Tag Archives: Love

The Root Connection

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Moments with My Father ~

 

I am so thankful for my connection with Jesus today!  He is so vital to my life and my well being and as I reflect upon the Apostle Paul’s writing today, I see that it is through our connection with Jesus that each one of us can have a great healthy connection with each other as well!  As I ponder this, I am reminded of Aspen tree forests.  It is amazing that a forest of Aspen trees is in reality one tree.  The Aspen tree forest has developed as a result of the efforts of one parent tree.  It is from this parent tree source that Aspen trees have life and draw nourishment as they are all connected in their root to the parent tree.  Aspen trees are known to be able to survive and spring back after forest fires well because their roots are connected deep down underneath the surface and it is there that their source of life is protected from damage and destruction.  I am seeing that these facts about Aspen trees is similar to what Paul is saying in his writing to the church in Corinth.  Paul understood that Jesus was one who was connected in heart or root to His Father just like a parent Aspen tree.  Jesus was able to survive the forest fire of taking on the sins of the whole world on the cross because of His deep down connection to His Father and it was through His Father’s strength that He had eternal life.  He understands the heat of life trials because He personally experienced it and He can sympathize with each one of us.  Because His heart or root is connected to the heart of the parent root, His Father, who is the God of all love, compassion and comfort, He is able to extend out of His compassion for us, His love and comfort to you and to me.  As a result of each one of us being connected to Jesus and being nourished through the sap of His love, compassion and comfort, we are then able to extend that on to others that we have connection with and they in turn can do the same and it goes on and on and on just like an Aspen forest that adds so much beauty to our Father’s world! Despite trials in his life, Paul is one who poured nourishment or encouragement into the lives of others to comfort them and help them have everlasting life in connection with his Father.  This is because deep down in his heart, he drew his nourishment through his root connection with Jesus in the hard things or forest fires he faced in life and hence, he was able to escape destruction and persevere in living life,  Wow!  If we each are all connected to Jesus as our root source, then we as our Father’s kids in this world are capable of having well being and unity, being one in connection to our Father.  Now that thought just gets my heart sap flowing! Oh,  I so love the thought of having everlasting connection with you all!    May we all feel His love flowing to us today!

2 Co 1:3-11

Moved

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Moments with My Father ~

 

It’s the miracle of another new day family!  Each of us probably has our own little routines that we go through each morning as we rise up and begin to move about – mine includes spending some time with our Father.  As I do so, I’m seeing the question of ”why” before me once again and this time I am asking myself why I do what I do.  There can be a lot of different reasons behind why we do as we do, but our Father shows me this morning the example of the saints in Thessalonia.  They were a family of saints that Paul and his team thanked God for because of their work, their labor and their endurance that all resulted from their faith in God, a response to His love for them and their inspiration to keep going in life because of their hope in Jesus.  These saints knew they were loved and chosen by God not just because of the Gospel of words spoken to them, but because of the Holy Spirit’s power working within them that brought deep conviction and filled them with great joy. As believers in Christ, we are given His Spirit in us and it is by God’s Spirit in us that we cry “Abba, Father!”  These former saints had this personal experience with the living, loving, powerful God of the Universe and as a result of all of this, they were moved to action, hence they turned from idols to serve the living and true God and had patience to wait for Jesus’ return from Heaven!  My Father’s Spirit at work in my personal life does amazing things! He strengthens my faith, moves me to love Him and others out of His perfect love He shows to me and gives me hope to keep going in life. I guess you could say I’m a gal very joyfully moved by my Father’s great love for me today and relating to the saints of old.  His Spirt of love in me today moves me to sing this song out to Him today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_2qG22SPwU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

1 Th 1:2-5; He 11; Ga 4:4-6; Ro 8:15-17; Jn 14:15-21

 

 

A Group Hug

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Moments with my Father ~

 

