Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true,
whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable
-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-
think about such things.
Philippians 4:8
This is not an inspirational thought or a suggestion, this is survival. This is a weapon God gives us for the battles that wage in our minds and in our hearts. What are some of these things you think about?
“Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”
John 21:25
Dear Heavenly Father, we praise your holy Name. You are salvation, and all power and glory and majesty are yours. May we never stop singing your praises, our Abba, our Adonai, our Immanuel.
Even in my own life, I feel these words of your servant John are true. You have saved me, protected me, provided for me, blessed me, and done more for me than I could ever fully express, or even know myself.
Thank you for all you’ve done, all you are doing, and all you will do for your children, to care for us and mature us until we meet with you face to face. May your light ever shine through us, and may the words of our testimony always be seasoned with salt.
May we remember your amazing grace and mercy, especially during times of trial. When we can’t understand, may we lean on your understanding, on your eternal plans, which are far greater than we could ever fully grasp.
May you always be our life, our hope, our peace, our constant presence. May we get rid of those things, those bad habits, the ungodly attitudes, anything that could keep us from being filled to overflowing with your Holy Spirit who will mature us and enable us to do all you have for us.
Father, the world so desperately needs you. Use us for your glory. We desire to bear orchards and orchards of fruit and lay up our treasures in heaven. May you make it so.
In the glorious name of Jesus, our Savior, our Redeemer, our Friend, amen.
Seems I’ve talked to quite a few people lately who are going through especially difficult times. From my own personal perspective and after hearing the stories of my friends, the trials seems to be ramping up lately. My gut feeling is that the Lord’s working extra diligently to purify our hearts, to purge them of long-held sinful attitudes, of relying on anyone or anything else but Him, and to strengthen our faith in Him and Him alone. And of course the enemy is not too happy about that, but he’s going to use those trials, too, to try pulling us in the opposite direction.
Resist.
I was recently dealing with a new health issue, and while some days I was handling it fine, there were others when it all was getting just too overwhelming.
One trial – okay; two – alrighty then; three – hmmm, what’s going on?; four – Lord, where are you?! I get it. Believe me, I get it. And of course I pray, of course I turn to God’s Word and wait for Him to speak to my heart through it, but there are also times I turn to a favorite devotional – Streams in the Desert.
Since there are so many facing some very difficult and painful trials, I wanted to share with you today’s Streams in the Desert devotional. The Lord blessed me as I read it, and helped me see my trials from His perspective, to remember that my trials are for my spiritual growth and for His glory. What could be better than that?
Streams in the Desert – August 29
And he went out carrying his own cross (John 19:17).
There is a poem called “The Changed Cross.” It represents a weary one who thought that her cross was surely heavier than those of others whom she saw about her, and she wished that she might choose another instead of her own. She slept, and in her dream she was led to a place where many crosses lay, crosses of different shapes and sizes. There was a little one most beauteous to behold, set in jewels and gold. “Ah, this I can wear with comfort,” she said. So she took it up, but her weak form shook beneath it. The jewels and the gold were beautiful, but they were far too heavy for her.
Next she saw a lovely cross with fair flowers entwined around its sculptured form. Surely that was the one for her. She lifted it, but beneath the flowers were piercing thorns which tore her flesh.
At last, as she went on, she came to a plain cross, without jewels, without carvings, with only a few words of love inscribed upon it. This she took up and it proved the best of all, the easiest to be borne. And as she looked upon it, bathed in the radiance that fell from Heaven, she recognized her own old cross. She had found it again, and it was the best of all and lightest for her.
God knows best what cross we need to bear. We do not know how heavy other people’s crosses are. We envy someone who is rich; his is a golden cross set with jewels, but we do not know how heavy it is. Here is another whose life seems very lovely. She bears a cross twined with flowers. If we could try all the other crosses that we think lighter than our own, we would at last find that not one of them suited us so well as our own.
–Glimpses through Life’s Windows
If thou, impatient, dost let slip thy cross,
Thou wilt not find it in this world again;
Nor in another: here and here alone
Is given thee to suffer for God’s sake.
In other worlds we may more perfectly
Love Him and serve Him, praise Him,
Grow nearer and nearer to Him with delight.
But then we shall not any more
Be called to suffer, which is our appointment here.
Canst thou not suffer, then, one hour or two?
If He should call thee from thy cross today,
Saying: “It is finished-that hard cross of thine
From which thou prayest for deliverance,
“Thinkest thou not some passion of regret
Would overcome thee? Thou would’st say,
“So soon? Let me go back and suffer yet awhile
More patiently. I have not yet praised God.”
Whensoe’er it comes, that summons that we look for,
It will seem soon, too soon. Let us take heed in time
That God may now be glorified in us.
–Ugo Bassi’s Sermon in a Hospital
As we’re in the Christmas-in-July mode, and just in time for a few clouds that have blessedly rolled in as a tiny hint that this insanely hot weather will soon give way to Fall and the Christmas season, I want to share a treasured book with you.
It’s a collection of 49 inspiring Christmas stories, including mine, put together and published by the administrators of an online Christian writing group called Christian Writers for Life.
The personal short stories in Discovering Again the Gift of Christmas tell of homecomings, salvations, miracles, and many other joys at Christmastime and are sure to bring a nostalgia for Christmas past and hope for our future in the One who gave us the reason for celebrating.
Perfect as a Christmas gift or coffee table book for the Christmas season.
Click on the picture to the right, or at the bottom, depending on which device you’re reading this, to go to the Amazon page.
Merry Christmas!
Dorci
Dear Heavenly Father, there is nothing so important in this life than to praise you for all you are, all you’ve done, and all you will do. Our praise begins and ends with you for your love, your forgiveness, and your faithfulness and goodness toward us. There is nothing we could ever do to deserve it, but the sacrifice of your Son paved the way for us to receive it, and the indwelling of your Holy Spirit generously portions it to us.
We are in awe that you would do this for us.
Father, you are the Great Gardener, and we thank you for tilling the soil of our hearts that we could receive the Word of Truth and believe in Christ, for the softening of our hearts when we allow the world and our own sin to harden them, and that you might continually plant new seeds of truth, watering them, growing them, producing in us fruits of righteousness, peace, and joy, and bringing our faith to maturity as only You can.
Help us to be diligent to continually abide in the Vine so you’re free to do in and through us all you have planned that we might bring forth a harvest that glorifies You.
In Jesus’ Name we pray, amen.
I’ve been eating eggs for breakfast for years, and since shortly after we rescued our dog six years ago, he’s virtually insisted I share my eggs with him every morning.
The routine is nearly always the same: he waits for me to get out of bed, dutifully watches as I get out the ingredients, utensils, plate…maybe paces a bit as I cook it up (depending on whether or not he’s deferred eating his own breakfast until he’s had some of mine), walks with me over to my seat, sits as close as he can get, and begins to remind me, repeatedly, that he’s there.
He stares deep into my soul, and if that’s not enough, he accentuates it with some serious begging, or he’ll whimper as pathetically as he knows how. And every once in a while, when he’s especially desperate and I’m not paying close enough attention, he’ll resort to a chest bump to the leg.
Every day, week after week, month after month, year after year, he thinks he has to remind me all over again. That somehow I’ve forgotten him. Like I could.
All the while I’m reminding him, again, that I know he’s there, just like yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. I cut off his little pieces and save them until I’m finished, or at least almost. I can’t forget. There’s no way he’d let me. Yes, he’s a dog, but he’s part of my family. He’s my furry little child, and I love him.
“Yes, I know, I remember, you’ll get your eggs when it’s time.”
And so many times during this exchange I think of us.
We have needs and there may be times we’re not sure if God’s going to provide. Has He forgotten me? Does He see me? How is He going to get me out of this situation?
But Jesus tells us our Father knows what we need before we ask Him. (Matt. 6:8)
Yes, we ask for our daily bread (or eggs) and all our needs, but we don’t need to wonder if our Father’s heard us or has forgotten us.
We’re His children and we’re always on His mind and in His heart.
Still, Rocky reminds me of a command Jesus gives us:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Which of you, if your son asks for bread (or your dog asks for eggs), will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil (hurtful), know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!”
Matthew 7:7-11
Rocky’s got it down. He asks, he seeks, and when needed, he knocks his chest right up against my leg. And in the right time, he gets what he’s asked for.
We are invited by Christ Himself to go to our Heavenly Father and A.S.K. – ask, seek, and knock, but not from a place of doubt, not afraid He’s forgotten us, or worse, believing He doesn’t care about us.
We can and must go to Him firmly seated in the foundation of our abiding faith in Him who sent His Son to die for us, who loves us with an everlasting love, and who called us by knocking on the door of our own heart to bring us into relationship with Himself.
“Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from Him anything we ask, because we keep His commands and do what pleases Him. And this is His command: to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us.“
1 John 3:21-23
With His Love,
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With every passing year (week? day?), every hurdle I face, every body part that breaks down, every headline I thought I’d never see, I find myself longing more and more for my heavenly home.
This world holds less of what I want, but heaven…the home of my LORD, my Savior, my Friend…that is where my heart is. And I know I’m not alone.
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
For in this hope we were saved.”
Romans 8:22-24
Ah, childbirth. In those moments of some of the most intense, blinding, delirium-inducing pain I’ve ever had, I never thought I’d be able to look back and smile. Even chuckle. I barely remember the pain now, but oh, the tremendous blessing I received afterward – now that I remember, and am still blessed with today.
And I can say yes, it was all worth it. The morning sickness, the cravings, the water retention, the back pain, all worth it. I can even cherish it now knowing the beauty that came from it.
And yes, no matter the pain in this life, it’ll all be worth it someday. The day will come when not only our adoption is complete, but we’ll see how the Lord used the trials in this life to mature our faith, to grow us closer to Him, and to receive those treasures we’ve laid up there, treasures greater than we can ever imagine.
For now, we continue to groan inwardly, to wait, patiently, for our time to come. There is a way, though, to experience a taste right now of the future reward for our labor.
Call up an old friend, a brother or sister in the Lord you haven’t seen in while, and invite him or her to lunch, dinner, coffee.
Laugh over old times, eagerly share what’s happened in your lives, how the Lord’s been faithful to always be there in the tough times, and what He’s taught you along the way.
As your heart is filled with the joy of the reunion, let it be a reminder of joy we’ll experience at the great feast in heaven as we join untold numbers of loved ones, those we sorely miss and those we have yet to meet, with our King at the head, and rejoice forever.
Until then, let us hold onto our Hope.
Dear Precious Heavenly Father, we come to you today in praise of your glorious name. You are more wondrous and greater than we can ever fully grasp, and still, you live in our souls.
You reside in our hearts, and inhabit our praises. You sit with us and weep when we weep; you’re near to us when our hearts are broken. There is no where we could ever go where you wouldn’t go to bring us back.
Thank you for the grace you give that allows us to believe in your Son, to receive forgiveness through Him, and to live a brand new life – His life, His love, His joy.
You’ve taken us from darkness to light, and continually pour out your grace on us. In place of aimlessness, you’ve given us a maturing faith; in place of fruitlessness, you’ve given us spiritual gifts; in place of brokenness, you heal our hearts; in place of an empty life, you’ve given us an abundant life in you.
Father, may we never take your grace for granted. May we live this life for you to the fullest, obeying you at every turn, remembering the great scope of your love. May we remember how far you went to redeem us so we could know you and walk with you, and some day live in your very presence, the place your grace is preparing for us now.
With all our hearts, we thank you, Precious Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Have a great weekend!