My blog got lost in the shuffle of time during a busy season of my life.

BUT....I recently discovered another one of God's good gifts that, until recently, I had been completely unaware that He had gifted so generously to everyone on this planet. So, I wanted to post about it today.

Having always been interested in maintaining health as naturally as possible, it intrigued me when someone I didn't know posted on an email digest about an informational meeting about a product I barely knew anything about.  There were several crazy factors involved in that particular day.
One:  I didn't know the host.
Two:  I didn't know a single attendee who would be at the meeting.
Three: It was located in another town.
Four: It was held at night.

Why crazy? Well...
A- I don't go to things hosted by people I don't know attended by people I've never met.
B- I don't like going out at night in the winter especially when it's a distance from my house.
C-I'm skeptical about things I don't know much about sometimes.

But, this night....I went.  Maybe there was a still small voice telling me this was important.
And oh, it was...and OH, I'm so glad I went!

The product was Young Living Essential Oils.  I was so taken with what I experienced and heard that night as we passed around oils, people gave testimonies about how they helped them, and the hostess explained each oil and what it could do, that the next morning I took the plunge and bought my first essential oils kit!  I could hardly wait till they arrived.

As I began to use them daily in various ways, it suddenly struck me that on the THIRD day of creation, God created plants and with them, created the OILS within them that they needed to be healthy.  But at the same, knowing that man who would soon fall into sin and decay would need a way to care for his own health, God made those same oils useful for man. Throughout the Bible are many references to oils and their uses for man.  For centuries, essential oils were used for physical and emotional health as well as for beauty/ (Read the book of Esther!)  Even King Tut's tomb was discovered in 1922 with 350 litres of oil inside!

As our industrialized nations began adulterating the oils with synthetics and chemicals designed to make them more accessible and cheaper, we lost sight of the healing powers of pure essential oils.  Today, with many thanks to a company started 20 years ago, we have access again to pure, therapeutic grade essential oil. 

These oils are being used to heal the sick, banish headaches, ward off viruses and bacterial infections, improve mental and emotional well-being, cleanse skin, and so much more than I can tell about in one blog.  Frankincense is even being studied for its ability to stop cancer in its tracks!!  

(http://www.universityherald.com/articles/6350/20131220/frankincense-christmas-gift-ovarian-cancer-cells-leicester-university-gum.htm)

The CREATOR knew ALL along what man would need and He furnished it on the THIRD day of creation!  I keep coming back to that and continually find myself praising Him for His good and perfect gifts that He delights in giving to us. 

  

Our Father Who loves us provides for us.  

And I, for one, am beyond excited to have found one of the completely natural ways He does that.   

In a culture and age when healthcare is so complicated and fractious, essential oils are finding a resurgence in use. 

If you want to know more about the oils 

or 

if you want to talk to me about how much our Father loves you, 

check out my contact info on my webpage and call or email me:

www.ylwebsite.com/csigmon 

Compelling grace

“What about your life is compelling?”

I heard this question at a special service at church, recently, and I have found myself waking up at night thinking about it, waking up in the morning asking it, pondering it as I go about my daily tasks. For weeks, it has reared its head in my mind, softly asking—almost sadly asking--plaintive and pleading: “Cindy, what about your life is compelling??” And for weeks, I have had no answer for it.

Dr. Alvin Reid, a Southeasten Theological Seminary evangelism professor asked it while using the passage, Acts 4:13: “They took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.”

Wow. When people look at me, I want them to think to themselves, “She’s been with Jesus.”

If they don’t, I’m missing the point of a life hid in Christ. If MY life is “hid” in Him, then HIS life is the one that will be seen when people see me. But, is it?

Dr. Reid gave three key points on how to live a compelling life:

Live boldly.

“When they saw (inspected/observed) the boldness…..” (Acts 4:13) Do I look for, recognize, then make use of those divine appointments set for me to share Christ?

Show humility.

Jesus is enough. No matter what I face, Jesus is enough. I don’t have to interject myself into the situation or the circumstances. It’s not about me, after all. It’s about Him Who lives within me. Do I demonstrate that?

Display proximity.

“they marveled…filled with wonder”

What’s the testimony of unbelievers about me? Am I obviously close to Christ? How can they tell that when they look at me?

Father, let me step out in faith with my life so hidden in Christ that He is Who people see when I step out.

I’ve been troubled all day by a comment from someone I know that the Bible is “not a textbook to look up the answer to a question” or an "answer book." He stated that the Biblical writers could not have imagined the kind of world we are living in now. All day I’ve pondered those remarks, wondering how a Believer can think the living Word of God “given by inspiration of God, and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (II Tim 3:16) is not relevant or applicable for today’s society.

As the God-breathed, God-inspired Word of Life, the Holy Scriptures contain everything we needed as a created people from thousands of years ago all the way through today for making decisions, choosing paths, leading spirit-filled lives. It is a relational book, teaching us about His relationship with us, our relationship with Him, and our relationships with one another. And, as all things in this world are ultimately spiritual in nature, the Bible is THE one answer book for all questions. And, while no, it does not specifically address “radio transmissions, inoculations, (and) space travel” it DOES address how we are to live in a day where those things have become possible.

