Likely we have never understood the truth of solitude until now, in the Year of our Lord 2020. A season of enigmatic suffering, seclusion, fear. We hear stories of the elderly dying alone. There can be no funeral, just burial. We hear of refrigeration trucks being used as morgues to hold the bodies until they can be disposed of. Sadness and loneliness hover over the epicenter of our once untouchable city where literally thousands are dying—Alone. At least, we thought it was invincible— Our Savior considered that and more when He cried, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). It makes perfect sense that God had to turn His back on Jesus at the Cross, because a Holy God cannot look upon sin, and in those moments on the Cross, Jesus "became" sin for us that we might be made righteous through His shed Blood. In all of that, of course, the God-Man was—Alone. For He (God) hath made Him (Jesus)  to be sin for us,  Who knew no sin...

“Calm thyself … rest thee, sit thee still and trust. God is working out the plan of thy life, thou canst not hurry Him; it will only expend the energy of thy soul to no purpose, if thou allowest its fever to consume thee… in His own time, the best time, ‘He shall give thee the desires of thy heart’ (Psalm 37:4).   F. B. Meyer’s words were published in 1910. You would think he was speaking to us right here and now.   Remember the song, “My Favorite Things”? I can soon be calmed and soothed with my favorite things, even in the bad times, like now, the age of War with The Silent Enemy. My friend, Bonnie, lives some twenty miles away in Greenville. We see each other about every six weeks, and we spend the greater part of the day having lunch and talking until there is no breath left within us. We can’t do that now, so we text and encourage with each other with Scripture and daily thoughts. We talk about politics and food! We have great advice! Too bad nobody is listening...

The aroma of country ham moves deliciously on the wind. A warm seventy-two degrees on this late March day at 10:10 in the morning and the sun pours through the windows of my temporary She Shed. Cracker Barrel is churning out boxes of carry out to those who dare leave the safety of their homes on this Saturday morning to pick up. Otherwise, no worries, I'm sure they will deliver those biscuit delicacies for you, hopefully tossing in a couple of blackberry jams. In the meantime, it suffices just to take in the aroma while feasting upon some goodness from His Words, which are sweeter than any blackberry jam from Cracker Barrel. Social media explains it. A few have all the answers, you know. You can always count on them. But to the faithful lovers and followers of Christ, it's a favorite verse of Scripture for such a time as this, a quote from our beloved fathers of the faith, a story of love and redemption, more positive than negative. A baby is born. A loved one dies, sadnes...

From day one of the "Sequester" my children and I have had our personal best way of staying close, especially since we can't get to each other, we can't touch each other, and we can't really see each other. Everything has transitioned to "cybernetic," which leaves a lot to be desired. So... this is my She Shed, my temporary Haven for Devotions, my Sacred Place where I meet with God and He meets with me. No, that is not "the Eye of God" in the picture. It is my Nissan, and with windows rolled down, the sun pouring in and a nice breeze of 67 degrees blowing across my face, I sit on the now empty parking lot of Cracker Barrel facing the I-385 where the 18-wheelers roll out to carry food and provision, medical supplies, surgical masks, and swabs, and respirators across this great land. For this is the essence of the War with the Silent Enemy, as our President describes it. And so from this Sacred Place, I can text my children, they can text m...

We live in the incredible age of the Millennials . Notice I didn't say the Millennium, the Kingdom Age, the thousand year reign of Christ upon the earth (Revelation 20:4-6). That comes a little later. We must finish out the Age of Grace followed by the Rapture of the Church, and then there is the seven years of Tribulation, after which Satan is bound in the abyss, and the Church will rejoice for a thousand years with Jesus "seated upon the throne of His Father David." Inconceivable? Read it for yourself. There is so much to ponder between those lines.  Back to the present, a little slice of time in this Dispensation of Grace when we have produced a generation of what the culture has dubbed Millennials . We who are of the Silent Generation sometimes find it difficult to "get" this concept. We grew up with party-line telephones, a three digit number, and a real live operator. I probably never heard of a passcode unless it was on the Chocolate Flavored Ovalt...

I used to think I was almost home when I got this far down the road. So close, and the heart beat fast as I contemplated seeing Mother and Daddy. Now I try to visualize how they look in their new Home and I long to see them. And Jesus tells me, "Just a few more days, a few more steps, a few more trials;  you will be Home." I never thought about how my Heavenly Father would wrap me in His arms and comfort me when things changed dramatically. But He did. He does. And He will until that great day when I will stand with Him on the other side of this veil of tears. So take heart, dear Christian soldier, "For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways, They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone" (Psalm 91:11-12). I gave due diligence in 2019 to the study of the Names of God. I have done this before, but never with such zeal as now. Maybe because—well, this is my 80th year, and I believe with age co...

In  the lovely 2020 Daily Planner my husband purchased for me (from Discovery House Publishers), on the first day of the new year, I wrote:  "I want to love from a pure heart, the Holy Spirit being my Great Teacher, the cleansing Blood of Christ renewing me daily." "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9:14) Give this some thought today:  we do righteously because we have been made righteous by faith under Grace (Romans 3:24-28). Read this if you have a few moments and let it sink in. Now you can make it your own. My moral anchor is my Conscience . I want to be careful through the power of the Holy Spirit to let no unpleasant behavior come in, taking care in 2020 lest I shipwreck my good Conscience ! That is a factor, of course, something to be cautious about day after day.  "Holding faith, and a go...

"Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not." Jeremiah 33:3 God loves it when His children pray and seek His face. And He loves when we worship Him, for adoration is the foundation upon which all other prayer rests. Adoration finds the Christian entering into peace and comfort that can be found nowhere else but in Him. It is the cry of the restless heart finding His arms. You might say, but others think it is unnecessary to pray, to call on God for anything. We need not pray because God already knows what's going to take place even before it happens, and it would be a waste of His time and ours to pray about something. About anything. Well, that's just preposterous! Another trick of the evil one. Funny the things he wants you to accept as fact. So much scripture teaches us that we are to pray. Why, the disciples even asked the Lord Jesus to teach them to pray. Let's remove, once an...

Let us therefore come boldly into the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16 In chapter six of Isaiah, the prophet has seen the Lord, high and lifted up. He has watched as the seraphim (the expression of God's holiness) serve Him upon His Throne. He has heard them cry, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory." Perhaps Isaiah ponders what is next, for the seraphim are approaching him as it were in slow motion, with a live coal taken from off the altar. Mind you, he has just honestly confessed to The Lord of Hosts that he has a sin problem.  Surely not Isaiah  … who is about to write with a clear view of Grace the humiliations and sufferings of Messiah. Surely not Isaiah ... who will prophesy of Israel's exile to and the return from Babylon. Surely not Isaiah ...  who will write concerning David's Righteous Branch ...

I applied my ear to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness. Eccl. 7:25 Surely you have noticed the onslaught of an old and argumentative system of theology, that is all of a sudden, well maybe over the last few years, "new again," restless ones joining the debate and jumping track to participate in the polemics. I do not want to be numbered with this group, a writer who constantly debates in opposition to others concerning contrived theological systems. There is far too much precious life-sustaining material in the Scriptures which we will never exhaust. No, not before Jesus returns to take us Home. I recently researched and wrote a thesis on such an argument for a client. I don't recommend this for the faint of heart, because it drains you of so much spiritual talent you could be using on something much more productive for the cause of Christ. A long time ago, I learned...