Canaan’s Rest represents a quiet place “set apart” for the purpose of hearing God's voice, growing in intimacy with the Lord, and being renewed in soul and spirit.

Month: October 2024 (Page 1 of 4)

October 31, 2024

Dear Ones,
Hope you wake to a peace-filled day. Al will be going to men’s group and I plan to make egg dishes and do lots of food prep and go to my treatment and Bible Study…. and have donuts!
We enjoyed our time in the cities and are thankful for longtime friends that can just catch up where we last left off. The Lord unites the hearts of His children together!
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Sometimes we don’t see ourselves as other people see us and we may be blind to faults we have not taken notice of. For some time, Al has told me not to walk so hard on our floors as it is probably disturbing to the dear lady that is living below us. I would respond that I am barefoot and just walking normally and I had no awareness of what he was talking about…that is until I went to seek help for my neuropathy. The Dr. observed me walking down the hall before my therapy and then again after. He could tell that I could walk much lighter afterwards since I had more feeling in my feet. Now I could believe what Al said.

I read today from Proverbs 16 and verse 2 say, All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the Spirit.” Maybe we think we are right and even discuss with the Lord our feelings and plans, but is it in harmony with His? Are there areas of our lives that we are blind to our faults and perhaps prideful? In verse 5 it says what God thinks about that. The amplified version says, “Everyone proud and arrogant in heart is disgusting, hateful, and exceedingly offensive to the Lord; be assured (I pledge it) they will not go unpunished.”

In our pridefulness we may think our ways are better than God’s and that is arrogance. Instead, we need to commit everything to the Lord, and when He shows us that we are out of line, we need to agree with Him and ask to be centered in His will. Verse 20 gives us the result, “He who deals wisely and heeds (God’s) word and counsel shall find good, and whoever leans on, trusts in, and is confident in the Lord—happy, blessed, and fortunate is he.” Let us ask the Lord to show us areas of our lives that are not in alignment with Him and humbly ask forgiveness and be willing to go His way.

Challenge for today: Dare to ask a close Christian friend how they see you and if there are areas of your life that need to change and be willing!
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

October 30, 2024

Dear Ones,
Hope you are having a good day. We are home now after a wonderful time with good friends from Washington. We visited yesterday and went out for supper and had prayer together and lots of laughter and again this morning before leaving for home. Friends in the Lord are a gift from the Lord.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
 We all have areas in our lives that we struggle with and for some it is combating fear and other personalities struggle more with anger. I am phlegmatic personality, so it is fear that is something that I need to guard against and focus on the Lord and not the “what if’s”. Recently my eyes came upon an article by Pastor Paul Daugherty who wrote about Fighting Fear. He relates how fear and faith require the same amount of energy for they want us to believe and act on something that hasn’t happened yet.

Fear brings to mind the worst things that can possibly happen to us, like job loss, death of a spouse, health problems, divorce, humiliating circumstances etc. Fear wants us to believe the worst. Faith rather wants to believe the best is about to come. It may not be exactly as we imagine but it will be good, and we can look forward to the future.

Daugherty gives the example of David who wrote the familiar Psalm 23 that he would fear no evil even though he would walk through the valley of the shadow of death, because he knew the Lord was with him. Everything was not hunky dory for him at the time for he was hiding in a cave from King Saul who wanted to kill him. He focused on the Lord and not his fears.

Let us not focus on our fears but on the One who frees us and brings peace to our souls. Join in in praying this prayer by Daugherty, who at one time stood on a bridge overlooking a freeway with intent to possibly end his life but chose faith in the Lord.
“Lord Jesus, my Savior, I choose right now to walk in freedom from fear. The only fear I accept in my mind and heart is the fear of God. I believe the best is yet to come in my life, Lord Jesus, because You are in charge of my life. I say yes to the blessings You are ready to pour out on me and my family, and I say no to worry or anxiety or doubt or fear. Whatever fears have plagued me in the past, I reject them now. I release them now. And I choose to carry them no more.  In Jesus’ name, Amen”

Challenge for today: When fearful thoughts try to edge their way into your thoughts, give them all to the Lord in exchange for His peace.

Blessings on the remainder of your day and prayers and love, Judy

October 29, 2024

Dear Ones,
Hope you wake to a great day! We had a fun party last night and today we are going to be off to the cities. We plan to meet good friends from Washington state who will be coming through later today and we will have supper and stay at the same hotel and have breakfast with them before they take off for home. Tomorrow you won’t get your devotional until we return from our trip.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
I think a question we have all asked at times in our lives is: Why does God permit suffering? Exactly why do bad things happen to good people? But there isn’t a pat answer for there are many reasons that we may experience suffering, and it depends on what purpose the Lord has in mind. Our pastor is preaching a series on the book of Job, and we know Job personally suffered severely, losing his health, children, livestock, servants etc. but not because he had sinned. His friends rebuked him and thought he brought in on himself by sinning, but that was not so. A good lesson not to presume we know the reason others are going through a time of suffering but rather to pray for them to respond rightly.

As often the case we may suffer as the result of our own bad behavior and hopefully we can learn from it. Just as we also try to teach our children by giving consequences when they have done wrong, it is ultimately so they learn. We have many examples in scripture of how the Lord punished the children of Isael when they disobeyed, for He waited for them to humble themselves and return to Him.  Sometimes we go through times of testing of our faith to help refine us so we are dependent on the Lord. Or like pastor said, it could be for the purpose of displaying his power, like the blind man whose blindness wasn’t because of his sin but for God’s glory.  God can also use hard things in our lives so that we get to rock bottom that will cause us to seek the Lord and His help. Maybe we have a thorn in the flesh as Paul did but it is to keep us humble. There are times also that we may get too attached to the things of the world and the Lord takes us through some hard circumstances for the good of our soul and to focus more on what is truly important.

No matter what we go through, even though we may not know why we have to suffer, we know that the Lord will walk with us through it. In fact, He can even work good come even out of our errors as the familiar verse Romans 8:28 says, ”We know that all things work together of the good of those who love God—those whom He has called according to His plan.”

Challenge for today: Memorize Romans 8:28
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Restoring Sexual Sanity

This is the title of an article in First Things by theologian Peter Leithart.  I marvel how spiritually astute theologians  can express their thoughts in such a concise and profound manner.  I found this to be true of Leithart’s discussion of sexuality.  I hope I can do justice to his very insightful article in this short blog. He begins with this insightful statement, “Ours is an age of sexual insanity.”  After giving a litany of examples, he notes, “Our sexual ethic reduces to a single prohibition: Thou shalt not suppress any sexual desires.”  

“How can we free ourselves from the morass,” wonders Leithart.  He points us to the Song of Songs (S of S 4:16-5:1). “At the center of the Song of Songs is a garden scene: Bridegroom and Bride rejoice in one another in an erotic Eden, which rekindles the sexual bliss of a new Adam and a new Eve, fired by the unquenchable flame of Yahweh’s love.”

He asks, “What is restored?”  It is found in the dance of mutual desire between male and female.  “The Bride initiates the duet, longing for the Bridegroom’s inebriating kisses, intoxicated by his fragrance, hoping to escape to a chamber where they can drink together the wine of love….. .their desires are fulfilled in an erotic banquet where each is both host(ess) and fare.”   Sexual purity is restored as it burns white-hot.  Leithart notes, “Each receives, each gives; each is consuming, each is consumed.  For Solomon, something like erotic delirium, charged by the current of mutual passion, is the pinnacle of sexual rationality.” Leithart suggests, “far from dividing or separating, sexual disjunction ‘links.'”  

Solitude isn’t good for either men or women.  “In the erotic Eden of the Song, woman becomes herself by virtue of her magnetic attraction to the man, while the man is man as he bends in desire toward his bride.”  We are not able the understand the reality of “woman’ without co-implicating the reality “man.”  When man and woman are restored to their polarity and harmony, the Song’s erotic Eden portrays a humanity no longer disabled.