Do you ever find in life that sometimes you just need a hug?  Our enemy the Devil is always on the prowl looking for ways to beat down and discourage us as Christians.  While there are some types of people in the world that are very arrogant and refuse to look at themselves as having done no wrong, the reality is that all of us fall short of the glory of God and we all stand in the need of grace.  Even the God of the Universe who is the only One perfect does not treat any of us, His kids, as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.  As high as the Heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him. The wages of sins and iniquities deserve death, but instead, our Father chose to hug us and say I forgive you through the loving sacrifice Jesus made towards us in dying on the cross in our place.  The sins of the world put Jesus in painful agony on the cross, but it was when all the sins of others were taken to the cross that He said “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  Our Father’s Word says that it was because of the joy set before Him that He endured the sins of others on the cross.  In other words, He found joy in extending grace!  Wow! What a mindset to have in life!  We are forgiven people by the One whom we have all sinned against!  We live and learn and our experiences in making mistakes can teach us how to live life differently the next time around, but we need to rest our shortcomings with the Lord and forgive ourselves as He forgives us.  A healthy perspective of ourselves is to live life in sober judgment of ourselves, like a balanced teeter totter, not too high and not too low, not ignoring our faults, but learning and growing from mistakes and forgiving ourselves when we make them.  As our Father extends us grace, so He desires that we extend grace to others as well.  As I ponder all of this today, I visualize this morning a group hug, our Father and all of us hugging each other in forgiveness and love.  What a beautiful vison that is in my mind.  I’m stepping out to live it today.  Much love to you all!

 

Ps 103:8-14; Ro 3:23-24, 6:23, 12:3, 14:1-4; Jn 3:16-18; 1 Jn 1:8-10; 1 Pe 5:8-9; Lk 23:34; Mt 6:14-15, 7:1-5; He 12:3-4

Recipe for Success

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Moments with My Father ~

 

Oh, it is always a surprise visiting with my Father each morning and seeing what He has cooking for me from His Word.  Today, He shares His recipe for success in life that He says even kings have used.  It has these two ingredients:  love and faithfulness. Our Father says these two ingredients are just the right mix to always have on hand.  One important tip in this is to always use the Lord’s brand of love and faithfulness as the world offers many different kinds and the recipe for success just doesn’t come out the same if you use the wrong kind.  To love as Jesus would love and to be faithful in following Him is the brand to cook through life with.  With these key ingredients, our Father says the outcome will win His favor and that of others too!  I certainly want to be a Master Jesus type chef and whip up what will make for a savory dish of life – one that is yummy and a blessing to others!  I can’t wait to get cooking and I think I’ll start right now.  I’m trusting in Jesus – love to you all!

Pr 3:3-4, 20:28; Ro 12:1-2

 

 

Our Father of Humility and Grace

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Moments with My Father ~

 

Oh, how our Father loves us and desires our love in return.  So much so, that He is a God of humility and grace and is one that recognizes the importance of communication in His relationship with His people. I have heard it said that communication is to a relationship what oxygen is to the body – it is vital to healthy relationships.  Our Father desires to communicate with us and He desires we communicate with Him.  Our Father’s Word says if we confess our sins to our Father when we have sinned against Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  If we don’t have that communication or acknowledgement with Him, it affects our relationship with Him.  If only one person extends humility and grace in a relationship, the relationship is not healthy.  Our God is a God who loves us and desires a heart of unity with His people. I so admire that and I so want to be just like Him, not only in my relationship with my Father, but with all people.  To be humble in owning our sin and to forgive as we have been forgiven is a beautiful thing. I’m all about having a beautiful life. I’m stepping out with a heart of grace today.  I pray His grace and peace to you all today as well.  Jesus loves us and showed great humility in order to have a relationship with us when He came to this earth and died on a cross for our sins to give us a relationship with our Father – now how cool is that?  Here is an awesome song that says just that:

 

Jn 3:16; 1 Jn 1:8-10; Php 2:5-8; Col 1:21-23

 

