God’s Everlasting Love

“I have loved you with an everlasting love;

I have drawn you with loving kindness.”

Jeremiah 31:3 (NIV)



God never falls out of love with us. He lovingly knit us together (Psalm 139) in our mothers’ wombs. He made us exactly as He wants us to be.

He knows in advance what we will do and say in our lives. (That’s scary. That means He knows when I will loose control and say something He won’t like.)

He rejoices when we rejoice. He laughs when we react to a funny joke or circumstance. God also cries when we find ourselves sad. A friend from high school recently posted to our class’s Facebook page that her husband had died. All those who responded shared her grief and told her they would pray for her.

God hears us when we cry out to Him in our times of loss. He loves us but sometimes has to do some things that hurt us at that time. We have to understand that God has everything under His control even the things that seem hard for us. What He does for us He does out of His great never-ending love for us.

Our Father listens when we talk to Him. He lets us know when He comes near. When we have concerns about our lives or the lives of those close to us, He is there to help us view the options. He guides us through the times of self-doubt and allows us to understand Him and ourselves better.

He does these things and many more for you and me because He loves us forever.

Honor God with the First Fruits

“Bring the best of the first fruits of your soil to the house of your God.” Exodus 34: 26



As a young adult, I heard tithing explained in a way that demonstrated how this verse was carried out. A farmer took his wagon to the field at harvest time. He divided the bed of the wagon by separating a section one-tenth the size of the bed. As the workers harvested the crop- be it corn, wheat, or apples. The best of the crop would be placed in the area separate from the larger part of the wagon. Those things picked and placed in the smaller area became the Lord’s.

Have we ever thought about what all God gives us? All he asks in return is one-tenth of what we have.

When I became convicted about my need to tithe, I worked where my pay days were every two weeks and came at or near the beginning of the week. When I sat down to pay bills, I established the habit of writing my tithe check first.

When we took travel vacations, I wasn’t employed at that time What ever spending money I was given, I tithed also. These exercises taught me several lessons. I learned to obey God about giving back to Him, and to appreciate what He had given me. Both of these things seem to have brought honor to God.

Toward the end of December, I received word that I had made a mistake in my checking account. This affected two of my checks I had written. Because of this error and the charges I accrued, I had an interesting January. I lived like a miser. During the month I received two reimbursements for items I had purchased; one had a sad side to it. A company that I had ordered a tee shirt went out of business. This caused the group I bought the shirt from to issue refunds to all who had paid for one.

God has been with me through this time. Because of the experience, I have started keeping a better track of my funds. I evaluate my purchases closer (Do I really need that right now?)

Our local newspaper has decided to “offer” subscriptions to its online daily editions. I have to consider how this could impact my funds. And two women at our church are presenting a Financial Peace University class for about three months. Somehow they have a reduced rate for those who attend. The younger of the two women is the granddaughter of a personal friend. I want to attend but there again; I want to honor the Lord with my decision.

Honor God with Our Mouths.

Photo found on Bing

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation

of my heart be pleasing in your sight.”

Psalm 19:14 (NIV)



“For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks”

Matthew 12: 34 (NIV)



I confess I used to have a very bad habit; I was careless with my speech. I went through a time of when, if I didn’t say those words, I thought them.

One day at work, I met a woman whose habit caused me to think about how she sounded, how I might sound. She would say those words that took God’s name in vain. She even used that one word that no one likes to hear. A little bit later she talked about going to church. Deep down, I knew this wasn’t the way we were to talk. We have to be mindful of God’s Word on this issue.

When I decided I wanted to write. I purchased a second hand electric typewriter. It wore out and my husband bought me a new electronic one for one of my birthdays. It had correction tape and neat ways to make the font bold. Also, I could set my line spacing. The ribbon was in a cartridge, which meant no more nasty fingers after changing it. But, there was one issue I had with this machine.

The ribbon cartridge and the correction tape spool would not go in place for me, causing the typewriter not to function. I sometimes have a short temper. Dealing with anything that doesn’t work brings it out of me. I yelled, screamed, and said all sorts of bad words. Our son came to my rescue. He showed me how the cartridge and the spool had to click in place before the mechanism will work.

I realized that I had been very careless with my words. “What if the Lord would have come at that moment?” Later, I shared my experience with a lady from our church. She understood why I felt so guilty about my behavior. I asked her if I could call her when I would need to change the cartridge and the spool and ask her to pray for me. She consented to this arrangement. And, yes, I did just that.

When I find myself out of sorts with what has been placed in front of me, I have to take a deep breath, whisper a prayer, and relax before I can fulfill the task I have been called to do. Following this practice has saved me grief and helped me as I try to honor God.

Honor God with Our Hearts and Minds

Honor  God and He will honor us. Bing image

“For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks”
Matthew 12: 34

Do the words of hymns or praise choruses play over and over in your mind? When I have these experiences, I know I am blessed.

When I have the ‘winter blues’, I find myself without a lot of energy. A recent week told me this was where I was at in my life. All my energy since Christmas seemed to take a vacation.

On that Friday, after taking a mid-morning nap, I started sorting laundry. I had prayed and had devotions before I chose to pile down on the couch and rest. As I started to sort the whites, a tune came into my heart. It was to one of the praise songs we sang at church the previous Sunday. I thought, “I wish I could remember the words.” Then the words of the chorus came to me, “Sing praise, sing praise,” I immediately felt my spirits lift.

Several years ago, I remember telling a friend that I felt close to God when this song-fest would happen. I always feel my spirits pick up when I have a praise song or a hymn run through my mind.

Because I felt I was struggling, I did what I felt I needed to do and prayed and read my Bible. I received a blessing by honoring Him even when I didn’t feel like it.

I have since realized that we truly can honor God with what we keep in our minds.

The scripture I chose to begin this essay with is one that convicted me of that occasional verbal slip of the tongue I used to have. Our former church also taught me not to used ‘minced oaths.’ Our drama ministry performed a short play about this subject. One of the women in the play told me later that because of the skit, which I had written, she had stopped using one of the expressions she had been using. Don’t you think we all should be more mindful of God and how He views our habits?

Honor God with Our Choices. Part Two

Choose this day whom you will serve.

As for me and my house,

we will serve the Lord.

Joshua 24: 15 (NIV)



As we go through life we make choices- how we will live, what we believe, with whom we will hang out, how we will dress, how we will make our living, and where we will live. Joshua spoke to the people of Israel. He explicitly told them where He stood. He was going to follow the Lord.

In 21st Century life, we see people being exploited because of their gender, abused because of their age, and mistreated because of some assumptions made by others. We see businesses ignoring the needs of their employees for the sake of the profit margin.

The banking world caused such a blow to the real estate market that we see homes sitting empty for years. We see corporations build new stores, leaving the former locations empty to deteriorate to the place that any future owners would have to expend large amounts of money that either come off their taxes or that expense gets passed onto the consumers who frequent that new business.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we have to weigh our personal beliefs against what we see in our world. Does how we transact business reflect God in our dealings with others? Is God honored with what we say or do? Should we evaluate how we respond to those who wait on us? Could we do better in certain areas of our communication with people? Are we truly striving to bring others to Christ by our witness?

Honor God with Our Choices.Part One

“This day, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against

you that I have set before you life and earth, blessings and curses.

Now choose life, so that you and your children may live”

Deuteronomy 30:19 (NIV)



Moses had called the people together and spoke. God had commanded Moses to

make a covenant with the Israelites beside the one God had made with them at Horeb.

This new pact was an extension of the covenant God had sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses told the Israelites of the disastrous outcome if they went on doing things with a “my way” frame of mind. Toward the end of his oratory, Moses tells them that he has shown them what would happen if they choose to go their own way, mock God, and live for themselves. He reminds them that he showed them both the good that comes from obeying God and the evil from disobeying Him by not honoring the covenant. Moses further tells them to “Choose life.”

At the time I first found this scripture, I was confused by a circumstance in my husband’s life. This escalating situation caused me to be depressed. It colored our family life and, I believe, caused problems for our son.

I sat in our living room one night reading my Bible. For some reason, I was in the Old Testament and found myself in Deuteronomy. When I read the words, “Choose life” I felt relief. I had not known this feeling before. I learned to affirm others.

I’d like to tell you all that because of my choice to affirm life that our problem went away. It did but sometimes it reappears for brief moments. In spite of all the hardships we have faced, God has blessed our family in special ways.

Prayer:

Dear God:

I give thanks to You for Your Word. I praise You for the fact you gave me the insight and the courage to put Your Word and instruction first in my life. I will always remember to give You the credit and the praise for what happens in my life. In the name of Jesus, I pray. AMEN

Thoughts on Neediness

We all need the love of Jesus.

“He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap.” 1 Samuel 2:8 (NIV)

As a teen I heard the term “needy” used to describe those who were without certain basic material belongings. Reflecting on those years, I only heard the word used in November and December.

As a young adult, I attended a Women’s Missionary Group that visited the county ‘poor farm’ from time to time. The group decided to visit at a time of the year other than Christmas. While I understood the thinking, it became clearer when one of the administrators of the children’s home down the road the road from where we lived told me that the residents there ‘got Christmased to death.’ By this, he meant that every civic group in the area visited during the Christmas season.

As a regular attendee of a growing church, I noticed the prayer sheet given out twice a week-on Wednesdays as well as Sundays. The names are those of members, constituents, and their friends. These people are from all age groups and all walks of life. The one thing binding these names together is their need for prayer.

We all are a needy people. Whether it is a healing touch from God, His guidance through a circumstance in our lives, or His presence in our lives, we all need the Lord.

Have you ever been in a public place and watched people as they pass by? Studied their faces, their stance, how they walk? Spoken to them? Listened to them as they conversed with others? Sent up a silent pray for these people? I should do this more than I do. I will start as a part of my goals for 2012.

Sometimes we learn more about people by watching them than by talking with them. How they behave in certain situations, how they respond to others. Do they show respect? We can learn things about people that are things we have to learn to live with and work around.