Dear Ones,
Hope you are enjoying the weekend, even if it is raining there. I just did food prep and cleaned the apartment and am still catching up on mail from our trip. We had a fun party yesterday and good turnout and good helpers.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
We have lost friends and family recently as several have gone home to be with the Lord.  it makes the eternal things more real as we stop and ask ourselves if we are living with heaven in mind or are we focused on earthly things. We need to be God-conscious and focused on the things of the Spirit and not distracted and weighed down with the things of this world.

 A short prayer I read this morning by A.W. Tozer that may help us in this:  “ Oh God, quicken to life every power within me, that I may lay hold on eternal things. Open my eyes that I may see; give me acute spiritual perception; enable me to taste Thee and know that Thou are good. Make heaven more real to me than any earthly thing has ever been. Amen.”

Only fellowship with God will quiet our soul’s longing, for all that the world offers won’t satisfy our heart’s desire. We all have a choice if we want to follow the Lord and choose His eternal kingdom, or if we will choose the world and all that will pass away one day. Our answer has huge ramifications for if we choose God, we find great joy in His presence. We might ask, how does the Lord manifest His presence to us? He does this through a myriad of ways.

One of our friends just began teaching at a Disciple Training School and her whole subject for this year is on Intimacy with the Lord. The other pastor is going to speak on Spiritual Gifts, and she will be sharing on the different aspects of growing in Intimacy with the Lord to about 30 eager young people. What a privilege that is to teach them about what it means to really have a close, loving relationship with the Lord, to experience His presence through prayer, scripture, praise, worship and adoration; also, through humility, repentance, and holiness. At the first class she had them practice quiet listening for 5 minutes and then some shared what they felt the Lord was saying to them. What an encouragement to help them find pleasure in the Lord’s presence and to talk with Him all throughout their day.  

Jesus wants to reveal Himself to each of us and wants to love us and converse with us. Let us be spiritually aware and respond like David in Psalm 27:8, “They face, Lord, will I seek.”

Challenge for today: Sing or pray the song: “Spirit of God, descend upon my heart; Wean it from earth, through all its pulses move; stoop to my weakness, mighty as Thou art, and make me love Thee as I ought to love,”
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy