God is My Shepherd

Lamb Sorting Day

This time of year always reminds me of lambing season. More specifically, a barn full of baaing lambs. This is about the time the lambs are weaned from their mothers and started on feed. 

"He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young,"             (Isaiah 40:11 NIV). 

The lambs learn to play with the others quickly and are distracted from the loss of their mothers before long. And the mothers, also baaing loudly because their bags are too full for a while, are distracted by the fresh green grass growing in their pastures. 

The lambs in the picture are older. They still baa, but mostly when they see the shepherd and know feed is about to fill their troughs. These lambs are too heavy to carry and they are still wild and crazy when we would try to catch them when sorting. This picture probably brings nightmares to my husband and son who were doing all the catching.

I love the image of God as my Shepherd. I want to be gathered into His arms, and carried close to His heart every day. 

God, my Shepherd, thank You for Your tender care throughout my life. Lead me on Your paths that are straight and narrow. Guide me and protect me from the evil that lies around every turn. I thank You and praise You, Lord! I pray in the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Asking for Joy, Patience and Faith

Near Amana, Friday, April 17

Good Monday morning to you! It is wonderful to have things calm again after last week's stormy weather. We were fortunate to miss the dangerous and damaging winds, though we received four inches of rain. I hope you were safe, also. Along with the storms were beautiful and frightening clouds.

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer,"     (Romans 12:12 NIV).

This scripture is speaking to me today. It says to be joyful, patient, and faithful. What a big ask! These qualities are challenging for me at times. 

Being joyful has been challenging for me as I am often draped in chronic depression. I am a hopeful person. I love how some people are filled with joy. Their smiles radiate the love of Jesus! I would like to be like that. 

I have learned to be patient in affliction. Patience is something difficult to develop. After all my years I have learned to be patient. I don't always want to be patient, but I wait in my afflictions.

Faithful in prayer...that takes practice. When I tell someone that I will pray for them, I hope that person can feel confident that I pray. I carry that person in my heart and ask God to be with them in the illness, the sorrow, or the dilemma the person is facing.

God Almighty, as I pray, I ask You to strengthen me with joy in my hope, patience in my affliction, and faith in my prayers. I trust You Lord, to hear my prayers. Help me to grow in these qualities: to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in my prayers. I pray in the Name of Jesus, my Savior, Amen.

Speak With Grace

Good Morning, Friends.

Can you hear the birds chirping outside your windows? I love this about spring. It is still dark out but the birds are waking up and they sound so happy! Why are they so happy, I wonder? It is a new day.  We woke up. God has blessed us with another day of life. So, how will we use it?

After writing this blog, I go to the gym for aqua fitness. There is room for 40 or so in the pool, if everyone spreads out perfectly. It is much more comfortable with just 25 or 30 participants. You don't have to worry about kicking someone.

Judging by the noise level, people love to talk. Friends catch up on what happened over the weekend, what they are doing this week, or how they are feeling. Quite often, these friends only see each other in the pool. This creates a problem for the instructors. Their time of preparation for the class, setting up the music, and displaying the exercises seems disrespectful when the talking overshadows the teaching.

Paul wrote the book of Colossians to teach that Christ gave us a pattern for living and the power to grow spiritually. Paul taught that everything a believer needs is in Christ Jesus who is supreme in power and authority because Christ is God.

Colossians is filled with teaching the ways of following Christ. 

"Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone," (Colossians 4:6 NIV).

God, we lift our praise to You this morning and we thank You for the teachers of Your Word, like Paul. Your Word shows us how we should live and act and speak. Lord, speak to us through the Holy Spirit, to remind us how You want us to follow Jesus. We thank You for sending Jesus to make a way for us to communicate with You. We pray in Jesus' Name, Amen.

