Category: Sister Judy (Page 43 of 267)

Dear Ones,

Happy weekend to you! Today is party day here so we will be going to Costco for the cake and celebrating the May birthdays. Always a fun time and we feel blessed to live in a place where there are many gatherings and daily opportunities to share with others.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Recently we watched home movies and so many took place around our table in different parsonages or at our retreat house with family and various groups of young and old. As I look back, I am thankful for the energy and joy to host the groups. In those days, we had center pieces and used real dishes, cloth table linens and cloth napkins folded in napkin holders etc. It gave the sense that friends and neighbors were special, thought about. and cherished.

  But I recently read an article by Abby Turner Kuykendall who wrote of The Other Side of Hospitality which is a little harder for me.as she writes about receiving hospitality and being served as well. In her words, “True hospitality involves something deeper, something beyond perfectly set tables and meticulously planned gatherings? What if it’s about opening our hearts to the natural ebb and flow of our season, recognizing that there are times for both serving and being served?” She is in the season of being served as she has a new baby and is a fulltime worker and is accepting help from her husband and others.                                                                                 We also need help in our lives at various times and must learn to accept being served as well. Think of examples in Scripture like Jesus who came to serve and even wash feet of his disciples but was also served by Mary and Martha and others. Receiving makes us more vulnerable and opens up space for a deeper and closer connection with others. We have only to go through hip surgery, death of a loved one etc. and it helps us become good receivers for a time with great appreciation of being served.                                                                                                                 Even though it may be more comfortable for us to be in the serving role, we need to be willing to receive. It may not be a meal, but it could be simply someone listening to us and hearing our heart. We will find that we become more deeply connected as we not only give out but receive.  As it says in Prov. 11:25, “A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.”

Challenge for today: Embrace the season you are in if that changes, be ready to embrace it.

Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

“I don’t know about tomorrow,
I just live from day to day.
I don’t borrow from its sunshine,
For its skies may turn to gray.
I don’t worry o’er the future,
For I know what Jesus said,
And today I’ll walk beside Him,
For He knows what is ahead.

We all go through hard times of sadness and mourning, and it is part of our healing, but let us not get stuck there for we need to let joy come into our lives again. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” Psalms 30:5

Where we live at Northern Lakes, many have lost their loved ones and grief is very real and huge adjustments result. I notice that others who have lost their mates, come along side of them, for they have known that darkness of grief but also have known that the Lord will walk beside them and hold their hand. He will shine His light of healing into their lives and one day joy will return. Whatever we go through now, let us be assured we don’t go through it alone, for the Lord will never leave us, but walk us through it.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Hope you wake to a day of peace. Today I will be going to my exercise class (much needed since I missed walking yesterday and have had rich desserts), craft class, and Bible study.  After our company yesterday our grandson came, and he cleaned up the leftovers. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

When we come to know the Lord, we are traveling together with other believers on a road that leads us closer to the Lord and an eternity with Him and one another. We are going the same direction and have the same destination, so it is important that we get along and help each other along the way. I like to read scripture from more than one translation as it helps me see things, I may not otherwise be aware of. Today I was in Ephesians 4 in the Message translation, and it gives me a big picture of the Body of Christ traveling well together and hints as to how to get along on the journey.

Challenge for today: Travel in oneness on the journey and be humble and forgiving with others along the way.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

It reminded me of II Cor. 518, “Therefore if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold the fresh and new has come!” That was so true of the changed life I saw before me. He was not just reformed but he was made new. When any one of us comes to the Lord in faith, we are made fresh and new, and we no longer live for ourselves but live to please the Lord. It doesn’t matter what we have done in the past for it is forgiven and we are set free. When our heart is changed, it also shows up in our countenance, the way we live our life, and also in our works. It is not to bring glory to ourselves but glory to the Lord, out of His love for us.

Paul also said in Col 2:6-7, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” Every day each of us should be growing and being built up in our faith and seeking to please the Lord. When we first come to know Himl it is only the beginning of a lifelong process of living our whole lives for Him.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

A blessed Memorial Day as we honor those who gave their lives for our country.

We had a fun weekend at the lake and enjoyed being with family, a picnic/birthday party, games,

and time to enjoy the beauty of nature.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Beginnings are important but we need the Lord’s help to finish well also. We can start out in a ministry and be doing great and then go off on our own and suffer disgrace. We forget who is giving us the power to do the work God has called us into. Saul was such a person. He was anointed by Samual to be king and the people responded with enthusiastic approval. He was very tall and handsome and a good general winning victories over their enemies. But along the way he began to disobey God and didn’t fully carry out His instructions; like the time he was told to destroy completely the Amalekites and all their possessions, but he allowed the people to keep back animals for sacrifices. To obey only halfway is disobedience and it seems to lead to more disobedience and a bad ending.

Challenge for today: Let His light shine through all you do, and may you finish well, and all glory to Him.

Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

May you have a wonderful holiday weekend! Hoping for a sunny day as we are going to the cabin to enjoy time with family, having a wiener roast, games, and going to our former church tomorrow.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

What a surprise when I looked out our bedroom window after being gone 10 days. Before we left, I noticed two spindly leafless trees on the right that had several barren branches that drooped down towards the ground and looked dead. The morning after we got back, I couldn’t believe my eyes as both trees were full of green leaves that reached high and also to those low branches. Who would have imagined that those trees had so much life in them.

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to make you into His fruit bearer for His glory!

Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

In marriage each couple forms their own routines and rituals. Neither person will be ecstatic and interesting and beautiful all the time, but they find their own rhythm. Marriage will sustain the relationship when they are tired and a bit grouchy, for they will live out their commitment to God and to love one another for better or worse, for rich or poor and til death parts them.

When Al and I first got married we could hardly bear to be apart to go to our individual jobs; but as time went on life becomes more routine and we have those close times together, but we also have spaces to be apart. We both desire to keep growing in our love for the Lord and our commitment and love for each other. That can speak volumes through our actions. While at a previous hotel we found out after we checked in and got the last room, that they were renovating the hotel. I was especially disappointed as I like to retreat, and the desk had no light along with the whole side of the room. That meant as it got dark, I could no longer read and study and write at the desk. Al was thinking of me for when he came back from his walk, he came in the door joyfully carrying a big lamp that he was able to get from the manager. Love willingly goes out of its way for one another and marriage keeps us faithful to the commitment. Marriage gives us the extra push to love in all seasons and causes it to deepen in appreciation of the longevity of the relationship. Though our culture acts like marriage is on the outs and fragile, it is a deepening relationship of mutual love.

Blessings on your holiday weekend and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Prayer is one of the most important things we can do and not just prayer for ourselves and our families but for our neighbors and friends and pastors but government officials and whoever the Lord puts on our hearts. We may never fully know the power of our prayers, even to save lives. Such was the case I read about in Dutch Sheets book, Watchman Prayer, concerning Anna Schrader. She was praying and felt like the Lord was saying that Gorden Lindsay, who was preparing to go on a world trip, was in great danger. She warned him to look to the right when he got to Hong Kong, and also asked others to also pray. When Gordon got to Tokyo the man who was to take him on to Hiroshima, had to cancel and Gorden didn’t know what to do. He asked the Lord and felt led to go to his next destination instead and got the first plane. He remembered to look to the right and saw a big Canadian plane and many people boarding. The next day the newspaper was put under his door, and he read that the Canadian plane he had seen crashed and all the people were killed. The following day he got another paper and discovered that the plane he would have been on if he had gone to Hiroshima also crashed and killed 124 people, for it exploded over Mt. Fuji. How important the prayers of those praying for Gordon were and saved his life.

Challenge for today: Pray for those in your neighborhood or co-workers and look for opportunities to share the Lord.

Blessings on your evening and day tomorrow. Prayers and Love, Judy

I am reading in the book of Ezra, how Zerubbabel led over 42,000 Israelites back to their land after being exiled in Babylon for 70 years. It was God’s doing that the Persian King Cyrus, gave volunteers permission to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. They no more got started with the foundation laid and the altar built and sacrifices offered, when they had to face opposition that hindered the building for over 16 years. Zerubbabel was discouraged and the people fearful; but finally, when their hearts received encouragement by words from the prophets and leaders and reading of the scriptures, they were able to finish the temple and worship there again.

We will have those that oppose us and try to sidetrack us from doing God’s will and we may get discouraged. We should not be surprised or feel hopeless, but rather seek God’s help and move ahead. God may use others to come along side of us, and encourage us and pray for us so that we can complete the work given to us. Let us not be slowed down or to give up but to place everything in God’s hands and go in His power, not ours.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Likewise, Mark Mc Minn, a Professor of Psychology, writes about longing for home as a spiritual metaphor for a yearning for a spiritual center, and a deeper relationship with God. I read his book, Finding Our Way Home, and he likens it to us being a hitchhiker who leaves home in search for something deeper or exciting, or possibly the discovery of our true self. It would involve us to reflect on our past and make connections with the present and to know more fully God’s secure love. It is much like the Prodigal son, who left home and wandered about and squandered everything. He finally realized all that he had at home, and he had a desire to return; to his surprise he was welcomed royally and restored as his Father’s son..

For all of us, going home takes courage for we have to deal with our pain, as well as the joys of the past. It could mean that we have to make amends, forgive, or give up our false selves in order to return to the Father. However, in giving over our sad happenings that make us blind to God’s love, they can instead become a source of wisdom and strength in our lives.

God puts within each of us a yearning for Him, who is our spiritual home. He welcomes us home to a place of love and peace. If not for God, we would probably all look for love in the wrong places. Our ultimate home is in heaven, and it is a place of secure love for we can rest in the arms of our loving Father.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Thank you for prayers for our travels.