Find the Smile....Friday

November 7, 2014

It is my quest to find the smile in each moment.  As we travel through the journey of our lives on earth there are all kinds of season with all kinds of ups and downs.  We love the ups so very much; all of them filled with laughter, happiness and joy.  I have decided that I have had my allotment of downs already.  It is time for me to have more ups, yes, unfortunately, those downs are going to happen, that is just a fact of life.  However, I am going to challenge myself to find the smile even in those down seasons.  Yesterday I was dwelling on those downs, but, you know what, today, I was able to find smiles from the moment I woke up, which is pretty spectacular due to my aversion to mornings.  

If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,

I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,’

Job 9:27
(ESV)

What changed for me was a few things….a chat with a friend in the building that could tell something was wrong, her uplifting words of encouragement went a long way.  Going to bible study when I didn't really feel like it, whilst there sharing with my bible girls what was happening, and, through that openness of mine, feeling and seeing the love they have for me.  It was felt so deeply by me; and I know they are praying for me with great sincerity. In addition they were  sharing their own situations that were similar to my struggle.  Of course the love of God smiled right down on me with that reminder that I can smile through all moments.  If I put my head in the right place my smile is automatic!  I do believe that I am getting it!!  And when I get it…..I get so very much more….all from my magnificent Father in heaven.

“Smile on me, your servant;

teach me the right way to live.”

Psalm 119:135

The Message (MSG)

Written by
Kelly Dobyns

Today we have two songs that speak to this devotional's theme!

                                                                                 

The Grass is Always Greener.....Thursday

Shiny black cows dot the pasture to my right. Two llamas sharing the field frolick in the distance. Heading home from work I am trying to avoid rush hour by taking this bit of country road. As I glide around a corner, three cows and their calves are munching grass right near the fence only a few feet from me. Except one cow has stuck her head in between some barbed wire and she is stretching her neck to eat grass on the outside of the fence. Acres of grass are hers for the eating, but she reaches for the 12 inches that are outside of her range.

That's me! I almost say out loud. God has blessed me abundantly with food, shelter, clothes, a job, family, friends, strength, etc. But when a catalog comes in the mail I search through the pages looking at all of the lovely things that would make my home 'perfect'. I have cupboards, freezer, and a fridge full of food but nothing I feel like eating. I want something different- even when I don't know what the something else is. 

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they shall be satisfied."

Matthew 5:6 ESV

"Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth."

1 Timothy 6:6 NLT

Dear Lord, thank You for using a funny cow to show me how silly I can be. Please forgive me for each time I focus on something I do not have. Please help me to remember to take hold of my thoughts and redirect them to those things that are good, worthwhile and valuable in Your eyes. I desire to hunger for what is right, rather than what is fulfilling. Please forgive me for thinking I would know what it is I need in order to grow and bloom into the daughter you have destined me to be. In Jesus name, amen.

Written by Mary M. Wilkins

You Are My All in All performed by Nicole Nordeman

THE RIGHTEOUS FLOURISH...Wednesday

11/5/14

I was really blessed and taken back a little when someone from our congregation last Sunday shared with me that every time they saw me I looked younger.

Ironically so, that particular day I had happened to read out of Psalm 92:12-14. You will be pleasantly surprised on what it says. 

"The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,
He shall grow like a Cedar in Lebanon.
Those who are planted in the house of the Lord
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bear fruit in old age;
They shall be fresh and flourishing."

All those passages are so rich in content. The palm tree is constantly green and flourishing. It can also grow in almost any environment from deserts to rainforests.

The passage referring to Cedar in Lebanon has great treasure in it as well. The Cedar tree is known to be strong, beautiful wood used to build temples and palaces. The word Lebanon means to grow and increase. It also means majestic, stable, durable and incorruptible. I receive all that!

And my favorite part of all "shall flourish in the courts of the Lord." The Hebrew word flourish means bloom or blossom, spring up and to break forth or break out! The amplified version of the Bible says long lived, stable, upright, useful and fruitful.

Those verses are very nourishing to us as we continue to grow older on this earth.

As long as I have breath I will be fresh and flourishing unto the Lord!!

Flourishing in the Lord, 

Sandy Billingham

CELEBRATIONS...Tuesday

11/4/14

Sometimes our moments in time seem to be measured by the celebrations we prepare for and partake in.
There are so many things to celebrate. Birthdays seem to take up a great deal of time and expense as we recognize that God danced on the day "so and so" was born. If we are lucky we do not face month after month with a plethora  of birthdays not to mention anniversaries and other celebrations. These are the familial festivities that we all have. We can celebrate the growth in age of people who are close and loved. Celebrations are good!

In addition to participating in family merriment on auspicious occasions there are the commemorations of religious and political holidays. We hold many of them dear. To mention a few there is Easter and Christmas to participate in the important spiritual events that are important to us. Suddenly it does not feel much difference than all the other observations we have. The spiritual is quickly observed, and we move on to the rest. The Fourth of July is another national celebration. We have made it into a filled with fury time to say Happy Birthday to America...and the fury it is filled with is not just the fireworks. We plan picnics, trips to the beach, a summer vacation and the list goes on and on.


I think the bottom line of what I am talking about is work, work, work. By the time the day or days are finished we are exhausted. There has been fun, but at what cost? We join back into our normal lives more exhausted than when we started. The celebrations that we have looked forward to have turned out to be more than we planned for...more work...more exhaustion...more expense. 

In the process we lose time and feel like there is never enough time for what must get done in the in between times. It is part of a "rat race" where the "head rat" is losing the race. I am one who lives this many days. Something has to go, but what? In our modern world, where everything seems to be done to excess, it is important to prioritize. I once sold Mary Kay and the motto of that company was Faith first, then Family, and then business...or for my purposes things that fall outside of the first two categories. The way to succeed in this is to wake a bit early and put God first. Give Him time at the start of the day, and this will also bless us throughout our day. There are no solutions to the pull of the third category unless we are willing to scale down and not to try to have our celebrations be as much of a bash as a celebrity wedding.  Putting God first into our day will go a long way to having a life that fits into the time we have in a more comfortable way. Celebrate God!

But I cry to you for help, Lord;
 in the morning 
my prayer comes before you.
Psalm 88:13

...Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God... He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.

                                                                      1 John 4:7-10    MSG                                                      


Written by 
Corinne Mustafa

This is what God thinks of His creation and the relationship He feels for us.

In the beginning...

11/3/14

In the beginning was the Word,

 and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him;

and without him was not

any thing made that was made.

In him was life; and the life

was the light of men.
John 1 1-4
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The Word" in this passage is translated from the Greek logos, which means "spokesman," "word," or "revelatory thought." It is a name there used for an individual Personage. But who or what is this Logos? Notice the explanation in verse 14:

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,

(and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."

When he was born as Jesus Christ, he was flesh and blood, materialistic, and could be seen, touched, and felt. But what was he? As God—as the Logos? 

That is answered in John 4:24, 

"God is a Spirit," 

and spirit is invisible. We know what was his form and shape as the human Jesus. But of what form and shape was He as the Word? 

The Word, then, is a Personage who was made flesh—begotten by God, who through this later begettal became his Father. Yet at that prehistoric time of the first verse of John 1, the Word was not (yet) the Son of God. He divested himself of his glory as a Spirit divinity to be begotten as a human person. He was made God's Son, through being begotten or sired by God and born of the virgin Mary.


So here we find revealed originally two Personages. One is God. And with God in that prehistoric time was another Personage who also was God—one who later was begotten and born as Jesus Christ. But these two Personages were spirit, which is invisible to human eyes unless supernaturally manifested. Yet, at the time described in verse one, Jesus was not the Son of God, and God was not His Father.

RIGHTEOUS AND SINFUL... Sunday

Devotional for 11/2/14  All Saints Day

There is a struggle within all of us.  It is the struggle between doing what is right and doing what is wrong.  Sometimes those choices are very clear to us.  We don't murder another human being, we don't steal what isn't ours, and we don't cheat on our spouse.  Instead, we seek to build up other people, help them in their time of need, and remain faithful to spouses and to God. But it isn't always that cut and dried as to what is the right thing to do.  Should I talk to a friend about another person or is that gossiping or slanderous?  Do I help the stranger who asks for money or turn away out of fear they are trying to take advantage or lying about their situation?  And there are even times when we know something is wrong but we somehow convince ourselves that it is OK if we just do it a little bit or just this one more time.  It is a constant battle inside between good and evil.

Martin Luther recognized this and taught that a Christian is at the same time both a saint and a sinner.  None of us can live a perfect life, and all fail daily at perfectly keeping the law, the commandments.  Yet we believe that Jesus paid the price for our sins on the cross and that we are made righteous/saints through that faith.  Though we are made holy, we continue to think or do things that are not holy either by our wrongful actions or by our inaction in times when it is needed.  Being aware of that inner struggle and being repentant by the power of the Spirit is what keeps us in that good relationship with God.

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me... What a wretched [person] I am!  Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?  Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!  Romans 7:21, 24-25 (NIV)

So we continually die to sin and the law by dying with Christ on that cross so that we might serve God by bearing good fruit - that is, by living life to the best of our ability in order to bring him glory and witness to others to bring them to new life with God.

But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.  Romans 7:6 (NIV)

Dear Father in heaven,  On this All Saint's Day we thank you for those faithful who have already departed this earth but who led the way for us as witnesses to you and your glory.  Help us to also be faithful until the very end, sharing the Gospel message of your Son, Jesus Christ, by the power of your Holy Spirit.  When we fall, please forgive us.  Help us to also be forgiving, both to others and to ourselves, because we realize that no one is perfect and we are all both saints and sinners at the same time.  In Jesus' name, Amen.

written by Jan Andersen

Song: Find Us Faithful, by Steve Green

A FRUITFUL LIFE...Saturday

11/1/14

"And we pray this in order that you may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God."

Colossians 1:10

     Your evaluation of your productivity and success in life is based on your set of values.  Do you look at the secular aspects of career success, or in light of social activism issues, or from a Biblical standpoint?

     People channel their talents and resources on the basis of what motivates them.  If we give our lives to the Lord, He has a way of producing fruit even with our limitations and seeming failures.  If we expend our efforts to the glory of God, in thankfulness and gratitude for what He has given us, we will find we please Him in all we do.  We will also be doing what He wants us to accomplish.

       There is a quote I've heard many times but have no idea of the source.  It says:  "What you are is God's gift to you.  What you become is your gift to God."  All of us will stand before the Lord one day to give an account of our lives.  Don't waste yours.  Be a faithful minister of God's gifts to you -- be fruitful.

Written by 

Carol Steficek