ettingerwriting.wordpress.com/2023/08/15/a-perfect-right-now-bible-passage/
Please go to the original post and follow David. Be encouraged by his enlightening words and the truth that he shares in love.
Author: vicklea
I love to read! I’m a retired teacher with a spouse of 45 years, three amazing children and nine wonderful grandchildren. I am blessed!
Our Own Road
In my morning devotional, I have been reading the book of Jeremiah and pondering how much alike Israel was compared to the U.S. today.
God continually warns us to make right choices. If we study His Word, we will know the Godly way that we are supposed to take. Unfortunately, many people in the U.S. don’t know God’s Word and don’t want to read and find out what it says. As a result, instead of finding the rest and peace that their soul needs, they are continuing on the “road to perdition.” Satan generally makes his way look attractive, the “easy way” or the “way to riches, fame and glory.” We (and when I say we, I am referring to the people in the U.S.) typically choose any way but God’s way these days. Thus we are lost on a road of our own choosing.
As Christians, we are not lost but we are seeing more lost people every day. At least, I know that I am. I see them in the stores, on the roads and on the little snippets of media that I watch. They are all going their own way. What can we do? Put God’s Word out there for them to read. They may pay no attention to it, but at least they have been warned. Speak God’s Word into their hearts. Again, they may pay no mind to it, but at least they have heard. We cannot change people’s hearts; only God can do that. So, as we sow the seeds of His Word, we need to make sure that we have prayed and asked God to open hearts and minds to Him and to his Godly ways.
As I continue to read Jeremiah, I tend to get discouraged over the state of our nation and how comparable it is to Israel. False gods, a pretense at religion and a lot of pride. But I trust that God knows what He is doing and will make all things right in the end. After all, God has a plan and He is working to fulfill that plan. Jesus already died. Now we are awaiting His return and praying for as many people as possible to take the right path to God. We have to do our part; God has already done His.
Forgetting
As I age, I have become forgetful at times, but I have not forgotten all that the Lord as done for me and I hope that I never will. However, there is a Scripture verse that says that Israel seems to have forgotten the Lord and it is heartbreaking to realize that this is even a possibility.
It seems that those of us who have been so blessed by the Lord here in the USA have also forgotten where our blessings come from. Would that we would start remembering again! The end result of forgetting about God’s intervention on our behalf is not pretty nor is it surprising. How long will God continue to suffer the insults of His people whom he has cherished? We don’t know the answer to that, but the days of His patience seem to be coming to a close as the evil of mankind seems to be flourishing.
I repeat what I began this post with. May the Lord help me to remember and to tell others so they, too, are reminded of His grace and mercy.
God’s Response
For those of use looking aghast at all of the sin that is being touted as normal in the world today, God has a response already given in His Word. You want to know why these things are happening? Read the Bible. You want to know the end result of all of this sin? Read the Bible. You want to know what God thinks about what is going on? Read the Bible. I have found myself turning to God’s Word not just for comfort but also for a hope for the future when things all around me look hopeless.
Are we a nation calling on the name of the Lord? Sadly, the answer is “no.” We are a nation lost in our own glory instead of depending on God and His glory. We are a nation that isn’t looking for God at all. God hasn’t moved. He is ready to answer our cry, ready to be found. But, as a nation, we are not calling on Him. Of course, there are a few of us who are calling on God, but the tumult of the many who have turned against Him resound so loudly that we are being ignored. Not by God! We are never ignored by God! We are ignored by the powers in D.C. and in each state capital who could actually change the direction in which our nation is going, if they would just call on the Name of the Lord. We are ignored by the media (unless they are vilifying Christians as an evil and divisive force). We are ignored by those who need Christ in their hearts.
The end result is not a good one. God will not sit back and patiently wait forever for men to call on Him and turn away from their sins. Look at God’s response to Israel’s sin after calling on them to return to Him over and over. The nation was destroyed, the people were taken captive and led away to Babylon, a symbol of sin and unrighteous living. These were God’s chosen people and He did not allow them to continue in their sin, their mocking of the One who had led them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land to begin with. Can we honestly say that God will deal differently with America? Judgment Day and the wrath of God is coming. Before that day comes, may we open our eyes and turn to God and sincerely repent and ask for His help. I am not seeing this happen. I am not prophesying that it will. I just have a little grain of hope inside me that someone in power somewhere will be stirred to call on the Only One who can make a difference in this chaotic and topsy-turvy world that is controlled by sin and darkness. God wants to answer…He is waiting for the call. As Christians, we need to pray for mercy but also for God to reply to our prayers. Perhaps judgment will be the answer; I can’t say because I don’t know. But I do know that what is happening in the world today is an abomination to the Holy Lord and it will not be allowed to stand without consequences.
narrowpathministries.wordpress.com/2023/08/11/why-going-to-church-is-important-part-2/
Please go to the original post and follow the author. There is great insight here about reasons to attend church.
Review: IN A QUIET TOWN by Amber Garza
About the Book
On Sale Date: August 8, 2023
9780778334255
Trade Paperback
$18.99 USD
336 pages
ABOUT THE BOOK:
In this chilling new novel, a pastor’s wife discovers that her estranged daughter is missing, but no one will believe her, until she meets a man claiming to be her daughter’s fiancé.
The book is about Tatum, a woman who secretly reconnects with her estranged adult daughter—secretly because Adrienne’s been all but disowned by Tatum’s husband, a pastor at the church in their small California town, where every move is watched and reported by his congregation. When Adrienne doesn’t show up for her shift at the bar where Tatum’s been visiting her, she knows something is wrong. Adrienne may have been a bit of wild child, but she hasn’t missed a day of work without calling in for years.
Tatum tries desperately to get the police or her husband to take her daughter’s disappearance seriously, until a mysterious man shows up claiming to be Adrienne’s fiancé. It’s a relief to finally have someone who believes her and is trying as hard as she is to find out where Adrienne is. But can she trust that this stranger is really who he says he is? And can she find her daughter before it’s too late?
My Thoughts
This is a slow-burning suspense thriller that is compelling and intricately plotted. Tatum’s daughter Adrienne is missing, but she can’t get anyone to believe her since she was estranged from her family and they had little or no contact with each other. Then Seth shows up, saying he is also looking for Adrienne since they are engaged. The twists in this book just keep coming! The beginning was a little slow as the story was building but the pace quickly picked up once all of the characters are in place. The POV is Tatum’s, Adrienne’s and the fiancée’s. I spent part of my reading time making sure I knew who was telling which part of the book because that is very important to the story. There are clues everywhere as well as some false trails. I felt compelled to continue to read because I wanted to know what happened to Adrienne as much as Tatum did. This is a mother-daughter relationship story, with the males in the story not only being secondary but also being untrustworthy. I enjoyed the complexity of the story with its multiple layers…Adrienne’s childhood, her quest for independence and her mom’s subjugation to the pastor father Shane. Religion was presented almost like a crutch here, so I didn’t appreciate that part, but I did like that prayer helped out in the long run. The conclusion was satisfactory, but the author leaves it up to the reader to fully close out the story of the two women and their future choices. I really liked Tatum, but I was annoyed by Adrienne for most of the book. I just wanted her to make better choices and to let the past go. All in all, this was a great read and well worth the time invested in getting to the meat of the story.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review, and all opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16th CFR, Part 255, “Guidelines Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”
About the Author
SOCIAL LINKS:
Author website: https://ambergarza.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/ambergarzaauthor/?hl=en
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ambermg1?lang=en
FB: https://www.facebook.com/ambergarzaauthor/
Purchase Links
Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/then-she-disappeared-amber-garza/18816653?ean=9780778334255
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/in-a-quiet-town-amber-garza/1142722524?ean=9780778334255
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Town-Novel-Amber-Garza/dp/0778334252
My Words
This morning in my devotional, God was dealing with me about my words, particularly the words I use with my spouse. I am very careful to choose my words with people whom I don’t know well or those I want to make a good impression on. But with my husband, I just say what I think and I am not always kind.
For example, when we went to the beach, Harry brought along a huge fishing cooler. Of course, he had put it into the back of the SUV and I didn’t even see it until we arrived. I was actually shocked to see it there and asked him why he would bring it, full of his clothes like a weird suitcase. He said he brought it to take to the beach with us. Well, I exploded, mostly from embarrassment at the laughable idea of him dragging that across the beach with us. Nevertheless, he took his clothes out of it and packed it daily with his towels and other things he wanted to take along to the shore. That thing is heavy even empty, so he only carried it a short ways and then truly had to drag it across the sand. I was berating and not at all kind as I followed him to the place where our daughter and her family had set up chairs and an umbrella. Then, he pointed out that he as dragging it in front of me and making a smooth path for me to walk across the sand so I would not fall. How foolish I felt about all of my unkind words! I had chosen to speak without thinking and to express my honest frustration instead of noticing his commitment to safeguarding me.
We didn’t really argue about the whole cooler thing, but I was not happy and I am sure that everyone knew it because I don’t hide my feelings well. If only I had seen Harry’s genuine acts of kindness and shared kind and appreciative words with him! They would have cheered both of us up!
I don’t mean to have a “deceitful tongue” but sometimes I confess that I do not tell the entire truth. I make excuses that I am doing it for the benefit of the other person because I don’t want to offend them. What I am really doing is saving face for myself. God wants me to be completely honest if I am going to say anything to others. Or, the other choice is to just be quiet! I don’t want to go around being deceitful, then the other person finds out what I was really thinking (or others tell them the whole truth), and they are crushed because I wasn’t honest to begin with. God is honest with me. He tells me when and how I need to change. He doesn’t mince words or tiptoe around so He doesn’t offend me because He has my best interests at heart. If that is my real motive, can I do any less towards others?
Words matter. They show the condition of my heart and places that are raw inside me and need to be healed and changed. Sometimes, they show what I am really feeling and sometimes they show a parody of what I feel because I don’t want to be offensive. I end up offending anyway more often than not, so my plan to not do so doesn’t usually work out for me. Kind words…gentle words…think before I speak and speak as the Spirit leads. My lesson for today, and I hope that it helps you, too.
Practice Now
The Scripture is very clear that one day every knee will bow before the Lord and give Him the worship and glory He deserves. Read that again and think about it. Every knee! Those who are in power, the rich, the poor, the homeless, the famous and the infamous. All will bow before the Lord. So my thought is that we should be practicing our worship now and get ready for that day. There are so many who are still lost in their sins, so many who will be bowing in fear of the judgment to come, so many for whom it will be too late for them to repent and confess Jesus as Savior and Lord. For those of us who already recognize God’s sovereignty, mercy and grace, we should spend time on our knees praying for those who do not yet acknowledge their Creator.
I would like to think that this verse means that everyone will be saved, but I know that is false thinking. Everyone will bow before God, but not everyone will have acknowledged Him as their Savior. We will all face Judgment Day, some of us with Jesus as our Advocate. Thus when God opens the Book of Life and finds our names written there, we are safe from the lake of fire. But others are not and that breaks my heart. Therefore, while there is still time, we need to practice our worship, practice our faith and practice telling the gospel to others. We don’t have to be perfect at it…we just have to do it. We are rescuing people from eternal flames of hell, and that is worth whatever discomfort we face in order to tell them the truth about how to be saved. Every knee! The whole earth…
Our Intercessor
Many years ago, back in the 70’s actually, my husband and I attended Youth with a Mission. There we studied the Bible in preparation to share the gospel with others wherever we went. We also studied the works of some great theologians. One such book was by Norman Grubbs and was entitled Rees Howells: Intercessor. If you are interested, you can get a copy here:
This book tells the amazing story of a man who dedicated his life to intercession. So, what is intercession?
The Cambridge Dictionary defines intercession as “the act of using your influence to make someone in authority forgive someone else or save them from punishment.” https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/intercession
The Bible says that each one of us who has accepted the Lord Jesus has an intercessor because He intercedes for us.
Jesus’s death on the cross was a “once and done” action, but His intercession for us is constant because although we strive to be like Him, we have not achieved perfection.
What is our role in the world if we want to be intercessors like Jesus and plead for the souls of friends and loved ones? We are standing in the gap for them, asking God for mercy and as David Ettinger said in his blog today, we are to realize that they are blinded and need to pray for their eyes to be opened. David Ettinger on WordPress
For more information about Rees Howells, check out this video,
Our Instruction Manual
Many times as our children were growing up, I would throw up my hands in despair, look towards Heaven and tell God that since He made them, He needed to help me raise them correctly. His response was always the same, “I already gave you the instruction manual.” Of course, He did! But when I was frustrated, I would forget to turn to it.
God’s instruction manual for our lives is in His Word. I recall my husband putting together baby cribs, small furniture and toys. So many toys! Bikes, Barbie houses, race car tracks, etc. He would start out okay but soon I would hear Harry call my name and tell me that he was stuck because there seemed to be a part missing or a step he left out. So, I would head to where he was and he would start again. This time, I unfolded the instructions that he had usually left in the box and read them aloud to him, one step at a time, until the work was finished. You see, he always thought he could complete the task without looking at the instructions. After all, it should be easy and it was just “common sense.” I think we do the same with our lives. We are going along happily and come across something unexpected that disrupts our plans and our happiness. Instead of reaching for our instruction manual in God’s Word, we often try all kinds of other solutions first. We call a friend for help, we decide to deal with the problem another day (I call this the “Scarlett solution” from GONE WITH THE WIND. If you have read the book, you know the reference). Or we simply walk away and try to live life without a solution to the problem If only we could all learn to first look in our instructions and follow them step by step. God does not leave us without teaching, correction and rebuking us. He does all of this for our good and expects us to take the instructions out of the box and use them. They are for our good and end up helping us to be more like Jesus.
After a time of fruitless grumbling and whining to God about the children and their actions, I would inevitably turn to my Bible, finding comfort and resources there to continue to parent in spite of my children’s opposition to my parenting skills. I learned by doing things incorrectly and then I learned how to do them the right way. God always has a right way to do things, including putting together the puzzle that is our lives. I also learned that when I disciplined the children, reading Scripture with them and praying with them afterwards soothed them as well as me. We were reconciled to each other and to God, and that is exactly where we needed to be.
Vickie's Book Nook and Meditation Corner 