In the Light of His Countenance

 

  

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                                  Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound\!

                 They walk, O Lord, in the light

                     of Your countenance.

                   In Your name they rejoice all day long,

                    And in Your righteousness, they are exalted.

                  For You are the glory of their strength,

               And in Your favor our horn is exalted.

                                                                      Psalm 89:15-17(NKJV)

I came across this passage as I participated in a time of prayer and fasting. It caused me to pause and reflect on certain phrases.

who walk in the light of Your countenance

We, who claim to be believers in Jesus, must choose to walk with Him and do as He directs us.

In Your name they rejoice all day long,

From time to time in each day, we may have events, small or large, that cause us to give praise or thanks to Jesus for. Your list may be different from your best friend’s. We may give thanks for having the sunshine coming through our windows. We may feel thankful that we have heat or air-conditioning and fans, depending on the weather or time of year. We may receive an answer to prayer. We may give praise to God for the progress a friend has made after being severely ill.

Prayer: Father God, Thank You for Your presence each minute of the day. Thank You for everything You do for us from the time we awaken to the time we go to sleep. You are so precious to us. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. AMEN

August Reflections

 

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Getting Back in the Swing of Things

I thought I found myself getting back to feeling like doing some things. I didn’t know if it is the cooler weather or a “just do it” attitude had taken over. That feeling didn’t hang around for long.

Posting on a Forum

I placed my blog post,”Trust Fall” on this forum that I frequent. I received a lot of good remarks from some of the other members. That made me feel very good.

I missed going to a wedding

The audio-visual man at church got married on the first Saturday of August. I awoke that morning with a sour tummy. I chose not to go because I did not know where that sourness would lead. I had a card already made out. On Sunday, the couple were in church. As I handed her the card, I explained why I was absent the day before. She understood. So did a lady who is related to the husband’s brother. Everyone knew that I made a good choice.

Bible Study

The Bible study I attend on Thursdays is very interesting. The discussions have let me learn more about those with whom I worship. They use the Life Guide series from Inter Varsity Press. We studied Proverbs in July and August. I learned a lot about the topics we studied.

Pastor Rick

This month our Pastor, still on medical leave, walked the entire length of the pew area to receive communion. He then walked across the front of that section of pews and returned to his seat at the back of the sanctuary.

Two days later, we had a funeral for a 99-year old lady who was a member of our church. He spoke for about five minutes, sharing memories of the dear lady. He walked up to the speakers stand, carrying a small three ring binder in his injured left hand. Those was two miracles we witnessed that first week of the month.

New Glasses

I had an eye exam in July. I ordered new glasses. The gentleman who fitted me for them told me they would be in on August 4^th.

That date was on a Sunday. The place is closed on Sundays. I chose not to correct him. Sure enough, I received a phone call on Monday with the news that my glasses were in. We went and picked them up that afternoon.

The Cooler Weather

The thermometer created a wonderful break from the intense heat we had this summer. A woman in out Sunday school class did not like the cool weather this month, “This is August; it’s supposed to be hot.” But, the relief from the heat turned out to be short-lived.

God’s Guidance For Us

When we ask God to guide us, what are we asking Him to do? Do we ask Him for His guidance or do we ask Him to approve our plans for what we want to do?

By asking Him to guide us through a difficult time, we allow Him to:

Guard us from questionable influences.

Unite us with others whp can help us.

Infuse us with Your Spirit.

Don’t give up on us.

Envelop us, Your children with Your love.

Prayers, Please

Please pray for my family. That’s all I can say at this time. Thank you!

Counter-cultural, what does it Mean?

 

In my reading, I have come across the term, “counter-cultural” several times.

Cultural, in this sense, to me means the ways+ of our society and, yes, even our world.

As Christ-followers, we observe the habits and attitudes of people going more and more away from what God expects of us.

We are to stand for Christ. How can we do that?

1. We keep our word.

2. We honor our commitments when we can.

3. We choose our words carefully.

4. We refrain from doing or saying things that bring harm to others.

5. We honor Christ in how we live and how we talk.

6. We honor life and value the lives of others.

7. We monitor how we spend our time and resources.

God’s Guidance for Us

 

imaginebible.org

When we ask God to guide us, what are we asking Him to do? Do we ask Him for His guidance, or do we ask Him to approve our plans for what we want to do?

By asking Him to guide us through a difficult time, we allow Him to:

Guard us from questionable influences.

Unite us with others who can help us.

Infuse us with Your Spirit.

Don’t give up on us.

Envelop us, Your children with Your love.

I have been going through a difficult time this summer. Most of what I write will reflect what I have been feeling. The Lord knows all about this time of my being down. He and I have had some good talks about the issues involved. Some of these circumstances are long standing situations that I really had no knowledge of.

Trust Fall

 

Rick Warren Quote

I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:20 (NKJV)

This is another entry based on the devotional we are studying in Sunday school,

Finding Soul Rest by Curtis Zachary.

In this section, he talks of times when a person stands on an elevated level and turns his or her back to those on the ground and falls backwards into the arms of those standing below.

I have never done this and I doubt that I ever will. When I first read his thoughts, I thought of Charlie Brown and Lucy Van Pelt and her holding the football until the last second and then pulling it away. We all know the result of this maneuver—Charlie Brown falls on his back.

A fairly young woman in our class said she only trusts God. My own thoughts are that certain people I know have a strange sense of humor and would think it funny to do something similar to Lucy. Therefore, I have chosen not to try this exercise, ever.

I am learning to trust God with more of my life. This has been a very good word for me to study this year.

When I called my Sunday school leader about my thoughts on this particular devotion. She remembered that trust was my word for this year.

Trusting God helped me to stay calm when I was working to get registrations for Vacation Bible School. We had a small school but it was a good one.

Our church congregation is trusting God to heal our pastor who is on medical leave until at least next February. He seems to be improving each time I see him. He and his wife come to Sunday services and have returned to our Thursday morning Bible Study when they can.

Trust

I like acronyms. This is one of my favorites.

Totally

Relying

Upon the

Savior’s

Timing.

The Makeup of Trust

What do we know about how to trust God?

Sometimes we ‘say’ we trust Him but turn right around and do something our way; we don’t wait on Him.

We have to have patience in order to wait for God to remedy our concern. There are times the Lord has to teach us something before He is ready to take care of our request.

We sometimes have to wait for God to answer our prayers because we may have asked for something that He knows we are not supposed to have or not ready to have.

July Reflections

 

God led us through VBS

We had a wonderful Vacation Bible School. It was a small school but that was all right. We had 14 to 20 students over the three nights. Two of our workers did double duty. They made a video of the songs the children sang. The backgrounds they used were scenes from our prayer walk, our children’s playground, an area near our pavilion, and in our children’s classroom (the Happy Jesus Room). On the last night of the school, we had a party, with hamburgers and hot dogs and picnic food. Someone made cupcakes. Another lady brought bananas. Our Children’s Ministries Director heads up the VBS. This year was the first time as our director, a man, had not done anything like this. He was thankful for all the help he received.

Children’s Message

Once a month, usually on the second Sunday, I give the Children’s Message to those up through the fifth grade. The children in the nursery are brought in, as well. I usually talk to them about something related to the month. July was a tough month for me finding something to talk about. I have several different months of them stored on my computer’s external hard drive, I even have some printed out to use during those talks. I found one on prayer and how we have our hands to guide us through who to pray for.

B and B Women’s Group

I participate in the women’s group at church. I thought I was signing up to be co-hostess in July. When the June newsletter came, I saw that I had signed up for June. I was aiming for July. My lesson for July is on the American flag. I discovered some things that I didn’t know about our flag.

A Plumbing Emergency

One evening Jim was in the basement and though he saw water leaking from the floor of our bathroom. In the prcess of trying to fix it, one of the anchor bolts on our commode broke. The next morning I had to call a plumber. We had one in mind who fixed our shower back the first of the year. The woman to whom I talked at that number said they were booked for 10 days. I had to call another one. This company was out of a nearby town. (I prefer to deal with local firms when I can.) The gentleman came shortly after I was told he was on his way. Once he got here, he fixed the issue and was gone in under an hour.

Working on a Prayer Vigil

Each local church in our Movement has been asked to participate in a 40 day prayer and fasting vigil for our convening general conference. I finally took our interim pastor a copy of the Prayer Vigil 40 Prayer Guide. I started talking to our church treasurer and he came into the room and said he thought we should participate as a church. His idea was to ask the congregants to sign up to pray for at least one day. He would announce about it and tell them I would give those that chose to participate a piece of paper ( I used card stock.) with that day’s guideline.

This turned out to be a tedious procedure. However, God guided me through the steps and I was able to set up the informtion and the container with the prayer requests on a Friday afternoon. On the last Sunday of July, there were several people sign up to pray one day during the 40 day prayer vigil.

Stormy Weather

We had at least one tornado go through our county recently. The only damage besides trees was the administrative office building of a school corporation to the west of us. This tornado came through at night. No one was in the building. The roof was torn off. Damage to one wall of the building. Damage was done to some school buses. The part of the building damaged had been the gymnasium

of a closed middle school.

Please Pray for Us

I had an eye exam late in July. I get new glasses very soon. The doctor who saw me told me I would probably need cataract surgery next year, if not before. I know that this procedure is not what it was 50 or so years ago, however, that is the good news.

Neither of us is getting steady sleep. For me, it’s feast or famine. Jim might get a couple of hours good sound sleep a day.

A Good Thought

I want to leave you with a good thought. God guides us through each day of our lives. He answers our prayers according to HIS plans for us and according to HIS timing.

JOY

 

For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5 (NKJV)

What is Joy

Joy is something different than happiness. Happiness is dependent on outer stimulus.

Joy comes from the LORD. It is a byproduct of being with Jesus, of working with Him.

At the time of Christ’s birth the sky filled with angels who spoke to the shepherds. The angelic host told them, “And the angel said to them ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. For unto is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:9-11,ESV)

The word Joy appears in the New Testament at least 18 times.

Curtis Zachary in his book, Finding Soul Rest ¹, points out that joy is a byproduct of something else. God answers our prayers, and we feel joy. We receive a special present and we feel joy.

What brings you joy?

The things that bring me joy are as follows:

* Seeing the sunshine through my living room window in the mornings.

* Getting a good night’s sleep.

* Seeing a rainbow after a summer shower.

* Receiving a phone call from a friend.

* Being greeted with a smile at church. We must always thank Him for giving us joy.

* Receiving long prayed for answers to prayer.

                                         

___________________

1. Finding Soul Rest by Curtis Zachary, Kirkdale Press, Bellingham, Washington © 2010.Page 88.