Dealing...Which car should I miss?

Continuing this theme of being candid about what it is like to live with MS. It seems to target the nerve or nerves most critical to your lifestyle. It's weird like that, unique in some ways to the individual and some things the same across the board. Fatigue, for instance. Every MS patient I have met has to fight this. Not everyone loses their vision or their balance. It hit my optic nerve; hit it hard. For a teacher that is a death knell, a career stopper.

Image courtesy of Microsoft

 

Driving is a symbol of independence. So giving up the car keys was another hurdle. What helped me make that decision was that I realized that driving myself to pottery class used up all my energy and left none for doing what I went there to do. That was dumb. I had to drive extra distance to make a left turn so I had a stop light because I could not tell which one of those three oncoming cars to avoid. Yes, I saw three cars when there was only one. Every drive was a "white knuckle" event. Dumb again. I asked the husband of one of the ladies in the class if he could please drop me off at my husband's office. When I told him the reason he saluted, said he'd be happy to and thanked me on behalf of all the drivers on the road for my eminent wisdom!    
Image courtesy of Microsoft

                                                                                                                                                                                                          

And depth perception? Well there is little to none. I feel for the curb with my toe. It all looks flat to me but the curb is often clearly marked so I know it is there. The first step is a hard one! The pain memory from a couple times of stepping off as if it were flat helps you remember to check! You only do it once or twice.
 

And the Lord calls me to be a writer knowing all about these difficulties! I have taken the stance that I want to learn everything I can learn from this disease--milk it for all it's worth! I believe that God only gives good gifts and even things that don't look like gifts to me might contain some gold so I didn't fold up and sit in a pity party (not for long anyway). I will not judge God or His Word by my experience; rather I will judge my experience by His word. He is good. I figured if He asked me to do this then I either already had the resources, needed to use the resources I have differently, or He would supply what was yet needed. The computer is a great resource. I enlarged my fonts and made the lines at 1.5--viola the lines no longer run into each other.
Image courtesy of Microsoft

Just talking or thinking about the difficulties makes me tired. I have much more energy if I keep my thoughts joy filled or if I dialogue with God as I am doing a task. It is as if I can draw energy from Him whereas when I focus on a difficulty it is like letting go of my energy source. Consequently, I don’t talk about it much. And this is about enough for today…I need to get back  into joy or I will lose the rest of the day! I hope this gives you a bit of insight into what my life is like with a chronic condition.

 

St. Paul said that he gloried in his infirmities. I look at that and shake my head, confiding in God that I am not there yet and don't know if I ever will be. One day in the kitchen sweeping, the thought flew through my head that I wondered how God saw all of the derailments and hard things in my life. About two hours later I gasped because I was looking at all those events from His point of view. I don’t know how He does that—must be like a Vulcan mind meld! All I could do was say, “Thank you, Lord! Thank you!”

 

From His point of view each place that I had felt would “be my home” and I would stay there for the rest of my life—each place was a temporary assignment. I assumed it was a place to put my roots down deep. Erroneously I thought I had come into my destiny, so when the assignment came to an end and I had to move on I was hurt and confused. It was a temporary assignment to gain a skill set or hone a skill and gain expertise that I would need in the next assignment. The final derailment was this MS attack. From God’s point of view it works perfectly to give me the time to write the things that are on His heart, and that truly is my destiny: to be His friend and scribe, to stay just one step behind Jesus so I won't get lost and am close enough to hear what He says and write it down without the distractions of a teaching career, papers to grade, committee meetings and assignments...politics (ugh). I am closer to glorying in my infirmity than I have ever been before. At least I am grateful, and I have found my way back to joy.

 

                                                                                                                                                                 

How about you? How are you dealing with the “hard thing” in your life? What helps you keep your faith and perspective? I would love for you to share your story of how the enemy meant for your destruction but God turned things around for you. It would be a big encouragement to us all!

 

Blessings, Carol…making it plain

Author of The Mystery of Spiritual Sensitivity and Highly Sensitive

www.fromgodsheart.com
www.joystarters.com

Dealing...one day at a time

Myrrh plant - Photo courtesy of Google Images
 

It dawned on me that I had not posted here lately. Two reasons: First, I have been consumed with starting this new project on joy, (which I love!) setting up a new website to go with it: www.joystarters.com, gathering materials in preparation for a big "write in" for the book we will write about "Joy Starters" and making decisions to bring www.fromgodsheart.com to a different server. And secondly, it is abundantly clear that I have energy limitations due to the fact that MS has been an unwelcome squatter in my life.