Burma Update Now Home

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The people of Burma and their land is unlike any place on earth, but the problems they face are present everywhere.  I could tell many stories from my 24 days of travel there, but if there is a message in all of it, this is it. Our greatest calling is to live in oneness with God and man.  In order for us to do this in a fallen world, we must know how to live out what is written on the shirt that every “Free Burma Ranger” wears.
   It says: “Unite and work for freedom, justice and peace. Forgive and don’t hate each other. Pray with faith, act with courage, never surrender.” This would only be a nice sediment if I hadn’t seen and felt what is happening through this family of courageous Kingdom warriors.  The following story was my greatest moment in Myanmar as I witnessed the heart of Jesus and the Eubank family (Dave, Karen, Sahale, Suu, and Peter and thousands of Burmese ethnics):
I got up early to have a bowl of rice and hear a five-minute brief from Dave Eubank as he made sure we all knew what to do as we made the two-hour walk into the enemies’ camp.  It was a mission that would give these newly-trained Free Burma Rangers their first real look at the very army that  had burned their homes, raped their women and killed their families.  As we began to walk, I had a sense of wonder of what was going on in the hearts of these young brave men and women as they marched directly toward the army they had been fleeing their whole life.  As we approached the place where we would get a look at the camp, the troops were silent and steady.  Our pace was just shy of a jog and their was an anticipation that felt more like I was walking into a fight than approaching a lookout point.  When we arrived, I watched the veterans set up to take videos and pictures and watched the new rangers stare with wonder.  We were close enough to hear the Burmese armies’ voices and the sounds of their illegal construction work. After they had all the footage needed, Dave signaled for everyone to gather around.  What happened next changed me forever.  These people that had just looked upon their enemy, got on their knees in the dirt and in the Karen language prayed two requests to our Father.  1) Show this enemy of ours mercy and not judgement as you have shown each of us mercy.  2)  Help us stop these people from doing wrong.  In Jesus’ name!
I don’t know what is troubling you, but I encourage you to gain a Kingdom perspective on the battle we are in.  It  is not battle against your perpetrator.  Is is a battle against hate and a battle for love.  Go rangers!  Never surrender!
Changed,
Todd

God’s Christmas Wish List

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Moments with My Father ~

 

I’m sitting here thinking this morning about how so many folks this time of year make a list of things that they would like to receive for Christmas and as I thought about this, I wondered what would be on Jesus’ wish list for Christmas.  As soon as I thought of this question, this answer came to me.  Jesus was asked one time by an expert in the Law what God wanted the most and Jesus told him that it was to love Him with all of one’s heart, soul and mind and the second thing is that we all love one another as ourselves.  These two things sum up God’s wish list (His commandments).  Therefore, this cowgirl is pondering how to provide that “love gift” to my God this Christmas.  I do love Him so much and seek to make Him priority or number One on my list to do for and one thing I so want to do for Him and for me is to spend time with Him each day.  In fact, I just love to include Him in everthing I do!  He loves to go along and He never complains about it. He loves helping me decide how to best love others as we go through the Christmas season.  He loves to be with me.  I’m so glad!  It is wonderful that He not only has time and desire of heart to be with me, but He desires to go along with you and be a part of everything you do, too!   Oh, He is such a loving Father to us!  Let’s enjoy His great love for us this Christmas season and love Him back by including Him in our lives as we are loving those around us.  He will love it as our gift to Him and so will others!  His love to you!

 

Mt 22:34-40; Ex 20:3-4; Jn 15:9-17;  He 6:10

Poor Doubters

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Moments with My Father ~

 

It’s a fantastic new day to experience life with my Father today and my thankfulness that I can do so is in good timing with this being the week of Thanksgiving here in the States.    This cowgirl has so much to be thankful for that I could go on and on about all the blessings in my life, but by far the greatest treasure I have is my relationship with my Father.  As I have spent time with Him this morning, He has laid it upon my heart the importance of being merciful to those who doubt, who do not believe in Him and do not have the precious gift of faith that I have.  I can’t imagine doing life without my Father.  Without His wisdom, His unconditional, unfailing, perfect love and His peace in the midst of trials would be devastating to me.  Can you imagine your life without your faith.  This is what those who do not lelieve in our Lord experience everyday!  Yikes!!!  This gives me a heart that has a whole lot more understanding for them and as I think about this, I recall that Jesus understood this when He was hanging on the cross and spoke of those who did not believe in Him.  He told His Father “Forgive them, for they know not what they do!”  As I step out into my world, I’m looking at those without Christ with a whole new mindset today.  They so need our prayers and to see the reality of the love and grace of Christ lived out before them and I want to be that in my relating to them!  Will you join me in making a difference in someone’s life who doesn’t know our Lord by helping them to see our great God who dwells in us?  Our Father would be so thankful!  May you be filled to overflowing with His love and grace wherever life has you so others might see and have what you have in Him!  Bless you for blessing others!

