By Josie Siler

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Is that really a Van Gogh?
 
I hurried over for a better look. Sure enough, “Van Gogh” was written on a piece of masking tape stuck to the frame, confirming what I already knew. It really was a Van Gogh! Never in my life did I imagine I’d find a beautiful Van Gogh print at a small town rummage sale. Granted, this was a huge rummage sale, but still.
 
It didn’t take me long to decide if I would purchase it. I wasn’t totally sure what “it” was. Obviously it wasn’t on original, but beyond that I’m in the dark. Is it a print? It is a reproduction? Is it good copy by some random person? I don’t know, but it’s beautiful!
 
I knew that I’d be kicking myself if I didn’t buy it. I checked my wallet and had exactly the amount of the print – plus $2. That was enough to buy the print, a gluten-free monster cookie, and have a dollar to spare. Done!
 
When my dad helped me hang the picture we talked about the high quality framing job. He told me that the piece of glass on the front would cost more than what I paid for the whole thing. Now that’s the kind of deal I like! The picture looks incredible in my house and will stand as a reminder of God’s love for me.
 
Really? Blossoming Almond Tree is going to remind me of God’s love? It sure is! You see, I almost didn’t make it to the rummage sale that day. After almost three years of treatments my health is so much better. I had a huge breakthrough a couple months back and just as I was starting to notice how well I was feeling I caught a nasty virus. I’ve been really sick for the past several weeks and I just can’t shake this thing.
 
It’s. So. Frustrating. 

I feel like a limp rag that somebody forgot to wring out. Sweats and chills fight for control as my body tries to kill of yet another attacker. I’m so sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. I’m supposed to be better, yet I feel so sick. In recent weeks my time with the Lord has suffered as I haven’t had the energy or motivation to open my Bible. I’ve been weary physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
 
The day of the rummage sale I probably should have stayed home, but I talked my parents into taking me to check it out. I’m so glad I did because God used one not so little painting to teach me a lesson.
 
I’ve always liked Van Gogh’s work, especially when you take into account his short and difficult life. He suffered heartache, loss, and illness. From what I can tell from a brief online search, he started painting about 10 years before his death. Ten short years to create a lifetime of masterpieces.
 
Vincent Van Gogh died at the age of 37, only a few months after he painted Blossoming Almond Tree as a gift to his newborn nephew, Vincent. It was while he was ill that Van Gogh painted some of his best work. According to www.vggallery.com this painting is “a delicate study of hope and renewed life.”
 
Every time I look at this beautiful picture hanging on my wall I will remember who painted it. I’ll remember a man who, like me, suffered with illness, experienced heartache and loss, and found the only thing he had left to cling to was God.
 
Each time my eyes pass over the priceless masterpiece hanging on my wall I’ll be reminded that God sees me as His priceless masterpiece. Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) tells us that, “…we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”
 
Let that sink in for a minute. You, my friend, just like me, are God’s masterpiece. You are a priceless work of art. Unlike the print, or reproduction, or copy hanging in my living room, you are an original! There’s no one else like you and you have great value. We each have great value.

You might be feeling like me right now – sick, tired, weary, frustrated, and even angry. But we need to remember not just who we are, but Whose we are. We belong to the King of kings, the all-powerful God who created the universe and us!
 
I may be able to say I have a Van Gogh, but you know what? God can say that He has an original Josie Siler and an original [insert your name here]. He’s proud of us. He did a good job when He made us. He doesn’t make mistakes. We’re His masterpieces, created anew in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.
 
Are you ready? If so, take the first step with me and open His Word. Let’s read about His love for us and His plan for our lives. Let’s talk to Him, tell Him how we feel, and accept His compassionate love.

By Erin Elizabeth Austin

Control freak. It’s a phrase that applies to the majority of us. Granted, we don’t like to admit to it, but very few of us are okay with just sitting back and allowing something to happen in our lives without our input. So we do what any good person would do. We excuse it; we say it’s our personality to take charge. We even give it a fancy name and say we have a Type A Personality, yet what it boils down to is the need to feel like we’re in control of our lives.

