Category: Whispers (Page 109 of 164)

Dear ones,

Hope you are having a beautiful day even though it is overcast with some rain! This morning I made a veggie stirfry, studied, and went to my exercise class.  Tonight we have Bible Study with a Max Lacado video series. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

 In our Bible Study we recently studied how the Lord is the Vine and we are the branches and that we need to be attached firmly to the Vine. Apart from the vine we can do nothing! But as we are firmly abiding in the vine, who knows what will take place in us and what fruit will result.

  I am made aware of that when I look out my window as I write. Since we are on second floor, a beautiful tree is at my eye level. Only a short time ago it looked rather dead and with only naked branches. But then came some buds and green leaves and soon will be beautiful blossoms. I have hope because I have seen what it will look like when fully in bloom since we have lived here 3 years now.

  To me it is a picture of what we could be in the Lord. Maybe right now we feel like we are like those dead looking branches but we must not give up hope. When we are connected with the Lord, He wants to make something very beautiful out of our lives. The pinkish colored buds are beginning to unfold and soon there will be big blossoming flowers if we let Him direct our lives. How sad it is when the Lord sees what He created us to become but we settle for so little. We go our own way and never really blossom into the beauty that comes from a close attachment to Him.

   Sometimes our own hearts break when we watch our loved ones go their own way and miss what God has intended for them. We know the potential within them but they never reach it because they detach from the vine.

   We have no idea all that God has for each of our lives and we must stay united with Him and receive the sunshine of His love, the water of His Spirit, and even times of pruning if we are to become those awesome blossoms. As He says in John 15:5 (Message), “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing.” Let us stay closely connected to Him and live in hopeful expectation of what He will make of our lives. 

  Challenge for today: Confess anything that draws you away from the Lord and spend time in His presence.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

P.S. Since I wrote this yesterday the tree out my window is in full bloom! So Beautiful!

Dear Ones,

Hope you had a great weekend!  Looks like things are going to warm up for a pretty good Memorial weekend. Today i made egg dishes and went to Super One and Aldi before my exercise class. Our walks outside each day get prettier and prettier.

 Devotions from Judy’s heart

   How important it is that we pass on the things of the Lord to the next generation. We are told to do this many times in scripture. It seems like the Children of Israel didn’t always do that and the next generation would go astray and be overtaken by an enemy. Then they would cry to the Lord and promise to serve Him and He would forgive them. But soon another generation would fail to pass it on and they would forsake the Lord.

   At church yesterday we had a speaker, Jason Holt, who is a National Youth Director and been in youth ministry for over 30 years. He did his doctorate in Ministry to Emerging Generations and had much to say. He shared about how to navigate with wisdom in our digital world. Of course, the digital world can be used for much good but it also causes many problems in our lives. Youth today spend so many hours on screen. The average 12 year old spends 5 hours a day and older ones spend far more.

  He shared about what Jean Twenge has written on how the iGen (internet generation) is made up of super-connected kids who are less rebellious, more tolerant but less happy and completely unprepared for adulthood. They are in no hurry to grow up, they text rather than meet in person, they are insecure, irreligious and insulated. She goes on to say they are income insecure, indefinite in relationships, inclusive on gender and race, and independent on politics.

   Our speaker had us huddle in small groups in S.S. to talk about how we can highlight the gospel in ways that are relevant to the iGen and how to build bridges with them. We need to be like mothers that nurture and express gentleness and also like fathers that correct and encourage. We can become a community of spiritual parents.

  Jason used Psalm 78: 1-8, 70-72 to help us see our responsibility. Starting at verse 2, ”I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us,. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and His might, and the wonders that He has done…that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His Commandments.”

   Let us not fail to tell the next generation of the Lord that they may have a life of hope in the world that seems to be getting darker and darker.

   Challenge for today: Ask the Lord for ways to communicate with the iGen and use every opportunity He sends your way.

