Tag: God

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Different View of Valentines

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Isn’t it great to read the different ways people celebrate Valentines? I truly enjoy scrolling through FB and seeing the restaurants where couples are celebrating the special day. The flowers that grace the different tables, as  we imagine the smell of the roses that sweethearts have brought home.  Boxes full of candy that are ripped apart as we promise ourselves “only 1 piece a day” that are emptied 3 days later. The cards that adorn the mantles of our homes are simple but meaningful ways to express the words that somehow are so hard to say sometimes, but then, finding just the perfect card, we hope that our loved ones are able to read between the poetic lines of love that talented writers are best able to express. Yes, all these are great way to celebrate a day set apart for showing special people just what we feel about them.

This year, having lived in a new city and new community less than a year, I began to think about all my past Valentines days. I remembered the years which I wondered about what I might receive. Would I have some of the beautiful roses, or a box of candy? Would I be able to sit and read a card over and over, all the while thinking about the person who thought enough about me to actually send a card. As I thought back, it dawned on me that most of the past years, I made it all about me.  Yes, of course, I bought for kids or grandkids and my sweet husband, but in the back of my mind, all the time I was picking out little tokens of love for family, my mind seemed to drift towards wondering what I might receive.

This season of life allows us to have time to sit and ponder. Ponder things which might need to change; think about ways in which we can enrich the lives of others before thinking just about ourselves. So I began. I was going to do something totally different this year. Making up pretty little bags with a bar of lavender soap, a tea bag and a little Godiva chocolate, I made up 20 little bags and tied them up with a red ribbon. When I ran out of the chocolate, I baked a few red velvet tea cakes and substituted those for the candy.

Yesterday morning, handing out the Valentine bags to women around our table at Bible Study, you would have thought I was handing them a $100.  The smiles that came to their faces was such a delight to me that I was the one who felt so blessed. In the afternoon, I came home and jumped on the golf cart. Going around in our neighborhood, I ended up delivering about 10 more little Valentine goodie bags. When I arrived home, Randy met me at the door and said, “well, welcome home, I was beginning to wonder if you had fallen and couldn’t get up.” After I assured him that even if I had fallen, I was NOT OLD and I COULD GET UP! I had been gone over 2 hours and had the pleasure of visiting with 9 ladies. Everyone had invited me in and two of the women and I had amazing conversations regarding what the Lord had been doing in their lives. It was one of the best afternoons I had spent in a long time. Just living in a place where you are invited in and people take the time to sit and visit was such a huge blessing to me.

It is 75 degrees again today. The sun is shinning and we ended up riding up to the club house and had lunch with some friends around the pool. A few ladies stopped me and thanked me again for the wonderful little surprise that was dropped off to them yesterday.

It has been about 24 hours since my little Valentine deliveries and I am still on a high from just the sweet conversations, the smiles that reflected from their faces and it has shown me that Valentines can be a whole lot more than just a box of candy or a dozen roses.

It is a time of reflections of how blessed we are when our health allows us to go jump on a golf cart and ride around dropping off little unexpected gifts. It is a day of realizing that we can get out of what we might be expecting from others and begin too reach out and be a blessing to those who might have just lost a spouse, or is new to a neighborhood. It is a day to allow others to see us for who we are…people with struggles, maybe just like theirs. Next Valentines cannot come fast enough. My desire is that I will not wait until Feb to reach out to others, but to look for the opportunities as they come to be a encourager, a light and point others to the Lord praying that “they may know Him by our love.”.

 

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Words & Wonder

Chocolate Castles8 Comments

Saturday morning I went to a brunch where friends from our Bible Study gathered together around the dining table to share some great food and to share the word that the Lord had given to us for 2017.

About 4 years ago a dear friend use to tell us about having a “word” that she had ask the Lord. This “word” would seem to show up in devotions, in sermons, scripture or songs and she always told us that it was a word which the Lord would use to teach her, more of Him. So those of us who took Bible study from her began to ask the Lord if He would give us a word. I remember the first year that I began to ask for a “word.”  I wish I could tell you that I prayed with a believing heart that He would lay something upon my heart but as I prayed I felt myself wondering if truly, I would hear from Him. Each year, always in different ways, He would reveal a word to me that helped me focus on a certain aspect of Bible study which invariably  led me into a deeper knowledge of God and what He desired from me. The first year my word was serve, I began to write down scriptures which I would come across that centered on “serving”. As that year progressed, I found myself serving in ways which I had never thought about.

The following year, being thrown into a year of disruption of our lives and circumstances, the Lord clearly gave me the word, “restore” as I struggled with finding a new purpose, all the while knowing that He still loved me and wanted me to know that just because my circumstances had changed, His will for me had not ,and that was to continue serving Him, just maybe in different ways.

