This past Sunday I received a gift in the form of a Saturday snowstorm.  I’ve mentioned before that I teach Sunday school.  This Sunday morning the only child that showed up for my Sunday school class came in my car.  And you have to know that Isaac was perfectly willing to sit beside me with a pencil and some paper, just as I was perfectly willing to have the chance to enjoy an entire service and a sermon.

We are very blessed in our church to have an amazing orator as our priest and I always enjoy the sermon.  And God must have really wanted me to enjoy the sermon this  Sunday if he was willing to dump so much snow on Essex county.  I think it’s because he wanted me to share it with you.  So note, I am not taking credit for these ideas, but I am sharing them with you as I believe God intended.

The gospel reading was the wedding in Cana from John 2:1-12.

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ² Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. ³ When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” ⁴ And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” ⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

⁶ Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.^{[a] 7} Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸ And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. ⁹ When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom ¹⁰ and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” ¹¹ This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

I think most of us are fairly familiar with this water into wine story.  So I’ll just skip to the point of the sermon.  These are the very last words in the bible spoken by Mary, the mother of Jesus. “Do whatever he tells you.” 

Mary, the mother of Jesus.  Can you imagine being the mother of the son of God?  I’m sure that Jesus was much like every other little boy out there, with one exception – he was without sin.  Can you imagine a child that never lied, was never selfish or talked back or was disrespectful?  It sounds like heaven right?  Except that this exceptional child wasn’t just the son of God, he was God.  And he very probably did God-like things without even thinking about them.  He was after all a child, and last I checked, childish impulsiveness isn’t a sin.  Imagine how much stress you would feel trying to hide from your friends and family this God in human form.  The story of the wedding in Cana says that this was the first of his signs that Jesus did to make his disciples believe in him.  It doesn’t say that this was his first miracle.  In fact I’m sure that his life up until that point was filled with hundreds or maybe thousands of miracles.  God is love and Jesus loved us so much that he came to die for our sins.  But that love for humanity couldn’t have just happened to Jesus when it was time for his ministry.  I think it was something he was born with.  I’m sure it was something he expressed every single day of his life.

I’ve digressed here quite a bit from the sermon because I’m a mom and since we are talking about a mother, I can’t help but reflect on that. But getting back to it, it’s important to really think about and try to understand the relationship that must have existed between this mother and this child because that might be the entire point of this story.  Not the sign itself, but the relationship. The story, not of a miracle, but of a love.

Mary came to Jesus with a problem and, even though his response to her was “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”, she had faith.  So much faith in the goodness of her son that her response was to tell the servants to do whatever he told them to do.  She knew that she could count on Jesus.  Her faith in him was absolute.  And when we think about the last recorded words of arguably the single most important woman in Christianity,   “Do whatever he tells you.” how can we not be moved?  How can we not respond to this woman who knew the man we call Saviour more intimately that anyone?  Who wrapped him in swaddling clothes and nursed him at her breast?

Let read this story with new eyes and hearts and understanding.  Let us pray and aspire to have a faith like the faith of Mary.  Let us all listen to her final words about her beloved son and DO WHATEVER HE TELLS US.

God bless,

Meredith

During the month of January I have been doing a bible study that is exclusively focused on the Psalms.  I love this program because it isn’t about reading them straight through from 1-150.  I’ve tried that approach before and it didn’t work for me.

It’s funny how the bible seems to be a book that almost actively works against being read from cover to cover (or at least it does for me).  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it is a living, active document designed to speak to each person specifically.  That is one of the things that I love about God.  He challenges me to think in different ways and accept that I don’t always have control.  I like my life to be ordered and predictable because it gives me a false sense of control.  Fortunately God is kind enough to remind me on a regular basis that I’m not.  It makes sense that God pushes us out of our comfort zones… otherwise how would we grow?  As a parent I do exactly the same things for my children.  Although it wasn’t always easy to let go and allow my kids to walk home from school alone for the first or send them on their first out of town trip without me.

But getting back to the psalms I’ve been reading.  I’ve been doing this for several weeks now and I’ve noticed an idea that keeps repeating.  The idea of the Lord as a Rock and every single time I read that work in these psalms it is capitalized.  That means this month I learned another of God’s names…Rock.

The image of a rock that immediately comes to mind is something strong, enduring, immovable, constant.  Of course the scientific part of my brain tells me that rocks can erode and some rocks are harder than others, bigger than others.  But when I see that word capitalized in the Psalms it conjures up a feeling of safety, of security.  And I think about how important it is for us as humans to have a rock in our lives.  Maybe your rock is your spouse, or your best friend or your parent.  We use rocks to build our houses, to build roads and bridges…to symbolize our love for each other.

