Month: April 2021 (Page 3 of 3)

April 8, 2021

April 8, 2021 / Judy Hendrickson / 0 Comments

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Sometimes the best thing is to wait. Sometimes we may not know what to do and we jump ahead and really mess things up. When Jesus spoke to his disciples after His resurrection, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. I’m sure they must have had questions but they obeyed and gathered together in an upper room and waited. Good thing they did what Jesus asked of them and spent time praying and didn’t run ahead before they received the Holy Spirit. If they had gone out in their own power, they would have quickly become discouraged and probably given up. But after waiting 10 days after Jesus ascended, the Holy Spirit suddenly came like the rush of the wind and tongues of fire and filled them, and they began to speak in different languages. What an awesome experience and time of purifying and empowering them to go and be His witnesses. Peter stood up and began preaching and 3,000 people were saved and baptized that day. Those that knew him as a fisherman must have recognized it could only be the power of God! From that day on, the disciples went forth and preached and taught and healed; the message reached beyond Jerusalem out to the world. We can say wow, we wish we were present at that time, but that same Holy Spirit power is available to all who know the Lord. Too often we don’t wait for the Holy Spirit to instruct us and we run ahead before He has readied the hearts of others. Our part is to surrender and ask the Holy Spirit to fill us with His power to enable us to do what God wants in our lives and through us. He also begins the work of changing us from the inside out to become more like the Lord. In the days to come, I believe it is going to be harder for all of us as Christians and we will experience persecution. Our need will be great for the Holy Spirit power. Let us be like Peter who quoted David in Acts 2:28 (The Message), “I saw God before me for all time. Nothing can shake me; He’s right by my side. I’m glad from the inside out, ecstatic; I’ve pitched my tent in the land of hope. I know you’ll never dump me in Hades; I’ll never even smell the stench of death. You’ve got my feet on the life-path, with your face shining, sun-joy all around.”

Challenge for today: Ask for a fresh inflowing of the Holy Spirit and wait for His timing before launching out.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

April 7, 2021

April 7, 2021 / Judy Hendrickson / 0 Comments

Dear Ones,

Hope you are enjoying the day. We are having a good steady rain and just what is needed. Al had his men’s Soul Care group this morning and I made choc chip cookies and went to my exercise class. This afternoon we will be walking inside, I’m sure.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

I think we can all attest to the fact that forgiveness doesn’t come easy. Sometimes we want to return hurt to the person who wounded us, and let them feel what we have experienced, but that is not God’s way. Our part is to forgive the person and then let God be our vindicator. I don’t know if I have realized before, but after Jesus’ resurrection when He appeared to the disciples who were hiding behind closed doors, He speaks peace to them. He then breathes on them the Holy Spirit and He said in John 20:23 (NRSV), “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” The disciples didn’t have power to forgive sins, only Jesus, but they were now given the wonderful privileged of telling others about Him and that their sins could be forgiven. We also have the honor to pronounce His forgiveness of sins to others! When Al and I go walking, we often confess our sins and then after the confession, the other of us says, “In the name of Jesus, you are forgiven!” Those are such wonderful and freeing words to our ears. Whatever sin we have done is now cast into the sea of forgetfulness; if it is us who have been wounded, we can speak those words to the one who hurt us and put them into God’s hand. The disciples had just received the Holy Spirit who gave them, and gives us, the power to forgive others. We can’t do that in our own power and we need His strength to do that. When someone has wounded us, rather than hang on to the hurt, we can lift a prayer that the Holy Spirit would help us to let go and to forgive that person. The Lord is the One who will right the wrong, not us. How we forgive others is an indicator of our own fellowship with the Lord. Do we hold grudges and have unforgiving hearts; then we have forgotten how much God has forgiven us. Let us ask His Holy Spirit to breathe afresh on our hearts, empower us to share Him with others, and to forgive as we have been forgiven.

