Sunday, May 8, 2011

Thankful For All The Women in my Life



-- A TRIBUTE/CHALLENGE TO WOMEN/MOTHERS


"Strength and honor are her clothing;
She shall rejoice in time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
And on her tongue is the law of kindness.
She watches over the ways of her household,
And does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed;
Her husband also, and he praises her:
"Many daughters have done well,
But you excell them all."
Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,
But a woman who fears the Lord,
She shall be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands,
And let her own works praise her in the gates.
Proverbs 31:25~31
  

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Forward or Backward

Today I was encouraged by words David spoke to Abiathar (who was a son of Ahimelech who protected and helped David and was killed for it).  To read the entire story, read 1 Samuel chapter 15 to the end of the book.  We can be reminded that jealously is an ugly sin.  If not kept in check it can cause people to do some very ugly things.

Abiathar fled from Saul's wrath and sword to David.  David was saddened to hear of the death of all the priests.  He spoke these words to the very frightened Abiathar:

1 Samuel 22:23
"Stay with me; do not be afraid.......
With me you shall be in safekeeping."

How those words, "do not be afraid",  must have been so sweet to Abiathar's ears.  His life had been sought with a sword.  But no doubt, he trusted David, and had seen that David's God was powerful and wonderful.

This reminded me of some very precious verses we find in both the Old and New Testament.

God speaking to Joshua, who had simply been Moses' assistant but now since Moses had died he would have to lead the people.
Joshua 1:5
"I will not leave you or forsake you."

This verse is repeated again in the New Testament.  The verses surrounding it are talking about love for others, marriage, contentment and not loving money. 

Hebrews 13:5
"I will never leave you or forsake you."

A wise, old man named Uncle Ben often told me that these verses can be spoken forward and backward.  

"You forsake, or you leave never will I"

Truly a great and precious promise from our loving, Heavenly Father ! ! !

I'm going to choose to trust it ------ no matter what ! ! ! 



Thursday, May 5, 2011

A Growing Heart

Reading in 1 Samuel chapter 10,  it's talking about Saul being anointed King. It says,

"...then the Spirit of the LORD will rush upon you,
.... and you will be turned into another man."
and verse 9 says,

"When he (Saul) turned his back to leave Samuel,
God gave him another heart."

Most often when I think about Saul, I think of all the negative things connected with his life and his reign as King.  But here, right at the beginning of the LORD's work in his life, we see Saul as a man whom God changed.  Gave him a new heart, new desires, new goals, new ambitions.
Like the growth and maturity I talked about yesterday.  Saul strayed from those early days as the anointed King.  It's easy for us to stray too.

How do we keep our "new heart" encouraged .... growing ?

By feeding it the Word of God.
Reading the Word,
Meditating on the Word,
Talking about the Word,
and
OBEYING the Word.

For the Word is  the way that the LORD speaks to us. 
If we are faithful to read and obey His Word.
We will grow and our lives will mature and we will bring much honor and glory to our Heavenly Father!!

When I was a little girl we sang a song in Sunday School that was to the tune of  "I will make you Fishers of Men."  The words went like this....

Read your Bible, pray everyday, pray everyday, pray everyday.
Read your Bible, pray everyday and you'll grow, grow, grow.

And you'll grow, grow, grow,
And you'll grow, grow grow.

Read your Bible, pray everyday and you'll grow, grow, grow ! 


Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Bout Time You Grew Up

Recently someone told a friend of mine, "you have really matured in the past few years."  My friend didn't know quite how to take this bit of information.  Was this a demeaning remark .... ?   Did it mean .....

*  its about time you grew up   or
* you are finally where I am   or just what did it mean ? ?


As we talked together we decided to go with the positive!!  We rejoiced in the growth (recognized as maturity) the LORD has enabled my friend over the past few years.  It was a challenge to me . . . . 

Am I different than I was a few years ago?
A few months ago?
A few weeks ago?
A few days ago?

Hopefully, we are  all growing, maturing in our walk with our LORD.  We are all a "work in progress" but sometimes its easiest to just stay the same.
And sometimes growth is hard.  It brings change, sometimes suffering, sometimes difficult things...

But  grow  and  mature  we must ! ! !