Tag: jesus

I Am Sorry

- dannalundstrom 2 Comments

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“Everyone knows that every week or two I am going to screw up.”

I was talking with a friend recently, and I felt the tremendous burden of this statement as the affliction of their heart was revealed.  It was a very sad moment for me, because what my friend truly did not grasp, is that every day I am going to screw up, too.  (Sorry, I hate that word, but to do justice to the burden they were carrying, I am staying true to the quote.)

We are all sinners. Me, you, your neighbor that “appears” to have it all together, your child, your spouse, and even your pastor.  If we are yoked to perfection, we are hopeless.  

What matters is not that “we screw up,” but that we repent and say I am sorry from a place of sincerity in our self and with an awareness of our neediness for a Savior.

I AM SORRY; three little, powerful words that will transform your life!

Isaiah 30:15 ~This is what The Sovereign Lord says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation.”

May you find freedom here today, friends.

Because Jesus

- dannalundstrom

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Because Jesus paid it all, we have nothing to prove.   Because He was perfectly adequate, we can be peacefully inadequate.   Because our righteousness comes only from Him we can rest.   Because He saved us, we can lay down our shame.   The world will crush us if that is what we are chasing.   Jesus will carry us if we cast our cares upon Him.   

The Cross Guides Us Home

- dannalundstrom
The cross- symbol of God's love to people
The cross- symbol of God’s love to people

If we are not keeping our eyes on the cross, we are merely a blind man driving home.

Last Sunday our Sunday School teacher took us on a short field trip on the church campus. We were lead to the cornerstone of our church, and he gave us a brief history lesson about the church and a touching exhortation to be the church. He also pointed out the three crosses that stand high above our church building. The one in the middle stands the highest, and the two on each side a little lower. The two lower crosses represent the crosses of the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus. The higher one, representing the cross of Jesus.  The message was particularly special to me because those crosses, the highest one, in particular, holds special value in my life.

In September 2005, my parents were in town visiting. The second day they were here, my mom and I dropped my children at pre-school and headed to Sam’s. We had just parked when she got a phone call. It was my dad. “He said something has happened, and I cannot see.”  Our Sam’s trip was averted, and we rushed back to my house to check on him. We would later end up in the emergency room to find out he had a stroke in his eye. This would be my dad’s second stroke. The first had affected his opposite eye. Now both eyes were impaired.

As hours passed, and the story unfolded, we found out he was in the car driving down Columbiana Road when the stroke besieged him. Our church sits on Columbiana Road. Although my dad had very limited vision, He said he could see ONE thing. The high cross that stands guard at the top of Shades Mountain Baptist Church.    He went on to explain that he knew if he slowly proceeded toward the cross, he could find his way home because I lived just down the street. Miraculously he drove himself home, the cross guiding him the whole way.

After our field trip last Sunday, we were walking back into the church and I mentioned my dad’s experience to my husband. He said to me, “I still do not understand how he drove home blind.” It was at that moment that God spoke to my heart. The message direct and simple, “If we are not keeping our eyes on the cross we are no better than a blind man driving home.” Wow! I had chills, and I love how God used that little Sunday School field trip to go beyond our teachers lesson and deposit His own message into my heart.

We are all just driving home friends. Where are we fixing our eyes? On the world, on our problems, on our pain, on our possessions, or on the cross?

Sometimes my vision gets distorted. There are many things the world has to offer to distract my eyes. My flesh wages war against my sight. The goal is not perfect vision, but progressive vision. We must always be advancing, focusing and refocusing towards that one thing that now or later will make all things clear and guide us without fail, even in darkness-The Cross.

I know your “drives” sometimes become treacherous. I know your vision often feels blurry. Mine too, but Keep returning your eyes to the cross friends. It is the only way to get you home.

