Are We Rescuing the Perishing?

Rescue the perishing

Care for the dying

Jesus is merciful

Jesus will save

This chorus from an old hymn written by Fanny Crosby (lyrics) and William Howard Doane (music) always takes me back to my growing up years in the Baptist Church. I remember as a young girl, singing this song with much gusto! My strong alto voice blending with all the soprano ladies in the choir. But more than that, I remember how strongly I believed! How I KNEW that Jesus would save all of us who were drowning…I could SEE all the people screaming for rescue and it broke my heart.

Now, the years have zipped by filled with college, marriage, children, jobs and more. I don’t sing in a choir anymore. We seldom do hymns. But that is not my point at all. My point is, where is my broken-heartedness for those who are dying all around me every.single.day? They are dying without Jesus at all or dying without the POWER He gives us to live in the here and now! How can I be complacent? How can I continue to go about my day without my heart being absolutely CRUSHED?

2 Corinthians 5:18-19 New Living Translation (NLT)

And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.

Photo by Arun Kr on Pexels.com

Frozen? Let It Go!

Marijo Sings

Are you afraid?
Is there something in your life that you feel you should do or say
But you don’t because
You are afraid?

Do you feel a prompt to act or speak
But you are frozen by
FEAR?

Do you look at those around you and think
I wish I was more like her?
She has it all together
She is full of confidence
She isn’t afraid of anything!

Did you ever stop to think that she is afraid?
That she really doesn’t have it all together?
That her heart pounds almost out of her chest at the thought of doing that
One thing?
That she loses sleep at night thinking about how she could have done things differently
Or not at all?

Embarrassment is her middle name
Palpitations are the drumline of her heart
Scared Sweat is the glisten on her skin
And the sour taste in her mouth?

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Christmas Eve

‘Twas the day before Christmas and all through the house

Creatures were stirring

I think even a mouse!

My devotions were done

My prayer was said

In hopes I could finish the preparations ahead

The grands are awake and ready to roll

While parents are trying to remain in control

When out in the yard I heard a strange noise

The dog perked up

Ready and poised

And what do I spy with my watery eyes

An Amazon box

A pleasant surprise

I knew in a moment it was the last stocking stuffer

The gifts would be even

No reason to suffer

The boys and the girls would have presents to view

Something useful or funny or a flashlight or two

My eyes-they twinkled

My dimples are many

My cheeks-a bit wrinkled and my nose

(Let’s leave my nose out of this)

My mouth a bit dry

And no beard on my chin

But my belly

Well, let’s say

I like Smucker’s jelly!

And giving nod I arose from my seat

Let’s get this day started and make a big feast

Before I go and fix Christmas food

Merry CHRISTmas to each and all of your brood!

Are You a Kisser or a Clinger?

Are you a Sucker or Sustainer?

A Kisser or a Clinger?

 Do you give lip service?

Do you play the part?

Say all the right things?

Do all the right things?

When the rubber meets the road, do you CLING to what you know to be true or do you bale; with a KISS?

When your past starts to pull on you, do you cling to Jesus as though your very life depends on Him? (it does)

Or do you say, “This was great, but I’m going back to what I know”

“It’s been great but…Kiss, kiss!”

Are you willing to cling to God in the desert or do you kiss off and go back to Egypt?

I’m not a scholar but, let’s look at Ruth.

Married 10 years–no kids, in her own country with her own family.

Mother-in-law decides to leave because of famine
and the death of all the men in her life.
Pretty good idea don’t you think?

Ruth goes with her
Leaves her family, friends, everything she knew,
even though Naomi was whining about what had happened to her.
Ruth still knew the God and the people of Naomi was what she wanted,
what she needed!
Cling? Oh, yes!
Kiss off? Nope
Sustain? Yep!
Sucker? Absolutely not!

When life gets hard (and it will) hang on to the Father. Trust Him with the outcome.
Trust Him with the details. Trust Him!

Ponderings

I do believe all of this still applies 🙂

Marijo Sings

Why does a cup of coffee sound so good right before bed?

Why does 1.2 oz of chocolate put 2 lbs on my hips?

Why do long-lasting lipsticks only last long if it’s the wrong color?

Why is it that the perfect outfit is always in the dirty clothes hamper?

Why do beautiful shoes hurt?

Why does my convertible always have loose papers in it when it is top-down weather?

Why does my hair look its best the morning before a haircut?

Why do strappy sandals always look better on someone else?

Why do we keep holey socks?

Why does something sound like a great idea until YOU have to do it?

