hope in Christ – Page 4 – Jesus is for the Wounded

Psalm 71

Published on February 18, 2014February 18, 2014 by Jesus is for the Wounded1 Comment

Psalm 71

¹In you, Lord, I have taken refuge;     let me never be put to shame. ²In your righteousness, rescue me and deliver me;     turn your ear to me and save me. ³Be my rock of refuge,     to which I can always go; give the command to save me,     for you are my rock and my fortress. ⁴Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked,     from the grasp of those who are evil and cruel.

⁵For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord,     my confidence since my youth. ⁶From birth I have relied on you;     you brought me forth from my mother’s womb.     I will ever praise you. ⁷I have become a sign to many;     you are my strong refuge. ⁸My mouth is filled with your praise,     declaring your splendor all day long.

⁹Do not cast me away when I am old;     do not forsake me when my strength is gone. ¹⁰For my enemies speak against me;     those who wait to kill me conspire together. ¹¹They say, “God has forsaken him;     pursue him and seize him,     for no one will rescue him.” ¹²Do not be far from me, my God;     come quickly, God, to help me. ¹³May my accusers perish in shame;     may those who want to harm me     be covered with scorn and disgrace.

¹⁴As for me, I will always have hope;     I will praise you more and more.

¹⁵My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds,     of your saving acts all day long—     though I know not how to relate them all. ¹⁶I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, Sovereign Lord;     I will proclaim your righteous deeds, yours alone. ¹⁷Since my youth, God, you have taught me,     and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. ¹⁸Even when I am old and gray,     do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation,     your mighty acts to all who are to come.

¹⁹Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens,     you who have done great things.     Who is like you, God? ²⁰Though you have made me see troubles,     many and bitter,     you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth     you will again bring me up. ²¹You will increase my honor     and comfort me once more.

²²I will praise you with the harp     for your faithfulness, my God; I will sing praise to you with the lyre,     Holy One of Israel. ²³My lips will shout for joy     when I sing praise to you—     I whom you have delivered. ²⁴My tongue will tell of your righteous acts     all day long, for those who wanted to harm me     have been put to shame and confusion.

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Tonight as my body thrashed about I cried out to the Lord, asking “don’t you see me?”

Tonight I cried out for the Lord to take me, as in take me home. He did not answer.

Tonight I cried out asking Him not to leave me here this way. He did not answer.

The after burn of the seizure attacks, flu-spikes, chest compression symptoms making breathing labored, increased pain, and massive neck headache was unbearable once again this evening. Things are getting worse. This was my third episode today with over two dozen individual incidences!

My precious husband got out of bed after 1:00 a.m. to get me something to eat in an effort to end the tic attacks that would not stop after the seizures.

It is now over an hour later and I am stable. I am beat up. I am still here!

I will remind myself to have hope, to cultivate hope that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Sometimes He speaks and sometimes He is silent. And for those who believe in Him, He is always present.

Psalm 71 puts it all together for me right now, so this is how I will pray as I go forth from this night. And that’s about how far I have gotten. My tummy hurts. Time to go back to bed. I think I can sleep now.

Crazy Food Combinations

Published on January 28, 2014January 28, 2014 by Jesus is for the Wounded4 Comments

Gluten free oatmeal with beef gelatin for added protein?

Sautéed celery, carrots, and turkey patties with salt and marjoram?

Baked and herbed chicken thighs?

Almond butter on iceberg lettuce wrapped around a slice of leftover turkey/beef meatloaf?

Almond/coconut milk smoothie with celery, carrot, avocado, and Celtic sea salt?

Yes! Things sure can get weird when you’re on 3 diets at once: 1) mold-free due to mold illness, 2) Candida/low sugar and starch due to a systemic infection, and 3) low sulphur due to probable methylation issues. And you thought trying to lose a couple of pounds for your New Year’s Resolution was challenging? That’s kid’s stuff in my kitchen! At least number 3 is only for 10 days before I add back cruciferous vegetables to see if they have contributed to the noxious symptoms of the past 2 years. Who knows? Maybe I’ll figure out how to make pancakes out of squash and coconut flour after all!

