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About Me
Hey! I'm so glad you stopped by. I'm Lyn- wife, mother, writer, speaker, and yes- a former beauty queen. But don't let the title fool you, I'm just a country girl saved by a Grace I don't fully understand. I write about the journey with that amazing Grace here and I'd be delighted for you to join me.
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Tag Archives: Spiritual Inheritance
Into this Grace ~
The words leap off the page and come alive before me. I have read them a hundred times over the years, but this time they take on a new dimension.
I read them again aloud and my voice breaks for the beauty…
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Romans 5:1-2
Such incredible words…justified…peace…access. Done for us by One who offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice. To make a way for us.
For us. The far-off ones. The outsiders.
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:11-22
We, who lived in the futility of our own understanding.
We, who were in darkness.
We, who had no position.
We, who could never get this life-thing right. Or do right. Or be right.
We have been given a Savior who is the Way. God’s own Son takes us by the hand and escorts us straight into the throne room of Grace. To the Father.
And by this Way we are made children of the living God. Family.
I was blessed to have a close relationship with my grandmother. We lived next door to her for most of my life. I wore a dirt path from our back door to my grandmother’s back porch. I was her constant shadow.
Most afternoons I would find her sitting in her chair, which was a perfect opportunity for me to plop down at her feet and lay my head in her lap. I would get in just the right position for her to stroke my hair and after a few minutes, all my cares would melt away.
This is the access we have with God the Father. This intimacy. This closeness. This affection. This favor.
How then does God become my Father? According to the Scriptures it is like this. Christ ‘came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power (i.e., authority) to become the sons of God’ (John 1:11, 12). You become a child of God only when you are born again. . . . Believing in [Christ], we receive a new life and nature and we become children of God. Then we can know that God is our Father; but not until then. He will also give us His Holy Spirit, ‘the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father’; and the moment we know this we can be certain that God as our Father adopts a specific attitude with respect to us. It means that, as my Father, He is interested in me, that He is concerned about me, that He is watching over me, that He has a plan and purpose with respect to me, that He is desirous always to bless and to help me. Lay hold of that; take a firm grasp of that. Whatever may happen to you, God is your Father. . . .
~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount Volume 2
His door is always open. He waits for us to come and lay our heads in His lap. To melt into His embrace.
Into this scandalous, marvelous Grace.
So blessed to join Crosswalk. Won’t you come on over!
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Posted in Confessions
Tagged access, Father, justification, Peace, Spiritual Inheritance
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A Legacy of Faith ~
I remember the first time I saw her. I was a little thing, all curled up next to my Meme on the couch. We looked through dozens of photographs that afternoon and I spotted this one.
“She looks scary and mad,” I blurted out.
“Oh no, honey, she was a godly woman… so kind,” my aunt assured me.
How do you leave a legacy of faith?
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 5:14-16
How do you shine brightly when the work is hard? And the dishes pile up? And the children rebel? And the well is dry…and…and.
My great-grandmother lived on a farm in the deep green of north Florida in the late 1800’s. A house full of children. No modern conveniences. Life must have been hard.
Isn’t the answer to life’s hardships resting on my great-grandmother’s knees? As we apply the Word to our minds, our thoughts become His thoughts. As we apply it to our hearts, we feel God’s heart. As we apply it to our days, we walk in sync with Him. As we lean on His promises, we are strengthened. His Word kindles a flame within us that others witness. It shines down through the generations touching even those we may never know. Those who may only see us in photographs.
Someone like me.
Linking up with Sandy today….
True North ~
As a child, I would walk into the kitchen early in the morning, all bed-head and half asleep, and in the quiet I would find my mother with her Bible open, writing in a spiral notebook and drinking coffee.
She taught me volumes by catching a glimpse of her appointments with God.I learned how to get my bearings by watching her.
Life is hard. Storms have beaten against the framework of our family for generations. There have been seasons of nothing but heavy rain.
How do you chart a course when you can’t see ahead?
The only hope a sailor has of surviving a storm and navigating an ocean is to have a fixed reference point that enables him to discover where he is and where he is heading. The first navigators kept in sight of land, using familiar landmarks. When mariners dared to push beyond the sight of land, they still needed to find a fixed point of reference. So they looked to the heavens…the primary reference point for navigators in the Northern Hemisphere became the North Star, Polaris.
Gary Inrig, True North
My mother found her fixed point of reference when she found herself at the foot of an old rugged cross. She met Jesus there. She’s been keeping appointments with Him ever since.
I began meeting Jesus on the pages of Scripture as a teenager in the 1970’s. I kept my Bible and a red felt-tip pen by my bed. I read a chapter a night for several years. Mama taught me a great lesson without uttering a word.
I learned where True North is. Who He is. I learned to trust in the reliability of the One who doesn’t change. The One who is fixed. The One who is a “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul“. He is my fixed point of reference…my compass, sextant, map and my destination.
It’s been over thirty years since I first saw my mother reading her Bible in the kitchen. And this morning I remember her as I sit. I’m reading the sixth chapter of Hebrews, writing in a notebook and drinking a cup of coffee.
Linking up with Ann and we’re all thanking our Moms..
Posted in Confessions
Tagged Bible, Mothers, Quiet time, Spiritual Inheritance, True North
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Following hard ~
I open my morning devotion
and read from the Gospel of John…Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
John 20:1-16 NIV
I picture these three ~ Mary, Peter and John, and I am struck by their pursuit. None of the other disciples join them.
Once there, John and Mary bend over and look in the tomb. Peter goes all the way in. They are looking for Him. Still following.
I learned to follow as a child. I followed my grandmother. Everywhere she went, this lamb was sure to…well, you know how the song goes. Many afternoons I laid my head in her lap and she stroked my hair.
I would ask for a story and off she’d go…..tales of Georgia in the 1920’s. She spoke of waking up at Aunt Babe’s house to warm biscuits and homemade jelly, of Uncle Elsey asking to lick the last of the cake batter from the bowl, of Grandma Bland gathering all the grandchildren at her feet for night time prayers. She spoke long of being rescued twice in her life ~ by Aunt Babe and by my Papa.
As she prepared meals and baked legendary desserts, she told me of God’s faithfulness in her life and how important it is to trust Him even when times are hard. I listened at night, as she prayed out loud and left herself for last or sometimes, not at all.
This is my inheritance. A godly grandmother. The tears well up… as I remember how she sowed seeds in my life. I am so grateful I didn’t miss it.
What would I have missed if I hadn’t followed hard?
What about Mary, Peter and John? They would have missed the strips of linen lying there without a body. They would have missed the burial face cloth, folded with care. They would have missed the angels keeping watch.
They would have missed the miracle.
To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart.
A.W. Tozer
You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13NIV
O Lord, make us hungry. Fill our hearts with longing and satsfy us with only Yourself. Show us Your glory so that we will be ruined for anything the world has to offer. Give us “grace to to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where we have wondered so long”. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Linking up with Tracy and Jennifer
