Oasis in the desert of Life

In December we were in Southern California for a couple if weeks. We were in a desert area where rain is scarce and the land does everything it can to conserve what little there is in many different ways. Rain falls onto the plants and cacti can hold rainwater in their stems and leaves. Hollows in stones can trap rain water and these small secret watering holes can last for hours, but the most magnificent way the desert stores water is through the oasis.These underground aquifers have the amazing means to store water to such an extent that large ponds develop, and around those ponds the beautiful desert oasis palm trees grow and thrive, many growing huge trunks and sheltering birds and wildlife within its fronds.

The desert is flat, dry and looks pretty barren with just a few dry stunted bushes, and uniformly sandy, both in color and on the ground. Then across the sandy expanse of emptiness there rises in the distance a tall stand of trees....and they are green!!!! You start to walk towards them and as you get closer, you start to hear bird song, and the rustle of healthy green palm fronds. Then you hear the water, sometimes gently flowing in a small stream, sometimes quiet and still in a deep pond. To sit and soak in the sound of the water, the green palm trees, the bird song in this dry and thirsty land is precious indeed.

Life is found in these oasis, flowing with water that comes from deep within its secret places. I believe The Lord has made us so that we can only have that abundant life when the living water that comes only from Him is stored deep within our secret places and is allowed to flow from us making us full of life and health and giving others that nurturing place where they too can be refreshed and healed.

I am reminded of John 7:38 that from within will flow rivers of living water....not from without!!! The water that gives life, like the underground aquifers in the desert, comes from deep within...nothing that is truly life giving can come from without. I need to remember that in the times
when I am dry and thirsty. To go first to the source so that He can fill up my underground river, as
only then will I have abundant life myself and an overflow to pour out to all who need a fresh touch from Him today.

Trusting Him

I have been thinking a lot about trust, and what that means. It's wonderful to say I trust God when things are all good in my life and in the life of my family and friends. What happens though when things are not going as well. When finances are a stretch, when health is not at its peak, when family starts to unravel or when life throws that curve ball at me? Do I then continue to trust in His goodness, His mercy, his faithfulness, His love? Or do I go down that road of doubt.....into that miry pit of darkness, letting the problems overwhelm me?

Scripture clearly points to the truth that God is trustworthy, as nothing on this earth is, that He can come through for me....but sometimes not in quite the way I would wish!!!! That I think is the crux of it all. I have in my mind the way in which God can come and meet my need and often that does not happen. I struggle then in seeing what He is doing in my situation. Then the challenge comes afresh...can I trust Him to do the best for me in His way and not mine???? After all He sees the path I am walking, He sees things in the future that I can't and that is why I can confidently place my hand in His hand and trust Him to lead me in the best way. Is it easy to trust Him? No, it's not! I am human! I very quickly loose trust even in my God who has proven trustworthy in the past. Now I must allow a fresh movement of the Holy Spirit to come into my spirit to enable me to trust Him afresh in this new situation. Then I believe that through this there will be a new level of trust and intimacy with God that will be so amazing and will take me into new depths with Him.


There are so many scriptures on trust, but one I love is Isaiah 26:3 . "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You." I want that to become a life verse for me, I want my mind to be steadfast (fixed, unchanging, loyal, constant, unmoved, firmly planted) in the midst of any unforeseen circumstance because I trust in Him...trust in His way, trust in His goodness and never ending love. How about you?????

Perhaps Today

Every time I go to the coast and travel down the coast highway to Newport, I see a sign board on the street outside an antique store.

On the white sign is a black and white profile of Jesus and the simple words, "Perhaps Today".  I love that...perhaps today our vision of Jesus coming back will come true. Those words went deep into my heart and  I thought of all the things I long to see changed by those words  and I wrote this poem.


Perhaps today - All pain will finally cease
Perhaps today - Every tear will be dried
Perhaps today - All anger will be gone
Perhaps today - Hunger will be no more
Perhaps today - All wars will end

Perhaps today - I will see Your face
Perhaps today - I will glimpse Your beauty
Perhaps today - Your love will shine
Perhaps today - Lions will lay down with lambs
Perhaps today - Creation will be restored

Perhaps today - The fallen away will see
Perhaps today - They will long to return
Perhaps today - Those that never knew You will hear
Perhaps today - They will turn to You
Perhaps today - There will be great rejoicing

Perhaps today - The sky will rend
Perhaps today - The trumpet will sound
Perhaps today - The seas will part
Perhaps today - The angels will sing
Perhaps today - Your Bride will wed.

Gods choices

I read with children at a local elementary school and this week was the start of reading with students for this new school year. One of my students in 2nd grade shared how in 14 days he was going to have a new baby brother and that he was excited. I asked him if he had other brothers and sisters and he said he had a younger brother. He then shared that his Dad wanted a boy and so did his brother, but his Mom wanted a girl and so did he. Then he said but God wanted a boy, and He got to choose!!!!!

