Sunday, January 31, 2021
Friday, January 29, 2021
Thursday, January 28, 2021
“Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning (Luke 12:35)
Readiness ~ this part of abiding is essential to daily life - this is not eating bonbons and watching soap operas. You have your assignment - there is no fairy godmother! Just do what you’re responsible for doing ~ get dressed and go to work! Piece by piece with patience …. just do it!
Faithfulness ~ God put within us both to will and to do His good pleasure - He has equipped each one with abilities that are unique and qualified.
Responsibility ~ Joyfully perform the mundane and let God send the assignments.
Assignments ~ God’s assignments are divine appointments. You don’t have to work it up or force it to take place. How often have I said while sharing with others - ‘that person right in front of you is your next assignment’
Choice ~ We have a choice - pick it up or live in disobedience
“To be ready we must simply do the next thing” (pwoods)
Sunday, January 24, 2021
A faded photograph ~
We were new in town, having come from a very warm and loving environment to a place where the climate was quite cold and some of the parishioners colder. I, as the new lady in the parsonage was a bit of a chew in that I wore jeans, had a sassy haircut, and just opened my arms to everyone, especially the man in the pulpit. I knew way too much about the ministry having lived in someone else’s house most of my life, with my daddy being a preacher man. . . I was about to be educated on a different plane. There were about a dozen women in this church that had been hand picked by the pastor to represent ‘the preacher’s wife.’ His wife preferred a low profile and came to church seldom—she had no platform—she was the ‘perfect preacher’s wife.’ I’ve never been perfect and I’m rarely silent. I know you get the ‘picture.’ I found out my ‘sin’ was that I painted pictures ~ Oh, my!
… a woman asked me to have lunch with her and when we were seated in her very lofty, spiritual voice she began the conversation with these words: ‘How in the world can you be an artist and a Christian’? Needless to say I was stunned by her audacity; yet I gathered my wits about me and answered: ‘Through art, God has placed people into my life that otherwise I would never have known…how better to be Jesus than by sharing something in common as a mode of travel from one heart to another’? I don’t remember her ever speaking to me again…she certainly never said..’let’s do lunch’…nor did she ever say; ‘let’s do church’…
We now live in our own house and I’m still painting and need I say, Jesus is still crazy about me ~ (pwoods)
Saturday, January 23, 2021
“But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2Cor.3:18)
~ Am I being transformed? As I look into the mirror of God’s Word each day, can I see a difference in the ‘me’ that abides in Christ? Does my obedience and trust in the Everlasting Father show on my face? When I look for blemishes or wrinkles, do I see Peace and His Presence looking back at me?
Ah, yes! The glory of His Presence. That’s the transformation I’m looking for when I look into the mirror - from glory to glory. Christ in me - transforming my life into His Image - Jesus!
Need to borrow my mirror? (pwoods)
Thursday, January 21, 2021
Another word that comes is polished… When I am tired and slouchy... I look dull, flat, soiled… When I refresh myself with a bath, a new haircut, a pressed pair of jeans, a bracing cup of hot tea ~ I look alive, I feel alive and I act accordingly!! When I allow the Spirit of God to refresh me through the Word and prayer I am cleansed of a slouchy spirit, dullness of the eye, or a soiled vision… He puts a bit of starch in my jeans and a reason to face my world! I am alive in Him! I refuse to be downtrodden and soiled by this ole sinful, hurtful world! This morning I come to the Father for “the washing of the Word”… for an empowering confirmation that God is in control and I am His ambassador in this war-torn time… I am a committee of one, but I am empowered by THE ONE and ONLY GOD… Here we go! (pwoods)
Wednesday, January 20, 2021