Revelation is a hard book for me and I am always glad to get through it. I've done a study on it and still I balk a bit when it's time once again to journal John's mysterious visions. But today I have to eat my words. It came like a slam dunk through the bucket and was just what I needed to hear.
Rev. 3:8 says, "I see what you've done. Now see what I've done. I've opened a door before you that no one can slam shut. You don't have much strength, I know that; you used what you had to keep my word. You didn't deny me when times were rough."
Well, the church of Philadelphia certainly must have had a much rougher time than what I did! Of course! But this verse still stands for my small incident which sent me into a battle with envy! It may be hard to believe, but I envied the love my children have for one another, so deep their love for each other.
God saw me through it and brought forgiveness and peace.
However, now I must live with this new admission. I had wanted the first place within the family and was resentful that I would never have it. At the same time, I was in great sorrow at the discovery of my sin. When my heart burst with sadness and shame, God came and opened the door back to Him.
So, I will live in gladness as I remember that moment of pain and continue to reach for God's help in adjusting and for wisdom to accept the worth that I do have among my children. Perhaps, after all, I had something to do with the love they have for each other, for their wonderful father, and for their God, first of all.
I'm so grateful God picked me to mother this loving family! Thank you, God!
I looked to see what God had done for me...and I am so very glad!
From a friend in the battle of life...Jo
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
I KNOW IT IN MY KNOWER
For years, when someone asks me about God, for instance, "How do you know God is real?", I usually say, "Because I know it in my knower!"
They probably put my answer in the "must not be very important category", but it does make them curious and they usually ask further. However, this morning I see that I may not be far off. Get a load of Hebrews 8:10,11 in the Message: "This new plan I'm making sn't going to be written on paper, isn't going to be chiseled in stone; this time I'm writing out the plan in them, carving it on the lining of their hearts."
God's plan is written on "the lining of my heart," so says Paul in his letter to the Hebrews. Inside of me, as deeply as it is possible to get which is my very center, my core, there it is written--God's plan for me to get to know him. Perhaps it is also written there for me to discover his plan to love me, to show me His mercy, His joy in me, and the purpose He may have planned for me.
But now I am getting old and doubt there is any grand assignment awaiting me on my heart as yet undiscovered. And that's very OK as I have enough challenge keeping my nose clean and loving those around me. I have many flaws as well, but God is working on me to work on them. Some things are my job and I'd better learn how to do them. Time's a wastin'!
In the meantime, I find it very nice that I wasn't so far off when saying, "I know it in my knower!" My knower must be the lining of my heart!
Merry Christmas, to any reader out there. God's blessings upon you and yours! (Look for me again sometime after Christmas. We're on our way to Minnesota! BRRRRR.)
Love you, Lord! JO
They probably put my answer in the "must not be very important category", but it does make them curious and they usually ask further. However, this morning I see that I may not be far off. Get a load of Hebrews 8:10,11 in the Message: "This new plan I'm making sn't going to be written on paper, isn't going to be chiseled in stone; this time I'm writing out the plan in them, carving it on the lining of their hearts."
God's plan is written on "the lining of my heart," so says Paul in his letter to the Hebrews. Inside of me, as deeply as it is possible to get which is my very center, my core, there it is written--God's plan for me to get to know him. Perhaps it is also written there for me to discover his plan to love me, to show me His mercy, His joy in me, and the purpose He may have planned for me.
But now I am getting old and doubt there is any grand assignment awaiting me on my heart as yet undiscovered. And that's very OK as I have enough challenge keeping my nose clean and loving those around me. I have many flaws as well, but God is working on me to work on them. Some things are my job and I'd better learn how to do them. Time's a wastin'!
In the meantime, I find it very nice that I wasn't so far off when saying, "I know it in my knower!" My knower must be the lining of my heart!
Merry Christmas, to any reader out there. God's blessings upon you and yours! (Look for me again sometime after Christmas. We're on our way to Minnesota! BRRRRR.)
Love you, Lord! JO
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
THIS IS GOD'S TODAY
Good morning! Hebrew's 3:13 tells us, "For as long as it's still God's Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn't slow down your reflexes."
I said to myself, "Watch your step! Watch out for unbelief!" I know from experience that unbelief in any form is evil. Unbelief commiserates with my bad thinking as if it is a friend looking out for me. Unbelief joins hands in my questioning of God's purpose, God's mercy, and God's love for me. Unbelief can tie me up in a knot and leave me bereft of hope and truth.
So, I am here to say: Today is God's Today. Every day and every tomorrow is God's. He is the Establisher of the Day; He is the Protector of the day and of those who live in that day, that very moment of that very day. Each moment belongs to God. Remember this! Remember this and you will not fail Him!
Those are the things I tell myself.