 

I've been encouraged to be candid about living with MS. I have this to say about that: MS SUCKS! There I said it. It's true. MS has taken away nearly everything that told me who I am and that gave me a sense of worth, value and belonging. It has wrecked havoc on my self image and sorely pressed my faith.

 

 At times I could hear Job's wife screaming at me to curse God and die. For some reason that I do not understand I could not do that. I turned and looked at that screaming demon through my brain fog and sloth-like I slowly thought, "Why would I do that? It doesn't make sense." Like Peter, I thought, "To whom and where would I go if I broke relationship? There is no other place to go for me." I could not wrap my mind around living without Jesus in my life. So I turned to Him with everything and pounded His chest; I shouted, cried and asked my questions, told Him how unfair it was and questioned His motives. Then I went logical and pointed out that He was shotting Himself in the foot because after all He poured into me I would be unable to do what He had gifted and prepared me to do. But it didn't change anything. Not His love for me and not my condition.

 

Let me just stay with the faith part of it...we can come back to the other issues in later blogs. One time in that first year I had one of those times when you don't know if you dreamed or if it was a vision or what. Everything was so foggy. That's what brain damage does to you. You sleep a lot; that's how your brain recovers. So was I sleeping in the day time and had a dream or was it a vision? I don't know. But what I saw was Jesus and me inside a clay jar (must have been a big one!) and we had been wrestling. At the moment we were both resting after a round, my feet up against the side He was leaning on and His feet on the wall that I was leaning against; our clothes stuck to our bodies from sweat; it was pouring down our faces. He is bigger than me, but that did not stop me! I guess I was like Jacob who wrestled with God, but unlike Jacob I don't remember getting any promise out of Him.

 

A couple days earlier someone had given me a song about myrrh and how it's fragrance is released only when it is crushed. As we were catching our breath I told the Lord that unlike myrrh, crushing me only made a stink. He smiled at me and there was so much love and understanding in that smile that it undid me! I get teary eyed just thinking about it. Without words He communicated, "of course it would smell that way because your senses were not yet fully redeemed!" But that look of love in His eyes...somehow I knew that I would be unable to understand even if He explained it to me. Understanding something of that magnitude is beyond my human design capabilities. I didn't like that answer but my spirit knew that He was right. Now some 17+ years later I know that I don't have the capacity physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually to process all that happened to me so it sits on a shelf I labeled "mystery" and as He grows my capacity we will process one aspect after another.

 

What do you do with a God like that? Who let's you beat on Him, yell at Him and question His motives and still hold onto you with such love? Akkk it just unwinds every over tight spring in my body! My response was to just love Him back...with however much capacity I had.

If you have a chronic condition or an "incurable disease," how has it affected your faith and how did you handle your diagnosis?

Blessings, Carol Brown
Author of The Mystery of Spiritual Sensitivity and Highly Sensitive
www.fromgodsheart.com
www.joystarters.com
Work in Progrss -- Joy Starters

Is Forgiveness the "F" Word?

Photo Courtesy of Microsoft Images

For many, forgiveness is a dirty word. It may conger up memories of forced apologies or asking forgiveness because someone twisted your arm behind your back and asking forgiveness was the only way to stop the pain. There is usually a very good historical reason for feeling the way we do about forgiveness. However, God does not coerce. He is all about relationship. He wants us to understand the consequences of our choices, but does not twist our arm until we choose to live life His way.

What does the word mean? Sometimes it helps to look at what a word is NOT before we can wrap our minds around what it is. We must have a proper understanding of forgiveness if we hope to be free and whole.

Forgiveness is not saying what happened to you was right, that it did not hurt, or that it does not matter. Truth is, the hurt/abuse/neglect was not right, it did hurt, and it does matter. Forgiveness is not making excuses or letting people off easy. Criticism, undercutting, minimizing are not all right, it does hurt and it does matter to God and to you. Forgiveness is recognizing that the hurt, trouble, and anguish is bigger than you are and that you cannot cope with the accumulation of hurt and burdens on your own. To forgive is to release that accumulation to the Lord for Him to do with according to His own discretion. It is an invitation for the Lord to free and heal “me.” It is giving Jesus the responsibility to determine justice for those who hurt you. Forgiveness does not let someone off the hook—it puts the offender on Jesus’ hook.

