Category: Kindness

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Thirsty & Thankful

There’s something to be said for life experience.

I am grateful for the years I have been blessed with; as a child we moved regularly because of my dad’s job. My middle and high school years were spent in my hometown of Yuma and my married life started in the desert and brought me back here. The in between years took us to California, Washington, Idaho and Montana.

So many memories and experiences to draw from. This morning’s Bible reading was just such a moment.

“As the deer desires rivers of water, so my soul desires You, O God. 2 My soul is thirsty for God, for the living God. When will I come and meet with God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’…8 The Lord will send His loving-kindness in the day. And His song will be with me in the night, a prayer to the God of my life…11 Why are you sad, O my soul? Why have you become troubled within me? Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my help and my God.” Psalm 42 NLV

Many times, I have seen the deer come to the water during the hot summer months. Most often they come at night or early morning. The darkness is a protection from predators, or so it seems. But when the sun is hot, and the desert is dry they will come in the daylight.

Thirsty and desperate they come! Thirsty and desperate we come!

In our moments of crises, we come. A near fatal accident, the end of a marriage, indebtedness, illness, physical weakness, danger – they all draw us to a place of seeking God. I know you’ve probably heard the expression “there are no atheist in foxholes”.

Why do we wait to come to God? Why do we do “all we can, so we better pray”? That’s what the disciples did when they were in the storm on the sea. Why do we wait for the heat of our situation to draw us to the Father?

How much better is it to be a sheep instead of a deer?

“The Lord is my Shepherd. I will have everything I need. 2 He lets me rest in fields of green grass. He leads me beside the quiet waters. 3 He makes me strong again.” Psalm 23:1-3 NLV

When we have a sheep’s mindset we follow; we don’t try to handle life on our own. We trust the Shepherd. We start our day following Him and end it resting in His protection.

Yesterday I had a neighbor, and a friend, tell me “I start each day by saying ‘Lord be with me today and help me be with You'”. We know He has promised to never leave us but sometimes we leave Him.

We have the promise of His loving-kindness throughout the day and His soothing song in the night. How good it is to know that when we are thirsty He is there. I’m so thankful for His presence!

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A Basket of Gratefulness

I asked you if there is someone in your life who is an example of loving-kindness. Someone who gives never expecting anything in return?

This morning I was thinking of how I could bless that “someone” in my life. In mind of the cost-cutting we are doing with our budget, I came to realize there are some simple and inexpensive things that can be done.

A heartfelt note, a coffee cup filled with little treats, a basket of special things (a book, something homemade, some fruit and nuts). A basket of gratefulness. Anything to express thankfulness for who they are.

“Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. 4 Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, ” Philippians 1:3-4 NLT

Thankful – to be filled with thanks! What a great way to look at a Sunday morning, full of thanks!!

Thankful for the love of family and friends. Thankful that there was a bed to sleep in last night, thankful for the roof over my head, thankful for a cup of hot coffee, thankful for the sunrise that is coming, thankful that I am safe but most thankful for my Father God who has promised to never leave me or forsake me.

Thankful that He’s always there and there is no place, none, that I go that He will not be with me – yes, I’m thankful!

“Together with these things, the most important part of your new life is to love each other. Love is what holds everything together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace that Christ gives control your thinking. It is for peace that you were chosen to be together in one body. And always be thankful.

16 Let the teaching of Christ live inside you richly. Use all wisdom to teach and counsel each other. Sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Colossians 3:14-16 ERV

Always have a heart filled with thankfulness and possibly a basket filled with gratitude.

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Let’s Just Get Along

Over the years Dave and I have worked with some really unlikable people. We adopted a saying, “at least they have clean fingernails”. We would look for one positive trait instead of focusing on the negative ones and sometimes that meant we could only find something small like clean fingernails.

We know in our hearts that God has given us the commandment to love one another. The loving part isn’t hard because I can see that they were created by God and He had a purpose in their birth just like He had a purpose for mine but the liking – that’s another story.