That simple comment has really stayed with me all week and challenged me! How do I look at God when He gets to choose things in my life that maybe goes against what I want? Do I fight against Gods choices, or do I submit to His far greater understanding and accept that His ways are higher than mine? (Isaiah 55:8-9)

As I submit and see His choice is only born out of love for me and knowing things that I don't know, can I then get as excited about His choice as I would if I had my own choice?

Lord, help all of us to submit to Your plans and purposes and Your choices with a grateful and excited heart and with a childlike faith that is so precious to You.

Resting in the Stillness

I have been thinking about rest and what it means in the truest sense. We all need those times of rest and refreshment that only Jesus can give. So I looked up rest in Hebrew and the deeper meaning in the word.

What I found was amazing.

Rest: An ever changing stillness, place of repose, a place to gather energies and faculties to prepare for whatever beauty or challenge tomorrow holds.

An ever changing stillness...wow...that changes my perspective of what rest is. A stillness at my core, not static but changing. Rest is not a stillness that does nothing, but within that rest there is a changing from within that only Jesus gives!

A place of repose....my place of refuge, my high tower, a place where I can run to, where I cannot be touched by men or the enemy. How I long to always be in that place.

A place to gather energies......maybe a place to get ready, to renew my spiritual strength for what tomorrow will hold. There will be beauty in tomorrow, but I can almost be sure there will be challenges...but in my rest of today, I will be equipped, I will be strong in His strength...how wonderful that is.

Today I want to be in that true place of rest......being made strong, confident, gathering my energies for whatever comes....I breathe rest in with every breath I take and breathe anxiousness and stress out.

May you find your true rest and refreshment today in His perfect stillness.

Glorious Majesty

Having been over to the mountains for almost a week, I feel like I have been in a place of awesome beauty close to heaven, but now I am back to earth!!!

Why do I feel that way?? Because mountains always make me think of The Lord...looking up at them in all their shades of color and magnificence bring Him to mind.  Mountains hold mystery, hidden depths and secrets to be discovered, just like Jesus. However much you may think you know about Jesus there are always hidden depths and secrets that He is waiting to reveal to the one who seeks. Are you a seeker? Am I a seeker? Stop and think on that today....ask Him what He wants to reveal of Himself that is fresh and new...after all, there is no end to Him as there has been no beginning

There is something about mountains Lord,

That reminds me so much of You.

They have beauty, strength, majesty,

A mystery that waits to be unlocked.

Purity and grandeur reaching to the heavens,

Yet surrounded by lakes and waterfalls,

Refreshing the body and the soul

With life giving abundant water.

Yet lying beneath this splendor is gentleness,

Of alpine meadows full of sweetness,

From flowers of every hue living free

Delighting the eye and heart.

So too Lord You are those mountains,

Pure, serene, majestic, set apart,

Yet full of refreshment to those who drink of you,

Who rest in your shadow and delight in you.

You fill my senses with color and light,

With sweet perfume that sets me free,

That draws me close  to your embrace,

And fills me full of love and grace.

Times of Refreshing

Refreshing. So often the scriptures talk about this........how delightful it is to be refreshed by His hand.

Last week there was a torrential downpour that was so extreme there was almost two inches of rain in about an hour and a half. The ground was so very hard and dry from a long summer that instead of soaking into the ground, the rain ended up as a massive runoff that should have been life giving to the grass, soil and plants but much was wasted.

My heart missed a beat....surely my spiritual heart couldn't be like that dry hard ground in the natural!!!  Would Jesus come and pour down His rain but instead of it penetrating my spirit, would it just run off and be wasted? Do I know how to keep  my spirit soft?  Yes, I do......by constantly reminding myself of the love that He has for me, and to keep coming to the waterfall of His love daily.

I love Psalm Twenty Three. I picture it often. Each day He wants to lead us into that new valley of cascading waterfalls, of green lush verdant grass, of cool shade beneath tall trees, whose leaves shake and tremble, bringing pleasant music to our ears. There is a vibrant aliveness, an expectant anticipation that is in this valley as we wait for Him to come........it's almost as though we are inside the heart of our God, hearing His heartbeat. For He longs to bring us daily refreshing so that we can face anything our day throws at us with His joy, His peace, His love. Jesus, help us today to stand under that waterfall, feel Your life giving water fill up every place in our hearts and spirits, and refresh us with Yourself.

River of Life

O God, let the rain fall on me,
Let your waterfall submerge me,
O God, refresh my spirit
Lest I die.


For all my fountains are in You,
And in You I draw water
That will revive me, heal me
Cleanse me.


Your living waters give me life,
Fill me to overflowing,
Give me hope, give me peace,
Joy everlasting.