I am a Christian, a retired teacher, a mother and a grandmother. I love to read and I love the Lord Jesus Christ! Unless otherwise specified ,all visual illustrations are from the YOU VERSION APP of the Bible.
The Holy Bible exhorts us to encourage each other in multiple verses. Here are a couple of them.
We can encourage each other that Christ has preceded us in death and is waiting for us in Heaven. So, we should be encouraging each other to keep on working for Him and His kingdom, to continue to stand for what is right in the face of rampant evil and to defend our faith when others mock or scoff at our beliefs.
No one except God Himself knows when Jesus is returning. But we do have the promise that He is, so we need to meet with other believers and encourage each other that Jesus’s return is a fact, not a myth as some would have us believe. It will happen! We may or may not live to see His return, but His return will occur in God’s time and that truth should encourage each of us and lead us to encourage others.
We aren’t just on this earth to form a little clique of believers, encouraging each other and separating ourselves from the ungodly until Jesus comes. We are in the world to serve others, just as Jesus did. Being kind and encouraging others should be a way of life, especially for the Christian. You may be the only “Jesus” that that other person ever sees, so show someone you care by taking the time to be present with them and be the one that they can talk to, hold on to and depend on. Encourage the unbelievers, too.
By Wilferd A. Peterson (August 21, 1900 – June 2, 1995)
Slow me down, Lord! Ease the pounding of my heart By the quieting of my mind. Steady my harried pace With a vision of the eternal reach of time.
Give me, Amidst the confusions of my day, The calmness of the everlasting hills. Break the tensions of my nerves With the soothing music Of the singing streams That live in my memory.
Help me to know The magical power of sleep, Teach me the art Of taking minute vacations Of slowing down To look at a flower; To chat with an old friend Or make a new one; To pat a stray dog; To watch a spider build a web; To smile at a child; Or to read a few lines from a good book.
Remind me each day That the race is not always to the swift; That there is more to life Than increasing its speed.
Let me look upward Into the branches of the towering oak And know that it grew great and strong Because it grew slowly and well.
Slow me down, Lord, And inspire me to send my roots deep Into the soil of life’s enduring values That I may grow toward the stars Of my greater destiny.
I have a small plaque of this poem that my husband and children gave me about three decades ago. It hangs in my bathroom next to the sink, a place where I can see it each day if I choose to take the time to look at it. Lately, I have been seeing it a lot, first out of the corner of my eye, then taking it down and reading it carefully and finally, taking the time to read and think about what it is saying to me. This life that we live on earth goes fast. We are only here for a season and then we are gone, leaving footprints behind on the hearts of others. At least, that is our hope. I want to leave a footprint that says that I loved well and that I was well loved. I want to leave memories of activities together and laughter that we shared. I want to enjoy the moments, days, years that I have left on this earth making a difference in the lives of those whom I know best and love best. I can only do that if I slow down and take time to just be.
The world says to rush around and work hard each hour of each day so that you can make more money to buy more things. But Wisdom says to listen, to understand how quickly life passes and how important it is to take the time to be with God, to be with those you love. That is why we need to slow down, so that we can appreciate what we have and be grateful to the Father who gives us all things.
These last few months, I have felt as though I knew what it was like to be the desperate woman who reached out to touch Jesus for her healing. I have been to specialist after specialist and had more medical tests than I knew existed, but the answer to my fainting and dizziness has been elusive. Then on Thursday, I saw a Balance Specialist. If you are blinking and looking again to see if you read that right, I can assure you that there is such a thing although it’s a totally new concept to me, too. My cardiologist had done innumerable tests and suggested I see my ENT to check for an inner ear problem. My regular ENT referred me to a Balance Specialist, a physician’s assistant who is actually a specialized physical therapist. I must admit that I went to the office with a little trepidation, wondering what in the world the new test would be like. This likable thirty-ish young man spent about half an hour with me. First he used some goggle like instrument that made me feel as though I were playing a video game in total darkness. He said that was checking my inner ear and there was no problem there. Then he had me lie down on a table, took my blood pressure, sat me up suddenly and took it again. Voila! An answer! It seems that the med that I am taking for my high blood pressure is a Beta blocker that keeps my heart from speeding up as it needs to do when I change positions. As a result, I get dizzy and if it doesn’t correct quickly enough, I faint. So, I was given instructions to talk to my cardiologist about changing or modifying my medicine. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? But apparently it wasn’t since I have been to five different specialists since February and not one of them picked up on this problem. Anyway, I still have a few more tests to undergo to satisfy my neurologist but I am delighted to have an answer that seems to be something that can be easily addressed. What amazes me is that God knew all along what has been happening and has kept me right in the palm of His hand. I haven’t been frustrated, angry or discouraged as I am accustomed to getting when faced when plans that had to change. God has comforted me and encouraged me that everything will be okay if I am patient.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my “word” for the year is TRUST. I set out at the beginning of the year with the goal in mind that I will learn to lean into the Lord, trusting Him no matter what. God took me at my word and is helping me to fulfill that promise.
