Straight From The Hart

  I've been thinking a lot about grace lately. Seems like when we need it the most is when we think about it. I've been grumpy and petulant this week. Most of it due to pain and/or the medicine I take for the pain. But I thank you all for your patience in putting up with me (and your grace) So many of you hurt, also, and much more than I do, and God chastises me when I complain too much. Here is a lengthy devotion/short sermon I wrote some years ago about grace. *********************************** I turned on PBS to watch Gospel music tonight. Featured group was The Martins, definitely one of my very favorites. Their close family harmony is absolutely angelic. The theme turned out to be grace and I did a lot of thinking as I Iistened to them sing. I can’t believe I missed so much of the message of grace in my early spiritual life. Maybe it was there in the sermons and I just missed it. The Church of God is what is known as a holiness church, where you are not suppose...

     ·  Shared with Your friends Today's LDR column: Straight From The Hart Joan Rowden Hart About 55 to 60 years ago, at this time of the year, I was really in my element. It was time for school to start and I was always so excited. It had nothing to do with new clothes. I remember the first time I became aware that some kids bought new clothes for the beginning of school. I was in the Joe Knight drugstore with some of my friends where we were having a coke after registering for school at the junior high. Some other girls came in and were showing off all their new clothes and shoes. I remember thinking that was rather shallow since it had nothing to do with my perception of the first day of school. So it wasn’t about clothes. It was about school supplies, especially notebooks and paper. I enjoy Marie Brown’s “Stoutland Tidbits” column which appears in the Wednesday paper along with mine each week. I don’t know her, but sometimes I think we must have been twin...

  My Facebook posts have evolved through the years. I still like to make my friends laugh with a silly story or a joke or a cartoon, or get you caught up in a drama that seemingly could only happen to me, or just sharing a memory in a special photo, but more and more I am trying to post words that will inspire you or encourage you. I also like to post informational articles about subjects that might interest you - something you didn’t have time to read or watch. And you know of course that I love to read and especially write poetry so I will share lots of "rhyme and reason" with you, too. My days revolve around the computer, doing research on subjects in which I am interested and want to pass on to you, or surfing Facebook to keep up with my friends. I am not lazy. Unless you are pretty much confined to one room, as I am, you probably can’t understand how very much I would like to be able to walk through my house and clean up the clutter and wipe off the dust and put away the...

  The year was 1983. The president was Ronald Reagan and he was addressing the Congress as he said, “When I took office in January 1981, I was appalled by what I found: American planes that couldn't fly and American ships that couldn't sail for lack of spare parts and trained personnel and insufficient fuel and ammunition for essential training. The inevitable result of all this was poor morale in our Armed Forces, difficulty in recruiting the brightest young Americans to wear the uniform, and difficulty in convincing our most experienced military personnel to stay on. There was a real question then about how well we could meet a crisis. We had to move immediately to improve the basic readiness and staying power of our conventional forces, so they could meet -- and therefore help deter -- a crisis.” (Sound familiar?) Then he posed this question: “What if free people could live secure in the knowledge that their security did not rest upon the threat of instant U.S. retaliation t...

  Coral in the ocean is not just beautiful - it is an animal  which is often described as  "just a clump of polyps". God made that. In His majestic mind and awesome creativity He made that so He could reveal His nature and omnipotence. We marvel at such beauty and prolific expressive genius. But what about you? He created you and you are a million times more beautiful than the coral you see. Just listen to the Psalmist in No. 139. This is how God sees us. 13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[a] Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Got goosebumps yet? You are more than a clump of polyps, yo...

  Reflections on Healing. This was not written in a vacuum, but in the depths of my own pain and questions of “why?” First. I know God can heal. There is not a doubt in my mind but what He can. Not a doubt! So logic as well as faith would tell us that the reason He has not healed me is that He has a purpose in mind for me that supercedes even the testimony of glory I could give if I were healed. We cannot possibly know what that is, but He has something better for me than physical healing. Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then there is 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. I cannot tell you how many times I have re-read that in every available version and it always brings comfort. If the great Paul the Apostle could not be healed because he was more valuable to God in his situation, then how much more God values us in our weakness as we bring Him glory. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 Ampl...