You do not need to forgive and forget. Psalm 103:12 does say that God forgives and removes your sins from you as far as the east is from the west. It does say that God remembers your sins no more and does not hold them against you. I have not found any Scripture that says that you have to forgive and then forget about it and act as if nothing happened when you were hurt. God can afford to forget. When God forgets, He does not literally lose all conscious awareness of the offence, no! Forgetting is not amnesia; for if it was, there would be no record in Scripture of any specific sin that had been committed, then forgiven. God “forgets” in the sense of dismissing the case from court. A record of the offense remains, but it does not affect your life.

God can forget and still be appropriate because He has boundless wisdom. You and I do not. We need to learn from what happens to us. If you have no conscious recollection of everything you forgive, where would the learning be? You would go out and be hurt again! You are to forgive and remember. When you remember, you will not again walk into hurtful situations with your heart wide open. You forget only in the sense that God does, you dismiss it from court—in the court of your heart you hand the person over to God, allowing Him to hold the person accountable.

Forgiving someone does not mean you have to immediately trust the person. First Peter 2:17 says that you should “respect everyone.” No exceptions. But, nowhere does the Scripture say you should “trust all men.” Even Jesus did not entrust himself to men, for He knew what was in the hearts of men (John 2:24). And He said to not throw pearls before swine (Matt. 7:6). When David sneaked through camp and stole Saul’s spear and water jug, Saul apologized and asked him to come back to Jerusalem, but David did not go back to Jerusalem, for he knew Saul’s heart would not retain his momentary repentance (I Samuel 24). Time proved David correct.

You can forgive a person who is not trustworthy because you want to be untangled; you need to be free to heal. If a parent (or other significant person) is a buzz saw that cuts you to pieces, forgive them for the hurt so you can go on with life, but you do not have to act as if nothing happened. No one knowingly walks back into the path of a buzz saw! It is possible to honor a parent or a person by respecting them, but at the same time give a wide enough berth to prevent new hurt from happening.

You respect your parents and others when you treat them the way you want to be treated. You can think for yourself; you can make your own choices, be responsible for your own thoughts and attitudes, responsibilities, and burdens as well as your own speech, deceptions, denials, blame or tempers. You respect your parents and others when you ask or entreat them to be responsible for those same things. Trust and respect (honor) are not the same.

After confession and forgiveness, you have room in your heart and spirit for the Lord’s love for the one you forgave. You will be more able to see the person through God’s eyes of love rather than through the filter of hurt and resentment, but this does not necessarily come quickly.

A young man came to my husband for prayer ministry with such an active hatred for his father that he wanted him dead, and said as much. After he confessed and repented of the hatred, and asked forgiveness for it, in a vision he saw the Lord standing over his father with sword raised to strike the man down. In alarm he cried, “No, Lord!” The Lord replied, “But you said you wanted him dead.” The confession, repentance, and forgiveness cleaned the wound. Then the son could see his father more clearly. Love flooded forward, and he interceded on his father’s behalf. This story indicated to me that God agreed with the son’s assessment that his father’s behavior was unacceptable. But the son went on to hate, whereas, God’s heart was forgiveness, not vengeance.  God knew the young man’s heart, and to help him come to a place of repentance and forgiveness He showed him what the consequences of that hatred would look like. The son’s error was not in the assessment, but in the hatred.

This is an excerpt from The Mystery of Spiritual Sensitivity, chapter 11, Bringing Healing. If you would like to know more about this book you may visit my website: www.fromgodsheart.com or want to purchase the book it is available from the website, or Amazon.com

Action Step: This week take a few minutes to think about someone you have a hard time forgiving and see if it is because of a misconception of what forgiveness actually is. True forgiveness is not necessarily easy, and people who are highly sensitive feel hurt more keenly; the wound goes deeper. Ask for Jesus perspective on the issue.

 

Blessings, Carol...making it plain

Author of The Mystery of Spiritual Sensitivity and Highly Sensitive

www.fromgodsheart.com                                                     

www.joystarters.com

 

Cambridge Matric to a Godly Matrix Part II

My computer has settled down and is behaving quite nicely, thank you for asking. I am no longer hissing and spitting like a wet cat, much to my husband's relief. Now to get back to some Godly thoughts instead of giving new meaning to the word "cursor!" To pick up where we left off with the thoughts on the Cambridge Matric...

