All in God's Word
The incorporation of frugality into one’s life has its place. Greediness does not. Many of us make sure we get everything we have earned because we believe we deserve it. God’s Word surprises me, at times, because his instructions are very practical and specific.
One simple verse that will be read very differently—depending on which one of two groups you fall into.
Group 1: “’Yes’ is ‘yes’ and ‘no’ is ‘no.’ Got it. Next question?”
Group 2: “Yes, that is true, but I am pretty sure I can make this work.”
Over fifty years ago as I hopped downstairs to the kitchen, I heard a distinctive yet familiar voice on the radio that Mom listened to every morning.
Is cross-country skiing on your bucket list by chance? Then the perfect place for you is in Stowe Vermont at the Trapp Family Lodge—yes, the Sound of Music von Trapps settled in Stowe in 1942, having fled Austria in 1938.
The human brain fascinates me. I observed its development as my babies learned to talk, walk and eventually drive away. Oswald Chambers' quote recently challenged me to consider the brain from a new perspective:
“God does not give us the mind of Christ. He gives us the Spirit of Christ, and we have to see that the Spirit of Christ in us works through our brains in contact with actual life and that we form His mind.” *
In one way, all of Scripture is both good and true as well as “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16)
And, as most of us will testify, these benefits of Scripture have saved, guided and protected us on more than one occasion.
But there are special passages called benedictions that are some of the most powerful and beautiful passages in Scripture.
She ran. She wouldn’t stop until she was far away. Maybe the wilderness would offer some relief from the harsh treatment she had endured at the hands of her mistress, Sarai. Hagar could go no longer. She stopped by a rare spring in this parched land.
Cleaning out the refrigerator can be a frustrating endeavor, tossing into the trash those uneaten leftovers or the bag of slimy lettuce or whatever that dried, shriveled thing used to be. Wouldn’t it be much more cost effective to buy and prepare only the amount of food we needed with never any waste or spoilage?
When my daughters were babies, I began writing in a journal for each one of them. To this day, every few months I record funny stories, family memories and some of the things I find most wonderful about them. I want them to have access to my words long after I’m gone. Also, I never want them to doubt how much I love them and have delighted in them throughout their lives. I hope the little stories I’ve written are tucked away as a part of their history.
God doesn’t have throwaway lines. Jennifer Kennedy Dean
Throw-away lines are remarks delivered casually or as an aside that seem to have little to do with advancing the storyline. They can often seem unimportant to or disconnected from the narrative.
In the days before HGTV revealed the intricacies of home decorating, I naively decided to redo the wallpaper in our bathroom myself. Why hire a professional when I could do it, right? Little did I know how tricky it would be to remove the existing paper or how tired I would become before finishing the project.
The fire of the LORD fell (18:38). The people proclaimed Yahweh, the self-existent and eternal God, Supreme* (18:39). And as surely as the LORD promised Elijah, the rains poured down (18:45) after three long years. It was evident that Baal had not begun and ended the drought. Surely God’s people would return to their senses.
Do you have projects that you have started, but stopped?
What made it stop? Confusion? Unclear direction?
When confusion sets in the mind, it can stop a project… bringing it to a screeching halt.
The enemy knows this scheme.
We used to think we could get more done by multitasking, but the latest research shows this to be false. According to numerous studies, multitasking causes more errors than focusing on a single task.
The joy of Jesus’ birth seems to reverberate through Hebrews 1. To my mind it underlines “Joy to the world! The Lord is come”. God spoke in the past, speaks now, and will continue to speak—God, the great “I Am” of forever.
At a young age I was drawn to read the Bible. It wasn’t something I felt I had to do. Reading the Bible was my delight! I owned a translation I could easily understand, and at night I would read and highlight verses. Those verses lingered in my mind, and God gave me opportunities to share them with others. Looking back, I realize the Holy Spirit was drawing me to His Word.
As my friend got ready for her garage sale, she found one lonely ski glove.
Who needs one ski glove? She thought and almost threw it away. After all, it’s highly unlikely that someone with one arm would ski.
My daughter and I perused the books at a local resale shop. She showed me a book she was interested in buying. It was a volume containing the first two books in a series of four books. Excitedly, I brought her the second volume I had seen which contained the remaining two books in the series.
Several years ago now, our little neighborhood Bible study piled in our cars and drove an hour to a nearby city. Our destination was a day-long conference led by a woman who for over forty years had been a world-impacting teacher and author of Bible studies.
Fixing our thoughts on Jesus (3:1), asking WWJD, seeing that HWLF (He would love first), we are moved forward in our thinking by the writer of Hebrews: keep on loving others as long as life lasts. Living a life of love till the end makes sense. It appears though that these Judean believers were losing hope because of all the false teaching and persecution of the time. We too could throw up our hands at the messy theology around us and lose hope of ever seeing our family and friends come to know Jesus.
