A Pair of Bartletts

Where Are His Stripes In Your Life?

.....from "Morning and Evening" for 3/30/11, by Charles Hadden Spurgeon. I found these words today to bring a chill back to my bones, a chill that should never leave when pondering the gruesome death that my Savior suffered....all because of my hideous sin. 

"With His stripes we are healed."  Isaiah 53:5

PILATE delivered our Lord to the lictors to be scourged. The Roman scourge was a most dreadful instrument of torture. It was made of the sinews of oxen, and sharp bones were intertwisted every here and there among the sinews; so that every time the lash came down these pieces of bone inflicted fearful laceration, and tore off the flesh from the bone. The Saviour was, no doubt, bound to the column, and thus beaten. He had been beaten before; but this of the Roman lictors was probably the most severe of His flagellations. My soul, stand here and weep over his poor stricken body.Believer in Jesus, can you gaze upon Him without tears, as He stands before you the mirror of agonizing love? He is at once fair as the lily for innocence, and red as the rose with the crimson of His own blood. As we feel the sure and blessed healing which His stripes have wrought in us, does not our heart melt at once with love and grief? If ever we have loved our Lord Jesus, surely we must feel that affection glowing now within our bosoms.

"See how the patient Jesus stands, Insulted in His lowest case! Sinners have bound the Almighty's hands, and spit in their Creator's face. With thorns His temples gored and gashed send streams of blood from every part; His back's with knotted scourges lashed. But sharper scourges tear His heart."

We would fain go to our chambers and weep; but, since our business calls us away, we will first pray our Beloved to print the image of His bleeding self upon the tablets of our hearts all the day, and at nightfall we will return to commune with Him, and sorrow that our sins should have cost Him so dear.

 

Memory Monday--Thanks For Everything Joanne

I was just sitting here not feeling so well tonight, grumbling to myself about all of the things that I need to be doing, but just don't feel like doing tonight.  The Lord just so happens to have a way though of stopping me in my grumbling tracks.  He immediately put my sweet friend Joanne on my mind.  As most of you know, on January 11th, Joanne (from The Simple Wife) suffered a massive stroke in her home.  The fact that Joanne is still with us and doing as well as she is doing is a miracle from God alone.  It's even more of a miracle to ponder the fact that Joanne is actually able do things like Twitter or Facebook on her iPad.  God is no less than amazing....He is GOD...He is a healer...He is Joanne's healer.  

I had just been reminded of her this morning when I saw her cute little bag lying on my bathroom counter.  Joanne pays so much attention to detail, as you can see in the picture of the little "zippy purse" she made for me.  Joanne especially takes great time and detail in the way she expresses her love of her Lord, Jesus Christ.  You could never read a post and not know exactly how Joanne felt about her Lord.  You also could not read a post without hearing the wonderful details of her day and how she relishes in each little thing...even if she didn't feel good or if she didn't have the most wonderful day, she always had a way of finding SOMETHING that was special about it....that may have been a fuzzy pair of PJ's at the end of the day, but she found it nonetheless.  

 

She also had such a way of inspiring her friends to "go deeper" with the Lord.  One of the ways that she did that was in a little meme that she started several years ago called "Memory Monday".  I have always loved participating, but to be honest, I've gotten out of the habit of doing the posts since Joanne's stroke.  But today, I'm starting back.  The verses I read in my quiet time this morning seemed to resonate Joanne's life.  I was in Ephesians today, in the 3rd chapter:

Ephesians 3

The Mystery Revealed

 ¹ For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles— ² if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, ³ how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, ⁴ by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), ⁵which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: ⁶ that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, ⁷ of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.

 

I think about Joanne and how she ministers according to the grace that God has given her...working His effective power.  These verses just spoke to me and challenge me to persevere, even in my grumbling state.  So, I will leave you with these verses....and by all means, the rest of the chapter.

 

I pray that you will find Memory Monday as a great encouragement that I do.  I pray that you'll join us next week with your own Memory Monday post. We would certainly love to have you, so my all means, please stop by!

Have a truly blessed week in the Lord,

 

Marriage Monday--The Beauty In Choosing Our Words

Wow, not only is it great to be back to the blogosphere, it's even better to be back with such a great group of ladies at Marriage Monday!  And, as always, I send a huge thank you to E-Mom at Chrysalis for being such a gracious hostess.  

When pondering the topic for today, I had several thoughts that crossed my mind.  After all, the topic was open, so it really could have been about anything under the sun.  However, my mind couldn't help but wander back to today's lesson in ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship, aka "Sunday School").  We've been on the topic of "communication" for the last few weeks, which could not be a more vital topic for any marriage, especially in today's society.  Today's lesson was specifically about our words and how we use them.  Honestly, it's something that I need to make a focus in my marriage at all times.  I love my husband beyond measure....I want my words to be encouragement to him...uplifting....blessings to him.  Granted, neither of us have ever been without allowing our tongues to get us in trouble but that's when we are reminded of this scripture:  

Proverbs 15:4 (New International Version, ©2011) 

 ⁴ The soothing tongue is a tree of life, 
   but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.

