Jackie's Journey "Muddled Focus?"

I’ve been thinking this past week of the myriad of issues that we, as mom’s, are being challenged with and the decisions we are being asked to make, both for ourselves and our children.  How are we to know what is best, not just expedient? 

With social media giving unprecedented direction into every area of our lives, where should our focus be?  The supreme court is arguing this morning over “mandates” regarding some of these issues and what should be Federal Law?  With the turmoil and evil in our world and the global world spinning out of control, where do we go to get grounded?  Where is the hiding place of refuge?

“He (She) did EVIL because he (she) did not set his (her) heart to seek the Lord”. (2 Chron. 12: 14)   For moms, the thought of “missing the boat” with our children is always there!  We only have one short span of opportunity with them.  To seek the Lord is a present progressive verb…meaning… ongoing, never-ending action.  We are to connect with Him daily. (Romans 6:18 )  We are “freed from the bondage of evil and forgiven… to do right”.  New Focus!

This is the most concise definition of evil found in the Bible.  It says that we are robbing God and ourselves by not living in that way.  “Setting our heart” is fixing it on the Creator, the One in total control. We are created to fulfill what He, through us, will do.  Our designed purpose is “to do the will of God on earth, even as it is being done in Heaven” (Matthew 6:10)

We are “created for a life of good works that He has prepared before-hand for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)   He has given us the equipment we need to face the disorder and to step up to the plate, with God-confidence, that we are not hindered by “evil” in our lives and can face the future without fear.

 “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (and all these things mentioned above v. 27-32) will be added to you”. Matthew 6:33    This is the section in Scripture on why we, moms, do not need to worry! He wants to supply for His family, like any good father, as His family yields to His will and ways.

Evil is doing our own thing.  We have two choices:  “Wisdom from above”, as described above or “wisdom from below”…Satanic, that which is selfish, proud, and envious. (James 3:13-15)   We cannot separate selfishness from Satan or pride.

 Sacrificing our will and desires means surrendering to God’s will, bringing us into His will and our purpose. (Romans 12:1,2) In Matthew 7:21,22  There was a group of people in the New Testament doing their version of God’s will, doing it their own way.  He said, “depart from me, I never knew you.” They were doing, what appeared to be the same as the apostles, but it was in self-motivated satanic power. 

Who discerned that?  The Lord Jesus did!

What is His will in general for all believers?  Fish for men. (Matt. 4:19); Walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16.); SeekHim in the Scriptures daily to understand His heart.  It always involves service.  He came to serve, not to be served.  He lives in the believers to continue to do just that.  He is the same today, yesterday and forever.

 “The eyes see what the heart loves.  If the heart loves God and is single in this devotion (focus), then the eyes will see God whether others see Him or not.” Warren Wiersbe, Live Like a King

Let’s be wise moms and stay “God-focused”…

(This is a study my husband, Ralph Johnson,  gave one Sunday night at our family supper)

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Life's Enquiries!"

I am a mom of two princesses, who now, each, have young knights and princesses of their own.  It was important to me, as a young mom, that my girls understood the Four Imperative Life Enquiries (Ravi Zacharias) that demand a response.  All creation cries out for an answer to these four crucial questions about life.

My two princesses, Kim and Christina

 We moms are so often busy and preoccupied with the “success” and safety (riots, shootings, child trafficking, internet interruptions on school study websites with pornography, false teachings, etc.) of our child that these four are often not addressed and when “our babies”  leave home our young knights and princesses are ill-equipped to survive the worldly pressures, let alone lead the way, as a prepared soldier for a lost generation.

 We are inundated with social media and a multitude of ways that will readily educate our children incorrectly, and the home values are side-stepped by influences that are strategically programmed to the detriment of our young, impressionable heritage.

 Have we dropped the ball??

 Young men and women of this generation are gasping for air, as they face the uncertain road ahead…unprepared and unaware.  So much emphasis has been placed on the temporal, rather than the eternal. The fruit we discern in the lives of our young prince and princesses is the obvious revelation of our neglect. 

 What do you see when you look around?  What do you hear?  Do your children listen to you with kind respect when you speak or do they roll their eyes and look for an escape? Are your children an inspiration or a discouragement to you?  Do they respond to their siblings with the purposed intention of making their brother or sister more successful or is there blatant competition, belittling and discord?  Is there a joyful attitude or a demanding one in your home?  Do you find your prince or princess interested in eternal things or focused on temporal values? 

