The Real Reason Writers Procrastinate

Life Can Be Scary

Sometimes I do struggle to share - like today.

However, I remember something that happened back in 2009 or 2010. I had something happen in my life and felt I was to share it, but I struggled. My friend Debbie encouraged me to write it on my blog. I did. 

The next night I was at a table at Bible study and a lady was talking about a beautiful blog post she had read that day. My friend Debbie pointed at me and let her know I had written that. 

Another woman came to me and said she had read my blog and it was what she needed to hear that day.

It stunned me. 

In writers' conferences they say write for the "one person." In meetings with publishers, they say you don't have enough people that you write to.

One day I was going to enter a contest and decided against it because the past writers had tougher types of writing than I did. 

What went through my mind at that moment was do I write to win? Or do I write to reach that one person?

So, I entered it figuring out that at least one person would read it and hopefully enjoy it. 

In saying all of this, it is hard to write what I am admitting today.

However, maybe, there is someone who felt like I did this morning and needs some encouragement too. Maybe, there is one person who needs encouragement like I did.

I woke up scared of things that could happen. It is sort of legit, certain things could go either way right now. And I am really hoping and praying they go the positive way of course. As usual the thing I fight against is my imagination when I worry. It skyrockets. I just wrote a blog on fighting worry and woke up with intense worries this morning. 

Everything was wrong and everything was going to be so much worse.

I started to send out texts to my friends to pray for me, but then my phone opened to the daily blessing from Susan Larson. Here is a copy of the screen shot I sent to my friends.

I then got out of bed and decided to live this day to the best of my ability leaning on God the entire way.

If you woke up today feeling discouraged, scared, or with anxious thoughts, focus on what is REAL today. If you can do something about it - do it. If not - pray, pray, pray - cause God can. And then go live this day you are given to live. 

HIS mercies are new EVERY MORNING! Hold on to His mercies. 

Lamentations 3:22-23

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Jesus the True Shepherd

 

John 10:1-6

1 ¶ “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

2 “But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

3 “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

4 “And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

5 “Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.

——

This seems like a new message, but it is a continuation of the previous message where Jesus told the Jews, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.” 

He just goes at it another way to see if they can help them to understand. Jesus tries to help the Jews understand because He loves them, not because He wants to prove them wrong. 

I always need to remember that, and more than before know that I do, it is because of His love for His children, all of His children. I never want to discuss with anyone about Jesus in hatred or anger. 

He wants us all to remember who we speak for and how much love He has for all of His children, even those who are gay, sexually confused in another way, in a cult or any other sort of group that leads others astray, those who believe abortion is a good thing, to those who think they are good people and deserve to go to heaven. 

I once was in this group and Jesus loved me enough to send people to love me, pray for me, speak Truth to me and they all did it with love!  It was the love that drew me in as I was getting none of it from the world. 

So Jesus tells them there is a way to get into the sheepfold and those that use the door are the Shepherd’s sheep and those that climb over the wall are not, yet. When we enter by the door and become His sheep, we become shepherds of the sheep, loving and gathering the sheep together. 

When He opens the door, He calls out to His sheep, by name, and He leads them out to graze, or feed, like reading the Bible or going to church. When He leads them out, they follow Him because they know His voice. 

Sheep in a flock, led by a shepherd are so connected to that shepherd, much the way Angel loves me and is in-tuned to my every move so that when I move she moves. So when there are many flocks in one place, a shepherd can keep his flock close to each other by His voice, the other sheep don’t understand Him, but His sheep do. 

Jesus used this illustration for the Jews to understand, but they didn’t get it. Much like me, I didn’t get it for about 2 years of people loving on me, but then I did and it was all and still is amazing, no matter how much spiritual warfare we experience.

Had an amazing day Saturday, connecting with Linda Reinhardt and some other gals for her birthday we could finally celebrate that was December. 2, but someone was always sick so we finally were all well and we celebrated. Then I went to see Kimberly Sanders, Danielle Sanders, Patrick as they gathered with friends to have a memorial for Alex, Kimberly’s son, who recently passed away. It was awesome to see all of them and see Christina, who used to be married to Tony Jacobs, Cami, Kim Sandburg and others. Nice day seeing friends and remembering sweet Alex, who I used to babysit and spend a lot of time when he was a young boy to man.

Jesus The Light Of The World

John 8:1-12

Jesus the Light of the World

1 ¶ But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

2 ¶ Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them.

3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst,

4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.

5 “Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?”

6 This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

7 ¶ So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”

8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

10 When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”

11 ¶ She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you anymore.”

12 ¶ Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

——

There is much debate as to whether this passage from John 7:3-8:11 is part of John’s original text and as the argument continues, I choose to look at it as always, “What is it telling us about Jesus, about His revealing the heart of God”?

It is a very revealing story about not only the heart of Jesus, but the Pharisees and Jewish rulers as well. 

Jesus goes to the Mt. Of Olives to sleep and then  next goes to the temple to teach and he drew a crowd of people hungry for the Truth. While they are looking to learn from Jesus, the Jewish rulers are looking for how to trip Him up, so in the temple, a holy place, where Jesus is preaching about holy Truths, the Pharisees and rulers bring a naked, shamed and horrified woman into where He is teaching and throw her before Him and share she was caught in the very act of adultery. 

No matter that it takes two to tango and the man who was also caught is conveniently missing from the shameful scene, here sits this woman, more terrified, as the penalty for this is stoning to death. Shamed, naked, humiliated and broken, this woman sat there in front of all those people waiting to feel the stones hit. They remind Jesus what the law said, but Jesus bent down and began drawing in the dirt,

David Guzik comments on Jesus’ stooping down:

Stooped down is a low posture, identifying with the humiliation of the woman. Jesus did what He could to identify with, care for, and ease the embarrassment of this woman. One may say this story illustrates the great problem: how can God show love and grace to the sinner without being unjust, without breaking His own law? He does it by first identifying with the sinner in their low condition. 

The rulers repeated the question about what should be done with the lady and finally Jesus said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. 

He then continued writing on the ground. As the people thought of their sin, one by one they dropped the stones and left until it was only Jesus and the woman left in the temple area. 

Jesus looks up from where He is writing and sees that everyone has left, aware of their own sins and said to the woman, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” 

She told them no one was left and Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you anymore.” Interesting to note that Jesus didn’t say, “I do not condemn you.", but said, “I don’t condemn you anymore”.  Anymore denotes that He did judge her, but He didn’t pick up stones to kill her, but forgave her.

The last verse here had to be said another time because it was said to “them” and there was just the two of them but it is one of my favorite verses, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” 

What a great promise for me to cling to in these dark and dreary days when it feels like darkness is winning, but Truth is, He wins. His children win and days that are dark and dreary are passing and are sometimes just a trap to trip us up and lead us to feel as if we have no hope, but looking to the True Light of the world will bring freedom.

It is why He tells us to seek Him daily, reading in the Word, prayer, etc. because He knows and tells us many times that in this world there will be troubles, but to have faith, He has overcome them all for us. 

It is a war my brother and sister, a war for souls and the more we can put the world aside and just focus on Him, the more the Light will chase away the darkness. 

The Parable of the Mustard Seed (Matt. 13:31, 32; Mark 4:30-32 )

Luke 13:18-21

18 ¶ Then He said, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? 19 “It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.”

The Parable of the Leaven (Matt. 13:33 ) 20 ¶ And again He said, “To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? 21 “It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.” ——— In these two parables Jesus attempts to help the disciples understand what it means for something to start small as a seed, like a mustard seed, which is so small you cannot really see one seed, it needs to have multitudes to see them, and have it grow so huge, like the mustard tree. In this He is answering the question asked of him, “What is the kingdom of God like and what can I compare it to in order to understand it better.” This illustration is intended for us to see that when we first learn about the Lord, like when we are young, we only can see small portions of the Lord.

We cannot grasp all the fullness of who He is until over time and with much learning, fellowship and growing, praying and spending daily time with Him in His Word, slowly grows us in understanding of the Lord and His kingdom.

It really is a subject that will never be completely grasped, this side of heaven, but one day you look up and realize 28 years have gone by and you really have grown in the past 28 years and you really do know more than you did before and just see the blessing in that! The next illustration was Jesus’s way of saying, “I see blank looks on faces, let me explain it another way to help you understand it better.

So think of a lady who is baking bread and while preparing the dough the lady put in 3 measures of meal or yeast and the whole batch was soon leavened or given air or lift so the bread was lighter and less dense. So as the kingdom of heaven is spread through our lives like yeast and our lives expand with the kingdom of heaven on earth. The more you understand of the kingdom of heaven, which is eternal in focus and not earthly means, the more you become kingdom followers and not following the things of the world. Kingdom of heaven life is not built on a rushed church visit and hurried prayers before you eat at least very well, it will not expand at any exponential rate if the focus is growing your stock portfolio, catching the cutest guy or gal, living in the best home and all that the world says that is what we need. Not that those cannot be had, but where is the focus - eternity or retirement. This is just a message from Jesus to the disciples to the multitudes, to the Christians to us. The kingdom of heaven is desiring to be known and grasped by us and when we let it, it can just expand into every area of our life. Praise God.

CALL HIM

By Lidia Hu

Call Him.

He who made the earth

Call him

He who formed the earth

Call him

He who established the earth

Call on the Lord

For he makes everything new

Call on the Lord

For he repairs everything broken

Call upon the Lord

For he establishes everything in place

Call him

He who makes newness 

Call him

He who remolds brokenness

Call him

He who sets everything in place

He will answer you

And tell you great things

Even unsearchable things

Things you do not know

By the way, his name is Jesus

He answers all who call on him

Go ahead, give him a call

You’ll be in awe of his answer

“This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it—the LORD is his name:‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ Jeremiah 33:2-3

Picture used by permission by owner Lidia Hu. 

LET’S PRAISE THE LORD’S GLORIOUS NAME

Picture and post by Lidia Hu

“Praise be to you, Lord,

    the God of our father Israel,

    from everlasting to everlasting.

Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power

    and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,

    for everything in heaven and earth is yours.

Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;

    you are exalted as head over all.

Wealth and honor come from you;

    you are the ruler of all things.

In your hands are strength and power

    to exalt and give strength to all.

Now, our God, we give you thanks,

    and praise your glorious name.”

I Chronicles 29: 10-13

~ ~ ~

With and in

Every sunset

I see you,

My Lord

With and in

Every sunset

I sense you

My God

With and in

Every sunset

I feel a pull

Towards you

With and in

Every sunset

You send

Amazement

With and in

Every sunset

You reveal

Grandeur 

With and in

Every sunset

You provide

Hope

With and in

Every sunset

You reveal

Your heart

Like a rainbow

Sunsets reflect

Promises for

Our tomorrows

~ ~ ~

Lord,

When my

Eyes fail me

May my lips 

Praise you

When I feel

Your sunset

 

When my lips

Can’t utter

The words

May my

Face reveal

My gratitude

If my face

Can’t express

My emotions

May my tears

Be droplets

Of pure joy

For my heart

Will remember 

The sunsets

You allowed

My eyes

To see