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Summer Fruit Devotion: Patience Day 5
Waiting for Jesus “This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens…
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Summer Fruit Devotion: Peace Day 3
Weapon of Righteousness “We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not…
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Summer Fruit Devotion: Patience Day 1
Complete Patience “You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred…
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Summer Fruit Devotion: Joy Day 3
Joy in Prayer “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is…
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Summer Fruit Devotion: Joy Day 1
Joy in Salvation “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice,” 1 Peter 1:3-6a Have you ever heard better news than this? The Gospel is The Good News and good news brings joy! Imagine being a shepherd in the fields that quiet Bethlehem…
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Summer Fruit Devotion: Love Day 1
Who is Love? “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God;…
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Spiritual Metabolism
Psalm 119:69-70 “The insolent smear me with lies, but with my whole heart I keep your precepts; their heart is unfeeling like fat, but I delight in your law.” I love the contrast in these verses the where the heart is used symbolically. David’s “whole heart” keeps and delights in God’s Word, while the insolent (rude and arrogant, lacking respect) heart is “unfeeling like fat.” What a great word picture. Of the heart Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” The heart is considered the seat of our emotions but it is also a muscle. Muscles are full of sensory…
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4 Benefits of Preparation & Rest
Last year at this time we were making the final preparations for our daughter’s wedding. It was stressful, intense, and very busy. There were so many details and it seemed like every day we thought of something else that needed to be done or picked up or added to the list. Now we are preparing for a two week cross country road trip and I find myself in planning mode again. I’m up to my eyeballs in maps, lists, itineraries, and hotel reservations. Every time I go to the store I think of something or end up buying something else we will need to bring with us. This has all…
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6 Things Every Good Marriage & Bonsai Need
I want to share with you something that’s been going on for years in my marriage. It may surprise you. It may even shock you. But it is one of the best things we’ve done and we don’t plan to stop anytime soon. Bonsai. Not Banzai like the suicidal fighter pilots. Bonsai (pronounced bone-sigh,) cultured trees in pots. It was almost 11 years ago my husband and I bought our first bonsai tree. It was a pretty juniper, about a foot tall with a twisted trunk in a shallow glazed oval shaped pot. We got some basic care instructions… water it every day, keep it outside in the sun, trim…
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A Mom After God’s Own Heart
I miss the cute days! I’m having terrible Instagram jealously lately! So many of my friends have young families and post oodles of pics of their cute little ones! New babies that I can practically smell through the screen, park days, bike rides, ice cream treats, crayon drawings… My boys aren’t so little anymore. If I tried to post them on IG you would get nothing but boys on the couch playing video games, or boys in the backyard shooting the pellet rifle at old crockery, or boys arguing about who left the scrap of trash that I just asked them to throw away. If I posted their sketchbooks it’s…