Bu the Song isn’t just a love story.  The bridegroom is the lover, Yahweh.  The bride is not a generic beloved, but the Bride of Christ.  The erotic Eden of the Song is also a liturgical Eden, where the Creator communes with man in the original marriage whose icon is the disjunctive union of male and female.”  If we read the Song as both a poem and allegory it helps us with sanity.  We need to see the liturgical Eden as well as the erotic Eden.

Leithart closes with this observation.  “But we can’t reach past the liturgical Eden to seize the erotic Eden.  The liturgical enacts the archetypal reciprocity and bi-polarity of Bridegroom and Bride.  The path to sexual sanity passes through the liturgical dialogue of Christ Jesus and his church, which alone restores our broken sexuality and models the polyphonic love for which God created us in his image as male and female.” 

I embrace the images of erotic and liturgical Eden.  Most evangelical have not focused on the liturgical Eden, whereas the past history of Christian spirituality has given us many commentaries on the Song, seeing the church as the bride and Jesus as the bridegroom.  This has been my view for nearly thirty years.  It has helped me to experience my sexual energy intermingled with my spiritual energy.  My sexual passions are as holy as those of my spiritual passions.  I can admit that I am a soulful man with erotic desires.  May my deepest passion be for the Lord, while not being ashamed of my sexual energy.     

October 28, 2024

Dear Ones,
Hope you had a good weekend! We enjoyed a meal after church yesterday served by the youth who are raising money to go to FLY. Today I plan to do to Aldi’s and Exercise class and a Halloween party here. The community room is already decorated, and Al and I are going as Kansas State fans. Not scary but he will wear his jersey with pajama pants! Emoji
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Recently a friend and I had a question to write about in the 2 weeks when we would get together again. We take turns choosing a question and since it was my turn I asked, which spiritual disciplines help you the most in your life with the Lord? What things seem to draw you closer and what disciplines may you want to incorporate into your life? During those 2 weeks I began reading a book by Albert Haase, a Franciscan priest. The book, The Persistent God, was filled with spiritual disciplines that help us be mindful of God’s presence and His divine invitations. Some of the ways I have even taught in the past, but I sense a need to have a fresh desire to be open to new ways of being aware of the Lord and faithful in prayer throughout my day. The question asked by the author, “Is your prayer making you prayerful? Does our prayer time result in how open we are to others in sharing His love.  Hummm! If not, maybe we need to find a new way of being prayerful, and there are so many.

One such spiritual discipline that I was reminded of is called the Examen and it is a very old tradition (over 500 years old) but I have not thought of doing it for some time. A Jesuit priest, Ignatius, was the one who proposed it and suggests we do it twice a day for about 15-20 minutes. There are 5 steps to it but if we sense God’s grace on a certain one, we can linger there for the entire time, as we make it our own.

Step one begins with gratitude, and we think over our past hours and how God may have blessed us, and we spend time thanking him. Perhaps we got an uplifting email of hope, we thank the Lord. Step 2 is to ask the Holy Spirit to heal us of our blindness, deafness, and hard-heartedness as we review our life since we last prayed. Step 3 is to listen to those times God was present and challenging and urging us to respond in a particular way that would manifest His love. Was He present in our daily routine? Step 4 is all about forgiveness and expressing sorrow for regrets we may have in how we responded and then listen for His response of compassion and forgiveness. Step 5 is to renew and reaffirm our intention to be prayerful and attentive to the Lord’s invitations in our ordinary moments.

This is only one spiritual discipline and there are so many but the real question is, am I awake to the Lord’s presence and will I recognize the many ways He will come to me today?

Challenge for today: Be intentional about seeking to know how God is manifesting His presence to you today.
Blessing on your week and prayers and love, Judy

October 26, 2024

Dear Ones,
Hope you are having an enjoyable refreshing weekend. It is the season of parties and one more coming up here on Monday evening, a Halloween party. EmojiEmoji Today I plan to clean!
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Are we just Sunday Christians or do we want to live out our life with the Lord every day throughout the week? Each day, not just Sunday, the Lord comes knocking at our hearts door and desires that we open the door and spend time with Him. He says in Rev. 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears and listens to and heeds My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he (will eat) with Me.” The Lord knocks and doesn’t force His way in but waits for us to respond.

When our pastor was recently sick and unable to preach, one of the elders at the last moment, shared for the sermon time. He mentioned the 7 different churches in Revelation and said perhaps our church was most like the church in Laodicea. That church wasn’t poor but they had become lukewarm and were given the message to repent and open the door to their hearts for the Lord knocks. Perhaps this is a word for each of us, for we can sail along in our Christian lives and slack off in our daily devotions, get lukewarm in our prayer lives and take for granted the Lord’s presence and power. We can become shallow and superficial and neglect what is most important.

How we live our lives each day has a direct response to our time with the Lord. When we spend time in the Lord’s presence, we are sent out into our day to share Him with others in the various ways He puts before us. He may come to us disguised in the life of our co-worker who needs a word of encouragement. It could be He comes to us in meeting a physical need of an impoverished family, or maybe helping at a soup kitchen or shelter. Let us be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and when we feel the knock at our heart’s door that we quickly open to Him.

Challenge for today: Sit in quiet for 5 minutes and slowly breathe in His presence and enjoy the Lord.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

October 25, 2024

Dear Ones,
Happy weekend to you! Today is party day here and we will be going to pick up the cake and then celebrate the October birthdays. Later I am going to church for a Women’s night out with supper and special speaker. Emoji
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Sometimes the Lord answers our prayers before we even speak them.  It says in Isaiah 65:24, “Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear.” I think for all of us this would be our preferred way of getting immediate answers, but the Lord works in many different ways. Sometimes we don’t see the answers for many years and other times it is right before us without the words even getting out of our mouths.

I would like to share another story from the book, Food from Ravens, as told by Margaret Wall. She was a missionary serving as a parish worker in Nairobi, Kenya, and blessed when she visited patients on the wards of a large hospital. There was freedom to speak openly of God, even among the non-Christians, but one day she was totally rejected by a woman, BiBi from a northern tribe in Turkana, Kenya. When Bibi saw Margaret coming towards her bed, she had a look of terror and recoiled. Margaret had no idea why she was afraid of her, but the nurses told of how this patient had come alone on the plane in great pain from her body being torn by unqualified helpers who forced labor on her in and abnormal pregnancy. Bibi needed someone who spoke Turkana and Margaret prayed for such a person, calling many people and trying to find that someone. One day she heard a voice in her spirit telling her, “Go down to the Christian bookstore for help.”  She obediently went and asked at the bookstore if anyone spoke Turkana. The clerk asked at the nearby office and finally in a loud voice asked if anyone shopping in the store knew of someone who could speak Turkana. You guessed it, the person behind Margaret said, “I do!” It was Jon who was a Turkana evangelist with a missionary pastor, in line at the bookstore. He had come a long way to the bookstore and was the answer to a prayer that had not yet been prayed.
Jon went to the hospital to Bibbi’s ward, and everyone watched as he communicated with Bibi in her language. Her countenance changed and her fears were melted away as Jon shared Jesus with her and later made cassette tapes in Turkana telling the gospel stories. Everyone wanted to know why she had been so afraid of the missionaries and Jon found out she thought they were going to kill her. Bibi found the Lord and freedom from her fears and Margaret was in awe of how the Lord answered her prayers.

Challenge for today: Bring all your concerns to the Lord in prayer and then be open to how He sends the answers.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

October 24, 2024

Dear Ones,
Hope you have a wonderful day. Al will be going to men’s group, and I plan to go to my therapy treatment and after Bible Study, I am having my hair done. One of the men from our Bible study died yesterday morning from a massive heart attack and is now with the Lord. He is in the better place, but we will all miss him.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
I recently read an article about reclaiming the truth about marriage that was written by a woman who was divorced from her abusive and unfaithful husband but had not lost hope. Today we are told the lie about marriage being harmful and antiquated in an anti-marriage culture but don’t believe the myth. Marriage is not outdated or a ticket to slavery but a wonderful gift. It is written in Hebrew 13:4, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” Marriage is also a picture of Christ with His church as it says in Rev. 19:7, “Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to cloth herself with fine linen, bright and pure—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.”

