Author: bonniejeancarr

Like many of you, my past few months have been inundated with mountains to climb and valleys to climb out of. We all know there are two diverse, Christian prospectives to view such challenges. Fearfully, we can crawl to God and beg His mercy and grace; or boldly, we can run to God and expectantly declare His power to defeat the enemy, while repeating His promise from Philippians 4 :19 — “And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”. 

Those who know me can testify that my faith runs. However, no acclamation do I deserve. On the contrary, it is God who repeatedly sends me “Angel Friends” who encircle my being with reminders of how mountains are to be climbed and valleys to be climbed out of –and it’s not by winning a war but by resting in God’s peace. 

It was an early Monday morn. My Grammy Group was meeting to pray for our grandchildren. A sister gram was sharing her hobby for (and from) our Lord. Sandy makes beaded bracelets confirming God’s presence in our present. As she was showing us her bracelet gifts, which she shares with both fellow Christians and total strangers, one caught my eye and soul. Noticing my attraction, Sandy offered it to me. I, literally, snatched it from her hand and slid my wrist into it. The message encircling my wrist read: “God Gives Me His Peace”. Since receiving this bracelet, many messages have I discovered in it. However, the one I realized yesterday is the memo I wish to share today.

After donning my bracelet for weeks, I finally noticed the knot tying its ends together rests between the words God and Gives. That the wording is broken with a knot, initially, seemed odd to me. That was until I sensed God’s wise explanation.

For God to intercede in our lives and get us up our mountains and out of our valleys, there has to be a bond between God and us — i.e., a knot tying us together. Too many humans go to God only with the beginning of a mountain or a valley needing to be overcome. However, God desires us to always (good, bad, hard or easy days) have Him centered in our lives and not positioned as a bookend of our needs. Simply stated, to rest in God’s peace, I (and you) need God to be the center knot of my (your) entire life and not just flanking the challenges of my (your) ups and downs. Only when I (you) am tied to God as my (your) life’s center will I (you) rest, always and forever, in HIS Peace. ”You Keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” Isaiah 26:3 (ESV)

Be it accident or intentional, the knot in my treasured bracelet has significance (and a reminder) beyond string securing beads. I’m now tied, more deeply, to God as my constant center with His peace the resulting gift. Amen and Halleluia!!

A mighty oak tree adorns my daughter’s backyard. In Spring, its picture perfect buds awaken the squirrels to a new hotel and restaurant about to burst through the barren branches of old stomping and chomping grounds. Come Summer, the Oak’s artistic scene replicates canopies of shade refreshing parched beings – both four legged and two. With the onset of Fall, the mighty oak reflects a Norman Rockwell perfect replication of idyl relaxation transposing into manual labor. Humans rake the falling leaves, while critters harvest vittles to carry them through the cold barren months ahead. It’s the winter debut, however, that magnificently displays God’s rendering of Matthew 17:20. ”If ye have faith like unto a tiny mustard seed, nothing shall be impossible for you.”

Branches laid bare, the beauty of color removed, shelter from adversity removed and without a doubt, the Mighty Oak becomes the image of a Child of God’s strongest stance. In the event, this is not the picture in your photo album of God’s might displayed, let me etch the scene.

Stark and barren is your first glimpse. However, look closer. Stature is impeccably poised tall and defiant to wintry elements. The oak does not cower or bend in gale force winds. Perfect symmetry emboldens grandeur of creation to ooze from its core. Can you not, therefore, see the depiction of God’s child, at his/her strongest, in the snapshot of a mighty oak withstanding winter on earth?

When skies are sunny, our lives are well nourished and our storehouses are full is not when we most fully mirror the image, or meaning, of being God’s child. The strength and blessing that grows from being a member of God’s family is that our stature stands tallest in the winter winds of adversity. The world can strip a Child of God of all its outer riches, only to reveal the beauty, strength and perfect harmony of his/her inner core. In Spring, Summer and Fall, outer rains water the Oak Tree’s pretty picture; but roots deeply embedded in the soil of God’s nourishing baptismal waters emerge, flourish and shine mightiest in Winter. The question remains. In our identity of being a child of God, what season photographs our personal resemblance to our Father in Heaven?

