Today’s kids might dismiss our innocent little game, but to us, it was high adventure! Full of risks and rewards, the game kept us amused for hours. A Popsicle stick, a merry-go-round, three or more players and a designated pusher were the only items needed for the game. The players would lay on our bellies, making sure we were equally spaced on the circular apparatus. Our feet faced the center of the apparatus and we would scoot close to the edge to see the ground below. After a warning of “Ready or not!” The designated pusher started the merry-go-round at a crawl. One person would drop the stick, announcing, “Dropped it!” The next person grabbed the stick, shouting, “Got it! Dropped it!” The unofficial playground rule book stated that each player must drop the stick within the reaching range of the next person. After three successful catches, the pusher of the merry-go-round would pick up the pace. Those who failed to catch the stick would sit cross-legged, leaning over, to watch the game. Those who dropped the stick to far off the path would be chastised but would be given one do-over. Repeat offenders would join those who lost the previous round.

The further the game proceeded, the faster the merry-go-round would spin, causing players to wrap their feet around the bars that separated each section. As the pace quickened, each player would use their free hand to cling on to the nearest bar. There was the potential danger that you could fly right off the merry-go-round due to its increasing centrifugal force. While the older kids played, the younger and weaker children watched from the safety of the center pole of the apparatus, pressing our bodies against its stabilizing force. Fortunately, I never witnessed a serious accident although fool hearted teen-aged players often chose not to anchor themselves to the center post, causing them to fly off the merry-go-round. On occasion, their bravado resulted in broken bones.

Sometimes, it appears the world around us is spinning out of control as a vortex of worries, family crises, church emergencies and financial woes threaten to pull us into the chaos. The foolish Christian stays along the edge, trying to hang on the best he can without drawing near to God. No matter how strong will power might be, fleshly strength will eventually give out. For there is no safer place than being in the center of God’s will. The wise Christian clings to the center pole. As God’s children, we find comfort and refuge. His unshakable arms wrap around us, holding us close.

Psalm 32:7-11 ESV
You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD. Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

©2013 Katherine Walden

I made a deliberate choice over 35 years ago to no longer be called Kathy. I had made that decision several years before that and always introduced myself as Katherine to new friends. However, I had a few hold-outs among my friends and family. Eventually, through gentle and not-so gentle reminders, those who love and know me no longer think of me by my old nickname. I so identify myself as Katherine that when someone calls to me by using my old nickname, I look around to see where a Kathy might be.

In the same way, I embrace my new names in Christ Jesus. I am Redeemed, Forgiven, Loved and Daughter of the King. As I do so, I am slower to respond to the names the enemy of my soul once convinced me to accept as my identity.

© 2013 Katherine Walden

The Lord gathered us together. We were a small band of believers, but we served a big God. We threw our trust on Him as we began to pray. Experts had deemed the medical situation impossible. Yet, the experts had given us little hope in the past – and God defied their prognosis. As we pressed on in prayer, our faith rested on God’s Word and our weary hearts found comfort in a tangible sense of His presence.

After an hour or two of prayer, I made my way home. As I had a 25 minute ride home on my scooter. I listened to some good worship music on my Ipod and continued to pray. After a few minutes, I began to chuckle as I thought back to our impromptu prayer gathering. How foolish it might have appeared to unbelievers as they walked past us. What a band of mighty warriors indeed!

I, with weakened hands, had a hard time pulling my giant-print bible out of the basket of my scooter for the disabled. Next to me sat a brother in Christ who lives with a with a systemic rheumatic disease that stiffens every joint in his body, deforms his hands and feet and leaves him in chronic pain. To his right, sat a woman who is a cancer survivor and to her right, sat a sweet sister in Christ whose heart condition requires rest and a stringent diet. In the midst of my laughter, I marveled at God’s ways; he specifically brought this group together, weak in body, but strong in spirit. Our assignment; to pray into a desperate medical crisis. That afternoon, we did see a break-through and although there were many battles ahead, we accomplished God’s work that day.

God often uses the weak to release clear demonstrations of his power. He does so to drive the point home; it is only through Him that the miraculous is performed. It is not by our might, nor by our power. God partners with the weak, leading us to impossible places, so that no true rational person can truthfully say that man had any hand in the victorious outcome. He does so to encourage his children and broadcast his loving heart to a lost world.

1 Corinthians 1:25-31 ESV
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God,righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Until Next Week

©2013 Katherine Walden

Psalm 51:16-17 ESV
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Remove from your heart, your mind and your speech the silly notion that if we worship God enough, we’ll change his mind for the better about us. Stop believing the lie that the purpose of worship is to cajole God into a good mood. Worship is about intimacy, letting God know just what we think about him and allowing Him to show us his heart toward us. Worship serves to remind us just who God is and how merciful and generous He is toward his children. It opens our hearts to release to him all those areas of our lives that need his cleansing touch, and it opens our eyes of faith to see his mercy, love and saving power released into the world.

