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 United States of America was founded on Godly principles. As we celebrate this Memorial Day, I pray that we will remember our roots and thank God that our nation is still free. Problems abound, but God has blessed us with freedom and for that I am grateful. Let’s remember to pray for our nation today.
I lived on many military bases during my husband’s career, and I never ceased to be stirred by the playing of the national anthem every afternoon as the flags were lowered. I will always know that freedom for our nation came at a great cost, with sacrifices of many lives. Let us honor those sacrifices today with our gratitude and our prayers for their loved one left behind.
I used to sing this song when I was younger, especially with my children and with the children that I taught in various church classes. It has been in my mind a lot lately, so when my devotional this morning led me to the verse below, I decided I needed to share it. It gives me hope because I’m not perfect yet, but He’s still working on me. Like a construction zone in Pennsylvania that seems to be endless, God is still making me into the image that He created me to be.
I have started many projects that I have never finished, but the good news is that God finishes everything He starts and I’m a project that is in the works. You are, too, and that is worth a big “Hallelujah” to the Lord, our Maker, our Creator and the One who finishes what He begins.
Have a wonderful day and may you be blessed with the knowledge that God isn’t finished with you yet, but you’re not what you used to be! Every day is a new day in Him and a day for Him to work on each of us some more! Hallelujah!
There are storms all around each of us daily, the storms of life and change and just surviving sometimes. How we react to those storms tells the world a lot about us as a person.
I have had two huge storms circling around me for months. The first was our grandson’s enlistment in the USN and leaving for boot camp. As my husband and I visited with him weekly, the fact that he would depart at the end of April was always at the back of my mind. Then, it happened. Our last lunch. Our final outing with Isaac, and the next day, he left. I have a deep ache in my heart because I miss him, but his leaving moved me closer to my Father in Heaven, the One who knows how deep the pain is and also how change is a part of life.
The other storm is raging around me as the sister who has lived near me for the last two plus decades prepares to move away. Her daughter, my niece, says that she will come to Virginia to get me for visits, but I know it won’t, but I know it won’t be the same. I’m just praying that different will be better. She leaves the end of this month, another departure of someone I’m close to. Again, I run to my shelter, the Lord who never leaves me no matter what changes the storms may bring.
I am hurrying to my shelter each day, many times a day, actually as the grief of separation overwhelms me. I am trusting God to take care of each of them, both Isaac and Ann, in their new places in life. I already know that He has me hidden in His hand, holding me close. When tears threaten to fall, He is comforting me with the promise that He will always be there for me and I will indeed see my loved ones again. I’m sad for those who don’t have this hope, the shelter on whom I depend so much when the storm is raging all around me.
He protects me from the worst of the storm, saves me from its power that could upend my life and grants me the safety and security of being in His presence, calming down my storm-tossed emotions.
My prayer for each of my readers is to know the safety and refuge that comes from being with the Lord. He is dependable and always ready to hold out His hand to help and comfort. His Word is a shelter, too, a tower and shield against all of the depressing thoughts that could come if it were not for His presence. Seek His love, His comfort and His presence and you will find it. He is just there, next to you, waiting for you to call upon Him.
Part of our message in church yesterday was that we cannot be good enough to save ourselves from eternity in hell. Before I became a Bible-believing, Jesus-confessing Christian, I thought that I was a pretty good person. I didn’t do too many bad things and I generally felt bad and apologized quickly when I did offend someone. I didn’t kill or steal or destroy things, so I thought I was okay. Then, one night when I was alone and reading the Book of John, I was convicted that I am a sinner, saved by grace and that God had to send His Son into the world for die because of my sins. Well, really the whole world’s sins, but He died for me! I discovered almost fifty years ago that I would never be good enough to have a relationship with God without Jesus as my Intercessor.
