"You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy..." (Psalm 16:11).

Much may be said about the effect of the presence of God upon the path of life, but recently this is what I have to say about it.  Step aside and let God show the way.  Too often we let fear, loneliness, anger, the past, burdensome expectations and the like show the way.  We start stepping up and in and everywhere.  We step up to protect, in to intervene, over to the future to forecast it, into the past to solve it, and into the present to engage it.  In all our stepping, we step everywhere but aside, until a certain reality steps onto our path and stops our next step.  The reality is that God is already there.

Certainly I am not alone in requiring this reminder, but it is marvelously given to me when I need it.  When unsure of which way is what, I imagine my steps have most resembled those of a scared rabbit zigzagging her way down the path.  It happened not so long ago.  I had reason to fear, reason to protect and intervene.  Rightly I stepped up and in, here and there until this reality, stronger than my stride, stopped my sturdy-shoed feet and relief followed on the heel.

When we cry out, “Where do I turn next?” and “Where does it end?” God crosses the path we are on and shows us the path He is on.  It is where He is.  It is affected by fullness of joy.  It is the path of life.

Author: Carolyn Roehrig

“…how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:11).

Jesus had been talking to His disciples about asking and receiving…even asking with hungry persistence.  “Ask, seek, and knock,” He says, “for fish, eggs and loaves of bread.”  I am certain that we all know something of this.  Haven’t we all asked of God, at times, with the persistence of someone starving for bread?  I have, and may I say, I hope that you have too?  It is the way the children of God come to understand the Father’s “how much more” type of giving to those who ask Him.

As our hunger deepens, so does our asking.  If you have had to wait to receive that good thing for which you have asked, then you know this.  I wonder if, when the waiting is long, God is letting our hunger build until what we have asked for is no longer enough, until our hunger exceeds it.  The progression of our hunger goes something like this: we ask, we wait, we grow impatient, we may manipulate (even just a wee bit!), which can become confusing, but will become, for those still asking, a hunger big enough to be satisfied with much more than the good “fish, eggs and bread”  for which we have asked.  How much more?  As much more as to begin to satisfy one of our hungriest questions: “Why?”  As much more as our heavenly Father gives…and He gives the Holy Spirit who distributes to us every good thing planned by the Father and purchased by the Son, and who satisfies us as centrally and practically as bread, fish and eggs.  

Take in everything He gives and your hunger will be satisfied.

Author: Carolyn Roehrig

“…a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head” (Mark 14:3).

I discovered that I have an alabaster flask!  You have one too.  You can’t see it, but if you could it would be shaped like your heart.  It is designed to hold what is most costly, most pure, most fragrant—priceless—and to be altogether broken and spilt over Jesus.

In Mary’s time, an alabaster flask filled with fragrant oil would be treasured by a bride for one purpose—that some day she would break it open and empty it out on the feet of the one asking for her in marriage.  It was a way of saying, “Yes.” 

Jesus has asked for you.  Say, “Yes” with all your heart.  Take your alabaster flask and never mind those who would put a price on it, as they did on Mary’s.  They do not understand pricelessness.  Break your flask open and anoint Him with all that is in you and all that you have.  It may look like a waste to some, but not to the Bridegroom.  He is filled with joy to overflowing when His Bride says “Yes,” knowing that what is priceless only keeps its value if it is purely given. 

Bride of Christ, your alabaster flask is filled with priceless oil, the essence of the Spirit.  Pour out on Him what He has put in you; nothing more, nothing less.  Not a drop will be wasted or undervalued.

By: Carolyn Roehrig

"Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ...separated to the gospel of God" (Romans 1:1).

Identifying himself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ, Paul introduces the very love of God which has had its way in his heart.  It goes like this:

While a servant says, "I serve my Master," the bondservant says, "I love my Master."  A servant serves the allotted time and then is free to go, but the bondservant stays by the Master's side.  

Though the servant chooses to leave through the door, the bondservant chooses to be marked upon it.  The one who plainly says, "I love; I will not leave,” is separated; pierced through the ear by the master's awl.  Exodus 21:6 tells us, “…his master shall bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever."

Has the Master affected your heart?  Then you can no more call yourself a servant than leave your Master’s household.  Has He marked your ear for His voice alone?  Then, bondservant, you have found more freedom than the freed servant will ever find.

