I'm Up

Well, I am awake when I should be sleeping.  Pain woke me up several times before I actually got up.  I'm looking forward to the time when I will be face to face with my Lord with a new body!  Better things are ahead of me, but for now, He sees fit to allow a body that does not function as it should.  I am grateful that it is no worse than it is.  Things could be A LOT worse.  I will rest in the knowledge that He loves me and knows best.  I surrender all to Him.  I will go with faith - faith that He is in control, and faith that He will do what He says He will do.  I'm going back to bed now to try and sleep.  Pray for me..........

A Thought on Time

Use me, Lord, in each moment of time You have allotted me until tomorrow comes.  Use me even as I sleep in the tiny fragments of time that will make up the minutes and hours You have given me until the sun arises.  Though some may think that because I sleep, there is no battle to be fought, no decisions to be made and no refining to be done.  But even in my sleep, I will rehearse my love for You and follow where you lead me....  Even in my sleep we will walk together, and much later, when the sun rises once more, we will begin again.

Little Christs

Where did we get the idea that we shouldn't have to suffer?    We get upset with God when we ask Him to take us out of a painful situation, but He doesn't.  We can see no good coming from having to suffer. 
If you are suffering, and have asked for God to heal or deliver you - but He doesn't, don't find it strange.  The Bible tells us that Jesus learned obedience through the things that He suffered  (Hebrews 5:8 - "Although He was a son, He learned obedience through the things which He suffered.") ("He had to be made like His brethren in all things so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest....  For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted." ).   In order to intercede for us, and be able to comfort us, He had to suffer the same things we suffer.  And this is what we also do on this earth.  We are to be "little Christs" (the Greek word for Christian means little Christ),   ( Hebrews 2:17, 18; "He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father"   Rev. 1:6);   If we can't relate to suffering of all kinds, then we cannot do what God tells us:  "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."   2 Cor. 1:2-4.  While we are here in this world, we are to represent God to all people and our lives should be a testament of who He is.  We cannot do that unless people see us go through painful things and still have faith in Him, still loving Him. 
You will suffer in this world as a Believer, or a non-Believer.  But there is purpose in the Believer's suffering. 

The Sun is Behind a Cloud?

I'm seated at the breakfast table in front of the windows with a view of my backyard this morning. It's cloudy. The sun is not "out".
I was thinking, how the paths we often take will lead us into places where the sun does not shine; into valleys where everything is filled with shadows - the potential hiding places of enemies.
We are sometimes fearful and anxious as the possibilities of failure and perhaps even death looms before our eyes.
But when things get like THIS - we must remembeer: God is ALWAYS there. Just because there are clouds that hide the warmth and the light of day that God is, it does not mean God's Presence has also flown. He is STILL THERE! We MUST learn that sight and feeling are not FAITH. They are tests which reveal how much faith we DO have. Take your tests today and flex your faith muscles. They will grow.
When the apostle Peter failed to believe in the moment that mattered most - and he denied the Lord Jesus - here is what Jesus said: "Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; and when thou are converted (when you have repented) strengthen thy brethren." Luke 22:31-32

Don't Feel Too Bad

Do you think you have it worse than most others?  Are you focusing on what your heartaches and problems are?  Do you feel like you're drowning in the challenges which lay before you today?  Maybe you feel you have a right to - but maybe you don't.  No one can take your problems away today, but I can tell you that you are not alone.  And, not only THAT - I can tell you that Jesus had it worse, so He understands and can comfort and guide you to victory and joy. 
"What???  What's that?", you say." 
"I know He suffered for my sins, and died upon the cross, but He doesn't really know what it is to suffer over a very long period of time - day in and day out."
If that's what you're thinking, then I want to respectfully disagree with you.  Read Psalm 69.  This psalm is all about the silent years of Jesus upon the earth - His growing up years.  The Bible is silent concerning the years of His life from age 12 to 30. 
J. Vernon McGee says, "His physical suffering on the cross was bad enough, but I think some of the things He suffered in His life on earth were almost unbearable.  I am confident that multitudes of us would have ended our lives if we had gone through what He did during His lifetime.
His suffering started when He was born in a stable.  He grew up in Nazareth among half-brothers and sisters, who did not believe in Him, - where the townspeople gossiped and believed His mother was a liar, and He had the stigma of being illegitimate.  His home probably was not a happy one. 
Psalm 69:8 says, "I am a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children."
When He would fast or weep, His brothers would ridicule Him for it.  They would tell Him that He was just putting on an act.
Psalm 69:10 says, "When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach."
The high officials and judges of the town spoke against Him.
Psalm 69:12 says, "They that sit in the gate speak against me, and I was the song of the drunkards."
And don't forget....  He was innocent.  He deserved none of this.  In fact, He was raised in a town where He was called illegitimate in order that you and I might be a legitimate son of God.
We have no notion of what He endured for 30 years in order that we be saved.
So, I challenge you today to worship Him in gratefulness for all He has given you, and to be thankful for His never-ending love to those who are His, and to those who trust Him and are not ashamed to say so.

 2 Corinthians 4:14-18   KJV   "Knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.  For all things are for your sakes that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen:  for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

These thoughts are taken from J. Vernon McGee

Let Him Take Care of All

I have questions... lots of questions.   Why do I have this disease?  What causes it?  Will I ever get better?  How long will life be difficult?  And then there are the questions relating to friends, family and acquaintences.  As I view the panorama of my past, I am met with memories and people, places and things both good and bad.  There are joys and sadness, trust and betrayel, times of confusion and times of clarity, wasted moments and time well spent and so on.  I have spent years pondering some of these things - especially those things that hurt - and I never get past a certain point as I try to make logical sense of it all.  I cannot discern the heart's intent of my enemies or the motivation of my friends.  I just don't have enough information to come to an indisputable understanding. 

I get stuck on the betayels, the meaness, the self-centeredness of us all.  I don't even fully know why I have done the things I have done. 

But that's ok.  That's how it will be this side of heaven.   And even if I did know it all, what does that have to do with who I am? All of the past is who I was.  I decide what kind of person I want to be today regardless of grievances.  In fact it is as we go through our heartaches that who we really are in Christ is diffused into the world around us. 

Nobody escapes trouble.  But God is there to help.  He understands it all, so we can trust Him without knowing all of the answers.  We can enter into faith that says, He knows all, sees all, this Jesus.  He is light and He is love.  He cares and He will do the right thing.  

Rest your weary hearts and tired minds....  and let Him take care of all..........

Give me a topic

I would like to try something new.  I want to ask you if you will send me questions or topics that you would like for me to write on.  Let me hear from you!