Encouragement for Monday

Yesterday the US celebrated the 4th of July, a day we celebrate our independence. So, belated Happy Fourth of July to others in the US. A lot of us have today off as well so bonus for us. I also hope you are having a good day today wherever you are. It is bit hot already but after watering, I did get some beautiful pics of my yard and thought I would share them with you, they will be at the bottom.

Last night’s devotion in Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, combined with the Fourth of July celebration, really gave me pause for who we are. Peter spoke to the Israelites making them understand that they were a chosen people for God’s purpose. For any of us who follow Christ, it does not matter what nation we live in, trust in, or love. That is all temporary. We are His nation regardless of location…even if a nation of one.

The gratitude we feel when we draw near to God, enables us to perceive more clearly the love relationship we have in Christ. Nothing can separate us from His Loving Presence. Sarah Young

That is a huge comfort because I know I mess up every day. We can’t control everything around us but we can control how we react to it. Instead of worrying, trust! In stead of panicking, trust! Instead of clinging to old ways that no longer do us any good, trust! He is always doing something new for us, protecting us for His use. Trust!

He always has a hand out for us to grab. Grab and hold tight, for while it may be a bumpy ride, it will be a glorious ride.

And remember, some are having a bumpier ride than others, so always be kind.

Weekend Encouragement

Its Friday again friends – wow what a week. I hope your week was good and hope this encouragement can help with anything you may face for the weekend

I am enjoying this much needed rain we are getting but I hope we don’t get too much. We are such a silly lot, complain when we don’t get enough and then complain when we seem to get too much.

The encouragement I am sending today comes from various sources that I read and I am combining three of them as they all spoke of a central theme – the various gifts God gives us and how we choose to use them.

The opening statement in Jesus Calling by Sarah Young said “Open your hands and your hearts to receive this day as a precious gift from God.”

There are many forms of gifts we are given and we know from our reading and studying God’s word that each of us has been given a gift unique to us. He takes great delight in reminding us that He is always there and He rejoices when we reflect His beauty in our actions and gifts.

I am taking a writing course in poetry, not what I thought it was going to be, but the lesson I am learning is how sad life can be without God in your corner. God opens doors often to show his great love for us but we have to be willing to open our hands and hearts to accept it. Billy Graham’s devotion had a statement that made me chuckle but only because I fully understood what he was saying where those who don’t know Christ are still floundering on the dry beach gasping for air.

“While the IRS keeps a record of how we spend our money, that is nothing compared to the records God keeps with how we spend/use our gifts.” Billy Graham

The majority of God’s gifts probably are not of monetary value. In some instances they are, but most are gifts to help further His kingdom. And these gifts affect how we walk our in Christian lives. In Oswald Chambers Devotion this morning from Utmost for His Highest, he made a statement that sometimes we can not be effective in our walk until we have been through the Fires of Sorrow.

As a saint of God, my attitude toward sorrow and difficulty should not be to ask that they be prevented, but to ask that God protect me so that I may remain what He created me to be, in spite of all my fires of sorrow. But if a person has not been through the fires of sorrow, he is apt to be contemptuous, having no respect or time for you, only turning you away. If you will receive yourself in the fires of sorrow, God will make you nourishment for other people. Oswald Chambers

And that to me is a true gift from God, the ability to stand strong when chaos is swirling about you, knowing He has got your back; the ability to still see the world through a glass half full instead of half empty; and the ability to show comfort and kindness to others when there have been times when you yourself were not show these things. So I remind you to take courage and peace in knowing God is holding your hand.

And as you feel the love and peace of God surrounding you, remember to be kind. Acts of kindness can have a profound ripple effect.

Puzzled

I am taking a course to help my writing. Today it focused on poetry, something I dabble in but am not great in. But I was taken back by the samples of poems we studied and how very sad they all were. Then the other people in the class also seemed a bit sad but loved the sadness of the poem. I was confused. The leader of the class wanted us to focus on gratitude and how we wrote about being grateful.

