to still the storm
calm the tempest
part my sea.
I wanted You
to mend my fractures
salve the wounds
end the pain.
I wanted You
to sharpen sword
eviscerate all enemies
oversee their swift retreat.
You didn’t.
Instead
You came
soft as light
drew back the night
shared my grief
shouldered my pain
cried my tears
mingled my blood with Yours.
until at last I understood:
this anguish is not my own
for when I belong to You
I never bleed Alone.
***
Kristine K. Lowder
http://www.HEvencense.wordpress.com
He shuffled his feet and wiped his sweaty palms on his jacket. His face twitched, producing a peculiar, cockeyed smile. Then, a vision of loveliness began her promenade down the aisle, and the groom’s whole body radiated with delight.
They were so anxious to look their best for each other. All decked out in their wedding finery, he, fit to meet the bride; she, fit to meet the bridegroom.
As I sat in the chapel praying for them, the thought occurred to me: Jesus is fit and ready to meet me, His bride, but am I fit and ready to meet Him, my Bridegroom?
If Jesus died that the church, His bride, might be “without spot or wrinkle or any other defect – holy and unblemished” (Eph. 5:27a Weymouth), then she is to “Be prepared – all dressed and ready – for (her) Lord’s return,” (Luke 12:35-36a TLB).
When the heavenly Bridegroom arrives, will the bride be dressed in an old rag, spotted with worldly residue? Or will she be “a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (Rev. 21:2 NIV), in a spotless gown of holiness?
Will He radiate with delight in each of us, as a vision of loveliness? “So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him.” (2 Peter 3:14 NIV)
Prayer: Lord, You loved me enough to die to give me a pure wedding garment of holiness. May I love You enough to keep that gown unsullied from the world and meet You in holiness on Your return. May I be continually dressed and ready to go at a moment’s notice. Amen!
~ Lynn Mosher ~
I was reading an article in the May/June 2008 issue of Victoria Magazine http://www.victoriamag.com about writer Jan Karon. For those of you who may not be familiar with her, she wrote the “Mitford” series of novels. I discovered them when David was just a baby and I really enjoyed the stories about Fr. Tim, an Episcopal priest. She offered these words of inspiration which she had written in magic marker on the wall of her writing room:
There are three stages in the work of God: Impossible. Difficult.
- James Hudson Taylor
Whatever you would do, begin it. Boldness has courage, genius and magic in it.
- Goethe
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
- Philippians 4:13
- Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur
http://spiritualwomanthoughts.blogspot.com
http://momentofbeauty.blogspot.com
What do I want to be known for? That was a question I asked myself recently. I met a woman and in our conversation she told me that she “home schooled, home birthed, didn’t eat sugar, and had several children.” Although she was very sweet, and all of those things are wonderful things, I noticed that as she was sharing there was an invisible wall going up around those of us who didn’t share the same passion that she did. I observed another lady who was listening to the conversation and saw that she seemed to become discouraged. Knowing that she wanted to home school but her husband was not supportive (and that she was submitting to her husband!) I felt the need to come to her aid! I put my hand on her arm and said, “Isn’t it great that God has given us so many options to choose from?” She seemed more encouraged.
I left that conversation feeling sad, because what that well meaning lady did that day is something I’m sure I’ve done to others without realizing it. I’ve also been on the other side of , when someone has been so passionate about what they had been called to that they ended up criticizing me for what I do differently. There are times when someone will find out that we home school, and I will automatically get a cold shoulder. There was a time when someone actually got irritated with me because I wouldn’t take the vitamins they thought I needed! I felt like saying, “Please take the time to know ME, don’t just label me because of what I do or don’t feel led to do!” It’s so easy to do. We can get so focused on WHAT WE ARE CALLED TO, that we forget to focus on WHO CALLED US! We become devoted to the “issue” rather than doing what we feel led to do out of a devotion to Christ and having HIM be our “passion”.
There can be division when the focus is not right. Rather than focusing on what we have in common as believers, it’s so easy to focus on where we differ. Many of the “issues” are not mandates but personal preferences. My family might be called to do something, and your family to another. As long as we are not disobeying God’s Word we should be able to encourage each other in the Lord and fellowship anyway.
What do I want to be known for? I am called to serve and encourage others. I am called to pursue God and be in His Word. I am called to glorify God in all that I do. I am called to be a light. I am called to humility, repentance, and to have a teachable spirit. I am called to offer my life a living sacrifice. I am called to be a submissive wife, and to raise my children according to biblical principles. I am praying that this will be what I am devoted to, and known for.
What do YOU want to be known for?
~Gina
Chats With An “Old Lady”~
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:14-16
This morning I was awaken earlier than usual. I think it was before 6:00 am, I’m not really sure if I looked at the clock or not, but it was still very dark outside. I woke up because a light was on in the kitchen and it was causing light to spread into my bedroom. Bobby had left the light on when he went to work.
It’s funny. No other time of the day would I ever notice that light on in the kitchen from my bedroom, except in the black of night. Any other time, the light would just blend in with all the other light around it.
But when everything else was black, boy, the light that came from the kitchen really lit up the house!
I started thinking about how important it is for us to be the light of Jesus in a dark and dying world. I pray that for the boys’ every night before they go to sleep; that they will be Jesus’s light in their school. And before I go to work, that I will be Jesus’s light to the people I encounter during my day.
It’s fun to hang out with my friends from church and I like nothing better than being in a room full of people who love Jesus, but honestly, they don’t need the light, they already have it.
The darkness is where the light is needed … ummmm … makes you think a bit doesn’t it?
Father, it is so much easier to hang out in the light, but give me the courage and the strength to step out into the darkness Lord, so that Your light shines forth!
I Love You Jesus.
In Your Name I Pray,
Am
God Bless You!
Love,
Joyce
A Life Decision
http://www.alifedecision.org
Does God care about the little details?
*”I have no desire to have children.”
*”I am not sure I even want to get married.”
*”I am unable to have children.”
*”When will God bring me my life partner?”
*”I don’t get along with my parents.”
*”My husband is not a leader in our home.”
*”What should my major be in college?”
*”I really don’t know what I want to do with my life.”
*”I’m worried about my children.”
All of these concerns were shared with some amount of burden.
These are the “details” of our lives that can seem so big. Even consuming at times. I love what Elisabeth Elliot says to do when we are overwhelmed with “the details”. She says, “Just do the next thing…” So simple. Yet it can be easy to forget that we need to focus on doing what we’ve been given to do this moment, and leave the details to our God.
Can we trust God with the details?
Matt. 11:28-30 tells us that God wants to carry the details for us.
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. (I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.) Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good-not harsh, hard, sharp or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.” It is a comfort to know that God delights in the details of our lives, and that He is more than capable of carrying them!! We can “do the next thing”, and trust Him with the rest!
“The Lord of all creation holds our life in His hands
The God of all the nations holds our life in His hands
the rock of our salvation holds our life in His hands” (Casting Crowns)
~Gina
Chats With An “Old Lady”
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? – Romans 8:32
God loves you as much as He loves Jesus. Imagine that! His Word says “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
That means that if we believe that God really does love us, then we know that He would never withhold any good thing from us. In fact, it is His good pleasure to give us every good thing.
If He did withhold good things from us, He would be saying that He loves that thing, whether it be money, health or provision, more than He loves us. And that simply isn’t true. He loves us as much as Jesus.
The reason most of the good things haven’t manifested in our lives is because we doubt God’s love for us. We are still wavering on whether He will meet our needs.
Be assured, my friend, that you are God’s beloved child, just as Jesus is, the great men and women of faith are and I am, and nothing–absolutely nothing–will ever stop Him from loving you. Nothing you can ever say or do will separate you from His love. Dare to believe He loves you today!
- Annagail Lynes
And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. John 6:35 NKJVThen Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. John 6:53 NKJV
I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” John 6:51 NKJV
Until we know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. We may think we’re alive, but in the spiritual world we are dead. This death is a separation from God. Once we come to Jesus and believe in Him, we are given a new spiritual life which lives on in relationship with God forever.
As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. John 6:57 NKJV
This new life comes from Jesus. It can only be obtained by “he who feeds on Me” says Jesus. Let’s think about bread for a moment, since that’s the symbol Jesus used to try to communicate this message of life.
Physical bread is used to fill the void and satisfy something within. It also nourishes, sustains, empowers and strengthens the body. Eating physical bread causes us to take it in and it becomes part of us. Our body uses the food to draw nourishment from it to fuel the body. Likewise, when we take in Christ we are strengthened by Him, nourished by His words, and empowered by His Holy Spirit.
Hunger and thirst are used as symbols of something obviously lacking. There is an emptiness inside which drives us to fill it. We can try filling it with possessions, power, money, friends, lust, family, but the only thing that will slack this hunger and thirst is Jesus Christ.
The apostle Paul understood this in Galatians 2:20 NKJV: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
How about you? Can you say along with Paul “I no longer live but Christ lives in me”?
Lord Jesus thank you for being our Bread of Life. Thank you for granting us life forever when we come and believe in You. Lord, we take you in as we do bread and drink. Thank you for your sacrifice that we may live on in you. In your name we pray. Amen.
© Elizabeth Marks, author of ThinkOnIt Devotions and has a heart for encouraging others with God’s Word. For more devotions, bible studies and a recommended book store, visit http://www.ThinkOnItDevotions.com today.
3 ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say.
‘Why aren’t you impressed?
We have been very hard on ourselves,
and you don’t even notice it!’ “I will tell you why!” I respond.
“It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves.
Even while you fast,
you keep oppressing your workers.
4 What good is fasting
when you keep on fighting and quarreling?
This kind of fasting
will never get you anywhere with me.
5 You humble yourselves
by going through the motions of penance,
bowing your heads
like reeds bending in the wind.
You dress in burlap
and cover yourselves with ashes.
Is this what you call fasting?
Do you really think this will please the Lord?
6 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
and remove the chains that bind people.
7 Share your food with the hungry,
and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
and do not hide from relatives who need your help.
8 “Then your salvation will come like the dawn,
and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your godliness will lead you forward,
and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
9 Then when you call, the Lord will answer.
‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.
Isaiah 58:3-9
We can’t be living in our “Holy Huddles.” We shouldn’t be saying that we love and serve God when we are not serving and loving His children. We live in a world that is full of pain and sorrow and they need the love of Christ. So why are we ignoring their need? God sees their cry clearly and He knows that we can and should do something about it. Let’s show Christ to this fallen world by meeting their needs. This is true worship to God. …Just something to think about.
In Christ’s Love,
Angela Sanchez
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