Jude 1:22; Lk 23:34; Mt 5:16; 1 Co 3:16; Jn 3:16

Bent on Loving

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Moments with My Father ~

 

Your sister is all inspired this day as I read about our brother David’s heart.  Our Father said that David had a heart after His own heart and I can see why in so many ways.   David had a friend named Jonathan whom he was one in spirit with and David loved him as himself.  Have you ever had a dear friend like this in your life – a kindred spirit?  If so, you know that it is very special and your heart is always with that person.  David had went through a great deal of pain and trials due to the jealousy of King Saul, the father of Jonathan. Through these trials, Jonathan was in the middle between his father and David. Yikes!!! It is never easy to be in the middle of two people you love, but because of the unreasonable way Saul was treating David out of jealousy that was stopping short of nothing less than pursuing his death, Jonathan aided David in escaping due to his great love for him.  Even though David was going through these trials, I see that David modeled the Lord’s heart in several ways: 1) There was a time when David had opportunity that he could have taken Saul’s life, but out of respect for him as the Lord’s anointed first king over Israel, he had mercy upon him and let him live.  2) David also modeled the Lord’s heart in his mindset that evildoers do evil and therefore, he wanted no part of doing evil himself. 3) David modeled the Lord’s heart in being bent on loving his enemy and also his friend Jonathan through his restraint.  He chose to go against his flesh and live according to the Spirit.  4) Jonathan and Saul’s lives eventually ended in a war against the Philistines, but David did not forget his friend just as the Lord does not forget those He loves. He remembers the love that has been shown to his people. David was a friend that loved at all times.  5) David put his love into action.  He inquired if there was anyone left of Saul’s family that he could show kindness to for the sake of his friend Jonathan and when he found out there was one son left that was crippled, David was bent on showing love and kindness to him and taking care of him by providing for him and inviting him to sit at his table as one of his own sons. This is another example of how He loved his friend as himself.  Wow!  What a saint David was!  I read this story and can’t help but think that each one of us have choices in life that we can act in hatred (evil) or in love.  David is a great example to me that it is a wonderful thing to be bent on love even when it is difficult.  I ask myself and I ask you in light of this concept, what relationship(s) in our lives is the Lord revealing where we can apply these same mindsets to?  Loving the difficult is a beautiful thing and the love of a kindred Spirit is just downright special and a pleasure.  This gal wants to do both as I step out today. I so want to have a heart like my Father’s and I’ll begin by sending His love to you as you step out to do the same.  I do believe that is what the world needs more of is love – this song shares the same thought.  Click below to give a listen:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMj7UcjPZ0U&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

1 Sa 18-24, 31; 2 Sa 9; Lk 6:27-36; Pr 17:17; He 6:10; Gal 5:14; Ro 8:5-8; 1 Co 13:4-8

 

 

Copy Cat Grace

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Moments with My Father ~

 

It is another day of doing life in a world filled with people.  As we go and interact with people, they can bring us joy and sometimes they bring us sorrow.  As I spend time with my Father this morning, He reveals to me that Jesus is someone who understood this.  While He had those who loved Him and were devoted to Him, there were those who were always against Him and stopped at nothing short of crucifying Him even though Jesus had done nothing wrong.   Even those who were devoted to Him sometimes worked against Him because they didn’t have His right understanding.  People are so complex and there are many things we as people can believe that are are not in line with our Father’s way of thinking or we can just get busy and not think and consequently step on toes.  Yikes!!!  Often people react to us negatively because they do not understand the full picture.  They don’t get it.  It is important that we have humility and remember that sometimes we don’t get it ourselves and we hurt other people as a result.  I so admire the way that Jesus handled it.  He prayed for those who crucified Him and said “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” I feel badly for the ways I have hurt people I love because I haven’t gotten it. I have lacked right understanding and this viewpoint helps me to have a whole lot more understanding of other people and extend to them compassion when my toes get stepped on.  I’m putting into practice this mindset as I step out for my Father into the world full of people who struggle to get it just like me.  It  brings me a great big smile knowing that our Father does get it and we can rest in the blessed assurance that He always loves each of us with perfect, unfailiing, forgiving love. His love is always there to comfort us as His kids when our toes get stepped on just as He was there for Jesus when He hung on the cross because those in the world around Him didn’t get it.  Oh our Father – how wonderful is He!  I so want to be a copy cat of His grace and love. Love and grace to ya’s today!