I understand that for some that may be difficult but for me, I just look up and around at all the beauty around us and am very grateful. Yes, there is ugliness all around as well but I think if we look more intently, we can see more beauty than ugly. I also understand that I am now safe and comfortable but I do know what it is to suffer, to be oppressed and to be the victim of abuse. I just chose to look past that and am blessed in being able to be at a point in my life where I can be grateful.

For homework, we had to write a poem about what draws us to write. So while we all have a life to live, I wrote about the beauty life can be. And thought I would share my poem with you.

Ode to Life

I step out the door, take in a breath and listen to the energy of life

The force of it comes wielding our way like a sharp unstoppable knife

I close my eyes, taking in the smells as they deftly assault my nose

Fresh mown grass and lavender compete with the sweet red rose

The tinkling of the wind chime is what I hear first

Then the hawk calls out with her shrill short burst

The bees hum softly while quenching their thirst

And birds at the feeder are fighting to be first

Life is shared on all of creation, a gift with love that is never easy

Some parts are harder than others and some parts can make us queasy

But each part has its own beauty, a beauty we find hard to see

For it is the creator intension that we should all live free

When life gets hard, we want to back away

Confrontation, not something we want to stay

But confrontations now will make us strong

Giving us wisdom to survive the throng

So come let us step outdoors, breathing in this beautiful life

Understanding some days are good and some are fully strife

If we focus more on the good, our faces will begin to smile

And the beauty of life around us will help us conquer this trial.

Anita Neal

In all of life remember the power and beauty of being kind. That in itself is a gift.

Monday Encouragement

On Mondays and Fridays I send out a little encouragement to remind us that even though this world can give us troubles, we have an advocate to help us traverse these trials. I pull in scripture with pictures for these encouragements because they help me visualize better. Today I want to remind all of our deliverer.

Good evening friends. What a glorious day today we had here in the midwest. It was a true reprieve. Webster describes reprieve as : to give relief or deliverance for a time. And today with the little bit of rain we got Sunday and the front finally moving through, it gave us a much needed but short reprieve – after all it is June and legally summer for the northern hemisphere. It was 72 when I left the office today – 72!! This time two weeks ago it was 92 . Thank you, I will take this short deliverance from the heat.
Deliverance is an interesting word. We think of getting something delivered to us or delivered away from us that makes us relieved in some way. I like to think of the quiet but powerful deliverance we get from God. The Psalms are full of the messages of deliverance from the troubles of this world. God protects us – I picture a cleft in a rock or a cave with Jesus standing protectively in front of that opening. Nothing harmful is getting past Him to us.

We are delivered…for all time. Hard times, difficult times and sad time still come but we are given peace to survive them.

The only thing is, it requires trust. And for some, that can be a hard thing. Sometimes our lives blow up in our faces so much we have little trust to give. But if we can get there, it is the most surprising thing to feel and comprehend. There is not anything you can compare it to here on earth for it is not from earth – it’s from heaven.

So trust in Him, believe He loves you, even when we may not seem loveable – He still loves us. He loves us when we feel on top of the world and when we are shattered and scattered across the floor. He is always close at hand, you just have to reach out to Him and he reaches down to you.

His hand is always reaching for your hand, regardless of where you are in your walk with Him. At the beginning, in the middle…wherever you are.

So be encouraged that you don’t have to do this alone. You have an advocate to walk beside you. There are even times He will carry you because you just don’t have the strength. He will never leave you.

Remember his profound kindness to you and try to always be kind for others who are struggling.

And the War Goes On

Since the fall of creation, the planet and its many species have been at war with each other. Some fight to establish dominance, some fight to protect their homes. When we think of war, we think of people for they are the most ruthless and demeaning of all but I want us to think of smaller territories…basically the back yard.

Since March I switched from the suet feeders to the seed feeders. I have been enjoying the various birds that come to my yard and through switching feeds around, I have settled on Saffron seeds for two reasons. One squirrels don’t like them and various birds that I consider take over birds (Grackles & sparrows) are generally not a big fan of Saffron. Yes, I lose some of the other birds I enjoy watching but the ‘war’ seems to be less intense. While sparrows are cute and cuddly, they come in swarms and deplete the feeders before anyone else can have any so, sorry guys but you are pigs.

