Water into Wine

 Ok, so I seem to be having a thread ..dealing with water.

But something new struck me, when I was blogging about water, and the importance of it.

 I have blogged this topic before...but it was a take off someone's message about turning the water into wine bringing joy.

Much of the time we don't think about water,

It is there when we turn on the faucet, when we flush or want a bath. Lakes, rivers, puddles are all around us.

It is low on our list of things to be concerned about. And yet it was chosen to turn into something better

Saving the best for last, that is what the man said about the wine.

📖 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”   John 2:10

That is how we may feel; one, insignificant being in a sea of others. 

But we all have a purpose and God can use each of us, no matter how insignificant we feel.

Jesus took the basic water, and used it for something that was the best of the evening!

📖  Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now." John 2:7-10

Jesus used a harlot

📖 Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there....4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them....15 So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall.  She said to them, “Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way.” Joshua 2:1,4,15-16

A murderer

📖 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.  Exodus 2:11-12

A persecutor of Christians 

📖 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Acts 9:1-4

📖 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”  Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s  (Paul) eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Acts 9:17-19

He also used tax collectors, basic fishermen, and He can use you too!!

📖 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12:1

🙏My Prayer for you is you allow yourself to be used by God this week. No matter how insignificant you feel, you are an amazing vessel to God!❤

A Boat Load Of Faith

Have you ever stopped to think about the faith of Noah? 

📖  By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. Hebrews 11:7

📖 This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.  Genesis 6:1

A song on the radio made me do just that.

It was last week when we were leaving camp...where we had been soaking up the sun and enjoying the peacefulness of the water, and I had blogged The Significance Of Water.

🎶 Build A Boat🎶 by Colton Dixon (link to listen at the end of the blog) came on.

As I was listening to the words it just struck me; the faith that Noah had to have had to build a boat, not just a boat but a MANSION with a HUGE barn attached kind of a boat! 

📖 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make  yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.  I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” Noah did everything just as God commanded him. Genesis 6:9-22

He was asked to do something so out of his realm for an event that he had not ever considered or experienced, a flooding rain. Rain was not something that had happened before, it is believed that up until that point, no water had fallen from the sky.. and even if it had who could fathom the amount and sheer magnitude of an earth covering flood!

📖 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings.  Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.  The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in. For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth.  The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.  The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. Genesis 7:11-20

Can we say that?

We follow God's instructions even when we can't see the point,  can't comprehend the outcome?

Or do we argue with God; explaining why our plan is probably best, why taking the steps we think we should will take us where He wants us to go, why we have everything under control regardless of what may be coming on the horizon?

 I know we have had circumstances in our lives that we never imagined we would be in, and couldn't fathom if we had.

He may be asking us to do something that makes no sense right now, but God knows what storms are ahead....and though we would love for Him to allow us to circumvent the storm,  He is preparing us to ride through the storm, even sail on through! And come out stronger, wiser and closer to Him.

BUT we have to be listening, willing to follow what He tells us, and brave enough to stay the course.

With faith, each step we take in Christ, He builds us and shapes us to be able to handle the storm. 

📖 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2

📖 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Hebrews 11:1-3

🎵  Build A Boat Colton Dixon

The Significance of Water

 

Sitting lake side with the beautiful fall colors exploding along the shore line....seeing the reflection of the water bouncing off the neighboring deck wall....

I began to think about how peaceful many people find water, the necessity of water, and how water held importance in scripture.

Without water we would parish.

Without water, life simply cannot be sustained. It is the fluid that lubricates the workings of the cell, transporting the materials and molecular machinery from one place to another and facilitating the chemical reactions that keep us going. (https://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/Water:_Molecule_of_Life.html)

💧God flooded the earth with water, not a comfort, it ended almost every life....but in it God provided a way for mankind and animals to continue, a lesson for future generations and a promise! (Next week's blog might be about that!)

📖 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. Genesis 6:17-18

💧Jesus went down into the river and allowed His cousin John to submerge Him under water and baptize Him...not something Jesus HAD to do, but did out of obedience to His Father and to show us by example what we should do as an outward expression of our internal faith. 

📖  Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:13-17

💧Jesus first miracle was to turn everyday water into wine. It brought honor to the host, showed those around Him they needed to trust Him, that the insignificant can be significant.