Interestingly enough, I don’t have a Type A Personality. All the tests show I’m a Type B, which means I’m laidback and easygoing. Although this is true, I still struggle when my life doesn’t go the way it’s supposed to. When doctors say they need to run more tests on me and try a new medicine, the desire to fight back and change what’s happening to me rears its ugly head. When a bill comes in the mail and I wonder how I’m going to pay for it, I have this innate ability to make plans to rectify my financial woes even though nothing I’ve tried in the past has worked. When my friends and family are hurting because of something bad that’s happened to them, I immediately want to swoop in and fix everyone’s problems. It’s the control freak in me, and it’s something we all struggle with.

Still think you’re not a control freak? Do you ever worry? Do you ever feel anxious? Do you ever wonder how you got into the mess you’re in and what you need to do in order to get out? I hate to break it to you, but that means you have the makings of being a control freak. Some of us have that tendency more than others, but it’s still there – the desire to take charge and fix the wrongs in your life.

But there’s a problem with this, something I’ve only started to realize after thirty-two years of living. Although being in control makes me feel like I’m doing something to fix a problem, it limits God in what He can do. It’s saying, “Don’t worry, God! I don’t need your help. I’ve got this!” In essence, it’s saying we don’t trust God and we can do a better job than He can. Blasphemous, I know! No one would ever dare say that to a powerful, almighty God, yet we indirectly do it on a regular basis.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve daily been drawn to one of my favorite psalms – Psalm 37. It’s a psalm that’s infamous for the promise found in verse four: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” That’s a promise from God we all love. It sounds amazing, but the problem is we tend to stop reading at this point and we miss everything God says afterwards. Yet those verses are the most crucial. Verses five through seven say: “Commit your way to the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.”

As I studied the original language in which these verses were written, I realized that we really miss something in the translation. Many of the words and phrases in these three verses aren’t used anywhere else in Scripture, which tells us that what God is saying is extremely important.

​The phrase “commit your way” actually means “to roll it over on.” While that’s intriguing in its own rite, verse seven is where it really gets interesting. “Rest in the Lord” is better translated “to sit/stand silently.” And then comes the part that blows my mind. “Wait patiently” literally means “to whirl or dance.” If you put it all together, a more accurate translation of Psalm 37:5-7 is, “Roll your troubles onto God; sit or stand confident that He will work in your life. And in the meantime, dance.”

God wants us to dance. He wants us to rely on Him to take care of us, to intrinsically know that no matter how bad a situation becomes, God is in control. He wants to work in our lives, but we have let go of our need to be in control. We can’t have it both ways. We’re either a control freak, or we choose to trust God. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being in control.

I want to dance! Do you?

​“There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.” ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1,4

By Josie Siler

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a time where we pause to give thanks for the many blessings God has given us and stuff ourselves with turkey and pumpkin pie.
 
Ephesians 5:20 (NLT) commands us to “…give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
 
But let’s face it, some years we don’t feel very thankful. If you’re in a difficult season of life right now you may be scraping the bottom of the barrel in search of just one thing for which to be thankful.
 
Whether you’re overflowing with thankfulness or scraping the bottom of the barrel I have a little something fun for us to do. Many times when asked what we’re thankful for our default answer is: God, family, and friends. While I’m incredibly thankful for each of these things, I wanted to get a little more creative and lighthearted.
 
Going through the alphabet – as quickly as possible – here are some fun, random, and maybe silly things I’m thankful for:
 
Apples
Books
Cowboy boots
Dogs
Elephant trunks
Flowers
Goats
Helium
Ice cream
Jewels
Kangaroo pouches
Lanterns
Moroccan mint tea
Night skies
Ovens
Pigs
Quilts
Roses
Silk scarves
Tunnels
Underwear
Velcro
Words
X-rays
Yodeling
Zebras
 
It’s your turn! What are you thankful for? If you make your own list, please share it with us!
 
Happy Thanksgiving, friends.

By Josie Siler

I don’t want to look. I can’t look. I have to look.

Have you seen them? Photographs of displaced peoples looking for a safe place to live – men, women, and children who perished on the way to an unknown destination. It’s absolutely heartbreaking. There is so much suffering happening in our world today. Terror, persecution, murder, hate, floods, fires, drought, starvation. The list could go on and on.

Watching the news is difficult. Hearing of and seeing so many people suffering so deeply is absolutely unbearable.

