And the Peace of God....

Philippians 4:6-7

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present you requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

I said that verse at least 217 times to myself on Friday. It began to rain, very heavily, for a many hours on end. And the weather radar showed only more heavy rain headed straight for my area. To understand why this distressed me, you must realize that my house is only a few feet away from a small creek.

Well, it is only small when the weather is normal. When we get a lot of rain, all bets are off. By Friday night, I had white water rapids about 10 feet from where I sit and post all of these entries to my blog.

At several points during the evening, I seriously asked God what the difference was between being anxious and having a healthy dose of panic when confronted with a potentially dangerous situation. Because the only way I felt anything like the "peace that transcends all understanding" was when I remembered that everything in my home, all that I have, all my stuff, all my treasures--were just things. And they didn't really matter all that much. Even if my whole house was swept away by a flood, God would take care of me.

But I'll be honest, I was having a hard time reminding myself that all my "things" didn't really matter when my husband's car was about to be swamped by the river that had once been my driveway. Sigh. I just want all of you to know that I am not perfect. I am a normal person just like you. I am susceptible to the normal ups and downs of any relationship, including my relationship to God. That does not mean I am defeated in anything, it just means I have to work harder sometimes to get the desired result.

One of my worst nightmares is for someone to read this blog, or even just know me as a person, and credit my happiness and joy to having some kind of perfect life. Believe me, I don't. But I have grace, and I have Christ, and they are much better than a perfect life (or in this particular example, perfectly unruffled trust.)




This is normally my driveway. Don't miss those plastic buckets and tubs floating away. You can't get a sense of it from this picture, but the water was flowing very quickly through here. It was also just starting to rain heavily again, as you can see by the raindrops.

The back garage, which my husband uses as a woodworking shop, underwater. And that small vegetable garden you see on the left, with the plastic tarp behind it, is usually about a foot above the ground.

I know this picture is kind of dim, but this is my backyard, completely level with the creek that runs next to our house. Yes, that is whitewater you see in the middle of the picture, right between my camellias.




See my nice outdoor furniture cushions floating toward the back of this pond/backyard? And don't miss the garden hose floating through the center of the picture.



Before my husband came home and opened up this back gate, clearing away a bunch of debris, the hinge at the top was bent by the pressure of the water trying to push through.


Oh, we are all fine and dried out by the way. Thanks for asking! And despite the ominous predictions of the weather radar, it did stop raining before my actual house was flooded. Whew! Believe me, we were praying really hard.

Broken In the Pit

Psalm 88:6-9

"You have laid me in the lowest pit,
In darkness, in the depths.
Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
And you have afflicted me with all your waves.
You have put away my acquaintances from me;
You have made me an abomination to them;
I am shut up, and I cannot get out;
My eye wastes away because of affliction."

There is a reason this passage in in the Bible. God knows about brokenness, He understands our despair and disappointment and anger. He knows what it feels like to be betrayed, even by those closest to Him, whom He loved and lived in close fellowship with.

In Isaiah 53, Jesus is described as "A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." He is also called "despised and rejected by men." Why does this matter? And why am I writing about it today? Well, I have a friend of a friend who is going through a terrible time. Her entire life is crumbling before her eyes. People and things that she thought she could rely on have failed her, brutally and personally.

If I am not describing you and your situation right now, well, good, but I think all of us can use some reminding about these things from time to time. Whether we realize it or not, we are surrounded by hurting people. We see smiles every day of our lives that conceal pain and rage and despair. We are all so good at putting on a mask of ease and contentment, but the truth is that many of us are right in the kind of pit described in Psalm 88. The lowest pit, a pit of darkness, depths, and affliction.

And there is nothing in all of the world that can help besides God. People will always fail us. Science and technology, and counselors and friends--will all come up short in the end. Because they do not have any real power to comfort, no real power to heal and remake what is broken. They may provide some brief form of relief, but nothing lasting, nothing true. Only God has the power to heal us, to make us a new creation, to satisfy and deliver us from the pit.

I want you to read these scripture verses, and really dwell on them. They provide THE hope and THE cure. Nothing else will do it. Only God.

