Past Devotions

I am a greeter at church this morning, which requires a lot of standing. One of the hardest things for me to do physically is to stand for any length of time. It is much easier to walk.

One of the hardest things to do spiritually is also to stand. Standing in the face of fear, or opposition, or difficulties is challenging. Standing when the winds of circumstances are blowing against you is downright tough.

Yet, standing is what we must do  – standing firm in the face of false accusations, in time of trials and personal attacks. I was listening (again) to Rick Rigsby’s famous commencement speech the other day, “Lessons from a third-grade dropout.” I was reminded of the fortitude it takes to simply stand as he recounted the last words of advice his father gave him. As they stood at the casket of Rigsby’s beloved wife, his dad said to him, “Son, just stand.”  Meaning “don’t ever give up.”

That’s what Paul is saying to us in Ephesians 6:10-18 … son, daughter, just stand – don’t ever give up. Put on the full armor that God supplies and stand against the devil’s schemes aimed at you. Just stand!

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”  [Ephesians 6:10-11 NIV]

Take a minute and read Ephesians 6:10-18. Be the person God has called you to be no matter what comes against you! Just Stand!

This is a tough world. I know that there are joys, love, and goodness also. I see it in my God, in my family, my church family, and even in the acts of strangers. But weaving through those things I also find difficulties, injustices, unfairness, and evil.

I remember people telling me as a new Christian that if the enemy of our soul isn’t actively working against me it is because I am not actively working against him! In other words, if I am an ineffective Christian, content to just coast along, there will be no reason to attack. But if I am making inroads into the realm of darkness, I should be prepared for the enemy to notice and do everything to stop me.

I think the enemy cares little if we go to church and listen to music and messages. Certainly, he’ll throw a few stumbling blocks in our paths, but nothing too aggressive. But when we pray, that’s a different story. When we approach the throne of God with the confidence that God will hear and will respond, and that we will hear what God tells us (and be obedient to His command), then the attacks get a little more intense. Prayer really shakes up the devil and his minions.

We must remember when this happens that we aren’t fighting people, which can be a channel through which attacks come. “We are fighting powers we can’t see, spiritual powers in heavenly realms! For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” [Ephesians 6:12-13 NIV]

Beloved, keep up the good fight! If attacks are coming your way, and they are not of your own making (smile!), then you must be making inroads into the realm of darkness for the Kingdom of our Lord and King. [1Timothy 6:1]

Three little letters are on “MyChart” again. Each time I have lab work done, I receive an email that “MyChart” (the patient electronic record for my health care system) has the results of my tests. Usually, I am not surprised by anything, as most everything closely resembles my last lab results.

Just like last time, three little letters appear on my medical record – CKD. CKD stands for Chronic Kidney Disease and they are consistently followed by the qualifier Stage 2. There are five stages, and most people don’t show any effects until Stage 4.

Still – three little letters can change everything for the remainder of our lives.

As I saw my results, I immediately thought about the three little letters written in another place. “Another book was opened, which is the book of life…. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” [Revelation 20:12, 15 NIV]

Beside my name in “MyChart” you will read CKD. Beside my name in the “Book of Life” you will read HIS, with the qualifier – FOREVER.

Beloved, three little letters will change things for you forever … make sure your name is in that book with HIS written next to it!

I was so tired when I woke up on July 5 from three nights of fireworks and rockets going off behind our bedroom window. I was cranky from lack of sleep and knowing that I had another night of this nonsense. Our neighbors across the irrigation ditch do it every year for four nights, July 2-5.

I knew I needed to get with the LORD, but I also knew I probably would not be able to put into words what I needed. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit has promised to help us in our weakness, praying for us.

 ^“And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.” [Romans 8:26-27 NLT]

Too often we don’t know what we need, much less how to verbalize it to God. We get tongue-tied in our prayers. But the Holy Spirit reads our hearts and interprets our deepest needs and desires even as we stumble with words that sometimes make little sense. He “pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.”

He is our much needed “Heavenly Interpreter.” Thank you, Holy Spirit!

Amen&Amen

I’m not a fan of the modern 4^th of July and I don’t care for fireworks. If you ask the man standing behind you in Walmart with a slab of ribs under one arm and a case of beer under the other what this holiday is all about, he might not know.

I am a back-east girl, native of Pennsylvania (one of the 13 original colonies), raised in a small town on the banks of the Monongahela River not far from Pittsburgh. As such, my history lessons did not center around the discovery of gold or settlement of the west, they centered around the founding of our nation, the signing of our Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, and the drafting of our constitution.

One of the greatest moments of my life was when I stood in that darkened chamber in the National Archives in Washington DC and read the words: “In Congress, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

It’s not about BBQs and beer and burned bits of exploding cardboard. It’s about men, their sons, fathers, and brothers who picked up their muskets and fought long and hard for the right to declare that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. And it’s about the women, their daughters, sisters, and mothers who sewed flags and wrapped bandages, who cared for the wounded, and sometimes saw their men brought home in a box.

If you have never read their declaration, you can do it today. I know July 4 is behind us for this year, but this document is important for citizens of the USA every day of every year.