No one wants to be crushed....no one.  But, EVERYONE wants to be soothed.  We both know that our words are what we want to be under the control of the Holy Spirit.  Aside from our relationships with the Lord and with each other, what can make a marriage a beautiful thing?  Harmony....kind words....soothing words....tongues under the control of the Holy Spirit.  Who doesn't want that?  

Proverbs 15:1 (New International Version, ©2011) 

 ¹ A gentle answer turns away wrath, 
   but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Just like the scripture says, the more gentle we are, the more likely we are going to receive a right response.  Neither of us like discord or strife.  When we speak gently to each other, it's an automatic "win-win" situation.  But further than that, and most importantly, it's pleasing to the Lord.   

I love the vivid word pictures that the scriptures give us, especially this verse that describes our gracious words to each other:

Proverbs 16:24 (New International Version, ©2011) 

 ²⁴ Gracious words are a honeycomb, 
   sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

What I really love about this particular verse is that even aside from the wonderful picture of our words as a honeycomb, it goes a step further.  The graciousness of our words even has healing properties to our bodies.  I believe this is severely (perversely) lacking in today's society.  How many stressed out married couples (or anyone) do you know of that are healthy?  Stress brings sickness and deterioration to our bodies and to everything around us.  How wonderfully incredible is God's design that He would bring health to us with something so easy as being gracious to each other with our words?  That is the tender LOVE of the FATHER.  He cares for His creation...and each one of us are His creation and each one of us are likewise created in His image.  

Our words in our marriage are so important .  They have the power to build up, but they have the power to tear down even faster.  I appreciate my husband and his constant effort to speak kind words to me, to build me up, to encourage me...his obedience to the Lord in this area is more than apparent, and I'm so blessed.  I heard a quote Sunday that I'll leave you with.  When I heard it, I thought of Rob and his constant efforts.  I also took an introspective look to see if I'm really living up to this standard.  I think that if we call come to this place in our marriage, we have accomplished something great and God honoring.  The quote is from author and speaker, Dr. Henry Brandt and it simply states:

"Communication means to overcome the desire to conceal feelings and thoughts and rise to the level of honesty."

Dr. Brandt is so right.  The beauty of our marriages is that we don't have to conceal our feelings and thoughts with our spouse.  We can be totally honest with them...we should be totally honest with them.  There is a freedom in our commitment to our mate because we can (and should be) totally transparent with them.  God's design of the covenant marriage and all of the freedom and beauty in these intricacies of the covenant are flawless.  They were a total act of love from the Father when He saw fit to create them.  As we heard this past Sunday, "When you risk, you can lose.  And when the risk involves the impairment of a vital relationship, the loss can be devastating."  I praise God for a husband who cherishes our vital relationship and I pray that the Lord would keep me ever mindful of the fact that nothing but death will ever separate us.  Thank you Lord....Your blessings are tremendous!

 

 

 

 

 

Refreshed

Well, all I can say is, I'm REALLY AND TRULY finally back to the blogging realm.  I thought I was going to catch up recently and the Lord just had a different agenda.  There has been so much happening....some incredible things that God has done.....all of which I can't wait to share with you.  Let's take them little by little...we've got all spring and summer to catch up!

I will say that during my hiatus, the Lord has grown me in ways that I never thought possible, simply because I think that sometimes, we put so many LIMITS on the Lord. In Isaiah 55 it say that His ways are higher than our ways...

⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth, 
   so are my ways higher than your ways 
   and my thoughts than your thoughts."

And in Jeremiah 29, we are promised that His thoughts towards us are good...

¹¹ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 

And friends, I can tell you that the Lord is faithful to uphold HIS promises.  I have so many instances that I can tell you about that have happened in the last few months...countless examples of God's faithfulness.  But, one thing at a time....there's plenty of time for catching you up to speed.  

So why don't you come back....grab something ice cold to drink and sit down with me for a little bit.  As a matter of fact, I'll get you started.  Here's a great little refresher that I put together today after coming in out of the yard...nothing fancy....and just using things that I had at home already.

SPRINGTIME BLUEBERRY ZINGER

1/3 cup semi frozen blueberries

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

crushed ice

unsweet fresh brewed iced tea (or sweet, if you want the sugar)

Muddle the blueberries with some of the crushed ice and lemon juice in a large tumbler like this....

Then add the brewed iced tea and more ice....give it a stir...and enjoy!

Blessings to you....stay tuned for more,