Tag: Christian life

A Sudden Goodbye

Upon my arrival at work on Wednesday, I was informed that a coworker, Larry, had died during the night.  I was stunned!  I spoke with Larry on Tuesday and nothing seemed to be amiss.  He was smiling and friendly, as he always.  Yet Larry, at 54 years of age, had suffered a massive heart attack and passed away without any warning.

Larry was a “salt-of-the-earth” guy.  The kind of man the world could use more of.  Larry did everything with a smile.  In fact, Larry received an award in May entitled, “We couldn’t do it without you.”  His nominator wrote that Larry was “flexible support with a smile.” 

Outside of work, Larry was supportive and helpful to those around him.  He donated time to tutor at-risk children and volunteered with hospice.  He taught Sunday school and VBS at his church, where he also served as chairman of the deacon board.

I will miss seeing Larry’s smiling face at work each day and our frequent chats.  However, I take great comfort in knowing that Larry is in Heaven.  Larry did not make it to Heaven because he was a wonderful man, although he was.  And Larry isn’t in Heaven because he was kind to those in need or faithful in church attendance.  Rather, Larry is in Heaven because Jesus Christ loved Larry (and you and me) so much that He died on a wooden cross to pay the penalty for our sins.  Larry believed that and invited Jesus Christ into his heart.  Larry accepted Jesus’s free gift of salvation. This gift is available to all who will call on the name of Jesus.

When Larry left work on Tuesday evening, he had every intention of coming back to work Wednesday morning.  He was looking forward to many years left on earth.  I don’t think Larry had any thought that Tuesday would be his last day on earth.  Fortunately, Larry was prepared for death when it came. 

If today turns out to be your last day on earth, are you prepared to enter eternity?  If not, I urge you to accept Jesus’s free gift of salvation today.  None of us are promised tomorrow.

I Serve a Risen Saviour!

Today is Good Friday.  It marks the celebration of the greatest act of love that the world has ever known.  Jesus Christ, the son of God, paid the price for my sins on the cross at Calvary.  Without Jesus’ sacrifice, I could not have forgiveness for my sins.

Thankfully, Jesus’ death was not the end of his life.   Jesus battled Satan and overcame death and the grave.  On Sunday we will celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the grave.  How wonderful it is to serve a Saviour who not only bore my sins but who is alive forever more.

In celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection, I am sharing one of my favorite Easter hymns.  I hope that each person who reads this has received Jesus’ free gift of forgiveness of their sins and the promise of eternity in Heaven.  If you have not done so, please consider doing it today.  Your life on Earth will be happier, fuller, and more satisfying, and you will get to look forward to a future in Heaven.

May you have a blessed Easter weekend.

He Lives

I serve a risen Saviour, He’s in the world today;

I know that He is living, whatever men may say;

I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer,

And just the time I need Him, He’s always near.

Chorus:

He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!

He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.

He lives, He lives, Salvation to impart!

You ask me how I know He lives?  He lives within my heart.

Verse 2:

In all the world around me I see His loving care,

And tho’ my heart grows weary I never will despair;

I know that His with me, thro’ all the stormy blast,

The day of His appearing will come at last.

Verse 3:

Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian, lift up your voice and sing

Eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ the King!

The hope of all who seek Him, the help of all who find,

None other is so loving, so good and kind.

Lyrics and music by Alfred H. Ackley

You’re Blessed!

The Beatitudes from Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount:

You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only than can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are–no more, no less.  That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God.  He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being “care-full,” you’ll find yourselves cared for.

You’re blessed when you get your inside world–your mind and heart–put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight.  That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

You’re blessed when your commitment to god provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

Not only that–count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me.  What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable.  You can be glad when that happens–give a cheer, even!–for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds.  And know that you are in good company.  My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.

Matthew 5:3 – 12 (The Message)

May your life be truly blessed this week in all the ways that matter.  May you feel God’s presence in your moments of grief, disappointment, and weaknesses. May you know that God loves you far more than you can comprehend and that He will never leave or forsake you.  May you bask in His presence as you read His word and spend time with Him in prayer.

The world offers no peace, no contentment, no satisfaction compared to what God has offered mankind through His son Jesus.  If you haven’t taken the time to know Jesus and to make Him your Lord and Savior, please consider doing so today. Only when you do so will you be truly blessed.

