IMAGE OF GOD

 

I stand on the shore.

Low tide twinkles like diamonds!

When the time is right,

The tide comes in – high, mighty . . .

Yet beautiful just the same!

 

By Martha L Shaw – © 2018

Other writings you may like:

• Another testimony
• Relationship & encouragement
• Hope

 

He Leads Me

As I wander the garden,

Alone and quiet,

Suddenly I hear the echo of ripples

As though a pebble,

Tossed by an unseen hand,

Bore a message for my soul

Etched in the waters,

No longer still.

My heart knows the news must be shared.

I bend and pick up a pebble of my own.

By Martha L Shaw – © 2016

 

 

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HIS LOVE IS GREATER

HIS LOVE By Martha L Shaw ©2016

 

Oh, How He Loves Me!

Okay, if you thought this was an article about a  romanic and passionate experience I had to share, you’ve stumbled upon the wrong blog . . .

Passionate it is, though!  I’m hearing a line from a favorite praise song in my heart and head just now.  I must say it’s delightful when my heart and head are on the same “team.”  It’s not always the way.  I was not exactly “high on life” earlier today and remarkably – rather than stew for a while and eventually think of praying, I prayed right away and then got involved in doing some things that needed doing.  Wish I could say that this Christian is just so focused on the Lord that this is simply a common occurance, but being human brings with it a host of imperfections and yup, I’ve got ’em.  Like a broken watch, though, I must say I get it right twice a day anyway . . . at least that .  . . I hope . . .

When we surrender ourselves to the Lord and say “use me . . . fill me” we’d better be ready to receive our “honey do” list fast.  He hears a willing heart and He says “sign  up!  Here’s your first job!  Go to it!”   It’s funny, but shortly after I prayed the words  I prayed, I found myself blessed not once but three times!  First with a lovely conversation with a stranger, then with finding myself say to someone “you need to let it go.  It’s not yours to worry about.  Give it to the Lord.  He’ll handle it and enable you.”  Then I heard myself telling someone else “It just takes a willing heart.  God will provide the ability.”

These things took place in under an hour from the time I felt “off” and prayed about it and are all direct answers to that prayer.  Just further proof, if any is needed, that He loves us totally and completely and He so desires us to “get close and personal” with Him. .  Our Lord does not call the enabled – He enables the called!  Thanks be to God!

 

John 4:11

¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?

Intertwined

The search was long

And my hunger,

Still unsatisfied,

Seemed to me all-consuming.

Sinking my feet in the sand,

Seeking distraction from a false warmth,

I absently tossed a pebble toward water.

Plop!

Splash!

Staring blindly ahead,

I saw your circle link with mine.

In that instant I knew,

And my heart was forever changed.

By Martha L Shaw – 2-7-2014

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflections

Reflecting on the glory of God . . .

Copyright – 11-30-2012 by Martha L Shaw

For more information on the weekly photo challenge, click here:

FOCUS ON GOD – A Quote For Monday Morning

Whether it’s over the kitchen table having breakfast, at the water bubbler at work, in the grocery store, or at church, it seems we have a long list of complaints about all that’s wrong in life and all that we should be doing to fix it.  Seems the complaints never become fewer . . . I am always side stepping a lot of talk online, on the radio, etc., of what is wrong with the church and this is especially disturbing. 

Ultimately, all we have to do is love . . . the Lord our God, one another, and ourselves.  That’s it.  The other stuff?  He’s got it.  He had a plan long before we saw and heard the problem existed.  We’ve got our duty spelled out.  Let your light shine, be a reflection of His love.  On the list of things we “should” do today, tomorrow, this week, this month . . .  where’s that on the list?  Is it on the top? 

All too often, it doesn’t make the list, not OUR list.  Seems more likely than not it’s absent, but our verbal lists include a whole host of things “somebody” should . . .  and “they” should . . . and there’s even a whole new page for the “why didn’t” things . . . again, why didn’t “she” or “he” or “they” and not why didn’t I . . . MOST disturbing of all is the “why did God” or “why didn’t God.” 

Isaiah 48:21

^\21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
    he made water flow for them from the rock;
he split the rock
    and water gushed out.

 

God placed this quote above on my heart yesterday.  I could go on and on about all those few words reveal, but ultimately, they are summing things up well.  God is God, I am not.  He has the big stuff well in hand.  I have my instructions . . . my job, while challenging sometimes, doesn’t come close to the magnitude of His.  Mine is all about the love . . . the things that are impossible for me to even think about much less accomplish or “fix” if you will . . . they were never meant to be mine to deal with until I picked them up and began wrestling with them.  I’m letting go.  The sky is blue and the sun is shining.  I know this because I looked up! 