Time to get honest.

Are there people that go to your church that you really don’t like? Someone who just rubs you the wrong way? Someone you try to avoid when you see them coming your direction?

I heard a story once about a man who woke up on Sunday morning and told his wife he wasn’t going to church that morning. He had had it pretending he liked those people and so he had decided he was going to stay home. His wife told him he couldn’t act like that, he HAD to go. To that he said give me one good reason! She answered softly, because you’re the pastor. 🙂

I’m sure the Apostle Paul, with all the thousands of Christians in all the different churches must have had a couple of people he had a hard time liking but look at his final prayer in Ephesians.

“I pray that God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ will give peace and love with faith to all the brothers and sisters there. 24 God’s grace to all of you who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love that never ends.” Ephesians 6:23-24 ERV

He prayed for ALL of them that they would have faith to receive God’s gifts of peace, love and grace.

When we grow in our relationship with the Father we will also grow in our relationship with each other. We will come to a place that we begin to pray for them to be blessed. That’s the Father working in us. Jesus told us to pray for our enemies so I’m sure the same prayer will work for those we just don’t like very well.

“You can see the speck in your friend’s eye, but you don’t notice the log in your own eye. 4 How can you say, ‘My friend, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you don’t see the log in your own eye? 5 You’re nothing but show-offs! First, take the log out of your own eye; then you can see how to take the speck out of your friend’s eye.” Matthew 7:3-5 CEV

It’s amazing how practical God’s word is. The Father wants us to live a stress free and peaceful life.

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Letters of Love

Don’t you love getting personalized gifts? Something that was made or designed just for you…

It could be something to wear, eat or decorate with but you know that it is specifically for you. Cards made by your kids, grandkids or your spouse are the most treasured items we have.

Now let me ask you this. When you read the Bible is it just a book that you read because you think you should or is it a personalized love letter that you can’t put down?

If it’s the former let’s change it to the latter. God inspired its writing so He could tell you how much He loves you.

Take this passage in Ephesians 2.

“Once we were also ruled by the selfish desires of our bodies and minds. We had made God angry, and we were going to be punished like everyone else.

4-5 But God was merciful! We were dead because of our sins, but God loved us so much that he made us alive with Christ, and God’s wonderful kindness is what saves you. 6 God raised us from death to life with Christ Jesus, and he has given us a place beside Christ in heaven. 7 God did this so that in the future world he could show how truly good and kind he is to us because of what Christ Jesus has done. 8 You were saved by faith in God, who treats us much better than we deserve. This is God’s gift to you, and not anything you have done on your own. 9 It isn’t something you have earned, so there is nothing you can brag about. 10 God planned for us to do good things and to live as he has always wanted us to live. That’s why he sent Christ to make us what we are.” Ephesians 2:3-10 CEV

Please go back and read those verses again but this time substitute the words I, my, me for the words we, our, us and you. Now, go back one more time and read it again only this time read it out loud. I want you to hear, really hear, the message of God’s love with your own ears.

Personalize God’s word. Let it sink down deep into your heart and let the Holy Spirit begin to reveal to you just how special you are to your heavenly Father.

“You were (I was) saved by faith in God, who treats us (me) much better than we (I) deserve. This is God’s gift to you (me), and not anything you (I) have done on your (my) own. 9 It isn’t something you (I) have earned, so there is nothing you (I) can brag about.” my paraphrase

I have several different places I read in the Bible each morning. Each of them reminds me of God’s goodness and love. I don’t want to start the day without that being my foremost thought.

“This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his only Son into the world to give us life through him. 10 True love is God’s love for us, not our love for God. He sent his Son as the way to take away our sins.” I John 4:9-10 ERV

Amen!

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Moving Forward

Yesterday afternoon I checked in with a friend to find out how their travels had been. You see, they came by yesterday morning before they left on their trip and we asked how far they had planned to go on the first day, they said “we’ll stop in Albuquerque”.