In the meantime, note the incredible power of food. I have a true Foodie friend who was able to help her sister recover from a deadly kidney disease in record time by painstakingly altering her sister’s eating plan. The Nephrologist was astounded at the improvements in her lab results. Yes, food is fuel and should require more of our time and attention if we desire better performance from our bodies or health. While I do wish that my adherence to a mold-free and Candida diet for the past year would have made more of a difference, I know that I would be FAR WORSE if I had been more lax. I am grateful for the supernatural strength of the Lord to help me shop for, prepare, and tolerate these special foods when I have felt very sick.

Somehow I am not be surprised that the Lord cares for all of these details of my life.

Matthew 6:26 (NIV)

²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

The food of the earth was created for our nourishment and enjoyment from the very beginning.

Genesis 1 (NIV)

¹¹Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. ¹²The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

He has provided so much for us so I am challenged to be a good steward of that which He has provided. I certainly can make it through the inconvenience and “missing out” of the sweeter and juicier foods for a time if it will help me get well. I don’t need to know how long this will last; I am just grateful that there are new approaches to try and I only have to go to my local grocery store to find them!

So if you are facing some new dietary challenges this year, take heart! You are not alone. The changes you are making might just change your life in more ways than you imagined. Besides, the smell of almond slices roasting in a little organic olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt is, well, heavenly! Try it on a salad or topping a casserole in place of cheese and see whatcha think. ;J

I’m stuck to my chair!

Published on January 22, 2014January 22, 2014 by Jesus is for the Wounded5 Comments

Again it seems that my greatest clarity of thought arrives after 3:00 a.m.! Such a strange phenomenon. I am always amazed at all of us web crawlers on Facebook at this tender hour. So I’m not alone after all. So it’s o.k. then, right?

Sometimes I’m not so sure I’m doing this thing right: trying to recover from a serious illness that is. The findings, colorful cords, and beading wonders of Trinity Jewelry by Design sit right behind me, untouched for almost 2 months. The creative juices appear to be flowing more through the keyboard than the macramé knotting board these days. Who can think in color when just three hours earlier I was nearly wretching from the noxious seizing of my once functional central nervous system? Tics of organic origin. Non-epileptic seizures. Whatever. I miss the once creative and functional Julie!

My beloved Steve is so gracious with me at these low times. All I could do tonight was yelp and squeak a bit as he sat within earshot in our nightly arrangement of sorts. I muttered a “help” and he came near, warming my frigid hands and feet with his comforting frame. The episode continued, alas, for another hour or more. Frankly, I lost track of time. All I know is that I did not make dinner this evening; I’ve got another shot at making his lunch for work tomorrow after we part ways tonight Gentle Reader. Looks like I’ll be able to pull some good eats together this evening after all.

In the song by Casting Crowns, Mark Hall sings of praising the Lord in the heartache of life’s storms. Perhaps you remember this moving Lifesong ballad from 2006?

Praise you in the Storm

Yes, and perhaps you remember me posting it in a previous blog last year as well. No big deal. No matter how many times it takes, no matter how many tears may fall, and no matter how many blog posts you may endure the message will still be the same: my face is towards my Immanuel through the storm to the rainbow waiting for me at it’s end. Period. There is nothing else for me to do. My Lord has seen fit to keep me here with lightening bolts running through my mind each day. Seizures can kill people. I am still here. For me the seizure attacks are a bit of a right of passage. The more I have, the more my angst turns into breaths of anticipation. What will come with the next breath? No worries about tomorrow. The moment here and now! If my mind wanders to anything stressful, the symptoms worsen. So I am learning to live in the length of one breath at a time. One s-i-n-g-l-e b-r-e-a-t-h at a time.

No wonder it is difficult to leave my chair most evenings! I am weak and tooling around on the computer is certainly a step up from lying there, writhing in bed. Nausea and sweats can increase if I do too much unless there is some sort of a clearing phenomenon first. When that happens I do as much as I possibly can before the freedom ends. Sometimes I’m not quite finished with a task when sickness returns; it’s always a bit tricky when that happens. And that’s when the Lord adds His incredible increase, endurance, grace. I cling to the God-breathed promises of His Holy Word and He delivers me without fail. This is where my spiritual gift of faith comes from: witnessing His faithfulness in my times of need. Faith brings hope as well.

He is worthy of your cries my friend. No matter how big or how small, the God of infinite mercy and love is ready, willing, and able to receive the desires of your heart. If you don’t believe me then your definition of God is not big enough. ‘Nuff said.

