Weed City!
How often, Father, am I so blessed and it is all not the least bit deserved? Your grace and mercy come from a vast and never-ending reserve. Praise Your Holy Name for the Your gifts innumerable!
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There is so much I see from the seat of my bus that I have always known was there. But maybe because I see the same areas two times a day, five times a week the changes that take place just seems more pronounced.
Weeds for example. I pass lots of homes but I also drive by wooded areas and open fields and for the most part the patch of land between the road and those expanses are absolutely replete with weeds of great assortment – tall, short, vibrant, blah, flowered, broad-leafed, viny, you name it – but mostly they are densely populated!
Beyond that, vines are tenacious! We have a flower bed in front of our house with a few large rocks and a couple of large trees. Hostas grow well behind the rocks but everything else? Weed city! Earlier this spring it took me quite a while to clear the weeds prior to our putting mulch down. I tried to get everything but quite a few of them, if you don’t get the entire root system out, back they come!
Now let’s take something pretty negative and make something awesomely positive of it!
Love! The world from pole to pole – as far as the east is from the west – is replete with love! And though, throughout the years, people have tried to root it out, it absolutely, cannot be eradicated!
The Holocaust – that heinous, despicably base period of time when you would think that love would have been exterminated from the hearts and minds of all involved, both the perpetrators and the victims. But it was not! I have shared many stories over the years where love – in the midst of hate, in spite of the hate – was not uprooted but continued to burst forth!
(Here is a fantastic story of love conquering hate – it was too big to include in my blog but it is well worth the read. Corrie ten Boom on Forgiveness<<click to see the story)
It is interesting to read about the persecution of the Church. You would think that when they die for the Lord in Whom they put their faith that love would die. But again, it does not! From my readings, the Church doesn’t just not die, it thrives! It explodes exponentially!
No matter how much hate hates, love loves! And it will continue to love all the more! Hate nailed Love to the cross. Hate thought it had won. But it lost and its defeat was so utterly catastrophic that, though it still rages on, there will come a day when Love will put the final nail in hate’s coffin…and it will not rise again! Complete eradication will transpire and Love, and His love, will reign forevermore! Amen and Amen!
May 19th, 2019, Sun, 5:02 pm
Immeasureable!
(I saw this on a friend’s Facebook page and just loved it!)
“This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24) Amen!
Mark 9:19-29 (<<click to read the passage)
Faith. Some feel their faith is weak. Others are seen as having great faith. But it seems like, for the most part, we all could use more faith.
Here’s the thought from my Life Application Study Bible that got me to thinking:
“The attitude of trust and confidence that the Bible calls belief or faith (Hebrews 11:1,6) is not something we can obtain without help. Faith is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8,9). No matter how much faith we have, we never reach the point of being self-sufficient. Faith is not stored away like money in the bank. Growing in faith is a constant process of daily renewing our trust in Jesus.”
From that, my mind flew to manna! You know the main source of sustenance for the Israelites as they wandered for 40 years in the wilderness. Each day they would find this stuff – manna literally means “What is it?” – on the ground with the morning dew. They could use it to make all kinds of things. Raw manna tasted like wafers that had been made with honey (Exodus 16:31). But most often it was ground to make cakes. But the point is they could only collect enough for themselves or their families for one…single…day. Those that tried to save leftovers for breakfast the next day ended up with manna that was “full of maggots and had a terrible smell” (Exodus 16:20).
Now it’s just not possible to use extra faith the next day because, first of all, it just doesn’t work that way. Faith is a gift from God that we receive as we need it. You simply cannot hoard it – it has to be used! The more we place our trust and confidence in Jesus the greater our awareness that He has us covered, regardless of our need.
In Matthew’s rendition of this same incident, he concludes with Jesus saying,
“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” Matthew 17:14-20 (NLT)
The Amplified Bible expounds upon their lack of faith by saying it is their “lack of trust and confidence in the power of God”.
Lord Jesus, I know the supply of faith is immeasurable but, as You well know, it is my lack of ability to tap into it that is the problem. Train me, guide me, so that when whatever comes before me – great or small – that I will be able to experience that “nothing would be impossible” kind of faith! Amen!
May 16th, 2019, Thurs, 11:47 am
Take It On!
Thank You, Father, for answers to prayer yesterday when one of our buses got hit! Though the bus was damaged and the car was totaled, no one was seriously injured. Praise Your name for Your watchcare over us!
Mark 9:14-18 (<<click to read the passage)
When I open up the internet on my computer, I have three tabs that open up on for local news, one for regional news and one nationally syndicated news station. None of them are faith-based (I’m not even sure if there is such a thing) but they all give a pretty good overview of what’s happening across the globe.