📖  Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so,  and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside  and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now. John 2:7-10

💧Jesus called Himself the Living Water drawing on the understanding that we all need water to live.

📖  Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”  “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”  John 4:10-12

But water, though it sustains us here, can not save us from our eventual death, cannot save our souls. Only faith in the Living Water can do that.

📖  Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14

We take water for granted, as we turn on our faucets and hoses. We bath and wash and drink.

As we use it for recreation....

But as we take a moment to just breathe in the water...and the significance it has, we should be thanking God for it, in all it's forms.

Just as we shouldn't take our Savior or our relationship with Him for granted and thanking Him for being our Living Water!

🙏I pray today that you have put your faith and trust in the Living Water. I pray you have taken a big long, soul quenching drink❤

A Waiting Game

 As I sit and wait for a daughter to come out of a procedure..and wait to hear the outcome.

I ponder the waiting we seem to do all our lives;

We wait for school to be over,  the whole career or just the school day! the work day to be over, we wait for "THE one", we wait for the children to arrive, for the children to talk, walk, to go to school, to arrive home before curfew, we wait for test results, pay day, we wait for the better job, things to be better, we wait for the end. (And there is an end for all of us)

📖 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12

But what are we missing if all we are doing is waiting?

Waiting is a part of life, but it should be a proactive time, not a waste of time. We should be waiting on Him and His purpose, instead of what we deem should be next.

📖 Wait on the Lord;

Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord! Psalm 27:14 (NKJV)

I think of those I know who have battled cancer; those who know the end is near and are waiting for it to come.

Courageously making the most of the waiting moments. Praising God for the blessings they find in the moments they are given, trying to do for others, serving God how ever they are able.

Even with their limitations they find ways to engage and be "a part".

I have been privileged to be an up close and personal witness to several who have "waited with grace and gratitude". 💔❤

We all know there is another stage of life coming, but focusing on the here and now allows God to pour His blessings out on us, allows us to see where God is working and how we can serve Him and be a part of His blessing to others...no matter our capacity, He will provide all we need to do what ever He asks of us!

📖 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19 (ESV)

🙏My prayer for you today; That you see His blessings all around you and you find His purpose in your waiting!❤

☕❤ PS. She came through the procedure well, and they believe it was successful! Thank you Lord and AMEN!

I tried NOT to waste my waiting time...working on this as I sat. (Except for those "few" Instagram posts I shared!😉)

Not A City Girl

 I didn't know when I was going to write my blog; Sunday night...or when we got home from our trip....obviously I didn't get to it Sunday!

I am not a city girl...the hustle and bustle....(which is a romanticized statement in my mind) and the city lights do not entice me.  I do appreciate those who live and work there, and pray for them!

I know I have written more than once about taking time for God in the busyness....but after the last 3 days....that is what I am left with. 

 Traveling a total of 800 miles on the highway and small curvy, country roads, towing a camper!  (First time!) Arriving safely,  and with the help of a wonderful lady (Pat) at our campground (Korn's Shawangunk Kill) set up was quick and smooth, a great spot, full hook-up! (Thank you God! & Pat!)

📖  Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Romans 12:13

Driving into New Jersey (no camper Thank you Lord!)

I truly believe God's Hand protected us several times while driving around Hoboken!

📖 But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. 2 Thessalonians 3:3

There was much to pray for and give praise for;

From just individual people you pass 

📖  Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. James 5:16

To praying for those memorialized....

those from Hoboken who lost their lives serving in WW II,

Hoboken WW II Memorial (Sinatra Park Hoboken NJ)

and those from New Jersey who were slain in the terror attacks on September 11.

Empty Sky Memorial (Liberty State Park Hoboken NJ)

To Ellis Island and what was supposed to be the start of a new life for so many fleeing persecution, poverty and famine.

📖 No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them. Ecclesiastes 1:11

To our country, as we viewed Lady Liberty and the New York City skyline.

📖 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16

The view that has been forever changed...as well almost everyone who lived in that vicinity in 2001, and countless others.

New York City skyline 1989

I also breathe a prayer of gratitude for so much; those who sacrifice for my freedoms, for where I have been blessed to live, for my family (those who traveled with me, those who "held down the fort").

