Category: words

Daring: Venturesomely Bold in Action or Thought {and a Giveaway}

Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past. 
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland. 
(Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV)

Earlier this summer, I planned to have a big celebration as I launched a new venture called souldare. Instead, I mentioned it in passing while business cards were being created and I prepared for my first ever collage workshop at a local gallery. Also in the background, I was developing the website. Over the past few weeks, I have been slowly thinking more about what this dare means for me. 

I wondered about closing out Nourishment for the Soul and just diving into souldare or combining the two in some manner. But further thought has led me to maintain both. This place has a special spot in my heart. I believe it’s a space where people come to feed on words. Over at souldare, there will still be words, but also experiences to consider. 

Click on over and see what God has been inspiring during the deep summer, explore the pages and check out the photo gallery. The inspiration tab will be another blog, where I muse about art and the created self. I believe God has created us to express our lives creatively. I want everyone to get the chance to learn more about their God created identities and how to live fully from that perspective.

Being an artist and a writer blends well for me, and now apparently I am an entrepreneur! I have a business card, a website and workshops with paying participants. I never dreamed this; it is all truly something God birthed in and through me. Amazingly my next workshop is sold out and the third one is well on its way to being full. I praise God for this new season that has arrived just as autumn sings her song of release and abundant, rich joy.

In honor of this big day here, I want to give you an opportunity to win a free copy of my book (Defining Moments: Overflowing with Living Words) and a collage kit. Leave a comment and I will randomly select a winner by next Monday.


What daring feats has God been nudging
 you to embrace this season of life?

Linking up with  Multitudes on Monday, Soli Deo Gloria Party and #TellHisStory.
Posted on by kelrohlf 18

Hallow: To Make Holy

. . . simply concentrate on being completely devoted to Christ in your hearts. Be ready at any time to give a quiet and reverent answer to any man who wants 
a reason for the hope you have within you. 
(1 Peter 3:15-16)


Jesus directs us to venerate the name of the Father. Yet, there is so much more here than an old-fashioned word that we often translate as honor. To make God’s name holy is synonymous with asking that His kingdom come. To acknowledge God’s holiness is to admit our need for heavenly intervention. 

For any human to make God holy would be an absurd request. Jesus knows this, and so He asks us to make God’s name holy, and again this borders on ludicrous, because God alone is holy. Amazingly, He offers us the privilege to represent His reputation.

His very name is part of our identity. Christians are Christ ones. Just as Jesus was sent into the world, we are sent into the world to “hallow” God’s name and character in order to live a life that reflects His holiness and draws others to glorify Him. (Matthew 5:16)

Hallowing God’s name is more than just praising Him with words and accolades, it is setting Him apart in our hearts as the one most worthy of honor and reverence. To revere God is more than just assent, it is actively responding and living out our faith. 

In the original language the impact of this word takes on a sense of action that I have often overlooked. I thought if I just proclaimed excellent things about God’s name and character, then I must be hallowing His name. However, a deeper look at the origins of the word, require more than proclamation. Our lives must emulate our words.

Mounce’s Expository Dictionary explains it this way: “This expression [hallowed be thy name] means not only to treat God and his name with reverence and honor but also to glorify him by obeying his commands.” The essence of “reverence” used in this phrase is “specifically setting apart Jesus in our lives as Lord and honoring him as such.”

Praying these familiar words take on new meaning, not just mere words to recite, but a call to obedience motivated by love for our holy and loving Father.
How are you “hallowing” God with your words and actions?

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Embrace: Take Up Readily or Gladly

But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!  I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
Luke 15:17-20 ESV

 

A week ago, I was ready to embrace this expedition. Taking 40 days to seek God’s rest and direction for the next season of life. Fifteen days ago, I gladly accepted the challenge to blog for 31 days on the topic: Nourishment for the Soul.

To nourish a soul is a privilege. My soul finds its nourishment in words, in the Word of God and in the Word become flesh—Jesus!

