Last Drop of Ink

Ever since I was a little girl I have wanted to be a singer. Unfortunately that gift was handed out to other members of my family around me but definitely not to me. Over forty years later God showed me why in a different plan for my life. 

God revealed to me that through the gift of writing I was using my voice in a different way. It was thru writing. In my recent discovery of lung cancer at times I get out of breath singing and I think of how Satan is trying to silence my voice. I instantly realized that he may be able to silence my voice from singing but until the last drop of ink or the last stroke of the typing of my words he cannot silence my voice through my writing.

No matter what amount of cancer I get I will not let him make null and void of my words for Jesus and my loved ones. Long after I am gone I still want there to be a power in my voice to where there is no last drop of ink or final typing stroke. 

As Psalm 45:1 says "my heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer." I want that good theme reciting about the King to be what I actually do through the pen of a ready writer willing to talk about Christ. 

Also through my writing I pray I do through it what was said in Psalm 71:18,24 which says,  "to declare God's strength to this generation and even to generations to come. I want my pen to be my tongue in talking of God's righteousness all day long." 

May my typing, my final drop of ink be my writing that is written for the next generations as spoken of in Psalm 102:18. Someone did it for my generation and its important we don't drop the ball now or should I say pen on the next generation. 

The choice is mine whether I am going to let cancer silence my pen or make the sound of it grow louder. I'd rather it grew louder and louder into a thing that can't stop shouting for the Lord. 

Doing so down to the last drop of ink. Down to the final stroke of typing. God is good. God is real. God is able to save anyone. Therefore let us raise our voices and pens together and get the message out by shouting about the Lord to the next generation. 

It is up to us that there will never be a last drop of ink, never a last stroke, never a last piece of paper when it comes to declaring God to the next generation. Praise The Lord. 

Copyright 2015 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil marks and Recipes Publishing

Breaking Through

The devil doesn’t want you to break thru because he knows that if you do, you will become a world changer 

Along with that saying there is another that says; “we need to live our lives in such a way that when we wake up in the morning Satan panics and says, “Oh no she’s up again!” With either saying they are both demonstrating the fact that Satan doesn’t want us to accomplish anything in our lives. After all, if we do we just might become a world changer or an effective Christian for God. Well, Satan, this gal is breaking through.

Too often in my life I have wanted to breakdown but never break through. I wanted to give up when the circumstances around me were too hard for me to bear. Bingo, Karen, five in a row you hit it, “too hard for ME to bear.” We weren’t meant to do life alone. We need God to see us through. The choice we have to make in this process is the willingness to be sure we want to break through the walls Satan puts up to slow us down or distract us.

In the Bible look at how many obstacles Satan tried to put up to block Job from being an effective righteous man. One by one they may have slowed Job down for a second or two but he kept on going. He was one of those men that when he woke up in the morning Satan would cry out, “Oh no he’s awake” because Satan knew how effective he was in his faith in God.

That is my goal, my effectiveness with my faith in God. Sunday in my church as the worship team sang the selected songs they finally came to one that has always been guaranteed to make me cry every time. The song by Matt Redman, ‘Blessed be Your name.” One that talks about even if there is pain in the offering, a road marked with suffering I will bless the name of God. It doesn’t matter if God gives or takes away, I will still bless Him.

For years that song sent me out in the hall of the church in tears crying over the hopeless situation I felt I was in with my epilepsy and relationship issues. However, this Sunday I didn’t make it to the hall. Why not? I had breast and bone cancer to add to my list, why wasn’t I out in the hall crying out to God once again?

I wasn’t out there because God has showed me over the years the hope and strength I have in Him. Times may be hard but I had Jesus. Life may get rough but I had God to calm the storms. I may have my wounds but God was my healer.

At last I felt like I was getting closer to the mark where I wanted to be. A place in life where I had Satan on the run not the other way around. I was where God needed to me to be to become one of the ones who were willing to be a world changer instead of a world joiner.

As the song went on and they got to the words again about how God gives and takes away I lifted up my cane I use to prop myself up and waved it high in the air. From the back row in my special chair on the left side of the church the only thing missing was the white flag I wanted to tie to the end of the cane as I waved it. A flag representing not the fact I was giving up but the news I was surrendering all, including the pain of my cancer to be an effective Christian for Christ. 

