The Redeemed Rose

I am always amazed how God can reveal new layers of understanding in Scripture, even if you have read a passage many times. This is a part of what I took away from this time through the Song of Solomon: Love is powerful - It is a strong as death, has flashes of fire, and many waters cannot quench it nor floods drown it (vs. 8:6-7a) Love is precious - Even if a man offered everything he possessed for it, it would be a ludicrous offer and never enough (v. 8:7b) We all have a desire to be loved and cherished by another - We all want to be that “only one” among the hundreds that our love adores and esteems above all others. We all want to feel precious, desired, and belong to another. (vs. 6:8-9; 7:10) While romantic human love is a precious and divine gift to be highly valued and enjoyed, human love WILL disappoint if we are looking to it for our ultimate satisfaction and worth. Only the love of Christ, to be known by Him in a saving way, can perfectly fulfill our longi...

1 O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;  2 many are saying of my soul, "There is no salvation for him in God." Selah  3 But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.  4 I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah  5 I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.  - Psalm 3:1-5 Last night, I woke up around 3:30 and couldn’t fall asleep again until 5 or 5:30. This doesn’t happen on a regular basis (like every night) but it happens more frequently than I would like. The “foes” that kept me awake were my anxious thoughts. There were “many rising against me”. I know from my experience with essential oils that I am not the only one who deals with this problem, because the issue of sleeplessness or waking up and not being able to fall back asleep because of “mind-racing” is one of the most common concerns people bring to me. My mind ran the gauntlet of all the areas...

It’s too nice of a day to stay indoors! The flowers that the kids and I planted are doing GREAT, but so are the weeds! I wish I had had the money to put down blackout tarp at the beginning. It would be a lot less work now, so if I get the money, I may still go back and do it. But in the meantime, I took the opportunity of a beautiful day to clear out the flower beds.  Whenever I am weeding, I am always reminded of how our spiritual life is like a flower bed or a garden. If we do not tend to it, weeds start to spring up. Let it go for a few days, and you may only have a few tiny sprouts. It’s nothing, right? “I’ll take care of it tomorrow”, we tell ourselves. Sin always starts small and seemingly harmless. But let it go unchecked for a little while longer, and now you’ve got big trouble! What seemed like not such a big deal is now firmly rooted and harder to dig out. We must be constantly on the alert about what we are letting grow in the garden of our hearts.   Pro...