Whatever He Says

By Belinda Memory fascinates me. Being a writer, one for whom the past is an endless source of material, I am often struck by the fact that an event can be remembered, or "seen" differently at different moments, by one person. And a person can be remembered at one moment for their flaws, along with the pain they caused. At another moment, their many redeeming qualities surface in memory: the person's humour, sensitive soul or work ethic.  It's as though light catches the sparkle or casts a shadow, depending on the angle it's shining from at a given moment. Ideally we would remember absolutely factually, and yet facts can be fluid in the mind; fraught with feelings and layers of complexities that are hard to understand and unravel. I have been deep in the shadows of  memory; facing hard truths with greater clarity and courage; sharper pain and deeper guilt. Of course, how can we ever truly understand or "know" the past? And yet, we try, whether it...

 By Belinda I arrived early at the writers conference, turning into the curving, tree shaded driveway, with a sense of anticipation. What lay ahead over the next three days was known only to God. I knew that there would be many connections made; networking opportunities; chance encounters—I  prefer to think of them as “Divine appointments,” connections in which God has a hand. After dropping off my luggage in my room, I reported to the volunteer coordinator’s post to pick up a bundle of signs. My first job of the day would be putting them up around the conference grounds. I found that I had a helper named Nikki Rosen. Soon we were busy with our assignment and chatting at the same time. It turned out that Nikki wasn’t attending the conference but lived nearby and had volunteered to come help set up. She was small and neatly built, with short, auburn hair and brightly intelligent brown eyes. Her conversation was as engaging as the person she projected and a...

By Belinda Yesterday...I shared the embarking upon of an adventure and it appears that I have a small band of friends on the journey. The journey? Giving up: * Self effort and "law keeping" * Action independent of God, and * "Religion" as a form or mindset And Taking up: * Obedience to the still small voice of God * True relationship with God, and * The demise of my old self "by faith" The fact that some friends heard in the words written here, a call that resonated with them, is exciting and sobering all at once. It is exciting because any journey is better with friends. It is sobering because I think of something Oswald Chambers said: If I allow any private deflection from God in my life, everyone about me suffers. When once you allow physical selfishness, mental slovenliness, moral obtuseness, spiritual density, everyone belonging to your crowd will suffer. The wonderful thing though, is that where once this would have lain on my shoul...

By Belinda I bundle myself up the way I once bundled up our children in their winter snowsuits, and go out into the cold, dark night. It is 3 degrees Celcius but it feels like -2 because of the gusty wind. I am determined to face this Canadian winter that has barely started. So far, so good. The wind roars around the treetops like a fierce army running at a foe, but all that flee before it are dry leaves making weak tinny sounds as they scuttle and scamper across the dark village streets. Molson trots along obediently by my side, but tonight we meet not one other soul, human or dog. We pass Molson's friend Sidney's house, but even he's not there on his lawn where he usually sits. I'm glad that he's warm inside tonight. I'm thinking of this morning when Paul and I sat in our warm kitchen and read from Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6:10-17 (New International Version, ©2010) The Armor of God 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on ...

By Belinda I turned to Leviticus 14, part of my reading for the day. "Not exactly the most exciting or gripping part of the Bible," I thought, but I would plod through. The chapter is about infectious skin diseases and mildew in houses! To my surprise God began to speak even through a passage I was expecting to "just get through." Three things struck me (with the caveat that these are my humble and limited thoughts on a passage that probably has much more profound meaning): The passage mentions sacrifices of doves and lambs for cleansing. If the spreading nature of skin diseases and mildew represents sin in humankind, then the sacrifice of the most harmless and innocent creatures on the altar of our sin, is a picture of the devastation our sin wreaks on the innocent; both in the natural world and our relationships. For truly, no man is an island  (John Donne,) and only a brief pondering affirms that as true when it comes to our sin: greed, selfishness, bitter...

Leviticus 26:13 (New International Version) 13 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high. I'm still back in the dust of Deuteronomy on the Marathon of Biblical proportions, and this morning I read chapter 28, about the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, which really boil down to a decision to trust God or not trust him. When I read the reference to a yoke in verse 48, I thought about the verse above, in Leviticus, which I had written out in my journal a few weeks ago. That verse was talking about the fact that God had literally freed the people of Israel from slavery, but, years later, it seems they were in danger of not living free. Deuteronomy 28:48 (New International Version) 48 therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke o...