“Josie,” you say, “I’m suffering too much myself. I’m in the fight of my life over here just trying to survive. I can’t possibly help anyone else. I can’t even help myself.”

I hear you. I understand. Your suffering is indeed great. I don’t want to add to your burden. However, life isn’t as kind as I am. Right now, life around us reads like a tragedy.

It’s easier to look away. Don’t read. Don’t watch. Don’t listen. Don’t see. It’s easier that way.

It may be easier, for a time. But what happens when it’s your friend? Your family member? Your loved one? What happens when you need help? Don’t you want others to care then? Don’t you want others to care now?

The thing about caring is it makes us human. Each time we stop caring, when we block out the world and the things happening in it, we lose a piece of our humanity.

So what can we do? You were right; it’s hard to do much when we’re sick and need help ourselves. However, 1 Thessalonians 5:14-22 (NLT) gives us a few ideas.

The first step is to care. I can’t tell you how vitally important it is to care about and love others. We need to be good to each other. We need to be kind to each other, even if we are different or believe different things. That doesn’t give us an excuse to not care. We need to challenge, encourage, and care for our fellow human beings. We just do. No excuses.

The second step is to pray. Chronically ill people often have a secret weapon at our disposal called time. Many of us can’t work, but we can pray. We can pray from our beds, we can pray while we’re waiting in the doctor’s office, we can pray while we’re in the car.

Time is precious, and there isn’t a better use for it than talking to God. When you thank Him and ask Him to intervene in our dark world, you will be blessed. Another natural product of prayer is joy. Even in the midst of difficult circumstances we can be filled with joy if we are in communion with our Lord. 

The last step is to be informed. Don’t assume you know what God is doing in a situation. He can bring great good out of the most evil of circumstances. Look for where the Holy Spirit is working and join Him in prayer.

There’s a lot of information flying around the internet and news channels these days and it’s hard to know what is true. Test everything. Bring it to the Word of God and see if it lines up with what the Bible has to say. Keep what is good and true, and throw out the rest. 

There is evil in the world today, so much evil. However, our God is a great God and He is victorious! Can I get an Amen?!  The light will shine in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. If God is in you, His light is in you.

We all have a light within us and it’s time to let it out. Together we are better and together our lights shine brighter, making this dark world we live in a brighter and a better place. Are you ready to let your light shine? Are you ready to care, to pray, and to become informed? If so, let out your battle cry, we’ve got a war with the darkness to win!

By Josie Siler

Do you want to know a secret about great adventures? In my experience, they usually come with a warning. Somewhere there will be a sign posted that warns you of the dangers which lie ahead. If it’s a truly grand adventure you will be required to sign your life away, literally. You’ll be handed a piece of paper to sign that you probably won’t read. If you read it, it may frighten you enough to turn around and run. But all great adventurers know if you do that you’ll be missing out on something great, something spectacular. So you sign and date the paper, sealing your fate and assuring others that if you die on this grand adventure they won’t get sued.

I signed my life away a couple of weeks ago when I went ziplining through the mountains. It was an incredible experience! It may have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience – but I hope not! I’d love to do it again, and I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to sign my life away again. As my grandpa Marlowe used to say, “We’ve gotta have a little fun every now and again, haven’t we Josie?”

I have to admit, I’ve done some crazy things and I’ve have had more than my fair share of “looking back on this, it probably wasn’t a good idea” adventures. However, the greatest adventure of all is my relationship with Jesus. “Really?” you ask. “That’s the greatest adventure?” Undoubtedly, yes! 

Life with Christ is always an adventure and it’s one that should come with a warning sign. When we make the decision to follow Jesus we’re in essence signing our lives away in preparation of the greatest adventure we’ll ever take.

We’ve been going through what I’ve titled The Madman Series. Psalm 34 is King David’s song of celebration after God delivered him from a dangerous situation. His life was in grave danger and he pretended to be crazy so that a King who wanted to take his life would instead let him go free. It’s a psalm of praise and a psalm of instruction. David shows us, by his own example, how to live a life that honors God in the midst of suffering.

Throughout this series we’ve looked at a madman’s worship, deliverance, fear, desire, and Savior. As we end our journey, we’re going to study the words of this madman that we know to be a very sane David, King of Israel. In Psalm 34:19-22 (ESV) we read about a madman’s redemption.

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” This is why I believe the Christian life should come with warning signs. Many of us entered into a relationship with Christ the same way we would enter into a friendship. Jesus sounded like a pretty cool guy, someone we’d like to hang out with. We heard about the good things He does and how He can make our lives better. Naturally, we think that if we follow Him our lives will get easier.

That’s where most of us are mistaken. Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us that we’ll have an easy life if we follow Jesus. In fact, we’re told that we’ll face afflictions, be persecuted for Jesus’ sake, and have many trials and sorrows.

So why would we want to follow Jesus if our life is going to be miserable? Because it’s so worth it! This seems like a silly answer, but I believe it with all my heart. Everyone suffers in this life. No one is exempt. When we suffer with Christ, we don’t suffer alone. Jesus knows what it is like to be a man of sorrow, much afflicted. He’s walked that path and He walks it again, alongside you and alongside me. 

We get all this and more when we decide to walk with Jesus. Jesus died on the cross to save us and He makes each day worth living – even the days that are full of suffering. We have two choices in life. Suffer alone or allow God to redeem our suffering. Which will you choose?

If you choose Jesus it’s time to walk past the danger sign, scrawl your name at the bottom of the page, and get ready for the adventure of a lifetime. It might be a little scary, but I promise it will be worth it!

By Josie Siler

Have you ever thought of David, King of Israel, as a madman? Most of us know David as a man after God’s own heart, leader of the nation of Israel, a poet and psalmist, someone who lived a victorious life. Some of us know of David the adulterer and murderer – remember when he got Bathsheba pregnant and then had her husband killed? Yeah, that wasn’t cool. But David repented of his sins and God still used him in amazing ways. There is a lot we can learn from David’s life.

I have a favorite Psalm. It is one of many that David wrote. However, this one is special. It has been my favorite Psalm since I was a child, and in it I continue to find encouragement and challenges. The part that gets my attention every time I read are the words written before the Psalm even begins: “Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.”

These words are referring to something that happened while David was fleeing from Saul, the current king of Israel, who was trying to kill him. We find the account in 1 Samuel 21:10-15. David escaped to Gath, where he thought he would find refuge from Achish the King. (Note: Abimelech was the general name of the sovereign; Achish was the sovereign of Gath.) Before he met with the king, David heard servants talking about him. They wondered if he was the same David the people sang songs about, the David who was to be king. When David heard these things, he became very afraid, so when he was brought before Achish he pretended to be insane. “Then Achish said to his servants, ‘Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?’”

Achish believed David to be a madman, so he let him go. Psalm 34 is an outpouring of praise to God, as well as instructions on how to live a life that honors God. The next several weeks we are going to take a close look at Psalm 34. We’re going to study the words of this madman that we know to be a very sane David, King of Israel. It is my prayer that as we work through this Psalm, you see God’s love and provision in a way that is so very real for all of us.

So let’s get started. Psalm 34 begins with worship – a madman’s worship. I can almost hear an audible sigh of relief as I read these words. Verses 1-3 (ESV) read:

Worship; it’s a beautiful thing. We find David filled with relief, joy, amazement, gratitude, and love. David takes time to bless the Lord, to adore Him. He’s making a statement that no matter what happens to him, he will worship the Lord.

This wasn’t exactly an easy time in David’s life and he could have easily complained to God, asking Him why all these horrible things were happening to him when he was supposed to be King. Instead, he chooses to worship. His very soul boasts not in his own cleverness, but in the Lord. David wants the humble, the needy, others who are afflicted, to hear him praise God and be glad. They can take comfort in David’s worship and God’s protection, and so can we.

David then invites others – the humble, afflicted, and needy – to join him in worshiping the Lord. Corporate worship is a wonderful thing. It joins hearts and minds in unity as we worship our Maker together. David’s love for God overflowed to the point where he wanted, he needed, others to join him. Magnifying the Lord, exalting His name, and worshiping God – together. That’s what it’s all about.

That same invitation extends to each and every one of us. Will you bless the Lord at all times? Will you bless the Lord today, even if you are in the depths of despair? There is nothing more beautiful or powerful than a broken heart worshiping the Lord. It brings glory to God and healing to the soul.

