![For those in the Burlington area]()
by Stacey | Apr 6, 2017 | Special Announcements
Tonight from 7-9pm Julie and I will be in Burlington at the Family Christian Bookstore promoting Unexpected Love. Tonight, Unexpected Love is on sale for 29.99. That’s a savings of $10! Come tonight and enter your name for a chance to win one of three great prizes.
Unexpected Love is a perfect Mother’s Day Gift, a gift for that new mom, or just because.
It would be such a delight to see you tonight, to hear a bit of your story, and share in the wonder of God’s great love for us.
by Stacey | Apr 3, 2017 | Home Makeover Projects
I have a huge weakness for leaded glass windows. I love the look. When I discovered this product I KNEW I had to try it out. And I had the PERFECT window.
This is our plain and boring kitchen window. Too new to replace. Too old to be pretty.
When we renovated our kitchen, I was unsure what sort of treatment I wanted. I’m not worried about privacy (since we look at a brick wall), but I didn’t want to lose light. As soon as I saw this I knew it was the window treatment for me. I ordered two packs of self adhesive lead strips and while I wanted for them to arrive, I started searching online for design templates. Of course, there was nothing ready made for my window size, just design ideas.
I cut newspaper to the size of one slider window and found the centre. Then, using my mad math skills, I measured out a cathedral pattern to fit my template. I taped it to the back side of the window.
This is the hard part. Peel and stick the lead strips. Remove the template and put it behind slider window number two and repeat. Seriously, that’s as hard as it gets.
Up close
This updated older window is now one of my favourites!
by Stacey | Mar 30, 2017 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
My latest post on the Women-Together leadership blog is available!
The enemy is a crafty fellow. If his first attempt to derail a person from ministry work fails, he alters his approach. If he cannot roadblock the Lord’s call, he whispers lies so close to the truth that we easily swallow them. Have you heard or believed any of these lies?
by Stacey | Mar 16, 2017 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
He propped those screws right up against the tire. Three times, they punctured. Three times, we limped our way to the mechanic for a patch. Three times, he saw the damage, the inconvenience, the interruption to our day, but never connected his action to the events until the mechanic handed over the screw.
The brother encourages him to tell, because “it is always better to tell,” instinctively knowing that confession is good for the soul.
He scrounged up all the courage his little frame could muster and spoke the hard-honest truth. It was his fault.
My heart swelled at his courage, his decision to speak Slide1and believe what we have been repeating for years.
Our family…
…says what we’re sorry for…
…never stays angry…
forgives.
With trembling lips, he waited to see if our mantra was true. Fearful eyes understood what we didn’t need to say. This was big—bigger than anything he could fix on his own. Worse still, he had no excuse or reason. Equal measures of boredom and curiosity set the plan into motion. Forgiveness, should he receive it, was undeserved, unmerited, and unearned.
Undeserved. He punctured those tires as much as my sin punctured the hands and feet of my Lord. We are both stained with sin.
Unmerited. Grace is the unmerited favour of God toward me. Grace is the best response to his hard-honest confession. He might not deserve it, but one thing I know for sure is that I certainly don’t, yet here I am, drenched in God’s grace.
Unearned. Even with all the coins in his piggy bank, he couldn’t pay for those three patches. It had to be done for him. And even with all of humanity’s good works stacked from bottom to top, the price of sin is still more. It has to be paid for us, for me.
Together we stand as recipients of undeserved, unmerited and unearned forgiveness. Praise the Lord!
*from the archives
by Stacey | Mar 9, 2017 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
This is for the one buckling under bad news. This is for the one who tugs her sleeves over the track marks of her past. This is for all of us limping barefoot down the broken and narrow road. This is for me. This is for you.
The Lord is everlasting to everlasting, the first and the last, the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, who calls, adopts, brings to repentance, and clothes the filthy and unclean in robes of righteousness.
You invite the wretched to come. You take all that is true in the enemy’s taunts and place it upon Jesus. In the greatest exchange known to mankind, You take my sin and You give me Christ. I can’t earn it, I don’t deserve it, but you do it anyway. You are for me. Your plans are good for me, even when this busted world makes the opposite seem true. Your Word promises that beauty will rise from the ashes of disappointment and heartache.
The Gospel for Every Day
The gospel truth is life-changing not only in that first moment of salvation, but in every moment that follows. The gospel truth matters today because I need You today just as much as I needed You yesterday and just as much as I will need You tomorrow. The gospel is good news for the guilty, good news in the mundane, and good news for the shamed. It is good news for every day.
The gospel truth declares me clean, holy, righteous, and able to stand before You, Lord, because Jesus makes it possible. I approach Your throne with confidence knowing You hear my prayers, have gone before me and walk beside me even now.
Enough
You are good even when life is not. And when the shame of my sin, the weight of my guilt, the hugeness of my needs overwhelm me, You remind me that you are enough. You are more than able to cover my sin, remove my shame and meet every need perfectly. I praise You, Lord. In all the earth there is none like You.
The end of the story
When I don’t know how this trial ends I will remember how this story ends. You are victorious. Nothing can steal victory from You and from all who believe in You. And I belong to You. I am cupped in the palm of Your hand and no one can steal me from You. Thank you, Lord!
