March 2004 Archives

In December I finished the Precept Study Covenant. To summarize, it is basically a study of the main covenants that God made with His people and ends up comparing and contrasting the old and new covenants and what that means to us. It was a wonderful study. Since I had taken Covenant before, I caught myself wondering why I was taking it again. I found myself praying throughout the study, "Lord why am I taking this? I am not getting anything out of it". I know you have had similar doubts about things. In this case, I was faithful to the end of the study. My perseverance was not disappointing. I received a wonderful nugget of truth the very last night of the lesson! I’ll post more on this soon. Oh, by the way, I have added some links to my link page and updated my home school page. Hope you have a moment to take a look. I have always said that God has taught me more through home schooling than I could ever teach my kids. He has taught me much about depending on Him and much about learning to trust Him. Home schooling is not a sprint, but a marathon. It is a lifestyle that requires commitment. If you are committed to it, you will hang in there until the end. There have been many, many days that I thought it would be easier to give up. But we have always made it through and I am still “leaning on the everlasting arms” as I have to wait on Him to complete the race we began 16 years ago. If you are home schooling your children, be encouraged. You will reap the reward when the race is finished!! You’ll see!

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It has occurred to me that I should talk about the name of my web domain, Walking in Faith. I have received an interesting response about it. I suppose you might say it is based upon a bible verse, Galatians 2:20. “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Because I believe the bible in its entirety and that every word of God is true, I have chosen also to believe this verse. I do not say I understand this verse totally or know how it affects my life totally, but I choose to believe that it is true. With that in mind, I believe that the Christian life is one that is lived entirely by faith. I wish I could say that I have that totally conquered, but then I wouldn’t be walking in faith. You see, it is not a matter of having it totally conquered, it is a matter of walking on, one step at a time, by faith! Or Walking in Faith. I have discovered and daily continue to do so that I cannot live the Christian life in and of myself. “Walking in faith” is about learning to let Jesus Christ live His life in and through me. Notice I said learning. That means through the ups and downs of life, through the good and the bad, through the victories and the defeats, learning to walk on and through, 'by faith', that Jesus can and will live this life through me. I sure enjoy my visit with you.

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Whew! I finally finished the TAC Angel page. Or, should I say it is finished for now. You know how these things are, they change frequently. If you enjoy rubber stamping or are thinking about it, please visit my TAC Angel page. I now have hostess and demonstrator information posted. I also have links to the stamp of the month, current offers and catalog supplements. Take a minute to look around. I would enjoy hearing your comments. Have a good day!

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Recently, our Pastor preached a wonderful message on 2 Cor. 10. It was another one of those things you KNOW but you don’t KNOW, or you’re not applying. I was really motivated and encouraged by the message. I had just talked through the passage with my son earlier in the week because it is such a good passage. I am being reminded of the truths found there, in my own life. I especially like verse 3-5. God has given us all we need to walk in victory over the devil, but we fail to apply it. How dreadful that is. I have really allowed the enemy to steal some precious time from me over the last ten years. But do you know we have a Great Shepherd. A Shepherd who will actually seek us out when we are lost and bring us back to the safety of His fold. You can find more about this in Ezekiel 34:11-16. Hope you’re seeking after truth!

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Why can we be glad when someone hurts us or when something bad happens to us? Because Romans 8:28(KJV). "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose". I like the New American Standard Version because it says that God causes all things to work together for good. This is one of those verses that we KNOW, but don’t always apply. In looking at it the other day, I noted what it doesn’t say. It doesn’t say that all things that come to us are good. It says that God will take all things that come to us and work them for good. If we think on those terms then we get God’s perspective. How can we be unhappy about something that is going to work good in us? And if it is going to be good, then we should really be thankful. And if we are thankful, then we are not bitter! Isn’t God wonderful?

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Do you know how you KNOW things, but you don’t KNOW them. What I mean is, you may say you know something, and you have heard it before, but you really are not applying it to your own life or situation. That happens to me sometimes too. I have been studying and learning a lot about bitterness and anger over the last few years. Last week I went to a ladies luncheon. The speaker said something that stuck with me. She said something that I KNOW but don’t always apply to my own circumstances. She said you can’t be bitter and thankful at the same time. I thought about that for awhile and realized that is indeed true. We were discussing this scenario in our family bible study this evening. We discussed what kind of things we could get bitter about i.e. what someone has done to you, something that may have happened to you, something that did not go the way you wanted or expected etc. We were able to see that it would indeed be impossible to be bitter if you were thankful. That brought us to a discussion of how you can be thankful for something that seems bad. For me that comes with keeping God’s perspective about something. Come back soon and we’ll talk again.

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