Category: Sister Judy (Page 158 of 277)

Dear Ones,

Hope you had a peace-filled weekend. This morning I made a Starch free cake and went to Aldi’s and then to my exercise class. This afternoon we are going to Costco and other errands before our walk in this gorgeous weather. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Perhaps more than ever before we long for peace, not just in our world but peace within ourselves. Jesus has promised His peace that is not dependent on circumstances but found by trusting Him. He said in John 14:27 (God’s Word), “I’m leaving you peace. I don’t give you the kind of peace that the world gives. So don’t be troubled or cowardly.” The peace Jesus gives is a gift the world cannot give us. The Message says, “This is my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re use to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.” No, real  peace is from above and available to us as His followers. I was reading from Ann Spangler’s one year devotional and she writes of the Hebrew word for peace, Shalom. It has the meaning of calm, wholeness, wellness, harmony, perfection, safety, completeness, soundness etc. Doesn’t that sound beautiful, especially in our chaotic world right now? How we need shalom and we can have that within, even when the world is full of so much evil. God sent Jesus who sacrificed His life so that we can come to know real peace. He is our peace and when we know Him we can experience peace that is not dependent on what is happening around us. We can ask Him to help us show others as well, the things that make for true peace. Ann quotes Etty Hillesum, who I have written about before; she is the woman who died in a Nazi death camp during World War II. She wrote, “Ultimately, we have just one moral duty; to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it towards others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will be in our troubled world.” Think of Ann in a death camp and yet had peace in the most adverse circumstance because she had His peace within. In this time of chaos, God’s children should be not be anxious and go about the day full of fear, but rather be lights showing the way to claim His peace in the darkness. We don’t know what is going to happen next, but we do know that God is in control and He is certainly worthy of our trust. The Lord is our light and salvation, we have nothing to fear.

Challenge for today: Memorize Psalm 27:1and carry it in your heart in fearful times. 

Dear Ones,

Hope you are having a good weekend. This morning I cleaned our apartment and made Beef Stroganoff  and took a friend here to the Dollar Store. Another mild day and lovely for a walk. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

How many of us accept suffering as a gift? Really a gift? I’m sure we don’t seek suffering but when it comes our way, do we embrace what it has to teach us or do we quickly try to escape. Most of us would say we like comfort and we are being manipulated today by our love for pleasure and fear of discomfort. It is one of the enemies lies to promise us a life without suffering or any kind of discomfort. Jesus never said that His followers would not suffer and says in Matt. 5:11-12a (ESV), “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for our reward is great in heaven.” God can teach us many things through times of suffering if we are open to its lessons. In Rod Dreher’s book, he said that Jesus doesn’t want admirers but followers. Admirers play it safe and don’t want to make sacrifices but followers want to be like Him and willing to pay the cost, no matter what. It is almost hard to read the accounts of those who have paid the ultimate price. When we think of life under communism, people sent to prison were never returned, children were taken away from parents because of their faith, others endured terrible torture.  Maria Wittner is a national hero for fighting the Soviets when they invaded Hungary. She was a teenager and was arrested and sentenced to death row. Every day there were hangings and miraculously God spared her life. She tells us that if our soul is free there is nothing they can do to us. In the end those who are afraid end up worse than the courageous. Our suffering can have purpose even if we are not aware at the time. It can deepen our love for God and for others, teach us patience and kindness, and help us sense true meaning in life. Suffering refines us and also helps us join with others who have grief, for we understand and know that God is enough.  But we must refuse hatred and leave vengeance up to the Lord. We will live most freely when we bear suffering and pain for Jesus, and do not run from it but accept it as God’s severe mercy. Let us live in truth no matter what the cost.

Challenge for today: Embrace suffering as a friend and as a gift that has things to teach you.

Dear Ones,

Hope you have a good weekend wrapped in His peace! This morning I made egg dishes and went downstairs for coffee. It’s been a while. Ann came and we had a good visit before she went shopping.  I am a little sore today from my strength building class yesterday but I aim to go again! 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Are we known as great lovers…lovers of God, lovers of others and even lovers of ourselves in the Lord? Jesus told us in I John 13:34-35 (God’s Word), “I’m giving you a new commandment; Love each other in the same way that I have loved you. Everyone will know that you are my disciples because of your love for each other.” Jesus didn’t say just love those that agree with you, those that bless you and are kind to you and speak well of you. No, He includes those that persecute us, speak evil of us, and hate us. That is a tall order and we can only do this with the same love He loves us. Today it is so sad to see hate messages on Facebook from Christians who are the very ones called to love and bless others. The enemy rejoices when he sees churches divided, friends separated and families split. Satan has already won if we base our love for others on how well they treat us or if we are in agreement. No, we are told, “Let all be done in love.” That means feeding our enemy, not rejoicing when they fall, repaying evil with good, and blessing our enemies and praying for them. What would happen in our families and our country if we did this… a revival may break out! It is not our place to destroy others. Jesus didn’t retaliate in return for the evil done to Him but He entrusted himself to God who judges rightly. Whatever happens we can give it over to the Lord and let Him right the wrongs. One friend told me recently she almost quit going to church because of the hateful bashing by one of the members. That is a dangerous place to be as the enemy gets a foothold in our lives and evil takes over. So sad as we should be examples of those who love as Jesus did. Do we dare pray that the Lord would convict us of times we have wanted to get back at our enemies and wanted to even the score? Let us humble our hearts and ask Him to remove hateful thoughts and fill us with His unconditional love that brings blessings to others.

Challenge for today: Spend some time letting the Holy Spirit search your heart, repent and fill you to overflowing with His love. 

 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

How does God’s presence manifest in our lives each day? Do we pray and then do as we please, or do we live our prayers and bring His presence to others? Sometimes just a smile or word of encouragement can change the day for someone when we respond to the Holy Spirit’s prompting. I was reading about Thomas Edison who was the greatest inventor of all with 1,093 patents including electric light and power, phonographs, telegraph and telephone etc. He didn’t question if something could be done but always sought to see how it was done. One would have thought he excelled in school and was in a gifted class. But that is not the case. He was the 7^th child in the family and had a hearing problem, which made it difficult for him in school. In fact, when he was 12 years old, his teacher sent home a note for his mom that said, “Your son is addled (mentally ill) and we will not let him attend our institution any longer.” Young Thomas was told not to look at the note but to give it to his mom. When she opened it up, she began weeping and told her son that the school felt he was so smart that there weren’t teachers good enough to teach him and he should learn at home. And that is what his mom did; she began teaching him and encouraging him each day. Thomas felt she was so sure of Him that he didn’t want to disappoint her. Rather than his mom seeing him as one who was dumb and psychotic, she chose to see him as a gifted child and he was. Later in life when she died Thomas found the teacher’s note buried in her closet and read what it really said. He sobbed as he realized what his mom had done for him. Now that is an extraordinary example of how our lives affect others, but each of us can express God’s love to others each day in numerous ways when we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading. The beloved disciple said in I John 4:12 & 16 (God’s Word), “If we love each other, God lives in us, and His love is perfected in us… We have known and believed that God loves us. God is love. Those who live in God’s love live in God, and God lives in them.”  Love is a choice and an action, and not just a feeling we get. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to love and display God’s love to others. May we live out His love in our lives and reflect it to the world around us. The choice is ours!

Challenge for today: Thank the Lord for His love for you, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you share  that love with others.

Dear Ones,

Hope you are having a peace filled day. This morning I made our favorite bars and some veggie dishes and went to my exercise class. Al has his computer back already and is up and running.  We got just the right Geek as he went right to work on it and had it done in 3 hours. PTL! 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Know the times! We are in a new time in our culture and we have not experienced anything like this before. We need the Holy Spirit to help us discern the times and to know what the Lord is saying to us.  The other morning, I woke up and saw that the bedroom clock showed it was 4 o’clock, the time I usually get up. So, I began having my devotions and after an hour, I went to the kitchen to put Al’s egg dish in the oven etc. Before long Al got up and asked me what I was doing making noise at 4 am in the kitchen! I thought it was 5, but then remembered our bedroom clock had been unplugged for a while the night before and not set right. I couldn’t believe I got up at 3 a.m. and was all ready for the day. I was not aware of the correct time!  More importantly we need to know God’s time, how to interpret the spiritual signs of our time and to have discernment. Jesus told the Pharisees and Sadducees that came to test Him that they knew the physical signs of the weather by the color of the sky, but they didn’t know how to interpret the signs of the times. Apart from the Lord we cannot really know either. In the Old Testament Daniel knew he needed God’s wisdom, and when he prayed, he was given wisdom to know the times that saved not only his life but that of all the wise men. He said in Daniel 2:20-22 (God’s Word), “Praise God’s name from everlasting to everlasting because He is wise and powerful. He changes times and periods of history. He removes kings and establishes them. He gives wisdom to those who are wise and knowledge to those who have insight. He reveals deeply hidden things. He knows what is in the dark, and light lives with Him.”  We need to be awakened and to get discernment as to the times of our day. Only the Holy Spirit can interpret for us what is really going on behind the scenes and how we are to react and respond. May our prayer be as Paul prayed in Phil. 1:9-11, “I pray that your love will keep on growing because of your knowledge and insight. That way you will be able to determine what is best and be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. Jesus Christ will fill your lives with everything that God’s approval produces. Your lives will then bring glory and praise to God.”

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord for discernment to know the times!

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Happy weekend to you! I am writing early as I have to bring this computer in and have everything transferred over to my new one. They may keep my computer for a couple days  but hopefully will get it back soon. So you won’t hear from me during this time and will resume when I can. Pray all goes well!

Devotions from Judy’s heart

There are many people hurting and grieving losses of family and friends they miss, situations that have changed dramatically, and sadness for what once was. What do we do with our griefs that seem to be spilling out in various ways?  We can lament! I remember when Al was teaching on lament from the Psalms and how honest King David was before the Lord. One third of the Psalms he wrote were lament. He didn’t sugar coat how he was feeling but just let it all spill out. He said in Psalm 6:6-7, “I am worn out from my groaning. My eyes flood my bed every night. I soak my couch with tears. My eyes blur from grief. They fall because of my enemies.” That’s telling it like it is. Lori Ann Wood wrote an article in Just Between Us magazine on Learning to Lament. Perhaps we all need to do that, especially during this pandemic. She said that lament is a passionate expression of grief and sorrow, admitting to God our pain and confusion. Why God why?  We don’t like what is happening but underneath we still have faith and choose to trust in the Lord. Lori wrote that if we didn’t believe He existed, why would we even complain to Him? And if we didn’t believe He was all powerful, why would we think He could have changed the circumstances and done something about it? She goes on to say we also believe He loves us or why would we think He was listening as we open our hearts and tell Him our griefs?  We don’t have to suffer in silence but we can honestly tell Him just how we feel rather than keeping a stiff upper lip. It is not a failure of faith but an act of faith for we go directly to Him. Lament makes room for God and invites Him into our deepest pains. Jesus himself, experienced so much pain and sorrow in His short life on earth and can identify with us. He enters our suffering and it’s alright to tell Him all. Often, we find that after we have let out our pain and lamented, praise begins to well up in our hearts.

Challenge for today: Tell the Lord how you honestly feel and then leave everything up to Him.