Category: Whispers (Page 103 of 171)

Dear Ones,

Hope you are having an enjoyable weekend and keeping warm. Yesterday we had rain, snow and sunshine that kept switching back and forth.  We are packed and will be leaving later this morning for my nephew’s wedding. I will send out devotions as I am able along the way. We look forward to going to our former church in D.M. tomorrow and some time with missionaries afterwards before going to Kansas. We appreciate prayers for our trip. 
Devotions from Judy’s heart

  We are all called out to live out the way of love no matter what situations we are in. Our part is to open ourselves up to God’s love and let it burn brightly in our hearts. As I awakened one morning an old familiar chorus came to mind that some of you may know, “Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before/ every day with Jesus, I love Him more and more/ Jesus saves and keeps me and He’s the One I’m waiting for/ Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before.”

  We can ask ourselves if that is true for us, that every day we love the Lord more. That would mean spending time listening to Him, sharing our day with Him, delighting in Him and letting His love seep into all those deep places within us. Many couples today live in emotional divorce, where they are like two ships in the night passing but not really communicating or living together in a loving relationship. Can that be true of our relationship with the Lord at times, when we just go about our day without acknowledging Him and living on our own?

  I am reading a book by Ruth Burrows, a Carmelite Nun in England and her love for the Lord spills over on all the pages of her book. She describes Jesus as He moved about on the earth and how wherever he passed by flowers of joy and hope sprung up. Jesus was interested in all that was around Him and talked to His Father as He worked, ate, shared life with His disciples, preached, healed etc.

  The Lord delights when we share our lives with Him and live in Him and He is us. Paul’s prayer for the Christians in Ephesus was, “That Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite Him in. I ask Him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives; full in the fullness of God.” (Eph 3:17-19, Message)

   Let us share our lives with Him, and not hold anything back.  As we do this our lives will also overflow with love and every day will be sweeter than the day before.

Challenge for today: Delight in the Lord’s love as you go about your day. 

Dear Ones,

Devotions from Judy’s heart

 The Body of Christ is a diverse group but even though we are all very different, it is important to be well-rounded as individual members. Too much of anything can cause us harm to ourselves and others, so we need to let the Lord put us together in a balanced way.

  Some are extroverts and love being in big groups of people and activities and get energized. Others are introverts and like small groups with one or two close friends and time alone in quiet, so not to get depleted. But we all need times with others in the Body who have our best in mind, and will help us in our Christian walk, especially in our weak areas. We are to live intentionally for God and each one of us can be used by Him to help each other to grow and mature in our Christian lives.

  I am married to an extrovert and when we go for walks, Al talks with everyone along the way. I am an introvert and love days when my schedule is clear and evenings when I don’t have to go out. But we help one another as we spend time each day studying quietly, each in our own study area, and then go for a walk together and share our hearts. We might have a Bible Study, exercise class, or simply coffee and fellowship with others, but we attempt a balance of time for togetherness and aloneness.

   If extraverts spend too much time just in activities and groups, and not time alone, they can become shallow and neglect the deeper things of the Lord. If introverts spend too much time alone, they can become selfish and self-focused and neglect the needs of others. We need to be balanced and God uses us to help and stimulate one another. In Prov. 27:17 (Message), it says, “You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another.” May we be used of God to help others to be their best and most effective for His kingdom; and may we challenged by others to be all that God created us to be.

  Challenge for today: Be balanced in time spent together in the Body of Christ, but also spend some time alone with the Lord.

Blessings on our day and prayers and Love, Judy

   The wedding was outside on October 8^th, which was chancy since one never knows what the weather will be like. But many prayers went up for that and the day was better than the weatherman predicted..in the low 60’s and the sun warming us during the entire ceremony. This wedding from the start to finish was all focused on the Lord. There were no bulletins or big fancy bouquets of flowers but a wedding arch with silky cloth and flowers woven into it. Chairs were set up in an open field behind the biggest Town Hall I have ever seen. I would estimate about 300 people filled the chairs and each bridesmaid came down the long grassy aisle with a groomsmen who was freely expressing joy by skipping, or cartwheels, or putting their arms up towards the Lord etc. The bride was on the arm of her father-in-law, as the song, “Jesus is the Center” played. Hope’s mother is already in heaven and her father far away. She looked radiant for this is the day that she had waited to be joined with the one that God had for her. Solomon has also sought the Lord and knew she was the one soon after he met her. Two pastor’s spoke very personally to the couple in their choice of words and scriptures. Solomon’s dad also gave a brief capsule of their courtship and at the end he asked the audience for words that described each of them… many beautiful words were shouted out of their godly character and fruitful lives. Their vows were written with much thought and prayer as they pledged aloud to give themselves to the Lord and to love one another for all of their lives. I think there were teary eyes by those listening and maybe thoughts of our own marriages. After several long kisses they literally danced down the grassy aisle in joy with hands lifted high. We all felt like we had been in His presence witnessing an expression of His divine love.

   Afterwards rows of long tables were set up and food made and served by friends of the bride and groom, followed by a dance.

One day all who know the Lord will be present at the marriage feast of the lamb, and will experience joy unspeakable to be in His presence. This was just a little foretaste of that.

Challenge for today: Spend some time today delighting in His presence!