© 2013 Katherine Walden

Most times, doctor’s orders are not easy to swallow. At times, they require minor temporary inconveniences, such as a course of antibiotics, ointments or a daily pill to be swallowed. At other times, a radical change in lifestyle is required. On occasion, surgery is necessary. Sometimes the drugs prescribed cause debilitating side effects. A patient might be tempted to shake his doctor’s hand, thank them for the diagnosis and head out to get a second opinion. In the natural, this is not necessarily a bad idea.

However, in the spiritual realm, as we approach the Great Physician, seeking a second opinion is a pointless exercise. Oh how we try to find the loopholes as God’s patients! Although our lives are in shambles and we live in pain every day, we balk at the prescription God lays before us, especially when that prescription involves dying to self.

What prescriptions do you balk at when you are in the Great Physician’s office? When you listen to his advice and promise to work with him, are you tempted to sneak a few ‘buts’ into the equation? I know I am!

Lord, heal my marriage, but I honestly don’t want to compromise any more than I have already.

Lord, I want to draw closer to you in intimacy but don’t make me give up my favourite TV show in order to spend more time in the Word.

Lord, I want to see people come in to the kingdom, but can’t I just send in a check and let someone else do it?

Lord, please help me lose weight, take away my desire for food, let the pounds drop off but don’t make me have to exercise self control! I just can’t.

Lord, please bring my son back. But get him all cleaned up before he returns home, so I don’t have to go through the heartache of the earthly consequences of his sinful actions in my own life.

Lord, please take away my anger; I don’t want to have to deal with it anymore.

Lord, if you take away my craving for cigarettes, I’ll never smoke again.

Lord, change my life, my boss, my wife, my child, my car, my dog because I just can’t live with them anymore.

Perhaps you’ve never actually spoken those prayers, but you have thought them. I know I certainly have. God asks us to work along with him. There are no conditions for his overwhelming love for us. Within that love, God sees that there is the opportunity for personal growth and freedom. A freedom that can only come as we unconditionally place our trust in him. We must give him permission to search our hearts, our lives and our relationships. We must accept his diagnosis, prognosis and treatment plan in order to ensure lasting change.

A smart patient is the one who follows through on the physical therapy and after-care the doctor prescribes after surgery. If you ask the Lord to perform surgery in your life, home or family are you willing to do the rehab that will result?

Until next week,

© 2013 Katherine Walden

Unless you grew up as a recluse, locked away in a darkened room, never once leaving your home, you will have brushed against thousands of people’s life by the time your life on earth ends. Keep your eyes and heart open and allow the Lord to lead you to ‘the one’ God would have your life brush up against in a positive way today. Perhaps that ‘one’ is a member of your immediate family. If you are single and your plans are to stay home, you still can touch a life through an email, Facebook message or, even better yet – a phone call. Mother Teresa, who touched thousands of lives in India, encouraged those who would follow her footsteps. “Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.” Heidi Baker, who has touched thousands upon thousands of lives in Africa and beyond, simplified it even further “Stop for the one”.

No man is an island,
No man stands alone,
Each man’s joy is joy to me,
Each man’s grief is my own.

We need one another,
So I will defend,
Each man as my brother,
Each man as my friend.

Writer: Peter Schickele
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

© 2013 Katherine Walden

As followers of Jesus Christ, we ought to ascribe to God the good things he has done in our lives. After all, God redeemed us, sanctified us and brought us into fellowship with himself through the ultimate sacrifice and subsequent victory over death. However, God is not merely a do-gooder. His substance is good personified!

Psalm 119:68 (ESV)
You are good, and do good.

Psalm 31:19 (ESV)
Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind!

I have heard the stories of Christians who have suffered immensely. Some were placed in concentration camps because of their faith; others were cast off from their families. Still others experienced life-altering tragedies such as the painful slow death of a loved one, a chronic debilitating disease, the loss of a job, tornados, fires, floods and pestilence.

Within the period of three years, during the mid seventies, thousands of believers in Cambodia went from the high of experiencing a significant revival where thousands came to know the Lord to the low of experiencing the senseless slaughter of millions of their fellow Cambodians. I had the deep honour of working alongside a remnant of Christians who had survived this brutal regime, bearing witness to the scars left on their bodies. Within this small group of survivors, there were those who stood out as beacons of light; their countenances glowed and their love of God and his people drew many to their side. I was one of the many who gathered to learn from them. As they shared their stories, I discovered the secret of their spiritual survival. They all held an unwavering faith in the goodness of God, and that confidence carried them through the ugliness of humanity and the evil onslaught of the enemy of their souls. Their certainty in the goodness of God was not determined by their circumstances; it was solely based on their relationship with God and their intimate knowledge of his character.

