I just finished reading one of the many blogs I enjoy reading. It is by Michael Hyatt and you may read it here.

I’m not in a funk but # 20 really caught my attention.

In the past Larry and I would leave little love notes all around the house for each other to find and we both loved finding them. I would sneak them into his lunch box, under his razor or tuck one in a pair of socks. We became quite creative with the notes and finding fun places to hide them. He would hide them around the kitchen or in my makeup bag, under my pillow etc. I was always absolutely delighted whenever I found one.

We still find many wonderful, sometimes quirky ways to express our love and admiration for each other. I must admit though, it has been a while since we wrote notes and it is still one of my favorite expressions of spontaneous affection. We both have saved all of the notes and it always sparks a tender moment for us when we re-read them.

So today I am going to write a love note to the most wonderful man in my life and I’m not going to hide it, I’m going to mail it. I can’t wait to see his face when he opens it and reads it. As the saying goes…Priceless!

Thank you Michael Hyatt for the great idea!

Song of Solomon 5:10 My lover is radiant and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand.



I’m still basking in the afterglow of the Tulsa Workshop and finally, I think I’m getting back to my routine after some much needed rest. Last week we attended the Tulsa Workshop, March 23^rd through March 26^th. We didn’t make it back on Saturday; still we packed a lot in Wednesday night to Friday night. Last year was our first time to attend and we decided then it would be a yearly mini-vacation for us. If you have never been, I urge you to try and make it next year. It truly is a wonderful experience. Our dear friend Karla has been with us both times. We have a great time hanging out together. The weather was very accommodating too. I remember that it snowed two years ago, even though I didn’t make it that year.

The lessons and the songs are still playing in my mind. I absolutely love a cappella music! Actually I love a very wide range of music, yet there is something about a cappella that stirs my soul. I was not blessed with a good singing voice. That doesn’t keep me from singing (for those of you who have to hear me, please keep the groans down) and I have prayed many times that I had a beautiful voice. I think I finally got the message “my grace is sufficient for thee.”

We heard so many great lessons and amazingly beautiful vocals. We made many new friends, visited with many old friends and friends who I usually only get to visit with either through my blogging world or Facebook or email. It truly is an awesome time.

Terry Rush, The Memorial Drive Church of Christ and many other people put in a lot of hours and hard work to make the workshop successful. Various vendors set up booths and exhibits. I am thankful for them and all of the effort behind a truly outstanding event.

To all my ‘far away’ friends…it was great seeing you and visiting with you, even when the visits were much too short.

Until next year…

Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.

Before our Father’s throne
We pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one,
Our comforts and our cares.

We share our mutual woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.

When for a while we part,
This thought will soothe our pain,
That we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.

This glorious hope revives
Our courage by the way,
While each in expectation lives,
And longs to see the day.

From sorrow, toil, and pain,
And sin we shall be free;
And perfect love and friendship reign
Thro’ all eternity.

This is from one of my daily devotionals–Experiencing God. It really hit home for me because I feel I have a lot of faith. This devotional made me admit to myself that too often I waver. The following verse really made me take notice—“ without faith it is impossible to please God.” I wonder how many times I have failed to please God because of my lack of faith. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, ant there was a great calm. Matthew 8:25-26

It is by faith that God’s mighty power is released into the life of a Christian (Heb. 11:33-35). The fact that you have doubts indicates that you do not know God as you should. If your prayer life is infiltrated with doubts, you have denied yourself the greatest, single avenue of power that God has made available to you. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). God never comforts you in doubt. Jesus consistently rebuked those who would not believe Him. He had revealed enough of Himself for His disciples to have believed Him in their time of need.

God wants to build your understanding of Him until your faith is sufficient to trust and obey Him in each situation (Mark 9: 23-25). The moment you turn to Him with a genuine commitment to rid yourself of doubt, God will match your doubt with a revelation of Himself that can convince you of His faithfulness. When Thomas doubted, Jesus revealed Himself to him in such a way that every doubt vanished (John 20:27). You can only resolve your lack of faith in God’s presence. He must reveal Himself in such a way that any doubt you might have is removed.