The Angel of Adversity

- dannalundstrom

 

Perfect love permits pain.   1 John 4:8 says God is love.   God permits pain.   No one can estimate the profit of pain until we have journeyed far enough through it to see the distance we or our loved ones have traveled.   God being sovereign could stay our suffering, but it would stifle His ultimate purpose.   Only Divine love is steadfast and strong enough to allow the angel of adversity to remain until her work is done.   Whatever pain you or a loved one are carrying today, rest assured it has an eternal purpose.   It is not your job to understand it, just to stand still under it and believe God’s promises that have been given to you.
Father, I confess that the pervasiveness of pain and suffering around me sometimes leads me down resolving roads that maximize me and minimize You.   In my flesh, solving feels more productive than being still.   Remind us all today that it is in pain we find purpose and in stillness we discover strength. May we rest along the restless roads of life and leave the resolving to You, the true healer of all affliction. Amen.

A Prayer For Aching Mamas Today

- dannalundstrom 1 Comment

Father you know we mamas are creatures who crave constancy not change.   When it comes to our children, our hearts are never more troubled by the trials of transition.   Tis the season of so much change, God. Our babies are starting kindergarten, entering high school, arriving for their senior year and launching off to college.    As our lives are fluctuating, our familiar is becoming foreign, our normal is becoming new and our usual becoming unknown.   It feels as if pieces of our lives are changed forever. They will never be as they were again.   It is the dying of a chapter that is so deeply rooted and known that it is painful to imagine how life will look moving forward.   We are challenged to hold gently and fondly to what was so that we may courageously embrace what now is.   Give us the grace to be more than conquerors in all these circumstances of change, Father.   May the faith that lives in our hearts be bigger than the fear that lurks in our minds.   Bless our children.   Insulate each and every one of them from head to toe in your cloak of protection.   Remind us mamas that we have raised them to run this race with determination not retreat in doubt.   There will be trails, and there will be triumphs.   May we and our children know that disguise in all our disappointments are Your appointments.   Give us the courage to not look for life somewhere under the sun but in someone above it-You, Father.   Amen   P.S. Father, please bless all our special teachers and administrators.   Refresh them daily with endurance, compassion, empathy and love.

Watering Our Souls

- dannalundstrom

 

I have found it challenging this summer to keep my plants alive. I do not remember a summer so hot and dry, and it has been problematic for beautiful, flourishing plants. I have to admit, it isn’t just environmental conditions that are to blame for my struggling plants. Some days I have been too tired to water. Some days I have been too busy, and some days I simply forget.

When I have not consistently watered my plants, pruned them, and removed the debris collected from blowing winds and storms, the neglect presents itself fairly quickly. They lose color, droop, shrivel up, and quickly begin to look dead. The result is they reflect very little of the artistry that is inherent to them. 

I am always amazed that despite how desperate and lifeless they can become, returning to consistent watering quickly restores them to their natural beauty.

Last night as I was struggling with the tedious task of watering it occurred to me that like my plants, my soul is a garden, too. It needs constant attention, nourishment, pruning and debris removal. Without it I also become spiritless, worn out, and my life becomes more reflective of my dying flesh than the good and right image I was created in.

There is good news and bad news when it comes to maintaining both my plants my soul. They are not efficient jobs, but they are very effective.

That is the presenting problem today, though. Our world thrives on efficiency. We are oversaturated with to do lists; commitments and days planned so tightly; there is no white space on the calendar. As the scorching sun shrivels plants, stretched schedules suffocate souls.

When I am too busy, I am not available to God. Unavailability for God shifts obedience from Him to me. When I am operating out of obedience to self, I have little need for a Savior. Without a Savior, I am simply a dying plant starving for living water.

The One That Bled For Us

- dannalundstrom

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The scarred hands that fold for us in prayer are the hands that bled so we may be comforted in times when life is unfair.

The nail pierced feet that walk with us in triumph and carry us in tribulation are the feet that bleed to free us sinners from every nation.

The head that thinks of His children as beloved is the one that bled when pierced by thorn; making His perfect righteousness ours to be worn.

From His mouth with blood stained corners he urged; forgive them, Father, they know not what they do. The same mouth says, I know, and I finished it, so no debt or condemnation is due.

The One, who died to ransom you, sees where you are bleeding today, and He wishes you to remember that He will never go away.

Life is full of hurts and worries, but we must stay in His story; fixing our eyes to see, so not to miss His glory.

May you encounter His glory today.

