In thinking about God’s love I am amazed and in awe of His love for us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believe in Him will not perish but will have eternal life.” There is more. “God first loved us, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Oh the love of Jesus. He loved us first and demonstrated that love by dying on the cross, having victory over death, and taking away our sins forever, and gives us eternal life if we just call upon Him and believe. Who said God did not love us. He sent His Son to die in our place and to show that evil can not win. Our finite minds can not wrap around an infinite God. The God of the universe loves a wretch like me and you. That ought to break our hearts in and of itself. And all we do is think about our selves and complain when things don’t go the way we think they ought to go. But when we start to comprehend God’s love we are compelled, driven, desiring to please Him and love Him back. God’s Spirit does a work in us to where we want to give our lives away for our King. It’s not about us anymore it’s all about Jesus. We realize that there is nothing else to live for and no one could ever take the place of our Saviour Jesus. The love of Christ brings people to there knees, breaks hearts, cause people to follow Him, cause people to preach about Him, cause people to write songs of Him, cause people to leave everything to tell others about Him, and even cause people to be persecuted for His name sake. This love is powerful. Nothing can beat it, change it, or delete it. It makes me want to shout, dance, cry all at the same time. Thank you God for loving me and all of us. Praise You!
May 5, 2011
I am a no name saint, just seeking to please her Heavenly Father. To do the will of the Father. I’m not seeking glory or fame, but I seek to please the One who died for me and took away my sins. No one has ever given me a title, nor have I sought after one. I just want to be remembered as one who loved her Lord with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength.
I have seen many things in my life, maybe not enough to write a book, but enough to see that people are evil and God is good. In wanting to follow Christ I have had to lay down everything I thought was right. I’ve had to get rid of my pride and pretenses. I’ve had to give up who I thought I was. I’ve had to sacrifice everything, and still learning to give it all up. All for the sake of Christ. Some may say, is it worth it, but I say yes it is worth it because He is worth it.
I have gained more peace, strength, love, joy, gentleness, and longsuffering. I’m still growing in Christ and learning to be like Him. I’ve realized that I really do not know everything, well, I don’t know much at all. I am learning and leaning more on Christ and less on myself.
I don’t do all this because I’m devoted or committed. I do it because I’m in love with my Saviour. The beauty about Christ is He did not make me love Him, I chose to love Him. He did not make me serve Him, I chose to serve Him. He did not twist my arm to believe Him, I wanted and desired to believe Him. Yet it was that God chose me, called me, desired me, and loved me before the foundations of the world. Wow, that makes my heart sing and sing and sing, because I am loved by the King of Kings.
So in conclusion, this is who I am. I am a daughter of the most High King. I am a part of the bride of the King. I am a precious jewel of the King. And one day I will be married to the King who gave His life for me.
December 17, 2009
This was an experience my friend Annie had the other day…said in her words:
I just got home from the grocery store….
I saw her at Kroger. Pasty-white lifeless face and faded badly colored red hair. I knew that gait. Her hips hurt, her feet were killing her and she didn’t sleep much last night. Her mind leaning into one thing or another, all made worse by the Christmas music playing overhead. She wouldn’t have even come out on a cold day like this, but the Oreos would help her get through the rest of the day. We approached the check out at the same time and I motioned for her to go first. She spoke up, “You go first, you don’t have that much and besides I have nowhere to go, nothing to do today, anyway.” Her words stung my heart and I knew….I knew what she was feeling. I recognized her heart immediately. Alone. Lonely. She wishes she was anywhere but here. Her best years, behind her, nothing to look forward to….
I wanted to hug her, tell her that her life matters….
I pushed the cart toward the door and noticed the poinsettia’s for sale in the floral dept. I motioned Elizabeth over quickly and told her I wanted to buy a poinsettia very quickly and give it to that lady over there in line. Tell her “Merry Christmas…Jesus loves her”. We very quickly made the transaction and she touched my elbow as she ran to make her delivery…”You are so sweet” she said. Tears stung my eyes as I hastened to load up my groceries before I was found out, surely she would know it was me. As I pulled out, I saw her, poinsettia in hand, walking very painfully to the car. I prayed for her to receive God’s love today. Ironically, unknown to me it was “buy one get one free” today. So, I went home with a poinsettia also. But my poinsettia will sit in a prominent place, to remind me of all the people who will be alone this Christmas, the people who never planned to be alone. They weren’t alone in the past, but times change, people leave, people die, people move away, they get so busy…
During the season that is especially lonely for many people, please stop and think of ways you can be His hands and feet to those who desperately need His touch. I pray that every time this woman looks at the poinsettia that she would be reminded that she is not forgotten and that God who sees her. Thank you Annie for reaching out to someone in need.
December 2, 2009
While visiting one of my national friends last week I was reminded of how healing it is to just hold another person’s hand. My friend lives in a very humble home with her ailing mother and several other “drop in” relatives. When I arrived she was busy preparing some food for the evening meal, getting some tea ready and packing to come over to “house sit”. Her mother, who is now in her mid-80s, lost her sight a few years ago so has been pretty limited in what she can do and where she can go. The home has been rigged with some rope to guide her to the outhouse and she is able to navigate the other rooms by touch.
After giving her mom a hug and a kiss I sat down across from her and engaged in some simple conversation. Her missing teeth made it a challenge to understand the full meaning of her sentences but for her, just having someone else to talk to was a blessing. I watched as her hands grasped around for the mug of hot tea. I wondered if at one time there had been a steady gracefulness to those now worn hands. I continued to watch as she struggled for what to do with her hands. I reached out, took her hand in mine and clasped lightly. It seemed to catch her by surprise and she began to stroke the back of my hand and the expression on her face seemed to reflect a remembrance of a time when such a touch was more common.
In the midst of the busyness and preparing for my vacation, that 10 minutes holding her hand listening to her speak about what I would see as the mundane aspects of life was a good reminder of how healing and comforting it is to hold someone’s hand. When I consider what it is to be His hands and feet, I think of the simple acts of touching another person’s life through a gentle touch, a kind word softly spoken or a word of encouragement. May we always look for the opportunities to be His hands and feet and step out of what is comfortable to bring life to someone else and in turn, our lives are touched.
October 12, 2009
“God has a special purpose, a special love, a special providence for all those he has created. God cares for each of us individually, watches over us, provides for us. The circumstances of each day of our lives, of every moment of every day, are provided for us by him. This means that every moment of our life has a purpose, that every action of ours, no matter how dull or routine or trivial it may seem in itself, has a dignity and worth beyond human understanding. No man’s life is insignificant in God’s sight.” ~ Walter Ciszek
When I was home at the end of 2008 I found myself wandering in the back of a used bookstore and stumbled across one of those books you usually don’t bother with because of how it looks. However the title, “With God In Russia” caught my eye and I pulled it off the shelf, dusted off the spine and flipped through the pages. Contained within those 433 pages written in 1963 was the story of Walter Ciszek, a Polish-American priest who spent 23 years in prison camps throughout the Soviet Union.
As I read about his life of imprisonment, the torture and the interrogations, the meager sustenance, the heavy labor in some of the most deplorable conditions…what I came to appreciate is his devotion to God and his love for his fellow man ~ both prisoners and those keeping him in chains.
Few of us have had to endure such circumstances and yet I consider his words…“every moment of our life has a purpose, that every action of ours, no matter how dull or routine or trivial it may seem in itself, has a dignity and worth beyond human understanding.” Walter was often seen as just a prisoner of war, his was a life that had much “routine” and yet he regarded each day as being ordained by God and with such a perspective, extended life and hope to those he met. Although he found the circumstances challenging, he allowed the difficulties to draw him in to a closer relationship with God.
My prayer is that I too will see each moment of every day as an opportunity to walk more intimately with my Lord and seize every moment to be used as His instrument!
October 7, 2009
We live in a lost and wounded world where our enemy has distorted love and given us counterfeit substitutes. Satan distorts love because Love is what God is…and hates anything that resembles God. Satan wants us to believe that we were never created to be loved or to be in relationship with God…worshiping and glorifying Him. If he can wound us through words harshly spoken, from love being withheld, trust betrayed, the violation of innocence and the belief that we are unworthy of love, he has succeed in “clipping our wings”. In our woundedness, and in our need to be loved, we either learn to twirl manipulatively to get our needs met or secretly cower behind facades of strength and independence to keep from being hurt. We either give our love too freely or we keep our hearts so closed that love cannot be given or received. Either way, we will remain in a prison of rejection, condemnation and emptiness.
It is no wonder to me that the only One who can purify our hearts and give us the capacity to love and be loved is God. Those who were never loved well have a very difficult road, seeing the Father’s Love through the tainted window of their experiences. That is why it has to be God’s Perfect Love…who showed His Love by sending His Son, Jesus into the world that we might live through Him (1 John 4:9)…by which healing takes place. My heart rejoices when I visualize the scene in Luke when Jesus is handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah (61:1 & 2) and found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor (one existing on the alms of others); He hath sent me to HEAL the brokenhearted, to preach DELIVERANCE to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. (Luke 4:18). He sat down and while all eyes were fastened on Him…He said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
That truth is our hope…He came to set us free! “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1a). There are times I have to ask myself if I am settling for “substitutes” and remind myself that it is only through God’s Love living in me that He can work through me. In order to be set free, we must BELIEVE that He and His Love can set us free and TRUST that He will.
September 21, 2009
For the past week or so I have been reading the book of Ephesians. I wrote down a few verses that I wanted to look at more closely and began to memorize one in particular before going to bed one evening…
“In Him, and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence” ~ Eph. 3:12
As I read it aloud several times I had to exclaim, “Wow – what an encouraging verse!” Amazing how often we read something…overlooking the profound Truth contained within and then one day, it just hits us as if we had never read it before. What a faith builder!
Later when reading another verse I was struck by the two words, “In Him” so I did a word search on e-sword. Rather than comment on these verses, read for yourself and be encouraged as God’s children the Truth of being…
~ In Him ~
“Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in Him, for He shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between His shoulders” – Deut. 33:12
“Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him” ~ Job 13:15a
“As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in Him” ~ Psalm 18:30
“The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song” ~ Psalm 28:7
“Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge” ~ Psalm 62:8
“Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” ~ John 3:18
“In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding” ~ Ephesians 1:7-8
Father God, I thank you that we can rest in You! That we have redeption through the blood of Your Son Jesus and the forgiveness of sins. Thank you for lavishing Your grace on us! May we daily learn to trust in You and find a place of comfort and rest between Your shoulders. Be our shield and in all circumstances may be take our refuge in You. Praise to You and be glorified! Amen.
September 18, 2009
When faced with a new situation, choice or decision we often find ourselves asking, “what if…” I consider myself a pretty optimistic person and often enjoy the adventure in the “unknown” so my “what ifs” usually go a little something like…
“what if I meet someone really interesting?”
“What if that opens the door to an entirely new situation that turns out to be so much better than where I am right now?”
“What if that is God’s way of redirecting me from making a really big mistake?”
“What if it turns out to be one of the best times of my life?”
Do you ever stop and think about your “what if” questions? The next time you say, or hear someone else say, “what if…” listen closely to what comes next.
One definition of attitude is “a person’s perspective toward a specific target”. If you are uncertain, fearful, pessimistic or cautious, your “what ifs” might sound a bit different…”what if I fail?”, “what if I don’t like it?”, “what if I am no good at it…will I be stuck doing something I don’t like?”. How many of us miss out on amazing opportunities by the attitude the precedes our “what ifs”? What if you DO fail…what is the worst that can happen? If you find yourself more in the second category, let me just challenge you…that for every “what if” that is filled with doubt and uncertainty…find an opposite “what if” to counterbalance it.
Ultimately in whatever circumstance, look to God for the answer and know that as we Trust Him, He can give the courage, insight and wisdom to move forward and use whatever that next step or decision is for His glory.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your path straight” (Prov. 3:5)
September 13, 2009
Having been part of the generation which remembers rotary telephones, party lines, black & white TVs, the first hand-held calculator and the first affordable PC that ran off of cassette tapes…I marvel at how far we have come. I also find myself concerned about those who center their lives around technology and are at a loss when there isn’t an internet connection, cannot get a cell phone signal or is going through withdrawal because Facebook hasn’t been updated in the past 12-hours.
Now, not to be too critical…I do find all these things very useful tools. However, I also see how dependent we have become on such tools for our existence, affirmation and social value. I have examined my own use of these tools recently and have drawn some interesting conclusions as to how it can affected my spiritual walk by drawing me into a web of worldliness.
More than ever I have the world at our fingertips. Whatever I want…the inside scoop on a celebrity, up-to-date sports scores, recipes, “how to” instructions, information on friends, etc. It is also a portal to access things of the world and feed our appetites for what we consider valuable or to fill the void that only God is supposed to fill. Amazon tracks my shopping habits and recommends things I might like. Advertisements creatively catch my attention and cause me at times to consider “clicking” just to check it out. How often do those clicks lead to a rabbit trail of wasted hours and filling my mind with what the “world” has to offer. There are rabbit trails that start out innocently enough and can lead to destruction. How careful we must be to filter out and use restraint to the enticements that buffet our screens over the course of our day.
Where are your rabbit trails leading you these days?
September 12, 2009
THE WEAVER
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Written by B.M. Franklin (1882-1965)
My life is just a weaving
Between my Lord and me.
I cannot choose the colors
He weaves so skillfully.
Sometimes He weaveth sorrow
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper
And I the underside.
Not ‘til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Will God unroll the canvas
And explain the reasons why-
The dark threads are as needful,
In The Weaver’s skillful hands
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.
Growing up I remember hearing this poem as a song and although I don’t believe the artist ever made it to any CCM awards, it ranks as one of my all time favorites. How often we see dark threads in our lives or in the lives of others and wonder “why?”. The death of an only child, a mother taken by cancer, a fire rages and destroys a family’s home, a man beat up while trying to help a young lady in distress, a woman contemplating ending her life. How often do we think, “God couldn’t possibly use this for His Glory or my good”. And yet, I have seen time and again where God, in His infinite wisdom has taken the most challenging circumstances and redeemed the brokenness, brought healing and has used what Satan has meant for harm and used it for His glory.
When you find yourself in difficult circumstances, remember that He sees the finished canvas…Trust in Him and “fix your eyes on Jesus…the author and perfecter of your faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Heb. 12:2-3)
The Weaver 