Jesus did this with His disciples. He involved them in a consistent, growing relationship with Himself. Jesus took them through teaching, to small miracles, to large miracles, to the resurrection. Jesus knew that the redemption of the world rested on His disciples’ believing Him.

What does God want to do in the lives of those around you that waits upon you trust in Him and the removal of you doubts?

Lately in my prayers I have remembered the people of Japan, as well as others who have suffered great loss due to weather related tragedies. I think the following article by Charles Spurgeon adequately expresses my feelings.

“Remember the poor.”

— Gal 2:10

The following scriptures go along beautifully with Spurgeon’s thoughts.

Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. 11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land. Deut 15:10-11

He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done. Prov 19:17

They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”  He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”  Mark 14:32-34

Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” Mark 14:38

Do you watch and pray so you won’t fall into temptation? Or do you fall easily into temptations only later to be filled with regret once the sin has been committed?

Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”  ”I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “today — yes, tonight — before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.” Mark 14:29-30

I have felt Peter’s passion at times and too often have walked away and wept bitterly. Like Peter, not once, not twice but three times. (And how marvelous for me if it were only three times).

Jesus prayed for Peter— “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:31-32

I like the last part of that verse too-strengthen your brothers. Too often people fear their sin is exclusive to them and they are afraid to talk about it. We can encourage and strengthen others by confessing our own sins. I’m so thankful for repentance and forgiveness.

These verses were part of my reading today. I was reminded to “watch and pray” and I was encouraged.

So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. 1 Cor 10:12-13

Hello Monday! This is the day so many complain about. It seems especially hard for people who work. I often hear “the weekend flew by.”

Businesses which are closed on the weekends seem especially hectic on Monday’s. Have you ever tried to make an appointment with your doctor on a Monday? Getting an appointment is difficult enough; you get to listen to 15 or 20 minutes of a recorded message telling you “how important your call is” and “to please stay on the line.”

Monday’s are even hurried for me. I attend a ladies bible class and then I spend the remainder of the day playing Scrabble with mom. The hurried part is getting out of the house by 8:45. Now that we are in daylight savings time it is even harder. Since I’m retired, I find I don’t like getting out of bed while it’s still dark.

I want to give some encouragement to all of you who dread Monday’s. I love these verses any day of the week and they seem especially helpful on Monday mornings.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. Ps 139:7-10

I worked for many years outside the home. I can sympathize with you now, whether it’s work or school or any other task which you may dread on Monday, try to remember, you are never alone.

Have you ever been guilty of this or said it about someone else? Usually it’s said in sarcasm, frustration, or as a joke. I think it is easy to find ourselves being the ones who can’t see the forest for the trees.

We get together weekly with a group of friends to study the bible, enjoy each others company and of course share some food. Our weekly meetings are always on Thursday they start at 7, and we don’t have a time limit. They usually last at least three hours and during that time we have a lot of discussions, and sometimes we are very passionate about our subjects. Our group has been meeting more than five years now and we have an amazing bond and great love for each other. The past few months we have been looking at “radical Christianity.” We certainly don’t have all the answers nor do we have all of the ways one can be a radical Christian. We do get pretty radical in our discussions at times. (Yes, I’m smiling.)

That brings me to today’s thoughts on the subject. Was Lot’s wife guilty of not being able to “see the forest for the trees”? They were told to “flee for their lives” and told “don’t look back”. One might take note too that Lot was hesitant in heeding the warning to flee. Gen 19:16-17 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them.  As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”

Gen 19:26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
 I wonder, why did Lot’s wife look back? Was it out of curiosity, unbelief, sadness of leaving her possessions and her home, or was it disobedience? I wonder if I would have looked back.