What a powerful sense of imagery there is in the idea of making God your Rock.  You can crash the storms of your life against the Rock and he will not be moved. You can turn your back on your Rock, knowing in your heart that when you are ready, He will be there, unchanged, loving you.  What else in your life can you say that about?

I’m also grateful God shared another of his names with me this month. I think the number of names you know a person by is a reflection of the level of intimacy you have with a person.  Some people I only know by their last name.  But the closer into my circle of family and friends you get, you start to call people by their given names, or by shortened versions of their names and with the people with whom you are very close, you have nicknames and pet names, you know their middles names.

This month God is not only letting me know that he wants to be my Rock, he is telling me I can call him my Rock.  And by sharing with me another of His names, He is inviting me into a more personal relationship with him.  What are the ways in your life God is inviting you into a deeper, more intimate relationship?

God bless,

Meredith

We are all familiar with the fable of the frog in the pot of water.  For the 10% of you that aren’t familiar with the story, essentially it says that if you put a frog into a pot of boiling water it will jump out, but if you put a frog into a pot of tepid water and gradually increase the temperature it will stay in that pot until it gets cooked.

Often times a foray into Christianity can feel a lot like that pot.  When you think about exploring the idea of believing in God or joining a church or becoming a Christian it can be overwhelming.  Many people find themselves, like the frog, throwing into a boiling pot of expectations (both from themselves and from other people).

But what if your faith journey could be more like the experience of the frog in tepid water?  The only difference being that instead of being boiled alive at the end, you find yourself completely submerged in the love of God and his son, Jesus Christ.

That is what my faith journey has been.  A gradual immersion.  And I really do mean it when I say I have been God’s frog.  I have always believed in God and accepted Jesus as my saviour.  But I wanted that faith to be comfortable, so I kept everything very clinical and at an arms length.  I prayed and went to church occasionally, but I wasn’t ready or willing to compromise my very busy life more than that.

The fantastic and amazing thing about God is that he is patient.  I mean really, he literally has all the time in the world.  He will wait for you, just as he waited for me.  And when I was ready, he started showing me his purpose for my life slowly.  It started with C.S. Lewis, whose works helped me to deepen my understanding of God’s love and his purpose in a manner that was much more accessible for me than reading the bible (something that I had tried and failed at over and over again).  Then, when I turned from reading Lewis to the Bible, God humanized the people of the Gospels for me through the Netflix show A.D. Kingdom and Empire.  It was this show in particular that helped me to hear the very human voices of the people about whom and by whom the Gospels are written,  especially in the letters of Paul.

By now David and I had started attending church on a regular basis and one Sunday in June I looked at my sweet Isaac as he came up from Sunday school hanging his head and looking miserable for what seemed like the umpteenth time.  I turned to Dave and as I started complaining about the Sunday school I heard a voice in my head, so loud and clear as to be sitting right beside me, say “Then, why don’t you do something about it?”  That fall I took on Isaac’s class.  On a good day there are three wild and crazy boys in my room, who want to talk at the top of their voices and can’t sit still.  But I love all of them and thanks to Isaac, I know that listening and learning doesn’t always mean you are sitting quietly with your hands in your lap.  Sometimes it means you are building a basket tower or making a marker sword.

The point I am trying to make here is that God turned up the temperature on me the day I decided to be a part of the Sunday school program in our church.  And over the past year, he has gradually increased the temperature or what he is calling me to do, over and over again.  But each and every time I raise my eyes to the heavens and I say “Lord, if this is what you want me to do, then I know that you will help me find the way…the time…the will.”  And he absolutely has.  There is so much truth in Ephesians 3:20  “Now to the one who can do infinitely more than all we can ask or imagine according to the power that is working among us— ” 

Without God’s help I know that I absolutely would not be able to do everything he has called me to do with my life.  But I am willing to be his frog, to have faith and let him turn up the temperature on his expectations for me in his time and in his way.  And far from boiling to death, I find myself happier and more content, filled with the joy of knowing God and living out his purpose for my life.

Jeremiah 29:11 says “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  How fully and completely has God shown me the truth of this over the last year.  So I invite you to jump into the pot with me.  Trust that God has a plan for your life and, if you are willing to surrender yourself, to be the frog, he will make them known.