 

 

Here’s some of that water gushing out of the rock . . . side of a mountain actually. 

 

Gazing Skyward

 

 

 

Parched roads and dry grass

 

Hungrily gazing skyward

 

Gently falling rain

 

Clouds, blue skies, yet still sunshine

 

Faith, hope, and love never fails.

 

 

Weather or Not

As I sit here at the keyboard and as I was just about to click “enter” and pop to one site or another in this cyber world, I was interrupted by darkness, then rain, and now thunder . . . got me to thinking about interruptions which we sometimes mistake as a curse when they are really blessings . . .

The neighbors have dogs which do not like this noisy weather and don’t understand it much . . . so I know right now, there are adults sitting in comfy chairs in living rooms with dogs in their laps . . . the dogs shaking in fear until the human speaks in soft tones.  I know they likely had other things to do, but somehow the image of a stormy day and providing comfort to a creature that only knows how to love us seems a blessing to me . . .

A friend from church has a small boy.  He’s just a year old and just started to walk.  It excites her to see this and also reminds her that he’s growing up so fast . . . there was a message a little while back, not so long ago, of a day when he was extra clingy.  She spent a great deal of time that day just cuddling him . . . she had so much else to do that day, and yet I know what she spent her time doing blessed her . . .

There was a little girl in my life some years back . . . we were taking a walk.  It was a walk with a purpose.  It was hot and we didn’t have a car that day and we needed to get to the store.  She stopped.  I prodded her to “come along now” and turned to see that she’d stopped to poke at some weeds.  I was about to tell her to leave that mess alone when she turned to me with love in her eyes and said “flowers for you Aunt Martha.”  I had those treasured “flowers” in my room for a long time after they’d gone limp and then dry . . . I now carry the memory . . .  and it blesses me still. 

It is positively pouring out just now.  I remember a time I was heading from the subway to a college I wanted to attend.  I was required to be interviewed before I could be officially accepted.  I didn’t listen to the forecast that day and thus as I rushed up the street just two blocks from the school and the registrar’s office, I got soaked by a sudden rain and realized I had no umbrella.  I was shocked, felt stupid, and was sure the interview would go badly, but then I realized that I was beyond the point of doing anything to change my circumstance and started to laugh!  The rain stopped as I headed into a public restroom and dried my hair using the hand blower.  I was distracted by all that and forgot to be uneasy over my interview.  I got accepted probably because the rain made me forget to be afraid I’d fail. 

So, rain on!  I didn’t really want to go out and run errands.  They can wait.   I shall curl up in my recliner with a good book.  We have enough bread and milk to wait another day or two. 

Life is full of unexpected blessings!   Embrace them!

Do It – What’s Stopping You?

 

“The problem in my life and other people’s lives is not the
absence of knowing what to do, but the absence of doing it.”
     —  Peter Drucker

“What’s stopping you?”  Nobody has ever asked me that.  Well, that’s not entirely true.  I ask that of myself constantly.  I’ve been in “life change” mode for a long while now and have felt God’s call and have listened, have heard, and have waited.  Waited . . . waited . . . and waited.  I know the Lord is with me and I know that he is with me in the present, yet I find myself waiting.  For what?  I find myself wondering when my life change will happen, yet I stand still or worse yet sit still.  When Peter walked on water, did he get a memo?  Was there a neon sign assuring him that the waters would be calm and would not swallow him up?  Was there even a one way sign pointed toward the Lord?  No, he had to get out of the boat and get his feet wet.  What happened?  Well, like the rest of us, Peter’s results from this action were mixed.  He got out of the boat.  He took a few steps.  He looked away from the Lord and looked down.  You know the rest.  He sunk.  He didn’t drown though because the Lord took him by the hand and led him to safety.  Peter went on to serve the Lord in wonderful ways leading many to Christ and to eternal life with Him.  You and I are not any different from Peter.  We know what to do.  The Lord is with us.  We won’t sink.  True, we don’t see a neon sign assuring us we’re heading in the right direction.  We have a choice just as Peter did.   We can stay in the boat and wrestle with a fishnet, or we can step out of the boat, risk getting our feet wet, and then what?  Well, there’s only one way to find out.  What’s the worst that can happen?  That we’ll stumble and find that Jesus is securely holding our hand and keeping us safe!  Well, shoot, if that’s the “worst” that can happen, what’s stopping us?  Do it!