"For wisdom is better than rubies"

Wisdom is also a "chain to adorn your neck."

I had once a ruby necklace on a fine gold chain. It's demise was a knot that developed in the chain. I brought the necklace into the laundry room where I have a florescent light. My intent was to use a couple of pins to loosen and eventually untangle the knot. It took too  long to do in one sitting, and by the time I returned to the laundry room, the necklace had disappeared. Probably lost in a pile of laundry...or the trash can...or that mysterious place where socks' mates go. I don't know, but what I do know is that the knot was too much for me to untangle.

That necklace came to mind the other day when I was trying to untangle a different knot. The one inside me. The one where there are fine links of joy and beauty...and links, just as fine, of sorrows and  things not so beautiful, like fear. I can follow a few links of joy and beauty until they get lost in the knot; and I can follow a few links of sorrow and fear until they, too, get lost in the knot. And I cannot separate the links enough to follow them all the way through to free the ruby.

There are so many links of joy in my life. Weddings, for one! So many links to thanksgiving and blessings beyond what I ever dreamed to ask my Father for...like daughters-in-law I adore, and new extended family members that we are blessed beyond the beyond to become a limb on their family tree! What a beautiful, untangled chain I would have adorning my neck if these were the only links on it. But, no, there are other links that are very messy, scary, and knotted. A Master Craftsman is needed. A Jeweler who knows the real value of the chain and the ruby and who has unlimited time and patience to untangle the knot, one link at a time.

So, as I was saying, I was trying to untangle this knot. Praying through it. Bringing one link before the Lord, then another link, trying to understand how to undo it all. Then the picture of my ruby
necklace came to mind. And with it came this- "O you of little faith, why are you so afraid?"

"Afraid?" I asked.

"Yes. Afraid," He replied.

Quiet, on my end of the conversation. "Hmm...yes...sorrows. What if's. Messes. Knots. It's all scary. "

Then this from the Master Jeweler, who knows how to untangle the knot in me-"I never asked you, 'What are you afraid of.'"

Quiet, again, on my part. I had been trying to name each link. To understand the knot. The Master Jeweler gets to the center of the tangled mess, takes the pin from my hand, and points to faith. Pins it.

I don't have to name the links in the chain. He never asked me to. I don't have to follow a few links called joy only to loose them in the knot. Or a few links called fear. I only have to answer the question, "Why are you so afraid?'" (hint-it has something to do with little faith)

Wisdom is better than rubies.  It's a chain to adorn your neck. It's linked to faith. And the knots that keep us from wearing that ruby necklace? Do we not have a Master Jeweler? It may sound ridiculous, but I still expect one day to walk into my laundry room and find that necklace. It may still be in a knot...but then again, maybe not!



written by: Carolyn Roehrig

All His Works

"The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works" (Psalm 145:9).

How many years has this Word lain so still in the womb of my soul that I have questioned it's life? I'm told it's living. The Living Word. But it lies so still. So long.

Yet, I wait. I can't help it. It's faith's fault! And hope may as well share the blame, too. Waiting is all the evidence I need for that! Faith and hope. Mischievous partners, those two! Working in tandem to keep me after what I don't see, but know is there and desperately need. I have a high need for God's goodness and tender mercy, (not just mercy), over all His works. Over me. In me.

He has worked this need. It wasn't my doing. It wasn't my husband's doing. It was God's doing. When I think how approved His works must be, how they must pass through Him, through Christ, down through generations before He lays a hand on me...presses this need into me... I realize that they must come with great plans and purpose. His works require His tender mercies. They require His goodness. And, since He sees fit to put me smack in the middle of His works, I require these things too. The requirement is unquestionable the minute you feel like a slab of clay slammed onto the Potter's wheel. "Lord have mercy! And while You're at it, make it tender...please!"

It's been said that we feel highest need in highest heat. Who has been pounded on the wheel? Who is waiting in the kiln at high fire. This is where I am. In the kiln. A living, breathing pot. And I'm needing to feel God's tender mercies right about now. May the need become more intense than the heat! May the need for His goodness and tender mercies manifested over all His works and over me and in me be more than the desire to escape the kiln!

I'm not there yet. I'm still feeling "all His works."  I do feel an occasional flutter within me of His goodness. His tender mercies. Happily, experience assures me that they will roll and kick and gain in strength within me. God's goodness and tender mercies will press down hard over all His works. Over the need He is creating in me. Over me. And I will bear the waiting more then than I am now until what He has worked breathes praises to Him. Delivered from the kiln to  praise! And until I breathe blessing upon blessing. Delivered from the kiln...(alive, thank you)...to bless!

"Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name!"


written by : Carolyn Roehrig

"I've got this, Carolyn..."

Sometime ago, when I was becoming anxious about a cloud I saw gathering on the horizon, I heard God whisper behind me, "I've got this, Carolyn. Go do what you were doing. I've got this." When the cloud became very dark? "I've got this." When there was lightening in the cloud? "I've got this." When a storm dropped out of it and carried on as if there was no tomorrow? "I've got this. Go do what you were doing. I've got this." 

So I did. I was actually about to cook a gourmet meal with my daughters. I visited with my household into the late hours. I laughed like someone who has not a care in the world. It's not that I didn't notice the storm. How could I not? But I didn't pay much attention to it, though it begged. 

The thing is, not so long ago I would have given it much attention, even would have abandoned what I was doing because of it, but this time was different. I remembered the storm, but abandoned very little to it and became increasingly abandoned to God. And what else can be expected if not increased abandon to God when we simply get back to what we were doing before the cloud gathered overhead? Whatever it is, He's got it. 