Why does ice-cream taste better in the winter?

Why does some assembly required spark fear in the heart of the most able-bodied parent?

Why do we wake up right before the alarm goes off?

Why does my imagination…

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The Long Goodbye

She bundles him up

Gonna be a cold one today

“Put on your shoes, Papa”

“Here are your gloves”

He looks at the shoes and then at the gloves with an empty gaze

This once virile man, her knight in shining armor

Now doesn’t know what to do with these items

He wants to please

But he has no clue

He vacantly stares

While she patiently begins the dressing of the man who once dressed her

The days are long

But the years past were short

She remembers so distinctly the countless times he patiently stood behind her

While she yelled, “Higher, Papa! Higher! Push me up to the sky!”

Or the many times he tickled her until she could barely catch her breath

She remembers vividly asking him to show her how to tie her sparkly pink shoes

And he did

Time and time again

She recalls, with ease, the day she brought home her beau

“Papa, he asked me to marry him!”

“Take good care of her, son.” he said

And now, he can’t remember either of them

But she remembers

The days play over and over in her mind

An endless loop with no beginning and no end

She takes great joy in the little things

This morning he remembered that bacon and eggs were his favorites

And last night

When she tucked him into bed he said

“I love you to the stars, Sparkles”

Their roles were reversed

But he knew her, if only for just a brief moment

Goodbyes are hard

But long goodbyes…

Much harder

Because you never know when there will be

No more glimmers of recognition and no more knowing

Only memories

The Last Goodbye

(If you are a caretaker for an Alzheimer’s patient, I applaud you and want to pray for you! If you know someone who is in the midst of the long goodbye, reach out to them; offer a meal, a time to relax, or just a listening ear)

Photo credit: www.emilygracephotoworks.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Judge If You Must (justhaveallthefacts)

I am in the process of finishing a 1000 piece puzzle

I love doing puzzles

There is something so satisfying about finding all the pieces and making them fit together into a picture

This particular puzzle is a picture of 15 or 20 retro cereal boxes

I am now down to about the last 200 or so pieces

As I go about picking up each remaining piece

I look for words printed on them

That way, I can pretty much pick them up and place them right away

One particular piece today had the letters

“ast” printed in red on a white background

Since I am doing a puzzle about cereal

My mind went directly to the word

Breakf”ast”

So I started searching for that word

I looked the entire puzzle over

Searching for the word

Breakfast

Not to be found

Hmmmm

Then I started looking for the color combos

And lo and behold

I found where it went!

The letters “ast” didn’t belong in the word Breakfast after all!

They belonged in the word

To”ast”ed

As I placed it in its place

I chided myself for assuming

Assuming that because I was doing a puzzle about cereal

The word that I was looking for MUST be Breakf”ast”

It was then that I heard God speak to my heart

He said

“Child, this is what I’ve been trying to tell you

You think you have all the answers and all the pieces to this puzzle of life

You think you know

But you don’t!

You’ve placed judgement upon others

And had judgement placed upon you

But you’ve done all that with limited vision

Limited knowledge

You can’t see the big picture

Or even what else is going on behind the scenes

Let Me do the judging

Let Me do the convicting

I see all the pieces of the puzzle

And I know where each piece is

And where each piece goes

I know what I am looking for

I am not guessing or assuming

I KNOW

I’ve ALWAYS known

I can take care of all your situations

I will let you know when you have made a wrong choice

Listen and obey ME

I can put the pieces all together “

Matthew 7 (ESV and NLT)

Judging Others

7 “Judge not, that you be not judged. ² For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

7 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. ² For you will be treated as you treat others.^[a] The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.

“The measure you use”
“The standard you use”

Not knowing all the details

Is that how I want to be judged?

 

 

A Sprinkle or a Hurricane?

A wise Pastor once told me

“If it can be solved with money, it’s not a problem”
I usually shot back with
“Then write me a check!”

I never fully understood what he was saying until this last weekend

Our church is going through a sermon series entitled

Faith Like This

This week, Pastor Mike spoke about the Eye of the Storm

• The eye of the storm is often the center of God’s will for our lives
• It’s not the size of your faith, it’s the direction
• The storm is designed to expose your faith and reveal the Son

In Luke 8: 24 it talks of the disciples and Jesus being in a boat out on the lake
A huge storm comes up and they were in real danger of dying and Jesus was napping
As the boat is taking on water, the disciples go to Jesus, waking Him up by shouting

Master! Master! We are going to drown!

In other words,

How can You just lay there snoozing when we’re all gonna die?!

Jesus woke up, sat up and hollered loud

Shut Up!!

And it did
And I imagine the disciples shut up, too
Then Jesus asked

Where is your faith?

Were they faithless men? I don’t believe so
Perhaps their faith was pointed in the wrong direction
In that moment, their faith was in the storm and its potential for destruction
Not in Jesus the Author and Finisher of their faith

When the storm calmed, the disciples were terrified and amazed

Who is this man? When he gives a command, even the wind and the waves obey

Jesus and His power were revealed in the midst of the storm

———————————————————————————————————————————-

How often do we moan about a little sprinkle of rain in our lives?
The plumbing? The car? The washer died? Gas prices are sky-rocketing?
These are not big storms, just little problems—all can be fixed with money

What about the hurricanes that happen?
The scary diagnosis? The lost child? The senseless killing? Excruciating loss?
Where is Jesus in all this?
In the boat
With us
Encouraging us to keep our eyes of faith firmly fixed on Him
And not in the rising water and gale-force winds
Rest and trust Him in the Eye of the Storm

Storms will come
Life is sometimes hard
Where is your faith?

 

Oxford Dictionary defines Eye of the Storm as the calm region at the center of a storm

In the center all is calm although all around is wind and rain

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who Do You Call?

When life is hard and the world is cold

When the diagnosis comes out of the blue and slaps you square in the face

When you get sucker-punched by the very person you thought would always have your back

When friends/family/employers fail you

Who do you call?

What do you do?

Do you run to the bottle?

Do you make horrible plans to get even?

Do you complain and tear down?

Do you cry out in anger?

Do you dive into the depths of despair?

Or

Do you run to the Rock?

Your High Tower

Your Hope

Your Redeemer

Your Daddy God

The ONE who loves you most!

He will never leave you

He won’t hurt you

He will walk with you through life’s storms

He will always calm the storm within you

And He might even calm the sea around you

When situations and circumstances seem to overwhelm

We need to keep our eyes on our Father’s face

Nothing else matters!

It seems people all around me are getting hit from every side

Marriages, children, illness, stress, the unknown

But over and over in my spirit I hear this old hymn

My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus’ blood and righteousness!

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name!

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand

All other ground is sinking sand.

Our Hope; not in mankind, not in our job, not in the medical community and not in our spouse

Our Hope is in Christ!

Nothing else; nothing less

Psalm 144:2 NLT
He is my loving ally and my fortress, my tower of safety, my rescuer.
He is my shield, and I take refuge in Him. He makes the nations submit to me.

 

 

 

Gaunlet Extended; Challenge Accepted

Thank you, Mike Whitney and COS!

Because you challenged us to walk our neighborhoods and pray for them, I met a new friend!

As I was walking our ‘neighborhood’, I prayed for the individuals I knew by name and those I didn’t know. The unknown names beat out the known by about 10 to 1!

I prayed for all the children who play so close to the road. I prayed for their parents that they would reign them in.

I prayed for the unknown robbers who broke into our house several years ago and robbed us of not only our physical items but of our sense of peace and safety in our own home.

I prayed for all the people who drive down our road every day at breakneck speed. That they would slow down, keep safe and enjoy the journey.

After I prayed for all of that, I still had about a half mile back to my home. It was then that I told God, “If someone is outside, I will stop and introduce myself”.

And just like that, a young lady came out on her porch for a smoke and some downtime before she started dinner. God works like that.

I didn’t realize she was out until I was several steps past her property. I hesitated for a moment, arguing with myself (and God) saying it would look foolish and she would think I’m crazy if I stopped and went back.

The argument didn’t last long and back I went.

I approached slowly. After all, I had a dog on a leash and she didn’t know me from Adam!

As I got closer, I started talking and telling her about the challenge to walk and pray for our neighbors and that I had told God I would stop if someone came outside.

I introduced myself. Huffing and puffing and sweating like crazy. I am in no shape for physical fitness.

I then asked her if there was anything I could pray with her about and she teared up!

She told me she had a business venture on her heart that she really wanted guidance for. A small business that would not only benefit her, but the Grove community as well.

So, there on her front lawn, for all the world to see, we held hands and we prayed and we cried. We prayed that God would work out all the details for her and her dream. We thanked Him for divine connections and obedience and new friends and new beginnings.

My new friend and I plan to get together and walk our neighborhood. Praying, talking, dreaming, connecting.

Thank You, Father! Thank you, COS!
#ilovemychurch
#grovecos