Give Thanks

"Celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you." Deuteronomy 16:10
 

Has the Lord blessed you? Give thanks!

To Choose or not to Choose...

To choose or not to choose…

Posted by myjourneyoffaithmagazine on August 6, 2012

“He said it would be hard, but he didn’t know how hard it really would be.” These words came from the mouth of my Mother a few years after Daddy passed away. They had been married more than 50 years and now Mother was learning to live without him.  She would have to start a new life apart from her beloved.  They had discussed the possibilities of which one would go first, Daddy had decided Mother could handle being alone better than he could.  In her words, she told me “he was wrong, he just didn’t know how hard it would be.“ She was struggling to handle his passing.
As it happened, Mother developed Alzheimer Disease.  Sometimes a major event will cause the disease to escalate, she was already experiencing signs of forgetfulness in short term memory.  With Daddy’s death, I think Mother reasoned that it was easier to forget than grieve when she remembered him. She refused to take any medication.  She wanted to forget.  And so she did.

Changes in life can be extremely hard.  We can either accept the change as a new challenge or withdraw from it all together.  Mother made the choice to withdraw before she even reached the middle stages of the disease. I don’t blame her.  I might have done the same thing.  I can remember asking her to please take her medication and she replied the usual, “I don’t want to.”  My response was, “Please, I feel bad when you don’t take it.” She said, “It’s not your fault that I don’t want to take my medicine”.  She knew she was making a choice.

God provides changes in our lives as part of the growth process.  Whether the change is moving from one location to another, marriage, children, empty nest, grandchildren or death, it is all part of life.  God provides opportunities to serve Him in ways we don’t even know and certainly can’t comprehend at the time.  The way we approach change depends on us.  Ultimately, we make the decision about how to embrace it.  We don’t know what will happen or what purposes will be fulfilled.  But rest assured God is still in control.

Would things have been different if Mother had made the choice to take her medication in the early stages? Maybe. Perhaps things might have been easier for her family at least for a little while.  Alzheimer still would have worked its evil to the end.  But even through this, God’s purposes did prevail.  A testing of her daughters’ faith gave them a stronger sense of who God is.  I saw the presence of the Holy Spirit within her. Even though she didn’t remember my name, she still knew Jesus.  She remembered the words to the songs she had learned so many years ago.  She remembered the tunes to the songs. And she remembered how to pray.  She would pray, “Dear Father” and end by saying, “I love you, I love you.  Amen”.

Change that occurs in one life affects others.  Alzheimer was a change I did not want.  Mother’s change affected me deeply. Change seemed to be taking place on a daily basis. I knew, however, that God was still in control of my Mother’s life and mine. There were many times during these years that God’s Word would give me comfort.  “My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your Word”(Psalm 119:28).

His Word taught me many things. Chief among them was a verse I had learned years ago and once again had to put into practice:  “I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).

Be Shepherds

1 Peter 5:2
Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve;

Who is the Lord our God?

Psalm 113:5-6

Who is like the Lord our God...who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?

Praise His Name

Psalm 148:13

Let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted; 

His glory is above the earth and heaven.

Psalm 42:1 

 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.

Psalm 91:14
“Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; 

I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

Shout for Joy

Psalm 71:23

My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to You-I, whom you have redeemed.

Be Strong

1 Corinthians 16:13

Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith; be men of courage, be strong.

Darkness into Light

2 Samuel 22:29

You, LORD, are my lamp; the LORD turns my darkness into light.

Your Wonders

Psalm 65:8
The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, 

where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.

God's Compassion

  Psalm 103:13 

 As a father has compassion on his children,

    so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him

Drought Conditions

 In response to a woman of Samaria:
 "Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14

Our land is in drought condition and the earth is crying for water. We have had the hottest June and July on record with temperatures in the 100s weeks in a row. We are not far from breaking records of the number of days over 100 degrees.

The trees are turning brown due to lack of water and the extreme heat.  The leaves on the trees appear to be going into a dormant state in order to survive. Some will die.  We are praying for rain.

