We just finished Vacation Bible Scool and had another great year with the kids. We did some things differently (had it at night for the first time, had mixed-age ‘crews’) and we’re worn out from the week, but it was fun. NO matter how tired we are, if we helped plant little seeds in hearts, it’s all worth it.

VBS curriculum always focuses on some of those ‘big truths’ of God, which is great whether the kids are already active in a church or whether VBS is their first introduction to the stories. Those stories and daily Bible points are good for the teen and adult leaders to hear again too if we’ll slow down enough to listen like we hope the little kids do.

The points for our VBS this year were:

• God is with us.
• God is strong.
• God keeps His promises.
• God gives us life.
• God cares for (and protects) us.

Yes, I needed to be reminded of some of those lessons and have a refresher on how powerful it is to hear a bunch of kids yell out the Bible points multiple times every night, followed by a rousing, “Fear not!” How about you?

I’m teaching middle grades Sunday school this quarter, and we’re getting into all sorts of relationship issues. We’ve already talked about friendship and how your friends (and anyone else you’re around, really) have a powerful influence on you. Today we took the topic of friendship one step further and talked about how important friendship is to God — and how important it is that we treat everyone the way God would want us to, even if we don’t consider them our “friend.”

One of our Scripture verses was 1 John 4: 20:

If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

Can’t get much more blunt than “If you claim to love God but don’t love the people around you, you’re a big fat liar.” Youch.

We also talked about how the way we treat other people is a direct reflection of our relationship with God. If we love God and are truly trying to do His will, that love comes out in how we act toward others. If we claim to love God but keep being bad friends or keep treating people badly, then we don’t really have much of a relationship with God. Double youch. The two things (or relationship with God and our relationship with other people) are connected, like the two sides of a coin.

We’re a mirror, reflecting back to the world what we’ve let God do to us on the inside. Maybe I need to add Windex to my morning arsenal of make-up and hairspray and help make sure my internal mirror is clean as I start the day.

Maybe it’s because I’m a writer or maybe it’s just because I’m nosy, but I almost always read the signatures that people include with their emails. If you include a quote or Scripture verse, I’ll read it. If you include a Scripture reference but don’t write out the verse, I’ll probably look it up. If you list a blog or website, I just might pop by to see what it’s like. So for all you people who toil over the perfect signature line for your email, it can be worth it.

I saw a new quote in another writer’s signature line this week that I loved. It’s a quote from John Wesley, the man who’s largely credited with founding the Methodist Church movement:

Catch on fire and people will come for miles to see you burn.

Isn’t that the truth?! Many of us are nosy by nature (see, it’s not my fault) and want to know what’s happening around us. If we see people getting all excited about something, we want to know what the big deal is. If everyone seems to be talking about a particular movie or book or TV show, we want to check it out ourselves. We want to be in the middle of — or at least on the fringes of — the attention.

As Christians, we want to be so on fire for God that people can’t help but see Him in us. We shouldn’t want them to see us, but to see God through us. It’s easy to say, but hard to do. Is our fire for God big enough to catch people’s attention and make them come see what’s happening with us? Is it flickering flame that dances and almost goes out with every little change around us? Or is it just the smoldering embers of the torch we used to carry in our hearts for God but that got doused along the way?

Some days I’m discouraged and feel burned out. Some days I’m OK, but know I’m not as strong and faithful as I should be. But on other days — the best days – I’m on fire for God, loving Him and feeling Him whichever way I seem to turn. Eager to get to my Bible study time and to talk with Him. Not afraid to stand up for Him or share Him with others. Those are the days I want to have more of! And the best part is, I CAN if I only ask Him to help me with it. He wants us to spend time with Him, to talk with Him, to see Him everywhere in our day. We just need to ask Him for the desire to be that way, and the more we ask, the more we’ll see it coming true in us. What a gift!

So how about you? Are you burning bright enough for others to want to see what’s going on? And — more importantly — once they come near, what will they find you burning for?