First of all, a good marriage provides stability and is the best environment to experience well-being, raise kids, and accumulate wealth. We see the statistics of children born into a married household that do better in school and have less chance of delinquency. Marriage also is great financially for married couples save more, buy homes, make more investments and increase their wealth by 16% each year they are married. Couples also have better health and lower levels of cortisol from stress and less illnesses.  Of course, a good marriage is a gift for the individuals but also to families and society. If we want what is best for young people, we need to encourage them to get married and start families and not buy into the anti-marriage culture.

I have been married 59 years and I believe my life is so much richer than if I had remained single. A professor from Harvard concluded his research by saying, “The effects of marriage on health, happiness and life satisfaction, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, close social relationships, and financial stability are thus profound.”
Let us not believe the lies of our anti-marriage culture and miss what God may have for us.

Challenge for today: Encourage young people to strive for marriage at the right time to the right person and know that it is worth the effort.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

October 23, 2024

Dear Ones,
Hope you have a peace filled day! Yesterday we had a wonderful day with friends and today we are blessed again as we anticipate lunch with dear friends from the lake and trying a new restaurant. I hope to get some baking done also and Bible Study is tonight.
Devotions from Judy’s heart,
I was reading an article by Ron Rolheiser who shared about the 3 struggles in life: to get our lives together, to give our lives away, and to give our deaths away.” The first two we can easily understand but I wanted to read more about what it means to give our deaths away. I am getting older and would want to leave behind not sadness but what nourishes and warms the hearts of my family and friends that I leave behind. How does one do this?

Perhaps what prompted this was a conversation I had with a friend at my exercise class recently who had just attended two funerals that week of neighbors who had died. She told of the one man who had been confined to bed in the Nursing home and one morning as the nurse came into his room, she found the man not only out of bed but kneeling by the bed. He was dead but fixed in a kneeling position praying to the Lord. I just got goose bumps as I thought of what a way to go! What a message that sends to his loved ones of Who was most important in his life to the very end.

When a loved one dies in peace it is consoling and a gift to all of us left behind. None of us know what the dying process is like for we have not been this way before. It is unknown but we do know that the Lord will be with us and we will be ushered into glory. When someone dies in bitterness and anger what they leave behind is harmful and toxic but if they die in peace, it is nourishing and a gift that warms our heart even in our grieving. I know when my parents come to mind, I am left with such warmth and gratitude for all they left behind.  Let us live with the desire to leave a spirit of peace for our family and friends and not a burden.

Challenge for today: Live today with eternity in mind and be at peace with the Lord and others.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

October 22, 2024

Dear Ones,
Hope you have a wonderful day. We are getting special company for an early lunch as it is the best man from our wedding and his wife that we have known all these years. It’s always a time filled with much laughter, as well as catching up!!
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Well, the time is very near when we will vote and let’s pray for one another and remember our hope is in the Lord and He is in charge. I recently read on Facebook, “Someday the King will return. He won’t need to be elected. There will be no debates. Every knee will bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.”

 I have one more prayer from Whitney Hopler and will just quote part of it so I can finish with her conclusion. She prays a Prayer for the Vulnerable and Marginalized people.

“Dear God, we bring before you the most vulnerable and marginalized members of our society during this election season We pray for those who are often overlooked and whose voices are not heard. Protect and uplift them, God. Please make sure their needs are considered and addressed by all the people who are elected to serve Psalm 82:3-4 urges us to: ‘Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

Whitney finishes by saying:

“In conclusion, as we go through this challenging election season, let’s remember the power of prayers and the importance of seeking God’s guidance. God can show us ways to move forward into a better future for all Americans- despite our political differences. By lifting each other up in prayer, we welcome God’s love and power to flow through our lives and heal our nation. Let’s continue to pray for the candidates (president and all the other electoral offices), our neighbors, and ourselves, trusting that God will lead us through this tumultuous time and into a better future

As we pray and stay committed to a free and fair democratic process, we can help bring about positive change for the common good. Psalm 33:12 tell us: ‘Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He chose for his inheritance.” May God reign in our hearts and in our nation”

Challenge for today: Pray and then go vote
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy
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