My Lovely Dwelling Place

A Christmas Medley Rummaging around Lowe’s garden center for the perfect Christmas tree, it began to snow. A starry-eyed optimist might claim to hear, Chestnuts roasting on an open fire… , but I’m pretty sure it was just one of my men passing gas. Jack Frost nipping at your nose …? It was twenty degrees. Yuletide carols being sung by a choir… not my boys. And folks dressed up like Eskimos … the knuckleheads don’t like coats. We get a real tree every year. One year, my husband and offspring actually went and cut one down. It was so cold, wet, and muddy that day – they vowed never to do that again. The last few years our trees have originated from Home Depot or Menards, more recently Lowe’s. We’ve gotten a wide variety of trees – I don’t remember their names. I only know they make me sneeze. One in particular gave me a rash. One had a mouse – that made setting it up very exciting. I’m pretty sure my honey was under the tree when the mouse appeared causing

Fruitful I have the privilege of leading a small group for some ladies at my church. This past week one of the Scripture passages our pastor wanted us to look at was 2 Peter 1:1-9. I loved it so much I decided I had to share it! Now Peter wrote his first letter to encourage those who were suffering persecution for being believers. He wrote his second letter to equip the believers to combat false teachers. Most scholars think he wrote it in prison while awaiting his execution. The letter opens: Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. Peter calls himself by his earthly name and the name Jesus gave him. This seemed beautiful to me, because it is true for all of us. We are who we are, yet at the same time, we are who He is making us to be. There’s so much hope in that – so much comfort in knowing He is not done with us. He then refers to himself as a bond-servant. I love this term – It reminds me of a passage in the Old Testament where a