Top 10 Award!

I am blessed to share with you that Betty Bolden and

Jesus Is My Joy

Ministries/Devotions

has presented me with a new blog award!  I woke this morning to find that she’d nominated me for the Top 10 Award!  Thank you so much Betty!  I encourage you to visit her blog and am sure you will be blessed by her writing and her heart for Jesus!

Quote of the Day – Seeds

I sit here seeing only ruin around me and being unable to climb out of its vastness and praying somehow His purpose in it will come to fruition.   I realize I may not see His purpose but there is peace to be found in knowing He uses all things.  As I did a bit of reading just now, this quote came to me:

All the flowers of tomorrow are the seeds of today.

- Anonymous -

It seems in life there are times when we, or I, are called to be the compost nourishing the seeds from which tomorrow’s flowers grow.  These times can be uncomfortable and even painful, but if it blesses the Lord, it is good.

A new season is coming and the flowers will bloom!

The pieces will all come together.  He will see to it.

(quilt is my work)

Quote of the Day on Trust

Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.

- Alan Cohen -

 

Trusting in the Lord to lead us means we don’t have to see the plan, run the spreadsheet, have all the long-range steps mapped out.  We just need to follow Him and the mystery becomes clear and the sun shines brighter than we ever knew it could!

Success At What Price?

I just heard it said that Stephen Foster who wrote the song “Oh, Susanna” was paid all of $100.00 for his work.  The song is part of our history . . . who doesn’t know the song and like it or not successfully hum it . . . maybe right now as you read this?  Gosh, it seemed pitiful to have a man who wrote something generations know by heart to have earned so little.  My instant reaction was that he should surely have been more successful.

Then, I reconsidered.  Know what?   This time the song and its author gave me hope, joy, and encouragement.  We bloggers do not make money directly from our blogs, most of us, but if success is doing what the Lord calls us to do, our work through Him is successful.  Being His servant and saying yes comes with a price, but not $100.00.  The price was Jesus blood shed for us.  Riches of the sort that matter cannot pay my mortgage or inflate my bank account.  They can draw others to Christ if I truly listen and obey.  How do you define success?

Lead Others To Christ – A Quote For Friday

I’m not certain what this author intended in penning these words, but to my heart it speaks so well of the true means by which we draw folks to a life in Christ.

 

If you want to build a ship, dont drum up the people to collect wood and dont assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea  - Antoine de Saint-Exupery -

Where Is Jesus Christ In His Church?

It seems we have always got some “church” or another in the news and some scandal to deal with.  It matters not which denomination, it could  as easily be any one of them.  As I read the following quote, it caused my heart to hurt for as I view it we or I have often found Jesus hard to locate in the church.   I belong to a parish now where this is so NOT the case and where the congregation celebrates His love and theirs for Him, but others I’ve belonged to . . . didn’t see it.

Let’s get the focus back to its center, JESUS.  He is there and He loves us.  If we but love and listen and follow, that seed will bloom in hearts and reseed and spread.  It all begins with one seed planted in one heart . . .

Find a seed at the bottom of your heart and bring forth a flower. - Shigenori Kameoka -

Wow, What a Sunday Quote

While you have a thing it can be taken from you … but when you give it, you have given it. No robber can take it from you. It is yours then for ever when you have given it. It will be yours always. That is to give. – James Joyce -

So, is it just me or did this one make you stop and read it twice?  Okay, sinus meds have my mind a wee bit foggy . . . but when I give it I have given it?  Hmmm . . . So, unless I have given something away, I can’t have it . . . kinda what he says.  So, what could we be really hearing here?  It is a riddle to solve . . . There can only be one message this revealed to my heart – the love of Christ!  It is mine yet I can’t keep it to myself and at the same time, the more I allow His love to go through me to another, the more I seem to have . . . and the more I realize that love is mine always!  Amen!

Take a Moment – Tuesday Bible Verse

 

For whatever was written was given to us for our learning, that through patience and comfort of the scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4)

Six Word Saturday!

Inspired by Caddo Veil, I have six words for today . . . but hope their meaning stays with me in the coming days, too!

Excitedly

Keeping

In

Step

With

Jesus

Jesus Has Been Trying To Tell Us!

You can’t lead the people if you don’t love the people. You can’t save the people if you don’t serve the people.  – Cornel West -

 

Our amazing and loving Lord has been trying to write this message on our hearts since He walked this earth in human form and He still is trying to urge, to teach, to command us to love.

 

He came!

He loved!

He served!

 

If you have picked up a newspaper, turned on the television or radio, or simply walked down any street whether far or near, you cannot deny that we have failed in this . . . it is not “they” who have failed.  It is not an undefined “those who walk in darkness” who need to hear this message . . . it is each and every one of us.  Regardless of the denomination of the “church” you belong to, you know that we are the body of Christ and that the ultimate message is love yet all too often the message we focus on is one of being judge.  God is the judge.  We are not.  Want to change the world?  Reflect His love!