Tag Archives: Perspective

Life as a Picnic

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Moments with My Father ~

 

Looking upon my life, I’m thinking that today is a great day for a picnic and I am all excited about the adventure of it!  A picnic can be defined as an “outing with food.”  The kind of food that I put into my food basket is important to the outcome of the picnic – foods that will last during the trip are the best.  Food that will spoil or spill out, making a mess of things on the journey does not always produce the best of picnics.  Yikes and Yuck!!!  As I ponder this, I can see how my life could be looked at as a picnic.  My Father desires my life to be a great picnic or experience and He has packed a picnic basket of the most delightful of food (the Bible) for which I can partake of (think on).  He has packed enough in the basket for you to have some too!  He has included in it the richest of food that feeds us such as how much He loves us, how He has cleansed us and forgives us for how sin in the world has victimized us, how He has rescued us and sees us as holy and blameless just by believing in what Christ did on the cross for us, how He has a great plan for our lives and how He is always working for our good, He believes in us and wants to work with us to bless others, how He is with us always and will never leave nor forsake us, how there is hope for the difficult things in our lives, how we each are gifted and talented, special and unique and capable of doing great things with His help and these are just a few of the things.  There are many other very sweet things to feast upon as well!  Oh our Father so desires for us to have a great outing into life and be fed very well.  He doesn’t want us to be starved and unhealthy. His food for thought for our lives is so yummy – the best in life!  I just wanna keep eating and eating and eating and eating of it.  I can never get enough!  Did I mention that I am all excited? Every day is a great day for a picnic in life.  What thinkest you?

Php 4:8-9; Heb 13:5; Lk 4:4; Dt 8:3; Ge 3; Jn 3:16, Ro 8-28-29; Col 1: 21-23; Jer 29:11; 1 Pe 4:10-11; Ps 34:8,119:103, 139:13-14

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

Giving Thanks

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Moments with My Father

 

It’s a wonderful Wednesday morning – a gift from our Father who loves us greatly!  What a blessing it is to know of His love for us His kids.  This morning my Father has laid it on my heart how very blessed I am.  I have so much to be thankful for!  I am seeking to put into practice this day, the will of our Father to give thanks.  No matter where we are in life, when we exercise this Truth, it can bring us a whole new perspective on life and as I begin to think of all I am thankful for today, you all are at the top of the list.  Our relationship with our Father and our dear relationships in life are by far the most precious gifts to be thankful for.  I thank my Father upon every rememberance of you!   I hope you have a blessed day wherever you are.

1 Th 5:18; Php 1:3

 

 

Humbled and Blessed

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Moments with My Father
 
It’s a summertime Saturday in Idaho and I am thankful this day for so much. I am especially grateful as I read in the Psalms today about how our Father does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities, even though He hates sin and desires for us to live holy as He is holy. As high up above the earth as the heavens are, that is how great His love is for those who fear Him or stand in awe of Him. It is pretty easy to stand in awe of Him just by looking up to the heavens. His creation alone cries out how great He is and worthy to fear. He is perfect in every way and the only One who is qualified to be a judge of any of us and He is capable of taking any of us out at any moment into non-existence anywhere. Yikes!! I could be scared, but because He is perfect love, His perfect love drives out ungodly and unhealthy fear. Because He is compassionate towards us as His children, He has proved His love to us in sending Jesus into the world to make the sacrifice needed to cover our sin so that we can be reconciled to Him, the Holy God He is, who has no association with sin. He did what it took to have a healthy relationship with you and me instead of just writing us off. I am so thankful for that! As imitators and models of Him, so we should put forth the effort to go the extra to have a healthy relationship with others. We all struggle in life with imperfections. It seems that in this day and age, people repay people by giving up on relationships far too quickly when someone doesn’t live up to their expectation(s) or desires all the while they are forgetting their own falling short. A whole new perspective comes to view when we reflect on how our Father treats us and His Word that tells us to love our neighbor as our self. While I do not take lightly His desire for me to be holy as He is, as my self, it makes me very thankful to know my Father loves me and accepts me as blameless through Jesus even though on my own I’m not perfect as He. If two people both look to the cross work done for each one personally, it greatly provides the humility and the comforting love needed to keep a relationship going. I stand humbled and blessed by the cross. “Thank you, Father.”
 
Psalm 103:8-22; 1 Jn 4:13-21; Jn 3:16; Col 1:21-23

The God of Wonder by Todd Pierce

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Are you still filled with wonder? I hope that you can spend your whole life in wonder of how great our Father is. I believe He wants to be known by us, but He is an eternal and infinite God and is beyond measure. I have had the kind of spiritual journey that began with me thinking I had a pretty good understanding of who God is and what the plan is. Over the last 20 years of walking with the Lord and studying His word, I can say that although I truly know some things, I’m not even close to knowing Him. What I know is that He is good and rewards those who seek Him, but He is beyond our ability to contain in beliefs. I encourage each of you to take comfort in the fact that we serve a loving God who sees your life from a whole different perspective. We have a Father that goes beyond our five senses. The problem with finding things is that it immediately causes us to stop looking. I am glad for what you have found, but there is more. Stay hungry!

Your brother,

Todd
www.ridinghighministries.org