 I am observing this new generation that will one day lead with the cross of Christ or will be lost to follow the world in discontentment.  Have the four life enquiries been addressed in your home?  Are the questions that all of us seek been answered to satisfy and settle our souls?

 1)    What is the origin of the universe, the world and us?

2)    What is the meaning of Life?

3)    What is morality and does it concern us?

4)    What is our destiny?

 Has your prince or princess found a safe place in you to easily talk about these imperatives?  Do you have the answers?  The Word of God is very explicit in the clarity of explanation to satisfy these probing questions. I Have you talked about these four goals and some thoughts on how to address and reach them?  How do you see the need of your child?

 How do you see your need? 

How do your children read you when they witness

 the way you address life and these four imperatives?

Will they be prepared?

Are you?

Will you join me, as we prepare ourselves and this next generation

with the answers for the obstacles of life they will encounter?

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "A Promise and A Possibility!"

Moms, have you thought about the culture our young children are growing up in? Our faith is marginalized, immorality is expected and acceptable, socialism is fashionable, life is under attack, our Christian values and religious freedoms are deemed outdated and offensive…

 Time cannot be expanded, accumulated, mortgaged, hastened, or retarded.  It just keeps on…”

I usually begin my introspection regarding ‘time ‘after Christmas when facing the New Year! However, I can’t stop thinking about my seven grandchildren and how quickly time has passed from the day in the hospital when each one was placed in my arms until today when I look up (they tower over me!) and I realize how adult they all are!

 They were tiny little ones not too long ago, just a blink, wrapped in a promise and a possibility. Time has flown and every call or contact is a special blessing, as they each find their own voice of influence.  They are the declaration for the next generation…  

They are our future.

 Maverick, the little boy in the center, is getting married this Sunday!

  I never dreamed that years ago in the jungles of Panama that God would bless us with the opportunity and privilege to live locally near all my grandchildren. Our hearts desire was to serve the Kuna Tribe in the Darien until…forever!  God had a different plan for us and our time here in the states became planting Spanish-speaking churches and discipling leadership to move on to a different location and start another church.  We have seen God establish seven churches (in Panama, Mexico, and in Southern California). 

 The challenge, now, is to not drop the ball!

 Where are you in the growth of your family?

 Are they being prepared to face the culture

that is clamoring for their souls?

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Eating Crow!"

While watching two noisy crows this spring build a massive nest under our bedroom eve, I started thinking about how crows communicate.  They are loud and demanding…especially after they realized I was NOT happy with their endeavor!  They would rowdily swoop down over me when I came outside to see their progress.  I can tell you…they were NOT speaking kindly!

 In life, “eating crow” is never fun!  If we never opened our mouth or spoke, we would not have to eat our words.  Words have the power of life or death. Pro. 18: 21 They can bless or curse.  They can encourage or bring despair. 

 William Boetcker was a Presbyterian minister in the early 20th century.  He once spoke on the seven “Mischievous Misses” of the tongue.  They were misinformation, misquotation, misrepresentation, misinterpretation, misconstruction, misconception and misunderstanding. I think he pretty well covered for all of us the areas responsible for our tongue troubles! 

 James, the half-brother of Jesus in the New Testament called the tongue a “fire, a world of iniquity”.  He compares it to the bit of a horse and a rudder of a ship. Both of these control and influence direction. We are to keep a tight rein on our tongue. Bridled speech manifests maturity.  Impulsive speech manifests the opposite. We all stumble in our speech at times.  We may say something unintended or maybe we meant to say it, but it created trouble and we want to take it back.

 Just like the bit and rudder control the horse and ship, our speech needs to be under control.  “How can you, being evil, speak good things. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.  A good man (woman) out of the good treasure of his(her) heart brings forth good things, and an evil man(woman) out of the evil treasures brings forth evil things.  But I say to you that for every IDLE word we speak, we will give account of it in the day of judgement.  For by our words we will be justified and by our words we will be condemned.” Jas. 3:34-37

 The point is we cannot “just share what is on our heart, as long as, what we say is what we really believe.”  “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked”. Jer. 17: 9 Our intent should be to speak as we are led by a gracious God who has our best interest at heart and has the success of the person we are attempting to help in focus. Advice is cheap, but if not regulated and controlled by His Spirit, we can be assured of having to “eat crow”. We are admonished to ‘let no corrupt word proceed out of our mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it might impart grace to the hearer. Eph. 4: 29 

 We can control Shamu, the whale at Sea World, but fail to take control of our own tongue!

