Life is the childhood of our immortality.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
LIFE
RIGHT
REFLECT
To show an image of the One who is looked at. Let the Refiner see His face in you just as the silver refiner can see his face in the pure silver. This only happens when your heart is pure.
INSIGHT
Insight comes from reflection, from studying the reflection. How accurately do I reflect Him? Where am I a little (or a lot) off?
GLORY
Glory comes only in His presence. We can be mirrors reflecting His glory out into the world just as mirrors have been used to send messages from place to place through history. Everything we need and desire is found in His glorious presence. Let us stay there.
HOLY SPIRIT HELP
We must have the Holy Spirit’s help in all things. Without God we are nothing, and without Him we can achieve nothing of eternal value. We must humble ourselves, seek His help, and follow His instructions.
THINK
When He speaks to us, be it through the Word, a minister, a friend, or directly to our spirits, we must not simply hear what He says; we must also think about it, meditate on it, and chew on it. Only then will it truly change us, making us more like Him.
At all times, we must strive to be RIGHT.
Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C
Living Words
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
Jn 15:7
I have no idea how may times I’ve heard this verse but, like every other verse in the Bible, it can speak something new every day. A year or so back, I grew even more determined to stay in God’s Word when I saw the true significance of one of the conditions that comes after “If.”
“If…My words abide in you…”
The Word of God must abide – live, dwell, and be firmly planted – IN ME in order for me to qualify for this promise.
This doesn’t just happen. It is up to me to seek out God’s Word, to go after the seed I want planted in me. I go after it by being in church and sitting under the teaching of the man or woman of God. I go after it by reading the Word for myself. I go after it by studying it on my own, participating in Bible studies, listening to the Bible app on my phone… Like any good farmer, I seek out quality seed and get it in the ground. (I also watch my heart to make sure the ground is good!)
Then, to ensure that it grows and lives in me, I nurture that Word. I think about it, chew on it, ask God to teach me through it. I record my thoughts and, yes, write blog posts. I also discuss what I’ve seen and learned with others who are cultivating God’s Word in their lives.
I WILL make sure His Word lives in me regardless, because I genuinely love both my God and the Bible, but it is good to know that in doing so I also work towards qualifying myself for the promise found in the fifteenth chapter of the book of John.
Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C
Self-confidence
The portrait you’re looking at took me so long to complete that the one who commissioned it could have had a baby while she waited. Why did it take me so ridiculously long to finish such a simple piece? Was I so overbooked with commissions that my pencil couldn’t fly fast enough?
Hardly.
This commission came in while I was working on a special piece for an auction. The image, which happened to be of Jesus, had been in my head for years and I was excited to draw it. The auction supports great ministries, and I was thrilled to be able to contribute. Everything was going perfectly. The wood of the cross looked awesome. The clothing draped just right. The hands were amazing. and then I got to the head and face; these were my undoing. No matter how hard I worked, how much I reworked, I simply could not get it right. And then I ran out of time.
I “finished” the drawing, but even as I took it to the framer I was ashamed of it. It wasn’t just bad; it was humiliatingly, publicly bad. That it sold for less than I’d paid to have it framed was no surprise; I was glad it brought anything at all – and hoped that everyone would forget I’d produced anything so regrettable.
I have no idea how many pencil portraits I’ve done through the years, but I’ve drawn enough that I feel confident in saying I’m good at what I do. Even so, this whole experience shattered my self-confidence. the wise thing would have been to pick my pencils right back up and start on something else – anything else – but I didn’t. It was many months before I could bring myself to even pull out my supplies. Admittedly, laziness and procrastination were factors in the delay, but they were fed by fear of failure.
Strange as it may seem, I share this story to encourage you. How many singers have had their confidence hammered after blowing the National Anthem on the Little League field? How many young dancers have been ready to quit after going left while everyone else danced gracefully to the right? How many aspiring thespians have considered switching to Botany after mangling a monologue? It happens to the best of us.
Sometimes, hopefully most of the time, we’re able to stand back up, brush ourselves off, and get back to it. Then there are the times when we lie there, paralyzed for a while before something gives us the strength to rise again.
Swiftly or slowly (Swiftly is so much better!), the key is to DO IT. When hit with such a blow, we need to be like David who, after discovering the destruction at Ai, encouraged himself (1 Sam 30:6) and managed to get up and do the next thing – and he recovered all that had been lost. Fear is a terrible enemy, but we can conquer it. YOU can!
I’m not proud of how long it took me to complete this portrait. I am, however, proud of the work; it is every bit as good as I knew (somewhere inside) it could be. I am also grateful for the amazing patience of the friend who commissioned it, and for the vitally important lesson I’ve learned once again.
“Down” is not someplace anyone wants to be, especially over something so absurd. I’ve decided that, should such a thing happen again, I will take a page from David’s book and encourage myself (or read myself the Riot Act). I have to; there’s another picture waiting to be drawn!
Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C
The Lord’s Living Garden
“I understood that every flower created by Him is beautiful, that the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not lessen the perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all the lowly flowers wished to be roses, nature would no longer be enameled with lovely hues. And so it is in the world of souls, Our Lord’s living garden.” ― Thérèse de Lisieux
Revelation
The Holy Spirit, and the way He reveals things in the Word when we ask Him to teach us, is AWESOME! I love it when God tweaks my view of Scripture, making me see the familiar in a totally new light.
For instance, here are some pieces that came together for me at some point last year.
1. We know the Israelites were to use no leaven at Passover. This was part of them being
prepared and ready to leave as soon as God (through Pharaoh) gave the Word.
2. We know leaven represents sin throughout Scripture.
3. We know that many things in the Old Testament are types and shadows (AKA prophecies)
of what later happens in the New Testament.