As I sat moments ago at my breakfast table, my notebook open, my bible read, and my pen in my hand, I was aware that moment was God's, just as this moment is God's. And God is with me, even now. These words I am writing are the very words I am saying to God. God is here. God is always here. And He will always be here- or there- or anywhere I am. He is with me in the strokes of my pen, in my eyes as I read, in the warmth of my body and in the surging of my heart as a decision is made to put all of these thoughts into my blog which may or may not be read by any other, but will be known by God forever.
Welcome Lord! You are the Mighty One, the One in whom I Live.
Thank You, God! May I always- always remember: This is God's Today!
I am yours, God. Jo
I said to myself, "Watch your step! Watch out for unbelief!" I know from experience that unbelief in any form is evil. Unbelief commiserates with my bad thinking as if it is a friend looking out for me. Unbelief joins hands in my questioning of God's purpose, God's mercy, and God's love for me. Unbelief can tie me up in a knot and leave me bereft of hope and truth.
So, I am here to say: Today is God's Today. Every day and every tomorrow is God's. He is the Establisher of the Day; He is the Protector of the day and of those who live in that day, that very moment of that very day. Each moment belongs to God. Remember this! Remember this and you will not fail Him!
Those are the things I tell myself.
As I sat moments ago at my breakfast table, my notebook open, my bible read, and my pen in my hand, I was aware that moment was God's, just as this moment is God's. And God is with me, even now. These words I am writing are the very words I am saying to God. God is here. God is always here. And He will always be here- or there- or anywhere I am. He is with me in the strokes of my pen, in my eyes as I read, in the warmth of my body and in the surging of my heart as a decision is made to put all of these thoughts into my blog which may or may not be read by any other, but will be known by God forever.
Welcome Lord! You are the Mighty One, the One in whom I Live.
Thank You, God! May I always- always remember: This is God's Today!
I am yours, God. Jo
Friday, December 7, 2012
GOD IN US-FROM THE BEGINNING!
Just had to share this thought with you. While reading scripture this morning in Colossians, I read Paul who said, "by looking at God's Son we see the God we cannot see. And by looking at the Son we see God's original purpose in everything created." It goes on to say, "everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together." Later, "supreme in the beginning"--"from beginning to end He is there."
Well, that got the old brain thinking. What do you think? Is it not possisble that whatever is created--me, you, the entire world and all of its peoples--got started in Him!
Does this mean that everything created has Him within it, being part and parcel of Christ Jesus? Could it be that the God-piece of each of us is there from our beginning and is only unseen because of our ignorance of God and lack of awareness, lack of knowledge of God? Does it mean that without development and nurturing, God in us does not develop?
Put a seed in the ground, having the promise of a corn stalk and ripe corn on the cob, but do not water it, what will you get? Not a darn thing! Nothing! Nothing but a dried up plant, hardly a stalk at all. (I had Jerry's help in the analogy!)
Nurture our babies by feeding their hunger for God, their maker, and the child will grow up to be One with Him. Nurture our own selves to feed the hunger for God--(Yes, that's what that feeling of not belonging is!) and we will discover all that God has in store for us.
I know, personally, give me a little of God and I want more and more of Him. In fact, sometimes I feel as if I cannot get enough! Don't misunderstand, it isn't more of me that I want, its more of Him I want in me.
God, Blessed be your Holy Name! Amen.
Just Jo
Well, that got the old brain thinking. What do you think? Is it not possisble that whatever is created--me, you, the entire world and all of its peoples--got started in Him!
Does this mean that everything created has Him within it, being part and parcel of Christ Jesus? Could it be that the God-piece of each of us is there from our beginning and is only unseen because of our ignorance of God and lack of awareness, lack of knowledge of God? Does it mean that without development and nurturing, God in us does not develop?
Put a seed in the ground, having the promise of a corn stalk and ripe corn on the cob, but do not water it, what will you get? Not a darn thing! Nothing! Nothing but a dried up plant, hardly a stalk at all. (I had Jerry's help in the analogy!)
Nurture our babies by feeding their hunger for God, their maker, and the child will grow up to be One with Him. Nurture our own selves to feed the hunger for God--(Yes, that's what that feeling of not belonging is!) and we will discover all that God has in store for us.
I know, personally, give me a little of God and I want more and more of Him. In fact, sometimes I feel as if I cannot get enough! Don't misunderstand, it isn't more of me that I want, its more of Him I want in me.
God, Blessed be your Holy Name! Amen.
Just Jo
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
I AM A FRIEND OF GOD
"I am a friend of God...I am a friend of God....I am a friend of God....He calls me Friend!"
Being a friend of God through song is not a bad thing. However, some may feel that it is not being appropriate to use that same voice when speaking of God. That it cheapens God. God must have at all times our most sacred thoughts, our quiet prayers, our haloed heads, our purest thoughts, our piety.
God must have that, of course, but if God had only that of me, He would have very little of the real me. And God knows really well the "real me" and is entitled to have the joy which leaps from my spirit, as a person released from slavery into freedom. I am free now to love God with a heart bursting with the kind of pride only God would accept unconditionally--the pride of being His.