We can either nurture blessing with our tongue

or cause damage that cannot be undone.

Which will it be this week?

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "The Battle Field!"

The Fourth of July is an annual celebration of our Patriotism.  This  is the day we set aside to unmistakably demonstrate love, appreciation, devotion and pride for one’s country and the “counting of the cost” that was paid to secure our freedom to live here.

 “Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for us…

 Jesus Christ and The American Soldier

 One died for our eternal soul and the other for our freedom.”

Franklin Graham

Operation Heal Our Patriots

 Let’s take time, today, and stop to honor the military men who have served, been wounded or have given their very life for our freedom… Let’s show them our love, devotion and pride…

“IF my people, which are called by my Name,

will humble themselves, and pray, THEN will I hear from heaven,

and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

II Chronicles 7: 14

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Words Have Power!"

The Princess Parable Series was penned with intentional “words” to encourage young moms to introduce their little princesses to a parable from the Word of God and give them a tool to teach biblical principle through the five  princesses’ life-lessons.

”Language is the dress of thought”. Samuel Johnson, I have two very precious friends who live in Tucson, Arizona. I don’t get to see them as often as I would like but they are the eternal connection we all hope that we are fortunate enough to find just once in our lifetime of relationships. While on furlough from the mission field these girls were eager to encouragingly nurse me back to health while I was crumpled on their living room sofa. They had just the right words that would lift my spirit and keep me going. Most of all, they offered total and complete acceptance accompanied with a joy of just sensing refuge in their presence. I recently found an encouraging note they sent me shortly after the first of our books in The Princess Parable Series was released. This is the note...

“I loaned your books to a friend, Jackie.   Her granddaughters are named Daity and Caity Belle. This was my friends comment on them:

“Thanks for the loan on the books – they are GREAT!
We had to reenact the Princess Birthday one – we baked a cake and invited the dolls – dressed up – it was quite a production. Daity really liked it
and Caity Belle liked the one about the dog – now when they dress up
they have to be those Princesses.  Sooo… I would say they are a hit!
I love that there is a great theme and then the stories at the end of the book – great illustrations and inspiring and encouraging.’

Thought you would like to hear another review. Keep up the Lord’s work on your writing. Love, Jane”

There are many ways we express ourselves, but, as women, we are exceptionally prone to WORDS...all kinds of words... lots of words...soothing words...volatile words...we love words... “The power of life and death are in the tongue.” Proverbs 18:21

Do you speak LIFE with your tongue... or DEATH?

“Speech is the index of the mind”. We have a nanosecond before every choice we make each time we entertain a thought...should I say this or should I not???  Often, we disregard the warning at that point of decision and blurt out exactly what should have been kept in the “box of better timing” or not at all!

For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks...” Lu. 6:45

And too many meaningless words mark you as a fool! Ecc. 5:3

In Proverbs 15 there are 21 references to words in only 33 verses!!! There are cutting words, crude words, slanderous words, piercing words, biting words, poisonous words, burning words envious words, healing words, deceitful words, wise words, mocking words, cheerful words, timely words, prayerful words and....you fill in the blank!

Being a person of many words, I used to think if you isolate me in a remote jungle village with people who speak a different language, then the tongue would be much less of a problem.  How much damage could I do...I couldn’t speak the Kuna language...?

How many times have you been “ensnared by the words of your mouth”? Proverbs 6:2

“IF ANYONE CONSIDERS HIMSELF RELIGIOUS AND YET DOES NOT KEEP A TIGHT REIN ON HIS TONGUE, HE DECEIVES HIMSELF AND HIS RELIGION IS WORTHLESS”! Jas. 1: 26

This week, let’s be careful to:

Watch our thoughts, they become Words.                                                                                

Watch our Words, they become actions.
Watch our Actions, they become habits.
Watch our Habits, they become character.
Watch your Character, for it becomes your Destiny.

Watch how your circumstances change, when you change the way you speak!

“The power of LIFE and DEATH are in the tongue”!

Proverbs 18:21

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "I Am Not a Fan!"

In the story of “Princess Grace and the Little Lost Kitten”, we see her faith tested in ways that resonate deeply with us as mothers.  Opening “my box “ to share from my own journey of faith, reminded me of the life-lesson from Grace’s story.

 As a former tribal missionary, I faced many challenging seasons in my life.  As a mother of two young princesses, balancing “off the grid” survival skills, home-schooling, linguistics, language learning (Kuna), evangelism, running the small medical clinic, delivering babies, washing clothes in the river and cooking food I had never seen before, etc….I found myself overwhelmed!  