God bless,

Meredith

 

 

This past December one of my friends suggested we each choose a word to focus on for the coming new year.  I’m sure many of you have heard of this idea and perhaps some of you have chosen your own word for 2019.  I didn’t have to think very hard to come up with my word. Patience.

It must be pretty important to have patience because it’s the first thing Paul calls for in his letter to the Corinthians when he is speaking about love.  “Love is patient, love is kind.”  1 Corinthians 13:4  I know that if I was more patient I would be more kind, more loving, more appreciative of the hearts and feelings of the people around me.  And I don’t think I’m alone in this.  We live in a world of immediacy.  You can order something on the internet from Amazon and have it delivered to you within hours.  If you want to know the answer to a question you can look it up instantly on your smart phone.  We live in such an immediate world that we have lost touch with what it means to be patient, to wait for something.  Twenty years ago I was happy if my computer loaded a screen in five minutes.  These days I get frustrated if it hasn’t loaded after five seconds.

But I don’t think that my word is one that I need to apply only to the way I treat those around me.  I think God intends for me to apply it to myself as well.  How patient are you with yourself?   Yesterday I woke up and I could immediately that pressure in my head that tells me I’m going to have a grumpy day.  That feeling usually makes me very frustrated and impatient with myself.  I don’t enjoy walking around in a frump and being short with the people I love.  Yesterday, instead of feeling impatient and frustrated I tried being more patient – with me.  I remembered my goal of not pulling away from God in times of struggle and instead I turned toward him.

Yesterday I prayed “Heavenly Father, I ask today that your Spirit control my mind and heart.  Help me to focus on you and your will and not on myself and my human weakness.  Let me sing praises to you Lord for all of your blessings and let the heaviness of my heart be lifted up with my songs of praise.  Let the enemy in my soul be washed away with the cleansing power of your unfailing love.”  And then I was patient with God.  I lifted up my problem to him and instead of demanding to immediately feel better, I told myself  that it was okay to not feel okay and I left it in God’s hands and in God’s time.  Yesterday his timing was pretty quick, because I felt better almost immediately and I went on to have a peace-filled day in which I loved and enjoyed each moment and blessing.  Maybe next time it will take more time – but I will embrace that time, knowing that God cares enough about me to teach me something – to teach me patience.

Maybe you have a word for 2019.  Have you thought about how can you use that word to deepen your relationship with your heavenly Father?

God bless

Meredith  (song below)

 

 

 

One of the biggest struggles in my faith journey has been the times that I felt distant from, or separated from God.  And while in my head I know we have all been there, in my heart I have struggled with the feeling that some how I have fallen short of God’s expectations of me.

Falling short of expectations is not something I take well and if you have read this blog before then you have heard me say before that guilt has been a powerful force in my life.  Letting people down, or not living up to expectations can sometimes leave me feeling completely overwhelmed by guilt.  I often find that my guilt is most profound in situations when I don’t feel as if I am being a “good” person.

I live with my heart on my sleeve, but sometimes that means I can’t pretend not to be angry, frustrated, hurt.

The point I am not doing very well at getting around too, is that all to often I have brought that same sense of guilt and shame into my relationship with God.  I took a break from writing this blog in December just to spend some time in my own head and heart.  I wanted to make sure I was focused on my relationship with God. And it was during that time, that God helped me to realize, that in those times when I am feeling down or less than perfect…in those times I feel as if I have failed Him and His purpose for my life…he hasn’t abandoned me.  HE HASN’T ABANDONED ME!  I put that in caps because it’s important.

So in those times when I feel as if I have failed God, when I feel guilt, I start to self-talk.  I tell myself that he has withdrawn from me.  He has pulled away because I am unworthy.  I feel as if I have to prove that I’m good in order for him to forgive me and let me back into his graces again.  I have to earn his forgiveness.

But this holiday season…this is when I had my epiphany.  This time of rest and reflection, this period of “holy-days” was the quiet I needed to hear God tell me that he is always there.  That his love is always there.  That his forgiveness is always there and it isn’t something that has to be earned…it’s freely given.  God has never abandoned me, it is I who pull away from his love…because I don’t feel worthy.

That is the message I want you to take from this today.  I want you to know that when you feel far from God…it is not because God is far from you.

Trust in the Lord.  He is always faithful.  He will NEVER abandon you and his forgiveness is freely given.

