Something to ponder

 Do not pray for easy lives!

Pray to be strong men.

Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers.

Pray for powers equal to your tasks.

Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle,

but you shall be a miracle.

~Phillips Brooks

 Greatness comes not by having a mossy path made for you

through the meadows, but by being sent to hew out a roadway

by your own hands.

 I read that excerpt today and it really caused me to just sit and ponder.

How many times have I been envious of others who seem to live a bed of roses.

To me it seems as if everything in life has been handed to them.

I am truly happy for them, but sometimes I wonder...

Why can't my life be like that?

I am not saying this to complain about my life, because I love life...

God is truly so very good to me.

However after reading this I was convicted of listening to the Devil 

and feeling sorry for myself at times.

Convicted of wishing for things that are not necessarily bad,

but are not what God would have for me at this time in life.

And then it hit me...

The reason God does not give me a life of miracles and perfection is because He is working the miracle through me, rather than around me.

I do not want others to wish for my life, but rather to wish for my faith.

I want to live so that others see the miracle living in me.

 The easy life does not lead to greatness of character.

And so I prayed today - not for a bed of roses but rather

the character to rise to whatever God may bring may way.

 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I -

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

~Robert Frost

{Pictures taken in Napa, CA} 

Come see some of my photography over at Serendipity-Images.

God meant it unto good...

{Monterey, CA}

God meant it unto good - O blest assurance,

Falling like sunshine all across life's way,

Touching with Heaven's gold earth's darkest storm clouds,

Bringing fresh peace and comfort day by day.

God meant it unto good for thee, beloved,

The God of Joseph is the same today;

His love permits afflictions strange and bitter,

His hand is guiding through the unknown way.

The Lord, who sees the end from the beginning,

Hath purposes for thee of love untold.

Then place thy hand in His and follow fearless,

Till thou the riches of His grace behold.

Freda Hanbury Allen

[excert from Streams in the Desert]

In me

Something has been on my heart for a couple of weeks and I wanted to put my thoughts onto "paper."  It all started with a Sunday morning testimony from a man who told the congregation how his perspective on life and his church ministries had changed.  Simply put, without going into all the details, God spoke to him about not just going through the motions in his church ministries as well as not being so hard on the  children he brought into church, but instead realizing that he had been put in their life for a purpose.

It really set me thinking...

Every Sunday morning I have the opportunity to drive and pick up little kids and shuttle them to the bus where they get taken to Sunday School.  I then get on the bus where I am with these children for approximately 20 minutes.  When I get to church I get to help in a 5-6 grade girl Sunday School class of approximately 40-50 girls.  After the Sunday service I then get back on the bus and spend another 20 minutes back to the shuttle car and then another approximate hour in the car taking kids back to their houses.

Was I taking advantage of the time I had with these children?

Was I more concerned with getting them to the bus, or rushing through a Sunday School lesson?

Was I letting Christ shine through my life, by showing them compassion?

 

The majority of the children I am with on Sundays come from broken homes.  Homes where, when I stand outside their door I can hear cussing and obscenities being yelled as common language.  Homes where never once is the Bible read or God's name mentioned except for in swearing.  

 

Two families off my route that I would shuttle to the bus, recently moved, one of them being completely unexpected and without me getting to say, "Goodbye."  I wondered to myself if I had made an impact on them.  Did they see Jesus in me? Or was I crabby and impatient because they talked to much, bickered with their siblings, made me wait, or they had bad odor?  I was the small amount of Jesus that they were around each week...

God has kept me at my home church for a purpose; and it may be one that I will never know here on earth.  Am I taking advantage of it?  Is Jesus being seen in me?

Something

I have not been much of a blogger lately...  It is not because I have nothing going on; I have just been busy with life.
However, I wanted to take a breather from this bus-y-ness and share something that God has spoken to me through.

If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth.

{Mark 9:23}

The great danger with most of us [me] is that, after we ask HIM to do it, we do not believe that it is done, but we keep on helping HIM, and getting others to help HIM; whether than waiting to see how HE is going to do it.

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.

{Psalm 37:7}

So often, I pray and pray and pray and wait and wait and wait and see nothing move.  Then, the Lord brought me to these verses and told me to wait...with patience.  Patience takes away worry, it takes away weeping, and it takes away works.  But most importantly, patience takes away all wants.  Sometimes the desire for the thing I wish is stronger than the desire for the will of God to be fulfilled in its arrival.  

Let patience have her perfect work.

{James 1:4}

And if I left patience work, rest in Him, and believe; then, and then only will enrichment and peace follow.

The book of Job

Recently I have concluded the book of Job in my devotional readings.