You see, I was a slave. No, I was not a slave in the same way so many of our darker-skinned ancestors were slaves, and owned by a master, used in horrible ways in fields and homes. Nor was I a slave in the modern way of the many kidnapped women owned by a master who rents them out to men by the half-hour in dirty tents. This kind of slavey is horrible. Yet, I was a slave to my own thoughts about myself.
I was loved but yet a very little girl who tried to be perfect because she was reminded so often about her sinful nature and her naughtiness. I didn't recognize they were being playful, making a joke. My actions were not at all funny to me. Punishment for wrong actions became unforgetable. All wrongness became magnified. I grew up to believe the worst about myself and kept trying to prove to myself and others that I was a good person. Being good began to be my goal in life.
Now, worshpping God at that time was really not vital to our family. We knew of God. We were even baptized. But we did not attend church. My brother, sister and myself were invited to sing Away In The Manger once at a Christmas Service at a church in our small town when I was in 1st or 2nd grade. And in another slightly larger town, we went to Sunday School briefly. My dad was a Mason so my brother went into DeMolay and my sister and I, Job's Daughters, which became the extent of our Christian education.
Jerry and I were married in our early 20's and Jerry went into the Navy for two years. We had a daughter, Peggy, when the Navy years came along and while serving in the Navy, Jerry became a father of another baby girl, Lynn. Both girls were baptized. But serving God did not come until, finally, when our Navy days were over.
That's when I began to learn, really learn, what God was all about. In the express line for the love of my God, the scriptures came alive, I learned how to pray, and God sent many people in singles and groups to show me The Way. I shall be forever grateful for all of their love and joy.
I am just me, in spite of all those who led the way. Being me is just being the best me I can be. I am not a prophet, priest, or pastor. I don't have a degree in anything. But God did give me an encouraging heart and a small gift of writing. Usually, I may encourage through the Word; sometimes I encourage through my glad heart.
Now, if I were not a Friend of God, I might be a Fool for God. What would those very proper, good people think then? I pray that those who wonder about being appropriate might have the joy I feel and the joy I pray that all others might also feel.
Someday I might dance for God. That would be wonderfully inappropriate and totally joyful!
Thank you, God, for everyone who dares to love you in whatever way they can.
Just me, Jo
Being a friend of God through song is not a bad thing. However, some may feel that it is not being appropriate to use that same voice when speaking of God. That it cheapens God. God must have at all times our most sacred thoughts, our quiet prayers, our haloed heads, our purest thoughts, our piety.
God must have that, of course, but if God had only that of me, He would have very little of the real me. And God knows really well the "real me" and is entitled to have the joy which leaps from my spirit, as a person released from slavery into freedom. I am free now to love God with a heart bursting with the kind of pride only God would accept unconditionally--the pride of being His.
You see, I was a slave. No, I was not a slave in the same way so many of our darker-skinned ancestors were slaves, and owned by a master, used in horrible ways in fields and homes. Nor was I a slave in the modern way of the many kidnapped women owned by a master who rents them out to men by the half-hour in dirty tents. This kind of slavey is horrible. Yet, I was a slave to my own thoughts about myself.
I was loved but yet a very little girl who tried to be perfect because she was reminded so often about her sinful nature and her naughtiness. I didn't recognize they were being playful, making a joke. My actions were not at all funny to me. Punishment for wrong actions became unforgetable. All wrongness became magnified. I grew up to believe the worst about myself and kept trying to prove to myself and others that I was a good person. Being good began to be my goal in life.
Now, worshpping God at that time was really not vital to our family. We knew of God. We were even baptized. But we did not attend church. My brother, sister and myself were invited to sing Away In The Manger once at a Christmas Service at a church in our small town when I was in 1st or 2nd grade. And in another slightly larger town, we went to Sunday School briefly. My dad was a Mason so my brother went into DeMolay and my sister and I, Job's Daughters, which became the extent of our Christian education.
Jerry and I were married in our early 20's and Jerry went into the Navy for two years. We had a daughter, Peggy, when the Navy years came along and while serving in the Navy, Jerry became a father of another baby girl, Lynn. Both girls were baptized. But serving God did not come until, finally, when our Navy days were over.
That's when I began to learn, really learn, what God was all about. In the express line for the love of my God, the scriptures came alive, I learned how to pray, and God sent many people in singles and groups to show me The Way. I shall be forever grateful for all of their love and joy.
I am just me, in spite of all those who led the way. Being me is just being the best me I can be. I am not a prophet, priest, or pastor. I don't have a degree in anything. But God did give me an encouraging heart and a small gift of writing. Usually, I may encourage through the Word; sometimes I encourage through my glad heart.
Now, if I were not a Friend of God, I might be a Fool for God. What would those very proper, good people think then? I pray that those who wonder about being appropriate might have the joy I feel and the joy I pray that all others might also feel.
Someday I might dance for God. That would be wonderfully inappropriate and totally joyful!
Thank you, God, for everyone who dares to love you in whatever way they can.
Just me, Jo
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)