Link:  https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

I am writing this on the morning of July 4. The neighbors across the irrigation ditch behind us were shooting off fireworks and rockets until almost midnight. It will be even worse tonight on the actual July 4^th holiday. They do this every year! They start two nights before and end one night after the holiday. My guess is that if asked what this holiday stands for, they will have no clue! (A recent poll showed that half of Americans have no idea what the July 4^th Holiday celebrates.)

I am cranky. I don’t sleep well as it is, but to be in bed three hours with big booms sounding and the windows rattling every few minutes makes it even more difficult to rest. The only thing that will save my day from being off to a horrible start is spending time with the LORD. That is something I love to do.

David must have also been a “morning with the LORD” person. “In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.” [Psalm 5:3 NIV]

Thank you, LORD, for the privilege of spending time with you each morning. I know I can put all the griefs and desires of my heart before You and You will hear me and answer me. In you I will find my peace and strength for this day.

Amen&Amen

I get several “daily verses” each day from different sources. I read them first thing in the morning and often I will research them in context or simply meditate on a phrase or word during the day. I do that also with my daily Bible reading.

I have one app on my phone that I open first thing upon waking. The one on July 1 was Romans 12:12 in the NLT. “Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.”

Two words caught my attention – “confident hope.” The NKJV, NIV and HCSB use just the word “hope.”

That aroused my curiosity. Why did the NLT translators add the word “confident?”  When I looked up the verse in Strong’s, the word is elpis – hope, and the definition explained why they added it: “expectation of what is sure (certain).”

Hope that is not “confident” is wishful thinking. Wishful thinking has no foundation, no certainty that it will come to pass.

Our Christian hope is certain—confident. It resides in Jesus as the strong and trustworthy anchor for our soul, in Jesus who is our Eternal High Priest, in Jesus our Refuge. [Hebrews 6:19-20]

Amen&Amen

The only certain thing about life in this world is uncertainty! If we think we can control everything that happens to us we are in for a rude awakening because just when you think you have it together, something happens to prove you don’t.

I woke up last Monday knowing that I needed to rest. I was fatigued, hurting, and looking forward to a day of nothing with a capital “N!”

After returning from picking up groceries, Bob went in the bathroom and then went outside to snip the dead blossoms off the flowers in the front. When he was done outside, he came in to wash his hands and I heard him shout. I went to see what happened. There was water all over the bathroom floor and the carpet in the hallway was soaked.

Apparently, he thought he smelled gas coming from the bathtub drain; it’s a large garden tub that is seldom used. So, he turned on the water to flush the drain. He then ‘forgot’ the water was running, turned on the fan, shut the door, and went outside. The tub filled up, ran over, soaked the floor and the hallway carpet. We spent the next few hours soaking up as much water as we could with towels and going to the rental company to get high powered floor fans to dry out the carpeting.

To say I was miffed doesn’t quite describe my attitude. The funny thing is that one of the devotionals I read that morning was on how to handle the “uncertainties” that often plague us in life. It contained a reminder that only God is Sovereign (which means everything is in HIS control, not ours). Guess that’s another lesson I’ll need to learn again.

Psalm 141:8: “I look to you for help, O Sovereign Lord. You are my refuge….” [NLT]

I was born in 1946 (that seems SO long ago!) The year I was born begins what the world has labeled “Baby Boomers,” babies born immediately following the end of WWII. There are labels applied to each generation.

Baby Boomers are 1946-1964, Gen X 1965-1980, Millennials 1981-1996, Gen Z 1997-2012, Gen Alpha 2013-2025, and the anticipated Gen Beta 2026-2039.

With each of those labels comes a “description” of traits. These labels group people within similar timeframes and are used to understand social trends, behaviors, and cultural differences. They are to be generalizations, not strict rules.

 Still, I see many articles every day that says something like what I read recently, “What Millennials Wish Baby Boomers Would Stop Doing.”

That made me “return to thankfulness” remembering how our Great and Almighty God knows us personally and intimately. He does not lump us into a group. Take a moment today and read Psalm 139:1-2, Jeremiah 1:5, Luke 12:7, Psalm 139-13-14, even Hebrews 4:13.

Our God knew us before we were born. He “knit us together.” Our God knows us, even how many hairs we have on our head. Amen&Amen

Many species of birds display what is called site fidelity. That is the tendency to return to the same locations year after year. Swallows return to the Mission San Juan Capistrano every year, traveling about 6000 miles from Argentina. They arrive on March 19. I remember that date since it is also Bob’s birthday.

I awoke this morning thanking my LORD for His cross. I finished my prayer with, “LORD, may my thoughts always return to thankfulness.”

I had no idea where that thought (“may my thoughts always return to thankfulness”) came from initially but as I meditated on it throughout the morning, I realized it was the Holy Spirit leading.

My mind is seldom quiet. My thoughts are pulled in many different directions. I see something or hear something or read something and off I go. Often it goes in good directions, and I relate what I see to the Ways of the LORD. But it can also head in not-so-good directions, and I can find it pulling toward worry or anxiety or fear.

The Holy Spirit led me to pray and to meditate on “thoughts that return” to a specific place, a place of thankfulness for all God is. Like the birds that have “site fidelity,” thankfulness is to be the location I always come back to!

Amen & Amen