Gateways to Joy

"Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." ~ Matt 18:3 NRSV I read this verse and thought, "Hm. What does become like a little child mean?" Depend on God?  Depending on God isn't easy.  Sometimes in certain situations it's even easier to say then do. Today when you're going about your day, working, cooking, cleaning, resting, laughing, remember to be like the little child Jesus talks about in Matthew 18:3, and remember no matter how scary the place is where you find yourself today: "God is with you.  God is for you regardless of how many times you've messed up & more importantly, God loves you." Have a great day! xo, Angela blog subscription  | twitter | facebook

I'm sure many of you are familiar with this writing by A poor Methodist woman, eighteenth century. I found it in Elisabeth Elliot's book 'Gateway to Joy: reflections that draw us nearer to God.' There are several writings that I read that I wanted to share.  Things that slow us down to see the beauty in life.  This sums up how I feel at times when washing dishes by candlelight.  I do that sometimes to quite my soul and see the beauty around me, even though at times there is chaos around me like now for instances. Kids are quarreling... need I say more.  So I still away.  Yes.  I get still and fly faraway in my mind. This is what I read: "I do not know when I have had happier times in my soul, than when I have been sitting at work, with nothing before me but a candle and a white cloth, and hearing no sound but that of my own breath, with God in my soul and heaven in my eye...  I rejoice in being exactly what I am, a creature c...

Naomi said to call her, "Mara."  I say call me, "Stained." I'm blemished.  And as hard as I try to make it not so with them, it seems that my children are cursed with blemishes too and I'm sad. At times I just want to throw up my hands in surrender and say, "Forget this!"  It's just too hard.  Not only is parenting hard, but the children have no idea of what I'm trying to invest in them.  It's as if they don't care.  So I'm wondering early this Saturday morning, "Should I?  Should I care?" It is very easy for me to distance myself and get into a mechanical mode, to protect myself, you know? Hmmm.  Choices. As I'm thinking these thoughts I look on my bed and see the book that I bought at the Women of Faith Conference by Patsy Clairmont: "Stained Glass Hearts."  I'm really getting into this book.  While feeling sorry for myself—something I do oh so well.  I saw this phrase written on the...

That's right.   I'm doing "Woman's Work" today!  I do it everyday, but just wanted to shout it out today. Some women become offended by the term: " Woman's Work" when it means simply caring for the home and the family in the way most of us do.   I'm not offended in the least bit. I've learned many years ago that my work, be it " Woman's Work" or White House Work, is not what defines me.  It's just work that I do. What defines people is the content of character. It is our character ... that which decides our steps that defines us. It decides our right and wrong choices.  And it is the revelation of the choices that tells the truth about you and me.  Those choices reveal the hearts true condition. So I say that it is our lifestyle of choices. . . not one choice, but our overall decisions that we should use to monitor our depth of soul.  The monitoring of choices will reveal the integrity or the lack of...

M y first gateway to joy experience and my first encounter with Elisabeth Elliot are two different experiences which I will share with you next week.  Today, I would like to share with you why I added "s" to "gateway," and why I wanted to start this link up.   I added the "s" to gateway because it has been my experience that God uses many "gateways" to lead us to points in our lives of where He wants us to be.  As I shared with you in yesterday's post : God purposely led the children of Isreal "by the way of the wilderness."   His gateways are always meant to direct us and get us onto His path by whatever means He deems necessary. The other reason I added the "s" is because I didn't know if legally I could use "Gateway to joy."   Gateways may not even be legal as it is still so closely named to "Gateway to Joy."   I will just wait and see what happens.  If the name changes you know why. ...

I count blessings.  Gifts.  Each day I wake spying out in wonderment what gift the Lord will reveal to me today.  This ... the looking—the longing, the wondering, is how I stay satisfied.  Content.  Happy. It is through the looking ...  the changing of the lenses on my perspective of life that  I am able to see the heavenly Fathers most ordinary and unexpected gifts.  His ways.  In this way of living I learn to find His joy.  My passions.  Gratitude.  Gratitude even for my very existence in life, and for having the sort of relationship with the Almight Creator that teaches me truth ... truth about life & living.     I wish I could tell you that the searching and penning of blessings {gifts} originated with me, but it didn't.  Another soul—a mother, who has just as many children as I {she has half-a-dozen} is teacher.  She's my Canadian friend ... wife to Farm...