One thing I have to be wary of is becoming desensitized to the violence, death, and evil in the world. Some stories reflect intentional evil, other stories highlight unfortunate incidents of happenstance. And on occasion, there might be one or two “feel good” stories thrown in for good measure. Regardless, it becomes very easy to just peruse over it all and not be impacted in any way.
In today’s passage, Peter, James, and John are coming off a mountain-top experience (literally and figuratively!) They had the awesome privilege of experiencing something genuinely pure and beautiful from the hand of God Himself!
And when they come down to the reality of life here on earth, they are thrust right into the horror and ugliness of evil in the flesh!
My Life Application Study Bible has this to say,
“The beauty they had just seen must have made the ugliness seem even uglier. As our spiritual vision improves and allows us to see and understand God better, we will also be able to see and understand evil better. We would be overcome by its horror if we did not have Jesus with us to take us through it safely. Don’t be afraid to confront evil and suffering, no matter how ugly or horrible. Jesus goes with you.”
There is no way we can avoid evil in this world. We have fed it and encouraged its growth since the beginning of time and we are reaping the fruit of our labors. But here is the main point, it is not always the wisest choice to run and hide from the evil that is so prevalent. We must take it on! And the best way is not necessarily head on but heart on!
I cannot be everywhere nor do I have the strength or wisdom to provide any substantial aid…but I know Someone can foot the bill! I must do what I can but of utmost importance in my area of responsibility is to pray and pray and pray some more!
I must take action when possible and wise but absolutely nothing can stop me from taking it all to the Lord in prayer
Lord Jesus, may I be a mighty warrior in prayer! Use me! Spur me on to praying down Your victory over the powers of this dark world!
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this [present] darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) places. Ephesians 6:12 (AMP)
May 15th, 2019, Wed, 9:21 am
They Dropped the Ball
I added a trip with the varsity softball team today all the way to Pickerington for tournaments. Thank You, Father, for a safe trip here and for guiding me along the way.
Mark 9:11-13 (<<click to read the passage)
I shouldn’t be, but I am constantly surprised at the fact that the “professionals” – the well-read, well-educated scholars of the Law – totally dropped the ball! If anyone should have seen the signs, it should have been them.
When Jesus was born, they were consulted as to where the Messiah was to be born and they knew! …but they dropped the ball.
Even the disciples knew “that Elijah must return before the Messiah comes”. There were multiple signs pointing to it being John the Baptist but the “professionals” got their dander up because John called them out for the “brood of vipers” they were (Matthew 3:7) and once again, they dropped the ball.
A short time later this young Prophet came on the scene accompanied by undeniable acts of God, instead of recognizing Him for who He was – or at least seriously looking into all the possibilities – they opposed Him almost from the get-go…once again they dropped the ball.
They were blind. They cared nothing about God…except for when it benefited them – their pockets, their pride, their power-hungry egos clamoring to be fed. And…they dropped the ball.
Oh, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea caught what was going on but the rest of them? They lost. They missed the most important event in all of eternity!
Lord Jesus, may my eyes be open. May they always be fixed on you. May I not get caught up in the things I deem important and somehow miss out on You and what You know is important. Amen.
May 14th, 2019, Tue, 5:15 pm
Hold My Face in Your Hands
My day began almost six hours ago, but I know, Father, that there is more in store for me. And the great thing is I have some idea of what will happen but even if things change up, I am not alone. For You are with me all the way!
Mark 9:1-10 (<<click to read the passage)
Quite often when I read through passages, a certain phrase or sentence will “jump out at me.” In today’s reading, it’s the last sentence at the end of verse 7.
Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice [God the Father’s] from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him.”
The sentence that grabs my attention is, “Listen to him.”
When my son was a young child, I remember on different occasions taking his small face in my hands, looking him straight in the eyes and in essence saying to him, “Listen to me.”
Especially when kids are in trouble – or for that matter when most of us are in trouble – we don’t want to look in the eyes of the one who is calling us on the carpet. We want to look anywhere but there. When we look at our corrector in the eyes, it becomes very difficult to avoid the truth.
It would probably be as scary as all get out but wouldn’t it be helpful if God our Father would take our face into His hands and say, “Listen to me.”? He would have our undivided attention and surely, we would listen.
When God the Father was speaking from the cloud that overshadowed Jesus, His disciples and Moses and Elijah, He was driving home a very important point of which we all can take heed, “Listen to him.” “Listen to my dearly loved Son. He’s speaking to you. He’s sharing wonderful things with you. He is passing on wisdom that will forever change your life…listen to Him.”
Lord Jesus, I would ask that You would take my face into Your hands and look me square in the eyes and help me to listen… Amen.
May 13th, 2019, Mon, 9:48 am