Tag Archives: Christ

One This Last Day of November 2012

Sara is taking her morning nap; GRANDSON is drinking hot cocoa and watching a movie and I am hoping to say hello in this quiet time. :)

I hope you are not too disappointed that I am sharing YOU VERSION with you again this morning. It really is so good!!

THE GARAGE

Billy Graham tells of a woman who asked, “Why do I need a home?” She said, “I was born in a hospital, educated at a college, courted in an automobile, married in a church. I live out of a delicatessen-tin cans and paper bags. I spend my mornings on the golf course, my afternoons at the bridge table, and my evenings at the movies. And when I die I will be cremated and buried in a brass urn. All I really need is a garage.”

Tragically, millions live like this woman. Our homes often are mere parking places in which we spend a portion of the night, places where we pass our family members like ships in the night. But we are paying a great price for our lives of distraction. A good deal of the violence and chaos of our society results from these unstable homes. God never intended our homes to be mere parking places for busy bodies needing rest and refueling. Rather, homes have purpose, and God’s Word contains directions for their proper use.

God planned marriage so that two people can become together what they could never be alone. Each individual completes the other as they become a unit. However, no marriage can really be complete without a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ. God created marriage, and it is foolish to think it would ever be complete without Him as the foundation.

via Draw Near – 365 Guides to Greater Intimacy with God | YouVersion.com.

Blessings of Joy and Peace,

Unwanted-ness

Our guest today from YOU VERSION opines the state of feeling one is unwanted is the worst disease of humankind. I hope you will read and ponder. Particularly in this Season, what can you and I do to help someone who may be struggling with ‘unwanted-ness’? (Please share, if you will, some of your Christmas plans this year to exalt the LORD JESUS by loving others.)

PARTNER POWER

God formed families to give people closeness. The deepest hurt man can know is to have no one to love and no one who cares. An experienced social worker says, “I have come to realize that it is being unwanted that is the worst disease that any human being can ever experience. For all kinds of diseases there are medicines and cures, but for being unwanted. . . I don’t think this terrible disease can ever be cured.” We who know Christ realize that He can provide warmth and friendship. Still, we need human companionship. Thus, an important purpose of the family is to provide human warmth, touch, and friendship. In that closeness, we develop strength.

There is great power in partnership. God gave us each other to strengthen one another. Husbands look at life with a different perspective than do wives. Wives see things that husbands overlook. The way Abigail was able to cool David’s anger is an excellent illustration of the way men and women complement each other (1 Samuel 25). The wise husband listens to his wife, and the wise wife hears her husband.

Even the cynical writer of Ecclesiastes recognizes the power of partnership. He says: There is one alone, without companion: He has neither son nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his labors, Nor is his eye satisfied with riches (Ecclesiastes 4:8).

via Draw Near – 365 Guides to Greater Intimacy with God | YouVersion.com.

And before I close for today. Something that made my eyes happy in Tennessee.

My Brother’s Horses

My Sister’s (in-law) November Rose

A Joy-full day to you, dear Friends,

Blessings of Joy and Peace,

You(s) Too?

I am eager to get to my James study for today before my local world finds that I am awake. :)   So I am borrowing this morning to wish you a quick good morning. This comes from my YouVersion devotion for today.

CONDITIONS

Richard Wurmbrand tells of the joy believers knew while confined in Nazi prison camps. Although many were cursing their lot, hating their captors, and plotting revenge, believers were serving their Christ faithfully, sincerely, and with great joy. Both the believer and unbeliever were subjected to the same conditions. However, one reacted as a saint while the other reacted as a sinner.

Viktor Frankl reminds us that true happiness in life depends not on conditions but on decisions. If our hearts are firmly turned toward Christ then we can and will joyfully worship Him–in good times and bad. This seems to be the essence of Psalm 148. Wherever we are, with whatever we have, we should still praise the Lord.

When our praise is based on God’s goodness, rather than the conditions of our lives, then we have reached the state of true faith. No matter what the conditions, we will remain true. Like Paul, we learn both to be abased and to abound. Circumstances do not dictate our happiness–that is a result of a living relationship with Christ. And when He is in our hearts, we cannot help but sing–whether it be from the mountaintop or from the cellar.

11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. 13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

via Philippians 4 NASB – Think of Excellence – Therefore, my – Bible Gateway.

We (HE and I) are still working on this and no doubt we (HE and I) shall be till I see HIS face.

You(s) too?

Psalm 146 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

1 Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord, O my soul!

2 I will praise the Lord while I live;

I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

via Ps 146 NASB – The LORD an Abundant Helper. – Praise – Bible Gateway.

(emphasis mine – I will)

May the emphasis be my experience and yours too.

Joy to you,