I  saw the Lord last night, in my bed with all the children sitting and lying beside me.  All were there in discussion with my husband and me.  We discussed Proverbs 21:3, "Every man's way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart." Our discussion got me to thinking about many things well into the night, with me waking up with more thoughts and questions about relationships and how God views our actions within them.  Friend, when you find yourself in a crisis with another, don't tune the other person out, be mature enough to listen to what they have to say.  Of course it won't be easy, but it is necessary.  A lot of times this is the ugly...the ugly that will turn into beauty eventually with time.  It is a growing pain.  Take heed and learn.  The hard in life are the things that become our holy experience.  All things can be a holy experience, just like all things if given to...

W ords of Elisabeth Elliot after finding out her husband and the father of her young daughter Valerie had been murdered:  "I found peace in the knowledge that I was in the hands of God.  Not in confidence that I was not going to be killed.  Not in any false sense of security that God would protect me, anymore than He protected my husband, the four missionaries or Honorio from the wooden lances.  Simply in knowing that He held my destiny in His two hands, and that what He did was right." Isn't this why we love her so?  In her life we see ... not perfection, but a desire to live out what she had been taught about the Bible and God all of her life.   Perfect she is not.  A woman who loves her God and worked diligently to live out her faith she most certainly is. Let us learn from the legacy that Elisabeth has left for us to set the bar for living out God's Word high in our lives.  Let us remember, likewise, that God i...

Jesus yields His Spirit... He dies.  Seems like death has won ... where is His Father?  The Father whose will He is carrying out?  Even He, the Father has turned His back on Him. Forsaken and alone???  Has Jesus lost the battle?  Has Satan won?  Will the grave be His lasting home? Listen to the Words of S.M. Lockridge ... "Christ's death was accompanied by at least four miraculous events:"  The tearing of the temple veil in the temple. an earthquake dead people rising from their tombs darkness

`L et us examine our capacities and gifts, and then put them to the best use we may.   As our own view of life is of necessity partial, I do not find that we can do better than to put them absolutely in God's hand, and look to Him for the direction of our life-energy. God can do great things with our lives, if we but give them to Him in Sincerity.   He can make them useful, uplifting, heroic.  God never wastes anything.  God never forgets anything.  God never loses anything.  As long as we live we have a work to do.   We shall never be too old for it, not too feeble.  Illness, weakness, fatigue, sorrow—none of these things can excuse us from this work of ours .  That we are alive today is proof positive that God has something for us to do today." ~ Anna R.B. Lindsay ::: "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called." ~ Eph. 4:1

I pressed "publish post," and "Where hides the joy of the Lord" is published.  Still there is a gnawing sensation in the depths of my soul.   All is not as it should be. I reflect on my own written words about "giving thanks" and I reflect on words of Ann Voskamp.  I ponder hard and give much thought.  I bow and utter more words to Him who understands.  Still soul flame flickers much.   Wicker is damp...flame continues to burn out. Though I don't want to, I do the next thing while continuing to bow the soul and utter thanksgiving.  Still, the countenance isn't right.  A battle brews within.   Nevertheless, I continue the mind-chant, "eucharisteo always proceeds the miracle!" Finally, the miracle came!  It was after I'd made the Spanish rice to accompany the refried beans and the tacos.  I was tired and grabbed my Bible, headed to the backyard for more chants of the heart.  I'd been reading Colossians all day, Sunday a...

'M y soul is satisfied as marrow and fatness."  Because of this Lord... because of the satisfaction You bring me, the comfort You give to me, the love You express toward me... You loving me when I walk with You, Your love for me when I talk with you... when You and I sit late night—early morning communing.  When I'm so wrapped up in me, my life and what I'm doing that I don't walk with You or talk with You. In spite of this...my falls and my short-comings.  You , O' Lord and only You wait for me, even still.  You wait for me  with outstretch hands in the fullness of Your Love and the fullness of Your grace.  You wait.   You help.  You love. So shall my mouth, dear Father—as long as it holds the breath You have given...so shall my breath offer praises with the utmost lips of joy to you. Thank You O' God my Father.