The pain in the offering doesn’t matter no differently than the pain in my hip, ribs, and feet from my bone cancer. What matters is that I live my life in a manner worthy of God. Someone who makes a difference for God in a world that is fallen. A resource for God to use through the testimony of what He has done in my life and others as we break through life’s obstacles. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

© 2013 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing       In Udder Words Tuesday

Boots on the Ground

It’s not so much that God has a mission for His church in the world as that God has a church for His Mission in the world.” Christopher J.H. Wright “The Mission of God”




In reading this quote I think of the phrase, “which comes first the chicken or the egg. Good question if you think about it. Same with this quote as the first thing that God created was the world, then He had a mission for the world, and then comes the church to be the one to perform that mission. With that all put in order one has to ask now, “What is the mission?”



What is God’s mission statement? In a writer’s class I was in the leader had the class write out our mission in 10 words or less. Being a woman of many words, especially typed words, that was not an easy task. To try and cram all I wanted to say in ten words or less seemed impossible. After all that count is only double the amount of words in the first sentence of this paragraph. Unfortunately I didn’t say all I wanted to say in that first sentence and five more words wouldn’t help.



After struggling with my assignment this is what I came up with. My mission statement: Enhancing within the House of God closer walks with Jesus. There you have it, plain and simple. God’s mission statement is plain as well, He is out to make disciples that are obedient to His will and purpose.



Our mission as the church is to carry that out and make disciples for Jesus. It starts with us and it spreads from there. It’s not a matter of numbers in a church building that can be counted it’s a matter of obedient boots on the ground disciples willing to surrender all they have to march in God’s army and follow Him.



From the original mission spreads many missions to accomplish, that once again starts with us. Boots on the ground ready Christians willing to do their part in furthering God’s kingdom, one disciple at a time.

Right Fruit in the Right Basket

“ We need to learn how to keep people through love. Despite imperfections, sins, and irritating habits of other Christians, they belong to Jesus and they need our love as a healthy climate for growth.” ~ John Wimber


Looking back at my younger years in my spiritual life I can remember being a real basket case. Instead of a basket full of the fruit of the spirit I seemed to have a basket full of imperfections and flaws. In love, the church took me in and housed me until I was mature enough to go out on my own to face life as a Christian. In other words they loved me through until I was able to go through on my own.


My part to play in the whole ordeal was to take that love and use it as strength in which to grow in not as an excuse to stay weak. Indeed I could remain the basket case I was full of faults and mistakes or I could use their patience and love as an opportunity to get something good growing in my life. The right fruit in the right basket you might say.

As much as we would like to think it, none of us are born fully mature as we all start out spiritually immature. Too often we act like the child who gets referred to as, “Being two going on twenty” as we think we are far more mature than we really are.


In spite of wanting to “act like a grown up” we aren’t and we need the love of those who have gone before us to get us there. The minute we walk in the door we don’t need anyone coming up to us with a measuring stick to see how mature or grown up we are. However, as time goes on we should have our own quantifying rod to go by to see if we are making progress in our growth.


For example, as an older woman invited a young girl to Sunday service the young girl declined saying, “I usually have a hangover on Sunday morning, I can’t come.” The older lady replied, “So, come anyway.” Eventually the younger girl did just that, hangover and all. It was an act of love on the part of the one that got the other coming. Time would pass and spiritual growth was reached.


Today she now is the “older woman” (if she’ll forgive me for using that phrase on her, ha ha) helping those once caught in her position. There was no measuring stick coming in but she eventually had her quantifying rod to see how far she had gone. To her it would be a tool that gave her confidence to reach out in that same kind of love. The love of those who belong to Jesus helping others get the right fruit in the right basket!

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Pass it On!

