In, Around and Through

 Many times when I pray....I use that phrase.  I can't even tell you if I had heard it at some point and incorporated it into my prayers or I thought of it on my own, but if you have been in prayer with me there is a good chance you heard me pray these words.

"Lord be IN, AROUND and THROUGH this situation."

Christ is IN ....IN the room with us, IN the moment with us.

📖  For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:20

📖   What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:  “I will live with them and walk among them and I will be their God, and they will be my people." 2 Corinthians 6:16-17

He is AROUND, His love and protection surround and cover us.

We pray "hedges of protection", around those we love, shields against "Satan's flaming arrows"; when we know a  situation could be dangerous, stressful, threatening.  He will surround us with His love and guidance.

📖 “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; 

my God is my rock, in whom I find protection.

He is my shield, the power that saves me,
and my place of safety. 

He is my refuge, my savior,

the one who saves me from violence. 

I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and he saved me from my enemies. 2 Samuel 22:1-4

📖  “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.  Job 1:10

📖 He will cover you with his feathers,

    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. Psalm 91:4

If He is IN it with us and AROUND us with His protection 

He is  THROUGH it...immersed in every molecule!

BUT also through US!  or at least He should be!

📖  Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ Matthew 22:37

📖 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

He wants to be present in every part of our life and our being....we should want Him there as well!

🙏I pray for you today...for whatever you are in the middle of...you feel His presence IN it with you, you trust His protection AROUND you, and you know He is THROUGH it all.❤

A Bitter Pill 💊

Have you heard that saying

"That is a bitter pill to swallow."?

Meaning circumstances we can't change, difficulties we have to deal with...are distasteful, "hard to swallow".

The thought came to mind as I was taking my vitamins/supplements. 

There are many kinds of pills out there, hard tablets, gel caps, capsules. Each with a different covering holding what is helpful, and usually necessary, inside.

We all have "bitter pills" in life...but our faith in Christ can make a difference in what happens with those "pills"....it can make a difference in the "coating on the pill".

If we allow that pill to stay as hard as it was when we had to swallow it.....a hard tablet we can't break or crush...it just remains hard and bitter.

📖 Make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and by it, defiling many. Hebrews 12:15 (HCSB)

But if we allow Christ's grace and peace to wash over it...it will be softer, easier to break open and mercy, love, forgiveness can ooze out.

I know it sounds over simplified, even silly, but think about it;

If we allow all the wrongs, tragedies and unfairness in our life to remain heavy, hardened with-in us ...they damage us, instead of letting God use them to grow our faith and draw us closer to Him..

📖 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:6-7

...instead of letting God's gracious forgiveness crush that pill into powder that is washed away by His blood.  

There can not be even a little part....like the tiny part when we say; "they hurt me, I have a right to be angry", "this was not fair I am justified in my reactive behavior"..."I am the victim here!"  

But you see, that little speck becomes a collector...almost a magnet, for the littlest slights, misunderstandings, and other hurts and wrongs, so that little spec grows into another large hardened, bitter tablet.

📖 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Ephesians 4:31

ALL bitterness....not "get rid of bitterness"...or even "try to..."  it says GET RID OF ALL.

A quote from Christy by Catherine Marshall page 409.

Part of a funeral message given by Miss Alice;

“Second, we can have His friendship only if we are willing to let go our resentments and our bitterness and our hating and our feuding and our name-calling and our shooting and love one another. Tom McHone will not have died in vain, if finally we can drop the quarrels based on false pride, the petty differences that bring us sorrow and are not worthy of our Master."

What I also notice is that bitterness is listed first, so I believe letting bitterness hang out produces rage, anger, brawling, slander,  and every form of malice.  If we were to actually get rid of ALL bitterness....rage, anger, brawling, etc would all be gone as well!  When we don't let bitterness hang on...the rest just won't be!

📖 Praising and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers, these things should not be this way. Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening? James 3:10-12 (HCSB)

We can't crush that bitter pill on our own...we need to surrender our bitter pills to Him and He will crush them...so His mercy and grace and forgiveness is all that remains.