Blessings on  your day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

  Hope you are keeping warm on this cool weekend. Burr! Poor fishermen! This morning I cleaned the apartment and then went to a fun sale next to Fitquest. Then Al and I went to a gardening sale and to Fleet Farm. I have some flowers now for our Balcony and some herbs to plant. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

    Are we in the End Times? Many are asking that question today as we see our world collapsing and changing rapidly. I read from Mark 13 this morning, and I thought it was like reading our newspaper or watching the news unfold. Jesus was telling several of his disciples of the signs of the End when there would be wars and rumors of wars, nation would rise against nation, earthquakes and famines would take place etc. Christians will be hated and persecution will be severe.                    Then I happened to notice online what Dr. Roger Barrier wrote about the Positive and Negative spiritual signs of the End Times. He shared about how false prophets would rise and lead many astray. We see in many churches today that the preaching contradicts what the Bible says. Some churches espouse that Jesus is the Archangel, Michael, or that He was simply a good moral man, or one of many gods. Satanism is on the rise and many are falling away.                                                                       But Dr. Barrier also mentions positive signs of the true Church for she will grow stronger as persecution and suffering take place. The true church will become pure and holy as the bride of Christ. As Paul said in Eph. 5:27 (Amplified), “That He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things (that she might be holy and faultless).” There will also be a pouring out of the Holy Spirit and renewal will take place. There will be prophecy, visions, dreams, etc. Christians will be united and bound tightly together. (That is something I pray for most every day). The gospel will be preached to the whole world and then the end will come.                                                                  The Lord is merciful for He delays even now that more people will call on His name and be saved.    Our part is to share Him with others that they may spend eternity with the Lord. As His children we should not get discouraged and negative as we see the outward signs, for our hope is in the Lord. And we know the End is nearer than ever before!                                                                                                                    Challenge for today: Look for opportunities today to share the Lord with someone who doesn’t yet know Him.

Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

  Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Hope you are enjoyng the day. I went downstairs this morning for coffee and donuts. Ann was just here for lunch and soon we have Bible Study and then some errands to run. 

 Devotions from Judy’s heart 

  More than ever before we need to be people of hope. So much darkness about us, but as followers of Jesus, we need to embrace hope. In Heb. 10:23(Amplified) it says,”So, let us seize and hold fast and retain without wavering the hope we cherish and confess and our acknowledgment of it, for He Who promises is reliable(sure) and faithful to His word.”

   As we may be surrounded by adverse circumstances that seem to be getting worse, not better, we know that our hope cannot rest in man but in the Lord. He is the God of the impossible and nothing is too hard for Him.

   The enemy may try to fill us with negative, fearful thoughts to cause our faith to falter and hope to diminish, but we need to resist those thoughts at the onset. Let us not let them take root but fight them with promises from the Word, and songs of praise. Also, we can join with others as it says in the next verse, “And let us consider and give attentive, continuous care to watching over one another, studying how we may stir up (stimulate and incite) to love and helpful deeds and noble activities.” The Message translation tells us to be inventive in encouraging and helping one another as we see the big Day approaching. As we gather together with other believers, it raises our hope level. Together with Him and with others we are strong.

   You probably all know the words to an old familiar hymn:

“My hope is built on nothing less/ Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness/ I dare not trust the sweetest/ frame/ But wholly lean on Jesus’ name/ On Christ the solid Rock I stand/ All other ground is sinking sand.”

  Even when it gets dark and stormy and things around us are sinking, the Lord is our Hope, our anchor, our solid place. May we live in hope and encourage those around us.

   Challenge for today: Text a word of hope to someone today.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Hope you wake to another sunny day with spring bursting forth! I love observing out our bedroom window of trees that are changing daily. Would that we would all be growing every day and not hindered in the transfomation process. What things seem to block us  from being transformed to the likeness of the Lord?

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  Haven’t we all been discouraged at times that we are still being tempted in an area we felt we had overcome; it makes us feel like we have failed and are not making progress in our Christian walk. But as I was reading from “Grace on the Journey to God”, Michael Casey writes that it is really a sign that everything is going well.