Isaiah 54:6-7

"For the LORD has called you
Like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit,
Like a youthful wife when you were refused,"
Says your God.
"For a mere moment I have forsaken you,
But with great mercies I will gather you."

Its hard to imagine a more brutal rejection than the rejection of a husband. Just the thought of it makes me gasp inside with horror. But it happens, it happens all of the time. It has happened to so many women that I know. But even if a husband has rejected you, God can gather you back up again, and only He can do it with great mercies.

Isaiah 55:1-2

"Ho, Everyone who thirst,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.

Why do you spend your money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good
And let your soul delight itself in abundance."

These verses are so powerful. Did you see what they say? Stop wasting yourself and your energies on what does not provide life and satisfaction. We are all guilty of this sometimes--we chase after stale crusts of bread and brackish water. And we chase after them with all of our "money" and all of our "wages," everything that we think we have. But why? When God wants to fill us with rich things, good things, wine and milk, and all for free, for nothing.

Listen to how God's children are described:

Psalm 36:8-9

"They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house,
And You give them drink from the river of your pleasures.
For with you is the fountain of life;
In Your light we see light."

Abundant satisfaction, drink from a river of pleasures, life, light, all of these are in store for those who put their trust in the LORD.

So what does all of this have to do with being broken and in a pit? Well, for many people, the pit is where they first begin to search for God. This has largely been the case in my own life. Until I found myself in desperation, I did not think I really needed God all that much. I had managed to run my own life in a somewhat satisfying manner. But life has a way of turning out differently than we expect, of throwing a shock or a surprise at us that we don't welcome. And it often involves a great deal of personal pain. I don't want to minimize pain, I've had enough of it in this life to understand how powerful and crippling pain (or even the possibility of pain) can be. But in the midst of it, in the very worst of it, God cupped my chin in His magnificent hands and gently wiped every tear away. Not because I deserved it, but because He loved me.

He reminded my heart of the promise in Isaiah 43:

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,
Nor shall the flame scorch you."

He doesn't promise to make the pain go away. Sometimes He might, but that is not what He promises. Instead He promises to be faithful to us, to never leave us, to never forsake us, to be with us always, to love us unconditionally.

Isaiah 54:10

"For the mountains shall depart
And the hills be removed,
But My kindness shall not depart from you,
Nor shall my covenant of peace be removed,
Says the LORD, who has mercy on you."

Every single thing in this life may fail or disappoint you, even the mountains and the hills are not trustworthy compared to God and His promises. He promises us kindness and peace. Don't miss that last line of the verse: the LORD who has mercy on you. I prefer the NIV translation: the LORD who has compassion for you. Compassion, real compassion, that comes from a man of sorrows, one who is acquainted with grief, one who has felt despised and rejected. That is a Man who can understand, that is a Man you can trust and hold on to.

Don't chase after things that aren't bread. Don't spend your money on things that can't satisfy. Eat what is good-let your soul delight in the richest of fare. Let the LORD gather you up with tender mercies, hold on to Him in the midst of the storm, call out to Him from the bottom of the pit.

I want to show you one more thing, one more passage of scripture, and then I'm going to end this post. I know its a really long one. But I hope it helps someone, someone who needs to hear these things at this exact moment.

If you are the one who is in the pit, the pit that I described at the top of the post, listen to this:

Psalm 40: 1-3

"I waited patiently for the LORD;
And He inclined to me,
And heard my cry.
He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay
And set my feet upon a rock,
And established my steps,
He has put a new song in my mouth--
Praise to our God;
Many will see it and fear,
And will trust in the LORD."

Don't stay in the pit. Cry out to God. He will lift you up and set you on firm ground. In fact, He is the only one who can. What better choice do you have?

The Measure of My Days

Psalm 39:4-6

"LORD, make me to know my end,
And what is the measure of my days,
That I may know how frail I am.
Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths,
And my age is nothing before you;
Certainly every man at his best state is but a vapor.
Surely every man walks about like a shadow;
Surely they busy themselves in vain;
He heaps up riches,
And does not know who will gather them."

