Category Archives: Susie K.

The Simple Truth

The Simple Truth
If I could only write to you one more time, I would tell you this little story.

I sat in large circle with the rest of our church staff. I was with my favorite friends doing one of my favorite things. We were praying for one another and listening for the individual messages that God wanted to share with each person in the circle. We loved that God still speaks and this trusted group of people enjoyed the freedom to be His messengers with one another.

I listened to the prayers and messages given to my friends. “The Father has designed you to carry influence with governmental leaders.”

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It Feels Like Freedom

I have my Bible, my journal and a bottle of water. I step into the pitch-black sanctuary and stand still for a few seconds waiting for my eyes to adjust. I am alone in the spacious room and as the door closes quietly behind me, I take a deep breath and let my shoulders fall and relax.

Sometimes I find a seat near the back. Other times I walk through the darkness and sit cross-legged on the floor right in front of the church platform. The darkness envelopes me and I tell myself to leave all concerns and worries outside. I remind myself that this is my special moment to be alone with my God and not to clutter it up with problems, at least not just yet.

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It All Comes Back To LOVE

LOVE

I was a church youth group girl. My youth group was made up of the usual variety of people found in any church. Some of the kids only cared about the games and prizes, and others cared about understanding God and figuring how to be like Jesus in everyday life. Most of us loved both.

My future husband moved to our town while he was a teen-ager and his family joined our church. His parents insisted that he attend the mid-week youth group meetings even though he had no desire at all. He did not know God and he rolled his eyes at our enthusiasm for the Bible and how it could be used in the modern day world.

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God’s New Year Resolution Never Changes | Love One Another

 

My View This Morning!

I don’t usually make New Year’s Resolutions. But since the last half of 2014 brought so many really BIG changes in my life, I broke my “NO RESOLUTIONS resolution”. It made sense to begin a brand new life in a new state by writing up a few specific goals for 2015.

During the last weeks of 2014 I signed up for three different “Starting Over” type online mini-courses by respected writers that I admire. I was gearing up to hit January 2015 with drastic changes. My personal goals had to do with setting up a more disciplined daily writing schedule and taking charge of my day by adding exercise, healthy eating and a more aggressive approach to my writing dreams.

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What Made Them Bow before a Toddler?

Nativity

What made them bow before a toddler? I quickly reached for a pen when I heard that question posed to the church congregation. (Sadly, I did not hear the rest of the message because this post was being unintentionally written in my head.) There was something jarring about it that resonated with me, and being a lover of words, this little sentence was a great one that I knew I would be exploring further.

The stories of the nativity tend to have a fairytale feeling to them don’t they? We hear them so often and many of us heard them first when we were children.

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Seasons

Photo: SusieKlein

It is Sunday morning and I am looking out my big windows at the way the sun is hitting the trees behind my house. From here you’d never know that there is a brisk snap in the air as we slide from autumn and into winter. Even as the leaves are slowly shifting from green to yellow, I am still grieving the end of summer and my daily swims out there beneath the trees.

I am becoming an expert on those particular leaves because today is my 5th day of riding this couch with a flu bug. (“Riding” is really not the right word though.

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Don’t Should On Me

Photo:SusieK

I was raised in the church, my family attended services twice on Sundays, every Wednesday night and sometimes every night for a week. Our church was like a wonderful extended family and I loved the way it became a warm and comfortable social circle for me.

The center of that circle was the shared desire to serve God in all areas of our lives. We were taught to read our Bibles everyday, attend church as much as possible and spend time in prayer everyday. As a teen I can remember starting one Bible-reading system after another, marking my calendar with my assigned Bible passage to read that day.

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Just As I Am

recoveringchurchlady.com

“Just as I am…” If you grew up in the kind of church that ended almost every service with an invitation to “come forward” to invite Jesus into your heart, you know this song. You could hum it along with me right now couldn’t you?

The song was about how much God loved you…
just as you were…
warts and all.

He loved you before you started reading the Bible every morning. He loved you before you found a church to go to every Sunday. He loved you before you joined that Women’s Bible Study on Wednesdays. He loved you before you completed the New Believer’s Class.

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