A Prayer for the Twenty-first Century Proverbs 31 Woman

Heavenly Father, I thank you for preserving me as a virtuous woman for my husband.  I ask that your hand would be with me today, helping me to live virtuously and honorably before you.  I thank you for the trust and respect my husband has in me.  May I honor and bless him through my words and actions each day.

As I go through my day, help me to do good to my husband.  Bring to my mind each day ways to lighten his load and make our home a true haven of rest for him.   Help me to remember the small “touches” that let him feel cherished and appreciated.

Please be with me as I work to make my home more comfortable.   Give me creative and economical ideas and help me to incorporate these ideas into my home.  Help me to stretch our financial resources to meet the needs of my family; let me not bring stress to my family by living beyond our means.

I ask for guidance as I plan meals and shop for food for my family.  Let me make meals that are nutritious, economical, and delicious.  Help me to view cooking as a creative challenge and a way to show love to my family, and not as one of many mundane chores.  This also applies to laundry, dishes, and house cleaning—let me view them not as labor, but as labors of love.

Father, help me to rise early and spend some time with you and my husband before we start our busy days.  Please help me to rest well each night and get up feeling refreshed so that I can be a pleasant companion in the morning.  It is important for my husband and I to share some time and eat breakfast together before we leave the refuge of our home for our work places.

As I work, inside or outside of my home, help me to work enthusiastically and energetically.  My family and my boss deserve my best each day.  Help me to make wise decisions that will benefit my employer at work and my family at home.

I know, Father, that I need to take care of myself each day—making time for daily devotions, exercise, and a little pampering—so that I may be strengthened and renewed to care for my family.  Help me to make these activities priorities and to incorporate them into my daily schedule.

Help me, Lord, to be aware of the needs of each member of my family and to work to meet those needs—whether it is a need of new clothing, help with school work, individual attention from Mom, or discipline and instruction.

Help me to use my time wisely each day, while still allowing time for fun.  Help me to limit time spent in activities that are not productive or that bring no real pleasure, such as watching television shows I’m not really interested in or playing computer games.   Help me to redeem this time to talk, read, or play games with my family. 

Father, your Word tells us that charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but good deeds done in your name will last through eternity.  Let me be particularly in tune to your voice encouraging me to write a letter, make a phone call, or say a kind word.  Help me to be generous to the poor and needy, to those who are lonely and need a friend, to a stranger who needs a smile and a kind word, and to friends who need encouragement. 

May I look to you each day, Lord, for wisdom to guide me through the day, and for the strength to be the woman you want me to be, so that my husband and children will feel loved and blessed.  Thank you, Father.

Praying God’s Word For My Family

When I was a young wife and mother, an older woman in my church shared that she prayed God’s Word over her family regularly. Soon God began opening my eyes to scriptures I should pray over my family.  I routinely did that for years, but lately I have gotten out of the habit.  God brought this to mind this morning as I read one of those prayers during my devotions.

In writing to the Colossians, Paul tells them that he prays for them continually, asking God to fill them with knowledge and wisdom so that they can live a life that honors God and bears much fruit (Col. 1: 9- 12).  I prayed Paul’s words daily for my husband during a period of great stress at work.  Over time I personalized it, asking God to let Steve be a light in his workplace and to give him wisdom to find solutions to the problems he was asked to solve. I believe that God does want us to be successful at work and that He is pleased when we ask Him to help in that regard. 

When my sons went off to college, I asked God to give them knowledge to do well in the classroom and wisdom to not get caught up in the many temptations of college campus life.  And when my sons married, I shared the prayer with their wives.  I hope their wives pray this prayer over my sons and my sons pray it for their wives, also. 

I’m recommitting myself to praying this prayer for my family and even myself.  I want to have God’s presence with me throughout my day.  You might consider asking a loved one to pray a personalized version of this prayer over you each morning? Wouldn’t it be uplifting to leave your home each day knowing that someone was asking God to be with you each moment, filling you with His wisdom and helping you to live a life that pleases Him?

  A Prayer for My Husband—Colossians 1: 9 – 12

 Dear Heavenly Father—

I pray for my husband today.

I ask that you would fill him with the knowledge of your will and that you would give him spiritual wisdom and understanding.

I ask this so that he might live a life worthy of you, Lord, and that he might please you in every way.

 I pray that he would bear fruit in every good work, that he would grow in the knowledge of you, that he would be strengthened with all power according to your glorious might so that he might have great endurance and patience,

And that he would joyfully give thanks to you, Father.