Well, they made it. She said that there destination is still 650 miles away and they would be breaking that portion into two days. Sounded like a wise decision, no point in wearing yourself out the first few days.

Move forward, step by step or mile by mile.

Why do we get discouraged, frustrated or exhausted as we make forward progress in life? Often times, we set unreasonable goals and burn out before we reach them.

Dave and I used to travel a lot. We would drive from Montana to Arizona, it was an 1100 mile trip and we’d drive it in two days. Almost 700 miles the first and a little over 400 the second. Why not? Afterall, if we didn’t push that hard we were “burning daylight”.

Now that we are older and wiser, we take our time and we arrive in a better frame of mind, having rested along the way.

“Jesus has the power of God. And his power has given us everything we need to live a life devoted to God. We have these things because we know him. Jesus chose us by his glory and goodness, 4 through which he also gave us the very great and rich gifts that he promised us. With these gifts you can share in being like God. And so you will escape the ruin that comes to people in the world because of the evil things they want.

5 Because you have these blessings, do all you can to add to your life these things: to your faith add goodness; to your goodness add knowledge; 6 to your knowledge add self-control; to your self-control add patience; to your patience add devotion to God; 7 to your devotion add kindness toward your brothers and sisters in Christ, and to this kindness add love. 8 If all these things are in you and growing, you will never fail to be useful to God. You will produce the kind of fruit that should come from your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” II Peter 1:3-8 ERV

We have been given a spiritual road map which leads to our victory in Christ. Our first stop is where we come to understand that God has given us everything we need, great and precious gifts, for living successfully in this world.

Because these blessings put us on the right path, our next stop lands us in a place where our faith grows. As we travel a little farther, we increase in goodness and then knowledge. We now have knowledge that God has given us all we need, we stop to gain self-control and patience. We head out from patience, knowing we can trust God with our circumstances, arriving at a place of deep devotion to God.

Our devotion to the Father takes us to a place of kindness towards those around us and that kindness brings us to our destination of love.

As we move forward on the road map that God has designed for us, we will arrive successfully at our destination of being Christ-like in our words and actions.

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Learned Behavior

Yesterday we found ourselves in deep conversation with friends. We were talking about prejudice and how it’s a learned behavior. I made a statement about learned behavior and if we learn it we can also unlearn it.

It’s not easy but with God’s grace, He can transform our hearts.

I work hard to get passed outward appearances. What people look like, how the sound, educated or unlearned, political leanings, rich or poor, young or old – none of it makes any difference to God.

“God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die.” John 3:16 CEV

“ And when you were baptized, it was as though you had put on Christ in the same way you put on new clothes. 28 Faith in Christ Jesus is what makes each of you equal with each other, whether you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a man or a woman.” Galatians 3:27-28 CEV

If I had been with Jesus when he was preaching and teaching would I have been accepting of the woman in adultery, would I have been willing to eat dinner with Zacchaeus, would I have even talked to the woman at the well long enough to find out that she needed a friend or a Savior?

Just being honest with you. Too many times I have judged people by their outward appearance without seeing who Jesus sees. Maybe you are better than me in these circumstances.

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day judged Him unacceptable because He didn’t keep their religious traditions. Jesus healed people on the Sabbath day, He had dinner with tax collectors and other sinners. He was unconventional, He allowed Himself to be touched by lepers and the demon possessed.

He came to love the world!

The Apostle Paul gave us this instruction:

“If our faith is strong, we should be patient with the Lord’s followers whose faith is weak. We should try to please them instead of ourselves. 2 We should think of their good and try to help them by doing what pleases them. 3 Even Christ did not try to please himself. But as the Scriptures say, ‘The people who insulted you also insulted me.’ 4 And the Scriptures were written to teach and encourage us by giving us hope. 5 God is the one who makes us patient and cheerful. I pray that he will help you live at peace with each other, as you follow Christ. 6 Then all of you together will praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

7 Honor God by accepting each other, as Christ has accepted you. 8 I tell you that Christ came as a servant of the Jews to show that God has kept the promises he made to their famous ancestors. Christ also came, 9 so that the Gentiles would praise God for being kind to them…

13 I pray that God, who gives hope, will bless you with complete happiness and peace because of your faith. And may the power of the Holy Spirit fill you with hope.” Romans 15:1-13 CEV

We are always going to have different opinions over politics, money, education, appearance, lifestyle, doctrines but those differences should never stop us from loving those whom God created.

We need to have the same mind as Christ in this. He hated sin so much that He died to pay the price for atonement but He loved the sinner so much that He willingly went to the cross.

If we are guilty of learned behavior let it be the behavior we see modeled by Christ and His unconditional love!

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Be Filled

Yesterday I prepared a coleslaw for a bbq dinner we will share with friends tonight. This particular coleslaw has a marinated dressing, unlike most that have a mayonnaise or creamy dressing.

After it had been in the refrigerator for a while I decided to sample it and make sure it had the flavor I intended. When I put it back in the fridge I noticed there was a sugar ring on the countertop, I wiped it up thinking I had been sloppy.

At noon, Dave had a small amount of coleslaw as part of his lunch. Once again, there was the syrupy ring on the countertop. Upon further investigation, I also found it on the refrigerator shelf. Unbeknownst to me, the bowl had a small crack in the bottom and the marinade was slowly seeping out.

If I hadn’t caught it in time all the good stuff would have leaked out and I would have been left with dry cabbage, bell pepper and onion.

The good stuff – how often do we unknowingly let the good stuff leak out of our lives.

“I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart;  I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.
2 I will be filled with joy because of you. I will sing praises to your name, O Most High.” Psalm 9:1-2 NLT

The busy-ness of the week, the general responsibilities of life, can leave us feeling dry.

“ If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light.” Luke 11:36 NLT

“ I want you to know all about Christ’s love, although it is too wonderful to be measured. Then your lives will be filled with all that God is.” Ephesians 3:19 CEV

“ Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. 18 Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,” Ephesians 5:17-18 NLT

It is incumbent upon us to check our lives for leaks; leaks of anger, selfishness, pride, self-righteousness, bitterness. When we find that our level of light, joy, the Holy Spirit and all that God is has begun to drain out we need to come to Him for a resupply.

Today I will be making a second batch of marinade for the coleslaw but I will also be examining my heart to make sure I’m not allowing the goodness of God to drain slowly from my character.

May we always be filled with the goodness of God!

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My Heart Speaks

How often do you listen to your heart?

I know when there are big decisions to make that I get very quiet and listen to what God is speaking to my heart. I’ve been doing this for years. When our kids were teenagers they would ask about going somewhere or doing something and Dave and I would have to say, “We don’t have a peace about that”.

More often than not, it wasn’t what they wanted to hear but we had made a commitment that if the Lord didn’t give us a peace, if we felt uneasy, we wouldn’t give them our permission. But we were also honest with them to tell them we would pray about it further and if the Lord replaced the uneasiness with peace we would give them the go ahead.

“And because you belong to Christ Jesus, God’s peace will stand guard over all your thoughts and feelings. His peace can do this far better than our human minds.” Philippians 4:7 ERV

It’s important that we keep our hearts open so we don’t miss the Lord’s direction.

“Good people have good things saved in their hearts. That’s why they say good things. But those who are evil have hearts full of evil, and that’s why they say things that are evil. What people say with their mouths comes from what fills their hearts.” Luke 6:45 ERV

Our hearts learn to speak in much the same way as a toddler learns to communicate. By repetition, a smile child learns “Mama, Dada, Drink, Cookie, No”. By the repetition of our thoughts and meditations our hearts learn to communicate. They can express love, gratitude, understanding, forgiveness, kindness and mercy or the opposite can occur, jealousy, prejudice, anger, criticism, hatred and selfishness.

“Don’t let me do what I know is wrong. Don’t let sin control me. If you help me, I can be pure and free from sin. 14 May my words and thoughts please you. Lord, you are my Rock—the one who rescues me.” Psalm 19:13-14 ERV

I know when the Lord impresses my heart with verses like these I will have an opportunity to put them into practice very soon. He is directing my thoughts and wanting me to be a living example of His words.

“Lord, help me control what I say. Don’t let me say anything bad.” Psalm 141:3 ERV

Take a few more minutes this morning to fill your heart and mouth with pleasing words. At the very least if you have to eat your words they will be sweet!

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Happy Sunday!

We should start each day with Good News. We all need encouragement to look at the bright side of life, so I want to share a couple of favorite Scriptures of mine.

“God saved us and chose us
    to be his holy people.
We did nothing
    to deserve this,
but God planned it
    because he is so kind.
Even before time began
God planned for Christ Jesus
    to show kindness to us.

10 Now Christ Jesus has come
to offer us God’s gift
    of undeserved grace.
Christ our Savior defeated death
and brought us
    the good news.
It shines like a light
and offers life
    that never ends.” II Timothy 1:9-10 CEV

God’s plan has always been to show us kindness and grace!

“9 The Lord won’t always be angry
    and point out our sins;
10 he doesn’t punish us
    as our sins deserve.

11 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” Psalm 103:9-17 CEV

Our Father is a kind promise keeper, who forgets our sins and loves us unconditionally!

As an old cowboy preacher friend used to say, “Enough said. That will preach.”

Have a happy Sunday!

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Just Keep Preaching

This morning I saw something in the book of John I hadn’t seen before. It put a big smile on my face.

John, chapter 8, Jesus is teaching in the Temple. People are curious about His teachings and hoping to see a miracle. Jesus’ teachings were like none they had ever heard. He taught with boldness and conviction from a heart of compassion.

The religious leaders were often offended by what He said and secretly they were plotting ways to silence Him. He had gained too much popularity and they saw Him as a threat.

So here He is teaching again.

“Early in the morning He went back to the house of God and all the people came to Him. He sat down and taught them.” John 8:2 NLV

The religious leaders come marching in, disrupting His teaching, with a woman. A woman they said was ““Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.” (vs4) They were trying to trap Him, they wanted to be able to accuse Jesus of breaking the law of Moses that said those who were adulterers were to be judged and stoned.

I mean they dropped this woman right down in front of Jesus, demanding He give a judgement of her. Jesus said nothing. He just knelt down and began to write in the dirt.

“The Jewish leaders continued to ask him their question. So he stood up and said, ‘Anyone here who has never sinned should throw the first stone at her.’” (vs7).

Then he knelt down and continued writing. The story continues that those who had accused her began to leave one by one, the oldest ones first, until it was just Jesus and the woman.

Now let me say here, no one knows what Jesus wrote on the ground. It isn’t recorded in Scripture. He may have written the sins of the accusers; He may have written Scripture from the law of Moses but what He wrote either convicted them or brought them to shame. It caused them to leave.

“He looked up again and said to her, ‘Where did they all go? Did no one judge you guilty?’ 11 She answered, ‘No one, sir.’ Then Jesus said, ‘I don’t judge you either. You can go now, but don’t sin again.’” John 8:10-11 ERV

Now I know this story very well. I have imagined myself being there that day. I can see the woman – naked, ashamed, tears rolling down her cheeks, trying to cover herself. Completely humiliated. Ready to face a death sentence. All of this has made her a public spectacle.

Jesus’ words bring deliverance, not condemnation. He sends her on her way forgiven.

But here’s the part of this story I hadn’t seen before.

“Once again Jesus spoke to the people. This time he said, “I am the light for the world! Follow me, and you won’t be walking in the dark. You will have the light that gives life.” John 8:12 CEV

Jesus, undeterred by what had just happened, went back to teaching. He stayed on message. He didn’t get distracted by accusations or man’s opinion. He stayed true to the mission He had received from the Father.

Each day we have situations that will try to distract us from the mission that God has called us too. Let’s learn from Jesus and just keep preaching!

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