Let us all exalt God’s name together. Let’s shout His praises from the rooftops, or out our bedroom door. Let’s not let one more minute pass without taking the time to boast in the Lord and praise Him. Let’s let a madman’s worship become our worship.

© November 4, 2014

By Erin Elizabeth Austin

So many of you have asked me questions about my trip to England, so I've put together this fun blog for you.

You might be in England if......

• Everyone wants to talk to you because you're from America, and they particularly love your Southern accent.                                                                                         
• People say you're from South Carolina, America.                           
• If everyone you meet has a different accent, even if they live only ten miles apart.

If you had told me six months ago I would have the best experience of my life to date in England, I would have said, "You're crazy!" My life has been anything but easy. In my twenty-nine short years of living, I have endured more suffering and pain than many people experience in a lifetime. Life has been incredibly hard, yet the older I get, the more I realize just how good my God really is. He took me across the Atlantic to a country I never thought about visiting to show me that He still has great, wonderful plans for my life. He showed me that He can use anything for His glory, including three diseases in one woman's body. 

Many of you were faithful to pray for me on this trip, and I want to thank you. I might have been able to go on a two-week trip to England, but my illnesses also went with me. There were days I wondered if I could physically do what had been planned, but God answered your prayers and gave me the strength and energy to do everything. Your prayers, emails, and Facebook messages brought me great joy every single day. Thank you!

And for those who wonder if God can ever do anything like this for you, I want to encourage you to not give up hope. We serve a mighty God. He can open doors that no man can shut. He is not limited by time, money, or sickness. He is the God of joy, and I pray you will see Him at work in your life in big, powerful ways. 

"So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing Himself to the worst by sending His own Son, is there anything else He wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us?.....None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us." ~ Romans 8:31-33,38-39 (The Message)


*Slideshow of a few more of my favorite pictures from the trip below.

By Erin Elizabeth Austin

Do you remember what it was like as a child to ride your bike down a steep hill with your feet sticking out to the side just to see how fast you could go? Did you ever swing so high it felt like you were flying or hung upside-down on the monkey bars and pretended you could walk on air? There is an uninhibited joy that children have, yet somewhere along the road to adulthood, we have the tendency to lose that excitement and zest for life.

I am often amazed at how many people claiming to be Christians walk around looking like they’ve eaten a whole box of Sour Patch Kids. So many of us have forgotten the joy we first had when we asked God to save us from our sins. Do you remember that feeling you had when you became God’s adopted son or daughter? It was exhilarating, wonderful, and amazing all at the same time – like we had just skydived, taken our first bite of homemade ice cream, and graduated from college all in one moment. We wanted to shout it out to the whole world that we were a child of the King of kings and Lord of lords. It was an emotional and spiritual high. Now, fast-forward to today. Are you still that happy, or is life just a series of dreary days with which you must live?

By Josie Siler

I was a pretty good kid growing up. I didn’t get in trouble very often, partially because I found a way to get my brother blamed for things! Oh, I would do naughty things, but I had an overactive conscience so when my parents gave me “the look” or told me they were disappointed in something I had done I would immediately get mouse tracks quickly followed by the sup-sups. For those of you unfamiliar with these terms, mouse tracks are little dots that form on your chin when you’re trying not to cry. Sup-sups are an unattractive attempt to not cry by gasping for air while tears leak out of your eyes!

I could have escaped both mouse tracks and the sup-sups if I had only obeyed my parents as the Bible instructs. The Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:1-3, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise), ‘that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.’ ”

By Josie Siler

“As the Scriptures say, ‘A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’” These words from Ephesians 5:31 are going to impact each of us in a different way. Some of us will feel a sense of warmth and joy, having experienced a good marriage and the love of a Godly man or woman. Some of us will feel regret, thinking of a lost love. Some of us will feel pain and anger due to a broken relationship. Some of us will feel a sense of loss and disappointment because we have never experienced this kind of love.

The Apostle Paul continues in Ephesians 5:32, “This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.” In these verses Paul is talking about marriage, but he’s also talking about much more than that. He’s using the institution of marriage to give us an example of Christ’s relationship with the church. Being “united as one” with your husband or wife is the deepest, most intimate experience a human can experience…however it pales in comparison to the intimacy that we can experience with Christ.