The past four years of my life have been nothing short of revolutionary. So much has changed in me and about me that I would be hard pressed to detail all of it in any format that you would be willing to read. That is how much change there has been.

I'm planning to share my testimony next month in my MOPS group, and because of that I have spent a lot of time thinking about what, exactly, precipitated all of this change in my life. The big answer or course, is that God is responsible for all of it. But God has used circumstances and events to shape and mold me, because that is often how He chooses to operate. He could have thought change toward me, and it certainly would have happened. But instead, He chose the messy way--pulling me through things I would never have chosen for myself. If I were to look backward, I would see two long ruts along the way. Those would be the heels that I dug into the ground in resistance to God's shaping and pulling. But guess who prevailed? And thank goodness.

If I had to pinpoint just one thing that dramatically impacted my relationship with God, and thus my entire being, it would be the day I glimpsed my own death, and kept breathing. Now, I'll admit that I am being a tad dramatic, but not entirely. The day my first child was born, I could easily have died. If God had not graciously orchestrated events to unfold exactly as they did, it is not unreasonable to suppose that I would have bled to death.

I won't go into all of the details here and now, but suffice it to say that I suddenly and totally unexpectedly began to hemorrhage while my husband and I were on a road trip. A hospital was less than 15 minutes away when I started to bleed. But if I had convinced my husband to stop and eat lunch when I wanted to, we could have been much farther from help. God is certainly a God of details.

I have thought for a long time that it was the horrible months that followed that particular day that brought about great change. And there is no question that they did. But in retrospect, I think it was an awareness of the measure of my days, and the inherent frailty involved in that, that caused me to see this life as so passing, so transitory, like a shadow and a vapor. Tied up in that realization is a letting go of the things that I used to spend so much time, energy and emotion pursuing.

This letting go, did not happen easily or even very quickly. But it began on the day that I saw for the first time, with startling clarity, and unavoidable certainty, that my days are as handbreadths. I no longer want to busy myself in vain. I want to busy myself with things that matter, things that are true, and things that are eternal.

If I had died that day, I know that I would have gone to Heaven, because I was already a Christian, and had been for almost all of my life. But I had never done anything in this life, besides believing God, that would have eternal consequences.

But I didn't die. My days were not finished, they were given new meaning. I want them to matter. I want them to matter more than anything I have ever wanted before. Not because I want or seek anything for myself, but because I want to glorify God. I want to serve Him. Here is my heart's desire:

Psalm 40:7-10

"In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
I delight to do Your will, O my God,
And Your law is within my heart.

I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness
In the great assembly;
Indeed, I do not restrain my lips,
O LORD, You Yourself know.
I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth
From the great assembly."

I'll admit--sometimes this newfound passion frightens me. Sometimes I wonder if I am on the verge of becoming that woman that people avoid or find obnoxious. I have no desire to be that kind of woman. But listen, if that is what God has in store for me in order to bring Him glory, show me the dotted line. My pen is poised and ready.

Because He Loves Me

I wasn't planning to post anything today. But I just can't help myself this morning. I got the best present from my husband. And it was a total surprise which makes it even more special, because I wasn't expecting it, and because I am very difficult to truly surprise. (I have a sixth sense about things.)

Waiting for me on the kitchen table, where I read my Bible in the morning, was a jewelry box beautifully wrapped in ribbon. I guessed what was in it before I opened it, but I was still delighted when I cracked open the box. It contained the tiniest diamond cross you can image. It was intended to be worn by a child, that is how tiny it is. I had seen one like it in a jewelry store a few weeks ago and just fell in love with it. Not because it is showy or expensive, which I normally like very much in jewelry, but because it seemed like a precious and tiny treasure to be worn over the heart, something that can be secretive and discrete, but is still radiant and beautiful, even if it is hidden by a sweater. And it is a cross. I can't imagine a more potent love symbol than the cross.

I have never owned a cross pendant before, and before now I have never really thought they were a big deal or wanted one. But now, it is my favorite piece of jewelry, because it represents two things for me. The love of my husband, which is more precious to me than all the diamonds in the world, and the love of my Saviour, which is even more precious to me than my beloved husband.

