TICK, TICK, TICK

Billy Graham

What a great question. What are you doing to prepare for your last day on earth? What kind of legacy will you leave behind?

I don’t know about you, but this sure makes me think!

“All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers, and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” Isaiah 40: 6-8.

Father, keep us ever mindful of eternity, for your word endures forever.

Love Your Enemies


Good Monday morning! Sorry I’ve been MIA lately. Between lots of company and celebrations, plus being sick for a week….Well, you all know how it is. I hope everyone had a great holiday season and you are up and running in the new year.

Here’s a verse, one with a difficult command, to contemplate today.

It’s so much easier to do good things for those we love, right? Yet, Jesus commands us to LOVE our enemies. What? LOVE them? How do we do that?

We certainly don’t love our enemies through our own strength. It is only through Christ’s strength that we can accomplish this task.

Have you pictured an enemy in your head? Can you think of ways you might love that person?

Father, only You can give me the insight and the strength to love my enemy. Show me a specific way to show love to this person and give me the strength to obey your command.

New Year’s Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions

Many of us make New Year’s resolutions every year.  We resolve to lose weight, eat healthier, exercise more, keep our house and office clean, and be kinder to family and friends.    People make all different types of resolutions, intending to keep them. 

How often do you keep your resolutions?  How often do you think others keep their resolutions—at least longer than a few weeks?  If you reviewed your resolutions weekly, do you think you would be more likely to keep them? 

I tend to forget yearly resolutions, but I am more likely to follow through on weekly resolutions.  Try one or more of these weekly spiritual resolutions:

  1. This week I resolve to learn more about a local bible study and fellowship group.
  2. This week I resolve to spend some time reading my bible or a bible-based book.
  3. This week I resolve to talk to God, asking forgiveness for my sins, for guidance in living a godly life, and for His grace for others.
  4. This week I resolve to listen to God: listen for His guidance and listen for answers to my prayers, both spoken and unspoken. 
  5. This week I resolve to schedule some quiet time with God to read, to listen to music, or to meditate on His greatness.                                      
  6.  This week I resolve not to become discouraged, but to ask His forgiveness and begin again.
  7. This week I resolve to remember His life, death, and resurrection, and to live my life as a reflection of my beliefs.
  8. This week I resolve to help the less fortunate.
  9. This week I resolve to love others the way You love them.
  10. This week I resolve to thank God for His many blessings.
  11. This week I resolve to look for the small joys from God.

Choosing one resolution is the first step toward renewing your spiritual life. Reviewing your resolution on a weekly or even daily basis will help you to better remember and keep it. To more easily enable you to do this, consider posting your resolution in a visible place.  When you see it, ask God to help you keep it.  You might consider sharing your resolutions with a trusted friend. We know that “all things are possible” with God, even keeping resolutions.

Colossians 1:9-11a “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.  And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way:  bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might.”

Father, as we contemplate this new year, reveal Your ways to enrich our spiritual lives and better reflect Your spirit living within us.  Help us to make spiritual resolutions, to review them regularly, and to grow ever closer to You. 

Hear the Crying

Hear the Crying

Imagine if you will, Christmas day more than 2000 years ago in the town of Bethlehem.  Jesus is born.  Do you feel the crisp morning air?  Do you smell the animals and the hay?  Listen.  Do you hear the newborn crying?  Can you see Mary, seated on the floor of the stable, holding her tiny son?  Can you see her rock back and forth to comfort her babe?

Thirty years later, behold a dry and barren land.  The voice of John the Baptist cries out in the wilderness. “Make straight the way for the Lord,” he calls to any who will listen.  Now that the crying baby is grown, his cousin John cries for the repentance of his people.

Three years later the mother of Jesus cries.  She weeps at the foot of a rugged Roman cross.  High above is the broken body of her baby boy.  The once tiny babe is grown, and men have nailed him on a cross.  She cries for her son as he suffers and dies.

In just a few days, everything changes. Now those bitter tears, those agonizing cries have turned to miraculous cries of joy.  The son who was crucified on a cross is no longer in the tomb.  He is alive!

As you contemplate these cries, think about your preparations for Christmas.  Did you spend many exhausting hours shopping, wrapping, cooking, cleaning, and baking?  Did you cry in anger, frustration, or fatigue? 

Through your tears, remember, the babe who cried in the manger is the Lord who died on the cross.  He is the same Lord who was resurrected and is alive.  He is the same Lord who washes away our sins so that we, too, may become blameless and live forever in heaven. 

Once again, we hear crying, the crying of our hearts.  We cry, remembering our sins.  We cry in repentance, preparing our hearts for His coming in our lives.  We cry in grief, remembering His sacrifice.  We cry in joy, recognizing His resurrected life in us and anticipating eternity with Him.  We cry tears of delight, for we realize that even though all the preparations are not yet finished, we are, finally, ready for Christmas.

May we never overlook the reason for the celebration.  In all the busyness and scurrying, let us take time to reflect on the miracle of our Lord’s birth. Let us cry tears of repentance and gratefulness, remembering our greatest Christmas gift.  We have worked so hard to prepare for Christmas. May we work just as hard to prepare for His birth and life in our hearts.  May this precious life within us cry out joyfully for all to hear.           