Today, I find my pen empty, dry. It is harder than I thought to whip up a feast of words every day. Today I feel like all I have to offer are leftovers, or even worse, maybe just crumbs.

I have to embrace the famine as well as the feast.

What are you struggling to embrace at this moment?
 
Linking up with:
Posted on by kelrohlf 4

31 Days of Nourishment for the Soul {Day 6}

You may not have noticed, but I am participating in the 31 Days of Challenge offered by The Nester. It is a challenge to write on a topic for 31 days…so in October, I am going to write and post on the weekends, thus extending my goal of five days a week to a month of 31 days. Oh, I forgot to tell you my topic. Since I like to nourish souls, I will continue to offer this blog as “a place to feed on words” for the next 31 days.

Grab My Badge

Today’s Word is PRAY.

Pray means “to address God…with adoration, confession, supplication, or thanksgiving”

It also means to entreat or implore, to make a request in a humble manner. (www.m-w.com)

I like the four-fold approach to prayer sometimes called ACTS of prayer.

Adoration: Praising God for Who He Is
Confession: Admitting my faults and need for a Savior
Thanksgiving: Giving God the credit for all the Graces in my life
Supplication: Making humble requests of a Loving Father in Heaven

I like acrostic poems, so I wrote four “pray” acrostics covering these aspects of prayer. I will list them in the order of ACTS.

Praising,
Rejoicing in &
Adoring…
Yahweh!

Paying
Real Close
Attention–
Yielding.

Presenting
Remembrances of
Acclaim to
Yahweh.

Placing humble
Requests of
All varieties to
Yahweh.

Posted on by kelrohlf 0

Relevant: Having Significant and Demonstrable Bearing on the Matter at Hand

“There is only one thing worth being concerned about.”
Luke 10:42a NLT
 
 

Last Thursday, I was asking questions about blogging. Basically, my questions distilled down to this one question: How relevant is blogging?

I haven’t come to a conclusive answer, but my recent adventures blogging here and researching other blogs and bloggers, and taking a blogging seminar at the Daybreak Women’s Conference this past Saturday seem to be pointing to a two-fold answer:

Community and Purpose

Women are looking for community, a place to share ideas, struggles and answers that resonate with them. By blogging, women are finding a voice and purposing to encourage others to find their voice, too.

So far, my journey seems somewhat serendipitous. I decided to blog a few years back because it was a way to share my musings with my friends, and hopefully a few other readers out there. I was sporadic.

After months, a significant vacation and time set aside to contemplate my vocation, I have returned to blogging. A place where a writer can write and where readers can read.

While exploring this new frontier, Lynn D. Morrissey, has been like a scout, forwarding me blogs that she finds significant. I would go check them out. One day I came across Jumping Tandem. I read a side blog about cairns. I kept seeing her site referred to by others. And then one day she invited the blog community to DREAM.
 

Jumping Tandem: The Retreat
 

 

 

 

 

Today, I signed up to go on this retreat in April 2013 to further explore the purposes of blogging and meet some of the community in person. Three reasons that I’m going:

As soon as I read about it, my spirit was quickened and I felt INVITED by God.

I told my sister, Gillian, aka Juniper Gillian, about it and she jumped at the opportunity. I checked my email this morning and she had already registered.

I met another blogger in person at the Daybreak conference this weekend. Mary Carver, who happens to be part of this same community. She writes at her own blog and (in)courage.(Small world, even in the blogosphere)

A third purpose of blogging in this particular community is to uplift the name of Jesus. I want to choose the good portion. To sit under His teaching, and then invite others to join me through this place of feeding on words…and the main entrée: His WORD.

The Sovereign Lordhas given me an instructed tongue,to know the word that sustains the weary.
He wakens me morning by morning,
wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.
Isaiah 50:4 NIV
 
 
You feed them from the abundance of your own house,
letting them drink from your river of delights.
For you are the fountain of life,
the light by which we see.
Psalm 36:8-9 ESV

 

 

 
Posted on by kelrohlf 2