The first thing I want to acknowledge and praise God for this month is for a beautiful granddaughter, Clara Kathryn, born January 30 to Wyatt and Laurel. She joins her big brother, Preston, who will be 3 on March 14. Grandchildren are so much fun and such a blessing! I wish that I could post a picture here, but I haven't learned how to do that yet.
The Lord has been teaching me so much lately that it was hard to know what to share. As there continue to be more and more things clamoring for our attention these days, these familiar verses came to my mind from Matthew 22:37-39. "Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all our heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself." I've heard these verses many times, but the Lord has been asking me how I'm doing at obeying them. We know many of the verses from His Word, but the key question is are we obeying them. The life application Bible helps say "Jesus says that if we truly love God and our neighbor, we will naturally keep the commandments. This is looking at God's law positively. Rather than worrying about all we should not do, we should concentrate on all we can do to show our love for God and others." Matthew 23:11-12 further illustrates how we can love in this way. "The greater among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." Again, from the life application helps--"Jesus challenged society's norms. To Him, greatness comes from serving--giving of yourself to help God and others. Service keeps us aware of other's needs, and it stops us from focusing only on ourselves. Jesus came as a servant. What kind of greatness do you seek? Wow, what a challenge! Our world says the opposite--look out for yourself first and only help others if they can benefit you in some way.
In order to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul and mind, we have to get to know Him and make our relationship with Him our first priority. Making time for Him has to be our focus. In order to do that we have to evaluate where and how we spend our time. I'm currently in a Bible study by Cynthia Heald called "Becoming a Woman of Simplicity." Her words say better than I can what the Lord has been teaching me. "Daily we encounter a potent enemy. The world blazenly imposes its values on its citizens--wealth, success, productivity, ambition, pride, and busyness. Calendars and clocks rule while possessions, phones, and computers clamor for attention. Maggie Jackson, author of "Distracted", tells of a father who describes his daughter as being "surgically connected" to her cellphone. Cynthia goes on to say and I agree with her "My concern is that because the world is too much with us, we easily forfeit the blessing of living a God-paced life that has time for solitude and respite from our noisy world. It is our time spent quietly in His presence that transforms our minds and renews our strength to go back into the world to be the people He wants us to be. One way to have more discretionary time is to make hard choices concerning our possessions. Jesus taught "Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own." (Luke 12:15). Cynthia goes on to tell of someone who had to temporarily move from her home to a small furnished apartment. When ask how she was coping with having less, she enthusiastically told how much more time she had because of less to take care of as well as how amazed she was that she didn't miss all the things she had to leave behind. Less stuff does mean more time--more time to spend with Jesus and to serve others.
Psalm 4:6-8 from the Message says:
As I've mentioned before in previous blogs, I can say amen to those verses because I've experienced both ways of living. When I was trying to find contentment in the things that the world says would bring contentment, it only led to more shopping and sleepless nights because I was never satisfied. Now Jesus fills up my heart with more of Himself as I choose to put Him first and focus on getting to know Him through His love letter to me, the Bible. Because of that He does give me more joy in one ordinary day that any of my shopping trips (always wanting more) did. Also, because of my intimate, personal relationship with Him, I am now content and can sleep peacefully. Only Jesus can bring contentment and therefore thankfulness for the many things and relationships that you already have instead of a continual desire for what you don't have.
Cynthia Heald goes on to say, "Scripture teaches us that love for the world can easily replace our love for the Father. This is why Jesus taught us to seek first His kingdom. Only when our hearts are set on the things of God are we able to respond in the right way to the lure of the world. Only when we trust God to provide for us can we be free from worry. Only when we allow the Holy Spirit to renew our thoughts and attitudes can we be in the world but not of it. It is so tempting to love what the world loves, but when we do yield, we miss out on sound sleep and having God put our lives back together on a daily basis--we miss out on living a life of pure and simple devotion to Christ."
My challenge to you as well as to myself is to look at your lives this week--to evaluate how you spend your time and where your heart, soul, and mind is focused--on loving Jesus and getting to know Him better and caring for others or on allowing the world to squeeze you into its mold by keeping you so busy that you have no time to receive God's rest and peace. As I continue to choose(it's always a choice--everyday--sometimes many times a day) to read and believe God's many promises to me from His Word and to share my heart with Him. As I do that, I get to know Him better and trust Him more. Only then can I (with the power of the Holy Spirit) love Him with all my heart, soul, and mind and love and care for others as He cares for me. He is trustworthy and faithful and where the things of the world can bring only temporary happiness, He brings continual joy and peace.
"I Will Offer Up My Life" was a song that we sang last week in church. I'll share it with you here. The words are so wonderful. Jesus has done so much for us--we should be so thankful and willing to offer our lives back to Him.
The Lord has been teaching me so much lately that it was hard to know what to share. As there continue to be more and more things clamoring for our attention these days, these familiar verses came to my mind from Matthew 22:37-39. "Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all our heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself." I've heard these verses many times, but the Lord has been asking me how I'm doing at obeying them. We know many of the verses from His Word, but the key question is are we obeying them. The life application Bible helps say "Jesus says that if we truly love God and our neighbor, we will naturally keep the commandments. This is looking at God's law positively. Rather than worrying about all we should not do, we should concentrate on all we can do to show our love for God and others." Matthew 23:11-12 further illustrates how we can love in this way. "The greater among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." Again, from the life application helps--"Jesus challenged society's norms. To Him, greatness comes from serving--giving of yourself to help God and others. Service keeps us aware of other's needs, and it stops us from focusing only on ourselves. Jesus came as a servant. What kind of greatness do you seek? Wow, what a challenge! Our world says the opposite--look out for yourself first and only help others if they can benefit you in some way.
In order to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul and mind, we have to get to know Him and make our relationship with Him our first priority. Making time for Him has to be our focus. In order to do that we have to evaluate where and how we spend our time. I'm currently in a Bible study by Cynthia Heald called "Becoming a Woman of Simplicity." Her words say better than I can what the Lord has been teaching me. "Daily we encounter a potent enemy. The world blazenly imposes its values on its citizens--wealth, success, productivity, ambition, pride, and busyness. Calendars and clocks rule while possessions, phones, and computers clamor for attention. Maggie Jackson, author of "Distracted", tells of a father who describes his daughter as being "surgically connected" to her cellphone. Cynthia goes on to say and I agree with her "My concern is that because the world is too much with us, we easily forfeit the blessing of living a God-paced life that has time for solitude and respite from our noisy world. It is our time spent quietly in His presence that transforms our minds and renews our strength to go back into the world to be the people He wants us to be. One way to have more discretionary time is to make hard choices concerning our possessions. Jesus taught "Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own." (Luke 12:15). Cynthia goes on to tell of someone who had to temporarily move from her home to a small furnished apartment. When ask how she was coping with having less, she enthusiastically told how much more time she had because of less to take care of as well as how amazed she was that she didn't miss all the things she had to leave behind. Less stuff does mean more time--more time to spend with Jesus and to serve others.
Psalm 4:6-8 from the Message says:
"Why is everyone hungry for more? "More, more," they say "More, more".
I have God's more-than-enough.
More joy in one ordinary day
Than they get in all their shopping sprees.
At days end I'm ready for sound sleep,
For you, God, have put my life together.
As I've mentioned before in previous blogs, I can say amen to those verses because I've experienced both ways of living. When I was trying to find contentment in the things that the world says would bring contentment, it only led to more shopping and sleepless nights because I was never satisfied. Now Jesus fills up my heart with more of Himself as I choose to put Him first and focus on getting to know Him through His love letter to me, the Bible. Because of that He does give me more joy in one ordinary day that any of my shopping trips (always wanting more) did. Also, because of my intimate, personal relationship with Him, I am now content and can sleep peacefully. Only Jesus can bring contentment and therefore thankfulness for the many things and relationships that you already have instead of a continual desire for what you don't have.
Cynthia Heald goes on to say, "Scripture teaches us that love for the world can easily replace our love for the Father. This is why Jesus taught us to seek first His kingdom. Only when our hearts are set on the things of God are we able to respond in the right way to the lure of the world. Only when we trust God to provide for us can we be free from worry. Only when we allow the Holy Spirit to renew our thoughts and attitudes can we be in the world but not of it. It is so tempting to love what the world loves, but when we do yield, we miss out on sound sleep and having God put our lives back together on a daily basis--we miss out on living a life of pure and simple devotion to Christ."
My challenge to you as well as to myself is to look at your lives this week--to evaluate how you spend your time and where your heart, soul, and mind is focused--on loving Jesus and getting to know Him better and caring for others or on allowing the world to squeeze you into its mold by keeping you so busy that you have no time to receive God's rest and peace. As I continue to choose(it's always a choice--everyday--sometimes many times a day) to read and believe God's many promises to me from His Word and to share my heart with Him. As I do that, I get to know Him better and trust Him more. Only then can I (with the power of the Holy Spirit) love Him with all my heart, soul, and mind and love and care for others as He cares for me. He is trustworthy and faithful and where the things of the world can bring only temporary happiness, He brings continual joy and peace.
"I Will Offer Up My Life" was a song that we sang last week in church. I'll share it with you here. The words are so wonderful. Jesus has done so much for us--we should be so thankful and willing to offer our lives back to Him.