“Do not be weighed down with problems or with unresolved issues, for I am your burden bearer.  I have conquered the world for you.”  Jesus Calling, Sarah  Young

“Be strong and courageous.  Don’t be afraid or scared of them; for the Lord your God himself is who goes with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you.”  Deuteronomy 31:6

God bless,

Meredith

 

It’s January so I feel like I can still get away with contemplating the year past as I move into the year present.  For me, 2018 really was a year full of both heart breaks and blessings.

In 2018 the woman whom I loved like a sister passed away.  Not a day goes by that I don’t hold her to my heart and love her and feel grateful for the blessing of her friendship.

In 2018 I felt the hand of God on my life, my work, my family and my heart.  This was the year that I felt God calling me to be more.  To do more.  To share my faith in a way that I pray is hopeful and open and accessible.

In 2018, thanks to my incredible husband, I realized a dream that I had given up on. In many ways this stands out for me as exceptional because this was something that I never thought I would have.  I thought I was too old.  But 2018 is the year that Absolute Faith came into my life and there will never be enough words to thank God and David for making that happen.

2018 was the year that I really understood my faith and had confidence enough in what I believed to share it with all of you.  I haven’t gone to school to study ministry, but I can’t help but recognize all of the ways in which God is impacting my life in powerful and meaningful ways. Ways that include my newest comic “Light Princess” from Cave Publishing.  And I can’t deny God’s power and active involvement in the selection of the artist for my current creator-owned project, The Book of Ruth.

2018 was a year that will stand out for me as a year of profound growth and spiritual and emotional development.  And while I have already said that I don’t feel as if the new year marks a “new” me…today I was so incredibly blessed to be reminded by God of his love and commitment to me…a day that ended with the symbol of God’s covenant with Noah…a rainbow.

I wish I was more eloquent.  I wish I had the words to share with each and every person I meet the power of God’s love.  I wish I could prove his presence.  I wish I had the words to make people believe.  But I can share with you the message he kept reminding me of today…through devotionals and apps and song… and I can hope and pray that the Lord reaches out and uses them to touch you in some way…

“…we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.” Psalm 66:12

“Come to me and I will give you rest.”  Matthew 11:28

“Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you.  Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you.”  Isaiah 41:10

I lean heavily on that last verse, knowing that God always sees the troubles of my heart and he will never abandon me.  I pray that in 2019 you too find comfort in and shelter in the love of God.

Yes. He will help you.

God bless,

Meredith

 

 

 

The new year.  A fresh start.  A time for evaluating our lives and making resolutions about who and what we want to be.  It’s funny how so many of us see January 1st as a time for new beginnings. But for the first time, this year, as January 1st came and went, I didn’t feel as if something new was beginning.

As human beings we are so often driven, controlled and limited by our understanding of time.  “I’ll start my diet tomorrow. This is the year I’ll lose the weight, pay off my credit cards, finish school.”  We forget that time is really a human construct, something we use to make sense of our world.  But the “new” you doesn’t need to wait for January 1st or 31st or any other day.

The “new” you comes when you are ready.  It comes from faith.  Faith in God and his promises.  Faith in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  I didn’t feel the new year in 2019 as I usually do because I have already taken the steps I need to become “new”.  My life is no longer about resolutions.  My life is about growing my faith.  My “new” year’s resolution didn’t come on January 1st.  It came when I was ready for it.  The steps of my journey aren’t controlled by a clock, or a date on a calendar, they are controlled by the one who created this glorious world we live in.  I may struggle at times and fall off the path, but I always know that the story of my life is the one written not by me, but by my heavenly Father.

The “new” you starts the very instant you accept Jesus into your heart.  In that moment you are made brand new.  You are bound to one “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”  Ephesians 3:20

This year I pray that God speaks to each and everyone of us in a voice that is clear and loud and undeniable.  I pray that each of us hear him calling our name and we open ourselves up to the joy and freedom that can only be found in faith.

God bless,

Meredith

 

God is speaking to me today and I can’t deny what he is saying.

I mentioned a couple of blogs ago that I felt as if God had put me into a season of rest.  But I understand today, now, that he has put me into a season of listening…listening and speaking for him in a different way.

For the last few weeks I have spent time quietly, peacefully.  No urgent need to preach that God has come to save us or that Jesus loves us.  Just a time of quiet assurance that God is near to me and God loves me.  I haven’t looked for a sign.  I haven’t asked for a sign.  I’ve just been content to quietly rest in the assurance of God’s love.  And it is in that quiet…that peace, that God has spoken to me as loudly as he ever has.