So on Valentine's Day, my dear husband, please know that I love you with all of my heart. You are a good man and we have a good life together. I don't want anything more than what we have.

But it is the love of God, powerfully and amazingly expressed by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, that awes and overwhelms me. There truly is no greater love.

Two for the Time of One

In lieu of a real post, today you are getting treated to two mini-posts, because I am thinking through what I hope will be a real post in the next few days; but in the meantime I want to share two brief things.

First, have you ever been curious about this scripture, and what on earth it means?

Psalm 24:7-9

"Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
The LORD mighty in battle.
Lift up you heads, O you gates!
Lift up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of Glory shall come in."

I have a CD of Celtic Psalms that includes a hauntingly beautiful song based on this very passage. And I just bought another CD of scripture set to music last week that included these verses too. I always kind of wondered what they meant with all those doors and gates being lifted up. I just figured that maybe it was an allusion to the doors and gates of our heart needing to be "lifted up" in order for God to come in.

But the following footnote from my Bible has helped me immensely:

heads-the city or temple gates are personified.

shall come in-The return of the King of glory implies that He has gone out to battle and returns in victory.


OOOOOOHHHHHHH! So next time I have struggled (gone to battle) with a sin, and returned victorious, I can say this verse to myself.

For example: I really wanted to repeat that salacious rumor that another woman told me (before I could stop her of course!) It was a great battle with myself, and believe me, without the help of the LORD mighty in battle, I could never have been victorious over my own desire to gossip. But, because the LORD is strong and mighty, He made me victorious, and I kept my big mouth shut!

Now, que the music, I'm going to sing Psalm 24:7-9 in my heart.


And second, I took a gamble in the kitchen last night and it paid off.

I love beef stew. It is one of my favorite dishes when it is done properly. But, I'm trying to lose those five pounds I gained during my pig-out at the end of 2007. (Most of you would call this the holidays, but in retrospect, I think it was just one long culinary indulgence for me.)

And those potatoes that are traditionally included in beef stew? Well, they are not on my diet. So what to do? I have used rutabagas in place of potatoes before, with delicious results. But my local grocery store has an annoying habit of running out of rutabagas (of all things! really! are they that popular?) So I gambled and diced up some turnips instead. I highly recommend it--turned out tasty.

Hmm, for those of you who have read my Hot Pot post, we really do eat things besides beef around here, I promise.

The God Who Sees

Genesis 16:13

"Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, "You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, "Have I also here seen Him who sees me?"

The Hebrew for all those hyphenated words is "El Roi," and it is one of my favorite names of God. El Roi literally means just what it says in the text above, "You Are the God Who Sees." There is only one instance in the Bible where this name occurs, and it is here in Genesis 16. It is Hagar, the mother of Ismael who speaks this name of God into scripture. In fact, it is during this same encounter that God tells Hagar to name the son she is pregnant with Ishmael. The name Ishmael means "Yaweh has been attentive to your humiliation," further highlighting that God is intimately aware of all that has happened to Hagar. He has seen, and He knows.

There are three aspects of El Roi that I like to think about. The first two are personal to me, and the third encompasses the whole world. First, when I think of The God Who Sees, I am reminded that God has seen every single bad thing that has ever happened to me. Just like God proclaimed when He named Ishmael, God has been attentive to every humiliation, every disappointment, every mistreatment or unfair accusation. God has seen all of the "wrong" that has happened to me. And He has seen all of the "wrong" that has happened to you, too. There is nothing that has come into my life, or yours, that God is not totally aware of.

The reason that that matters so much is that I don't have to worry about getting justice for myself. In fact, God doesn't want me to even try. Revenge, and justice, belong to the Judge of all the Universe, God Himself. And who better to execute judgment than the One Who Has Seen? So even if a wrong against me goes unpunished in this life, which is very likely to happen, it will have to be answered for ultimately. (I could do a whole post on how, exactly, all sin will be answered for, and maybe I will, but not today.)