A couple of months ago I was invited to join the ladies who post on a blog called Favorite PASTImes. It focuses completely on historical fiction (which I’m having a lot of fun with since that’s the direction my novel writing has taken). On Mondays several of us rotate posting about all sorts of historical things, from new historical novels to things we’ve learned in our research to things that happen on a particular date. We interview an author each week and spread that info over Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday is a book review, and on Friday we announce the person who won the week’s book give-away. It’s been a great experience and I’d love for you to check out what we have there, especially if you enjoy reading historical novels.

It’s my turn to have a post today, and I wrote about tear vases — something you might have heard of but that was new to me when I visited the Center for Biblical Antiquity a few weeks ago. Hop over and check it out!

Some members of my local writers group (East Metro Atlanta Christian Writers) enjoyed a day at the Explorations in Biblical Antiquities Museum in LaGrange, GA a few weeks ago. Yes, that’s a mouthful of a name, but it’s worth every bit of time it takes to get there!

The Center is usually closed on Sunday and Monday, but they agreed to open on a Sunday — just for us! Wow, what a gift. The Center’s founder, Dr. Jim Fleming, was there and taught us for about an hour about symbolism in the Old Testament. His #1 docent and archeological assistant, Hananiah, led our tour and spent the day with us. It was an incredible experience!

One of the neatest things was when he showed us an olive press and connected it to Jesus. The people had stone troughs where they would put the olives, then would lay a tree trunk across it to help press out the oil. They would start with hanging one stone from the tree to press the olives, and would work their way to four stones. I didn’t get a great picture of the stones and press, but you can see one here — they were huge stones with thick ropes running through a hole. The tree had been gouged with places to hang the ropes.

Here’s how the process worked:

• They hung 1 stone on the tree until no more oil came from the olives. The oil they got from this initial pressing was the most pure and was used for anointing or for service in the temple.
• Then they hung a second stone and more oil was pressed out. This oil was very tasty and was used for cooking.
• Adding a third stone pressed out even more oil. This oil tasted bitter and was used for lighting lamps.
• And finally, a fourth stone was added to squeeze out any remaining bits. These dregs were used to make olive oil soap.

Very interesting (to me, at least!), but here’s the coolest part. All 4 Gospels tell of Jesus finishing the Last Supper with His disciples and then going into a garden to pray. Matthew and Mark call it Gethsemane; Luke calls it the Mount of Olives; John says “an olive grove.” The word “Gethsemane” comes from two Hebrew words — “gat” (which means “a place for pressing”) and “shemanim” (which means “oils”). So, Gethsemane comes from root words that mean “a place for pressing oil.” 

Jesus went to pray and felt Himself being pressed out for us — weighed down by the weight of our sins and the reality of what was about to happen — in an olive grove, of all places.  And — ta da! — here’s the neatest comparison of all that Hananiah shared with us between the usual olive oil press and Jesus’ purpose for us:

• 1 stone = oil for temple use and anointing = Jesus is the Anointed One of God
• 2 stones = oil for cooking = Jesus is the Bread of Life
• 3 stones = oil for lamps = Jesus is the Light of the World
• 4 stones = oil for soap = Jesus came to purify us

OK, were us writers the only ones who thought that was cool, or what? I’ve been wanting to share this for 3 weeks but decided to wait until now — Good Friday — to post it. Last night at church we observed the Lord’s Supper and were reminded of Jesus’s agony in the garden because He knew exactly what was coming and how it meant He would have to be separated from God for a time. Tonight we’ll observe Good Friday and will dwell on the actual crucifixion. As you go through these services at your own church or spend time meditating about them in private, remember the weights that Jesus willingly took on for us all — weights that would have crushed anyone else but that He withstood because of God’s plan.

What an incredible Savior we worship and will celebrate on Easter Sunday!

One of my favorite chapters in all the Bible is Psalm 139, that wonderful Pslam of David praising God for knowing us so intimately before we were even born. No matter how many times I read or study it, certain verses always jump off the page:

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. … You are familiar with all my ways (vs. 1-3).

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. … All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be (vs. 13-16).

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (vs. 23-24).

God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows the sins we hide from others, the countless times we fall short, the insecurities and fears and impatience. And yet He loves us anyway — so much that He sent His Son Jesus to be our Savior and take our place on the cross. Thank you, Father, for sending your Son, and thank you, Jesus, for coming to earth and dying for us. May we never forget that love and sacrifice, and may a new awareness of it make this Holy Week and Easter one of our most precious.

I love to drive by one of the churches near home because it always has great messages on its sign. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s serious — but it nearly always makes me think. Here’s what I read there last week:

Faith and fear cannot dwell in the same heart.

Wow, does that give a writer fodder for a good story. But you’re saved from that for the moment because my kids are about to be home Just think on it though, and how true it is — our hearts are only so big, and faith and fear can’t both take up the space. I’m sure there’s a devotional in there I’ll write someday.

I love to go to writers’ conferences and can spend hours looking at the websites, schedules and workshop descriptions for different ones across the country. I haven’t been to a big conference in a couple of years so decided to try and fit one in this year. I seriously considered and prayed about the Florida Christian Writers Conference which was this past weekend, but decided to stick a little closer to home. When I made the decision to opt out of Florida, I had no inkling of a couple of important things involving the weekend — but of course God did.

First, since I was at home my husband and I were able to attend Focus on th Family’s “Focus on Marriage” simulcast on Saturday. We went to a local church with several other couples and really enjoyed it (plus my husband got his first introduction to Beth Moore so now he understands a bit of why we love her teaching so much).

Second, we had snow on Sunday! Yes, snow — enough to stick to the ground and everything — south of Atlanta. The kids had a blast in it and I loved watching it come down all afternoon and evening. Later it hit me that  would’ve been driving in all of it if I’d gone to the conference. Mapquest says the trip from my home to the conference site takes about 6 hours; stretch that out to allow for weather that slows things down and there’s no telling how long it might’ve taken instead. Yuck! That would not have been my idea of fun, and my husband probably wouldn’t have been too crazy about the prospect either.

But instead of being on the road all day in rain, storms, and snow, I was snug at home by the fire, watching my kids slide down the hill on Rubbermaid container lids. I sure am glad God didn’t give me the green light to be away from home this weekend. Don’t you love how He watches out for us like that?

A precious lady in our church passed away last week and finally found her way home after years of illness. Before she got so sick, she sang in our choir — and let me just say what a beautiful voice she had. A clear, strong soprano voice that perfectly matched her personality.

I started singing in our choir when I was in eighth grade, so some of my most wonderful memories of this special lady are from times in the choir loft on Wednesday nights or Sunday mornings.

I hadn’t seen her in a very long time, but if I’d had the chance to see her toward the end I would have told her the same thing I told my beautiful godmother before she passed away last summer: it won’t be long before you’re singing with the choir of angels in heaven, singing right to God Himself. And it’s going to sound a whole lot better than anything we’ve ever sung in our little church choir!

I love the Scripture in Revelation that says thousands upon thousands of angels joined their voices to sing praise to the Lamb. Can you imagine?! And to think that we’ll be in the midst of it someday. It’s enough to blow my little mind!

In the meantime it makes me happy to know that wonderful people like my friend from church, my godmother, my grandparents, and so many others are already tuning up and practicing. What a song to be part of!

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang:

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

Revelation 5:11-12

Angela Hunt is one of my favorite Christian authors, and I read her book The Elevator this weekend. The basic storyline is — a hurricane is bearing down on Tampa and three women are trapped in a highrise elevator together. They just don’t know that they’re all connected to the same man (as his wife, his mistress, and the cleaning lady from his office floor). It’s incredible to think that the vast majority of the book takes place in an elevator, yet it’s still interesting. Guess that’s part of what makes Angie Hunt such a great author. :- )

What I wanted to share today was a thought from one of the characters remembering her childhood. She was talking about going to church with her grandmother and how she would lean against her grandmother’s shoulder and watch the sun slant through the windows. When the pastor talked about Jesus being the light of the world, the little girl thought he meant that Jesus lived in the sunbeams. She liked that idea because the sunlight was everywhere and covered everything. “I guess I wanted an everywhere-God to take care of me,” she says.

I loved that — and loved knowing that we really do have an “everywhere-God” taking care of us. He’s in the sunshine, the breeze, the flowers, the smiles, the hugs, the tears. He’s everywhere and in everything, even on those days when we don’t take much time to stop and think about it. What beam of sunshine have you found Him in lately?