When I consider the following scriptures I see how history repeats itself—- Luke 17:26-35 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

 ”It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.  But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

 ”It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”

Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!” Her heart seemed to be on what she was leaving behind, not where she was going. God showed his mercy and his grace and she looked back.

1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

Notice the sins mentioned in the ‘things’ of the world. We have to live in the world, yet the desires of our heart are to be focused on God and his ways.

I apologize for the length of this post; I just had to share what is on my heart with you today. I will close with one of my favorite verses; this one is from The Message.

Rom 12:1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life — and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.  Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

I pray I don’t get distracted by the trees.

Lately I have become aware that I do a lot of measuring. I suppose most of us do and really aren’t even aware that we are doing it. When I park my car I am gauging the distance of my front tires to the parking lines. When I prepare a meal I consider how much time I need to prepare it in order to serve it at a particular time. When I buy groceries I calculate the price of each item I place in my basket in order to stay within my budget.

I imagine by now you’re wondering where I’m going with this. Recently I read Psalm 19:14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. I had to stop and ask myself if meditating on God is part of what I do each day, and if the words I speak are pleasing to God. After all, isn’t meditation another way of measuring? I guess that may be stretching it a bit, still, if I’m meditating on living for God, couldn’t that in a sense be measuring myself spiritually as opposed to worldly?

Several commentaries I looked at explain the words, be acceptable comes from the language of sacrifice (as in Lev 22:20); thus the request is that this song (Psalm 19:14) be a suitable act of worship before God, like a sacrifice.

When I first came back to the Lord I had to clean up a lot of things about myself and my language was definitely at the top of the list. I swore like a sailor. I’m certainly not proud of that, it’s just a fact of how I used to be. It was just as hard for me to quit using filthy language as it was for me to quit using drugs, smoking cigarettes and drinking. The profane language had become a part of me. I came to realize that it was because of meditating on God and on scripture that I was able to put those things away.

What we dwell on will be revealed in how we live. To keep our thoughts pure we have to guard what goes into our mind. Philippians 4:8

We are to train ourselves to be godly. We are to set an example in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. We are to keep a firm grasp on our character and our examples. 1Timothy 4:6-15

It is easy to become distracted with the things of life and of this world which we deal with on a daily basis. For me, meditation is an important part of what keeps my thoughts where they need to be.

Do you meditate?

Are you a person who is constantly misplacing things? Your keys, glasses, watch; the list could be a long one. I have been guilty of being in such a hurry that I will lay something down and then not have a clue where I put it. I could save myself a lot of time and anguish if I would s-l-o-w down and be more aware of where I leave things; including my heart.

When I allow myself to become so focused on worldly things I am deliberately forgetting God. That statement hurts!! It hurts even more admitting to being so occupied with daily routines that my focus is taken away from God and put onto myself. When this happens it doesn’t take too long before I feel a void. I feel the emptiness of my hurriedness and my preoccupation of things.

In the Old Testament they were warned over and over not to forget God’s covenant or what he had previously done for them. Following are just a few warnings on the subject.

 Isa 65:11-12 “But as for you who forsake the Lord and forget my holy mountain, who spread a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny, I will destine you for the sword, and you will all bend down for the slaughter; for I called but you did not answer, I spoke but you did not listen. You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me.”

Deut 4:23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. 

Ps 78:42-43 They did not remember his power — the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,  the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Zoan.

2 Kings 17:38-39 Do not forget the covenant I have made with you, and do not worship other gods. Rather, worship the Lord your God; it is he who will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.”

Ps 78:11 They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.

Ps 106:13 But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his counsel.

I am gratefully refreshed by scripture and I’m also reminded of what is really important. Regardless of how stressful life can be at times this verse reminds me I have not suffered as He suffered. Heb 12:4-6 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,  because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”

This verse encourages me to keep on keeping on - James 1:25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it — he will be blessed in what he does.

This verse reminds me against pride of possessions -  Deut 8:10-15 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

And finally, I pray this verse will be daily in my heart – Ps 103:2-5 Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits —   who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.