 

                                       

Feeling at a loss for being able to do well on a proficiency exam of Godly thought, I began to wonder what course of study would you have to undertake if you were to enroll (matriculate) in God’s School? Or, maybe some courses on "bone-head" Godly thought? What would it take to gain His certification of “a workman who needs not to be ashamed?” (II Timothy 2:15) I think I'd like that cert! 

It seems to me that you would need a Godly logic within which to reason, a foundational knowledge base to reason with in order to gain insight and wisdom.  Foundational to the knowledge base would be the logic, the system of thought that would determine your thinking pattern; create the parameters within which you would shuffle and connect the discrete pieces of knowledge. The rules of this logic would determine how you reason. Finally, you would need practical exercises to develop expertise (flexibility, agility, and strength of mind and spirit). Holy Spirit seems to be the one mentoring us through these practicums.

 
Every system of thought, every form of logic has its “a priori”—the self-evident propositions, or its underlying assumption and its “givens.” For Christians the “a priori” is that there is a God and that He is Who He says He is. The Word of God, the Scriptures, is eternal in nature, and the final source by which to validate our statements.

The “givens” would be the Biblical principles which give structure to the reasoning process much like the frame of a building provides a structure in which life is lived. Within the structure of biblical principles the discrete bits of the knowledge base are moved about in a way that communicates (Christian vocabulary is used clearly) and the individual gains insight and wisdom from the exercise of reason. One principle should not contradict another.

 The process of determining the givens, the principles of God is an exercise that develops flexibility and agility of thought that develops strength of mind and spirit. Each one of us needs to develop these qualities so that when (not if) we are asked for the reasons for our faith, and when (not if) we are brought before authorities and compelled to be God’s witness, that we do not collapse and deny our Lord.

 

            It is the glory of God to conceal a matter;
            to search out a matter is the glory of

            kings (Proverbs 25:2). I think we could  
            substitute “men” and “women” for

            kings.   : )

 

           When you are brought before synagogues,
           rulers and authorities, do not worry

           about how you will defend yourselves or
           what you will say…Luke 12:11

A short list of examples of principles:

• "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ and life will go well with you… Matthew 22:36-40

• "Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 19:19
• Sowing and reaping or cause and effect: Treat others the way you want to be treated.
• Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Galatians 6:7
• Emotion, even negative emotion has a place but in allowing it it’s place, avoid sin “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. Ephesians 4:26
• Store up treasure in heaven – eternal whereas earthly treasure decays. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. Matthew 6:19
• The principle of multiplication is throughout scripture. The first examples of the principle of multiplication are in Genesis chapter 1. After each “day” of creation the Lord blessed what He had created and issued the injunction to multiply.

These are just a few examples of God’s “givens” which are “given” in Scripture for us to find and use in our lives. God wants us to prosper and He has given us the resources, however, many times we do not recognize them. He has “hidden” these resources in plain sight. It is for us to find and use them. The exercise of looking for these principles to live by will keep us rightly focused and aligned and will train us to think more in line with God's thought process.

To develop expertise in reasoning within this Godly thought process (resting upon the “a priori” and bounded by biblical principles) we would need to have lengthy, challenging but respectful and guilt free discussions that wrestle with how to apply God’s Word to the issues of life with mature fellows in Christ (at least more mature than me!) who would push of our reasoning, our depth of knowledge and experience with the Lord so that we would push back, thereby developing strength, agility and flexibility of mind and spirit—with no offense taken or given! These discussions would challenge us to probe ever deeper into the Scriptures and motivate us to deepen our relationship with God Himself so that we would pose our questions to the Almighty—and hear back from Him. We would be challenged to research for ourselves—and when you are not accustomed to such mental exercise it can be daunting at first! It dredges up and ferrets out insecurities and inferiority feelings you had no idea you harbored.

 

In our health conscious society we flush, cleanse and detoxify the body but neglect to flush, cleanse and detoxify the mind and spirit. The kind of mental and spiritual exercise I am suggesting would do just that and then go beyond cleansing to building new muscle. My guess is that this exercise sharpens the thinking, eliminates mental and spiritual flabbiness and laziness. You will begin to find yourself having things to say; you will begin to be able to mount a godly defense when questioned about why you believe what you believe.