I would like to think that the worst is behind me, but even if that is not proven to be true, I know that I can completely trust God’s love for me. My health may not be what I want it to be, but my soul is thriving with God.
This is a quotation from a devotional that I read this week. Hudson Taylor had a lot of challenges in his life, yet he could still write these words and mean them with his whole heart. I plan to copy this and put it on a card on my bathroom mirror, just to remind myself that I am still moving forward and God is still with me, fulfilling His promises to me.
What has God done for you lately? What is your testimony of His greatness in your life? Small things, big things, all things. Give God all the glory!
A great leader, speaker, teacher and fellow Christian passed away yesterday. I never got to meet Dr. Stanley but I was aware that he was from my home state of Virginia and listened when he was speaking because he always seemed to speak with such wisdom and compassion. For a biography of his life and legacy, go to In Touch.
I had to research why today is special. After all, it is the day after the crucifixion of our Lord and the day before He arose. So, why is Saturday special? I used to spend the Saturday before Easter at Easter egg hunts with my children or gathering the clothes together for everyone to get them ready for Easter Sunday. However, this article opened my eyes to the truth of the Scripture. Today is a day of rest. I will let the words from the article I found speak for themselves. It is enlightening for me to know that even in the death of the Lord, God continued His plan that He established in the beginning.
And so, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Jesus reminded them—and us—how to rest.
The gospels describe this time period in several ways: Jesus was “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” All four gospels report that His resurrection took place on “the first day of the week,” which for Jews was Sunday.
There’s some dispute on this, but the majority of scholars agree that Jesus died on a Friday—”the Day of Preparation.” This means that He was not in the tomb for 72 hours, no matter how you slice it. The only full day He spent behind the stone was Saturday—the Sabbath—the day on which God commanded the people of Israel to rest, just as He had rested after His work in Genesis 2.
Here’s where it can help to take off our Western glasses and think more like the authors of the New Testament. They didn’t divide days at midnight like we do, but at sundown. And in the first century Jewish mind, part of a day counted as a whole day. So, because Jesus was buried on Friday evening and rose on Sunday morning, He was in the tomb “three days and three nights” by Jewish reckoning. By modern reckoning He was in the tomb only one full day: Saturday, the Sabbath.
Here’s that worldview gem I promised: After God incarnate had declared His work on our behalf “finished,” He honored the Sabbath once more, just as He had at the beginning of creation. In the tomb, God rested.
G. K. Chesterton writes in “The Everlasting Man” that this Sabbath Jesus spent in the earth was the last Sabbath of the old creation, which was marred by Adam’s sin.
“What [the disciples] were looking at” on Sunday morning, writes Chesterton, “was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of the gardener God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening but the dawn.”
When we rest on the Sabbath, we do so not in the old creation, but in the new—not in the world marred by Adam, but in the world being renewed in Christ. We trust not in politics or princes or earthly decrees, but in Him who became, Himself, our Sabbath rest.
I don’t watch awards shows anymore and it’s not just because they have become such an outright blasphemous display. I stopped watching them long ago when I realized that every award show is just a group of boastful people tooting their own horns loudly. My philosophy is that those who are doing good do it quietly and God rewards them, not the academy of motion pictures or the other musicians or even a group of fans. Doing good is without a lot of fanfare because one generally does it to benefit others, not to make themselves look good. It annoys me when millionaires announce that they have given a great sum of money to a certain charity. I would be more convinced of their generosity if they did it and didn’t then tout it everywhere.
Mother Theresa was a giver, deep in her heart and soul and for all of her life. So what if you don’t feel lauded by the world, appreciated and praised? That is not our purpose here on earth. God made each of us for a reason and He knows how important we are, so that is what really counts.
The Scriptures tell us numerous times not to boast or be filled with pride. The real reward comes from God when we stand before Him and hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” I would rather have a “well done” accolade from the Lord than the applause of many empty-hearted people who don’t even know the real me. God knows the real me, the one that wants to do my best for Him, and He loves me and counts me as worthy of the death of His Son. I’m not really anyone important, but to God, I am His beloved daughter, and that’s enough.
May you be blessed with the knowledge of your worth before the Lord God and know that you are important to Him.
I haven’t written a lot about what has been going on in my life recently because I didn’t want to share how hard things suddenly became for me. We went to our son’s house on Thanksgiving and I ended up staying for two additional weeks to do childcare, similar to what I did last year. The difference this year is twofold: one, I had not prepared to stay, so I did not have a lot of my warm things with me; and two, the infant is now a very active toddler and my seven decades have difficulty keeping up with him. I have been home this week as my son and his family celebrate at Disney. I am so blessed to be home for almost two weeks, spending time with my beloved kitty and my even more loved spouse, taking care of errands and just settling comfortably into my chair with a warm blanket tucked around me. Next week I return to Maryland and my duties there. Yes, the work is harder for me than I want it to be, but God is allowing me to be a witness for a season, so I am trying to approach the situation with joy. My husband will be with me for Christmas and then he will come back to Virginia for the month of January while I remain behind.
One of the offshoots of my stay there has been higher blood pressure, a condition that my nephrologist wants me to get under control because of the effect on my single kidney. So one of the first things I did when I returned home was schedule an appointment to see my cardiologist. I saw the physician’s assistant instead and received a prescription for a new medicine to add to my Beta blocker. Unfortunately, I reacted badly to the medicine with some rough side effects, so now I am awaiting word from the doctor’s office about what, if anything, I should do next. Meanwhile, I am praying and hoping that the high blood pressure will pass and I will level out again. As my husband said, I am anxious about my numbers as I take the reading each day, so it is not a surprise when they are higher. I am trying to control my thoughts and thus my hypertension, but I’m not too good at it.
I read in Dr. Denison’s Forum today about joy and was happy to discover a quotation from Henry Nouwen. I hope that it speaks to you as it spoke to me. I encourage you to follow the link to Dr. Denison’s post and to sign up for his Forum. He gives a refreshingly Biblical insight into current events! Dr. Denison’s Forum
Henri Nouwen observed: “Joy does not come from positive predictions about the state of the world. It does not depend on the ups and downs of the circumstances of our lives. Joy is based on the spiritual knowledge that, while the world in which we live is shrouded in darkness, God has overcome the world. Jesus says it loudly and clearly: ‘In the world you will have troubles, but rejoice, I have overcome the world.’
“The surprise is not that, unexpectedly, things turn out better than expected. No, the real surprise is that God’s light is more real than all the darkness, that God’s truth is more powerful than all human lies, that God’s love is stronger than death.
Joy is not based on circumstances, but on the unwavering truth of God’s Word. And that is a fact that I can live with!
Have a blessed day and may you find joy and peace in your life, no matter the circumstances.
Most times when I was disciplined as a child, I learned something. Hard lessons to learn about not lying, not rebelling, not taking things from others. But I learned that I would be punished. Nowadays, I am thankful for God’s judgments because it is from Him that I am learning to be more like Jesus.
I continue to pray for all who face the final judgment of God, and I am well aware that we learn the lessons about righteousness that He is teaching now or we will live eternity separated from Him because we didn’t accept and learn from Him.
Have a blessed day and look forward to God’s teaching us righteousness. It is for our good always.
Here is a quotation that seems fitting for today:
“A. W. Tozer wrote, “The only safe place for a sheep is by the side of his shepherd, because the devil does not fear sheep; he just fears the Shepherd.”
The inspiration for today’s post came from Dr. Denison’s Forum on October 13, 2022. You can read the entire article here: Dr. Denison’s Forum, 10-13-22
This is kind of a different way of saying “What would Jesus do?” But this quotation made me ponder deeply. None of us knows when we will take our last breath, so it’s worth noting that our choices might be different if we had an inkling that our end is imminent. Food for thought, for sure!
We definitely learn from our choices, both good and bad. I think of life as a test with a steep learning curve. It is up to us to use what we have learned to grow spiritually so that we don’t continue to make the same mistakes over and over. It is not a coincidence that the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years; they made bad choices and didn’t learn from them. God was patient in continuing to lead them, in my opinion. It’s a good thing that He is also patient with me because sometimes I get stubbornly stuck in trying to force Him to accept my way instead of accepting that His way is best.
Yes, we make choices daily and those choices have consequences, but I go back to the first question that I asked. “Would you change what you are about to do if you knew it would be the last thing you would do?” Think about it as you listen to the song below. If you read the “Forum” article, you know that this is the last song that a twenty-three year old sang before he died in an accident. May we ever be mindful that tomorrow is not a promise, but a gift.
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