For ALL the safety over all the miles. For the sweet moments.

The biggest, of course, was when we pulled in the driveway and got that camper parked!

🙏 My prayer for you is that no matter what kind of "hustle and bustle" your life is like today you can find God in the busyness and give Him Praise, find gratitude in what is around you and pray for those things that are needed.❤

📖 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11

         (Photo by Rachel Ramsdell Photography)

Losing Faith

 So as I said last week I had been working on this....inspired the prior Sunday.  

The message was about faith. Terry started by sharing how a friend stated she "has lost faith".

In this day and time it is easy to "lose faith".

But I got thinking...we get discouraged, even despondent, but is it God we lose faith in...or people??

For me during my most down, discouraging, empty times, when I think back, it is people I lost faith in not God. I know God is there, I know He loves me and I trust Him.

📖 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13

📖 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. 1 John 3:1-3

But people are, after all, human and humans are flawed beings. 

God is....GOD.  He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent....He doesn't change....so He shouldn't disappoint.  

📖 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 1 John 3:20

📖  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8

📖  Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:5

I know we may not understand God many times....may not understand the answers we receive, but we trust Him, still know that He is there.

📖 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord. Isaiah 55:8

But people are sometimes selfish, short sided, prideful...and their choices may hurt us, or others. 

God is the same, regardless of their choices,  regardless of our choices.

📖 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8

📖 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes  3:11

📖  I know that all God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of Him. Ecclesiastes 3:14 (HCSB)

God is still Holy, even if things aren't going according to OUR plan. 

📖 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy." 1 Peter 1:16

📖 But you, Lord, sit enthroned forever;

    your renown endures through all generations. Psalm 102:12

Being in this world means bad, tragic, sad things will happen....because we live in a world full of sin. 

📖 I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

I think if we feel we have lost faith, sometimes we need to examine where we have placed our faith and trust..

Have we placed it in a person or people? or have we placed it in the One who created the universe,  created us!?

📖 Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. Mark 11:22

🙏My prayer for you this week is that you can say...

📖 I been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.    Galatians 2:20❤

Walk By Faith

 

I had started working on this week's blog.."Losing Faith"...inspired by Sunday's message. (it might be next weeks!)

But then as I settled down on Monday evening and reflected on the day...."Losing Faith" didn't seem fitting.

"Miracles" "Step by Step", "One Day At a Time" "Overwhelmed with Gratitude" all titles that could have worked.

After 102 days in hospital ERs, ICUs, medical floors and rehab dad came home!  

And throughout his journey his faith was ever present. He knew, even when he was still sedated, that the Lord was with Him.

And Mom, even at the scariest moments,  had "a peace" that comes from a deep faith and trust in her heavenly Father.

Was there fear? of course!

Was there uncertainty? Many days.

Even in a moment when Mom thought that the love of her life, her rock of 57 years might not make it, she told me she had been praying and "she just had a sense of peace fill her". (She has had that several times throughout all this}

Her faith in what God was doing allowed Him to give her the strength...the strength to stay on her own for 100 nights.  To drive herself to Plattsburgh almost every day. The strength to tend to all of it by herself.

📖 No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. Joshua1:5-6

Dad's faith gave him assurance that he would eventually come home.  

As I have shared before: he told us one day "The Lord told me I will go home."

And with faith Dad believed that every day!

Every time he faced a new challenge; to speak, to swallow, to stand, to walk, to breath on his own, he had faith that God was right there beside him.

📖 For I am the Lord your God

who takes hold of your right hand

and says to you, Do not fear;

I will help you. Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob,

little Israel, do not fear,
for I myself will help you,” declares the Lord,

your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 41:13-14

We all face challenges, and we need to have faith in our Lord and Savior and take one step forward...and if we can't walk...move...move and trust God is there!

📖 For we walk by faith, not by sight.  2 Corinthians 5:7 (NKJV)

So today ...Happy 78 Birthday Dad! I don't think there has been one sweeter or more celebrated! 

📖 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” Luke 17:19

🙏 Lord, thank you for the faith, strength and courage you have given Mom and Dad. I pray that we all continue to grow our faith so that we too can have strength and courage no matter what we face!❤

📖 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
11 Look to the Lord and his strength;
seek his face always. 1 Chronicles 16:10-11