At my Master’s door I stand;

I see the awl in His hand.

Claim my heart and pierce my ear

To love, serve, listen and hear.

Author: Carolyn Roehrig

“Sit here while I pray” (Mark 19:32).

Surfer Bethany Hamilton was temporarily unable to enter the ocean.  She lost an arm to a shark.  Sitting on the shore with her father, she looked at the sun setting on the horizon and saw nothing but unanswered questions.  She asked him, “What is God doing?” and “What do I do now?”  To his answer, “You do what’s next,” she asked, “How do I know what’s next?”  Her father answered as our Father answers, “Watch and pray.”

I imagine the disciples asked similar questions as they looked into the waning light at Gethsemane, not really understanding what Jesus was doing.  And what about you and me?  Are these not questions we ask in our personal “Gethsemanes”?  They are further-than-we-can-see, deeper-than-we-can-dive questions, and when God’s answers don’t seem to fit, it’s because they don’t—yet.  His “watch and pray” answer is bigger than our questions and can be for us as it was for the disciples, more than we can do.  When we don’t understand what God is doing, don’t know what to do next and can’t see far enough to know what is next, He knows; “Sit here, yes, right here in Gethsemane, while I pray,”

When we can’t watch and pray, He takes care of it.  When it’s time to get up and go with Him, His “watch and pray” answer begins to fit and we see something of what he means.  Bethany Hamilton said that He means for her to be able to reach with one arm more people for Jesus than she ever could have with two.  I really like this answer.  It reminds me of the One who reached, with both hands nailed to the cross, more people than He could have had He taken the nails out. 

Jesus suffered Gethsemane to overcome our Gethsemane sufferings.   Have you been sitting there long enough?  Then it’s time to get up and go with Jesus, know something of what He means and see His answers fit.

Author: Carolyn Roehrig

“…you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends” (Luke 15:29).

The story is of two sons and their father.  One son wastes his inheritance in prodigal living, the other faithfully serves his father; one is destitute, the other owns everything; one receives special treatment and rejoices, the other receives what he deems unfair treatment and balks, saying, “I have been working your fields for years, bringing increase to your household, and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.  You are not giving me what you are giving this other son of yours.”

Have we not heard it?  Give what is good for one child, and the other’s sense of fairness will rebel until it is rightly trained.  How so to train?  Most often it is done by way of reminder of the righteous justice of God.  The righteous justice of God rejoices to bring near a once far off son and to say to the other, “You are always with me.”  Like the father in this story reminded his sons, we may remind our children that their sonship has nothing to do with what they have done or have not done, but everything to do with what the Father has done, nothing to do with what they feel they have earned or deserved, but everything to do with what they have received from the Father.  Remind them of the Father’s joy to restore and reconcile His children to Himself and brothers to each other. Remind them of the “All-that-is-Mine-is-Yours” inheritance title.  Whether our children approach us in contrition or contention, remind them of the Father’s heart and of their place in it.  Don’t let them forget it.  Train them in the righteous justice of God and they will be liberated, fit to make merry and feast and be happy and dance according to the Father’s delight.

There is a celebration in the Father’s house.  Do you hear the music?  Do you see the banquet table?  Do you see the Father dance?  Come home from afar; come in from the field; come all the way in!  Come!

Author: Carolyn Roehrig

"...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross..." (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Burned into a wooden plaque which hangs above our entryway mirror is one of my son’s personal proverbs, "Look beyond that which you can see."  The eyes of faith are needed to see beyond the world directly in front of us, and to endure.  We are all in the world, in a race of some sort, but the yonder look belongs to those not of the world.  Endurance to run is needed in the world, but we who are not of the world need not muster it, only receive it.  It is given through Jesus who has established our faith and owns it. 

Endurance lags when we confuse the imminent, the urgent, the weights of the race with the race itself.  We loose heart in the race when we look at the burdens and not at Jesus.  Look at Jesus; remember the joy and the cross set before Him, and so receive endurance.  We are the joy for whom He endured the cross; it was for you and me!  And He is the joy for whom we run the race.  “Selah” this for a moment!

The race is set before us, but so is Jesus.  Let’s not run as if He wasn’t.   

Author: Carolyn Roehrig