This same conviction was born in the heart of Corrie Ten Boom, who suffered terribly at the hands of the Nazis. She wrote:

“Often I have heard people say, “How good God is! We prayed that it would not rain for our church picnic, and look at the lovely weather!” Yes, God is good when He sends good weather. But God was also good when He allowed my sister, Betsie, to starve to death before my eyes in a German concentration camp. I remember one occasion when I was very discouraged there. Everything around us was dark, and there was darkness in my heart. I remember telling Betsie that I thought God had forgotten us. “No, Corrie,” said Betsie, “He has not forgotten us. Remember His Word: “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him.” Corrie concludes, “There is an ocean of God’s love available – there is plenty for everyone. May God grant you never to doubt that victorious love – whatever the circumstances.”
Until next week,

© 2008, 2013 Katherine Walden

Writers understand that each word is a treasure. A pearl to be sought after, polished carefully and precisely placed in the perfect setting.

Proverbs 25:11 ESV
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.

Isn’t it true?! But when we bleed, it is what is in our hearts that emerges.(Lin Pearson – Editor)

©2013 Katherine Walden

Although I am not much of a sports fan, my inner cheerleader tends to emerge at every given opportunity. I am an Encourager at heart, and nothing gives me more pleasure than to celebrate the determination and hard work that lead to victories in my friends’ lives. I will pull out my pom-poms to celebrate a victory, regardless of how small that victory may seem to be.

I have heard that speaking a true word of encouragement into someone’s life is like helping them mine for gold. Sometimes, we have to shovel past a lot of dirt before we find the first shiny nuggets but if we persist we will find the mother-lode. Recently, I was reminded that gold-miners don’t keep a record of the amount of dirt they have to disturb to find the gold. I love that analogy. While others see a lot of dirt, my eye is drawn to the priceless nuggets in my friends’ lives. I relish every opportunity to draw attention to the gold, often exposing it to the very ones who unwittingly carry the treasure within!

I love to speak truth-infused, life-giving encouragement to my brothers and sisters in Christ. On the other hand, I am careful not to mislead them through speaking kind words that are born from an earthly compassion that has no basis in truth. I would not tell a tone-deaf friend they have a voice of an angel, but I have told tone-deaf friends that they make their heavenly Father’s heart swell with delight as they enter into effusive praise and worship. I have learned the wisdom of speaking a right word in the right season, often waiting on the Lord’s direction as when to speak the word and when to withhold it until ‘just the right time’.

So often, we take Paul’s exhortation,”Speak the truth in love” as a guideline to bring a word of correction to a brother in Christ. However, when read in context, Paul was not speaking of correction at all! He was speaking of the mutual building up of the Body through exhortation, teaching and most of all, through love. It is my contention that the Body of Christ often falls short in ‘speaking the truth in love’ through words of encouragement that celebrate the victories and exposes the gold in each of us. I have often wondered, don’t marathoners need a large crowd to cheer them on when they hit the wall of pain, miles before they victoriously cross the finish line? Yes, words of correction are occasionally necessary, but words of encouragement are vital as we race toward the finish line.

Ephesians 4:15-16 ESV

Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

“Show me your glory…..” I prayed.
In reply, He showed me the faces of those who have been transformed by his radiant love.

© 2013 Katherine Walden

It’s the day after Jesus ascended into heaven, his disciples have been on a roller coaster ride of emotions and experiences for several weeks. They joyfully witness Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, they bravely stick with him as he clears the temple, they receive a mighty impartation of love, encouragement and exhortation at an intimate meal with their beloved Master. But suddenly, their lives are ripped apart as Jesus is arrested, beaten and crucified. Their dreams of a new world order are shattered, their illusions of their own faith are exposed. Where they once saw themselves as strong men of faith and able doers of heroic exploits, they now see themselves as disloyal and powerless without their master’s empowering spirit.

But then …. He’s alive! Jesus is alive! Although it takes a while for them to come to the realization that Jesus is indeed alive, they relish every conversation, chew on every word and savour even the most mundane of everyday experiences with him. His smiling face as he serves an ordinary meal of fire-roasted fish helps to erase the image of his agonizing death that took place a few days earlier. His presence brands an indelible seal of faith upon their hearts.

And then … he is gone. He’s promised the Holy Spirit will come to help them, but for now … now what?

It’s the day after Easter, the pretty pastel dresses are put away, the lilies are beginning to fade, the fridge is full of coloured hard-boiled eggs that need to be used up. The church choir has sung its final glorious cantata for the year or at least until Christmas. Now what?

Now… the real adventure begins! As the disciples did so long ago, we arm ourselves with the reality that our Saviour lives, and that through his death and resurrection, we too are clothed in power from on high. We have been gifted with the infilling of the Holy Spirit, not merely for our own sake, but so we are able to do mighty exploits, drawing our world into His kingdom. We bravely step out of our comfort zones and push past the fear of persecution and the polite derision of our faith. We head back into the marketplace, our workplaces and schools. We carry with us the sure knowledge that, through our God. all things are possible if we keep our hearts focused on the One who rose from the dead. Yes, the adventure begins, today!

© 2013 Katherine Walden