I guess it’s time to get up now. Will it be leftover barbeque meatloaf or smoked turkey sandwiches for lunch tomorrow? Gee, maybe I can even melt some cheese on the bread for a tasty treat. I love spoiling my Stevers. He is so good to me. :J

The Writing is Divine

Published on January 20, 2014January 22, 2014 by Jesus is for the Wounded3 Comments

Magazines have always held my interest more than novels, textbooks, or even the subtitles of an award-winning foreign film. I just don’t have the attention span for more than a couple of thousand words in a row! I guess that perfectly places me in the realm of the lone blogger, hacking out short articles of inspiration (or perspiration?) well into the dead of night.

And not everyone’s rants hold my fancy for the five to twenty minute allotment I’m willing to spend. Take the Editor’s column in a popular automobile magazine that graces my husband’s setting at the kitchen table every month. This car guy’s language is so thick with adjectives, metaphors, and strained attempts to make an inanimate, mechanical object organic that I grit my teeth to get from the beginning to the end. Just say it plainly Sir Editor! He probably has a journalism degree. I suppose that gives him license to use more words, write longer sentences. Not me.

I am moved by the languid composition of words that flows like butter running off a freshly boiled ear of corn. Gotcha, didn’t I? Just couldn’t resist! Perhaps the best example of the terse and poetic, the impactful and inspired comes from God’s Holy Bible. The Word of God is an amazing work that tells of the physical and supernatural, good and evil, things infinite and small, and everything in between. Where else can reading a single verse change a person’s destiny forever?

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning. ³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1)

In the wonderful mystery that is God, we find power in His Word and receive His indwelling Spirit when we come to know Him as Lord and Savior. I do not claim to understand how this works by reading and meditating on a few chapters in the Bible. Mentioning it here simply illustrates the finding that the power of a written word comes from the author’s mastery of the subject matter and his ability to communicate it to the reader. For the Bible, the God of the universe brings us Himself and everything we need for life in His handbook for living as communicated to faithful men of God who wrote it down for us to read. His Holy Spirit stirs within us as we dwell in the presence of the King’s scrolls. Moreover, we come to understand who He is, His plan for our lives, and are drawn into fellowship with Him. This fellowship can last forever if we but believe what He has written for us, summed up nicely in John 3:16:

¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Now these are words that draw my heart and mind in a meaningful embrace: the promise of living forever with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Such a simple message really and yet one that changes everything. Let’s see it in action in a little longer passage from the Old Testament, often called the bedtime Psalm:

Psalm 121: A song of ascents.

¹I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

where does my help come from?

²My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

³He will not let your foot slip—

he who watches over you will not slumber; (italics added)

⁴indeed, he who watches over Israel

will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵The Lord watches over you—

the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

⁶the sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon by night.

⁷The Lord will keep you from all harm—

he will watch over your life;

⁸the Lord will watch over your coming and going

both now and forevermore.

Now I can sure wrap my mind around these timeless and comforting images written long ago. I started a Bible-reading plan through “The Bible App” on my Android phone at the end of last year. I love it! (There’s even a narration option for listening to the verses spoken aloud.) Reading 3 to 4 chapters per day beginning in the book of Genesis goes quickly in this plan for reading the entire Bible in a year. While I do not understand all of the ancient culture, I am amazed at the Lord’s attention to every detail in the lives of His people. His love and care translates to you and I as well in the present day, when we spend a little time reading His Divine Word. I am so glad to have found the best writer of all time and hope that my own words will honor Him too.

Well, there it is. Simply stated and inspired by the One who wrote this special message on my heart for me to share with you today. No words are more important than His. Will you join me in spending a little time reading the Bible each day? I promise you that it will be worth any amount of time you devote to dwell in His presence.

Connect with Just Julie

Published on January 19, 2014January 19, 2014 by Jesus is for the WoundedLeave a comment

Hi Gentle Reader:

Just updated my interview page at Smashwords where you can find my eBook entitled, Hope Beyond Lyme: The First Year. View the interview at: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/justjuliewrites

Would love to connect with you via your comments on this blog or try one of the venues below. Take care and “talk at ya soon!” JJ

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewHopeBeyondLyme
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TrinitybyDesign
Blog: http://justjuliewrites.com
Smashwords Interview: https://www.smashwords.com/interview/justjuliewrites
Smashwords profile page:
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/justjuliewrites