📖   I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me  Philippians 4:13 (NKJV)

Why do we have to swallow that pill in the first place?...as I have blogged before;

Jesus says you WILL have trouble...you WILL have some bitter pills, but take heart..."I am the Great Pill Crusher!"  (My paraphrase)

📖 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

Here is a song I just heard a few days ago...it speaks to what I am trying to say; that in our trials we draw closer to Him...grow in Him...without those bitter pills we might never get there.

🎵 Bring the Rain. Mercy Me

Never Forget

This past weekend, Saturday was the 20th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks and Sunday was Grandparents Day. (yes it is a thing!)

So I was trying to decide ....which should I blog about?....since they seem to be on opposite ends of the spectrum:

A tragic day in our nations history; but we saw such heroism and brotherly love and God working in the tragedy.

or honoring our grandparents....for what they mean to us, what they stand for in our family ...around our table and in our family tree.

both remembering....one of the phrases that came out of 9-11 is "we will never forget".

We will never forget the innocent lives lost, the heroes that lost their lives running into the fire and destruction.  We will never forget the people who continued to help and to support.  The families and lives that are represented by the memorials.

I believe that is something that would make a good Grandparents Day card as well....."we will never forget"...."We will never forget your life, what you have done in and for our family.  The love and support...who you are as individuals...the history and memories that you represent."

To me...the most important "we will never forget";  is what Christ did for us....He loved us so much He stepped out...to be a hero, stepped up to take our place....

📖  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16

I believe it is God's love for His people that allows us to survive and move past the tragedies, past the things that cause us pain.  I believe that He cries with us through all of it. 

📖 Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me close. Psalm 27:10 (NLT)

He holds us...carries us when we are too weak to continue. He brings those people who think nothing of themselves to help, to minister, to take care of us.

📖 I will be your God throughout your lifetime—

    until your hair is white with age.
I made you, and I will care for you.
    I will carry you along and save you. Isaiah 46:4 (NLT)

I thank God for the heroes.  For the everyday people who step up, for the grandparents, for those in my life who have given me love in which to grow.

📖  I always remember you in my prayers day and night. And in these prayers I thank God for you. He is the God my ancestors served, and I have always served him with a clear conscience. 2 Timothy 1:3 (ERV)

Credentialing Specialist

My sister's job title at her work at an area hospital was Certified Medical Staff Credentialing Analyst & Coordinator or for short "Credentialing Specialist "

One of her jobs was to background check the medical credentials of all the physicians seeking privileges at her facility (to state it simply) 

She and her office mate had lots and lots of paperwork.

A couple Sundays ago the message at church was about our qualifications for what we do, what we are known as, and how most people can show certificates of completion, cards, some form of proof that you have the qualifications to carry that title, or to do what you are doing.

So what if our "Credentialing Specialist " came along....looking for actual proof we are worthy of the name Christian..

📖 I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Ephesians 4:1b

We may even have a certificate from our church...for Sunday school, for baptism, membership etc

We can wear t-shirts proclaiming our faith (however you can wear a shirt proclaiming McDonald's fries, does that make me Ronald?!)

See where I am going with this??

We take people at their word that they are a follower of Christ. 

But IF Christ came looking for our credentials ..what do we got??.

📖 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35

Can loving others be enough proof?  BUT do we love  ALL others?  ALL the time? Do we love them ALL sacrificially ?

📖 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. John 10:4

 We know His voice, but can others see proof of that??

  

📖  This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:8

📖  “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing John 15:5

📖 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

 Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Matthew 7:20-21  

SO we should have baskets full of fruit??

Our certificate should read;

📖  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

I have this scripture engraved on the inside of my wedding band (the one from when we renewed our vows) because it is one of my life verses.  If I could produce every one of the fruits everyday...or even  one day.....you can pray that for me!

🙏My prayer for you today...  You wouldn't need be asked for your "credentials" because Who you follow is evident in all you do!❤

Being Needy

 I heard someone say that a certain man's criteria for a future wife was that she "wasn't needy". Now I get what he was probably saying; a woman who is independent, strong, emotionally self sufficient, possibly economically self sufficient...I don't know.