Oh, and then…there is the matter of the creeping, crawling reptiles…

 I have never been a fan of reptiles…

 Panama is the home to some of the most frightening snakes on the planet.  Our corner of the dense Darien jungle was full of boa constrictors, pit vipers, fer-de-lance (this snake bears 60 live babies at a time!), etc.  We were cautious not to poke under rocks or fallen branches, always scanning for any slithering menaces.  Behind our house there was a massive tree that extended its immense roots out into the river shoreline where the girls and I bathed and swam.  The thick mangrove swamp harbored snakes that would lie in the hollow places of the trunk of that tree. 

 More than once I cried out Psalm 16:1

 “Keep me safe, Oh Lord, for in you I take refuge.”

 Fear is no stranger to me.  I am habitually challenged to walk through the door of fear.   I was told during missionary training that courage was not the absence of fear, but the conquest of it.

 “The highway of fear is the shortest route to defeat”.  William L. Brownell

 My husband had built a screened-in back porch to the house.  It became home for our gasoline-run wringer washing machine.  The Indians thought the machine was the most ridiculous apparatus they had ever seen!  It was noisy, the water had to be carried from the river (or in rainy season, we could utilize the convenience of the roof rain barrels).   The agitator was a mystery (why would you jerk clothes around in dirty cold water when the river is running and clear!) however; the wringer was another story…it worked really well.  Hand wrung clothes could not match that wringer!  I had to agree with them on all counts! 

While I washed, Kim would play on a blanket or crawl around the porch.  The floor was slightly elevated, lined with wooden planks roughly cut and loosely fit together.  It was not quite finished and as I leaned over the machine, I saw Kim crawling toward something moving under the floorboard.   I turned off the deafening machine, snatched Kim up into my arms and “yelled” for Ralph!  Writhing back and forth, only a few inches away, was a 5’ venomous snake! He had quite possibly been a houseguest for “who knows how long” before we noticed him! Let me repeat…

I am not a fan and I intensely dislike reptiles!

 Arturo, our nearest neighbor had heard me scream and came running, He quickly surveyed our predicament, raised his machete and removed the head of that reptile with one swift blow.  He held it up like a prized Marlin…its length was above his head and its tail draped to the muddy ground!

 This story could have had a much different ending, were it not for our Sovereign God, His plan and the life-lessons He was busy teaching me!  School is always in session if we have eyes to see it. The need to grow and mature will never end on this side of eternity. Fear has been my friend and biggest challenge.  I am to fear the consequence of sin, not snakes.  Easy concept until put to the test!

 “Be strong and of a good courage, Fear not, nor be afraid of them (in this case…snakes);

for the Lord your God, He it is that does go with me, He will not fail me nor forsake me.” 

Deuteronomy 31: 16

 “I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears.”

Psalm 34:4 

 What do you do with your fear?

 This week take note of areas in your life where  you feel overwhelmed.

Like Princess Grace, walk through your fear and rest in God’s sovereignty.

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "War-Torn and Battle-Scarred!"

My daughters, Kim and Christina today

On May 14, 1989 my two, then, teen-age daughters gave me an NAS monogrammed black Bible for Mother’s Day, that I have loved and protected, as a dear friend for over almost 40 years.  It carries within its once blank pages a wealth of notes as God spoke to my heart and taught me life-long lessons.  I am a prolific note-taker and this Bible is packed with names, stars, highlighting, hearts and steps of action searing its pages. I read the Bible through each year so you can imagine what it looks like!

Four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat.  They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they opened a hole through the roof above his head.  Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. (Mark 2:3-4)   The note I have in the margin…” Who will you carry, Jackie?”  A simple reminder of a given responsibility. 

J.B. Philips (my favorite Bible that carried me through college) wrote, “The danger to professing Christians lies not in more glaring and grosser temptations and sins, but in a slow deterioration of vision, a slow death to daring courage and willingness to adventure with God.”  If I have lost sight of my responsibility…. I have a definable loss of vision…calling me into accountability.

Whether you are single woman, a mom or grandmother, we each carry responsibility for the short life we live here. Life is simple…a stewardship, not an ownership; a trust and not a gift.  With a gift you can do as you please, but with a trust…you must give an account. (Eph. 2:10)

As I slowly bend the pages of this war-torn Bible, I am reminded of the privilege we have been given to yield to HIS purpose and will in this life and how HE has given us everything we need to live a life that pleases HIM. (II Peter 1:2-3) No excuses for loss of vision or misuse of HIS gift.  His Word is the path through this maize called life.  The other choice…chaos and loss.