Well, in November of 2016, I began to pray, asking God to reveal to me what word He wanted me to have for 2017. As weeks passed, I wondered if He was ever going to give me the “word”.  On December 20th, I woke up at 5:30 a.m and the word, “tenacity” was just what I woke up saying. I wondered what in the world it meant. It was a word which I do not ever remember saying, much less using it in a sentence. I fell back asleep and woke up at 7 a.m and there it was again, “tenacity”. I thought about it all day and told Randy that “I think the Lord has shown me what my word for 2017 is going to be.” A couple of days later, there in my daily devotion, the word “tenacity” jumped off the page at me. It was then that I realized that yes, the Lord had truly spoken what word my focus would be for the year.  Looking up the definition, i realized that it means to “persevere” and to remain faithful through any circumstance.

As the ladies gathered around the table, last Saturday,we began to share just how God had revealed their words. This was new to each of them, but as we began to share the words which the Lord had given to us, we begin to realize how intimately God wants to be involved with our lives. Most of us were in circumstances which we would not have chosen, but God, in His infinite love and mercy had given each of us a word which shows His love and faithfulness to us. As we listened to the stories that morning,  some of the words which we revealed the Lord had given to us were; hope, steadfast, trust, rest, and calm. It was such a blessed morning to hear how God had been working in each of their lives and how they had been given their word for 2017. As I came home, I began to think about what had just transpired. Women who had never before ask the Lord for a word, had just shared how God had spoken to them, all in a different way, but each one, feeling so blessed by God that He loved them and answered their prayers of receiving what they had ask, a word that would be encouraging and cause them to remember how much He loves each one.

Why do we continue to wonder if God still speaks, when it tells us in His Word, that He has given us His Holy Spirit to speak truth to us.

John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

Psalm 91:15 “He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver hi and honor him.”

Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, which you do to know.”

 

 

 

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God’s Mysterious Ways

Chocolate Castles3 Comments

A little over a month ago, one of my dearest friends lost her 20 year old grandson, Jared, due to a sudden illness. So many questions evolved from this event that was and still is looked at as a tragedy.  Jared was such a precious Christian young man, who lived his life, not for himself, but for God and for others. During the weeks after his death, stories began to be heard of how Jared’s influence had touched so many lives. Friends and family, knowing that they could, no matter the pain and suffering they were experiencing, still always trust God’s Hand, even in the middle of this heartache. I had received a text from Cora telling me that, when we could talk, she wanted to share a story of how God was being glorified in Jared’s death. Well, today I was blessed to be able to hear the story. After hearing it, I ask permission from Cora and Becky to share it with you, as we always need to be sharing how God works in ways which only He can orchestrate.

Because Jared and his brother Andrew use to work in the summers with younger boys at a gym, coaching, this particular gym held a fund raiser this past Saturday in honor of Jared. They had  Becky, Jared’s mom, to come say a few words about Jared, which she so willingly did. During the break of Becky speaking, (she had to speak to two different groups of people, so had some time before she spoke the second time) a young lady came up to Becky and Cora and ask if she could share something with them. When Becky responded with, “yes, of course, how can we help you”, the young lady said, “oh no, I don’t need anything, but I just had to share something with you.” She proceeded to tell them that she had never been in a church before attending Jared’s memorial service and that she was just so impressed with how Becky and Darren had been able to speak so lovingly about the Lord and His faithfulness  in front of almost 2000 people about Jared. This young lady,  who saw Jared at the gym, when he was there working ,went on to say, how she was so impressed with the way everyone spoke that day of the Lord and how much He meant to them. That because of Him, they were able to have a peace that surpassed any understanding. That God’s love was so evident in the young people that gathered that day to celebrate his life. She knew from seeing Jared at the gym, that what everyone was saying about Jared was true. As she concluded her story , getting more excited with each word, that every since Jared’s service, she had gone to church every Sunday (except one, when she was out of town) .Cora said that this young lady was just elated that it was Saturday, which meant that she would getting  to go to church again that next day.

When Cora relayed this story to me, I began to cry, thinking  to myself, “shouldn’t I get that excited every week that I get to go to God’s House?” We take so much for granted and sometimes church becomes something we “need to do, or have to do” because we feel the need to honor Him. But does it honor Him when we simply go because we are suppose to?

God’s House is a building,  yes, but it is so much more. It is a place to not only gather with other Christians who want to corporately worship our Lord, but a place to bring our hearts and to surrender our wills to His. A place of prayer.  A time of quietness to be thankful for a God who has loved us so much that we want to be in His house. It should never be about us;about being entertained. It should be a time where our hearts and minds are completely yielded to Him and empty our selves of any pride, anger, bitterness or any other thing that takes our minds off of Him. Yes, this young lady’s testimony was a great reminder to me that, truly, there are people around us each day, who  have never heard about the Good News of Christ’s great love for us. That He will give us everything we need when we go through those tough times. That those tough circumstances will be much easier to handle if we don’t wait to call on God, just when we need him, but that every day, we are learning to trust and love our Creator, so that, in those tough times, we are able to feel His presence and know that He is walking through them with us.

Cora had told me that she had been wondering how God would be more glorified by Jared’s death than He would have been by his life. This is just one of those stories that is showing them that answer, and the answers just keep coming.

Psa 103:2,22 “Praise the Lord, I tell myself, and never forget the good things He does for me. 22. Praise the Lord, everything he has created, every where in his kingdom. As for me, I, too, will praise the Lord.”

As per Becky, when I ask her if she minded me sharing this story, “we don’t want to miss any opportunity to bring God glory in what He is accomplishing through our pain & grief. That there is Hope, so that we and others know it is NOT in vain.”

1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

Asa 147: 11 “the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in His unfailing love.”

 

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Hearts In Tune

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

There is a gospel group called Hearts in Tune, which is a favorite of mine. This morning upon hearing more of the tragedy that is going on not only in Dallas, but over the world, those words just kept coming to me, “Hearts in Tune.” It is so very sad to me to listen to commentator after commentator in the media discussing the events taking place. Most of them continue to stress more gun control, more laws and more government programs, thinking that will solve the problem that is taking place in our world.
Never before has our country had such “freedoms”, so many policies and so many programs, all aimed at making America great. In spite of all of the above, America has continued to decline, morally, spiritual and economically. Our families institutions are being destroyed, along with our children, who will be growing up in a world where anything goes. We have continued to push God out of our lives, our families, government and out of some of our churches. We push for more gun control, yet we continue to kill innocent babies. We march for equal rights, when all the time, more rights just bring more confusion and more turmoil.
When will our leaders realize that no matter the policies, programs and laws, until our country falls on its knees in acknowledgment that we need God, hearts will never be “in tune”. What our country needs is a heart that follows after God and his laws. He has promised us that if we follow His plan and His commands, our land will be blessed. What is it going to take to turn us back to Him? I think we are seeing what it will take, more violence, more sin and more “freedoms” which really don’t make us free at all. Our freedom must be in God and God alone, then and only then will we be free to live the lives that He intended.

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Positive Joy

Chocolate Castles2 Comments

Am writing something a little different today, but has been on my heart lately. Last week I heard a preacher on the radio talk about the things we hear day in and day out. Instead of us hearing, “we have a 70% chance of sunshine” we hear, “there is a 30% chance of cloudiness”.

Instead of hearing, “we have 85% of teens who make good grades and do well in school” we hear, “we have 15% drop out rate of troubled teens.”

We are not use to hearing that 90% of preachers keep the faith and serve, congregations for 30 plus years, we hear about the 10% of the ones that walk away from their calling. Why is this? Because the negative news gets our attention. Then we wonder why 65% of adults in our country are taking anti-depressants. We are losing our joy and we are living with a underlying fear of what all is going on around us in the world.

This morning at church, the sermon was on Joy and how we can have true joy and peace even when things are falling apart all around us.

He used the example of when Paul was in prison writing from his jail cell that “the joy of the Lord was his strength.”

During the day what are we filling our minds with? If we are continually listening to the news, we are being bombarded with negative news. I know that we need to keep up with what is going on around us, but how many hours are we sitting and listening to the same news, over and over.

What if we used some of that time on our knees before the God of the Universe?

Phil 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worth of praise, think about these things.”

Phil 4: 4-6 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is near, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God.

When we are tempted to worry or anxious about anything, take those worries to the Lord in prayer.

Mark Twain once said that as an old man, he had seen many troubles, troubles of which most of them never materialized.

Psa 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Rest, Reflect and Rejoice in the Lord, who is our strength and joy. We don’t have to live our lives in fear. We just need to ‘take it to the Lord in prayer” and trust Him for “He is our light and our salvation.”  He has promised to never leave us or forsake us.

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Easter…He Is Risen

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Christians all over the world celebrate our Lord and Savior’s victory over death each year at Easter. Along with the thankfulness to God for giving the world His Son to die for our sins, rising again to win victory over death, and ensuring us we have Eternal Life, if only we believe in Him; that is certainly cause for us to pause and reflect not only what Christ did for us, but what we are doing for Him. Spring is the season of new beginnings and growth. May we search our hearts to see if we are growing spiritually. Are we realizing that with new beginnings come renewal and refreshing. This weekend, let’s take a few minutes to search our hearts to see if we are growing and renewing our relationship wit God. What better time than now to give Him thanks for all He is doing in our lives. To recognize Him for who he is. Are we worshiping the creation or the Creator? Are we giving thanks to the source of all blessings? If not, let’s renew our commitment to God and begin a new season of thankfulness and worship the “only wise One, worthy of our praise.” God the Father.

Happy Easter!   Truly…He is Risen