4. The Exodus, itself, is prophecy! It foreshadows our exodus from this earth at the Rapture.
We must remove sin (leaven) from our lives (houses) and be spiritually ready to leave at a
moment’s notice. Even the end times transfer of wealth that we hear so much about is
foreshadowed by the Jews requesting and receiving all sorts of valuable things from their
Egyptian neighbors.
The Word of God is SO COOL.
Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C
Love Labels
In studying Love, I of course am spending time in First Corinthians, chapter 13. One of the first things you see that love does not do is “parade itself.” (KJV “vaunteth”) Most of us don’t literally walk around saying, “Look at me! I am too good for you!” Clearly, this is a heart condition more than outward action. We may not parade around openly, because we know it’s unacceptable, but it’s what our hearts do that God sees.
One thing our hearts do, when they are not filled with love, is label people. We say, “She’s so OCD that I can’t stand to be around her.” We cannot truly exalt ourselves; only God can do that. This technique, however, effectively puts the other person on a level below us – in our own minds – and makes us feel better than them.
One who walks in love will, instead, use love labels, thinking things like, “Her faithfulness humbles me. Her attention to detail is amazing. She so clearly gets fully into everything she does.”
When we intentionally put love labels on people, we raise their value, their worth, in our eyes. We begin to see them as God sees them, and we see ourselves more clearly as nothing more or less than their fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord. When we intentionally put love labels on people, we instinctively begin to treat them differently, to esteem them, to show them the love that John 13:35 is talking about.
When we intentionally put love labels on people, we begin to act like Jesus.
Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C
The Power of Journaling
I discovered the power of journaling decades ago when I was going through an especially hard time. The thoughts in my head stayed confused, whirling about so fast I could seldom catch them and hold them still long enough to actively think on them. I had become frustrated, judgmental, constantly anxious and unsatisfied. I was a Christian at the time, and I prayed, but even my prayers were unfocused and frustrating. And then, one evening while sitting in a laundry mat with a room full of other people, something wonderful happened.
Since I couldn’t pray openly, like I usually did, I began to write my prayers down in a notebook. I poured out my heart to God in a different way and discovered something totally unanticipated. I was finally able to actually catch the thoughts and put them into some order. I felt, for the first time in a while, that what I was saying was actually making some sense, and having finally grasped those myriad words and crammed them onto paper, I was able to sit back and actually hear God’s voice for the first time in too long.
He told me to go back and read what I’d written, and as I read He pointed out every time I used the word *I*. It was humbling. Right there, in black and white, in my own handwriting, was proof that I had completely lost focus. My attention had wandered away from Him and onto every bad thing I perceived to be in my life. I had become completely focused on ME and how I felt everything was wrong.
The words on the page truly represented the attitude I’d had for a long time, and I knew it. He’d known it all along, but my brain had been so busy griping, moaning, and complaining that I couldn’t hear Him. Like an avalanche carries away an unprepared skier, they had completely consumed me and I was alone in the noise until I found the way to still them.
That experience taught me a great lesson about journaling, and I have kept many journals through the years – some prayer journals and some just records of things I’ve been thinking about that I don’t want to forget. I even have a small journal I carry in my purse today so that I can remember the special things God shows me no matter when I happen to see them.
I also have a formal prayer journal, one I was given on my birthday last year, and it has revolutionized my prayer life. Just this morning I was thanking God for it, because I was trying to pray during my first “get ready” minutes, before I pulled the journal out, and I found my mind wandering all sorts of rabbit trails instead of talking to Him about the things I wanted to discuss. My brain can be like that at times, especially in the morning, but the journal helps it wake up and focus, helps me stay true to what I want to do.
It also serves as a permanent record. I may have only had the journal about a month and a half, but I’ve gone back and reread some of its entries multiple times so that I can keep myself on track, so that I don’t forget the things God has revealed to me and the path I want to walk. This has proven to be a great help in keeping me on the right path in my walk with God.
Whether for prayer, or only for personal use, I highly recommend the journal. Write it down so that you can get it out of your head. Write it down so that you can read it again and actually see what you’re really saying (Just be prepared for a shock, because we can be much more self-centered than we realize.). Write it down so that you can remember, later, what you’ve learned today. The pen really is a mighty tool.
Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C
Slow Down!
Hello. My name is Tammy Cardwell, and I move too fast.
I have moved too fast most of my life. In school, I learned that moving quickly from class to class gave me more time to read. This began a habit of walking fast that still gets me in trouble today as my shorter friends and relatives have to call out from somewhere behind me, “Slow down!” Truly, unless I’m on a deserted road in the country, intentionally idling away the time, I forget there is a such a word as “amble.”
All of which is bad enough, but when you hear God calling out, “Slow down,” as I have, you know you’ve gone beyond a lack of courtesy and are veering into dangerous territory.
He reminded me, recently, that it is those who wait upon the Lord that renew their strength. Too often, I listen to one part of what He says and move forward without hearing Him out completely. This is something I do to people as well, and I assure all of you that I really am working on it!
So, in a recent conversation, God reminded me that it is the warrior who waits to hear everything his superior has to say that is strengthened for battle, and the server who waits to hear everything his customer has to say that is strengthened for service.
It’s bad enough when my friends have to tell me to slow down. It’s far worse when it’s God sitting there, patiently waiting for me to return and actually hear Him out so that I can be strengthened for what lies ahead.
So if you hear me muttering, “Slow down, Tammy.” Don’t worry about me talking to myself. I’m just reminding me before someone else has to.
Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C
Dance, Love, Sing…Live!
“You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching,
Love like you’ll never be hurt,
Sing like there’s nobody listening,
And live like it’s heaven on earth.”
― William W. Purkey