Trial
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Everything?
How many days a week do you feel blessed? 5 out of 7? 2 out of 7? 7 out of 7? Something new stood out for me as I read (AGAIN) the story of Abraham’s life. It’s a simple verse in Genesis 24. “Abraham was now old, getting on in years, and the LORD had blessed him in everything.” Genesis 24:1 At first glance, it doesn’t appear to be more than a simple comment about Abraham, but something stood out to me that hadn’t before. As I reflected on what he had already experienced as he followed God in obedience, I thought, “EVERYTHING?” What about leaving his homeland and family…
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A Breath of Fresh Air
For summer gals like me, winter is long and oh so cold, and my skin oh so dry! So, when I get a day here and there during winter months with sunshine and warmer weather, the kind where I get to go sit (often with #MoDawg) on our deck and look for animals in the woods, I’m there! It reminds me that spring will come, even if not yet! It gives me a moment to just catch my breath, feel the warmth on my face, and breath deeply. At times, I need this reminder of spring. Kind of like in the middle of a long season of strife or just…
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Mysterious Purpose
Why does it sometimes take pain to push us to grow deeper in Christ? If I could answer I’d be really brilliant. I can’t even explain it to myself in a way that totally makes sense because I could never fully explain God’s ways. Why? Because He’s so much wiser than I am and well, you know…He’s so much more in every way than we are. But we do not have to understand Him or fully explain Him to know Him! As I’ve continued reading chronologically, I am studying Job and although he was a righteous man, the devil was allowed to test him by destroying what was important to…
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A “Don’t Worry” Reminder
At the end of 2022, I got a call from my doctor’s office about needing some follow-up scans to ones I’d had a few days prior. Not a call you want to get right before Christmas…or anytime really. Unfortunately, they couldn’t schedule the scans until after the first week of January. My first thought was, “I have to go through the holidays with this on my mind? Wondering if there is an unexpected something that will change my life in 2023.” Yes, I would have to go through Christmas and New Year’s celebrations without knowing if something was wrong. Then, I remembered another time, years ago, when I got a…
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New Year’s Blessings
Thank you for reading my posts in the past. I am so grateful if anything the Lord is teaching me ministers to you. Truly, what you read is not what I’ve mastered, but what He is teaching me, often for the hundredth time! I pray that this coming year, the Lord will use me to continue serving and encouraging you. No matter what we face in the months ahead, glorious joy or the depth of despair, Jesus will walk with us through it all. We will be changed, and we will become stronger in our faith, if we will trust Him completely, even in pain and fear. We will learn…
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The Word on Waiting
As “waiting” has been on my heart, and in my advent study, I’ve also been working throuh a Melissa Spoelstra study on Isaiah. (Check the blog category for more on the topic of Waiting) Once again, the Lord has connected it all today as I was in Isaiah 49. The author’s focus was “we can trust God’s timing because He sent His Son, Jesus, just as He promised.” This message is very similar to what I’ve learned through the advent study, Our Hope Has Come! So, yes, Lord, I am listening while I’m waiting and waiting and waiting! I needed this reminder today and wanted to share some great waiting…
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The Waiting of the Second Advent
If you missed the last post, please read The Waiting of Advent first. This week the focus is: how we are to wait for what hasn’t happened yet? How do we wait when we have unmet desires? And especially how do we wait for the second and final arrival of Christ? A reminder, these thoughts were generated by the study of Our Hope Has Come as I led our life group through. Though we are never given exact dates for Christ’s return, we are told what we should be doing. The Great Commission, a few of Jesus’ last words to His disciples, is found in Matthew 28:18-20. “All authority has…
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The Waiting of Advent
This year my women’s life group studied advent through the Bible study, Our Hope Has Come. The major theme is on the waiting. Something most of us do not like to do! I hate waiting! Of course there was the waiting for the arrival of the Messiah for the Jewish nation. He had been promised and God would bring it to pass, but when? Finally, Jesus arrives, granted, not like most people expected. Many didn’t believe. But He came. Today, we wait for his second advent…the arrival of the new heaven and earth for all eternity. We didn’t just study the nativity itself as you might think for a Christmas…
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2022 Beach Lesson
So after years of hearing from the Lord when I’m at the beach (just click the “Beach Lessons” category for evidence!), I don’t always hear “new” things, but sometimes I hear old things in a new way. This year that happened. I heard something I know, but with a fresh visual. It came to me in a variety of ways: through a couple of books I was reading, and by watching the shoreline. Life has had lots of twists and turns this year, mostly unexpected ones. Some painful. Some just a nuisance. But even as I’ve waited for resolution and healing, I’ve known that God was in control and had…
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My Soul’s Longing
Something occurred to me recently regarding why I want others to know Jesus and why my heart for discipleship has been a calling now for about 40 years or so. Because it was quite a few years between my salvation and the first time someone personally discipled me and showed me how to grow in Christ, I do not want that to be the story for other new believers. Some days, even during difficult seasons, my time with the Lord just causes my soul to soar and all I can think is, “I so want others to experience this satisfying joy.” A joy that transcends earthly concerns and pain. The…