What I did not expect to see was the war between the Blue Jay and the Robin. While I do have a ring of peanuts for the Blue Jays and the Woodpeckers, I have a platform feeder with Saffron for the Robins and the Mourning Doves. The rest of the feeders are tube feeders filled with Saffron.

I did some research and found that Jays and Robins generally have strong animosity towards each other but will nest in the same tree. Coming from the south, I am well aware of tactics of Jays and always thought the Robins to be the gentle bird. Not in my yard. If a Jay dare show his face in my yard, the Robins come out of nowhere and run them off. Its quite comical. The obvious leader of the Jays in this area is quite large and beautiful. He is a large male that is a good bit bigger that the Robin – no matter, he runs from the Robin.

***Is he around…not back there…not on the ground…***

I write a lot in my blogs about being kind to all kinds but you can’t train out instincts of nature. One day we will all get along, but not today. So until, that day, try to always be kind. You will be surprised of the encouragement you will spread.

Encouragement for the Weekend

Good evening friends. Hope your week has been good. Have you ever questioned if you were doing things as God needed you to. I think we all have from time to time and after I read my Thursday’s devotion, I questioned myself enough that I had to run it by Pastor Rob. I think it’s normal to ask those questions for when we get so comfortable never to ask, then that may be a troublesome sign. And it’s funny to me how God usually finds a way to answer those questions, either through someone, a song you may hear or something that you read. When I read last night’s devotion before going to bed in Jesus Calling’s Evening edition, I had to smile at God. In paraphrase…

He is pleased when we ask questions of concern of our walk, for asking is a collaborative way of living that he had in mind for us when we were created. The more we collaborate with the Spirit, the freer we become. Freer to live in and love extravagantly and to know Him with increasing intimacy. Sarah Young

I love the comparison of a Christian to a caterpillar as we change and grow to become a beautiful butterfly in His eyes. I had this short piece below published in an anthology last year, The Sound of Brilliance, that reminds me of our struggle sometimes as a Christian being somewhat bound in a dark harsh world.

A Monarch Task

The warmth awakens me but I am tightly bound. I can’t move. My life blood is pulsing through my veins, waiting to explode. My head is pounding and screaming to break free of this dungeon. Yet, I can’t move. As cracks appear at the top of this cell, bright light is filtering in. I push with my might against the wall, as the crack begins to grow. I feel the closeness of freedom. I can taste it in the air, and feel it in the warm light. Pushing again, the binding splits. I roll out of the slit, stretching, feeling the ecstatic of freedom. The warmth strengthens me for my mission, my colors furl out refracting the light on the leaves. Time is wasting, I must hurry, only six weeks of life at best.

And while we have longer than 6 weeks to live, the struggle is the same. We push against the hardness of this world and when we begin to feel the warmth of God’s love, the stronghold of the world breaks and we have freedom of life with the Spirit inside us. The Spirit then stands beside us and guides us as we go to face the challenges we run into.

God always knows our hearts and guides us according to His will.

So I encourage you tonight to not get concerned if you have questions about where you are in your walk, for we are at different places of our walk. But feel the peace of Christ in knowing you are not doing any of this alone. Be safe and have a blessed weekend. And as always, remember to be Kind.

Encouragement of “That Day”

Good morning friends. I hope this day is bright and sunny as you look around the beauty of today. I want to share with you the gleaning I received from my morning devotion. After several days of needed rain, it is refreshing to see the bright sunshine and beautiful blue sky.

Scriptures remind us that some days will be stormy, and I am not really speaking of weather. Life is hard sometimes but we can be lifted to the peace and beauty of the heavenly places through the baptism of the Holy Spirit and then Jesus can teach us the truths of God.

Just as Jesus stood unblemished and pure in the presence of His Father, we too by the mighty power and effectiveness of the baptism of the Holy Spirit can be lifted into that relationship. Oswald Chambers.

All we have to do is ask….

What a great honor to be able to speak, pray and be one with the Father. Being able to come to the Father in this manner proves His love for us and proves our union with Christ is real and absolute.

Once in that wonderful position, having been placed there by Jesus Christ, we can pray to God in Jesus’ name in His nature. Oswald Chambers

So relax and feel the peace of “That Day” – It is not a day in the future but is in fact any day. And remember that not everyone understand this truth. So reflect the Love of Christ as you go about “That Day” and be kind. Kindness is a pure reflection of God’s love.

Kick Moodiness to the Curb

Good morning friends. I wanted to share some encouragement that I got from my devotion this morning. Oswald Chambers reminds us that when we become born again, we have a new way of thinking and a new way of reasoning.

Many of us miss a lot of the joy God has for us because we stay at the door of Christianity instead of walking through embracing His Love. We fail and blame things on the devil when it is really ourselves because we won’t get out of our own way. Think of where we would be if we fully embraced God’s truth. Its hard. We get discouraged and we let our moods run the show. Our moods are rooted in some physical circumstance that is surrounding us. We can pray about it but in reality we just need to stand up to the mood and kick it to the curb. It is a struggle to listen to these moods but we must stand firm against them and not give them the power to rule us.

The Christian life is one of spiritual courage and determination lived out in our flesh. Oswald Chambers

When we feel ourselves being beaten down by our moods, we need to pick ourselves up, shake the mood off and march forward into the peace Christ has for us – even when it seems impossible. Stand Firm!

Sometimes when you are in the midst of a hard struggle and you find that you can still be kind. That is when you have learned to stand firm. Try always to be kind.

The Door of the Cross

The importance of daily study of the Bible creates for us light bulb moments. You know what I mean…those moments where you have looked at a passage a hundred times. You think you fully understand what it means and then something happens in your day that when you read that passage for the hundred and first time it gives it an entirely new understanding – a light bulb moment.

Although we don’t fully understand it, we all believe that Jesus was fully God and fully man. Oswald Chambers in his devotion this morning reminded us of the gift God gave us. He deliberately limited His, omnipotence, His omnipresence and His omniscience to be the Son of Man…for us.

During Jesus’ time, the people of God were under the law. Billy Graham reminds us that the law was a mirror reflecting the wayward heart of man. While the law in itself wasn’t bad, man would never be able to follow it, he was condemned by it. But the Cross and Jesus’ ascension into heaven redeemed us from the power and condemnation of the law.

When Jesus ascended into heaven, He returned to His Father in glory not only as the Son of God but also as the Son of Man. And as He did this, He left the door wide open for anyone to have access through that door of the Cross to the Throne of Heaven. And now, Jesus, as the Son of God and the Son of Man, has all the power at the Throne of God. So take a deep breath knowing as hard as it can be sometimes, God always has our back.

And knowing that God has your back, remember to be kind. Someone next to you may not know that.

Too Busy

Too many times I have heard it said that “If you are too busy to spend time with God, then you are just plain too busy. Slow down.

God reminds us through His Word that He just wants to walk by you side being close. He wants an intimate relationship with each of us.

In today’s devotion of Quiet Times with God, we are reminded of the intimacy we should have with God. Normally when we think of intimacy, we think of the husband and wife bedroom scene, but intimacy is so much more than that. You can be intimate with someone from across the room. Webster define intimacy as something of a personal or private nature. I think it is knowing someone so well that you can speak volumes with them without saying a single word or making a single sound.

“Each of us can be as close to God as we want to be; it all depends on how much time we are willing to put into developing our relationship with Him.” Quiet Times With God, Joyce Meyer

Developing any type of relationship with a person or animal requires time. You are not allowed to be too busy or it just wont work. If we think our relationship with Jesus is not that important, we would be the losers of the equation, for…

Spending time with Jesus is probably the single most important relationship you could ever have. That makes it personal then it fills us with the assurance of His love.

So I remind you of God’s individual love for each of us. It is always available if we just SLOW down enough to enjoy its benefits. And as you do, remember one of the attributes of this love is kindness. Kindness is something that can be shared with man or beast and has the potential to send out roots of kindness out to others in distant places.

Always Be Kind