Psalm 34:15 “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry.”

Praise the Lord!

What has he done for you? This verse is asking us to share the great things he has done.

I’ll start, with a shortened version of my miracle girl. When my daughter Kristan was only 8 1/2 months old, she had a routine ear, eye, nose, and throat infection. A normal infection for a child, right?

After several days of medication, her fever shot up to 105 degrees, dangerously high. I immediately called the doctor’s office. It was late in the afternoon, so the nurse asked me to bring her to the office in the morning.

After the phone call, I went to her room to check up on her. She was listless and didn’t seem to recognize me. When I picked her up, I noticed the back of her hand was swollen. It had not been that way 10 minutes earlier. So I called the doctor back.

The nurse asked me to hold while she talked with the doctor. When she got back on the phone, she asked how soon I could get there.

During this time, my husband was at the neighbor’s, ready to pick up our only car at the mechanic’s garage. I ran outside and flagged them down as they drove down the street.

They took us to the doctor’s office, which was closed. The nurse was waiting at the door to let us in. My husband, Scott and our neighbor went to pick up the car while Kristan and I went to see the doctor.

He checked her quickly and then told me he thought she had meningitis. He took Kristan and I to the hospital in his personal car and asked the janitor to let my husband know where we were when he returned. (No cell phones in those days!)

In turned out that she did have meningitis, and she spent two weeks at the hospital.

The doctor later told me that she would have died if we had waited until morning to get her medical help.

I learned that the swelling hand is a rare side effect of menigitis.

Here’s the great thing God did. He made sure she got the medical care she needed by causing her hand to swell. Because of that, the doctor diagnosed her disease over the phone. I think both of those are miracles God sent to save her.

God saved my sweet miracle girl’s life.

What great things has God done for you?

Thank you, Lord, for the many great things you do in our lives. Thank you for saving my daughter’s life.

Is There Room at the Inn?

Is There Room at the Inn?

For several weeks I’ve busily prepared for the holidays. The house is decked out in Christmas finery: the tree is lit, garlands cover the stairway and windows, and angels and nativities adorn the tabletops.  Holiday meals are cooked, and the pantry is stocked. Treats wait for children and grandchildren to indulge. Gifts, wrapped in red, blue, and green, sit under the tree. After all the work, I’m finally ready for Christmas! Once my loved ones arrive the celebrating will begin!

While I’ve worked, I’ve wondered what preparations Mary made. Like all pregnant women, she must have made special plans for the birth of her little one. Since Joseph was a skilled carpenter, Mary surely asked him to make a cradle for her soon-to-be-born infant. She must have arranged for her mother and at least one other woman to assist with the birth.

I wonder how the trip to Bethlehem impacted her plans. Did it make her fret and worry? Did she cry, thinking she might have her child while on the trip? Or did she calmly prepare, packing swaddling clothes and trusting God to provide?

In spite of her preparations, Mary surely wasn’t ready when she started labor in a town far from home. Did she cry for her mother? Was she frightened when they could not find a room? In a quiet corner of a little village, in the company of stable animals, Mary gave birth. Surely this birth didn’t happen the way she had planned. But the birth of the son of the living God as a tiny, helpless infant happened precisely how God planned.

I suppose the real question isn’t how Mary prepared for the birth of her son.  The question is this: as I make my preparations to celebrate the savior’s birth, have I left room for him in the inn of my heart?  Perhaps I need a little more time to truly prepare for Christmas. What about you? Are you prepared?

Ephesians 3:16, 17a “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”

Food for Thought

Oswald Chambers

Are we glorifying God to impress others? Or to feel better about ourselves? Or are we truly glorifying God, not to lift ourselves, but no acknowledge How amazing our God truly is? What does scripture tell us about this?

I’m sure you can find other appropriate scripture, but here is one to contemplate:

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for the love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” Matthew 6:5-6.

Lord, forgive us for those times we glorify you in word, but in actuality, are trying to draw attention to ourselves. Teach us to humbly worship you and you alone. Thank you for your many blessings, for your love, your faithfulness, and your amazing grace.

Sermon Snippet

Sermon snippet: “Joy is a choice and we can choose it because of His Spirit living within us.”

~Dave MItchell

Thank you Father, for sending your Spirit to live in us that we might experience true joy!

Christmas Decorations

I treasure this Christmas decoration for three main reasons:

  1. My granddaughter painted it for us several years ago.
  2. It looks beautiful hanging in our living room.
  3. It embodies the essence of Christmas.

Here are some of the scriptures that each of these names was taken from.

Vine: John 15: 1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

Light: John 8: 12 “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Morning Star: Rev. 2:28 “I will also give that one [Christ] the morning star.”

Lord of Lord/King of Kings: Rev. 19: 16 “On his [Jesus’]robe and thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

Savior: Luke 2: 11 “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”

Living Water: John 4: 10 “Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

Shepherd: John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

Immanuel (Emmanuel): Isa. 7: 14 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

Messiah: Matt. 1: 16b “And Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.”

Christ: Romans 5: 20, 21 “The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Everlasting Father: Isa. 9: 6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulder. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Father, as we contemplate and celebrate Christmas, let us see both the child born in a manger and the man who changed the world. Let us see the man who was God living on earth to save our souls.