Christ’s heart was woven out of Lycra. Mankind’s heart, too often, is twisted in broadcloth. The amount of love a heart can hold is dependent on how much it is willing, and able, to stretch. Is it any wonder then how Christ’s heart made room to love both the worthy and unworthy, while it’s too tight a fit for human hearts to hold dear anyone but the worthy? Christ’s heart stretches, so as not to reach a “filled-up” limit. Mortal hearts, it seems, have a capacity; and, once reached, inclusion turns away in exclusion. For man’s heart to mirror God’s, maybe, we need to change the fabric of our hearts. 

The human heart wastes far too much time and energy condemning what is wrong instead of personifying what is right. Let me be clear on this. God does not want, expect, nor even hint that we are to love what is wrong. Wrong is wrong, and this is plain and simple. However, so much emphasis is placed, today, on hating and confronting what goes against one’s convictions that Christians feel let off the hook when it comes to living God’s example, Christ’s love and reflecting Godliness. 

Hate, too often, overflows from our hearts when love is needed to pour forth and fill in the potholes Satan strews across our life’s journey. A heart that stretches in love is the best (and definitely Christ’s) means of filling in the sink holes scattered along the Highway to Heaven? Take note. It’s a Highway to Heaven, not a low way. Highway implies God’s way. Low way insinuates Satan’s way. The Highway of God’s heart stretches in love. The low way of Satan’s heartlessness is corseted in hate. 

One last thought: our hearts are created to stretch in love, but our morals are purposed to shrink from evil. Would that we all could (and would) reverse today’s norm – hearts shrinking in love and morals stretching in evil. There is but one way for this to happen. For our hearts to stretch and evil to shrink we must embrace “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. … Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. … Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’. … Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”. Romans 12: 9-10, 12, 16-19, 21 (ESV) In modern day tongue, a Twenty-First Century translation might simply say: Exchange the broadcloth of your heart for the heart of lycra that is Christ’s. 

Wow!! This week, God truly shook my mindset. I am a mother to the umpteenth degree. Thus, for me, Mary has always been automatically declared the one into whose hands God entrusted His son. That was until a few days ago when God enlightened me. Think with me.

Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem for Caesar’s census. Mary was considered an outcast, as she was carrying a child out of wedlock. Society scorned her. So, she and Joseph were travelling alone. Their family, out of shame, wanted to be nowhere near them. Once arrived in Bethlehem, there here was no room for them in the Inn. A stable was their only shelter. No midwife, let alone family member, was even present to assist with Christ’s birth. Joseph, and Joseph alone, was with Mary when Baby Jesus’s arrival took place. Thus, I ask you, into whose hands did God first place Jesus, His Son, who came to save the world?

Joseph, Christ’s stepfather, delivered Jesus, and it was into his hands that God placed His son. Unquestionably, Joseph was first to hold Jesus. Reflect on this. Oh, how our world so needs to ponder this fact. We live in a society where to a fast-growing majority, fatherhood is almost obsolete. However, we cannot deny that God first placed Jesus into an earthly father’s hands. Joseph was the one initially charged with caring for the Savior of the world. God did not do this by accident. God does nothing by accident. 

Man has a huge shortcoming in recognizing God’s messages, but God does not fall short in signaling to man what He longs for them to understand. Fathers are the foundation of family. Be it biological or stepchild, a father is God’s initial, delegated parent into whose hands He places His children. In corroboration, it was into Joseph’s, not Mary’s, hands that God delivered His Son. 

Would understanding this change the world? Maybe. I pray so. I have no magic answers, but after God shared this revelation with me, my entire being longs for others to comprehend and value this epiphany. Shouldn’t we as a society seek to encourage men to understand God delivered His son into their hands, or is it enough to just consider it a woman’s blessing? Would men walk away so easily from fatherhood if they realized Joseph’s, not Mary’s, hands received the Christ child?