R ight into the heavenly.  Did you know giving thanks could do that?  She told us, made us aware of it: "All is grace."  And now seems like I'm seeing it everywhere: Grace.  Gratitude.  Beauty.  Gifts...more abundantly. Remember, "The difference is Christ in me, not a different set of circumstances." ~ Elisabeth Elliot

A s  some of you know if you read my post yesterday, I was suffering from, "the sin of ingratitude."   After pondering on my life's work, I decided that I wasn't where I wanted to be, and what I've done and accomplished just isn't enough.  Somewhere along the way in my journey called "living" I realized that I'd let my life be "interrupted."  Or had I? "Why Lord?" Why haven't you allowed me to accomplish ...? Wallowing just isn't my thing (anymore) so I knew I couldn't stay in that frame of mind. Although I sort of felt like I was right?  Why did everything always seem to come so hard for me?  Why did I have to struggle—fight and plea for my portion?  Why? "Don't wallow Ang.  Don't do it"... I couldn't focus on the lie and allow it to consume me.  I had to fight and fight hard because my mind told me, "I had a "right" to be angry, and that I was right"  An internal...

T oday is Tuesday—  word day!  The word that I've been thinking about lately is: yoke .  Yoke as it is referred to in the Bible.  In the Bible the word "yoke" speaks of a wooden bar or a wooden apparatus that is placed over the necks of oxen and other pulling animals which connects them and enables them to pull carts, plows and so on —as seen in the pictures below.  You can also see the ox pulling the brick with the yoke. Often times we will read where Jesus has used the word "yoke" as a metaphor for describing the union between us—people and our labor of service .  I thought about this word as I lay restless in my bed trying to go to sleep Sunday night.  Why?  Fear had crept up...  a slew of worries and fear were upon me.  One scary scenario after another plagued my mind.  For those of you who read Ann Voskamp book, you know when she talks about the fear of the big "C" word, cancer?  Gosh how I can...

G ive Him thanks! Giving thanks for all things is making a tremendous difference in my life. I wrote this article sometime ago, way before I learned about Ann Voskamp's blog: A Holy Experience and her Gratitude Community.  Maybe, now, some of you understand why I'm so drawn to her.  She speaks my heart—my language, and she has a lot of kids just like me! I thank God for giving me the opportunity to blog and to share with you my heart-felt and most convicting thoughts.  One thing that has really drawn me to participate in this Gratitude Community  is that as I go about visiting your blogs I see a lot of me in you.  We are like minded you and me.  I'm beginning to think of you all as friends—my "kinfolk."  Realizing this makes me feel comfortable, and relax in your midst, ready to share. Today, I share a piece of my heart with you, and I thank you in advance for allowing me to be so...

T oday we're going to look at part 2, of the video Beyond The Gates of Splendor . I hope you were blessed, last week, by the story of the five missionary men who gave their lives for their faith.  It is my hope, too, that you were inspired to make your ordinary life an (extra) ordinary life—just by doing whatever it is He's called you to. Wherever you are—yes, wherever,be all there and let Him work through you. These men and their families were no different from you and me.  If there is a difference, the only difference is they were obedient where some of us may not be.  I don't know.  What I do know is just like God used these men to impact lives in their time and season, He means for us to do the same.  And who knows 40 plus years later...someone may be reading or writing your story.  Sharing how you in your "ordinary" way impacted them extraordinary.  Remember— "What makes our labor holy, what makes it eternal...

    I  believe in purposefully emphasizing plant based food in my diet and the diet of my family.  One way I do that is by choosing a spectrum of color for our diets daily...this can become monotonous if I'm not careful.  I'll share with you as we progress into these post how I handle that. The important thing that I try to remember is to be sure to get the variety of color in my diet daily by eating fresh fruit and vegetables. Eat them raw.  Eat them steamed.  The Benefits: Kale is helpful in lowering cholesterol when cooked by steaming.  Raw is effective, too, but not as effective for that particular benefit.  The fiber in this green beauty are good at binding together with bile acids in the digestive tract.  It has been said that the Isothiocyana (ITC's) are have benefits in lowering at least five different kinds of cancer such as bladder, breast, colon, ovary, and prostate. I'm not a doctor so I don't know, but I can sa...

T his past month I seem to have been drawn and have parked myself over in Exodus.  One thing out of many have caused me to slow down and take long moments of pause.  One verse has really kept me up late at night, and I've been dwelling on it throughout my days.  That verse reads: "Now when Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of land of the Philistines, even though it was near; for God said, 'The people might change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt."Hence God led the people around by the way of the wilderness to the Red Sea ..." ~ Ex. 13 18, NASB In this situation the wilderness was a blessing to Israel.  And if you're in the wilderness right now—be careful how you respond because you just may be in the middle of your blessing. In thinking about this passage it reminded me about an experience I went through some years ago when my husband and I purchased some land.  We'd moved out of our apartment i...