Category: Sister Judy (Page 45 of 267)

 I am reading Eugene Peterson’s book on David, and who would have thought that the youngest boy of Jesse would perk the interest of the prophet Samuel?  Samuel came to Jesse’ farm and was looking over all his sons to find God’s replacement for King Saul. But it wasn’t any of the first 7 sons, though they may have been tall and handsome, but he chose the youngest son, a shepherd boy name David. No doubt his brothers must have been shocked when Samuel anointed their young brother and passed over them. David was God’s pick and he became a man after God’s heart.
God uses us as He wills and we must not believe we have to be important or hold degrees for Him to use us. In fact, Peterson was at a dinner party and the host asked them to share about a person who had made a difference in their life and shaped them in a spiritually formative way? Not one of them chose a professional, a pastor, a missionary, or a CEO, but someone who motivated and encouraged them and gave guidance, though may not stand out in our society.
Let us not think that God can’t use us right where we are at, for He has a calling for each of us. We are successful if whatever we do we do for God and bring Him glory. He puts His desires in our hearts that will befit us and bring deep joy.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Hope we wake to a day of sunshine after the rain yesterday. Al will be preaching next door this morning and I have my Exercise class and Crafts and later Bible Study.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

As things get worse in our culture, we will all have to decide where we stand. Will we just go along with those things that violate what scripture says or will we take a stand for what is right before God? At first, we may be tempted to compromise in little ways, but before long we will realize we have strayed far from what God says. It is a slippery slope, and we need to be careful not to water down what the Word says, for it will lead us to a place of compromise of our faith.

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to give you strength and courage to stand firm in Him and not compromise.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

I happened to read Delano Shefield from Fuller Seminary who writes about how our silent labor resonates. We don’t have to make a big deal in our work or deeds of kindness but let it speak in the silence, knowing the Lord sees. All that we do should be for the audience of One and that is the Lord. Delano gives the example of the suffering Christians in Thessalonica that received Paul’s message and lived it out in their lives. It was in a quiet way but spoke volumes to others. In I Thess 1:8 Paul says, “But in every place your faith in God has become known, so we have no need to speak about it.” Their faith was evident in what they did so there was no need to say anything. The Christians were doing their ordinary work in a quiet way and it spoke loudly to everyone around them. Paul had established this church on his second Missionary journey and now he was writing to encourage them. He commends them for their faith in action as they followed the teaching he gave them.

Even when our work is very hidden and no one else sees us, God does, and He is our audience! We can become the message just as the people in Thessalonica, as we live our lives for Him.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

I must confess when I was without my computer for 2 weeks while it was getting fixed, I wondered what good was going to come if I couldn’t my devotionals out to you who are reading this now. But Al let me use his computer to put new daily devotions on our blog site, although I couldn’t get to those individual ones of you that depend on me to send it direct. Each day it took more time than normal and some devotionals I had to write more than once as they disappeared. But I found out that I had more time, since I didn’t surf the web or play scrabble online and was able to do more studying in some great Christian books. When I did finally get my computer back, I had a great sense of gratitude and felt I had grown through this experience.

Paul sure had a good attitude when he was writing his letters in prison. He could have complained that he was doing the Lord’s work and look how it ended up. But no, he used it as his time to write and encourage others and bless them. We might say it was his pulpit to get the Good News to others, only through the written mode. Let us learn how to stand strong in adverse circumstances and maintain a positive attitude. May we not excuse ourselves and say we can’t do anything about our thinking. We can decide that even ahead of time for the Lord can give us victory over negative thinking and actions if commit ourselves and our thinking to Him. One positive thought will lead to another. A verse I learned as a child is from II Tim 1:7, For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and love and self-discipline.” Let us discipline our thoughts to be positive and confident in the Lord.

Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy

I am reading another book by Eugene Peterson, Leap Over a Wall, and he uses the stories of David’s life, his victories and failures, his strengths and his flaws to teach us. Although the Bible is full of prayers, sermons, genealogies, letters, poetry etc., Peterson said our scriptures are primarily written in the form of story. Jesus was full of stories and so was Moses and others and they help reveal to us who God is. The Bible is not just a book of spiritual principles or moral guidelines but reveals God to us in ways our hearts can take in. Peterson writes, “Story is the gospel way. Story isn’t imposed on our lives; it invites us into its life.” Stories tell us how primarily how to relate to God, and I never realized it before but “the David story is the most extensive narrated single story in this large story. We know more about David than any other person in Holy scripture.” David takes up a lot of space in the Bible and shows us much of dealing with God.