My heart and soul have witnessed so many babies’ welfare threated by being born into life with an absent father. Would that all might somehow fathom that God gave His Son to a stepfather’s hands before His mother’s arms could embrace Him. Our world needs to change for children to be able to securely grow. Maybe this change could better be had if men (women, too) pondered in their hearts and souls into whose hands God chose to place His Son.   

God sent His Son down to earth as a lowly baby. Since that first CHRISTmas, mankind has marveled over this. The awe has never disappeared that God would gift His Son, a King, to humanity and send Him just as we, ourselves, are — a lowly creature of no power, wealth or, seemingly, royal heritage. 

Do you, like me, find this incredibly mind boggling? Why would God, our Heavenly Father, do this? I know the Bible answers because of the depth of God’s love for you and me; but still, this seems so hard to fathom. Am I, or you, really worthy of this? Honestly, I, personally, (as well as the vast majority of fellow believers) feel pretty beaten-up and inferior, lately. Satan’s world keeps throwing punches that deflate. Christians everywhere feel more worthless than worthy. 

Granted, mankind, as a whole, has turned to evil as their guide; but an even more concerning statistic is that Christians see themselves as helpless, hopeless and inferior to the odds stacked against them. However, are we really as low born and bred as we envision? Could there be a deeper message centering in this very regard? I conjecture there is. 

While it is well for us to ponder God sending His Kingly Son to earth as a lowly Babe in a manger, maybe it is time for us to feel the other direction, too. Yes, God sent His Son, a King, to us on earth as a lowly baby in a manger; but was the message exclusively one of “King as lowly”? Could God, also, have been signaling “lowly as King”? Is there a symbolic sign of God’s love for, and perception of, us in the status of Baby Jesus’s arrival on earth? Couldn’t God have been revealing that He sees and holds us, His lowly human children, also, as royalty? If we are God’s, is not our lineage of Kingship? Maybe, understanding this is the kick in the heart, soul and body we need to stop acting like ignoble defeated human beings and start to confidently reject Satan’s attempts to label us as lowly sinners. 

To all Children of God who go to sleep tonight shrouded in the darkness of visualizing yourselves as failures, too lowly to look up, not worth the effort to save, to wrong to ever be righted, forgotten, unloved, unlovable, abandoned, exiled, etc., etc., etc., solely know, and “soul”y believe, GOD TREASURES YOU — so much so that He sent His King Son to be just like you (lowly) that you might, also, recognize yourself in your CHRISTmas Baby Brother. God desires us all to see ourselves reflected in the newborn in the manger. We are God’s offspring, Kings and Queens of royal worth in God’s eyes and heart, His noble sons and daughters. 

“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…”. Romans 8:16-17 (ESV)

My life’s journey with God is filled with moments of God revealing understanding of His will and way. The majority of these sharing experiences are enlightenment through new perspectives and perception of age-old Biblical happenings. It’s as if God hits me over the head (and heart) with a new window to view one of His past occurrences, gifts or lessons Some bring laughter to my body. Others flood my soul with tears. Such was last weekend’s wrenching comprehension which I now share – the ride within the Ark. 

Noah and his family loved and obeyed God in a time much like today. Evil was rampart; and much of humanity worshipped and adored themselves and their ways, not God and His Word. Our Lord in Heaven recognized Noah’s family as moral and God-centered, though living in the midst of the complete antithesis to His will and way. God vowed to save Noah and his offsprings. Thus, Noah and his loved ones found shelter from complete annihilation within the Ark that God instructed him to build. Today, not one of us Christians is unfamiliar with God saving Noah through a ride in the Ark. However, I’d bet we all fall short of one of the most instructional and reassuring lessons of the Ark – what was the ride within the Ark like??? 

God brought Noah to safety through a ride in the Ark, but it was not a smooth sailing escape. From within the Ark, Noah and all inside endured not a sunny cruise but a wild, rugged storm. And no, there weren’t hurricane ready windows that Noah could gaze through seeking signs of the storm subsiding. In the total darkness of a tempest squall, Noah’s Ark journey was God leading him to promised safety and salvation. 

Fast forward to our present day. To us who firmly trust and believe God is shaking up our unscrupulous world but who, also, cling to God’s Word that His followers and believers will be saved, what kind of ride are we expecting? Are we to anticipate a luxury cruise or a grasping hold on a dinghy we fear is about to capsize? Three days ago, God led me to comprehend the answer to this question. 

When we are aboard God’s ship, with destination beyond earth’s tribulations (possibly at this very moment), not sunlight but the light of the SON, solely and “soul”y, will navigate our journey. On our inside God’s peace will reign, but beating fiercely on the outside of our vessel will be unending waves of worldly, evil forces. 

Smooth sailing is in eternity, not the journey there. Though we’ve secured a ticket on the heaven bound carrier, those of us travelling inside this Ark, just like those on Noah’s, will be tossed and thrown by threatening floods of heinous, outside opposition. Thus, as we face the forces of Satan’s nature, let’s fasten the sashes of our armor and secure our inner peace and trust by pondering Noah’s ride within the Ark.

Strongly, I suspect I was not alone a couple months ago as I stood upon the mountain top. In fact, I, also, have a suspicion many Christians, as recent as a month ago, accompanied me as I knelt in the valley. Today finds me, and most likely many of you, collapsed. However, not that I, and you, have collapsed is of significance. Of consequence is on what we have collapsed. Are we collapsed on the battlefield, or are we collapsed on the Promise. Herein, is the greatest testimony of our faith. “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” I John 4:4 (NIV)

I do not, currently, know of a Christian life free of battle against the worldly adversary, Satan. Our world is besieged with evil, striking every avenue of life as we know it. In all likelihood, the worst is still to come. My firm belief is that where we collapse and beseech our God to save us, will turn the tide of victory. Plain and simple, the war we are facing is not determined on the battlefield. It is already secured on the Promise of God’s Word: “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” Exodus 14:4 (ESV)

What makes the difference between faith and trust in God carrying us victoriously through all the current (and still to come) battles we face or cowering in fear and defeat is whether we collapse beaten from fatigue on the battlefield or if we collapse into God’s loving promises, knowing the victory is already won. Do we fight standing on the battlefield, or do we fight standing on God’s Promises? Satan can defeat us standing on the battlefield. He cannot defeat us standing on God’s Promises.

Bottom line is that where we stand (and collapse) is determined, individually, by each of us. Tonight, and every tomorrow, my vow is to pray and face all battles from Promise. My hope is that we stand side by side, not on Satan’s battlefield but on God’s Promises. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angles nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, no height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8: 37-38 (ESV)

Prayer, simply defined, is the intercession of our needs to God’s ears, heart and hands. Yes, prayer should, also, be our giving praise, glory and thanksgiving to God; but unfortunately, today’s atmosphere is more asking than giving. This lopsided equation, however, is not what my soul longs to highlight in this moment. My focus is our choice of ink in penning our prayers.

Each prayer we offer is meant to grow our relationship with God. Our prayers are to be letters in a memo pad meant to connect us to God more securely and more deeply with each addition. Prayers are purposed not solely for our momentary needs but “soul”y for our lasting dependance on God’s will, way, blessings and protection. Herein, the significant question is do we pen our prayers in washable ink that blots away when answers are granted, times get better or worldly ways dominate over heavenly directions? Or are our prayers written to seek time with God, express our need for God and to bind us in God’s will and way? Prayer, such as this, inks our souls with the permanent marker of communicating with, listening to and receiving from our Heavenly Father. We all need to ask ourselves if our prayers are fundamentally for the eventual washed out here and now or the foundation for bringing us to our permanent, ever-after eternity with God in Heaven.

God never forgets any of us or our prayers. However, many of us feel like we need to re-introduce ourselves to God each time we choose to pray. That’s right, prayer is a choice, not a mandate; and the choice is ours, not God’s.

A good bookmark for how we ink our prayers is this. If we remind God who we are when approaching Him in prayer, then most likely, we rely on today’s resources (washable ink) to implore Him to afford us today’s desires. Once given, the prayer washes from our memory and gratitude. If we know God as our ever-present Father, then our prayers indelibly beseech Him to grant us today’s needs, tomorrow’s blessings and eternity’s reward. This is penning prayer in permanent ink!!!

“Then you will call upon Me, and I will hear you” Jeremiah 29:12 (ESV). With this promise written in forever truth, let us abandon prayer that washes away and holdfast to the permanence of perpetual prayer.

God’s CHRISTmas gift to all of us was delivered in the night. Could it be the greatest of gifts are birthed in the darkness of night, not the illumination of day? For so many, right here, right now, life is swaddled in murky nightfall, not sunny radiance – the same setting as Baby Jesus’s arrival. We forget, or not even realize, God, then and now, places the CHRISTmas star amidst our darkness. If only we choose to look up and follow its direction, God’s light awaits to lead us through even the blackest of skies. Maybe it even takes pitch black darkness to awaken us, humans, to God’s mercy and redemption. Was it by accident God sent our Saviour in bounded darkness; or was it His message that no matter how blackened our lives are, our Saviour comes, enters our darkness and births the gift of mercy and forgiveness to both me and you? The NIGHT was not holy because of all the sunless gloom that engulfed, and still engulfs, our planet. The NIGHT was holy because of the SON – Heaven’s Light, whom God birthed to shine through all darkness and lead not just shepherds and wisemen, but also, US into eternal radiance.

“Till He appeared and the SOUL felt its worth” are, often, overlooked words from the hymn. Christ, and He alone, must appear in our lives for our souls to feel their worth; and the gift of Christ, by God’s direction, did not fear or shy away from darkness. On the contrary, it was the chosen time for God to send His Son to all mankind. If our souls, yours and mine, see and welcome Christ in our darkest moments, then our souls will not be shamed in bleakness but take on illumination of their greatest worth.

Society is so trapped in gloom and feels hopeless that the gift of bright skies will ever dawn. Might not it be for this craved dream to come true, we have to ponder the truth that worldly Santa’s gifts are discovered in the morning sun; but Hope and enlightened lives come only from the gift of the SON, who chose to first appear in worldly darkness? It’s time for all of us to stop waiting for the sun to rise to find peace, joy and our way to eternity. Yes, our world is dark, but look up to the CHRISTmas star for direction and find your way to the SON. His light, and His light alone, was born in darkness to deliver the greatest of light, and enlightenment, into our hearts and souls.

My prayer is that in these coming weeks, and evermore, “O’ Holy NIGHT” will be a ray of light for you and yours.

We all have these weeks. Are we being blessed or cursed? Is the cup half empty or half full? Honestly, the answer is determined by us, not the world.

Six A.M. today and the doors to WalMart opened. The shoppers were like a herd of buffalo let loose! Angry looks demanded everyone else move their cart so the entitled could prevail. However, no way these selfish acts could overpower the short in physical height but giant in God’s stature, meek and humble, selfless clerk who ran the aisles with me. He literally led me to the ground mustard, cooking wine, raisins, cornbread, etc., etc., that filled my shopping task. Why did he so guide and guard me? My heart believes he had to have been sent by my Mom in heaven to help me in her absence and reaffirm she’s always by my side.

Flooding rain has engulfed our area this week. With my two-and-a-half-year-old grandson as my sidekick, we have weathered many a walk under umbrellas. Struggling to hold his hand and the toddler gifts he wanted to share, people stared at us as if I was the worst grammy ever to be subjecting him to torrential downpours. JB didn’t see the rain. His baby heart was reigning in all the happiness of doing whatever it took to see his mommy and show her his work. Adding icing to the beauty of his tiny soul, his little hand waved to say hi to everyone we passed. His little “HI’s” muted all the stormy sounds. The happy squeal of his little voice brought heaven down to earth.

It’s been a week where prayer has been the conversation. The circumstances have not been in the spotlight. Instead, the highlight is the number of answers God has sent. The journey is not over; but there’s not even the smallest of doubt that God, not only, charts the course, but also, carries across the mountains.

I could go on and on about this week, but the question remains the same. Is the cup half empty or half full? For me, neither is the answer. My cup is overflowing. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!!