Dear Ones,

  Hope you are having a great weekend. There was snow yesterday at the Silver Chateau (cabin) before our son left to go back to Kansas. Today we are going to Remer as Al is speaking at the  funeral of a member that we knew from our former congregation and have prayed for her family. We go from there to Brookston to  the outdoor wedding of a special couple. The bride’s mother was a member of our church in Des Moines many years ago, and has since died. But we pray daily for her family and have kept in contact and it will be a joy to be at the wedding. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  As I awakened one morning, a song was playing in my mind; a song I remember our quartet sang when I was a teen. But the words were so clear to me: “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. “And the refrain goes “Many things about tomorrow/ I don’t seem to understand/ but I know who holds tomorrow/ and I know who holds my hand.”

    I find this song has more meaning today than when I sang it years ago. Our world has changed so much since my predictable world back then, when the Bible was believed as the Word of God, and we had respect for parents and one another. It was not like today where our world is out of control, anything goes, and parents aren’t privy to what their children are even doing.

   We can only live in peace if we put our complete trust in the One who loves us and is over all. Like it says in Isaiah 26:3-4 (God’s Word), “With perfect peace you will protect those whose minds cannot be changed, because they trust you. Trust the Lord always, because the Lord, the Lord alone, is an everlasting rock.” The Lord is that solid place and we can completely trust Him for our well-being, for guidance, provision, and protection. He has told us to just ask of Him for anything we will ever need, for He hears and answers according to His perfect will.  That means we can live this day, and every day, in peace rather than thinking about what tomorrow holds and becoming anxious and fearful. No matter what is on the news, we can be in peace when for our minds are focused on Him.

Challenge for today: Ask the Holy Spirit to uncover any area of your life that causes you anxiety and give it all to Him in trust for He holds the future in His hand.  

Dear Ones,

  Happy weekend to you! It is especially happy as Bill who we have all been praying for, goes home early today with his new kidney. All is going well and we thank the Lord. This morning I cleaned the apt. and made chili and cookies. Tomorrow we go to a funeral in Remer and a wedding in Brookston so need to do get ready for that. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  We all go through storms in life and times when we wonder, how long oh Lord. We wish for peaceful times and for days that are calm and without stress. But no matter how long there is darkness and storms, we can lean into the Lord and find hope.

   I just finished the book of Habakkuk and read how the prophet knew that his country was going to be invaded by Babylonia but he remained confident in the Lord. He said even if the crop fails and fields don’t produce, and no cattle in the stalls etc. yet he will rejoice in the Lord, He says, “The sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to go on the heights.” (Hab. 3:19)

   No matter what we go through, we can be confident also, that we are in the Lord’s hands and He can lift us up to the heights. I want to challenge us when we go through dark times, loneliness and hardship, that instead of getting down, that we praise the Lord as Habakkuk. We don’t always feel like doing that but when we do, we find ourselves getting lifted right out of our pity pits and becoming hopeful and even joyful.

    Almost every time I go in the car alone to church and classes, I worship the Lord in song. I may not feel like that when I put my seat belt on, but by the time I get to my destination, my heart is full and I sense His presence with me. I often start singing the simple worship song, “I worship you Almighty God/ There is none like you/ I worship you O Prince of Peace/ That is what I want to do/ I give you praise for you are my righteousness/ I worship you almighty God/ There is none like you.”

  The enemy hates when we worship the Lord for He knows the Lord will give us hope and confidence in Him who is our Prince of Peace.

  Challenge for today: Find time in your day to worship the Lord and leave your problems in His hands.

Dear Ones,

Hope you are enjoying the beautiful fall colors! Each day it gets more colorful out my window. Today is Donut day and I try to get downstairs early before the maple ones are gone!  I plan to study and go to Aldi’s and then Bible Study and a beautiful walk on the trail. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  There are times to persist and there are times to let go we must listen to the Lord to know if it is His time to move on. Much of the time we need to hear words of encouragement to keep on and not to give up, but there are times that God will tell us enough!

  One day the diffuser for Al’s study just quit. It isn’t that old and once before it wouldn’t send out at mist, and we had called in and got directions of how to get it functioning again. So once again we decided to make a call and got someone difficult to understand. We tried to get it going with the directions we thought he was telling us but it didn’t work. We waited until evening and called for help again and got someone that spoke English well. But all that she told us to do, failed to work and although I tried again and again after we got off the phone, the diffuser was useless. We ended up getting a different one and are waiting for it to come. There came a point when enough was enough and I had to move on.

   It reminded me of other ways we need to let go, like in relationships. Maybe we have invested much time in a relationship that pulls us down, even though we have tried to help someone. A day may come when the Lord tells us to pray for the person but move on to others who are open and receptive. It could be we need to let go of a job that we’ve had for years and no longer challenges us and gets our juices going. The Lord may say, that He has something new for us, and we have to let go of the comfortable old.

  Isaiah says in Isaiah 43:19-20 (Message. “Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. Its’ bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.”

  Let us not be held back by our past but let us have open eyes to what God has for us now and enter into the new things waiting for us. 

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to show you the things you are holding on to and let go.

Dear Ones,

Another beautiful fall day and hope you are enjoying it. This morning I made Oh Henry Bars and did lots of food prep and am going to my exercise class. Hope to get a walk in and tonight we have Bible Study.
 Devotions from Judy’s heart

 When Jesus asks something of us, there is a cost involved; often it is giving up our own will and way in which He is going to bring something about, but other times He asks us to do things we feel are far beyond our capabilities. I think back on my life and often my initial response was, “You have to be kidding!” Or maybe, “No! Please choose someone else.” Then I had to wrestle with my thoughts and usually came around to do it, but with a reluctant heart. I’m not even sure if that is called obedience.