The second aspect of El Roi that concerns me personally is that God has seen all of my sins, all of my failings, all of my dirtiness and unfitness and ugliness. He has seen every bit of it, and He still loves me. He still forgives me. He still looks on the sacrifice of Jesus, and says, "you, Hadassah, are righteous because I have covered you with righteousness." But even better, He LOVES me. He rejoices over me. Isn't that amazing to consider? The creator of the universe rejoices over you! (I have to admit, I have always dreamed of a love song being written for me, and in a sense, one already has been...)

Zephaniah 3:17

"He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing."

And finally, I find El Roi both comforting and sometimes troubling when I think of all that happens in this world. God sees everything. He sees the very worst that happens in this life. The things that make me turn off the news because I can't stand to even think about them happening. The horrible, terrible, gross and unfair things that happen to people. God sees all of it, and keeps an account of it all. I find it comforting because I know that God will bring judgment on the perpetrators of all those terrible things. But sometimes, I find it troubling that He lets it continue. There is a part of me that just longs for God to return, to cast the Evil One into the fiery pit and let the righteous reign with Him forever. When I contemplate what God has in store for His children in Heaven, there is nothing in this whole world that is even remotely tempting.

Come soon Lord. Come soon, El Roi.

The law of the LORD is perfect

Psalm 19:7-11

"The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul;
The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous all together.
More to be desired are they than gold,
Yea, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb,
Moreover by them your servant is warned,
And in keeping them there is great reward."


I went to a very interesting MOPS meeting yesterday. For those of you who might not be familiar with MOPS, it stands for Mother's Of Preschoolers, and it is a quasi-Christian organization that seeks to reach out to, well, mothers of preschool aged children. I say quasi-Christian, because it can be either extremely Christ focused, or extremely world focused, depending on who is attending and what the women in leadership set as priorities. I attend MOPS mainly to encourage other Christian moms, to be encouraged myself by other Christian moms, and because there are plenty of non-Christian moms who come and I love the opportunity to spend time around them in a setting that encourages sharing of truth.

Yesterday was one of the best meetings we have had all year. A pastor's wife spoke to our group about pulling back from the "muchness" of life and focusing on our soul's relationship to God. It lead to some GREAT discussion in the small groups that we split into after she spoke. In my group, we spent some time talking about the "dos" and don'ts" that often seem to be the whole of the Christian faith to those who are outside of it. And sadly, they often seem to be the whole of the Christian faith to those who actually are believers.

Let me try to say this as clearly as I can. The law of the LORD is perfect. God means it when He commands us to live a certain way. He was not kidding or making gentle suggestions when He revealed Himself to mankind through the law, the testimony, the statutes, the commandments, and the judgments that He inspired Holy men to write as Holy Scripture.

BUT--if you stop there, if you make the law your entire Christian experience, you are being robbed of the real joy of knowing and loving God. The law has several very important jobs. One thing it does it point out our sinfulness; when we see the perfection that God has commanded us to, and then we contrast that with our ability to actually achieve that perfection in and of ourselves. The law also provides us with great protection from the natural and unhappy consequences that result from breaking the law. It also serves to illustrate the Holiness of God. It makes for healthy relationships between people. I could go on and on about the greatness and perfection of God's law. Like the Psalmist, I have come to an awareness that makes me want to cry, "Oh, how I love your law!" (Psalm 119:97)

But consider what Paul says in Philippians 3:8

"Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him,"

Do you think that the passion Paul expresses here has anything to do with a list of "dos and don'ts"? Think about what Paul is saying. He has suffered the loss of all things. And guess what else? He counts that loss as rubbish. You can't get much more profound and passionate than that. Imagine saying that. "I have lost everything that I had in this life, and I think all of those things are trash and garbage compared to knowing Christ." Whoa.

Consider what David says about the LORD in Psalm 16: 11

"In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."


Pleasures forevermore. Fullness of joy. Nothing stale or stick-in-the mud about that.

So, are you someone who has reduced the knowing and loving of the Most High God to a list of things to do and things to avoid? Or, are you someone who has always thought of Christianity as a bunch of rules? I really hope not. If you are, get out of the shallow end. The deep end is where all the best stuff is.

Weeping at His feet

Luke 7: 37-38

"And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil."