The discussion that brought out these comments began with dating…which is completely a relational issue. Just because the culture has changed from the days of the men who penned God’s thoughts does not mean the message has changed. The standards are still in place, still holy as He is holy, still higher than the world’s, still peculiar for a peculiar people called by the Creator Himself. How does a changing culture/times change the standards? Is there a Biblical model for dating as the world defines “dating?” Or is there a Biblical model for a peculiar kind of holiness?

Most people (Believers) fear the opinions of men more than they fear grieving the Father. Living a radical life for Christ is so far-fetched in today’s culture, that we Believers now look more like the world than ever before….and unfortunately, are so far removed from our likeness to Christ that we are frequently unrecognizable as one of His own. I speak of myself as much as I do of anyone else, here. My heart’s desire is for people to see Him in me first and foremost, but I am well aware of how frequently I fail in that.

My current quiet time study is in I John. I’m grateful for its teaching that I “have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (I John 2:1) for those times when I fail so miserably. His grace is available to me. So, I will continue to go to the ultimate Answer Book for all things in this life, knowing that it is the complete revelation of God for how I should live, how much He loves me, and what He desires for me to do in this culture I live in, today.

Grace whisperings...

I love to kayak.

And I feel like God speaks to me or maybe I just hear Him better (listen better?) when I’m out paddling alone on the lake. So many correlations to my life come from my encounters with the water and the wildlife I see out there.

Yesterday, I struck out on placidly calm water thinking, “what a great calm and quiet paddle this will be.”

My life is like that sometimes….calm, placid, peaceful…not as often as I’d like for it to be, but sometimes.

Yesterday was not one of those days. ….which is why I decided to throw the kayak in the water and get off by myself with my thoughts and with whatever God would teach me that afternoon.

Not 10 minutes into my paddle, the wind picked up, the waves got rough, and some pretty chilly water started splashing over the bow onto my legs. I hunkered down and paddled harder. The calm, quiet, and peaceful paddle was over….at least for a time.

My life is like that sometimes…rough, unsteady, cold…..not often, but sometimes.

I wasn’t afraid of the water that rocked my little kayak. I know I am a skilled swimmer and I possess a life jacket. Scripture teaches me that I don’t have to have fear life’s circumstances. I am equipped. I have the ability through the Spirit within me to overcome life’s struggles. Life may buffet me with its uncertainties and may even get difficult to face each day. But, fear and discouragement don’t have to accompany those times. I have a Friend Who walks me through those times. And times they are; for there is a time for everything….a season for all things. And that time will pass and another will take its place. Throughout, I can have joy and I can experience peace because of Whose I am. I praised God for reminding me of that.

And then the wind shifted.

My kayak began to glide easily again as the waves died down and the paddling became easy and rhythmic. And I laughed aloud as I thought about how He graces me, day after day that I live in this hostile place that is not my home. He makes me smile with His grace and my heart sings.

He is faithful.

He never changes.

He loves…me.

How can I not have joy and peace in all things.

During a week when I learned of a young friend's death, when I sat with a dying friend and her family, and when I experienced a personal family issue, I finished reading The Grace of Catastrophe: When What You Know About God is All You Have" by Jan Winebrenner. As a book reviewer for a group of women at my church, I read a lot of books like this. I never know which book I might be reading at any given time. So, for this to be the book in my hands as I encountered each situation this past week was just another clear-cut sign of God's most perfect timing in all the details of my life. Isn't He amazing and oh, so good?

Tossing out a few quotes from the book:

"There is no place beyond Him for anything to be. God is our environment as the sea is to the fish and air to the bird...the central truth that gives meaning to all other truths and imparts supreme value to {the believer's} life."
(author quoted from A.W. Tozer's Knowledge of the Holy)



"He knows circumstances I'll never be privy to, events and people, present and future, who are all a part of the grand story in which I find myself, and He knows that the end is going to be glorious for His children, even if the chapter I'm living in right now is mysterious and frightening."


"When chaos breaks into the quiet of my life, I can trust God, rest in His omniscience, because nothing is beyond His knowledge; no solution lies beyond His wisdom, no catastrophe ever catches Him by surprise."


"When confusion wreaks havoc in our minds, when pain pulses and fear taunts, we have only two choices: We can trust ourselves to the sovereign rule of the Most High God, or fight and wrangle with Him until we grow bitter and hardhearted. One or the other will be the outcome. These are our only options."



"If we know God, if we know His heart, the choice will come easy."

If our hope is in God, if we believe He is our Father Who loves us enough to give His own Son's blood for us, then how can we doubt that He will see us through our life catastrophes? We are immeasurably important to and loved by Him.
He IS the air that I breathe.

Know His heart.

What grace.