 When knowledge and experience are challenged within the Christian community that I am proposing, such challenges are not ever to be taken as a question of worth or belonging. They are simply stretching the mind and spirit to increase capacity because of your value, your worth and because you belong! If you had little or no value or if youndid not belong to this family of God, He would not spend so much effort to pursue you! Nor would He take the care to provide mentors and spiritual families within which to hone your strengths and strengthen your weaknesses.

 

My background is academic; so naturally I think in terms of the kind of course of study you would need to undertake to acquire the general knowledge base needed to flesh out such a thought matrix. You would need to embark on a study of the history, cultures and languages of Jesus time. Those times, those cultures and languages were important in some way…otherwise God would have chosen a different time, culture and different languages in which to send His Son. We would need to acquire:

 

• Working knowledge of Greek and Hebrew and/or how to use the reference works that would allow you to exegete scripture
• Working knowledge of the history and cultures of Greece, Romans and Jews with specific emphasis on the socio-economics and religious-political dynamics of Jesus time
• Working knowledge of the Torah and writings of the early church
• Working knowledge of Christian doctrine, principles and vocabulary
• Working knowledge of spiritual warfare and deliverance

A series of practicum (life experiences, some of which are very difficult) would be interwoven with this study and when successfully completed would fulfill the admonition in II Timothy 2:15… Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

 

 

Such a course of home study would take a life time and God is okay with that! It is the school eveyone signs up for. Salvation and matriculation happen at the same time! This undertaking is like eating an elephant—you just have to start somewhere. I don’t think our Heavenly Father would lay out something like this if He did not think we were up to it. I remember when our children were little that I longed for a few hours of conversation with someone who could use words with at least three syllables and sentences of more than three words. Could it be that our Father longs for us to reason with Him?

 

 

After hearing my husband or me teach at Elijah House schools, we sometimes had distraught folks ask, “Where do you begin?” I replied, “It is like a log jam…you simply grab hold of the piece that is poking you and pull.” As I look this over my eyes glaze and then cross, but this too shall pass. I can sense Jesus grinning at me. He knows as well as I that I will grab hold of something and I will begin but just now I think I need a nap! I’m just a bit overwhelmed.

 

 

What do you think? Does any of this make sense? Where would you begin? Let me know in the comment box.

Blessings, Carol…making it plain

www.fromgodsheart.com

www.joystarters.com

 

 

 

My Apologies

My apologies...

You may have noticed some irregularity in the postings here at connectwithcarolbrown. I am feeling a need to confess…technology and I are not on the best of terms. My feelings are best captured in this photo which I saw on facebook and found in Google Images.

:

 

This is me after a bout with my computer. Not happy. I've even been known to hiss and spit! Low joy levels are obvious. I was going to crop this photo so you just saw the unhappy face but Blogger wanted the whole damp cat! Technology seems to think it funny to eat my contacts list or just to do something new and unique. Sigh.

Combine this ongoing battle with developing a new site to spread the word about my next project—Joy Starters, a book that I am co-writing with Chris Coursey of Shepherd’s House. Did you get that? It's a blog about joy! I guess you either laugh or cry. Check me out at www.joystarters.com but be warned; we are under construction! Add a few sporadic attempts to be current on marketing my other books……and you can see that it results in my being inefficient and scattered.

I bit the bullet. I got help. That’s what the Body of Christ is about, right? Hopefully the Joy Starters blog will be sparking joy soon and I will once again have a coherent stream of thought and be able to hear and share what is on God’s heart and mind with you. I apologize for not saying something sooner! You could have been praying for me. Sheesh!

Blessings, Carol…making it plain

www.fromgodsheart.com

www. joystarters.com

 

 

 

 

A Cambridge Matric to a Godly Matricx

(Nerd Alert…contains weighty thoughts!)

                                   

I’ve noticed that the New Year brings a flurry of goal setting, resolutions and fitnessprograms. I believe that is good, but I think spiritual fitness is probably the most important aspect of our goal setting and resolution making. In January one of my Facebook friends posted the following two paragraphs and it set me to thinking.

“A Cambridge matric requires the students to THINK and REASON with insight. The correct use of GRAMMAR and a RICH VOCABULARY are the means to REASON and to validate the statements made by the student. It is accepted that the students was already highly proficient in these skills. The main focus is about COMMUNICATING with COMPREHENSION, INSIGHT and WISDOM. General knowledge is also required!

