#DelightAsAVerb

His broad shoulders and strong biceps, his firm leg muscles and of course his face delighted me. His manner and personality and character, all delighted me. Just naturally, I found myself delighting in my husband and when I discovered, in the Amplified Bible, Peter's writing in his first book in the third chapter talking to wives, it encouraged me to look for ways I could delight myself in and enjoy my husband more.

He states that a wife is, with her modest and respectful behavior together with her devotion and appreciation, to love her husband, encourage and enjoy him. God wants wives to enjoy their husbands. How does a husband feel when he hears his wife appreciating him? Would he be encouraged? Would her gracious words draw him closer to her?

 This can be related to the way God wants each believer to treat Him. He identifies us as the Bride of Christ and what is true in a marriage relationship here on earth should be true in the spiritual relationship. When you spend time considering God's marvelous mind which thought up all the laws that run the universe and his ability to be so creative to think up camels and humming birds and gold-fish and you and me, it can make you awe struck. He came up with the color spectrum and clouds and diamonds, the simple amoeba and the complicated DNA. What a mind! It is easy to find delight in the Creator God and tell Him how you feel and just enjoy His mind.

There are so many other attributes that could be expanded upon. A day could be devoted to just one and you could fill a month of days considering the wonder of just one each day and tell Him how you feel about it. How do you think God would feel about your appreciation? Can you see a smile on His face? Would He be pleased?

And by the way, there is a nice compensation for finding delight in God. There is a verse in Psalm 37:4-5 that states; "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it."

#AboutAWedding

When you receive an invitation to a wedding there is some excitement. You feel excited for the couple, especially, if you know both of them and have been aware of their developing relationship. There is a beautiful picture of a wedding in Psalm 45. It is a song celebrating the King's marriage. The first few verses describe the groom's character and his attire and then there is a verse to the bride. Verse ten tells the bride to 'listen'. Some advice is given to her and it is something we all should pay attention to.

She is told to forget her people and her house. There is a good reason for this advice, because if she holds onto her home, it will be almost impossible for her to cleave to her husband. Without the cleaving there well be no becoming 'one'. The two will be living in one place and sleeping in one bed, but they will remain two separate individuals. Both are to cleave to one another and it is probably easier for a man to leave his home than for a woman to do so, thereby she is told to listen. The next few verses tell of her beauty and clothing and tell us that as she leaves her home, her husband will desire her beauty for now she totally belongs to him.

 Marriage is given as an illustration in the Old Testament of the relationship God had with the Nation of Israel. He even pronounced judgments on Israel for what He called "her adultery" because she had forsaken Him for idols. In the New Testament, His Son, Jesus, has a bride. She is the church or all believers. God sent an invitation to a very special wedding and that invitation was the groom. Male or female, God invites you to accept His invitation to come to the wedding, not just as a guest, but as the bride of Christ. By accepting Him and leaving your past history of sinfulness and cleaving to Jesus as your beloved, you will be attending the wedding supper of the Lamb in Heaven as His bride!

Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honor to Him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and His bride has prepared herself. She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear, for the fine linen represents the good deeds of God's holy people.   Revelation 19:7-8

#ABushelAndAPeck

And a hug around the neck. I love you a bushel and a peck, the song goes on to say, and a hug around the neck. A bushel is a dry measurement equal to  four pecks and if it is full of apples or tomatoes or green beans, it can get pretty heavy. If it is filled with love, it can get pretty heavy. I had the brilliant idea one summer to be a pioneer woman and  to love my family by canning. I had to borrow the caner, so every minute had to be productive in order to get it back so she could use it. There were bushels of vegetables and the heavy caner I was lifting for a week and standing and preparing all day long and I wound up not only with many jars of jam and soup and pickles, but with such a pain in my back that I had to stay in bed for a week!

Those bushels held a lot of love over the winter after the jars they produced were emptied. A bushel is a useful implement for carrying a variety of things and I never ever considered turning one over and putting a lit candle under it. What on earth good would that do? That is the reason Jesus said that one mustn't do that. A light, to be useful is to be put on a table or lamp stand in order that the light may be seen. You certainly do not hide the light.

Each of, us as believers, has the Light of Life living inside of us. Each believer has been the recipient of at least one of gifts listed in the New Testament. There are lists of gifts found in First Corinthians 12 - 14 and Romans 12 - Wisdom, Knowledge, Preaching, Faith, Healings, Miracles, Discernment, Tongues, Interpretation of Tongues, Serving, Teaching, Encouragement, Giving, Leading, and Showing Mercy. These particular gifts are not natural or out of your own human nature, but they are spiritual and not just what you are inclined to be or do. They are super-natural and are given by God to you in order to build up others. Every time you use a gift you are letting the light shine and Jesus can be seen.

We are told not to with-hold any good we have. We are told to let our light shine that others might know Him. When we are presented with an opportunity to do or say 'good' and we with-hold it, we loose an opportunity to see God use it and not only others but ourselves are losers. It is up to us to identify the gift we have been given and develop it and use it. God chose at least one of those super-natural gifts for YOU and it wasn't indiscriminately given. It was a very special gift only you can use in the situation you are in.

A little advice - Have fun developing and using your gift.

#Tears

There were tears creeping down my cheeks as I prayed this morning. The tears came as I thought about how much God loves me. Tears of appreciation came because God is so holy and righteous and still can love the unlovable. It touches me somewhere deep within and tears just come.

There are so many situations that touch my tear apparatus and I have tried to figure what causes me to be touched that way. Silly things, like parades, will bring tears to my eyes and I have come to the conclusion that it is the shared unity of people working so hard to make something good happen for the director and ultimately for the audience that touches me. Crowds, at football games standing at attention with their hands over their hearts while the National Anthem is sung will tear me up and choirs singing their hearts out at a worship service will bring tears to my eyes. It is their dedication to deliver together and their time spent practicing and their willingness to submit to their director that makes me appreciate their efforts. It is the shared love for their country that is displayed by so many that reaches my heart.

When I saw my grandson after fifteen years of being away, I could not help but cry. When someone is sharing some hurt or pain or sorrow or joy and they tear up, I do, too.  Movies or books that have a happy ending for those involved who have experienced conflict and worked it out is a definite tear jerk-er for me.

We use tissues or napkins or handkerchiefs to wipe away tears and they are tossed away or washed and nothing can be seen of those tears, but God has a bottle where He places our tears. I think I have a pretty big bottle on God's shelf of tears. They are tears of remembrance of my life. He has a bottle for each one of us, a bottle of remembrance. Your tears are not wasted, they are kept.

When we pray fervently for something or someone that we consider desperate and we weep as we present our requests to The God Who Heals or The God Who Provides or The God Who Sees or The God Who Saves, those tears are kept in a bottle. They are not wasted. When we find ourselves tearing up as we worship and adore Him, those tears are kept in a bottle. They are not wasted.

Don't be ashamed or embarrassed to cry. It shows that you are human and have emotions and are real.
Shed tears have a meaning to God and one of these days He will wipe away every tear with His own hand, Revelation 21:4, and there will be no more mourning or crying or pain. Hallelujah!!!

#Snakes,ScorpionsAndStonesContinued

"Help my husband see that he is driving too fast." This was the prayer in my mind to God as we were traveling back home after a holiday weekend away at friends. I expected God to answer it by just opening my husband's eyes to the dangers and he, then, deciding to slow down, but that is not the way God chose to work it out. I was as surprised as my husband when a siren and flashing lights appeared behind us and a Highway Patrolman approached us while writing out a ticket.

Some time later in my life as a mother of four children under the age of nine, I became aware of a need for patience. I prayed for patience and I expected to all of a sudden to awake one morning and have the patience of Job, but that is not the way God chose to work it out. Some months later I found myself pregnant with the fifth child and I got mad at God, not associating my condition as an answer to my prayer for patience. But this wonderful gift of number five did help develop patience in me.

Several weeks ago I became aware of the smallness of my heart and I asked God to enlarge my heart. I had no idea of what to expect from this request except for God to help me be more concerned and caring about others. Then, on Christmas day, I sensed the need to ask God to heal my hearing because I had noticed some limitations hearing sounds. I expected God to do a miraculous thing and I would wake up one morning with full hearing capacity. But, that is not the way God chose to work it out.

The day after Christmas, my son-in-law invited me to go shooting with him and my grand daughter and her finance to an indoor shooting range. I had not shot a pistol in several years and I was delighted to go. Ear protection was worn and I did pretty good hitting the target in the bulls-eye twice and in the nine and eight range. As I removed the ear protection, there was a distinct difference in my hearing. Everything sounded muffled and muted and I had a problem. My first thought went to the prayer I had prayed just the day before. Is this the answer God is giving me - just the opposite of my request?

There was no anger this time because I know God is good and have experienced His loving kindness many times over the years, but it was hard to wrap my head around the condition I found myself in. I need good hearing at work and just communicating with others, not to mention listening to sermons and TV and the phone. I managed to get safely home through airports and the next day made an appointment with a doctor specializing in hearing. It was determined that there had been some loss prior to the "range" incident and the loudness had just exasperated my condition. I needed hearing aids.

The loss is a negative, humanly speaking. The expense is a negative, humanly speaking. It could be considered a serpent instead of a fish, humanly speaking. It would be so easy to look at this incident in a humanly way. It would be natural, but I am not just a natural person. I have God, the Creator God living inside me and this gives me a different perspective - not just the natural human perspective. I have a choice in the matter - naturally or super naturally. I choose super naturally and to God be the Glory. Already my compassion for others handicapped in some way has expanded. God is more concerned about my spiritual condition as His child than my health, wealth or happiness here on this planet. This planet and all that goes with it is only temporary. Our soul and spirit is eternal and how we enter eternity is determined by our choices in the here and now.

For you, today, the first day of the new year - Keep Trusting! Keep Praying! Accept God's good gifts and answers and grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.

#Snakes,ScorpionsAndStones

The bedroom was tight with furniture. A treadle sewing machine was placed between two double beds and there was a dresser and a wardrobe and a chair. My sister and I slept in one double bed and my grandmother and youngest sister slept in the other double bed. On the wall next to the mirror over the dresser was a little plaque which I read every day - "Prayer Changes Things". I remember saying to myself as a young girl, that prayer changes people.

The disciples saw that Jesus frequently got alone to pray and they became curious and asked Him how one ought to pray. That is when He gave them what we now call the Lord's Prayer, but He didn't stop there. He went on to explain more. He instructed them to even bother the provider with their requests and be persistent till the answer came. He told them to knock and keep on knocking and seek and keep on seeking and to ask and keep on asking. Prayer, evidently, requires a deep seated need in order for one to be that demanding.

But, that was not all He told them. Jesus shared that a good loving father will not give a stone when a request for a loaf of bread is presented or give a serpent when a fish is requested or a scorpion when an egg is asked for. He went to rather extreme measures depicting the answers to prayers, not benign, but even dangerous which makes me wonder why. One possibility could be why Jesus illustrated answers to our prayers with such descriptions is that sometimes what we get is not what we expected our loving Father God to give. It just might seem harmful or negative and we might jump to the conclusion that God doesn't love us or that He is incapable.

God did warn us when He said that His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are higher than ours, so we misunderstand much. His ways are always good, tho they may seem not to be so and we can see a serpent instead of a fish if we look at it naturally. It takes faith to believe in God's character and to know that He only does what is good. We have to make ourselves see with the eyes of faith and trust God's perfect goodness when it comes to getting the unexpected and wait on Him to make clear the reason for the unexpected. Prayer does change things and it does change people, too.

Keep on praying for it is not altogether about getting the answers for our needs, it is much about getting to know the God of the Bible and developing an intimate relationship with Him.

#AbsolutelyLegal

It is said, "Jesus is the reason for the season." That is true, but it is not accurate. Why is there even a season? The accurate thing to say is, "You, yes, you are the reason for the season." Jesus would not have had to be born to die if you had not needed what he came to do. You and I are the reason for the season.

We are not given much information about what the universe was like before God created this world and it's inhabitants. We are told that there were myriads of angels who worshiped God before the world was created and we are told of one specific angelic being who got the big idea that he deserved to be worshiped equally with God. Lucifer is his name and he came up with the idea to accomplish two things with one act. Lucifer knew how much God loved His creatures and he knew that God was bound to keep the law. He could break God's heart by luring the head of the human race to distrust their creator and he could ruin God's reputation by showing that God, being just, would allow the human race to suffer the consequences of disobedience. He would come out of this predicament he gave God as the winner and he would be the one being worshiped.

Of course, we failed the first test and Lucifer thought that it was over and he had proof on his side that he was worthy, but, it wasn't over. It actually was only the beginning, for God had a plan already in place. Because God so loved the humans He had created and who now were legally doomed, that He made it possible to satisfy justice by the shedding of blood, the blood of a perfect sacrifice, Jesus, and by giving the opportunity to humanity to rectify their situation by simply receiving the gift of His life. This is why you and I are the reason for the season. Every single one who sees that justice has been satisfied by Jesus and places their trust in His provision is casting a vote for God's worthiness of worship for all creation to count. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain!!!