When we read stories of David, we see his humanness and have to admit he was not the best father or faithful husband, but we also see how he relates to God. I often find myself praying the prayers he prayed and memorizing many of them, like Psalm 5:1-2 when I have need of forgiveness. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!”

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

 It is the love of Jesus that draws people and Paul writes in Romans 12:9-10, “Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other.” We are to weep with those that are in sorrow or hard situations and we are to rejoice with those who are happy and celebrating. Sometimes God wants us to love by meeting tangible needs of a person struggling, but how do we know how to do that without getting in the way of what the Lord may be working in their lives?

Before we do anything, we need to pray. Ask the Lord to show us their real need and sometimes even to check with the person, because it may not be how we see their situation. Recently a need came before Al and I and we wondered how we could help. We prayed and an idea suddenly popped into mind of how we might help in a tangible way and with it such incredible joy. We asked permission and it was granted and now we pray for more people to be aware of the need and desire to also help.

Love needs tangible ways to be expressed and let us give freely as the Lord directs.

Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Hope you wake with a praying heart on this 73rd Annual National Day of Prayer. I just read Lynette Kettle’s prayer on Crosswalk.com and want to share it with you today. We have Bible study later so will incorporate this prayer also when we meet. Last night at church we spent the whole time together praying for our church, family, education, business, military, government, and media.

We are all guilty of judging and when we do that, we are setting ourselves up as better than others, which is spiritual pride. We may be led to confront others when they are sinning but judging them is up to the Lord. He knows the hearts of all, our motive and purposes, and all tht is hidden deep inside of us and will one day bring all these things out in the open. He doesn’t need our help making judgements ahead of time!!

Let us not waste our time and energy trying to get the approval of others, which can change in the flick of an eye. It is the Lord who will judge, and we can lay our hearts open before Him and ask Him to reveal what is in our hearts that needs correcting One of our parishioners told me that I wasn’t sophisticated enough as a Pastor’s wife. You can probably quickly bring up critical things that were said to you. We don’t have to react and defend ourselves but just bring it to the Lord and then rest in His love.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Hope you have a blessed day! I am celebrating as I got my computer back yesterday afternoon after 2 weeks. Sorry for those of you who did not receive the daily devotions as I was only able to put them on the website from Al’s computer. Today Al and I are going out with friends and trying a new Italian place for an overdue birthday lunch. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Last Sunday we were blessed to have Teen Challenge at our church on Sunday morning and to hear the testimonies and singing was very moving. The leader’s wife shared what their life was like when her husband relapsed a few times and although it was very difficult, she never gave up on him. Now they are doing well and have a little daughter etc. Probably for most of the men, they had family and others that prayed for them and didn’t give up.

I had just read before going to church of how to pray for prodigals and so many examples of true stories of prayer that changed the lives of their loved ones. I’m sure we all have those who are away from the Lord, and we feel helpless and desire to know how to pray and intercede for them. Quin Sherrer wrote the book, “Good Night, Lord” and relates how she was led to pray over her son Keith. He had drifted far from the Lord, and she was veery concerned about his spiritual condition. She began by asking the Lord to forgive her for the many mistakes she made in raising him. Then she started saying aloud scriptures like Prov. 11:21, “The seed of the righteous will be delivered”, and Isaiah 54:13, “All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.” She repeated over and over again the different scriptures she had been given. After more than an hour walking on the beach she picked up a small brown shell being tossed in the waves and felt the Lord saying to trust Him to polish and perfect her son. Quin cleaned the shell and put it in her kitchen and often said, “Lord, you promised!” Keith went to college and no change seen in him for some time. Then one night he called and asked her and his dad to forgive him and that was the beginning of his coming back to the Lord. He finished college and went to Bible School and served the Lord for 7 years with Youth with a Mission organization (YWAM) etc. He now has a wife, and two daughters and Quin’s shell still sits in her kitchen where she gives praise to the Lord for the answered prayers.
Her words to all of us are to pray for our children and be specific, pray Scriptures aloud, write down prayers, pray in accordance with God’s will, and pray for our children’s future.
As I talked to the men from Teen Challenge, I was so aware that they also must have had many praying or them to get set free and to know the Lord. May each of us store up scriptures like Prov.13:20, Heb.8:10 and Gal.4:1 that Christ would be formed in the lives of our children.

Challenge for today Ask the Lord for a specific scripture to pray over a prodigal that you may know.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy