Dear Ones,
Hope you wake to awe and praise to the Lord. I looked out on fresh snow, and it is so beautiful! The house is full of aroma as I have cinnamon bread in the oven for Al. His bleeding is minimal today from his tooth extraction yesterday so he will be able to eat soft things today. I have Women’s Bible study later this morning, followed by a Christmas luncheon. A great way to begin Advent. Today is our son Kurt’s birthday too!
Devotions from Judy’s heart
  Is the Lord most important in our lives? Do we value knowing Him above all else or are we compromised? When we are only half-hearted in knowing and serving the Lord, we miss the exciting full life He has planned for us. I read today of one man who lived mostly for Himself and hadn’t made a full commitment to the Lord; but after a while he admitted to his wife that his life was not all that much fun, and he surrendered everything to the Lord.

  Nothing we accomplish in life is worth comparing to knowing the Lord. In fact, the apostle Paul had lots of credentials and could have bragged about them, but he said he was throwing them out with the trash, because of Christ. In Phil 3 (The Message), he says “Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant-dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him.” He goes on to say he gave up inferior stuff to know Christ and to experience His resurrection power.

 Knowing the Lord and serving Him is far more important that getting to the top of the ladder of worldly success or accumulating great riches. Those things will one day all pass away but trusting and loving and serving the Lord has eternal value. If we live in His love, we will experience deep down joy and a sense of being fulfilled. As we share His love, it seems to multiply our joy. We can begin by practicing His love at home through sacrificial serving of one another. Sometimes it is costly, but it has eternal rewards reaps peace and blessings. Ajith Fernado wrote, “Love is going to be our preoccupation for eternity. Our present lives are but a training ground for the opportunity to fully experience and apply love.”  May we love Him and also share that love with others He puts in our lives.

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to show you any areas of compromise in your life and make a full commitment to the Lord.