. 
Grace covers the cost of his full recovery.

MERCY HEARS THE CRY OF THE THIEF ON THE CROSS.
GRACE PROMISES PARADISE THAT VERY DAY.

Mercy pays the penalty for our sin on the cross. 
Grace substitutes God’s righteousness in Christ for our wickedness.


Mercy converts Paul on the road to Damascus. 
Grace calls him to be an apostle.


Mercy saves John Newton from a life of rebellion and sin.
Grace makes him a pastor and the author of a timeless hymn.

Mercy closes the door to hell. 
Grace opens the door to heaven."

Definition of grace:

unearned

undeserved

unmerited

a gift

a favor

to bestow

benefit

"finding its only motive in the bounty and freeheartedness of the Giver"

absolute freedom of the kindness granted by God to man.