Take My Life, Lord

During this time after the celebration of Jesus' Resurrection, I often find myself examining my life a little closer. I so want to be worthy of this great gift, though I know I never can be. So how must I proceed? Music always speaks to my heart and a contemporary Christian artist, Lauren Daigle, wrote the song, "Let It Be A Hallelujah", that expresses what I'd like to live out. The lyrics follow:

"Let It Be A Hallelujah"

VERSE 1:
Take my life and let it be
My soul devoted Lord to Thee Take my moments and all my days Make them endless praise
Take my heart and let it move
In spirit and in truth
For the glory of Your name
CHORUS:
With every breath that’s in me With every song and melody Let it be a hallelujah
In every breaking moment
In every blessing that You give Let it be a hallelujah
Oh Lord, let it be a hallelujah
VERSE 2:
All my hopes and all my fears Every trial, every tear
In the chaos, You remain Faithful all the way
Through the victories Through the scars
Let me echo who You are For the glory of Your name
BRIDGE:
Oh, let it be a hallelujah
Let it be a hallelujah
Nothing, but a hallelujah to you, God Oh, let it be a hallelujah
All my life a hallelujah
Let it be a hallelujah to You, God

By Lauren Daigle

But, as I reread the words of Lauren's song, another older hymn, written by Henri A. Cesar Malan in 1827 and Frances R. Havergal in 1874, came to mind: 

"Take My Life and Let It Be" 

"Take my life and let it be Consecrated, Lord to Thee; 

Take my hands and let them move At the impulse of Thy love. 

Take my feet and let them be Swift and beautiful for Thee; 

Take my voice and let me sing Always only, for my King, Always, only, for my King. 

Take my lips and let them be Filled with messages for Thee; 

Take my silver and my gold, Not a mite would I withhold, Not a mite would I withhold. 

Take my love, my God, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store; 

Take myself and I will be Ever, only, all for Thee, Ever, only, all for Thee."

These writers have so eloquently expressed my thoughts and feelings for today, this week, this tine. I hope they speak to you today also. Paul wrote in the Scriptures, another reminder for us to focus on.

"But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord," (Romans 6:22-23 NIV). 

Oh, Lord God, we remember the miracle of Christ's Resurrection, that only You could make possible. We thank You for the blessed gift of eternal life, available to every believer in Jesus Christ. Thank You for the talented musicians who bless us with music that speaks to our hearts. Use us today to touch someone in our paths with the love You have given us. Thank You, God. We pray in Jesus' Name, Amen.

#1190 gds  Glory to God Forever!

After Three Days

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time," (1 Peter 1:3-5 NIV).

How wonderful! After the torture of Good Friday, our sorrows were lifted when our Savior Jesus Christ rose from the dead! We celebrate on Resurrection Day, as we rejoice that death cannot hold our Savior!

Something like 60 years later Peter wrote this book to continue his preaching of the Good News. Jewish Christians were being scattered away from Jerusalem throughout the Mediterranean world. Christians were being persecuted for their faith. Their lives were in danger. Peter encouraged them to stay focused on their faith.

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed," (1 Peter 1:6-7).

Heavenly Father, we come to You in gratefulness for the gift of Your Son, who hung on the cross but was raised from death for our salvation. Guide us today to please You in all we do. Work in us, correcting our missteps and failures, so we can live our faith genuinely. We praise You, God! We give You all honor and glory in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Praise be to God!

Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and He gathered them together for the Last Supper and some of the most powerful and insightful teaching of His life. Jesus knew what was ahead for Him so He explained as much as He could to the disciples. Still, they could not understand until much later. 

The prophet Jeremiah, called "the weeping prophet", shares his great grief over the judgment for the sins of his people, in the book of Lamentations. Yet he remembers the hope he has in God's faithfulness. Like Jeremiah, we can trust God to hear our cries for help, each day. When we place our trust in God we can be confident of the hope we have in Jesus Christ.

"Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him," (Lamentations 3:21-24 NIV). 

The book of John is filled with the truth of Jesus Christ, God's eternal Son. To read John's account of the Upper Room with Jesus, read John 13-17. I can almost hear Jesus' tears as He prepares to leave his disciples.

"Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it," (John 14:11-14 NIV).

Father God, fill me with Your Holy Spirit this day and guide me with Your faithfulness. I ask for "Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!" For great is Thy faithfulness! Help me follow Jesus' example and His teachings in all that I do and say, I pray in Jesus' Holy Name. Amen.