This passage is amazing in several ways. But before I get into that, let me help you to picture this scene a little better. Jesus has been invited to dine at the home of a Pharisee. Yes, that would mean that his host belongs to the group of people that Jesus at one point compared to whitewashed graves, beautiful and clean on the outside, but full of filth and death on the inside (Matthew 23:27--its a pretty brutal description, nothing sweet or nice about it at all.) It was the custom of the day that people be allowed to enter the home and watch a meal like this take place. But this woman who came to see Jesus would not have been welcomed into such polite company AT ALL. She is described as a sinner, and it is pretty safe to assume that she was a prostitute. No righteous man would have had anything to do with her, even to touch her would have been a disgrace.

The guests would have been reclining on couches, so you can picture how she could be standing behind Him and weeping at His feet, and wiping His feet with her hair, kissing them and then anointing them with oil.

Let's take a look at her for a moment, I want you to really try to imagine this encounter. Imagine the guts it would have taken for her to enter a house where she KNEW nobody wanted her. The host apparently knows what kind of woman she is, because as he is witnessing her weeping, he thinks that Jesus must be a fraud to let her touch Him. The Pharisee reasons that if Jesus were aware that she was a prostitute, He would never let the woman touch Him, and because He is allowing her to touch Him, He must be ignorant of her circumstances and thus a fraud. Don't think for a moment that the Pharisee and the other guests would have felt compelled to hide their disgust at her presence. I'm sure there were plenty of meaningful looks and rude comments spoken just loud enough for her to overhear.

Not only does she ignore the fact that she is unwelcome, she goes right up to the table and stands behind Jesus, weeping, wiping His feet with her hair, and anointing His feet with a very expensive fragrant oil. Talk about making a spectacle of yourself! There is nothing subtle about this encounter at all. This woman was obviously overcome with powerful emotion. The Greek word used to describe her kissing Jesus feet is kataphileo, it means to "kiss earnestly." This was no polite peck or two, this was a passionate display. She wept so openly and so hard that she had to use her hair to dry off His feet for goodness sake! This wasn't a stray tear that she could pretend wasn't there by discreetly rubbing her eye! (Come on, you know you've done it.)

Think about that fragrant oil for a moment. It would have been a very rare, and very expensive oil. Even the alabaster jar that held the oil would have been luxurious and costly. So how do you suppose this woman paid for such expensive oil? Imagine for a moment what she had to do to earn the money that bought it. Remember, she is a prostitute. Do you think that Jesus was unaware of what she had done to pay for this oil? No way. He was acutely aware of every humiliation, every dashed expectation, every cruel rebuke, every haughty glare, every snide remark, every dismissive gesture, ever degradation, every shameful and disgusting experience this woman had ever encountered. And He let her weep at His feet, and pour out her anguish and shame with her tears. Can you imagine? Right on the feet of Jesus, the Holy of Holies, the High Priest, the Perfect Lamb. What a moment that must have been for her. What a moment it would be for any of us.

Why was this woman so moved? Because she got it. She saw who Jesus was, she realized what his love and approval meant for her, and nothing else in all the world mattered. I don't think anything could have kept her away. There is more to this encounter between Jesus, the Pharisee and the sinful woman that I haven't even covered. I encourage you to look it up and read it for yourself. But right now, I just want you to think about one thing. Do you have the guts she did? Are you willing to risk the disapproval of those around you in order to "weep at Jesus feet?"

I'm not trying to make you feel guilty here, I actually think guilt is a cheap and ineffective tactic that is way overused--the whole making Christians feel guilty for not being better Christians bit. Rather, I want you to consider this: Jesus tells the Pharisee that the reason this woman loves Him so much is because she has been forgiven so much. In other words, she is aware of how vast her sin is, and she is in awe that it has been forgiven. So here's the question for all of us--Do we realize how vast our sin is? Are we in awe that it has been forgiven?

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This is a postscript--My husband wanted me to be sure and emphasize that we SUSPECT this woman was a prostitute. We don't know that with 100% certainty. But according to the footnotes in my Bible, and the fact that a prostitute would have been referred to as a "sinner," I think it is a pretty safe assumption. But, just in case, I don't want to mislead anyone!