I often wonder about living a life that PLEASES Father GOD ... we often seem to be stuck in the "GRAMMAR" and miss the actual “PURPOSE.” From the Apostle Paul, here is what it is about:

"[The purpose is] that through the church the complicated, many-sided wisdom of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known to the angelic rulers and authorities (principalities and powers) in the heavenly sphere. "
Eph 3:10 ( Amp Bible).

 For my own thought process (and maybe yours?) I thought it best to separate out the different components for consideration in building a Godly matrix.

A “Godly matrix” would require the student of God to THINK and REASON with wisdom and insight. For this to happen would require that

·       The correct use of GRAMMAR (would this be doctrine and Biblical principles?) and a RICH Christian VOCABULARY (clearly defined) would be the means to THINK and REASON and that same grammar and vocabulary would validate the statements made by the student because it flows from the Scripture. It is accepted that the students were already highly proficient in these skills (i.e. in the use of grammar which is the doctrine and principles and Christian vocabulary). Do you suppose the grammar and vocabulary would form the grid within which to think and reason?

·       The main focus is about COMMUNICATING with COMPREHENSION, leading to INSIGHT and WISDOM. “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect (I Peter 3:15). As we respectfully give our reasons for why we believe as we do the kindness of the Holy Spirit can draw the ones with whom we speak to Jesus. We will be witnesses who make sense.

·       General knowledge is also required! (We will look at what this entails later.)

I often wonder about living a life that PLEASES Father GOD.

We seem to be often stuck in the "GRAMMAR" and miss the actual “PURPOSE.” We split hairs over denominational rules and doctrines like parsing verbs, looking for case and mood and are unable to comprehend the sentence! The Apostle Paul, makes what we about wonderfully clear:

"[The purpose is] that through the church the complicated, many-sided wisdom of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known to the angelic rulers and authorities (principalities and powers) in the heavenly sphere. "
Eph 3:10 ( Amp Bible).

After reading slowly to absorb the meaning, my mind immediately began to wonder what such a Christian paradigm of thought would look like, a Christian logic that could give a believer rules for reasoning…God did say “Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18).  From that Scripture it seems to me that we should be able to discuss an issue with God until we can see it from His perspective and He would not have a problem with that. In fact, He is the One issuing the invitation to reason with Him! When we see life’s issues from His perspective we will be changed from red like crimson to white like wool—completely changed. Reasoning with God is transformational.

Now, back to the Cambridge matrix. The British definition for matrix is “the set of conditions which provides a system in which something grows or develops” (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/matrix_1?q=matrix ). So students wishing to demonstrate their grasp of their high school subject matter take this exam which shows their ability to think and reason according to the system of logic and reasoning espoused by Cambridge University and arrive at some insight or wisdom.

What would be the result of a Godly Matrix rather than the Cambridge Matrix? What would be different? A Godly Matrix would train our thoughts to run with Godly thoughts, with His rules of logic so that we could think and reason to arrive at insight and godly wisdom. We could think like God thinks and reason as He does. We would use the grammar (put our thoughts and sentences together in a way that communicates rather than confuses) and rich vocabulary of Christianity and Judaism as the means to reason through decisions we have to make, to reason our way through the issues of life so that we could make decisions or come to conclusions that would be aligned to His will. The principles and doctrines would guide the reasoning; provide the parameters, the grid, for the reasoning to flow in to reach Godly decisions and conclusions that please Him.

With such a Godly system of thought we would be able to communicate our faith and encourage ourselves and others in such a way that those who see and hear us would comprehend, gain insight and wisdom and be transformed as we would also have been transformed. Matthew 5:14 tells us that we would bring light and joy into darkness.

 

I have never attempted something so profound so I am sure there will be gaping holes in my thinking. I would be eternally grateful for you to jump in, point out the flaws and maybe suggest a patch! Westle with it with me. I will attempt to be more consistent in posting--sorry about that!

 

Blessings, Carol Brown...making it plain!

www.fromgodsheart.com

 

Valentine Special

Since working my way through the "God's thought matrix" is more involved than I had any idea it would be, I thought I would interject a Valentine Special. I am offering my book Highly Sensitive for only $9.00, now through February 14!

 

$9.00 + $2.00 shipping -

For a limited time only!

 

Click here to purchase.

 

Give your highly sensitive sweetie the sweet gift of understanding!