Bucket Full of Grace

Well, here I am again....using my link from yesterday.  I hope you don't mind!
BUT I have to say...this was a blog originally!
I just happened to share it with church first!

Bucket Full of Grace

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 1:7b

Not My Words

📖 Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24

📖 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:29-32

📖 Create in me a pure heart, O God,  and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

🎵As the Deer

📖As the deer pants for streams of water, 
           so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God
When can I go and meet with God?  Psalm 42:1-2

My soul yearns, even faints,
    for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God. Psalm 84:2

The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him. Psalm 28:7

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” John 18:37

So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. If I love you more, will you love me less?  2 Corinthians 12:15

Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15b

So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. Hebrews 2:11b

Because I love your commands more than gold, more than pure gold,  Psalm 119:127

Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. Proverbs 7:2

🙏❤ Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Then all the people said “Amen” and “Praise the Lord.” 2 Chronicles 16:36

Our Cup and Our Portion

I said a couple weeks ago..it was "the first time, and maybe the last I shared" that way....
Well.......😁
I am doing it again!  Sharing the link to what I shared with our congregation today!
I hope you don't mind!
Love and prayers for each of you!

Our Cup and Our Portion

A Virtual God?

So....I was headed in a different direction for this morning....and then had to take a break for my first Virtual Doctors Appointment.
AND it led me here!
So this thing that we are having to get used to; virtual classrooms, virtual meetings, virtual church, virtual doctors appointments....it has been around for a bit....colleges have used the technology some,  global businesses as well.  BUT I am guessing the designers of  Zoom® (and some of the other face to face technologies that are out there) didn't have any idea a year ago, that the demand...the NEED for such technology would explode as it has in the midst of this global crisis.
I am grateful for it!  I also wonder how much of it will remain in use once this crisis has begun to recede.
I don't mind a virtual doctors appointment!  But I know that not all doctors and all appointments can be the virtual kind!
AND in this time of virtual interaction we long for a personal/in-person connection.

Virtual

ADJECTIVE

1. almost or nearly as described, but not completely or according to strict definition.

2. 
   

   computing

   not physically existing as such but made by software to appear to do so

3. 
   

    carried out, accessed, or stored by means of a computer, especially over a network.

   
   

It got me thinking about our relationship with God, our Lord and Savior....
Do we have a virtual relationship with Him?  Does it feel like we do? 
Like it is ALMOST but not completely...
or He doesn't physically exist....just appears so in Scripture?
He is only accessed over a network?

We have a God that is REAL, He created this earth and all that is in it.
📖 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth Genesis 1:1

📖 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  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 4:12-13

we have faith that He is who He says He is.
📖 God said to Moses, “I am who I am. ” Exodus 4:14a
📖 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”  John 8:58

He physically was here as a man, and gave us the Holy Spirit to be with us now.
📖 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man. Philippians 2:7-8a

📖 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26

He said I will never leave you or forsake you
📖 As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Joshua 1:5b

I will be with you until the end of the age
📖 And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:20b

And we have access to God any time, any where, out loud, in our minds, with others, alone, when we are happy, when we are hurting, 
Cry out to the Lord and he will hear you
morning noon and night 

📖 As for me, I call to God,
and the Lord saves me.
17 Evening, morning and noon
I cry out in distress,
and he hears my voice. Psalm 55:16-17

📖 pray continually, 1 Thessalonians 5:17


I know you may be saying...yes...but I want to SEE HIM!
All you have to do is LOOK 👀 and you can....
👀 When some one reaches out to you in the love of Christ...with a kind word, or gesture, meets a need maybe even before you knew it was a need.
👀 Those who are around you who love you for who you are, flaws and all
👀 Those who pray for you
There are blessings all around, we just have to open our eyes and let God show us.

Someone is REAL to us when we spend time with them.....Spend time 🕰with Him today.
🕰Read what He has to say to you,
 🕰spend time meditating on it, 
🕰respond to what it says to you, 
🕰 speak with Him, listening to songs that praise Him, 🕰take a walk with Him in the beautiful world He gave us, 
🕰reach out to someone who needs to know just how much God loves them, even if it is a virtual visit, or a 6 foot visit....it let's someone know that you are real, your love for them is real, and that God's love for them is real as well!

God is not a virtual reality....He is with us right now...as real as we allow Him to be!

But now, this is what the Lord says—
he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the Lord your God,  Isaiah 42:1-3a

That sounds like a God who is REAL to me!!
🎵 Fear Not

🙏 praying you spend time in the reality of God today!❤


PS - my appointment went well!  I am healthy!😃