My family is heading to my husbands grandmothers calling hours and funeral today. She was in her 80's and in such bad shape physically that her death really is a blessing. That old standby scripture...."though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil..." comes to my mind. Eight years ago I would of had no idea where that was in scripture. Graciously I know that those words are in Psalm 23. This is a typical reading at many funerals. I have come to love this verse. I think that having the word death in it, is the reason it is at funerals. I would like to challenge you to think of this verse for life rather than death. What does that line/verse mean anyway? This is what I asked myself a while ago. Understanding it has given me such comfort. A dear friend made a great analogy in order to help me see what this meant. Here it is...would you rather get hit by a truck or the shadow of a truck? Huh? Well, which? I say the shadow. I have actually been hit by a truck and it was no fun! (more on that at a later post!) Well, the belief in Christ, turning your soul over to Him is kind of like that. We will all go through times when we are afraid. This could be during life, during the sad times of losing a loved one, just the regular ol' day to day grind that sometimes gets the better of us, OR the actual death experience. This verse lets us know, that death...actually forever death will never get us. We will see it, we will feel it in a way BUT it will only be the shadow of death. The shadow of a truck hitting us might make us catch our breath, frighten us for a quick moment but we don't need to be afraid cause it's only a shadow!! Only a shadow. How many times does a child call for momma when the shadows in his/her life are scary? We have comfort for them when we point out it's only a shadow. Christ does the same thing for us. In life, He is there to reassure us that all those big scary times are nothing but shadows. Death can never really come to us when He is in our hearts. I don't know about you, but that gives me comfort in my today's!

Okay...I was listening to the radio and baseball spring training was being discussed. Now, this was a Christian station. You may wonder what on earth spring training has to do with Christian radio. Well, a wonderful analogy was made between living a Christian life and "the boys of summer" starting their spring training. These ball players, who make millions of dollars for playing baseball freakishly well, go back to the basics every spring. Every spring!! They work on the fundamentals of the game. They brush up on everything from catching, to throwing, to batting. Don't we need to do that too? For me, I find myself needing to go over the very basics of what God expects of me. God gently (sometimes not so gently) reminds me of this need usually when I start to get really full of myself. Yuck. All the Holy Spirit needs to do is remind me....just a little...of the NON-Godly mentality, actions, words....that can come from little ol' me. Oh boy, that is such a wake up call. After I get done having a pitty party, after I get over realizing I am a pile of poo (again), I get on with doing what God wants me to do. When I think of "the basics" of Christianity...I think of the big 10. You know, the Ten Commandments. Being raised Catholic, this is where my head goes. I have come to realize that many others don't think too much on the big ten. Well, I say, God wrote them in stone for us....maybe I should know them and live them out. With this, I turn to them in scripture. Where are they you ask? Well, if you are like me you were given a puffy covered bible with lots of gold on it when you got married. Praise the Lord, I now have so many fabu bibles I think I have lost count. Anywho, in the fancy dancy puffy bible, the big 10 are usually on the inside cover. As far as where in scripture can they be found...Exodus 20:2-17.

Here is my version of what the big 10 are...in order...minus the thee's and thou's...

1. Have no other gods. Just ME!

2. Don't have any gods of any kind! This means don't put money higher than me, don't put status higher than me, don't put your job higher than me, don't put a loved one higher than me....not even a hobby! I need to be at the top please.

3. Don't take my name in vain. (don't put my name into your vocabulary in a quick witted, flipant, non-caring way) Sadly, this one is very tough! So sad.

4. Keep the Sabbath holy. (set aside some time for just you and Me)

5. Honor your father and mother (even if they don't deserve it)

6. Don't murder anyone.

7. Don't sleep with someone that is not your spouse.

8. Don't take what does not belong to you...that is stealing.

9. Don't say untrue things about other people.

10. Don't desire anything that other people have. (don't try to keep up with the Jones') (this means their spouses, their car, their house, their jobs, etc)



Now, some bible versions have these listed a bit different. I think that everyone can agree in the general idea of them all. Right off the bat, I can see that there were years...years of my life where so many of these were broken on a regualar basis. Even the ones that seem like I should be able to say, check! No problem with the murder one. I did not kill anyone and I don't plan on it. Well, since I have become someone who actually reads scripture, I have learned that Jesus teaches us that if we have anger issues, if we have hatred in our hearts for someone, we have committed murder. (see Matt 5:21,22)WHAT!! You have to be kidding! I can't even cross that one off! Now, all this may feel like there is no hope. It may feel like all is lost so why try? Well, Ephesians 2:4-9 gives me hope. Such joy, such relief! I will paraphrase what it means to me....

Because our Creator, our God, is so full of love and mercy for us, he gave us Jesus. He gave us something/someone that could bring us closer to him. Even though we are such sinners, we are capable of such "regular" yuck all the way to horrible yuck, God still shows us mercy and love. By his grace and his grace alone, we get to be with God through our belief in Jesus, his son. None of our works can get us to God. None of our sins can remove us from God...as long as we stand with Jesus, God graciously loves on us and saves us. It is a free gift. A gift!! It can not be earned, we can't do anything "good enough" to receive this gift. It is his gift, to us.

My question is, will you take it? If no, please search deeper and consider it. If yes, have you been thankful today for that gift?
Yeah, i know...all that from the start of baseball spring training!

Can you believe this! I think God asked me to start a Blog!! Crazy.

Well, as crazy as it sounds...I think I am supposed to be starting a blog. And when I say "supposed to" I mean....I think God wants me to. Who would have thought that God was in on the hip world of blogging! = 0 ) Those who know Him, know that he is everywhere so I guess He can know about blogging? Right? Anywho, reaching out to more people and sharing what God has so graciously shown me has been on my heart for sometime now. So, in obediance....here I go!! Wish me luck!

I'd like to make sure that anyone (IF anyone) reading this knows I have some serious reservations about doing this. As I type, I am finding that my hands are shaking. How silly. Here are my issues with even starting this blog...
1. Am I even COOL enough to be blogging?
2. Why do I even think anyone would be interested in what I have to say?
(I think this worry is just a lie from the pit..so I will just address that later.)
3. I am thanking God for the creation of spellchecker cause He knows I will need it!
4. My biggest concern is that inflection, tone, personality, humor...often gets lost in translation when writing. My prayer is that I am always aware of that and God helps me to use words that give live, words that bring Him glory and that if anyone is confused about my intent, they realize that I ONLY WRITE FROM A PLACE OF LOVE.
Okay....here goes.