Challenge for today: Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal all those whom you have not forgiven, and give you grace to grant them forgiveness.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

April 6, 2021

April 6, 2021 / Judy Hendrickson / 0 Comments

Dear Ones,

Hope you are enjoying another beautiful spring day! I made salmon today (and set off the fire alarm for a minute!), and made choc bars and egg dishes. Al and I went downstairs for coffee and choc covered raspberries and celebration for the winner of the brackets and the one who got the booby prize.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Sometimes we just know it is the Lord! No doubts! Something happens and we see God’s hand and we know it is Him! One of our friends recently e-mailed me that she had a God incidence and was excited. They wanted to sell one of their cars and her husband listed it. Only 10 minutes later they got a call and it is sold and to guess who? It was their former realtor, a young couple from church. The wife had totaled her car in December and wanted to replace it with a car like her parents had, which just happened to be the same as our friends. Only 10 minutes and their car was sold! Our friend wrote that she learned a new word that day and it was a God incidence! Perhaps we can all think of times like that when we don’t feel like it is a co-incidence but definitely the Lord. I was reading for my devotions today about John who had such an experience. We remember that after Jesus rose from the dead, He revealed Himself to His disciples and others. Peter announced he was going to go fishing and a half dozen other disciples present said they were also going to go with him, including John. They caught nothing all night so must have been discouraged. All of a sudden, they hear a voice from shore telling them to fish on the other side of the boat and to see what would happen. They didn’t recognize who it was but followed His advice; and all of a sudden so many fish filled their nets that they couldn’t pull it all in. John knew right away that it was a God incident and in John 21:7 (NRSV) it says, “That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’” He knew it was not just a coincidence! When Peter heard the news, he couldn’t wait and quickly put on his outer tunic and sprang into the sea to see Jesus. Jesus had breakfast waiting for all of them and after they had eaten Jesus asked Peter 3 times if he loved Him; that was the same number of times Peter denied Jesus. The God incident changed the disciples lives as they now had a new commission and instead of fishermen wanting to catch fish, they were now to be evangelists who wanted to catch souls. John recognized Jesus first but in sharing it, the rest of them also knew. Let us be like John who points others to the Lord and when God incidents occur, let us respond as John and Peter and the other disciples did.

Challenge for today: Recall a God incidence in your life and share with someone.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

April 5, 2021

April 5, 2021 / Judy Hendrickson / 0 Comments

Dear Ones,

Hope you had a blessed wonderful Easter weekend. We enjoyed time with Ann’s family, worshipping at our church together, a feast for dinner at the lake, games, time in nature and seeing friends. You can read more about it in my devotion today!

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Haven’t we all wondered why certain people have smooth sailing through life and seem to have it made? They win all the contests and have no burdens and struggles like we have, at least outwardly seen. We can end up feeling envious and we are warned against that as envy saps us of our peace; the Bible says it even rots our bones. (Prov. 14:30). Not pretty! Yesterday on Easter when we were at the lake and gathered with family and friends, I had a game planned ahead of time. At the close of our dinner, I brought out plastic Easter eggs that had slips of paper inside with things we had to do; quite a few eggs also had money inside and if they didn’t, we could choose from a pile of wrapped prizes. One of our grandsons was especially eager to get the money and even texted me ahead of time about getting rich. It was unbelievable but people on both sides of him and around the table would open up eggs with money and never him; not once! One person sang Jesus Love Me for $5 and another got candy plus the money in his egg etc. It didn’t seem fair that others got money but not him. I asked our grandson what he learned through all of it and he said, “You have to earn your own way”, but of course the others hadn’t really earned it either. In our hearts we may question the Lord as to why He is so good to others who do not seem deserving but forgetting about us. In my devotions today I read of Asaph who felt sorry for himself as he was envious of the wicked and arrogant people who seemed to prosper and didn’t have troubles. That was, until he saw the whole picture. It says in Psalm 73:16-17 (ESV). “But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.” He also saw his own bitter heart of wanting all that they had, and then realized, that what is most important was being near God. It’s not money, it’s not comfort and it’s not prestige: he went on to say that it was that God was with him and guided him and he would spend eternity with Him. When he came to this awareness, he could finally say that there was nothing on earth that he desired besides God and that God was the strength of his heart and his portion forever. If we find ourselves being envious of others, let us remember that with the Lord we have all that we need and so much more.

Challenge for today: Read and meditate on Psalm 73 when you feel jealous and envious.

Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy

Say I Won’t

April 5, 2021 / Alan Hendrickson / 0 Comments

I appreciate the music of “MercyMe.” I believe the band can relate to men with both lyrics and style, and their music affects me deeply. They have a new song out entitled, “Say I Won’t.” When I saw the word “rocket” in the lyrics and heard the song, the rest was history. Please listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2IHibLEYdI

The song opens with, “Today / It all begins / I’m seeing my life for the very first time / Through a different lens / Yesterday / I didn’t understand / Driving 35 with the rocket inside / Didn’t know what I had.” My interpretation: this guy is seeing his life with Jesus in a new way. He has a rocket inside.

The song goes on, “While I’ve been waiting to live / My life’s been waiting on me.” But now the guy is learning to fly spiritually. He dares others, “Say, I won’t” … “Not enough / Is what I’ve been told / But it must be a lie / ‘Cause the Spirit inside says I’m so much more / So let them say what they want / Oh, I dare them to try.”

Men, there comes a time in your spiritual life when you need to come to terms with the rocket within you. It’s your deepest longings for God. It’s your passions and desires. Yes, it even involves your sexual energy. Visualize all this as “the tiger in your tank.” Conservative, biblical guys like me sometimes have difficulty pointing the rocket heavenward and taming the tiger. Like the song says, “Not enough / Is what I’ve been told / But it must be a lie.”

I must confess that I’m reluctant even to write about sexual passions and passion for God. Why? Because of some of my own struggles, plus misconceptions Christian men tend to have about their own desires and fantasies. For me, however, only love can tame the tiger. I am coming to peace with this energy as I experience more of God’s deep love for me. “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Ps 63:1). Like the song, “’Cause the Spirit inside says I’m so much more / So let them say what they want / Oh, I dare them to try…”

You and I have sexual energy in our souls that is mingled with our spiritual desire for God. Yes, passions have eros (erotic) energy. But can you believe that God’s agape is able to come into your heart and redeem eros, purify it with resurrection power, and untwist all the distorted images? “This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him” (I John 4:9 cf. Luke 4:4 MSG).

Christopher West in his book “Fill These Hearts” has helped. We have three choices: 1) Starvation diet: Pleasure is an evil to reject. I have lived under this cloud for years, 2) Fast food diet: Pleasure is an idol to indulge. Simply let the tiger roar. 3) Banquet: Pleasure is a beacon that points to heaven. For me this has meant allowing Jesus to transform my soul, using agape love to direct eros.

As I get older, I find more and more that my deepest desires are for God. The more I die with Jesus to distorted eros, the more his agape purifies the eros: “While I’ve been waiting to live/ My life’s been waiting on me.”

April 3, 2021

April 3, 2021 / Judy Hendrickson / 0 Comments

Dear Ones,

Hope your weekend is very meaningful. This morning I was busy in the kitchen with preparations to take with tomorrow to Ann’s when we are all together. Tomorrow we will be celebrating that Jesus is alive, He conquered death, lives and reigns forever and ever. Today I would like to share a prayer by Debbie McDaniels that you can use tomorrow when you are with family if you would like. Debbie reminds us that whatever uncertainties we face, Jesus is our hope and makes all things new

“Dear God,

Thank you that you make all things new. Thank you for the Victory and Power in your Name. Thank you that you hold the keys over death, and that by your might, Christ was raised from the grave, paving the way for us to live free. Thank you that you had a plan, thank you that you made a way.

We praise you for your great strength, we praise you for your lavish love. We praise you for you are Conqueror, Victor, Redeemer, and Friend. We praise you that you alone are our Deliverer, you are Worthy, you are our everlasting Father, our great and awesome God. We confess our need for you. We ask that you would renew our hearts, minds, and lives, for the days ahead. We pray for your spirit of refreshing to fill us again.

Keep your words of truth planted firmly within us, help us to keep focused on what is pure and right, give us the power to be obedient to your word. And when the enemy reminds us of where we have been, whispering his lies and hurling attacks our way, may he be reminded again of his future. For we have a future and a hope in You. We’ve been set free, redeemed, the old has lost its grip, the new has come.

Shine your light in us, through us, over us. May we make a difference in this world, for your glory and purposes. Set your way before us. May all your plans succeed. We may reflect your peace and hope to a world that so desperately needs your presence and healing.

Thanks be to you God, for your indescribable gift!

