We are told to 'eat your veggies they will make you strong'. We gravitate toward people who are encouraging and uplifting. We can hardly wait for our vacations which allow us to set aside directed time for rest, relaxation and revving up our drained batteries.
We live in a world that drains us of power, belief and hope. Often times we encounter people who re-create us negatively through word and action -- people who take advantage of us and chisel away at our spirit. Is ...it any wonder we need R&R aka Recharging and Rebuilding.
Acts 20:32 says "So now bretheren I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, WHICH IS ABLE TO BUILD YOU UP and give you an inheritance among those who are sanctified".
Basically what this passage is saying in modern language is ... my friends! I point you forward and give you over to God and to his word of Grace because it is able to BUILD YOU UP and lead you toward an inheritance along with all others heading the same direction.
You see there is no power like the power of God. Only HE is able to refill, recharge, repair, redeem, restore, re-do you, your heart and life. He is the master of "re-". Don't wait any longer....reconnect now to the optimum recharger of life...the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Friday, April 17, 2015
Be Persistent
Is there nothing more persistent than a child asking for a treat in a store? Ah, I see you smile. It starts out as a request which turns into a plea which turns into a bellow which turns into a louder bellow and....well, you get the picture. And it doesn't stop either does it? Even threatening bodily injury through clenched teeth often will not stop them. What a perfect definition of "persistence".
In my bible reading this morning I read a parable out of the book of Luke, chapter 18. The story finds a widow who continually goes to see the judge of the town who "neither feared God or cared about men" in search of justice from an adversary. The widow was persistent. Day after day, continually she sought out the judge, over and over again seeking justice. Remember, the judge could care less. But the judge is quoted as saying, "Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!"
Of this Jesus says, "Listen to what the unjust judge says! And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly."
Here is what this parable teaches me:
1. Because the widow was persistent, the judge in the story finally gave her that which she asked for to satisfy her. It was her persistence that made her noteworthy.
2. The judge admittedly neither feared God nor cared about the affairs of man. But how different our God is! Jesus himself uses the story to convey that because we are his chosen one's God the father will bring justice to us.
3. What is persistence? To be persistent means to be never ending, tenacious, always occurring! Bulldoggish, demanding, devoted, obsessive, perseverant.
When you have a need go to the Father in prayer not once, not twice but praying without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5 says, " Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
In various other passages the plea or call to prayer includes such words as praying always, in every situation, devoted, faithful. We are given an awesome direction on how to pray!
Why does it say in Thessalonians that this is Gods will for us? Because in his rich wisdom he knows we will be changed from glory to glory when we spend time in his presence and our outlook and hope will be buoyed. He knows we need him as much as he wishes to spend time with his chosen ones.
If your heart is heavy ladened, gather up your cares and go to God in prayer and use this prescription "bulldoggedly" pray for that which is pressing upon your hearts. Be like that widow --- don't give up, sink your teeth into it and rattle the gates of heaven with your requests!
"Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need". Hebrews 4:16
In my bible reading this morning I read a parable out of the book of Luke, chapter 18. The story finds a widow who continually goes to see the judge of the town who "neither feared God or cared about men" in search of justice from an adversary. The widow was persistent. Day after day, continually she sought out the judge, over and over again seeking justice. Remember, the judge could care less. But the judge is quoted as saying, "Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!"
Of this Jesus says, "Listen to what the unjust judge says! And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly."
Here is what this parable teaches me:
1. Because the widow was persistent, the judge in the story finally gave her that which she asked for to satisfy her. It was her persistence that made her noteworthy.
2. The judge admittedly neither feared God nor cared about the affairs of man. But how different our God is! Jesus himself uses the story to convey that because we are his chosen one's God the father will bring justice to us.
3. What is persistence? To be persistent means to be never ending, tenacious, always occurring! Bulldoggish, demanding, devoted, obsessive, perseverant.
When you have a need go to the Father in prayer not once, not twice but praying without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5 says, " Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
In various other passages the plea or call to prayer includes such words as praying always, in every situation, devoted, faithful. We are given an awesome direction on how to pray!
Why does it say in Thessalonians that this is Gods will for us? Because in his rich wisdom he knows we will be changed from glory to glory when we spend time in his presence and our outlook and hope will be buoyed. He knows we need him as much as he wishes to spend time with his chosen ones.