But it got me thinking; being needy in our culture today is thought of in a negative light...and can be an issue. 

BUT....as Christ followers aren't we supposed to be "needy"

Aren't we supposed to need Christ and His salvation?

📖 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

Need to read and study His work daily?

📖 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 

2 Timothy 3:16-17

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15

Need to communicate with Him through prayer and meditation?

📖 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

 “This, then, is how you should pray: 

 “‘Our Father in heaven,  hallowed be your name, your kingdom come,  your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,    as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.   For if you forgive other people when they sin against    you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 5:5-15

Need to recognize our sin and our need for a savior

📖 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  Romans 3:23-24

We need His love...He desires ours 

📖 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17

📖 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ Matthew 22:36-37

🙏So today, I pray you are as needy as I am! ❤

What Do We Do With "It""

 It was just a week ago that I spent 3 days with people I had never met before....we prayed together, worshipped together, ate together. Some of the women painted together, laughed together and we shared concerns that were on our hearts....but this past Sunday evening...as it dawned on me..."wow it was just a week ago we met new people...and what have I done with it?"

Had it changed me? Impacted me? Was I doing anything differently?

I hope that I made a bit of a difference for them...an impact for Christ. Though we were all Fire Chaplain's wives ...we still can encourage one another, still make a difference.

I have been praying for each one (trying to remember each name) but I remember the needs, the sorrows, the triumphs.

Contact information is going to be sent out...will I keep in touch?

📖 I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, Philimon 1:4

Paul wrote this in his letters to several churches, and I am certain he did not know each person by name.  But he prayed for all of them.

God presents us with new situations and new people ...sometimes frequently.

The person who checks you out at the store. If you do grocery pick up ..the one who brings it to your car.  Or the person who delivers it to your door.

The people that answer the phone when you call to place an order or sort out an issue.

The person who cuts you off in traffic or doesn't move when the light turns green (hey now ...!!!)

📖  But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! Matthew 5:44

We don't know their names...but God does. We could read their name tag...or take note of their name...and pray for them.

But also remember that your reaction and response to them can make a difference...you can impact their day! Their week! And if we have the opportunity to share to gospel ..we can impact their whole life!

📖  He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Mark 16:15

We do not believe in coincidences...people cross your path for a reason!  For them to impact you....and /or for you to impact them!

🙏I pray that every encounter today ...you view as a God ordained appointment...so that you can...

📖  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Roman's 12:14-16❤

When Our Plans Don't Match His

I was starkly reminded of just that Sunday evening....as my husband and I sat having dinner with my brother-in-law.

Last year the plan was to have dinner with him and my sister while were attending a Fire Chaplain's Training conference near where they live..

But due to covid the conference was canceled. 

And when it got rescheduled for this year ....Leah was no longer with us.

It just made me think....

Our plans are not His.

📖 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord,  Jeremiah 29:11a

Not that I have needed reminding...much that has been happening around us in the past year and a half has shown that.

And most of it we just don't understand. 

Weren't our plans good?  Noble? Righteous even?

📖 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,”  declares the Lord.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

We have to remember...His plans take into account the sin, the tragedy, the things out of our control.

We are not all knowing, all seeing ...

📖  Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Hebrews 4:13

We are limited in our view.

Like walking with a flashlight in the dark...or driving with our head lights. 

Our view is limited....we may move cautiously because we know there might be dangers...

But we can not see far ahead....even with GPS ...we can't know if the road has been blocked and we have to take another path.

The key is trusting the outcome.  The road may take us to places we didn't intend or even want to go...but we must trust the destination...

📖  “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8

...must trust that the God, who was and is and always will be, has our destination.

📖 We can make our plans,

    but the Lord determines our steps. Proverbs 16:9

The road may feel rough, almost impassable, impossible.

But nothing is impossible if we are following Christ...walk with Him, His way.

📖  I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Phillipians 4:13

Eventually we will come to our glorious destination!

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. Jeremiah 29:11

Our future is with Him!!!

🙏I pray that today...no matter how dark your road seems, you let Him be the light and direct your path.❤

🎵 Trust in the Lord With All Your Heart