To you be glory and honor, on this Resurrection Day, and forever.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Blessings on your Easter and prayers and love, Judy

April 2, 2021

April 2, 2021 / Judy Hendrickson / 0 Comments

Dear Ones,

A blessed Good Friday to you! May we each celebrate this Holy day in some special way. I just read that in Bermuda they fly kites to symbolize Jesus Ascension, in London they enact the Passion Play in Trafalgar Square, in Israel they walk the same path Jesus did to Calvary etc. So many ways to remember. We will be going to a Good Friday communion service at our church tonight.

This morning I studied and cleaned the apt. and this afternoon we are invited to friends for coffee and fellowship.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Do we give in when pressured by others and fail to do what we know is right? I was reading about Pilate who wanted to let Jesus go free, but he listened to the crowd instead and caved into their demands. It’s not easy to stand up for truth when the majority may be against it, and it takes courage. Pilate was the Roman governor of Judea and had power to release Jesus but he was more concerned about his political future and the possibility of being removed if there was unrest. So he gave in to the pressure and condemned an innocent man of whom had done nothing wrong. I wonder how he slept that night? Pilot rinsed his hands before the angry crowd trying to show he was not responsible, but if he had not weakened, he could have made a difference. What about us? How quickly do we give in to the pressures in our world and settle for something comfortable rather than truthful? Afterwards we have regrets but at the time we sadly weakened. We see this happening today as adults can get caught up in the roar of the crowd and do things they would never do on their own or want their children to see. But let us remember who we are in the Lord. He has promised us grace and courage when we are willing to stand up for what is true, right and good, even though it may be hard and costly for us. Today more than ever we need a holy boldness. Let us not buckle under and cave in to peer pressure but listen to the voice of Him who is truth. Peter and John were arrested for preaching and ordered not to teach about Jesus. But they responded by saying that they could not keep from speaking about Jesus. When they gathered again with fellow believers, they prayed for more boldness to speak the word and heal in Jesus name. Notice they didn’t ask to be removed from the problem but do deal in boldness about the problem. The Lord will give us courage and boldness and has promised not to abandon us. As it says in Heb.13:6 (NRSV), “So we can say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?’” Let us go in the strength of the Lord and stand in boldness.

Challenge for today: When in compromising situations, pray for courage to boldly stand.

Blessings on this Holy Day. Prayers and love, Judy

April 1, 2021

April 1, 2021 / Judy Hendrickson / 0 Comments

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Do we hide our faith from those whom we may be unsure of their relationship to the Lord or do we come out and take a stand for Him? Jesus went through so much, even death on the cross, to identify with us and bring us into close relationship with Him. Each of us must decide what we will do in response to Jesus. Pilate asked the angry crowd in Matt. 27:22 (NRSV), “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah.” They wanted Him crucified and Pilate gave into their demands, thinking more of maintaining the peace rather than risking a riot, and ultimately his position. But in a sense, we are all asked that question in our hearts? What will we do with the One who gave everything for us? Our answer to that affects not only our life here on earth but also our eternal destiny. If we come to accept Him as our Lord, then whether we live or die, we are together with Him forever. When we truly believe in Him then it affects how we live and influences all of our relationships. This will be especially evident in our family relationships. Do we quickly ask forgiveness when we are irritable and maybe even unreasonable with our mates? Do we share our faith with our children and encourage them to follow the Lord? It is also good to ask ourselves if our fellow workers would know by what we say and how we live, that we are followers of Christ. In the days ahead, and even now, it is becoming more costly to identify with Him; some have lost their businesses, their positions, and some even their lives. Are we willing to come out of hiding and let others know where we stand? I read today how Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus who first came to Jesus by night, both risked their positions as members of the Jewish council to take away Jesus body and give Him a burial. The women also came out of hiding the next day to bring spices and perfumes for Jesus body but ended up being the first ones to announce His resurrection. Let us also be witnesses and commit ourselves to serving Him and sharing Him with others. The same power that brought Jesus back from the dead is in us today and let us be bole in proclaiming Him no matter what the cost.

Challenge for today: Pray daily for the Holy Spirit to fill you and empower you to be a bold witness for Him.

Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy

Month: April 2021 (Page 3 of 3)

April 8, 2021

April 7, 2021

April 6, 2021

April 5, 2021

Say I Won’t

April 3, 2021

April 2, 2021

April 1, 2021

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