Category: Sister Judy (Page 93 of 277)

Dear Ones,

Hope you had a great weekend! The game was so exciting last night and when the Chiefs won, everyone’s lights came on in the neighborhood and fireworks went off. Lots of jubilation!  We are going to head to Des Moines this mmoring and have lunch with a friend and supper and evening with a group from our former church. Then we will be heading home tomorrow. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  Soon it will be Valentine’s Day and we send cards, texts, gifts etc. to those who have touched our hearts in special ways. Many of us have been blessed to find the one we would most like to do life with and love above anyone else in the world. But as wonderful as that is, the condition of our spiritual heart is even more important. We might ask ourselves what is the state of our heart?

  Perhaps all of us can sense when our hearts have become rather cool and not as receptive to the Lord. It seems to happen gradually and then one day we wake up and feel more like a stranger than a lover. We may also notice we aren’t as compassionate with those around us either and it is time to tend the soil of our hearts. The Holy Spirit is only too happy to help us with that and wants to be free to work in us to soften our soil.  

   Jesus spoke to a crowd of people about the soil of our hearts, but not everyone understood the meaning, for their hearts were hardened; but Jesus explained the meaning later to his disciples as they had ready hearts. In Matt 13 Jesus said the seed sown on hard soil is the person who hears the good news but doesn’t take it in and the enemy plucks it out of his heart. The seed on the rocky ground is the one who responds with enthusiasm at first but when troubles come, falls away. The seed that was sown among the thorns is the person who hears at first and then the worries and worldly cares choke it out. But the seed sown on good soil is the one who hears and take it in and produces a harvest. Such a heart is tender and receptive and open. Don’t we want to be like that?

   Maybe we have all four of those soils but at different times in our lives. We know what is like to be cold and lack compassion, be caught up in worldly pursuits, and are stressed with worry; but we also experience times when our hearts are aflame with love for the Lord and others. Soil takes tending and tilling and we need to submit ourselves to the Lord so He can do the deep work that is needed.

  Challenge for today: Pray the words of the song: ”Change my heart, O God, make it ever true; change my heart, O God, May I be like you. You are the Potter, I am the clay; mold me and make me, this is what I pray.”

Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

 Happy Super Bowl weekend! Thank you for prayers as we arrived safely at our son Kurt’s in Kansas and arrived yesterday afternoon. So fun to catch up with family last night over a scrumtious meal and laughter and today we are going to a Nursery to look at plants and have coffe and then this afternoon to buy Kansas Chief shirts and Kansas State shirts! Tomorrow the pastor is giving a summery of the T.V adds from the past from a spiritual perspective. Afterwards Grant has a basketball game and then we are going out to eat and maybe snooze before the Super Bowl game starts. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  The Lord has such deep compassion for us and expresses His love in such intricate ways. Last night I was just awed by His grace and kindness as our granddaughter shared with us. We had arrived at our son’s home in Olathe,  Kansas and all sat around the table in the evening catching up and laughing and telling stories. Paige opened a mug from us that was decorated with kitties and then proceeded to tell us about her beloved kitty, Cleo. When we visited before she had purchased a white Siamese kitty with her own money and cared for her with love in every way.  But being away in college it became difficult, plus her boyfriend had an allergy to cats and couldn’t be around Cleo. So, she prayed and put an ad online to find the right home for Cleo. God led her for she just knew when a certain person responded that she was the one. The gal was young like Paige and had lost her mom, and her beloved cat had died who had looked just like Cleo with the same markings. When they got together, Cleo responded in friendliness to her right away, which was unusual for her, and Paige was certain she had found the right home. Paige offered her Cleo’s bed and all the things she had bought for her and told the gal there was no charge as she just wanted to find the best home for her kitty. But the girl’s father sent her $200 in the mail for I’m sure he knew what it meant for his daughter who had experienced two big losses in her life. They both cried when she left for God had answered both of their prayers.

Dear Ones,

  This is being sent out early for tomorrow since we are leaving very early for Olathe, Kansas. We hope it is to celebrate the Chiefs victory but we will have to wait and see how the game turns out. We look forward to time with Kurt’s family and yummy snacks during the game etc. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

   Our world seems to be in flux and as we look at the future, we wonder what is going to happen next. Will we have sufficient food or do we store up supplies? Will we have power or do we buy solar generators? Will we be safe or do we need devices for protection? We have only to read online all the possible ways to prepare for whatever tomorrow holds, and many are left full of anxiety. We need to seek the Lord and trust Him, and ask Him what is His will for us. 

  God’s ways are not always our ways and we are to trust Him one day at a time. We waste so much energy when we worry and fail to put our hope and our trust in Him. I happen to be reading in Exodus about the Israelites as they began their long trip through the wilderness to reach the Promise land. They first experienced a great miracle of crossing the Red Sea as they walked through on dry land. But the Egyptians soldiers and their horses and chariots were drowned as the Lord caused the waters to come together again. God’s people celebrated big with song and dance but only 3 days later it seems they forgot about God’s great power as they murmured for lack of good water. When the Lord had Moses throw in a piece of wood the water got sweet and drinkable. But the people were not allowed to store up food and had to gather manna just for the day, except on the 6^th day when they got enough for the Sabbath day too. God was teaching them to trust Him for all things.

   But it seems like today people want enough stored up for many futures, stockpiling not only goods but so much money in the bank that they will not live long enough to spend. It is like saying we depend on ourselves and don’t need to trust God.

   God will show each of us how He wants us to prepare for the future and it will not be the same. There are some that are canning and dehydrating food for their families, and others that are raising chickens or putting in solar panels etc. The bottom line is we all need to trust the Lord and as David says in Psalms 143:8, “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.”

  Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to direct your daily life and follow His leading.

Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

  How do we live our lives each day? Do we live whole heartedly for the Lord or do we see how close we can fit into the world’s ways and still remain a Christian? A compromising life misses the best the Lord offers to us we end up missing so much of the joy and the peace He came to bring

  I was reading today how God told Moses to command the people to drive out the inhabitants of the Promise Land they were to claim, and to not let any of them remain. They were to destroy all their idols and traces of their pagan worship and practices. If they didn’t obey and drive them out, they would become like thorns in their sides and barbs in their eyes. (Numbers 33) And sadly, the Israelites compromised and didn’t fully obey or heed the warning. They became more like the idle worshippers and assimilated their practices and ended up suffering for it just as God said. Their compromise caused endless trouble!

   But can we admit that we can also be like the Israelites who engage in worldly things? Maybe something we are asked to do seems harmless at first and yet we get hooked and soon we feel trapped. Hopefully instead, we stand out as different and more like Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego who would not compromise at all when King Nebuchadnezzar ordered everyone to fall down and worship his 90 foot gold statue. They told the king, that their God was able to deliver them but even if he chose not to, “Be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.” (Daniel 3:18) They could have compromised and bowed down this one time, rationalizing that they weren’t really worshipping it; or could have made other excuses but they were decisive and bold. Their witness caused the King to acknowledge God’s power and ordered no one to speak against God.

   Let us not waver in our faith and get distracted by the things of this world, but live each day for the Lord, with a willingness to pay the cost, no matter what.

  Challenge for today: Ask for holy boldness to stand up for the Lord and His kingdom, without compromise.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy 

Dear Ones,

Hope you had a good weekend! The temperatures have warmed up and so good to catch up and walk outside again with our friends on the trail. This morning I did food prep and made a dessert and soon going to Aldi’s and my exercise class. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Jesus Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. If we could practice all that Jesus taught there, our lives and the world would be radically changed. When our kids were young, I had a friend in our church who was like a mentor to me and like a grandma to our kids. She and I decided to memorize that portion of scripture and we would go berry picking and other places and recite those verses together.

   One thing we discovered was that the kingdom of God was so opposite of that of the world. God’s way is like upside -down from man’s, for to be great in God’s kingdom we must be a servant to all, the last will be first and He must increase and we must decrease, etc. The world’s way is to seek the best places, to be first, to be right etc.

   So, when we pray, “Thy kingdom come and His will be done”, if we really mean what we say, we will demonstrate His kingdom in our own lives in obedience, being humble, gentle, showing mercy and all those things that belong to His kingdom. Wow! It also means loving imperfect people and that is often a big challenge. Love is more than a feeling, it is also an action for His love will flow out of our lives to others as we experience His unconditional love for us. As it says in I John 3:18 (Amplified), “Little children (believers, dear ones), let us not love [merely in theory] with word or with tongue [giving lip service to compassion], but in action and in truth [in practice and in sincerity, because practical acts of love are more than words].”

   How do we live out the Sermon on the Mount? We have to have open hearts to the Lord, and let the Holy Spirit have His way in our lives. He wants to help us die to self and live for Him. Each time we choose Him rather than self, His kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. By how we live our lives should be a demonstration to the world whose kingdom we belong to.

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to help you put the Beatitudes into practice in your life (Matt. 5:2-12)

Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy

 

Dear Ones,

Happy weekend! Hope you can enjoy some downtime to relax! The weather is warmer so we will be going outside for our walk today!! This morning I have been busy in the kitchen. I just finished making a veggie stirfry,  and a new cookie recipe which I doubt I will try again. Al loves to be the taster and also bowl-licker so will let him give me the final verdict! 
Devotions from Judy’s heart

   Is there a disconnect between what we believe and how we live? Does our walk match our talk about the Lord? We all fail and fall short and we have so many examples in scripture of men of God who blew it many times but confessed their sin and were forgiven and used of God. We have only one life to live and we can’t do it over, but we can learn from our mistakes and failures and let Him restore us.

  It’s good to acknowledge our weaknesses and insufficiencies and rely on the Lord and not our own strength. We can never measure up on our own but He makes us new creatures in Christ and we are righteous in His sight. As the apostle Paul wrote in Eph. 2:8-9 (ESV). “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works. So that no one may boast. “I am so thankful that we don’t have to try and try on our own and become discouraged when we fail again and again. But salvation is a gift that we receive by faith and then daily walk it out in our lives.

  We can trust the Lord to take care of us, and the deeper our trust is in Him, the closer it brings us to Him in intimacy and dependency. Sin is refusing to trust God and vitally connecting to Him. We need the Lord and when we try to protect ourselves, rather than rest and trust in God, we lose ourselves and become distant from Him. Yes, we go through hard times as all people, but even in our suffering we can grow through it as He draws us closer to Himself that His glory may be seen.

  Let us always be growing in our relationship to the Lord and know that we are loved without end. May the life we live today match our talk and bring Him glory.

  Challenge for today: Trust God no matter what happens to you throughout your day and let it bring you closer to Him.

Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Happy weekend to you! Do keep warm! My phone says it is -18 and so glad we don’t have to go out today. I’m sure we will be walking in the underground later! I just finished  cleaning the apartment and made porkchops smoothered in apple slices. When it’s cold out I love to bake too. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  We were never meant to run our own lives but to lean on the Lord and let Him direct us. I read today from Jeremiah 10:23-24 (Message) “I know, God, that mere mortals can’t run their own lives. That men and women don’t have what it takes to take charge of life, So correct us God, as you see best.” I’m sure if it were up to us, we would take the most comfortable and easy way in life but we would miss God’s best.

   When we think of the children of Israel escaping from Egypt for the Promise land, God’s route for them was much longer than they would have chosen; but God had purpose in the more difficult way. They had a slave mentality and when they saw the enemy coming after them they might have gone back to Egypt. Also, the way through the wilderness that God took them on, was preparation for the battles that they would have to face when they reached the Promise Land. But the hard way taught them to depend on the Lord, knowing they could not go in their own strength. God wanted to let them know that He was with them on this long journey, so He gave them a pillar of cloud by day to lead them and a pillar of fire at night to give them light. When they looked up, it must have soothed their fears to know they were not in this on their own.

    God gives us assurance that He is with as for He gave us His word and the Holy Spirit. It may seem like He is taking us through the wilderness, the longest and most difficult way also; but we can rest assured that He has things to teach us through it all. I know I thought it took God so long to move us when we were in a difficult circumstance, and I would have preferred moving on much sooner. But yes, God taught us things we may not have learned otherwise and we also found that He is enough. No matter how tough the terrain is, He will guide us through as we depend on Him. 

   Challenge for today: Ask God for a teachable spirit when going through hard times.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy