January 1, 2017

Keep traveling steadily along His pathway and in due season He will honor you with every blessing.  Psalm 37:34

Happy New Year Everyone!

Friends, can you believe it, another year has come and gone? Looking back at last year helps us to see how God worked in our life. Was it a year of heartache and loss or happiness and joy, tragedy and sorrow or success and achievement?

How do you think God looks on this past year in our life? Did it bring us any closer to Him? What lessons did we learn last year? What did God teach us?

If we look within, we might see some changes which may need to be made before we begin this new year. If you are like me, there were so many times I missed the mark of being all I should have been. Self-examination causes us to realize that we can't live the way we should in our own strength.. We need God's help. Our only hope is a changed heart, one which we can only receive through Jesus Christ.
God's love is unchanging. we read in Malachi 3:6, I the Lord do not change.

From everlasting to everlasting the Lord's love is with those who fear Him. Psalm 103:17

2 Corinthians 5:17 says If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.


A new year awaits us, smiling in the unknown of 12 months. Are we ready to receive dozens of things God is waiting to teach us?

Praise be to you, O Lord; teach me Your decrees. Psalm 119:12

Let m take this opportunity to share my faith, in case anyone is in need today. Salvation comes through Jesus Christ. It is not obtained by our  working for it. It only comes by way of faith-believing that Jesus is God's Son who lived a perfect life and died in our place so we can have forgiveness of sin and eternal life. Oh friend, if you do not now this wonderful Savior, ask Him to come into your heart and forgive you of your sins. Then you will find this everlasting love and a changed heart. Eternal life in heaven awaits you.

Join us tomorrow as we continue our Bible study in the book of 1 Chronicles 11.

Teach me your way, O Lord; lead me in a straight path.  Psalm 27:11

I Will Resolve to...

Happy New Year, 2015!!!

January 1, 2015

How odd is that, to write 2015? I never thought about my living in the year 2015. Did you back in the 70's, 80's, 90's, even 2000, or 2010? Oh my, where have the decades gone? The years keep flying by faster and faster.

Of course, when we think of a new year, we often think of "New Years Resolutions." Right?
My husband and I are reading a daily devotional book written by a friend of ours, R.E. Clark, called Life Is Not A Snapshot It's A Mosaic. (It is for sale on Amazon.) Here are some things he says about this subject:

Most of the commercials deal with exercise equipment, diet plans, or quitting some bad habit like smoking. Though we may not formally mad a resolution, the merchants know that this is the time of the year that we are at least subconsciously thinking about them.

The word resolution means to determine an action, course of action, procedure, or method. It is at the minimum a mental state in which we resolve to accomplish some set of goals.

Resolutions come down to a matter of the will. You have to take that which was mere thought and put feet to it. Your resolution must rise up and become a reality. David wrote the longest chapter of the Bible, which we know as Psalm 119.

In verses 15-16, David said, I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways. I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.

David's resolution was short and sweet. It was a four step plan with a single focus. Each step is always centered upon the Word of God.
I will meditate.
I will contemplate.
I will delight.
I will remember (not forget).

David's resolves included:

1. Meditate on the precepts of God. The Hebrew word for meditation means to ponder; to weigh carefully in the mind; to converse with one's self; to talk out the issues of God's law to the place that every point was completely understood. Meditation is a "get honest with God and yourself time". Read Ephesians 5:17-21 for more mediation information.
2. Contemplate God's ways. Contemplation is the idea to scan or to look at intently. Make the necessary adjustments in your life to get back on the Lord's highway. When we go to the doctor, and they prescribe medication to help us, it will do us no good unless we fill the order and take all of the medication.
3. Delight myself in God's statutes. Delight means to please. David looked at the statutes, commandments, and the law of God with delight and pleasure. He handled each one as if holding close like a beloved child. Be resolved to hold close to your heart God's Word.
4. Forget not God's Word. Forget means to mislay. It is not so much intentionality, but carelessness that brings our resolutions to naught. I will remember Your Word. It there is no intent to perform, then the resolves become meaningless.

Whatever this year will bring to your path, be it good or bad, always remember God's Word and His ways.

Meditate, contemplate, delight, and remember God's Words and ways.
Be it finally resolved...

Are we making time to read and study the Bible? Are we taking it into our life, our heart, making it a part of us? Does it feed our soul that is hungry? Do we remember what the Word says about a certain situation which pops up before us?
How resolved are we? How willing are we? 

Have a Happy New Year and watch those resolutions.

Linda
 

What I Did and Didn't do in 2013

January 1, 2014

Happy New Year dear friends!

Instead of New Years resolutions, I am looking back at what I did and didn't do in 2013.

Last year I did:

• Thank God for bringing my husband through heart surgery (oblation) and giving my sister in law back to us.
• Traveled to the Dominican Republic and taught children about Jesus.
• Served on the executive board of my state WMU (Woman's Missionary Union).
• Taught children in VBS class about Jesus.
• Shared the gospel with others, verbally and through writing.
• Played with my granddaughter and talked with other grandchildren.
• Became a skilled fire maker in our fireplace.
• Sang a solo at church and sang in the choir Christmas cantata.
• Exercised on my treadmill.
• Served on the new sanctuary committee.
• Took note of interruptions in my life as Divine interruptions.
• Overcame walking pneumonia and adjusting to asthma.
• Encouraged loved ones with cancer- my sister, sister in law, and youth director.
• Prayed for our missionaries.
• Gained 10 pounds of the 20 I had lost. Ugh!
• Baked banana bread and passed out to our deacons' families.
• Enjoyed our family reunion on my husband's side.
• Memorized some of Romans 8.

Last year, I did not:

• Make my bucket list.
• Travel to Alaska nor Hawaii.
• Send out Christmas cards to all my family and friends.
• Hold and kiss our new grandson.
• Paint our house.
• Write a book.
• Loose those 5-10 added pounds.
• Clean out our storage building.
• Have a family reunion on my side of the family.
• Memorize enough Scripture.
• Be better organized.

Do I want  any do-overs concerning last year? Hurtful words spoken, words not spoken, spending more time with my aged aunts, serving the Lord more, memorizing all of Romans 8.

How about you friends? Tell us about your accomplishments.

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 1:3)

In His love,
Linda

*Back to Exodus 20 tomorrow. Don't miss it.