Amen

Delight–Revisited

I read a blog yesterday in which the author discussed his One Word choices for the past three years and how he chose his One Word for this year.  While he remembered clearly his Words for 2008 and 2009, he was unable to recall his One Word for 2010 and had to look it up.  Interestingly, the word he forgot was Enjoy.  Enjoy seems like a pretty easy word to focus on for a year, and I was first amused that he had forgotten it.    Clearly, he was not successful in Enjoying life fully last year.

I was less amused as I read his explanation that he failed to live up to his word because he is more of a Martha than a Mary.  That observation hit close to home.  I am definitely more of a Martha.  For those of you who don’t understand the reference, this Martha was a friend of Jesus and sister to Lazarus and Mary.  When Jesus came to visit, Martha rushed around cooking and serving while Mary sat at Jesus’ feet feasting on his words.  When Martha complained to Jesus that her sister wasn’t helping her, he replied that, “Mary has chosen what is better.” (Luke 10:42)

For those of us who are doers, sitting at the feet of Jesus does not come naturally.  It is easier for us to volunteer to teach Sunday school or spend a day helping with an event than it is to spend an hour in quiet reflection in God’s Word.  We get so busy doing that, like the author of yesterday’s One Word blog, we forget to enjoy our time with God.  We may also have a hard time fully enjoying our families, our friends, our hobbies, and our work.

The dictionary defines Enjoy as “to take pleasure in; to find or experience pleasure.”  Delight is Enjoy compounded:  “a high degree of pleasure or enjoyment; to give great pleasure; to take great pleasure in.”

When I chose Delight as my One Word for the year, I was focused on Delighting in God and recognizing that He Delights in me.  I will now add another focus—remembering to take Delight in my everyday life.  I will try this year to Delight in time spent in God’s word, to Delight in time spent with my family and friends, and to Delight in those I minister to or who minister to me.  I will try to relax more and be fully present in each moment.  I will try to avoid thinking about everything on my to-do list and what I could be accomplishing when I should be focused on those I am spending time with.

Several years ago I read Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver.  This insightful book speaks about having a balance between doing goods works and spending time communing with God.  Both are important if I am going to be the woman God has designed me to be.  Every couple of year I reread Having a Mary Heart to help me keep my focus.  It may be time to read it again.

Have you chosen One Word to focus on in 2011?  How is your One Word helping you to achieve personal growth?

Delight

Monday morning on the way to work I heard the radio DJs discussing the concept of “un-resolutions.”  They explained that a pastor had come up with idea that instead of making a list of resolutions, people should choose a word that represented what they want to work on during the year.  He calls his idea “My One Word, and says the “process provides clarity by taking all of your big plans for life change and narrowing them down into a single thing. One word focuses on your character and creates a vision for your future.”

The concept made a lot of sense, and I decided to join in.   The three DJs shared that they had chosen   Balance, Patience, and Discipline as their words.   Listeners called in to share their words.   All of the words were great and any of them could certainly have applied to my life. 

I was leaning toward Balance, with a goal of balancing different aspects of my life:  prayer and worship, work and family time, and Bible study and service, leisure and writing, etc.  I recently re-read Joanna Weaver’s book Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World.  Joanna wrote about the need to balance sitting at the feet of Jesus with time spent in the kitchen (or serving).  Balance seemed to be the word God was speaking to me.

During my Tuesday morning devotion, I was reading from the Prayer of Jabez devotional.  It focused on Psalm 18:19, “He rescued me because he delighted in me.”  I’m not sure that I ever consciously recognized that God delights in me before I read that.  At noon, I read a blog in which the writer committed to memorize two scriptures each month.  She is starting the year with Psalm 37:3, 4.  And there in verse 4 was that word Delight again. “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”  I guess God wanted to make sure He got my attention, because Psalm 37:4 appeared in an email devotion I read before going to bed Tuesday night.

After encountering  Delight three times in one day, there was no doubt in my mind about what word to choose. Delight is going to be my One Word for 2011.  I will strive to delight in God and to remember that He delights in me.  Delighting in God will cause me to keep my eyes focused steadfastly on God and off myself.  Reminding myself that God delights in me will encourage me that God always has my best interest at heart and will keep me from getting discouraged when things are going the way I think they should.

What One Word will you focus on in 2011?