 

Here’s a sweet message – have a listen:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBIgOFnLCmU

 

 

Lk 23:34; Mt 6::14-15

 

 

Feed the Sheep

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Moments with my Father ~

 

This morning I am all inspired by the story of Jesus’ interaction with Peter after Jesus had been crucified and had been resurrected.  Peter and the Disciples had just had an encounter with the risen Lord as He instructed them on where to let down their nets to have it filled with an abundance of fish. They were at a point where they had been fishing for quite some time and they were at a point of lack; they had nothing.  Do you ever get that way as a Christian?  If so, be encouraged that Jesus cares as we see in this story.  Jesus saw the Disciples in their situation and He told them what to do to fill their net.  It strikes me here that Jesus desires that His kids be filled with His provision and joy.  Bless Him!  The Disciples were enjoying the catch Jesus provided for breakfast when Jesus asked Peter just how much he loved Him.  Now isn’t it just like Jesus to feed His kids what they need at the start of each day.  I attest that when I look to Jesus at the beginning of each morning, He always feeds me spiritually what I need to get going for the day in accordance with His will.  In this story, Jesus fed Peter the question three times “Do you love me?”  After the third time, Peter was a little hurt by it and he told the Lord “you know all things – you know I love you!”  Jesus then explained to Peter that if he really loved Jesus that he would feed His sheep,  meaning He wanted Peter to share His message of love and hope with others.  He also told Peter that it would mean great sacrifice - the laying down of his life as he might want it and that it would mean going where he would not want to go.  Peter was crucified upside down for the cause of Christ.  Yeppers – that was a difficult life!  Jesus was asking Peter, do you love me that much? This story leaves me wondering if Jesus were to ask of us the same thing – to be willing to live through life difficulties to share the love and hope of Jesus with others, what does that mean in my life?  As Jesus encouraged Peter, I want to encourage your heart that as you step out to share the love and hope of Jesus with others even if it causes you great sacrifice, know it greatly blesses Jesus.  Keep going for Him!  It will be worth it!  He says that in the end, great will be our reward in eterntiy where there will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain.  Among the rewards found there will be those next to us that are able to be there because of our sacrifices to share the love and hope of Jesus with them even when it was hard on us. Jesus loves you very much and so appreciates what you do for Him.  I send you love as well.  God bless your day!

 

Jn 21:1-19; Heb 6:10; Rev 21:1-4, 22:12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Revelation of Imperfection

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Moments with My Father ~

 

I love the start of each new day as it is a time for a fresh new start and as I always like to begin my day by seeking my Father, part of each morning’s conversation with Him begins with a prayer for forgiveness from past sin and a request for a renewed filling of His Holy Spirit within me. His Word says that because of His great love, we are not consumed, for His compassion never fails. It is new every morning; great is His faithfulness! If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Oh, but I wish that I never had to ask my Father nor anyone for forgiveness. My heart so longs to live a perfect life, but because we live in a sin-tainted world, we all have this struggle until the day we enter into our Father’s new heaven and new earth. A person could choose to hibernate and never step out in an effort to keep imperfections hidden, but as my Father has shown me today in His Word, we would miss out and the people in the world would as well. We see this in the story of a man who had a shriveled up hand in the Synagogue. The Jews saw the man’s imperfection and saw it as an opportunity to bring accusation against Jesus should He decide to bring healing to the man on the Sabbath. Jesus chose to work through the man with the shriveled up hand to work a miracle. As I read this story, I thought about this man with the shriveled up hand and how hard it must have been for him to publicly display his imperfection when Jesus called him to “stretch out his hand.” But bless our Father who gives grace to the humble! I think to myself how sad it would’ve been if this man would not have had the courage to even go to the Synagogue. It would have been a great missed opportunity to do something great for Jesus and experience the blessing of Jesus in his own life as well.  Everyone has imperfections – there are no perfect specimens living on earth that I have ever heard of.  We all have imperfections, not only physically but imperfections in our ability to live perfectly. Even though this is the case, our Father says we should have the same attitude of Jesus who even though He was in very nature God, He considered Himself nothing and took on the very nature of a servant and became obedient to His Father to His death on the cross. Jesus had His eyes on His Father instead of on Himself and as a result of His willingness to step into the world, bearing the shame of the cross by being the total representation of sin and imperfection, He brought huge blessing to the world. Likewise, If we each do not step out into the world and let our Father work through us, even though we are not perfect, the world will forever miss out on the blessings our Father wants to work through us. We must remember that there is a flip side to this coin, in that although we may have our imperfections, we are also blessings! This mindset is to look upon ourselves with sober judgement which is how our Father desires we see ourselves. Our Father lives in us and His Spirit is working through us! Wow! That is amazing! He can bring blessing into our lives and the lives of others not only in this life, but for eternity through our extending to the world who we are – Him in us! There isn’t one of us that is perfect on our own because of the sinful nature, but we have been made perfect through Jesus! Our Father loves us just as we are! It is resting in His love and acceptance of us that needs to be our focus which leads to having a willing heart that will let Him work through us to carry out His great work in a world full of lives that so need us. Did you know that you are a blessing to the world? You are!  Stretch out your hand and share the marvelous gift of you today!
La 3:22-23; Mt 5:14, 12:9-14; Ps 53:3; 1 Jn 1:910; Ro 8:28-29, 12:1-8; 2 Ti 1:6-7; 1 Pe 5:5-6; Ps 139:13-15; 1 Co 3:16;

