Category: Character

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Bring Beauty Not Thorns

I enjoy the beauty of fresh flowers. I am amazed by the variety colors, the depth of the hue and the shape of the petals and buds. God did a terrific job!

Sunflowers. Lilies. Hollyhocks. Roses. Geraniums. Daisies. Chrysanthemums. Tulips. Gardenias.

In the grand scheme of things our lives are a lot like flowers. We’re here ever so briefly. My question is – will my life bring beauty and joy to others as a flower does or will others be pricked by the thorns that my life may produce. Today, I’m choosing to bring beauty; letting the love of my heavenly Father shine through me to others. Loving unconditionally, helping those who are hurting and lifting up those who have fallen.

We’ve all heard the saying bloom where you are planted. Not a scripture verse but a good instruction. God has placed beauty within us and we need to blossom so that others will see Jesus in us.

“How great is God’s love for all who worship him? Greater than the distance between heaven and earth! 12 How far has the Lord taken our sins from us? Farther than the distance from east to west! 13 Just as parents are kind to their children, the Lord is kind to all who worship him 14 because he knows we are made of dust. 15 We humans are like grass or wild flowers that quickly bloom. 16 But a scorching wind blows, and they quickly wither to be forever forgotten. 17 The Lord is always kind to those who worship him, and he keeps his promises to their descendants 18 who faithfully obey him.” Psalm 103:11-18 CEV

Thank you Lord for your kindness. I desire to blossom with your love today.

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Able

God, our heavenly Father, is able!

Able means He has the ability to do or complete the task set before Him. He is able to work on our behalf but He needs us to work with Him.

Look at a few words with “able” in them: stable, workable, solvable, understandable, lovable, peaceable, forgivable… How many more can you think of? All of these and more are a description of God’s work in our lives.

Because He is a loving Father he won’t force Himself on us and He won’t force us to take the benefits He has for us. But if we will allow Him to work in our lives we will see His ability working on our behalf.

“I pray that you will know the love of Christ. His love goes beyond anything we can understand. I pray that you will be filled with God Himself. 20 God is able to do much more than we ask or think through His power working in us. 21 May we see His shining-greatness in the church. May all people in all time honor Christ Jesus. Let it be so.” Ephesians 3:19-21 NLT

When we truly experience God’s love, His power can work within us. He is able!

“Because He Himself [in His humanity] has suffered in being tempted, He is able to help and provide immediate assistance to those who are being tempted and exposed to suffering.” Hebrews 2:18 AMP

He is able to help us immediately when we are being tempted because He was also tempted and suffered.

“Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. 25 All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.” Jude 24-25 CEV

God is able to keep us! He is able to save us!

“But Jesus will never die, and so he will be a priest forever! 25 He is forever able to save the people he leads to God, because he always lives to speak to God for them.” Hebrews 7:24-25 CEV

Father, today I am available so that Your abilities may work in me, through me and for me!

I know YOU are able!

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A Better Promise

Keeping our focus on the Lord’s faithfulness will keep us from being discouraged and depressed. When Israel faced overwhelming threats and attacks they could confidently call on the Lord for their deliverance. They knew they had a “covenant”, a promise or contract, with Almighty God. God had promised to be their GOD and to fight for them, to stand with them, to be their protection and their source of supply. As long as they walked in obedience to God’s word all these blessings were theirs.

Remember when Moses told the Israelites that God had set before them life and death, blessing and cursing? Then Moses said choose life. It was their choice to be a nation of blessed, victorious people. David knew this when he volunteered to fight Goliath – David’s comment, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine?” Circumcision was a physical sign to the Jewish people that God had made covenant with Abraham and all of his descendants.

You and I have a covenant too. The writer of Hebrews said we have a new covenant with better promises.

“But the work that has been given to Jesus is much greater than the work that was given to those priests. In the same way, the new agreement that Jesus brought from God to his people is much greater than the old one. And the new agreement is based on better promises. 7 If there was nothing wrong with the first agreement, then there would be no need for a second agreement. 8 But God found something wrong with the people. He said, “The time is coming, says the Lord, when I will give a new agreement to the people of Israel and to the people of Judah. 9 It will not be like the agreement that I gave to their fathers. That is the agreement I gave when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. They did not continue following the agreement I gave them, and I turned away from them, says the Lord. 10 This is the new agreement I will give the people of Israel.
I will give this agreement in the future, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write my laws on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 Never again will anyone have to teach their neighbors or their family to know the Lord. All people—the greatest and the least important—will know me. 12 And I will forgive the wrongs they have done, and I will not remember their sins.”
13 God called this a new agreement, so he has made the first agreement old. And anything that is old and useless is ready to disappear.” Hebrews 8:6-13

God the Father is faithful and He made this new covenant for us with Jesus. Neither one of them will fail! Their covenant for us will not fail!

“God is not a man, that He should lie. He is not a son of man, that He should be sorry for what He has said. Has He said, and will He not do it? Has He spoken, and will He not keep His Word?” Numbers 23:19

God promises will come to pass. His word is true – He is good!

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Don’t Slide Back

There seems to be a theme to this week’s blogs. A few days ago I shared about being firmly planted. Nothing beats a good solid foundation! Then yesterday I shared how the Lord wants us freed from shame. We are forgiven but things in our past can side line us if we let them. Today I want to tie the two of them together.

Ever been in that place where you’ve lost traction, no forward momentum, and you’re stuck? Me too; literally, emotionally and spiritually. Several years ago while living in Montana, Dave and I went up to cut our Christmas tree. We backed off on a side road to turn around and slid 70 yds down the mountainside. Two hours later, we were finally back on the main road and headed home. Inch by inch we gained ground but we had to make sure we had good traction and that meant cutting pine boughs to put under the wheels – we needed a firm foundation.

Well I’ve had those experiences emotionally as well. A failure or hurt can be daunting. Friends leave, loved ones don’t understand and so we can get stuck in our failure and live in self-pity or even become suicidal. Maybe you’ve had a “tremendous” sin in your life that has held you back from serving God. Leaving you with the thought that God couldn’t possibly love or forgive you after what you have done. He can, He does and He already has.

“So we, too, should run the race that is before us and never quit. We should remove from our lives anything that would slow us down and the sin that so often makes us fall. 2 We must never stop looking to Jesus. He is the leader of our faith, and he is the one who makes our faith complete. He suffered death on a cross. But he accepted the shame of the cross as if it were nothing because of the joy he could see waiting for him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God’s throne. 3 Think about Jesus. He patiently endured the angry insults that sinful people were shouting at him. Think about him so that you won’t get discouraged and stop trying.” Hebrews 12:1-3

You notice, it says we are to remove from our lives the things that slow us down. Moses said the same thing to the nation of Israel – you choose.

“Today I am giving you a choice of two ways. And I ask heaven and earth to be witnesses of your choice. You can choose life or death. The first choice will bring a blessing. The other choice will bring a curse. So choose life! Then you and your children will live. 20 You must love the LORD your God and obey him. Never leave him, because he is your life. And he will give you a long life in the land that he, the LORD, promised to give to your ancestors—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Deuteronomy 30:19-20

To go on with God we need a couple things; one, to be looking in the right direction – looking forward and looking up and then two, we need good traction – something solid beneath our feet.

“Jesus Christ did the things God wanted him to do. And because of that, we are made holy through the sacrifice of Christ’s body. Christ made that sacrifice one time—enough for all time…19. And so, brothers and sisters, we are completely free to enter the Most Holy Place. We can do this without fear because of the blood sacrifice of Jesus. 20 We enter through a new way that Jesus opened for us. It is a living way that leads through the curtain—Christ’s body. 21 And we have a great priest who rules the house of God. 22 Sprinkled with the blood of Christ, our hearts have been made free from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. So come near to God with a sincere heart, full of confidence because of our faith in Christ. 23 We must hold on to the hope we have, never hesitating to tell people about it. We can trust God to do what he promised.” Hebrews 10:10-14, 19-23

The solid foundation Christ has given us is His sacrifice; it provides us with forgiveness and a right relationship with God (that’s our traction), it gets us out of the ditch of self-pity and unworthiness. The blood of Christ can and has cleansed us from a guilty conscience and put us on the right road with God.

When we’re wrapped up in guilt, and we all go there from time to time, we’re looking the wrong direction. (not choosing the right things) The victory comes in looking at Jesus – looking forward, not back. Looking back, we magnify our failures and sin; looking forward we magnify Jesus and what He did for us on the cross.

So get on track and move forward looking to Jesus and don’t get “stuck” in your past.

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Changing Shadows

Yesterday afternoon Dave and I were sitting on the back patio and he made comment about the way the sun had changed position since earlier in the summer. In the summer, the sun is beating down on the patio by midafternoon and we have to drop the shade to diffuse the light and dispel the heat. Now, on the last day of September the sun was going down further south and casting a longer shadow. It’s amazing – who tells the sun to do that?

Other places in the country and the world for that matter, folks are noticing the leaves turning and even early snowfall. We, here, in the southwest don’t have those indicators but we do notice shorter days, longer shadows and cooling temperatures.

There is one thing that remains the same, winter, spring, summer, fall. There is no change to the faithfulness of our God. The old hymn states

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

No shadow of turning – our Father is consistent. His character of love and goodness has never changed. His mercy and His grace endure forever and they are fresh and new every morning. His compassion never fails. We can never say that God must be in a bad mood or is effected by light deprivation. No, He is the same yesterday, today and forever – He is always good.

“Don’t be fooled, my dear friends. 17 Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father who created all the lights in the heavens. He is always the same and never makes dark shadows by changing. 18 He wanted us to be his own special people, and so he sent the true message to give us new birth.” James 1:16-18 CEV

There are shadows mentioned in the Bible; shadow of death, shadow of other nations, man’s life is referred to as a shadow, and the Law of Moses was a shadow of what God was doing in the earth. However, the only shadow the Lord casts over us is the shadow of His protection.

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.” Psalm 91:1-3 NKJV

“Show Your marvelous lovingkindness by Your right hand, O You who save those who trust in You From those who rise up against them. 8 Keep me as the apple of Your eye; Hide me under the shadow of Your wings,9 From the wicked who oppress me, From my deadly enemies who surround me.” Psalm 17:7-9 NKJV

“How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.” Psalm 36:7 NKJV

“Because You have been my help, Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.” Psalm 63:7 NKJV

So, as the days get shorter and we see the shadows fall it should be a reminder that wherever we are we can trust the Father’s faithfulness to cover us with the shadow of His wings and be our protector.

He never changes!


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If Not Now, When?

Last month while Dave and I were in the mountains I took time to read. I don’t know why but I rarely take time to read at home…That’s not a completely honest statement. I do know why. There is always one more text to write, one more call to make, one more search for product or information that needs to be done and reading falls to the bottom of my list.

In the mountains, with the computer at home, cell service was virtually non-existent. So there was time; time to read, time to talk, time to walk, time to refresh. That’s when I read a book that had been sitting dormant on my bookshelf for years.

I had removed it from the bookshelf last fall while I was writing my book. I used it as a literary model; font size, chapter length, number of total pages, publishing layout.

It was written by a former pastor’s wife, she and her family moved to Yuma while I was in high school. Her husband married Dave and I. Her daughter and I had become best friends in high school and we are still dear friends today. The title of this book interested me so I took it camping. Singing the Song I Came to Sing by Joy P Gage drew me into it’s pages.

Here’s an excerpt: “We must seize moments of quiet interlude amidst hours of inescapable responsibility. We must find ways to connect with people who are important to us. We must ask ourselves, ‘If not now, when?’ That is how we celebrate life one day at a time…

I looked at my life and asked, ‘What matters most for me and what do I want to do about it?’ Like many other women I longed for more time to nurture relationships and I longed for quiet interludes in which I could refresh body and sprit alike. I yearned to take a break from my crowded schedule and celebrate life one day at a time.”

If not now, when? If I don’t take the time to celebrate each day that the Father has blessed me with, when will I?

Those words from the beginning pages of her book were the words of my own heart. I had to read on. Those aren’t just words from Joy’s heart and mine but they are words of God’s heart. After all, He was the one who said it was not good for man to be alone and then He created Eve. Mankind was the creative outpouring of God’s desire for fellowship. It was God who came to walk and talk with Adam and Eve in the garden at the end of each day.

It was God who said through Paul that we are all members of Christ’s body and we need to nurture and care for one another. We draw strength from our friendships, especially if they are with others who have a heart for the Father and His word.

“Christ gave gifts to men. He gave to some the gift to be missionaries, some to be preachers, others to be preachers who go from town to town. He gave others the gift to be church leaders and teachers. 12 These gifts help His people work well for Him. And then the church which is the body of Christ will be made strong. 13 All of us are to be as one in the faith and in knowing the Son of God. We are to be full-grown Christians standing as high and complete as Christ is Himself. 14 Then we will not be as children any longer. Children are like boats thrown up and down on big waves. They are blown with the wind. False teaching is like the wind. False teachers try everything possible to make people believe a lie, 15 but we are to hold to the truth with love in our hearts. We are to grow up and be more like Christ. He is the leader of the church. 16 Christ has put each part of the church in its right place. Each part helps other parts. This is what is needed to keep the whole body together. In this way, the whole body grows strong in love.” Ephesians 4:11-16 NLV

We each have a part in the Father’s plan. Sometimes life gets in the way. What is it that pulls on your heart but is being put off for “someday”? Let the Lord use those four simple words, “If not now, when”, to remind you to make every day a celebration of His love, cultivating and nourishing the relationships He brings to your life. 

(I found copies of Joy's book can be found on eBay and Amazon)

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Spoiler Alert – Watch Out!

“Our vineyards are in blossom; we must catch the little foxes that destroy the vineyards.” Song of Solomon 2:15

Or to paraphrase: don’t let the little things in life spoil your garden.

In my case it was the gophers that spoiled the vine. Years ago I made a serious attempt to plant a garden. It was a difficult task because we lived in an area where the soil was good but the water wasn’t. We had to keep the water slowly running in the garden because if it stopped the surface would become dry and a salty crush would form.

I took good care of my garden. We protected it from the varmints with a rabbit fence and it discouraged the coyotes as well. I watched as the watermelons developed and could hardly wait to cut one of those delicious dark green beauties open.

The kids kept asking if they could pick them but I said they weren’t quite ready – I was checking everyday and then the day of harvest came. We went to the garden, with mouth watering, we bent down to pluck the melon from it’s vine. To our shock and great disappointment, the melon was ruined.

It looked beautiful – a rich, dark green – big and round. It was going to be the best melon ever and it would have been if the gophers hadn’t have come up from underneath and eaten a hole in the rind and devoured the middle!

A life lesson here – as christians we are to bear fruit – love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith. But if we aren’t careful the little foxes and the gophers (varmints), will come and destroy the fruit. We know them better as worry, fear, self-reliance, peer pressure, overwork, laziness, stress, etc. These varmints will try to destroy the fruit that God wants us to produce.

“I am the Vine and you are the branches. Get your life from Me. Then I will live in you and you will give much fruit. You can do nothing without Me. 6 “If anyone does not get his life from Me, he is cut off like a branch and dries up. Such branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and they are burned. 7 If you get your life from Me and My Words live in you, ask whatever you want. It will be done for you. 8 “When you give much fruit, My Father is honored. This shows you are My followers. 9 I have loved you just as My Father has loved Me. Stay in My love. 10 If you obey My teaching, you will live in My love. In this way, I have obeyed My Father’s teaching and live in His love. 11 I have told you these things so My joy may be in you and your joy may be full. 12 “This is what I tell you to do: Love each other just as I have loved you. ” John 15:5-12 NLV

If we stay connected to the vine, Jesus, we will produce the fruit that He has commanded of us. That fruit is love for each other as Christ has loved us.

Don’t let the little foxes spoil the vine…and watch out for the gophers too!

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I Learned Something New!

Don’t you enjoy learning new things? I learned something new yesterday and I just had to share it with you. We were listening to a teaching by Pastor Tim Ross. He was using the first chapter of the book of Ruth as his foundational Scripture.

I love the book of Ruth! It’s one of the Bible’s best love stories. It’s short and easy to read. In a nutshell, it’s about two women and their relationship and it ends with a marriage and a child that effects the course of Jewish history.

Naomi is a Jewish woman who is widowed and also experiences her two sons deaths. She decides to return to her home country; her family had left years ago because a famine. Her widowed daughters-in-law make plans to go with her. However, Naomi tells both women to stay with their families and that she will return home alone. The women argue with their mother-in-law, who is in a real state of depression and at Naomi’s insistence one of the women decide to stay in their home country of Moab.

“But Ruth said:

“Entreat me not to leave you,
Or to turn back from following after you;
For wherever you go, I will go;
And wherever you lodge, I will lodge;
Your people shall be my people,
And your God, my God.
17 Where you die, I will die,
And there will I be buried.
The Lord do so to me, and more also,
If anything but death parts you and me.”

18 When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her. 19 Now the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem…” Ruth 1:16-19 NKJV

I have heard Ruth’s reply used at weddings to express the commitment between the bride and the groom. It has been used on jewelry charms shared between friends. It is a true expression of loyalty that has come through the ages.

Ruth would not let her mother-in-law go through this time of sadness alone. Ruth was experiencing her own grief, she had lost her husband, but her concern for her mother-in-law overrode her own need for comforting, she needed to the be comforter.

Isn’t that what we were talking about in yesterday’s blog. Jesus said he came to be a servant and not to be served?

Now, I’ve known this story and it touches me each time I read it – the love between these two women. The depth of their friendship and commitment to one another goes deep. But this is the new part – Pastor Tim asked how many have ever felt alone in their time of grief and disappointment. He wanted to know how many had ever been “ruth-less”.

Ruth- less! The definition of ruthless is this: “having or showing no pity or compassion for others”. Merciless, cruel, hard hearted, pitiless are just a few words that can be used as synonyms for ruthless.

But did you know that “ruth” is a word that can be used as a noun and it means a feeling of distress or grief? It’s synonyms are compassion, condolence, regret, sympathy, understanding and sadness. We have all needed “ruth” in our lives at one point or another and we have all felt ruthless at other times. I had never known this before. This was a very new understanding to me. Of course, I knew the meaning of ruthless but I had never put it in this light.

Ruth was a companion, a friend of true depth to Naomi. In going back to Bethlehem with Naomi Ruth met Boaz, her husband and they had a son. Ruth is King David’s great grandmother. King David is in the ancestral line of Jesus. A woman with a servant’s heart, a heart of compassion, created a legacy of compassionate people.

I pray you never know ruthless days! We have the promise of God that He will never leave, abandon or desert us. He brings ruth to our lives just like He brought Ruth to Naomi’s life.

My prayer is that I will always be able to see those who need me to be ruth to them.

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Start With a Clap

“If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands. If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands. If you’re happy and you know then your face with surely show it. If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.”

I have to start the morning with a joy filled heart! I choose to be happy; there is a little rain, lightning in the distance and a faint sound of thunder. The morning is starting and I don’t want to miss it.

A joy-filled day – let’s see a show of hands of how many of you experienced a full day of joy. I must admit that yesterday I got distracted a few times – I forgot that I was in the Father’s presence and I discovered that attempting to do things in my own strength and power was tiring at best and frustrating too. But today is a new day, a new opportunity to be joy-filled.

“ My friends, be glad, even if you have a lot of trouble. 3 You know that you learn to endure by having your faith tested. 4 But you must learn to endure everything, so that you will be completely mature and not lacking in anything.” James 1:2-4 CEV

In the King James version of this verse it says “Count it all joy”.

Really? Count it joy when you fall into temptations – really? Yes, the joy comes from knowing that we’re not in this alone! God has promised to never leave us or forsake us. It means we are in His presence and in His presence there is fullness of joy! Joy in knowing He is able, joy in knowing that we aren’t operating under our own power or our own wisdom, joy in knowing that He has created us to be victorious! When I realize all of this and focus on it, I am growing and maturing, becoming the more Christ-like .

In John 16, Jesus was talking with his disciples the night before His crucifixion. He was giving them last minute instructions. He told them that they would all abandon Him and that He would be alone but He quickly added that the Father would be with Him so He wouldn’t really be alone. (In His presence is fullness of joy)!

He then told the disciples that they would have troubles in this world. Not as big as the crucifixion but troubles all the same. His next words may have seemed strange to them, He said “Be of good cheer (find joy), for I have overcome the world”. Jesus had just told them how he was overcoming the trials in His life – He wasn’t looking for the support of friends and followers but He was simply looking to the One who would never leave or forsake, the Father, and in the Father’s presence is victory and fullness of joy.

“No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice. My body rests in safety. 10 For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave. 11 You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.” Psalm 16:9-11 NLT

So let’s try this again today. I am determined that I will have a joy-filled day. I will keep my mind focused on the Father and in His presence I will have fullness of joy!

If you’re happy and you know it CLAP!

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Finish Strong!

“We have all these great people around us as examples. Their lives tell us what faith means. So we, too, should run the race that is before us and never quit. We should remove from our lives anything that would slow us down and the sin that so often makes us fall. 2 We must never stop looking to Jesus. He is the leader of our faith, and he is the one who makes our faith complete. He suffered death on a cross. But he accepted the shame of the cross as if it were nothing because of the joy he could see waiting for him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God’s throne.” Hebrews 12:1-2 ERV

Dave and I were visiting our oldest daughter Kim in Washington State several years ago. She was competing in an Ironman competition. 70.3 miles of swimming, hiking, and running.

I went with her to the check in. There were athletes there of every age, size and physical condition. Each would compete more against themselves than against the other competitors. Each would ask their bodies, their minds and their emotions to push the limits in order to complete the race.

I remember thinking about us a Christians. How often do we pursue our goal of being Christ-like and then back off when it gets a little too hard or we get injured by the words or actions of others?

These competitors were a reminder once again to keep my eye on the prize, to take time to encourage others in the race, to share things I know about this course and how to battle on through the pain.

It’s worth it you know. Let’s all keep our eyes on Jesus and finish strong!

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