If your heart is heavy
"Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need". Hebrews 4:16
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Spending Time With Christ
Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you. psalm 143:6
They say you become who you spend the most time with. I remember watching my children choose their friends and I tried to instill within them a list of what attributes were important when choosing their friends.
I've watched people as they choose "outside their normal crowd". As time passes I've witnessed how they begin to morph into the ones they spend the most time with. One observation showed one person who spent time with someone with a foul mouth and a lean toward sexual innuendo. It did not take long for this person to slowly begin to take on the veneer of the crowd he hung out with.
Spending time with Christ has become paramount to having a life infused with all the things necessary to live a successful, stable and victorious life. It is vital that each morning I have time with him, listening to him and reading of all things "him" to become more like him -- which is my life's goal.
Time with Him is time well vested as I learn how to sidestep life's pitfalls; I learn how to combat the traps that satan sets for me; I find comfort -- almost like medicine for whatever ails me or I am reminded again of how big my God is.
Spending time with my friend provides the necessary time to become more like him.
They say you become who you spend the most time with. I remember watching my children choose their friends and I tried to instill within them a list of what attributes were important when choosing their friends.
I've watched people as they choose "outside their normal crowd". As time passes I've witnessed how they begin to morph into the ones they spend the most time with. One observation showed one person who spent time with someone with a foul mouth and a lean toward sexual innuendo. It did not take long for this person to slowly begin to take on the veneer of the crowd he hung out with.
Spending time with Christ has become paramount to having a life infused with all the things necessary to live a successful, stable and victorious life. It is vital that each morning I have time with him, listening to him and reading of all things "him" to become more like him -- which is my life's goal.
Time with Him is time well vested as I learn how to sidestep life's pitfalls; I learn how to combat the traps that satan sets for me; I find comfort -- almost like medicine for whatever ails me or I am reminded again of how big my God is.
Spending time with my friend provides the necessary time to become more like him.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
My Drug of Choice
Sometimes there are no words that can mend the pain we bear. Well meaning people, myself included -- want so much to offer some anesthetic, some hope or power to someone in pain but lets face it, sometimes our pain is so deep and so great and so PERSONAL that there is nothing anyone can say that will cut the pain.
Reading my devotion today I thought about this as the writer quoted an oft given "pain shot" from Gods word that says, "God never gives us more than we can handle" from 1 Corinthians 10:13. I agreed with the writer who said this scripture refers to temptation, not to pain from a loss etc. Even Jesus faced a time of great pain and might I say fear -- that night in Gethsemane when he was praying so hard he bled?
He was begging God to take the cup from him aka: Father please isn't there another way to save our people? Do I have to drink from this cup of torture, pain and humiliation that is surely coming my way? Please, please remove it! Please find another way! We have all found ourselves in those dire straights. Our own failures, battling an illness, cancer, financial devastation, barely surviving a tempest at someone else's hands or natural disaster... we have all found ourselves begging for mercy.
I sat contemplating this and my thoughts ricocheted to how amazing it feels when we are depleted and exhausted and we fall back on our own bed. Oh the comfort....the feeling of safety. It's that "ahhhhh" feeling. It's like holding your beloved pet or blanket or how we feel when our "safe person" envelopes us in a huge hug. Think of the embrace of your mother, father, spouse or loved one. During that embrace, the pain eases and there is if only a moment of pain relief.
In all honesty the best anesthetic I've found to my life's pain has been falling back on who God is....who I've experienced him to be --- who I've seen him be to others and wrapping that knowledge about me like a soft meemo (my sons word for his blanket when he was a toddler). It's remembering every time that I've cried out to God and somehow, some way he has answered me -- perhaps not in my time frame but seriously GOD has never left me abandoned.
Yes, my anesthetic of choice has been the word of God that I wrap myself up in.
"The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms". Deuteronomy 33:27
You may say yeah but how does that work? I mean do you feel those arms around you? No. It's more like, I know that I know that I know who God is because of what I've proven is so. One day long ago I came to know Him. I've spent over 30 years learning of Him -- from Him. I've spent time talking to him, questioning him, and waiting and watching not only in my own life but in the lives of others who have entered into the same relationship with Him. And its been in this proving ground...this relating that I've experienced the glory of God.
I've come to know that the words on the pages of my Bible are not just words on a page. They are alive and active still today -- tested and proven. So when I read that passage and it says, "underneath (me) are the everlasting arms" it says to me...you KNOW it...his arms...his truths, his promises, his presence, his power they buoy you!! The comfort that you yearn for...that you search for will come.
And as I look back on my life it is then I realize this --- my greatest revelations of Gods ability and power have been during the most painful seasons of my life. They say hindsight is clearer than foresight and it is true. It is only when I look back that I realize that when I needed God the most -- when I was writhing in pain and uncertainty and my cry to God was "I don't know if I can do another day Lord"....that those arms...carried me to another day and another and another and my dependence upon him grew all the more. And that's when it happened. The revelation of his ability and my need for him in pain and out.
Lord to any who read this and are in pain and need like you were on that night in Gethsemane so many years ago --- give to them that which they need to endure. For every moment spent in pain I ask you would multiply it back to them in the knowledge of you. Use this pain within them to bring life as only you can Lord. Protect them from the lies of the enemy and give them ears to hear your holy spirit. Fill them with comfort and peace O God! For its in Jesus' name I pray....amen.
God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble
Reading my devotion today I thought about this as the writer quoted an oft given "pain shot" from Gods word that says, "God never gives us more than we can handle" from 1 Corinthians 10:13. I agreed with the writer who said this scripture refers to temptation, not to pain from a loss etc. Even Jesus faced a time of great pain and might I say fear -- that night in Gethsemane when he was praying so hard he bled?
He was begging God to take the cup from him aka: Father please isn't there another way to save our people? Do I have to drink from this cup of torture, pain and humiliation that is surely coming my way? Please, please remove it! Please find another way! We have all found ourselves in those dire straights. Our own failures, battling an illness, cancer, financial devastation, barely surviving a tempest at someone else's hands or natural disaster... we have all found ourselves begging for mercy.
I sat contemplating this and my thoughts ricocheted to how amazing it feels when we are depleted and exhausted and we fall back on our own bed. Oh the comfort....the feeling of safety. It's that "ahhhhh" feeling. It's like holding your beloved pet or blanket or how we feel when our "safe person" envelopes us in a huge hug. Think of the embrace of your mother, father, spouse or loved one. During that embrace, the pain eases and there is if only a moment of pain relief.
In all honesty the best anesthetic I've found to my life's pain has been falling back on who God is....who I've experienced him to be --- who I've seen him be to others and wrapping that knowledge about me like a soft meemo (my sons word for his blanket when he was a toddler). It's remembering every time that I've cried out to God and somehow, some way he has answered me -- perhaps not in my time frame but seriously GOD has never left me abandoned.
Yes, my anesthetic of choice has been the word of God that I wrap myself up in.
"The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms". Deuteronomy 33:27
You may say yeah but how does that work? I mean do you feel those arms around you? No. It's more like, I know that I know that I know who God is because of what I've proven is so. One day long ago I came to know Him. I've spent over 30 years learning of Him -- from Him. I've spent time talking to him, questioning him, and waiting and watching not only in my own life but in the lives of others who have entered into the same relationship with Him. And its been in this proving ground...this relating that I've experienced the glory of God.
I've come to know that the words on the pages of my Bible are not just words on a page. They are alive and active still today -- tested and proven. So when I read that passage and it says, "underneath (me) are the everlasting arms" it says to me...you KNOW it...his arms...his truths, his promises, his presence, his power they buoy you!! The comfort that you yearn for...that you search for will come.
And as I look back on my life it is then I realize this --- my greatest revelations of Gods ability and power have been during the most painful seasons of my life. They say hindsight is clearer than foresight and it is true. It is only when I look back that I realize that when I needed God the most -- when I was writhing in pain and uncertainty and my cry to God was "I don't know if I can do another day Lord"....that those arms...carried me to another day and another and another and my dependence upon him grew all the more. And that's when it happened. The revelation of his ability and my need for him in pain and out.
Lord to any who read this and are in pain and need like you were on that night in Gethsemane so many years ago --- give to them that which they need to endure. For every moment spent in pain I ask you would multiply it back to them in the knowledge of you. Use this pain within them to bring life as only you can Lord. Protect them from the lies of the enemy and give them ears to hear your holy spirit. Fill them with comfort and peace O God! For its in Jesus' name I pray....amen.
God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble
Under Gods Hand
"Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your cares upon Him, for he cares for you." 1 peter 5:6-7.
I read this tonight and was reminded --- we know not how powerful a savior God is until we need a powerful God to save us.