I made a phone call today that no one should have answered.  A phone call that was two hours late, and all I expected…all I hoped for…was voice mail.  I made a phone call today that was answered by a human being.  And not only that person, but the person I was calling for picked up the phone!  My call was answered by someone who heard my plea and reached out to me.  And I knew, without hesitation, that God had heard my cry, that God had answered me. I shared this story with my family, thinking that this was enough for today.  This was enough proof of God, enough proof of his love for me and his willingness to hear my unasked-for-prayer.  And then I opened Facebook. And I saw a message from Jane.  And I knew immediately, God bless you Jane, that God was using her to speak to me. God is present and active, and if you are reading this, then absolutely believe that he has his hand on you.  That, just as he used Jane to speak to me, he is using me to reach out to you.  I believe with all of my heart that God wants every single person who reads this blog today to see this message.  Let me repeat that.  GOD WANTED EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO READS THIS BLOG TODAY, TO SEE THIS MESSAGE…this truth about who and what he is.

You don’t need to respond unless God puts it on your heart to do so. Instead I want you to know that you are seeing this message because God wants you to know that he is real.  That’s all.  That’s enough. My blog isn’t big enough to hit thousands.  If just one person reads it I’m happy.  And that means that you can feel confident, if you are still reading this, that this message is for you. Just carry this forward into your daily life, and know that God cared enough about you to speak to you today…through me.

God Bless,

Meredith

I know I said I was going to take a break from blogging this month, but I felt compelled to share this, so…

“Comfort, comfort my people says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

A voice of one calling; ‘In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.  And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.  For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.'”  Isaiah 40:1-5

This verse is the inspiration for one of my all time favorite hymns which I’ve included here as well as the lyrics and information about the author. (I love that he is from Hastings County, Ontario, Canada because that is where I also grew up.)

I hope you find joy and inspiration today as you prepare the way for your Lord.

God Bless,

Meredith

Author: James Lewis Milligan

Milligan, James Lewis. (Liverpool, England, February 1, 1876–May 1, 1961, Scarborough Township, York County, Ontario). Son of Anglican parents, his early and only formal education was obtained at Anglican schools. Going to work in the building trades at the age of twelve, he applied himself so assiduously to self-study he soon began contributing to London papers. In 1910 a collection of his verse was published by a London hour resulting in his receiving the Hemans Prize for Lyrical Poetry. The next year, with his family, he emigrated to Canada and became a pastor on the Methodist circuit in Hastings County, Ontario.

There’s A Voice
Hymn Lyrics

There’s a voice in the wilderness crying,
A call from the ways untrod:
Prepare in the desert a highway,
A highway for our God!
The valleys shall be exalted,
The lofty hills brought low;
Make straight all the crooked places,
Where the Lord our God may go!

O Zion, that bringest good tidings,
Get thee up to the heights and sing!
Proclaim to a desolate people
The coming of their King.
Like the flowers of the field they perish,
The works of men decay,
The power and pomp of nations
Shall pass like a dream away.

But the word of our God endureth,
The arm of the Lord is strong;
He stands in the midst of nations,
And He will right the wrong.
He shall feed His flock like a shepherd,
And fold the lambs to His breast;
In pastures of peace He’ll lead them,
And give to the weary rest.

There’s a voice in the wilderness crying,
A call from the ways untrod:
Prepare in the desert a highway,
A highway for our God!
The valleys shall be exalted,
The lofty hills brought low;
Make straight all the crooked places,
Where the Lord our God may go!

It’s been a bit hit and miss with my blog as of late.  Part of it is that as the days have gotten shorter I’ve had more difficulty getting up in the morning.  It’s easy to get up at 5:00 when the sun is shining, it’s a lot harder when it’s going to be dark for another couple of hours.  Like a bear, it seems my body is going into a hibernation mode.  And as I enter this season of physical rest, I am also feeling called by God to rest spiritually.  That doesn’t mean that I won’t be reading my bible and praying, but it means that now is a good time for me to spend some time reflecting and growing in my relationship with God.

I love that God always has perfect timing.  I feel like Christmas is the time of year when our earthly home is the most like our heavenly home.  It’s a time when people love their neighbor as themselves and when God’s message of love and hope in the birth of his son, Jesus is visible everywhere.  Lawn signs saying “Jesus is the reason for the season and nativity scenes are everywhere and people who don’t normally go to church will sit in pews on Sunday mornings and Christmas eve.

I will post occasionally, as I feel the need to share scripture or ideas, but I will be back in the new year at full strength.

I wish everyone one of you a blessed and wonder-filled holiday season.

Merry Christmas.

Meredith