And there's more. He is also FOR us. The powers and principalities of the air that whirl about like a tasmanian devil can do nothing more than what God says. And GOD is FOR us! Kind of makes me want to say, regarding that dervishing devil "Is that all you've got?!?"

Two days too late?

Funny how we can be so familiar with certain parts of Scripture and then suddenly see something we never saw before. Very alive is the Word and the Spirit!

So, Jesus had just told Mary and Martha that their brother Lazarus' sickness "is not unto death, but for the glory of the God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it" (Jn. 11:4). Two days later Lazarus was dead. We know the rest of th

e story. This was not the end of it. But Mary and Martha couldn't see the future any more than we can.

Every believer has heard something from the Lord. Promises that have yet to be seen and even seem, at times, out of the realm of possibility. We have little idea if the fulfillment of a promise will be this side of eternity, unless specified for us in Scripture, or "in the resurrection at the last day," as Martha assumed. But we can know that God will glorify Himself through it all, along the way. The heart of it is this, speaking to myself, "What do I want more-the 'sickness' to be gone, or that through it God is glorified?"

It takes a very big work in my heart to truely desire that God be glorified through "sickness" more than I desire for what seems wrong to be made right; what is dead to be made alive; what is unresolved to be resolved.

What are some indications that my heart is not there? There are many, most of which I am sure I share with Mary and Martha. But perhaps the most revealing is a heart that says, "Lord, it's two days too late. If You had been...then this would not have been." Both sisters said it. I may plead with God for the sickness, the wrongness, the deadness, the unresolved to be raised and righted before it's too late...but have I pled for His glory?

Plead for His glory!

written by: Carolyn Roehrig

Seventy times seven times equals...

You and I know by the actions of the Lord and by what He tells us, that forgiveness is very precious to Him. If anyone could have understandably said, "Lord, I don't know if I can forgive them," it would have been Jesus. But he did forgive us, and He tells us to make forgiveness our way of life. How many times? Seven times seventy times equals a lifetime of all the time.  Knowing this, it is something we must purpose to do.

It is a sacrifice to forgive.  Are we not called, by the mercies of God, to be living sacrifices? It is painful to forgive. Have we not been prepared by God Himself to offer forgiveness? It is possible only by God's love to forgive.

Walk closer and closer with the Lord of love, because forgiveness is step by step. And the first step is often nothing less than a decision to obey God. It has little to do with feeling, and everything to do with obedience. We may have been standing so long in painful shoes that there is no feeling left in our feet, but we can still say, "Yes, Lord. I choose now to forgive," when He says, Forgive."

What follows may be different for everyone, but I imagine it is not very different because it was a step that Christ Himself had to take...submitting the will. We look at the choices before us and say, "Either I will be torn apart by soul pain, or I willl submit. Either I will stay here fighting to preserve myself, or I will surrender myself and be preserved by my Father's love."

From here there is just one place to go. It is the place where we say, "I love You, my God and Father, more than I hate sin." Did Jesus hate sin? Oh, yes. Did He love His Father more than He hated sin? Yes. It is a very freeing place to say, "I love God more than I hate sin." How much do I hate sin? A whole lot...especially when it offends me directly and causes me great pain. I'm sure you know what I mean...who hasn't felt it and hated it? But those who realize they love God more than they hate sin are those who can forgive again and again, seventy tims seven times, all the time for a lifetime. Step there.


written by: Carolyn Roehrig

"In Him all things are held together" (Colossians 1:17).

God is so big...so whole and complete! I cannot grasp a fraction of the whole of who He is and of all that is in Him. He is the beginning and the end. I don't know about you, but I need the beginning and the end divided down into days...one day at a time, from start to end.

And in Him "all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or

 authorities; all things were created and exist through Him and in Him and for Him...in Him alll things are held together" (Col. 1:16-17). I really need this divided down...one thing at a time!

This thing, this day, held together in Him.

Also in Him is Wisdom for all things and eternity. Wisdom...for everthing, everyday? Yes, I need this divided down into something I can begin to figure! Wisdom can seem so intangible...but it's not. Christ is the Wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24). Christ for all days; Christ for all things. And, what about this...wisdom is God-given skill for "every area and relation" (Prov. 2:9). Skill! God-given skill! Christ-skill for every area, all days, every relation, all things...held together in Him.

Here is both assurance and comfort when there is an area too overwhelming to know what to do about it. A relationship that seems to be falling apart. Something being pulled apart. A day unravelling. There's always something, someone, somewhere, isn't there? But for all this, there is the wholeness of our very big God and His given skill.

In Him all things are held together!

Written by: Carolyn Roehrig

Wisdom is calling out!

Wisdom is calling out!  What is she saying? "If you will turn (repent), ...I will pour out my Spirit upon you, I will make my words known to you" (Prov. 1:23). What has wisdom been saying to me lately?

"Turn (repent) from your cares and cast them on Him who cares for you. Cast them and remember them no more, just as He who cares for you cast away all your sins and remembers them no more. Cast th

em away, but don't leave the vacancy empty. When you cast a care away, fill the space it once occupied with thanksgiving in all things; with Philippians 4:4-8 thinking...that is, with rejoicing in the Lord always, with gentleness, with prayer for everything and anxiety for nothing, with all the good 'whatevers'. Fill the space with these things and God will take it from there. He will fill it until it overflows into your heart and mind and beyond all understanding...with His peace."

I will practice daily this turning, this repentance and casting of cares, this emptying and filling and being filled.
Oh, make it so, Lord!

written by: Carolyn Roehrig

A Word To My Reader...

What has wisdom been saying to you lately? She has already said "Turn and repent." From what? Whether it is the same thing she has been saying to me, or something else, peace is promised. It's the last word..."But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil" (Prov. 1:33).

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