What is your choice?

“…every mouth will be silenced and the whole world

held accountable to God.”  Romans 3: 19 NIV

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Darien Endurance!"

Life has a way of introducing us to the realities and expectations we have of ourselves and those that others put on us.  As parents, we tend to translate these into the lives of our children, if we are not open to instruction and correction.  When we are thrown into the floodgates of pursuits, we learn to bend, not break. We, with intentionality,  pursue excellence and put everything we have into every venture.

 One day in the Darien, the “spaghetti hit the fan” and I found myself sensing failure at everything…overwhelmed with pending defeat!  Sitting at my jungle desk with homeschool material, a linguistic box, two little princesses calling “mom” (because they needed lunch), my wash in a big basket on the front porch with the river calling, a house-full of Kuna mothers with their babies sitting in every available space in our living room (including the floor) and my heart being pulled in every direction…I finally gave in, after months of coping and burst into tears!

 I was a failure! It was hot and muggy and my head was throbbing! I was overwhelmed with it all and in that moment, in walks our partners, Jay and Sue.  Compassionately, they asked, “Why are you crying?”  My honest reply, “I am a failure as a wife, missionary, mother, language learner…why I don’t even know how to cook most of what is handed to me!  No running water, no electricity, no washing machine for three dozen diapers…” Expecting an understanding word, I was shocked to hear Jay say, “Jackie, you are a failure!”  No empathy there!

 I learned about endurance that day and how failure was my best friend because it was my reminder that I couldn’t, but He could.  Rom. 5: 3-5  He is never tired or weary and just waiting for me to surrender it all to him so He could begin to build His strength of character in me.

 Endurance is continuing to do what is right, trusting God has got the plan and  even though the difficult times overwhelm, they ultimately lead to unexpected opportunities that I would have missed if I had quit.  It is the inward strength to withstand stress and continue to trust God for whatever life might bring my way.

 Easter was this past Sunday and I am reminded again of the example He set for us in enduring the cross for me.  He is not a “quitter” and faced the horrific trek through courts, mocking, chiding, beatings, being spit upon, floggings, hanging hours on a cruel cross with ripping tendons…to complete the will of His Father …and He endured until the end…victorious!

 There is no excuse for us…HE set the bar…

Whatever our circumstance, we stick to the task with thanksgiving,

 knowing He will do it (if we get out of His way!) and

it has eternal benefit and divine purpose.

It’s a total win…win!

 “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.  For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, scorning the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”  Hebrews 12: 2-3

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Unthinkable Sacrifice"

This Friday is “Good Friday”.  This day is “specifically set aside for us to meditate on all that Jesus suffered, all the pain, the shame, and the curse that characterized his death. My eyes well up with tears when I consider the unthinkable affliction Christ endured.

 Every year around this time—right before Easter—a certain plant comes alive on my patio with bright, red blossoms. It is commonly known as “Crown of Thorns.” 

I always enjoy parking my chair close to it to examine its delicate flowers, so thin, fragile, and brilliant with red color. But then, I take a moment and let my eyes linger on its huge, thick, nail-like thorns, rumored to be those used in the crown placed on my Saviors head.

The pain and humility Jesus physically suffered leading up to his death was a mere warm-up to the real dread he faced.

As he hung on the cross, he began to feel a foreign sensation. Somewhere during those hours that his body was impaled, an earthly foul odor must have wafted, not around his nose, but in his heart. He felt dirty. Human wickedness began to crawl upon his spotless being—the living excrement from our souls.

The apple of the Father’s eye began to turn brown with the rot of our sin.

I let the thought settle deep, forcing my heart to imagine the rage, the wrath of God being poured out like hot oil on the wounded heart of the Son of Man. God the Father watching as his heart’s treasure, the mirror-image of himself, sank drowning into raw, liquid sin.

There is no room for a casual sentimentality regarding the cross—as an instrument of unspeakable torture, the cross is far too gruesome for any light-hearted fondness”. Written from the heart of Joni Erikson

 After reading Joni’s article, my heart began to sing and

I took on a new, magnified, eternal gratefulness

 for all that HE did for me on the cross of Calvary… 

  How about you?

Join me today in carving out quiet time to reflect on the awful weight of Good Friday. And then, breathe a prayer of wonder and thanksgiving to our Savior

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.