 

Farmers for Him

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Moments with My Father ~

 

It is a fall day in Idaho, the days and nights are much cooler and we have even had snow since the warm days of summer.   It is definitely the end of the growing season in terms of growing a garden of vegetables, fruit and flowers and the farmers have all harvested their crops after the growing season.  Despite the end of the season of striving for a good harvest in terms of the physical world around us though, spiritually speaking, we are still in the midst of a season in life when we all have the opportunity to work towards a harvest – the harvest of righteousness.  You could say each of us are as farmers with opportunity to sow into the lives of those around us and also to sow into ourselves.  Each of us have opportunity that we can produce a crop of righteousness based on what we sow or we can produce a crop of weeds or sin – it all depends on us and our motives or attitudes in life.  If we have or sow an attitude or motive of being self-seeking and faithless, it produces a crop of disorder and evil practices.  If we have or sow an attitude or motive based upon the “wisdom of heaven,”  it produces a harvest of righteousness.  The “wisdom of Heaven” is first of all pure (with right motive or attitude of loving others, not being self-seeking and trusting in the Lord).  The “wisdom of heaven” is also peace-loving.  In this world, people and life can be challenging, but our Father says that blessed (happy) are the peacemakers.  Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.  Our Father encourages us each that as far as it concerns each of us, to live in peace with all.  Paul encourages us in his writings to pray for peace.   There is nothing that feels as nice as peace of heart and nothing as troubling as lack of peace.  Where is there lack of peace in our lives?  Our Father asks us to not be anxious about it, but to bring it to Him.  We need to ask Him to help us to have wisdom, the right attitude and motives and His divine help to live peaceful, Godly and holy lives.  My dear brothers and sisters, it is my prayer for you this day, that your life be filled with His peace that transcends all understanding.   In addition to peace-loving, the “wisdom of heaven” is also considerate, submissive, full of mercy, bearing good fruit, impartial and sincere. These are all fruit of having a heart for the Lord to love others and not being self seeking.  So in light of all of this, I ask myself and I ask you, where are weeds of sin growing in our lives and how can we as farmers for our Lord, sow for a harvest of righteousness in our interactions with others?  Oh, this farming girl sows (so is) wanting to be found outstanding in my field of life and I’m looking to my Father to bring about a harvest of righteousness.  He tells me if I do my part to sow righteousness that there will be sure reward and that just makes me smile!  Love to you all!

 

James 3:13-18; Mt 5:9; 1 Pe 2:1-2, 3:8-12; He 12:14-15; Php 4:4-9; 1 Ti 2:1-4; Pr 11:18; 2 Co 9:6

 

 

Love For God

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Moments with My Father ~

 

Good morning, family!  It is a new day for all of us and as we step out into this day, each one of us has a whole world of people around us as our Father designed our lives to be. When you are in the world, you discover that people are so interesting!  There are so many different kinds and no two are alike.  In life, there are those that are easy for us to interact with and those that are challenging and this is true of all – everyone has their strengths and everyone has their weaknesses.  As I reflect upon this, my Father reminds me that the best way to interact with all is to do so as He does, to imitate Him who loves us as His dearly loved children and to live a life of love just as He did, giving ourselves up or denying our self to love others, knowing it is a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.  While we were yet sinners, Christ sacrificed Himself when He died to show us His love. I bear this in mind as I see the reality that our love for others may not be noticed or even appreciated by some people, but our Father sure sees and loves it!  He is not unjust and He says that He will not forget our work and the love that we have shown Him as we step out to help His people and continue to help them.   He tells us as His children to spur one another on to love and good deeds, so I’m a gal with spurs on today as I share these thoughts with you to encourage your heart today.  The world can leave us feeling pretty beat up and it is important that we have the right mindset that our Father is the one to please and He just loves it when we step out to love others, even those difficult to love.  So, let’s keep going for Him!  You are not alone in your efforts.  Bless you for all you do for others!