 

The One That Will Never Change

- dannalundstrom

It was June, the summer of 2005. We were preparing to move from Hoover, Alabama to Vestavia Hills, Alabama. Carter was six and Macey four. This particular week, the kids and I were participating in Vacation Bible School. I had made a deal with them that if they learned our new address and phone number by the end of the week, on Friday after VBS we would get ice cream. Every morning on the way to church and every afternoon on the way home we practiced in the car over and over again.

Friday morning came and along our drive I asked Macey, “what is our new phone number going to be?” She answered with ease and efficiency. Then I asked Carter, “what is our new address going to be?” He too answered correctly and promptly. A silence fell over the car until a little voice piped up from the backseat. In the most curious of tones, Carter asked, “Hey mom, I was just wondering, what our new last name is going to be?” After I had caught my breath from laughing so hard, I explained that there are some things we are born into, and they never change because they were given to us. I am not sure my answer made sense to him, but it seemed to satisfy his curiosity at the moment.

Carter and I have had to ponder a similar question a lot together over the past year. His life was changed forever one year ago today, July 28, 2014. All of our lives were changed. Despite all the redirections, again I can tell Carter, some things will never change because they were given to us. The One we did not earn that was given to us for free will never change.

Although our physical locations may change, and we change, our identity as a child of God will never change. The moment we accept Jesus as our Savior, we are adopted into the family of God. Our identity, as his beloved son, or beloved daughter can not be altered by circumstances. He delights in us on our best days, and just as much on our worst days. No amount of good works or model behavior can earn us His love. They were imparted to us when we chose to believe. Ephesians 2:8-10 ~God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

What a gift we have in Jesus. I cannot even fully comprehend the depth of His sacrifice. He has been a faithful friend to us through the hardest of times. It is not because we have Him that our lives are easy. It is because we have Him that our lives are changed for the better. He brings purpose to our pain and consistency to circumstances that continually change.

Last night I was replaying the last year in my head. I never knew looking back on my past tears would bring so much abundance to my present years. Situations that seemed like the hardest of times were in many ways the sweetest of times in retrospect.

Suffering is the soil most fertile for growth and change is often God’s conduit for the cultivation of hearts. We can joyfully and fully embrace our struggles because we later find we have walked out of them having found our greatest strengths.

We are all still works in progress in our family. It is a cradle to the grave process, but we can rest in the assurance that it is as it should be. Thank you Jesus for loving us in all our brokenness. Remind us everyday to rest in what was given to us and will never change-You. This picture is a side by side taken one year apart.

This week we have been at the lake surrounding ourselves with friends who remind us most of the love of Jesus! Thank you all who have joined us this last year and this week. We love you!

We Do Not Understand, but Someday Will

- dannalundstrom

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Have you ever had that experience where you board an airplane a little nervous because of rain, snow or ominous clouds invading the skies surrounding the runway? I have many times. Every time, I have come to learn that if I can just persevere through the take off endure the turbulence, the jolts, the drops, the bump and the jerks; relief awaits. We have to make it through the facets of the storm, and once above it, the sun is shining and the skies are beautiful. The view from above the storm is peaceful and beautiful. It stands in stark contrast to the perspective from below.

This morning where I am, it is misty and gray thus far. The weather matches the tone of my heart as I wake to news of more violence against innocent people. We are all Charleston, North Carolina, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Lafayette, Louisiana because we are all Americans. They hurt, and we hurt. We grieve their grief. We are in the remnants of their storms with them.

What I have to focus on is that above the storm is a very different picture that I cannot see; one scripted by The Author of the universe. If I don’t focus my mindset here, the news of more violence and evil becomes too much to bear.

Jesus said in John 13:7 ~”You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.”

As we wake to every tragedy, and there will be more, John 13:7 has to be enough for us today and tomorrow and every day as long as we call this world home.

Stay rooted in truth, friends. It is only by living as we say we believe that we can live at all.

His Beloved

- dannalundstrom

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Our thoughts are prone prisoners of our feelings.   Pray that your thoughts may be independent of your feelings.   It takes intention, but it is worth the investment.   We cannot change how we feel, but we can control how we think.   Today you may feel inadequate, but you are His Beloved whom He takes delight in.   Let your thoughts rest there today.   This practice will change the landscape of your day.