Sometimes those seasons when we are in pain, need and sorrow are the ONLY seasons through which God will move with such force and power --- as He did before the Israelites in the desert -- and so capture our attention that we will then see and know that He. Is. God.
If life has you humbled...be encouraged. You are under the mighty hand of God.
He's got this.
I read this tonight and was reminded --- we know not how powerful a savior God is until we need a powerful God to save us.
Sometimes those seasons when we are in pain, need and sorrow are the ONLY seasons through which God will move with such force and power --- as He did before the Israelites in the desert -- and so capture our attention that we will then see and know that He. Is. God.
If life has you humbled...be encouraged. You are under the mighty hand of God.
He's got this.
Reconnecting
Tonite I stepped outside to rock a while in my chair. The patio was dark and I sat silently listening to the frogs singing nearby. There have been so many other nights like this throughout my life --- me, looking up at the silhouettes of mountain tree's, listening to the frogs.
I began to sing worship songs aloud. Sometime later I just had an overwhelming sense of Billy's presence. I sat there in the silence and began to talk to him aloud. A few minutes later my husband Wayne stepped outside and I began to tell him of how I had sat singing and then felt Billys closeness.
Wayne stepped outside from under the porch and said "Have you come out here to look at the night sky? There are thousands of stars out tonite." I got up and stepped out under the starry sky and looked up. Even that view has not changed for me.
I related once more to Wayne of how from the time I was 10 years of age, as a girl I would lay in the back of my parents rambler wagon and would have that view for myself. I was filled in those days with awe and fear.....awe at the vast night sky and how the sky reminded me of chocolate ice cream with vanilla chips....and fear -- that at any time forest animals could amble up to the car and look at me through all the windows. Yes, I did have an avid imagination. But, I always knew I was safe as long as I could hear Billy's voice.
At that very moment as I was recounting this story and looking up at that night sky with the forest sentinels standing so tall in the night air the biggest, brightest, slowest shooting star arced across the night sky like a firework! Tears had been gently flowing down my face as I recounted the story but my breath literally caught in my throat as I watched that slow star shooting across the velvet sky.
A half cry came from me with a sob and I said to wayne....did I just imagine that or was that as significant as I feel it was? He said Doe - that was all you saw it was. That was for you, from Billy.
You see, long ago as I lay in the back of my parents wagon staring at that expanse of stars I could hear my parents and grandparents playing pinochle inside their small red and white trailer while Billy sat in a chair playing the ukulele and singing to us as we tried to go to sleep. As long as Billy played and sang, I was safe.
I will never forget tonite and the shooting star in the chocolate sky with all the twinkling vanilla chips winking back at me. I know Billy....I miss you too.
I began to sing worship songs aloud. Sometime later I just had an overwhelming sense of Billy's presence. I sat there in the silence and began to talk to him aloud. A few minutes later my husband Wayne stepped outside and I began to tell him of how I had sat singing and then felt Billys closeness.
Wayne stepped outside from under the porch and said "Have you come out here to look at the night sky? There are thousands of stars out tonite." I got up and stepped out under the starry sky and looked up. Even that view has not changed for me.
I related once more to Wayne of how from the time I was 10 years of age, as a girl I would lay in the back of my parents rambler wagon and would have that view for myself. I was filled in those days with awe and fear.....awe at the vast night sky and how the sky reminded me of chocolate ice cream with vanilla chips....and fear -- that at any time forest animals could amble up to the car and look at me through all the windows. Yes, I did have an avid imagination. But, I always knew I was safe as long as I could hear Billy's voice.
At that very moment as I was recounting this story and looking up at that night sky with the forest sentinels standing so tall in the night air the biggest, brightest, slowest shooting star arced across the night sky like a firework! Tears had been gently flowing down my face as I recounted the story but my breath literally caught in my throat as I watched that slow star shooting across the velvet sky.
A half cry came from me with a sob and I said to wayne....did I just imagine that or was that as significant as I feel it was? He said Doe - that was all you saw it was. That was for you, from Billy.
You see, long ago as I lay in the back of my parents wagon staring at that expanse of stars I could hear my parents and grandparents playing pinochle inside their small red and white trailer while Billy sat in a chair playing the ukulele and singing to us as we tried to go to sleep. As long as Billy played and sang, I was safe.
I will never forget tonite and the shooting star in the chocolate sky with all the twinkling vanilla chips winking back at me. I know Billy....I miss you too.
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