Category: Sister Judy (Page 94 of 277)

Dear Ones,

Happy weekend to you! We start our weekend here with the January Birthday party. Soon Al and I will go to Costco and get the cake and set up for the party. We have 18 with birthdays this month. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  We often need reminders of how important it is to arm ourselves with spiritual weapons. We are in a spiritual war and when we fight with our carnal weapons we will lose; but God has given us an arsenal of spiritual weapons that are mighty through God that can defeat our enemy. Kim Potter, a writer who puts out a teaching every day shares the importance of our spiritual weapons, which the enemy would want us to ignore.

   The first one she mentions is the Word of God which is both an offensive and defensive weapon and Jesus often used it to defeat Satan. The Word is living and powerful sharp and active and we should not neglect it. 

   We are given the gift of the Holy Spirit who is the third person of the Trinity and the One who gives us power to stand, to witness, and to overcome.

   Prayer is also very important and as it says in I John 5:14-15 that fervent prayers of a righteous person avails much. I often marvel at how God answers when I bring my concerns first to Him. When we pray prayers of agreement with others we will find even greater power is unleashed. We can also pray in the spirit, especially when we don’t know how to pray in particular situations.

  There is great power in the name of Jesus and Al always told our kids that they just speak the name of Jesus when they are in situations of danger. We are told to ask in His powerful name and He will do it.

  The blood of Jesus is an important weapon for His blood not only cleanses us but sets us free and defeats the enemy. If I feel harassed by the enemy I sing the song, “Oh the blood of Jesus”, over and over and it is not long before my spirit is lifted.

  We are also given protection by angels and I believe my dad had such an encounter where his life was spared when hit by a car. I love to think of angels around us that keep us from unseen dangers.

  We also have the spiritual weapon of praise and the enemy hates that one. Praise seems to silence him and I love to sing praises out loud if I am alone in the car etc. I can just feel my spirit lifted and the enemy takes to flight.

   Kim mentions that we have the armor of God as our protection and I love to pray that at the beginning of very day for our whole family. We need every piece of armor as we go out into the world.

    Let us not feel helpless when faced by the enemy but use our arsenal of powerful weapons and stand strong in His name.

Challenge for today. Read Ephesians 6:13-15 and put on the whole armor of God.

Dear Ones,

  Hope you are enjoying this day. It is nice and sunny but cold and I have a feeling we will walk in the underground today. Just had a maple donut and coffee! Friends are coming to look at our apt complex shortly as they  are interested for the future. This afternoon is Bible Study and haircuts. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  Al and I love the quiet and he compares our apt to a monastery as even our T.V. Is not turned on until the evening news. We start our mornings with prayer together and then he goes to his study for time with the Lord and I go to my desk in our bedroom where we each meditate and write. But for sometime we have had competition for our quiet life as our refrigerator has been belting out a great deal of noise….not the usual hum but sounds that made us think it was about to die! We told the maintenance man but we had to catch him while the noise was at its height. He then realized our frig had a problem. Two days later a repair man came and installed a new part and put insulation around it so now the frig purrs instead. It is wonderful music to our ears, rather than the loud groaning sounds and makes life a lot more pleasant.

   I thought of the noise of the world that competes for our quiet time with the Lord. It may start with something small that we desire but is not the will of God, and pretty soon it consumes more of our time and thinking. It becomes hard to focus on the Lord and we can feel divided in our loyalty to Him.  It’s good to nip those things at the onset before it gets a hold. Al would try to move the frig over a few inches or rearrange the food in the freezer but to no avail. Just like the hum of the frig, we live in the world and can’t block out everything, but we don’t have to let it rob us of our peace. We could have experienced tranquility and a calmness before if we would have gotten help sooner. Let us not try to get so close and wrapped up to worldly things and try to serve the Lord at the same time. Jesus said in Matt. 6:24 (ESV), “ No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” When we choose to serve the Lord and to allow Him to be the center of our lives, it makes for peace and quiet rest.

  Challenge for today: Rid yourself of things that take your attention off the Lord.

Dear Ones,

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  Loneliness is certainly rising in our culture today and so many feel disconnected but don’t know how to have meaningful relationships. I am reading a book by Todd Hall who is an author and a Psychology professor at Biola University where he teaches several courses. He writes about how we all long for a deep sense of meaning if we are to make sense of our lives. So few know how to find that meaning and may go about it in unhealthy ways.

  Perhaps we have all felt emptiness at times when we fail in making connections with others; it is sad but people today are lonelier than ever and having a harder time to socially and spiritually connect. Many feel isolated and empty and lack the feeling of belonging.

   Hopefully, as we go through life, that we desire to connect first of all with the Lord and then with others He has put in our lives. We all need other people and as Todd says, to know and be known, to love and be loved.

  Loneliness is growing in epidemic proportions in the breakdown of families and most often children are caught in the cracks to fend for themselves. They miss seeing firsthand what it is like to have healthy relationships and don’t have a secure base from which to view life. We don’t have nearly as much face -to-face contacts today for I have heard others describe their best friend who they have never met but only are known from texting.

    I grew up in a neighborhood where we did so much together with parties, parades, picnics, and  caring for one another.. In our church we had many close relationships. But if we don’t let others into our lives then we build walls and block God our of our lives too.

   Todd says that we can try the will power approach, or the intellectual approach or the spiritual-emotional high approach but we will still not feel connected with God and others. We need the relational approach for God made us for relationship with Him and with others. He wrote that we are loved into loving by God and others in our lives. We love others only because God first loved us. (I John 4:19). May we see how our implicit relational knowledge transforms how we relate to God and others in our lives.

Challenge for today: Open your heart in new ways to the love God desires to pour into you.