No matter how much we think that we are doing right, even when we are doing things that we think are for God, we are not good enough to have a relationship with Him without Jesus forming the bridge between us. God established His plan of salvation from the beginning of the world. I am not wise enough to understand how God knew from creation that he would need to send His Son to save us all from our sins, but Genesis 3:15 is called the proto-evangelical verse because in it God says, speaking to the serpent in the garden: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.” (MEV) On the day of Jesus’s crucifixion, part of this Scripture came to pass, when Jesus was nailed to the cross. Satan thought he had finally won the war, but Jesus rose again and showed to Satan and all of mankind that the ultimate victory is His. God knew we need a Savior, yet so many are still lost in their sins, thinking that they are good enough and they just want to live their own lives without any “interference” from God. God doesn’t want to interfere in your life, my friends. He wants to bless it beyond what you can ever imagine. Furthermore, He wants to spend eternity with you. But, as the old saying goes, the ball is in your court now. You have to choose to believe that you are not good enough and that you need a Savior to be saved from your sin. Your eternal destiny depends on your own choice, so choose wisely!
What is a hymn? I’ve always thought of it as a song from the book in church, one with verses and a chorus. At http://www.dictionary.com, the word hymn is defined as a song or ode praising God. So, the purpose of a hymn is to praise our Lord. Isn’t that wonderful to know on the day called Maundy Thursday? This is the day on which Jesus established the Last Supper with His disciples and washed their feet, leading by example even before He suffered on the cross.
So, the definitions are done, let’s get to some favorite hymns and choruses for Easter.
This is one of my favorite hymns ever, although not this version because it wasn’t around when I was growing up. I had to learn twenty-five hymns by heart and sing them a cappella to our choir instructor in order to be in the choir at the Presbyterian church I attended with a friend. Sharon, my friend, finished the task right away because she had been attending church for years already. I was new at the whole church thing but I was all in for singing hymns, so I studied and studied, memorizing all of the verses and singing them with all the talent God gave me. I used to have a clear alto voice and sang joyfully and loudly for anyone who cared to listen. Today, my voice cracks, but I still remember fondly the hymns I memorized years ago and many of the words to those songs have given me strength when I needed it. This is one of those hymns.
This is what I would call a chorus, with many repetitive words that are memorable and meaningful. This is one of those songs that was on the screens at various churches I attended, one that I sing to myself sometimes when I am alone and no one except the Lord can hear my feeble attempts at praise. This is special to me because it reminds me to take time to worship God, not just to make petitions to Him, but to really worship Him. It is showing reverent love to the One who created me and who has kept me safe and on the right path all of these years.
If you ever listened to a Billy Graham Crusade, you heard this distinctive voice singing this song because he appeared frequently. I used to be at my grandparents’ house when they watched Billy Graham and you could hear a pin drop during the minutes that Mr. Shea sang this song. He was a favorite of my grandparents and his voice singing this song resonates in my heart still today, bringing back fond memories of Nanny and Pa sitting and quietly listening and probably reflecting on their lives.
I hope that you will feel free to share with me some of your favorite hymns or choruses. There are many more, but these are my top ones, especially for this season of celebrating the Resurrection of our Savior.
May God bless you richly with a song in your heart and peace in your soul.
Do you remember as a child trying to get your parents’ attention when you thought you were doing some great noteworthy feat? I’m not sure I recall my own childhood, but I do remember my children crying out impatiently, “Look at me, mommy! Look what I can do!” With my attention divided between three children, I could not always look on command and I’m sure sometimes I disappointed one of them during their daring attempts to defy gravity.
The times have not changed, nor have the children’s need for attention. Nowadays, though, it is the grandchildren clamoring for my time. “Look, Nanna! Look at me!” They do cartwheels, ride bikes, jump off sofas and build towers, all with my attention riveted on them for as long as I can manage before another child’s cry diverts me.
As children of the Living God, we also clamor for attention. Speaking personally, I know that I am constantly crying out to our Father to look at me and notice what I am doing. Or, conversely, I petulantly accuse Him of not paying attention and allowing bad things to come along in my life and disrupt its flow. Like a demanding child, I want all of God’s attention all of the time. Today’s Scripture verse addresses this conundrum.
God is omnipresent, everywhere at once, watching everyone. I am struck with awe that the Creator of the Universe watches the wicked and the good. So, I pondered that thought this morning. Why would God want to watch the wicked? Because, my friends, He created them, too. They may be making wrong choices, but He loves them and desires them to straighten up and go on the right path, to choose Jesus as their Savior and to enter into a relationship with Him. We don’t need to cry out to God to watch what we are doing because He is always watching. He sees me when I lose my temper and yell at my husband for something thoughtless I think he has done. He sees me when I grumble and complain about small things that have no real importance and won’t matter later. He even sees me when I quickly send up a prayer for His help and then choose to do my own thing. Because He is always watching, God is always aware of what is going on in my life. There is no “Hide and Seek” game with our Lord. We can’t hide from Him one minute and then demand that He pay attention to us and answer our prayers the next. It boggles my mind that God can watch the entire Universe, with all of its diverse people making all kinds of choices every second, and still have time to listen to prayers, calm fears and heal. God is always watching, always waiting for when we truly need Him and in reverence call on Him to come to our aid.
I’m so thankful that God is always watching and even more so that He watches over the wicked, too. For I was once a sinner and now I am saved by His grace. I pray that many more over whom He is watching will seek Him and His free gift of salvation before it is too late for them.
Be blessed today and remember that God right there, watching and waiting to bless you!
And another verse from a devotional that I completed last year:
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow
By Thomas Ken
Praise God the Father who’s the source;
Praise God the Son who is the course;
Praise God the Spirit who’s the flow;
Praise God, our portion here below!
I’m very blessed to report today that our daughter’s pathology report came back with clean margins. That means the surgeon got all of the carcinoma (yes, it was cancer) and that there is no reason to do more surgery or even more treatment. The news was better than I expected and I am so thankful for the prayers of friends, family and my online followers.
I must admit that I was praying all week (actually for the last month since we heard about the upcoming surgery) for our daughter and her family. And I managed to hold on to my faith, secure in the knowledge that whatever happened, God is in control. That is still true. In the big things, the small things, the things that we think won’t matter to God at all, He is concerned and makes Himself known in so many ways.
One last thing before I go. My husband and I have not been able to have a date in months because we have been taking our grandson out weekly and that is where any extra funds we have had is going. He is going into the USN on April 26th and we wanted to bless him before he deployed, to pour love and caring into his life. Anyway, Harry and I went out to lunch yesterday to celebrate the good news we heard from Hope. We went to a favorite restaurant that has the kind of food that I’m allowed to have and will cook it to order without salt or other seasonings for me. Well, the food was great but the service was awful! The waitress asked for our drink order but didn’t bring anything for twenty minutes. Then, when she finally returned with them, she brought me water instead of the tea that I had requested. Another ten or fifteen minutes passed and I got my tea. Another waitress then came out of the kitchen and approached our table with two hamburgers. Well, that was not what we had ordered, so she returned to the kitchen and after another twenty minutes or so, we got our food. Talk about not knowing what to expect next! Finally, after a long wait, we got our check and I told my husband (I was paying this time) that I was going to bless our waitress in spite of her shortcomings, so I gave her a large tip. My husband said that I was extending mercy and grace to her. Of course! Just as God does for me daily!
If you get the chance today, extend mercy and grace to someone who is irritating you. You will be blessed in your heart and soul because of your kindness to a stranger. Who knows? Maybe they’re having a bad day, just got bad news, or are struggling in ways that we cannot see. Everyone needs a blessing. God blesses each of us so that we can in turn reach out and be a blessing to others.
Have a blessed day, my friends and remember to go to church tomorrow.
Vickie's Book Nook and Meditation Corner 