messymiraculousmommy

Rise up, Church and take your place in history TODAY!  What we do now matters for all eternity!  For the last 24 hours, the world has watched, vented and wept as the United States of America split apart with many in rage, grief, shock and dismay and many others in stupendous joy! Lifelong friends can't face each other, families are ripped apart, communities in fear of the majority group in their state. The ripple effects are felt all over the world because so many of us have friends and family in the United States. We who are called to be God's people, a royal priesthood, one Holy Nation, we rise up and take our place in history today!  1. Remember that our battle is NOT against flesh and blood. DO NOT fall into the trap of getting angry, hostile, dismayed and grieved over the countless souls who do not know Jesus and therefore cannot choose life while they are still entrapped in the kingdom of darkness. It's not their fault. Please don't be angry with them.  2. Reme...

  “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil His promises to her.” My Bible sticker called out to me with this promise from Luke 1:45.   But what exactly has the Lord promised ME?   As I looked back on my journey with the Lord, I realized that in the beginning of our relationship, His promises to me were all comforting: promises that He has good plans for me (Jeremiah 29:11), promises that He will renew my strength (Isaiah 40:31), promises that His grace is sufficient for me (2 Corinthians 12:9). And indeed, true to His character, God has kept all these promises to me, all the time.   But in recent years, His biblical promises that seemed to hit home most deeply have been the not so comforting ones:   1.   Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. (1 Peter 4:12) 2.   In this world, you will have trouble. (John 16:33...

 I was once told by a livid atheist: "Forgiveness is not the prerogative of Christians."  I looked straight into his angry eyes and saw the all too familiar struggle: he knew he was wronged and he wanted justice. And he knew he was thirsty for the wrong doer's blood and he didn't like that about himself. His experience and his intellect were telling him that it would be better to forgive. He had even convinced himself he could forgive just as easily as any openly Christian person like I could. But his entire body screamed NO! I DO NOT WANT TO FORGIVE! Of course, the main reason for that was that far from being repentant, his wrong doer was smugly celebrating his wrong doing in full public view. His wrong doer was getting away with the crime and no one could stop him. As one who cared deeply for both these atheist men: the wrong doer and the wronged, I could not convey to them how to forgive each other without Christ in the picture. If you want to leave Christ out of t...

Every Easter, my childhood parish choir sang this song: " I will sing unto the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider fell into the sea ." And I would cringe. After all, what kind of a human being celebrates the drowning of many horses and their riders??! As I grew older, I just refused to sing that line, even as part of the choir. I wanted no part in rejoicing over anyone's death. I was a pacifist to the core before I knew what the word pacifist meant.  Obviously, I had never read the Bible and I had no idea that these were the very opening words of an actual song sung by a historical person- Miriam- after she was delivered along with her entire community from 400 years of slavery.  Miriam was born into slavery. That is all she knew. Until she stood in the waters of the river Nile as a young child and watched an incredible miracle. The daughter of the man who had ordered all Hebrew baby boys to be murdered, heard her baby brother's cry and chose to...

Growing up in a convent school, we were taught that abortion is wrong. But that's all we ever heard about being pro life. So it's easy to assume that's all there is to it. Over the years, having faced infertility and caring for our elders who couldn't care for themselves, God Himself has taught us so much more about being pro life: 1. God is the Author of Life (Acts 3:15) And only He has the moral authority as Creator (not creation) to decide the natural beginning and natural ending of human life created in His image and likeness. I am not God.  I can't create life.  And I can't decide when human life ends.  It's not just the five year long frustration of being unable to conceive that brought me to accept this. It's also the day my doctor told me that nothing else is working with me, so it's time to do IVF. We had already done our research and so I knew that it was fine to assist natural reproduction but definitely not to replace it by dissociating...

As my children grow and ask for a pet dog, I find myself revisiting every dog I’ve known in my life and what they’ve meant to me. Well, that was a quick revisit because I’m NOT an animal lover and animals mean nothing at all to me. (Pet lovers, please keep reading). But I have many friends and family to whom their pet dogs have meant a lot, surely even more than I mean to them. As I look upon their profound devotion to their dogs, I can’t help but wonder what it is that they get from that relationship. For me, an animal who can’t feed or clean itself just means one more being that I have to be wholly responsible for. In addition, unlike humans, pets will never grow up and start giving themselves a bath, so this is a long-term daily responsibility.   I’ve heard from dog lovers that their dog loves them unconditionally and is always attentive to their every emotional need that allegedly even other humans can’t pick up. I heard someone tell me once as we were discussing a family i...

THE FIRST NOEL began with a NO. She said NO to the fear rising up within her to say YES to the angel's command not to fear! She said NO to her own plans for that day, that week, that month, that year so she could say YES to God's astounding plans for her. She said NO to the comfort of delivering her child with her community's fold to say YES to do as Caesar told. He said NO too. He said NO to the cultural expectations of having a new bride who would serve him when he chose to say YES to serving an expectant mother. He said NO to a lifestyle that would have been convenient had he not married her, to say YES to caring for her and the baby. He said NO to his carpentry clients and his extended family's needs when he said YES to new instructions given in dreams. Together, they said: NO to complaining so they could say YES to praising God NO to self-entitlements so they could say YES to identifying with the disadvantaged NO to security in their la...