Eph 5:1-2, Ro 5:8, Heb 10:24

Grace

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Moments with My Father ~

 

New day greetings to you!  I hope you had a great weekend.  Mine was a very busy weekend and my interaction with others led to their sharing with me that their lives were incredibly busy and how in the midst of their trying to do their best at life, they often found themselves feeling beat up by critically-spirited people.  My heart breaks for them as I know it is hard to meet the needs all around us and in trying to do one’s best can often lead to accidentally stepping on someone’s toes. Then the Devil gets involved and turns it into an ugly uproar, making it much worse than it is.   My Father’s Words come to me today “Love is not easily angered and it keeps no record of wrongs.”  I also think of our Father’s attitude towards all of us as we have all sinned against Him, yet He does not treat us as our sins deserve.  He extends to us grace or forgiveness.  This day, I just encourage you that if you have found yourself in a place of being criticized without unforgiveness to remember that you are loved unconditionally by our Father.  Rest in His love.  We can apologize for our mistakes, learn from them, be thankful for the learning opportunity and extend grace.  It is helpful to me to remember that the other person who has offended us is also a struggling soul, probably operating on too many needs around them and perhaps not enough rest as well.  Grace, love and peace to you all this day!  I am thankful for all you do to try to be a blessing to many.  This I know, our Father sees your efforts to bring Him glory and He smiles upon you for that!

1 Co 13:5; Ro 3:23, 5:8; 1 Jn 1:9; Col 3:13

Love Is…

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Moments with My Father ~

 

I love it that we have a brand new day as our Father’s kids and I know from reading His Word that it is our Father’s will that His children love one another.  Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind. He then said the second commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves.  However, different people have different ways of thinking as to what makes them feel loved and what is love.   To truly love someone well, it takes time to know them.  Experience is a great teacher!  As time goes on, you learn more and more what blesses them and what hurts them, but the best way to love them is with Godly love. Have you ever wondered what it means to love someone with Godly love?  Our Father tells us “This is how we know what love is:  Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers (and sisters).”  In other words, be willing to  sacrifice to love others.  If someone sees their brother or sister in need and has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in them?  Sometimes, though, it can be difficult to truly understand needs – what is best?  It can also be confusing in how to love someone as sometimes we can have overly sensitive consciences and we also have one called the “accuser” who is the Devil who is always placing doubt, guilt and thoughts of failure before us.  Given all of this, there can be the questions of what to do to love someone and are we loving someone too much this way or too little another?  So how do we deal with all that?  Our Father tells us that He is greater than our hearts when they condemn us. He knows everything.   We can rest ourselves in God’s love for us and live in that love and by that love.  His Holy Spirit is our Counselor who lives in us, whose job is to teach us.  He is Truth.  His Word and His Truth are greater than our feelings or our overly sensitive conscience and gives us what we need to resist the Devil. Our Father says that we know He lives in us by the Spirit He gave us who calls out “Abba, Father.”   When we became a believer, we were sealed with His Holy Spirit.  So when in doubt how to love someone, the best thing to do is to ask our Father’s Spirit to guide us. He tells us that if anybody lacks wisdom, they should ask of Him in faith and it will be provided generously without finding fault.  Also, when we ask of Him in accordance with His will (His will is to love with Godly love), He hears us and if He hears us, then we know we have what we asked of Him.  Now that’s a promise that provides me all kinds of confidence to be able to love well the people in my life.   Woohoo!  I’m trusting Him for His Godly love to flow through us all today!  It’s a Godly love thing!

 

1 Jn 3:11-24, 4:7,13, 5:14-15; Ro 12:2; 14:16-17; 2 Co 1:21-22; He 4:16; Eph 1:13; Gal 4:6

The King’s Throne

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Moments with My Father ~

 

Good day, family.  As I begin this day, my Father beckons me to come to Him as He is seated on His throne of grace. In Christ, we are all children of the King of all kings!   We are all part of His royal family, dearly loved and our Father loves having us as His kids join Him and spend time with Him even though He is a King.  He is a Father whom we can share our hearts with freely, One who understands us fully.  He longs to have us talk to Him and He desires to talk to us.  There is always mercy and grace found there to help us in our time of need.  Oh, our Father – how special is He.   He IS perfect love.  After spending time with Him,  I can step out from His throne with confidence, knowing His love is always with me.  May you know His love today as well, no matter where you are and no matter what you may be going through.  His perfect love to you ~

 

Heb 4:14-16; 1 Jn 3:1, 4:16-21

The Perfect Outfit

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Moments with My Father

 

Hi my dear brothers and sisters! I share with you this day the thought that we have been chosen by the God of the Universe to be His to carry out His will, His plan and His purpose for each of us.  What a joy to join Him in His work!  He has made us holy in Christ and we are dearly loved.  That thought inspires me and moves me from my cozy sitting place with Him this morning to my closet to get dressed for the day and as I do, I see He has laid out for me the perfect outfit to wear to bring Him glory.  It is the clothing of myself in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness and  layered over all of these garments of virtue, love which just ties it all together into one unified outfit perfect for walking through this day.  My Father has good taste.  I’m gonna trust in His provision and grace to represent Him well in all He has for me today!  His taste can make me one stylin’ cowgirl and that adds thankfulness, peace, a song in my heart and a great big smile to my stepping out into the world!  I’m seeking to bring glory to His name today.  Oh, by the way, His Designer wear will look great on you, too!

 

Col 3:12-17, Jer 29:11; Php 2:13

 

Set Free

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Moments with My Father ~

 

It is a new day and one filled with the freedom to choose how I will spend this day.  I am so thankful to those who have sacrificed to enable me to enjoy the freedom that I do!  However, there are many in the world who do not have the same freedom that I have.  My Father’s Word points out to me today that along time ago, one name Satan committed a great sin against our Father, who is a holy Judge.  Satan involved all of us in it when he deceived Eve and Adam into going against God’s request not to eat the forbidden fruit of a tree in His garden.  As a result, the whole world was sentenced to a life sentence of death and imprisonment away from the society or Kingdom of God our Father.  A slave driver called the Law which is found in the Old Testament of the Bible was given to constantly remind everyone of their sin, but it also pointed to One named Jesus who was coming to them holding the key that could set everyone free from imprisonment in the cell of eternal death and separation.  Today, Jesus stands at the cell door of each person’s heart and knocks.  When He does, if the prisoner says to Him “Jesus, open the door and set me free from my prison cell of sin, eternal death and separation from You,”  then they will be set free!  Jesus has set me free and in doing so, He said go and love others along your way!  There are so many ways I can choose to live this day and I want to do that which will love others out of my love for what Jesus did for me. One thing I want to do as I walk past others still imprisoned is to tell them about Jesus and be an example to help them believe that there really is freedom. They do not have to live under the slave driver’s Law any longer.   Jesus is knocking and He holds the key to freedom, will you let Him set you free?  It feels so good to be free!  Yippee!!!  His love to you ~

 

Gal 3:1-25, Gen 3, 17:19; Ps 146:7; Gal 5:1,13-15; Jn 8:33-36

 

 

Picked to Be a Gift

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Moments with My Father

 

It is the gift of a new day and I am so thankful to be able to walk through this day of life with you all!  This morning, my heart relates to Paul’s words spoken to Timothy when he acknowledges that even though he has had his struggles with sin in his life, he was thanking his Lord who had given him strength.  He was thankful that Jesus considered him faithful and appointed Paul to His service.  Just as He did with Paul, Jesus also pours out His grace upon us abundantly, along with His love and faith.  It is the kind of grace that not only covers our sin, but gives us abundant grace to enable us to change the world with Him in us.  Paul said he was shown mercy so that in Paul, Christ’s unlimited patience  might be displayed as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life.  I guess you could say that  Paul was picked to be a gift to many who would receive the message he carried for the Lord.  Jesus calls us to be lights to the world around us as well – a gift to those who might believe the message of Him that we carry to them.   Do you think of yourself as a gift to the world?  You are!  Envision yourself all packaged up with a bow upon your head. With Jesus in you, you have just what it takes to bring delight to many!   I celebrate with Paul, the gift of Jesus in us today as I step out into this day.  To our King, be all glory and honor forever and ever!  Much love to you all!

 

1 Ti 1:12-17; Mt 5:14-16; 1 Jn 1:8-9; Ro 12:5-8; Php 2:13