We will not hide these truths from our children but will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord. We will tell of His power and the mighty miracles He did. So each generation can set its hope anew on God, remembering His glorious miracles and obeying His commands. Ps 78:4,7


While visiting San Francisco recently with my niece and sister we stumbled across what was called “The Disney Family” museum. Tucked away inside this long building was the story of Walt Disney. It contained everything from his first drawing of Mickey Mouse to his last movie production. To the family this was something worth passing along to the next generation to keep the memory of Walt alive for generations to come.


Although my family may think I have enough “stuff” in my house to pack a good size museum what I have to pass along cannot be stored anywhere but in the hearts of my love ones. If I do my job properly none of them will have to pay an entry fee to get in to see what I treasure the most, my knowledge of my Lord and Savior.


Yes, indeed somewhere along the line of generations to generations someone in each group did their part to pass along to me, Karen Gillett the message of Christ that arrived long before I ever did. In each passing the glorious deeds of the Lord were told again and again only to gain in value instead of declining in worth giving me the hope I would need to survive in life.


Unfortunately the one thing we can’t pass along is the desire to receive what is being handed down from generation to generation. Some look at the Bible as something out dated instead of a bearer of good news regarding our future. They think with every decade and century that arrives that a principle of God should expire.


In spite of the many times people have tried to bury the Bible it has out lived its pallbearers every time. Living 21 centuries later after Christ’s birth is no excuse to stop the flow of something that remains a preparation for our future not an index of the past.


If I could stop the flow from generation to generation of my breast cancer I would do it in a heartbeat. That’s the last thing I want to pass along to my daughter and three granddaughters. No I’d rather continue the flow of information about my Creator God and Friend. For as a part of the “next” generation they deserve to have the hope so many before them shared.


The time is now to keep to ourselves our spiritual cancers, bad attitudes, nasty habits, negative thinking, permissible ways, and sins in order to continue the flow of something greater. The flow of information about God, the hope He carries, the future He has in store for us wrapped up not only in information of the past but more of a knowledge of our future.


What once was still is and is yet to come again. Our knowledge of God can prepare us for that. Pass it on!


© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Show it to 'em

“ To the faithful You show Yourself faithful . . .” Psalm 18:25




A few verses up in this Psalm the writer talks about how the Lord rewarded them according to their righteousness. That because of the cleanness of their hands God was going to recompensed them. Next they went on to talk about how you will show yourself pure to the pure, merciful to the merciful, blameless to the blameless, faithful to the faithful.


Some people read these verses and think it means you are to be all things to all people. Like we are to pick our quality and show it when we choose to show it to the right people. Others get the impression you should never show yourself pure to those who are impure, or faithful to those who are unfaithful because we are to be all things to all people. That isn’t what this verse is saying.


In reading the verse it says, “to the faithful you will show yourself faithful” and so forth. The key is in the “you will show.” To those who are pure they will see you as pure if you are indeed pure. To the faithful you should live your life in a fashion that you will show them your faithfulness. Bottom-line is if we are a Christian then we will show ourselves similar to other Christians in a way they could spot our qualities a mile away.

The verse following this says to the perverse (wicked, bad, mean) you will show yourself contrary (different, opposite). Bingo, another key is thrown in. The key point being that when it comes to those who don’t follow Christ we should be “different.” Not different in behavior just different in the way others see us. To a rude person we are not to show ourselves rude. To an obnoxious person we are not to show ourselves obnoxious. No we are not to be all things to all people. We are to let our Christian qualities come out and those who have them should be able to see them.


When dealing with those outside of Christ it should read slightly different. To the rude show yourself as patient and kind. To the obnoxious show yourself loving and caring. To the bitter and angry show yourself as forgiving with the ability to let go and go on. It’s not a matter of being all things to all people, its being Christ-like to all people.


Believe it or not what others see is what we show them. How they perceive it is a whole different ball of wax for another day and an additional devotion.

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Walking and Talking at the Same TIme

“It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.” ~ Francis of Assisi ~


When I got back recently from San Francisco someone asked me if I saw any street corner preachers. I told her I hadn’t but after reading this quote maybe I saw more than I thought.


Every one of us whether we preach at the end of our walk verbally to someone is making a statement to others by how we walk in our lives. Intentionally or not we leave an example behind for others to follow.