  The devil doesn’t bother to tempt those that are already in his ball park obeying their own fleshly desires, but he is after those who are struggling to overcome and want to serve the Lord. He knows our weak areas and tries to get us to give in to the temptations he sends our way. Sometimes it would seem like he sneaks up on us and catches us at the moment we are weakest. It is a time to call out for God’s help.

  We need to acknowledge that our heart is deceitful as it says in Jer. 17:9 ((NESV), “The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse—who can understand it?” Ever since we were born our hearts have been bent toward sin. No, we are not basically good as some often say, but we do have a choice if we want to give in to temptations or if we will ask for God’s help. But our temptations can also help us know ourselves and show us the areas in our lives that are not under the Lordship of Jesus….ways that we go off on our own and result in barriers between us and Him. It is easier to resist the truth than it is to humbly admit what the Holy Spirit shows us is hidden in our hearts. When we refuse the truth, we will find our hearts get harden.

   Casey said it is good to call our vices by its name (like gluttony rather than enjoying God’s good gifts), take full responsibility for our actions and omissions, construct a case of why we should give up the vice, listen to the feedback from others, and ask God to extinguish the vice.

  But even when temptation knocks us for a loop, the Lord will catch us and forgive and help us to stand again. We experience His unconditional love and come to know in a very real way how we cannot depend on ourselves but only on Him.

  Challenge for today: Ask the Lord for an undivided heart that desires His will above your own.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Hope you had a wonderful weekend. We enjoyed our time in Kansas with family and thank you for prayers for our safe travels. This morning I went to my dermatology appointment and then to Aldi’s and on to my exercise class. Thankful we live so close to things here and can just buzz from one to the other.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  When we read about miracle healing in scripture, many people think that spectacular healing does not happen today, but it does more often than we think. If we note as we read how Jesus healed people, it was not like one size fits all for He did it in different ways, as did Jesus followers. Sometimes it was only a word spoken and the person was healed without even being touched. Other times healing occurred in stages as in Mark 8 when Jesus spit on the blind man’s eyes and laid hands on him, and then asked him if he could see. At that point the man only saw people that looked like walking trees. So Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and his sight was fully restored.

   Healing comes in many forms and it happens today. I read J.P. Moreland’s book on Experience Miracles and he documents and helps us understand more about miracles today. If we have never seen a miracle, we need to ask ourselves how often do we pray for them to happen or do we live in doubt.

  When we pray for healing, we need to believe that God heals today and not doubt like the wave of the sea. Of course, there are times God is using the suffering for greater good in the person’s life and has a bigger plan. Sometimes our sin keeps us from getting well or maybe we refuse to go for medical help when God wants to use our doctor. It could be the timing is not right or that healing may be gradual. There are even cases where the person may not want to be healed as they feel special with all the attention and don’t have to be responsible to do what healthy people do.  

  I would like to share a healing miracle that Moreland writes about in his Vineyard church in Anaheim, CA. They offer healing prayer every Monday night for anyone who needs and they have trained prayer teams. One night Susan came for prayer as she heard about the service from her high school students. She was very sick and had tried medical treatments by many doctors but her condition got worse. Her cancer had spread to 51 places throughout her body and she was given no hope but sent home to die. She came to the Vineyard church off and on for healing prayer and felt loved and cared for. But then one Monday night during prayer time she felt like her whole body was filled with heat and electricity. She just knew she was healed and contacted her main doctor. He ordered a PET scan and was shocked when it showed that all of the cancer in her body was gone. She was cancer-free! As a result this Jewish woman gave her life to the Lord. 

  Another case of a young woman who was legally blind for12 years with juvenile Macular Degeneration and was instantly healed and continues for 47 years, up to time of the book’s publication.

  So many more miracles are happening today so let us step out in faith and pray!

  Challenge for today: Offer to pray for someone when they share their need and be amazed at what God will do.

Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy