Category: Christian Life

Christian Life · Easter · Uncategorized

I Remember

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I worry about myself sometimes!

“Where are my keys?”

“Who was I supposed to email today?”

“What was it that I wanted to pick up at the store on my way home?”

There is a command in Scripture to do some purposeful remembering about something far more important than keys and groceries – we’re to be remember the cross:

And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

I’ve heard these verses read many times as I’ve taken communion at church, and I heard them again this past Sunday as we remembered the Lord’s death.  The bread was distributed, then a prayer was spoken, thanking Christ for being our sacrifice.

I took the bread and put it in my mouth.  As my teeth bit down into the small wafer, the words, “This is my body, broken for you” rang in my ears.  Just as my teeth were grinding that bread into tiny pieces, once again, I was remembered that it was for me and because of me that Christ suffered.  I put Him there.  It was my sin.  I caused the pain.  I nailed Him there as surely as I was now grinding that wafer into little bits.  My heart wrenched with the thought of my wickedness and His sacrifice!

How thankful I am for the reminder of Christ’s suffering that our monthly communion time brings. To sit in my seat and take of the bread and the cup is to remember that:

  • Christ died for individuals – you and me.
  • Just as I received Him as my Savior, I must personally keep a clean heart – before partaking of the bread and cup, and every day in between.
  • My sin put Him there.
  • He suffered untold pain and agony.
  • I’m preaching the message that I’ve been saved, and He is coming again every time I take comunion!

A personal message.  A personal remembrance.  A personal Savior.

Thank you, Lord, for making The Lord’s Table a command for believers, so we would go back to the cross.  Thank you, dear Jesus for dying for me.  I remember.

Have you taken a heart-felt trip back to the cross to remember what He did for you?

Lovingly,

Christian Life

God’s Virus Protection

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There was a recent death in our family – my computer!  Oh the sadness. I knew it was coming, so I had braced myself.  Then the new baby (computer) came home – several months later.  With my purchase came a 30-Day free virus protection.  At the end of those 30 days, I got a notification to tell me that my computer would no longer be protected unless I bought the plan.  Keeping the computer free from harmful attacks of viruses or hackers was important, so I took them up on the discounted offer and purchased the year agreement.

At that moment after hitting “purchase,” my computer got a work over.  Scans were run to make sure all was clear.  Files were checked.  Programs got a once-over.  When all was said and done, I got a note telling me that I could rest easy – my computer was free of anything harmful, and my computer’s future was also safe.

I’m thankful for those kinds of protections!  I have no way of knowing when harmful things come into my computer, so it’s a blessing to have this kind of technology to run interference for me!

As a Christian, I know that God’s Holy Spirit is my personal protection against sinful “viruses,” if you will, entering my life.  Its potential is to destroy all that is good and right.  Jesus purchased every believer’s “protection plan” when He died on the cross.  We read in John Jesus’ words that He would send a Comforter – the Holy Spirit. Here’s how that plan works in my life:

  • Each morning I start my day in prayer, asking God to run a scan (check my heart) to detect what sin is there.
  • When the Spirit of God points to a sin in my life, I acknowledge it, rather than arguing about its presence.
  • I call it what God calls it – a lie (not a little fib), gossip (not a prayer request), laziness (not just being tired), etc.  I John 1:9 If we confess our sin…
  • He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. After I call it what it really is, then I ask God to get rid of the infected files (sin and ask Him to forgive me).  He promises He will!

Without the Spirit’s work in my heart, just like my computer, I, too, would be rendered inoperative.  Effectiveness would shut down.  Testimony would be shut down.  Rewards in heaven – shut down.  But praise the Lord, God’s protection plan isn’t just for a year, it lasts my entire Christian life!  My renewal is just my daily walk and desire for Him to keep my heart pure.  We must turn the computer on (pray) and seek God’s face each day.

Are you walking in close fellowship and keeping your heart pure by the Spirit’s cleansing? Are you wondering why “things just aren’t working right now?”  It could be that there is sin that needs to be dealt with!  He’s just a notification away!  Call and He will hear, cleanse and forgive!

With love,

 

 

Christian Life · Prayer

The Little Pink Shoe Box

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shoes

I had a fun day of shopping yesterday.  From Aldi’s to Kroger and Target, I meandered my way through my lists.  It was when I got to Target that something unexpected happened – my emotions got hijacked!

As I was walking through the store, I passed the children’s shoes and I saw a pink box, labeled, Sam & Libby. That box immediately took me back to the time that God provided shoes for our older daughter, as miraculously as when Jesus fed the 5,000 on the hillside.

When our girls were growing up, it seemed that finances were nearly always a huge issue (can you relate?!).   We home-schooled, so we had the expense of books and curriculum, as well as the normal expenses of doctor visits, dental bills, piano lessons, insurance…you get the picture.  If I’m not mistaken, I believe the need for Whitney’s shoes fell at Easter.  We had no money to purchase something for her, so I did what I always did – I prayed.

To be honest, I don’t remember all the specifics today -like how long we prayed and waited, but I do know that used an individual who ordered and had shoes shipped to our house!  God  provided for her; they were Sam & Libby shoes – beautiful and perfect in every way!

Yesterday when I saw that box, my heart flooded with gratitude again, even after all these years.

 “Lord, you have always taken care of us!  Thank you!”

came the cry from my lips and my heart, right there in the shoe department in Target.  Someone walking by probably thought I was upset that they didn’t have what I needed, but oh no – I DO have what I need.  I had it in all my yesterday’s.  I have it today, and I’ll have it in all my tomorrow’s because I have  a God in heaven Who hears my cries and answers prayer!

For all those answers, I’m so glad there was a need, so I could witness my God at work in this family’s life!  It’s also a sweet blessing when a pink shoe box transports me back to the memory of His great love and provision for us!  What an awesome God we serve!

Do you have a need today?  It’s not too great OR too small for God.  Take it to Him and then trust and wait for Him to answer in a way that will be perfect!

Call unto me and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not.  Jeremiah 33:3

Lovingly,

Christian Life

What To Do With Disappointments

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After being apart for several days, and knowing that Valentine’s Day was to fall on Sunday, my husband and I decided that we would wait to celebrate the holiday on Monday. On Sunday we focused at church on God’s love for us and it was a wonderful time of worship!

For our Monday celebration we had made plans to go to a nearby lake cottage and enjoy the respite of no cell or Internet service, the beauty of the lake and mountains and just the company of one another.

cottage

Then the snow came.

The result?

No cabin get-away.

That equals disappointment.

As I thought about that and the change in our plans, I asked the Lord a question that has come to my mind with other (larger) let-downs –

What are we to do with our disappointments?

We all have them, and though they vary from a small disappointments, like a change of plans, to the huge  devastations, they need to be addressed, rather than buried.  Tremendous disappointments such as the complete change in life’s plans, the betrayal in marriage due to infidelity, or the breach of a long-time friendship, all have to be dealt with in the very same way we would treat a small disappointment.

How is that?

With the understanding of a Sovereign God.  His sovereignty is protective.  The snow comes and changes our plans and we say,

“God knew this.  Perhaps there is something that we would miss if we left home right now, or maybe the best time to go is later on.”

 We trust.

Then too, in the humongous blows that come, we must run to our God who knows what is happening and we must trust that He allowed even this for His glory and our good.

Can a relationship fracture be good?  If it pushes us to be more dependent on our great God, it will. Perhaps it will remind us that our expectations must only be on God – not on people.  Of course great disappointments hurt our heart, but we have a God who is “The God of all comfort.”  We can draw closer to the Lord in those times of pain than we would during times of ease as we let Him comfort our hearts.

I’m sure that in time even this little snowy disappointment will be understood as a blessing from the hand of my Sovereign God Who does all things well.  I can’t wait to see what God will do!  It’s another chance to watch Him work in my life – even in the little things!

Take your disappointments – small and large – to Him Who knows best.

Lovingly,

 

Christian Life

My Prayer Strategy

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Strategy – a plan, method, or series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result.  We have strategies for weight loss, organization or job promotions, right?  We need a strategy for our prayer life, too.  How will we maneuver through the burdens on our hearts without a plan?  

Let’s face it, we all face so much every single day that can cause us to be overwhelmed.  The devil would love for us to feel hopeless, and we are UNTIL we open our Bible and read God’s promises!  We need to take those promises and pray them back to the Lord.  Can I give you some suggestions on how to gather and use those verses in your prayer strategy?

You could copy those verses, or print them out from your computer.

Another simple way I’ve found to keep track of those verses I want to pray, is by using You Version Bible app on my phone.  When I’m reading a passage that would be the perfect promise to pray for a person or a need, I go to the top left of the Bible app where the three lines are, and I click that and then go to “bookmark.”  I choose “Options” then and write the theme of that verse or the person for whom I want to pray that passage.  Here’s what it looks like on my phone:

 

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These are just a few of the many that I’ve bookmarked.  As I’m praying, I click on those verses and I pray them to the Lord.

It may sound like this:

Father, I pray that you will give to Dale a heart to warn those in his flock that are unruly – those who are disobedient to Scripture.  Give him wisdom to know how to comfort the feebleminded and those who are weak (here I will share the people for whom we are burdened – sick and lost, alike).

Keep him from desiring to return evil to those who may do evil to him today. Give him wisdom and the desire to follow that which is good today and to even discern what is good and what is not…

You get the idea.  I love having these verses bookmarked on my phone, and not just posted in my Prayer Closet, because then I have those verses with me to pray at any time and any place.

  • Praying verses is powerful because it’s God’s Word!

 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.  Isaiah 55:11

  • Praying verses is also giving the Lord specific things that you’re asking God for, rather than just rambling, or not knowing how to intervene for that dear one or for your own needs!  Here’s how Paul prayed:And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. 

    Who wouldn’t want someone to pray that for them?!

I encourage you to find verses to use as your prayer strategies, then watch and see God answer!

Lovingly,