Through the reading of this Old Testament book I was reminded of Job's 

unwavering faithfulness and continual dependence in God.

He truly is to serve as a Biblical example to pattern Christians' lives after.

As I did with the book of Ecclesiastes,

 I thought I would share a few of the passages which spoke to my heart.

{Somehow whenever I take pictures of nature 

I am pointed to and reminded of  the wonderful Creator I serve; 

hence the "need" to picturize these highlighted passages...}

Hast thou considered my servant, Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feared God, and escheweth evil?

1:8

Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither:  the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

1:21-22

and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him with out cause.

2:3

 I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause:

Which doeth great things and unsearchable: marvelous things without number:

Who giveth rain upon the earth and sendeth waters upon the fields:

5:8-10

Behold happy is the man whom God correcteth:

5:17a

Oh that I might have my request; and that God would grant me the thing that I long for!

6:8

How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove/

6:25

Behold he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again:  he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.

12:14

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

19:25-26

But he knoweth the way that I take:  when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

23:10

I have esteemed with words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

23:12

For God maketh my heart soft...

23:16

seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty?

24:1a

For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth:

37:6a

By the breath of God frost is given:

37:10a

I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.

42:2

I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.

42:3b

And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends:  also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

42:10

So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning:

So Job died, being old and full of days.

42:12a, 17

{Linking  up a photo over here}

Content to mend the nets

{ God is good! It seems every time I start to feel downhearted or discouraged

the Lord reminds me that He has not forgotten about me.}

I read this little poem in my devotional book and found myself

uplifted through it.

{ I had to read it over a few times before its truth sunk in. }

To some Christ calls: "Leave boat and bay,

And white-haired Zebedee;"

To some the call is harder: "STAY

And mend the nets for Me."

Wait for God's Afters

It is the end which justifies all and explains all. It is to the ultimate goal that God's eye is ever turning. At the right moment the shining harvest will appear! What thought the seed may seem to perish in the dark cold ground! What will that matter when the blade burst forth, and the ear unfolds, and the full corn waves over the golden harvest field?

Luther was once in earnest prayer over some matter of great moment, desiring to know the mind of God in it; and it seemed as though he heard God say to him, "I am not to be traced."

If God is not to be traced, He is to be trusted.

"After these things things Jesus manifested Himself."

"Nevertheless afterward."

However dark the nows may be in your experience, the afters of God are worth waiting for!

God's ways may be hidden, but

Wait for God's Afters!

{Mrs. Charles E. Cowman excerpt from Springs in the Valley}

[sharing in Mosaic Monday, linger here to view more]

Limitless

Limits...something we all have, right?

When I was little I believed my Dad to be super smart and with limitless resources of knowledge. Now, he has explained to me that NO, he does not know EVERYTHING, just... a little ABOUT everything...

Then, there are the limits that the government enforces on cars. For instance, if my mom had her way she would go 80 mph in a 55 limit...

And then there is food consumption. Something that I find really hard to limit myself on!

Limits are something, however, that God does NOT have, and for that I am truly grateful. I serve a limitless God. Think about that for a minute... Limitless, boundless, measureless, uncountable. That pretty much sums up my God. (this next portion is an excerpt from Springs in the Desert by Mrs. Coleman)

We are profoundly impressed with the unlimited resources of the God of the Bible. He never does anything small. When He makes an ocean He makes it so deep that no man can fathom it. When He makes a mountain He makes it so large that no one can measure or weigh it. When He makes flowers, He scatters multiplied millions of them where there is no one to admire them but Himself. When He makes grace, He makes it without sides or bottom and leaved the top off. Instead of giving salvation with a medicine dropper, He pours it forth like a river.

There is no grudging in God's benevolence; He does not measure out His goodness as the apothecary counts his drops and measures his drams, slowly and exactly, drop by drop. When God sets out to do a thing for us, He does it with a prodigality of love-prompted abundance that fairly staggers one who reckons things by the coldly calculating standards of earth.

God's way is characterized by multitudinous and overflowing bounty, like that in nature which is so profuse in beauty and life that every drop of the ocean, every square inch or the forest glade, every molecule of water, teems with marvels and defies the research and investigation of man. Well may we cry with the Apostle, "I have all and abound."

Do I dare to limit God by doubting His abilities and questioning His ways? How can I, a limited mortal, not trust in a limitless God?

The Consoler

Psalms...it has got to be one of my favorite books of the Bible;

right up there with Ecclesiastes and Lamentations.

I wanted to share this passage as well as a poem

that goes along with it...

He healeth the broken in heart,

and bindeth up their wounds.

He telleth the number of the stars;

he calleth them all by their names.

(Ps. 147:3-4)

With His healing hand on a broken heart,

And the other on a star,

Our wonderful God views the miles apart,

And they seem not very far.

O it makes us cry - then laugh - then sing,

Tho' tis all beyond our ken;

He bindeth up wounds on that poor crushed thing,

And He makes it whole again.

Was there something shone from that healed new heart

Made the Psalmist think of stars --

That bright as the sun or the lightnings' dart,

Sped away past earthly bars?

In a low place sobbing by death's lone cart,

Then a flight on whirlwind's cars;

One verse is about a poor broken heart,

And the next among the stars.

There is hope and help for our sighs and tears,

For the wound that stings and smarts;

Our God is at home with the rolling spheres,

And at home with broken hearts.

(M.P. Ferguson)

This poem is from Springs in the Valley. I first read

it 3 years ago during a very trying time in my life.

It meant alot to me then...and I never want to

forget it.

Something I Needed

Produce your cause, saith the LORD;

bring forth your strong reasons,

saith the King of Jacob. ~ Isaiah 41:21

This passage of Scripture served as a reminder to me to pray with purpose and to present my "case" to the Lord God. For He is the sole fulfiller of all my hopes for the future.

After reading this passage I came across another one that I thought went hand-in-hand.

The LORD rewardeth me according

to my righteousness; ~ Psalms 18:20

If I do right, stay in God's will, and pray earnestly, God can not help but bless me. What a wonderful promise!

Waiting

"God's timing is always perfect..." This is something that my mom has told me countless number of times over the last few years. It is a lesson that I still am learning...patience and waiting on God.

I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me and heard my cry.

He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay,

and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

I know that I have written on this subject before, but it is one that I constantly am reminding myself of...Wait on the Lord, don't try to take things in my own hands. God knows what is best for my life, His timing is always perfect...

Just today in my devotions I read this poem and once again it served as a reminder to me to wait on the Lord, trust in him, and let him have his way-

An hour of waiting!

Yet there seems such need

To reach that spot sublime!

I long to reach them-but I long far more

To trust HIS time!

"Sit still, my daughter"--

Yet the heathen die,

They perish while I stay!

I long to reach them-but I long far more

To trust HIS way!

'Tis good to get,

'Tis good indeed to give!

Yet is it better still--

O'er breadth, thro' length, down length, up height.

To trust HIS will!

And Patience was willing to wait...

I longed to walk along an easy road,

And leave behind the dull routine of home,

Thinking in other fields to serve my God;

But Jesus said, "My time has not yet come."

I longed to sow the seed in other soil,

To be unfettered in the work, and free,

To join with other laborers in their toil;

But Jesus said, "Tis not My choice for thee."

I longed to leave the desert, and be led

To work where souls were sunk in sin and shame,

That I might win them; but the Master said,

"I have not called thee, publish here My name."

I longed to fight the battles of my King,

Lift high His standards in the thickest strife;

But my great Captain bade me wait and sing

Songs of His conquests in my quiet life.

I longed to leave the uncongenial sphere,

Where all alone I seemed to stand and wait,

To feel I had some human helper near,

But Jesus bade me guard one lonely gate.

I longed to leave the round of daily toil,

Where no one seemed to understand or care;

But Jesus said, "I choose for thee this soil,

That thou might'st raise for Me some blossoms rare."

And now I have no longing but to do

At home, or else afar, His blessed will,

To work amid the many or the few;

Thus, "choosing not to choose," my heart is still.

What I'm Reading Today

I laid it down in silence,
This work of mine,
And took what had been sent me-
A resting time.
The Master's voice had called me
To rest apart;
"Apart with Jesus only,"
Echoed my heart.

I took the rest and stillness
From His own Hand,
And felt this present illness
Was what He planned.
How often we choose labor,
When He says, "Rest"-
Our ways are blind and crooked;
His way is best.

The work Himself has given,
He will complete.
There may be other errands
For tired feet;
There may be other duties
For tired hands,
The present is obedience
To His commands.

There is a blessed resting
In lying still,
In letting His hand mould us,
Just as He will.
His work must be completed.
His lesson set;
He is the higher Workman:
Do not forget!

It is not only "working"
We must be trained;
And Jesus "learnt" obedience,
Through suffering gained.
For us, His yoke is easy,
His burden is light.
His discipline most needful,
And all is right.

We are but under-workmen;
They never choose
If this tool or if that one
Their hands shall use.
In working or in waiting
May we fulfill
Not ours at all, but only
The Master's will!