Our spiritual condition sometimes goes into drought mode when we distance ourselves from Jesus Christ the "living water". The less time we spend in worshiping Jesus, studying and reading God's Holy Word, in prayer and in fellowship with other believers are those times when our roots begin to dry out.  We can reach drought mode without realizing it. Sin creeps in and before you know it, you don't have a quiet time, you don't attend church and you don't listen to God's leading.  The result: a dried up Christian that has no value for the divine plan God has planned for your life.  You miss the opportunity to be used by Him and for His  kingdom's purpose.

God, of course, doesn't give up on you.  He is ever present in the form of the Holy Spirit within and will draw you back to Him if you choose to listen and be obedient.  How sad it would be to be like the brown trees in drought mode and refuse the "living water" that would make their leaves green again. If your life has become that way, ask Jesus to refresh your soul with the living water of His presence.  He wants you to draw from "the well of water springing up to eternal life."

If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord, then receive the "living water" that will save your soul from condemnation/hell and let Him provide you with eternal life. If you don't know how to accept Him who died as a sacrifice for your sin, click here.  Don't let another minute go by without Him.

Trust in His Name

Job 8:13-15

  Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.
¹⁴ What they trust in is fragile; what they rely on is a spider’s web.
¹⁵ They lean on the web, but it gives way; they cling to it, but it does not hold. 

 Psalm 9:10
Those who know your name trust in you, for you, 

LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.

Psalm 13:5
But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.

Psalm 68:4
Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds; 

rejoice before him—his name is the LORD.

The Birds of the Air

Matthew 6:26
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, 

and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Like a Well-Watered Garden

                                                                  

                                                                  

   The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land 

   and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring 

whose waters never fail.   Isaiah 58:11

Season of Singing

"Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come."

Song of Solomon 2:12

Showers of Rain

Zechariah 10:1

Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime; 

 it is the LORD who sends the thunderstorms. 

He gives showers of rain to all people, and plants of the field to everyone.

Worry

Matthew 6:28
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. 

They do not labor or spin."

The Word of God

Isaiah 40:8

^"The grass withers and the flowers fall,
    but the word of our God endures forever.”

His Angels

Psalm 91:11
For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

The Sea is His

Psalm 95:5
The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.

Luke 12:27
“Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

The Rising of the Sun

Psalm 113:3
From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the LORD is to be praised.

The Path of Life

Psalm 16:11
You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Vineyards

Vineyard in Durnstein, Austria

Closeup of Vines

The Hills of Durnstein, Austria

On a recent trip to Europe, we visited many sights on our Danube River cruise.  Among those were the quaint town of Durnstein, Austria surrounded by vineyards and apricot trees.As we stepped into the world of yesteryear, we experienced  a delightful sight of a large number vineyards with beautiful growing grapes.  We learned that the vines are carefully nurtured and lovingly cared for by generations of families.  Generation after generation has learn the art of caring for these precious vines and a passion to grow grapes.

New vineyards are planted at the top of the hill on a slope from cuttings from the older more mature plants explained by the vineyard keeper.  He was thrilled to explain that vines lasted from 30 to 80 years with the older vines, the ones over 30 years of age, producing the best flavor.

The vines are pruned so that dead diseased branches do not destroy the vine or keep it from producing much fruit. New plants are grafted from mature plants. This constant pruning and replanting keeps the vines and the vineyard alive. So it is that the vineyard is always in a stage of life: dying and replanting to new life. 

Our Christian life is under the careful watch of the vineyard keeper or gardener.  Our life is carefully designed as to where each plant is to be placed, grafted into families, places, careers, service, etc. that touch others and sometimes produce new life in Christ.  He nurtures us never leaving us alone; protects us from harm and things that are not according to his plan and yet still allowing us our freewill to make decisions for ourselves; provides sunshine and rain at just the right time; inspects those diseased spots and makes them known to us; dotes over us as a loving Father would do; and prunes to make sure we are healthy fruit and rid of blotches, disease of sin and worldly desires.  He provides a way for us to become that healthy fruit through sending us His Son Jesus to die and to be resurrected from the dead so that our sins would be forgiven for all of eternity and He sends the Holy Spirit to live within us to give us guidance.  Jesus said this of His Father, Himself and His disciples:

 John 15:1-8 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful... ⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing....  ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

May you become a disciple that bears much fruit according to God's plan for your life.

When We Don't Understand

Psalm 23:2-3 He leadeth me beside the still waters.  He restoreth my soul.

Sometimes the Lord has to bring us to the place of a broken heart before we will give Him our attention.  It is hard to understand why things happen especially when they seem extremely tragic or unnecessary in our opinion.  These are the times when we are grieving over the loss of a loved one or over something that seems so devastating that our hearts feel as if they may not beat another second.

If you know Jesus Christ as Savior, you can know how to survive.  He is there to give you comfort, to heal your broken heart.  Only He can do that.  We do not know God's purpose.  He is God not man.

"God's purpose is never man's purpose. Those things the Lord calls us to endure are part of His plan...The test is to believe that God knows what He is after.  The things that happen do not happen by chance, they happen entirely in the decrees of God.  God is working out His purposes" Oswald Chambers

Attempting to force God to act the way we think He should only leads to disappointment and frustration on our part.  He will never stay within the box we have designed.  Our lives will not be according to our plan. If that was so, how would we learn the majestic power of God Almighty.  He who has power to create the universe and all that is within it.  He who provided the wonderful plan of salvation that only He could provide.  We live in the moment.  God sees eternity past, present and future all at the same time.  We are bound by time and place.  Our perspective is limited.  Why then do we think we know best?

Is your heart broken?  Stop and listen.  God may be trying to tell you something. He is God...we are not.

Charles Stanley says, "Scripture tells us of the Lord's love, faithfulness and wisdom.  Whenever we cannot understand His ways, faith in His goodness must be our foundation."

Learning to Wait

Learning to wait is the hardest thing to do.  The word “wait” means to: stay in place in expectation, to delay serving, to remain stationary in readiness or expectation, to look forward expectantly, to be ready and available.

In a recent lesson in Genesis, Sarai (Sarah after God changed her name) gives Hagar to Abram (Abraham) to father a child because it seemed apparent to both Sarai and Abram that what God had promised wasn’t happening.  Knowing the promise and waiting for its fulfillment must have been difficult for a woman like Sarai who every day longed for a child.  Everyday she was surrounded by glaring stares and muffled laughter from other women who were fruitful.  It had been ten years since God had placed them in Canaan and had given Abram the promise to make him a great nation and now it seemed to them that it was too late for producing an heir together.  They both were old and past time for her body to produce children (or so they thought).

In Sarai’s day, the role of a woman was to produce an heir for her husband.  This indicated that God favored her.  If she did not produce children, it was thought to mean the displeasure of God.  So instead of continuing to wait, they decide to take matters into their own hands resulting in the birth of Ishmael.

What problems that produced in the family!  Bitterness, jealousy and quarreling were the results.  Even to this day, descendants of Abraham through Ishmael and Isaac don’t get along.  If only, they had waited.

But what about the results to our own lives when we don’t wait for God’s timing?  Does that produce bitterness, jealousy, quarreling and many other numerous emotions?  Of course, it does.  If only we had waited.

Oswald Chambers sums it up in the following:

“He works where He sends us to wait. “Tarry ye…until…”.  Wait on God and He will work, but don’t wait in spiritual sulks because you cannot see an inch in front of you! Are we detached enough from our own spiritual hysterics to wait on God? To wait is not to sit with folded hands, but to learn to do what we are told.”

Much like a child sitting in time out, we often sulk because we don’t get our way or perhaps we throw spiritual temper tantrums for the same reason.  God isn’t working fast enough to do what we want.  So we make plans of our own.

It never occurred to Sarai that God’s plan was right on time.  He was out to prove that He could take something dead and make it alive again even the body of an old woman to produce the promised heir.

While we are waiting remember that God is still the only certainty in this life.  He knows the past, present and future and as His plan unfolds, it will happen only one step at a time…not two or three steps.  Sometimes His plan requires no step at all but merely for us to stay in a place in expectation remaining stationary in readiness.

Living by Faith-Moment by Moment

I don't know about you but it is hard for me to live in the moment.  I have a tendency to want to know what the next day will bring.   I guess this comes from many years of schedules of appointments, meetings, and conferences, etc.  When I taught, I lived from bell to bell. When I worked on the job, I lived from meeting to meeting, workshop to workshop, appointment to appointment, project to project.  As a wife and mother, I scheduled doctors appointments, events concerning my children and husband, dinner time, bath time, church and on and on.  My calendar was full of things to do and places to be. 

Now that I am retired, I find it hard to transition into letting go of the schedule and just let things happen. What it really means is I have to let go of control.  I will admit, I don't like that very much and I am sometimes frustrated when things do not go according to my plan.

On a deeper level, it is a matter of faith in allowing the Lord to use me at any moment. When I am preoccupied with what I think I am suppose to be doing, I miss what God intended for me.  In other words, I am working out my own plan for my own purposes instead of following the divine plan. It is a matter of listening and being still.

Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest, states:

"God's purpose is never man's purpose...The things that happen, do not happen by chance, they happen entirely in the decree of God.  God is working out His purposes...A Christian is one who trusts the wits and the wisdom of God, and not his own wits.  If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the leisureliness which ought to characterize the children of God."

Listening to what God tells me and embracing the opportunities He provides is something I desire-living by faith moment by moment.

"Be still and know that I am God"

Crashed!

On a Monday night, my computer crashed.  It crashed at 5:00 pm.  How do I know the exact time?  I teach an online class at 8:00 pm and I was preparing for the class.  Panic set in.  I had to grab my trusty laptop and was very thankful I had already uploaded the files I was using for the lesson that night to the website.  It worked OK but just wasn't quite the same as my desktop.

It had been acting strange, taking a little longer than usual to boot up, download files, etc.  I did a virus check but I stopped it at 70% of my files with no reported viruses.  The virus checker checked 1.7M files with no viruses.  Even a MAC can only be pushed so far.

Yes, I am hard on computers. Ask the tech guys I worked with over the years. Even in the early days of computers, I pushed a computer to the limits.   I make and edit movies as well as doing photography so I need a computer that has a large hard drive and memory.

Life is like my experience with the computer.  We are comfortable with our life and expect nothing will change.  Comfortable with things around us.  Everything works the way it's suppose to and we are happy.  Then when we least expect it...crash! The old things are gone and the new must come.

Why does the Lord allow those kind of things to happen-the changes to take place? Perhaps, so we will grow and expand into areas He has already prepared but knew we would not do them while we depended on the old comfortable ways.  Perhaps it's so we will appreciate what we have and not become so complacent that we expect it to be the way we want it all the time.  Perhaps, it is to grow our faith in order that we will look to Him and not ourselves for the next step.

Change is never comfortable-never.  But He expects us to meet it with expectation of the new things He has prepared and to remember that we are not alone in the next step.  So whether or not it is an expected change or an unexpected one, He has already prepared the way and we can do all things through Him who gives us strength.

Philippians 4:11-13...I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

The Road Ahead

Walking through life is not always a smooth road.  There will be stones in the path to cause you to stumble, bridges washed out causing us to change direction, strong winds to blow us off the path and of course there are those dreaded deep pits that seem to trap you and keep you from traveling forward. 
We may lose our way for a time but we can trust God to guide us in the right direction. We are assured that God is faithful to guide and protect us regardless of where we are on the journey no matter how far away from Him we are.  Remembering that we are the ones who moved and it is comforting to know that He has always been there waiting for us to notice.

When we became a Christian, He did not promise the road would be smooth without pits or stumbling stones.  He did not promise there would be no hurts, no trials, no torrential rains to wash away our life's plans.  He did promise He would be there to hold us up and give us strength. He promised in Roman 8:28
 "we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." 

Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest stated "God's training is for now, not presently.  His purpose is for this minute, not something in the future...It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God...God's end is to enable me to see that He can walk on the chaos of my life just now"

We live moment by moment. Trust Him now and each moment.  It's the process of trusting that will take us closer to a maturing faith in Christ Jesus. Give Him the opportunity to walk on the chaos of your life this minute.