Often our problem is we forget to look behind us and see that trail. We like to walk forward and stop long enough to tell the person next to us they need to quit smoking, or start exercising or clean up their lives when we are doing things just as destructive to our own lives.


Sadly enough we think we can do whatever we want because we don’t plan on preaching to other people. That gets us off the hook for being accountable in our own lives. We just don’t get it that more things are caught than taught. We don’t need to verbally preach with our mouths because our lives are preaching for us by the trail of examples we are leaving behind.


A few years ago I made myself a goal that I wanted to leave behind a tremendous paper trail of writings that people could follow and find their way to Christ. Although that is a very good goal I intend to keep I also need to realize that how I live my life surrounded by those around me is even a bigger influence and reflector of the truth of who I am.


That’s what is so wonderful about God. He is the same in person that He is in paper in the Bible. We need to be that way too, the same on paper if we are writers as we are in person. We can’t overlook the sin in our lives for the sake of pointing out the sin in other. We need to walk the walk which will qualify us to talk the talk.


Although some people just don’t seem to be coordinated enough to be able to walk, talk, and chew gum at the same time. It doesn’t have to be that way with us. As Christians we get our coordination from God. He is the one who helps qualify us to talk the talk when indeed our walking is our preaching thanks to following Him.

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Harvesting Hands

“Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. “What a huge harvest!” he said to his disciples. “How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!”Matthew 9:36-38 (The Message)

Pardon the picture I’m about to paint but it’s the one that came to the canvas of my heart. Reading this verse from Matthew about going out into the harvest and how there is so much that needs to be done I think of dirty dishes. I told you, you wouldn’t like my picture but isn’t it true. The harvest of souls out in the world that are wandering around confused and aimless is never ending like the dirty dishes in the house. No matter how many dishes you do it seems like it never ends and there is always one dirty dish somewhere that you miss.

When Christ was here on earth He was constantly on the go from town to villages. He taught, reported, and healed. Occasionally, if not always, He would stop and look out over the crowds and it broke His heart. What He saw sheep with no shepherd wandering confused and aimless. His reaction then and still is, “What a huge harvest!” He recognized the fact there was a lot of work to do and He called on His disciples as He calls on us to help bring it in.

After a big meal when we see all the dishes that need to be done we can stand there in awe of what a big task we have only to discourage ourselves or we can jump in and get it done. The harvest of souls is big and we can’t look at it as a whole only to discourage ourselves. When we do we frequently convince ourselves the job is for the professionals. You know the preacher and the missionaries, that’s their job we often reason.

Like anyone is qualified to do the dishes, although try and convince your kids of that!  Sorry. Everyone is qualified to reach out and be a worker in the field for Jesus. Christ that day gave us the first step we need to take and that was to get down on our knees and pray for harvest hands. Not to pray for others to do what we could do but to pray for harvest hands from all.

When I see a school bus full of kids it just breaks my heart thinking about the souls on board. Who it is that is going to reach out to those kids? Who will be saved, who will be lost? Looking for the bus number I pray to the Lord for the kids. I could leave it at that or take it even further and that is what I hope my writing on my blogspot for kids is doing at karenskidskorner.blogspot.com is reaching out into the harvest of kids.

Someone else’s specialty or passion may be for young single women, or middle age men, or teenagers, or married couples, or mom’s or dad’s it doesn’t matter. What matters is that we are getting in and helping with the dishes, helping to show others what Christ in their lives can do and the blessing of being a sheep in His flock.

We can’t run from the kitchen, as you may have already found out there are no dish fairies that come out at night that does our dirty dishes for us. If we leave them in the sink they will be in the sink in the morning. We can’t leave the souls who have yet to find Jesus waiting, one soul at a time is a good way to bring in the harvest. As much as I would like to take that bus load of kids into God’s family all at once it doesn’t work that way. One child at a time beats no child at all.

The harvest is huge and the workers are few but we can change that if we are willing to be a part of “harvesting hands.” As a prophet said once, “Here I am, send me.” Let us carry the same attitude in our hearts. We may never need to travel the world to bring in God’s harvest but there’s plenty to done in our own backyard.

“Here I am, Lord. Send me.”
© 2010 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing