Category: Whispers (Page 149 of 171)

Dear Ones,

Hope you are enjoying your day. We arrived safely at Kurt’s in Kansas City last evening and so nice to catch up with them. This morning Al and I went to Panera’s and a bookstore after grandkids went to school. We are so glad we can see  Lily play soccer tonight and then we will head home to MN tomorrow morning, after a wonderful trip. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

The Lord has so much to teach us if we are willing and open. Sometimes we probably have all felt disappointment as things don’t turn out as we would like, but God often moves in mysterious ways. On our trip I have been reading letters that Francis Fenelon wrote to people who had some urgent needs and wanted his wisdom. Francis was a French bishop who lived in 1651-1715 and was a tutor for the King Louis XIV’s grandson as well as serving a Christian community. It was a time of extravagance, struggle for power, and sexual perversion in the culture of that day, not unlike our own culture. Winn Collier, a columnist, considers Fenelon’s letters a spiritual guide to him to help him navigate through such times today, and others are also helped as they walk through deep waters. God is so gracious to give us spiritual guides when we need them and we can learn much if we are quiet and open to listen. It doesn’t have to be a person with degrees but one who walks with the Lord and is receptive to the Holy Spirit. Years ago, I remember reading some of Fenelon’s letters when I was in nurses training and they spoke to me then, but I am finding they again speak to me now even though I am much much older! Fenelon seems to speak truth in a direct but loving way and points us to the way of humility; he encourages us to let go of our demands on God and what we think He should do and accept when He moves in ways we may not understand. That takes abandoning ourselves to God, even when it may not make sense to us. It is much like a parent who often limits our activity but for our own good. We may not understand at the time. God works much of the time in secret but He gifts us with guides that help us learn to listen carefully and challenges us to a deeper journey. The Lord can use many ways to guide us and sometimes it can be a mentor we can actually talk to, or a message by e-mail; it could be an author who seems to speak right to our situation in life. Isaiah said in Isaiah 30:21 (ESV), “And your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it.’” Our part is to be open, humble, receptive, and willing to die to ourselves and then He will fill us with His love and beauty and grace. What an exchange! Let us trust God, even though we don’t know the details of how He plans to work in our lives.

Challenge for today: Surrender to the Lord and listen as He speaks to you and guides you. 

Dear Ones,

Hope you had a good weekend. We had a wonderful time at Mark’s and Andrea’s in N.C .and enjoyed time with the family. We played lots of games, including nerf gun wars with our grandsons, steak dinner, sundaes before bed etc. We are in Tennessee now and soon heading out to Kurt’s in Kansas today. We want to be there to see our granddaughter play soccer tomorrow. Appreciate prayers as we were in heavy traffic yesterday especially. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

We have probably all belonged to organizations and clubs during our growing up years. Maybe we were on a Debate team, or joined Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts, or went to Christian Fellowship club. When others wanted us to join, they told us all the advantages of becoming a member and made it sound like we were privileged to get in. But as I was reading scripture, I thought of how opposite it is when we join the family of God. We are not promised that we will be important but rather we may have the status of a slave. We are not told we can look forward to great privileges and be applauded by others but that we will actually have to suffer and even be hated by them. In fact, we may be persecuted for joining and put out of places, sometimes even losing our lives. Now that isn’t exactly the kind of news you would put on a club poster to entice others to join. In John 15 Jesus said that if the world hated Him, they would also hate us; if they persecuted Him, they will also persecute us etc. So why join? Well inside of us is a deep desire for something more than a life of ease; it is a desire to be loved and to be understood and forgiven and to be set free; and only the President of this unusual club can ever offer that. He makes many promises and we can trust Him as not one of them will fail. He has assured us that He will always, always be there for us and never leave us. He has promised us the best future ever, for He is preparing for us a mansion in glory with Him; but in the meantime, it could be that we may live in only a cottage. He will also provide a helper for us as rough times come, and He says in John 14:16-17 (Amplified),” I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Stand-by), that He may remain with you forever—the Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you will know and recognize Him, for He lives with you (constantly) and will be in you.” Now that is good news and we are to share that news with others and invite them to make the most important decision ever.  Let us not hold back for all are welcome!

Challenge for today: Be alert for those who are searching and invite them to become a member of the family of God.

Dear Ones,

Hope you are enjoying  your weekend. Rain is forecasted for here all day but we have plenty of fun things to do with family. This morning was full of games, and a nerf war, and the guys are at  Mark’s work now watching a new movie. Tomorrow after church we will head towards Kurt’s in Kansas City, so appreciate continued prayers for our travels. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

How great is our desire to hear from God? He speaks in so many ways every day. We think of the disciples and others gathered together after Jesus was resurrected and ascended back to heaven; they closed themselves up in the upper room and waited for the promised Holy Spirit. They weren’t sure when that would happen but no matter how long it took, they were waiting indefinitely. We might ask ourselves if we would have been patient and waited 10 days or would we have gotten impatient and gone back to our regular busy routines. I’m sure the disciples were thankful they waited as the Lord spoke in a spectacular way with tongues of fire and in many languages; but there are other times that God speaks in a very quiet way and it is worth waiting in silence. I am reading a book by Ruth Barton called Invitation to Solitude and Silence. The practice of doing nothing in silence for an extended period of time is difficult for most of us but it is a time we stop making demands on God and seek to just be in His presence and listen. Ruth herself was told by her spiritual director that she was like a jar of river water all shaken up and needing time for the swirling sediment in her soul to settle. Perhaps that is true of most of us for we are all faced with so many distractions that cause our attention to go away from the Lord, and we get bothered by many things. We need to be quiet and go apart and spend time in silence with Him. Ruth discovered the discipline of silence at a time in her life when she was very busy but felt confused and lonely and knew there must be more. Spending 10 minutes alone in quiet with the Lord was very challenging to her but she answered the invitation to spend that time with Him. It’s not a time to talk and tell God all our needs but rather a time to be quiet and notice what surfaces from deep down; it’s a time to let go and to and to know God in a deeper way. We just show up and let God do the rest, whatever is on His agenda. It helps to have a special place to be alone, to set a time when it would work best, and to choose a prayer that expresses our desire for Him…something simple like, Lord have mercy, or Your peace, etc. Then just be and put all your concerns into God’s hands. No matter if God speaks in dramatic ways or in a gentle whisper, let us patiently wait and listen. David said in Psalm 62:1-2 (ESV), “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from Him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.”

Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy

Challenge for today: Spend 10 minutes in silence with the Lord in a quiet place, listening to His voice.

Dear Ones.

Hope your day is going well. We are so happy to be at Mark’s after going about 1500 miles! Thank you for your prayers as we needed them going through lots of traffic. The grandsons will be home very soon and we are excited. Lots of games etc. planned! So great when we can be with family again. God is good! 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

I’m sure we have all painful experiences in our lives and the way to healing is to embrace our pain. We have Jesus example as He went through so much and spread out His arms on the cross in pain for us; He didn’t run from it, even though He could have called on 10,000 angels! I am reading Stephen Seamands book on “Wounds that Heal,” and he shares how we should not run from our suffering but walk through it and bear it as Jesus did. But the truth is most of us try to avoid pain and bury it, and sadly healing doesn’t happen. We do this when we try to excuse the perpetrator and even feel guilty ourselves for what was done to us: but we need to face the truth before we can feel better. Then we can take steps to healing and break through the denial, which can be painful. Just as a child who was abused, it is especially hard for him or her to uncover the buried memories because it is so painful. God often uses even dreams and nightmares to help the repressed feelings like anger shame and grief to surface. But if we don’t go back to that painful time, it comes out in other hurtful ways and sinful attitudes. We must be allowed to grieve the wounds that have been inflicted as we prepare to forgive. When we face the fact of what happened and connect our feelings with the wound, then we are more ready to let go of the resentment and anger we feel towards the person that hurt us. Instead of demanding that they pay for what they did, we bear the injustice by forgiving and turning them over to God. We let go but release them to the One who determines what justice is for them. By taking this action, we are saying what happened doesn’t define who we are. Sometimes we get reconciled with the person, but not always as it is two sided.  Also, sometimes forgiveness comes slowly as we have layers of what we have repressed. We need God’s grace to forgive and perhaps a prayer Seamands wrote would fit for our need. “Jesus, show me the truth about the nails in my soul. Remove them by your grace. Help me to feel the feeling as you reveal the facts. Give me the grace to admit the resentments I hold. Strengthen me to bear the pain that was directed against me. Move in my heart that I would release to you those who have sinned against me, trusting you completely as the only Righteous Judge. Instill responsibility in me. Show me how to get ‘unstuck’ and to reclaim my identity apart from my pain. May my heart beat with a longing for reconciliation as it accords with your will. Cause me to walk in forgiveness, Lord.”

Challenge for today: Be willing to pray the prayer of forgiveness concerning a hurt in your life, and let the healing can begin. 

Dear Ones,

Hope your day is going well. We just got to the Staybridge in Knoxville after staying at my brother Paul and Alison’s last night. We had a wonderful time with a steak dinner, 2 games of scrabble, a beautiful walk and time to catch up. Lots of traffic today and we are going for a peaceful walk now before relaxing in our very spacious room that was a gift!

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is take a nap. Maybe we fill bone tired but we keep going, although we’d really like to curl up and just sleep. We often fail to listen to our body and we keep on the busy treadmill until we get exhausted. Somehow, we think it is more spiritual to have constant activity than to experience the natural rhythm of work and rest. Even the Lord took a sabbath day to rest, and why do we think we can skip times of rest and not feel the effects? Ruth Barton writes in her book about how important it is to pay attention to our tiredness and fatigue and learn to rest in Him. Often our tiredness numbs us to our emotions and we don’t feel much of anything. That is not a good place to be. When we still lived on the lake and pastors and other retreatants came to Canaan’s Rest for retreat, so often they would need a good nap before they were ready to spend time opening up to the Lord. Often it was the whole first day that they felt extremely tired and needed to get rejuvenated. We would tell them to sleep until they felt refreshed as that was preparation of dialing down so that they could hear the Lord speak to them. Barton gives the example of Elijah, after his big contest with the 400 prophets of Baal. Afterwards he felt depleted and went to the wilderness and laid down under a boom tree and slept. God just let him sleep and then woke him up to eat and drink and had him sleep some more. Elijah was so worn out that it would have been hard for him to find God until after he got rested. We don’t have to be hard on ourselves when we give in to sleep, but use the opportunity to get rested and be emotionally strong again. Otherwise, we lose touch with who we are in the Lord and what we are called to do. May Elijah’s story help us know how to rest our body, soul and mind and get energized and refreshed and ready to draw near to Him. Jesus invites us and says in Matt. 11:28-29 (The Message), “Get away and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.”

Challenge for today: Take time to notice your weariness and talk to the Lord of how He would have you restored.

Dear Ones,

Hope you had a good weekend. Thank you for your prayers and we are enjoying all the good gifts God has put before us as we travel. We had a wonderful time with friends in Chanhassen last night as we fellowshipped. ate together, and prayed together. They sent us off this morning with so many goodies as well. We are at our favorite motel now and only a few blocks from a mall where we shopped and had lunch at Al’s favorite. I had a wonderful swim already and prayed and thanked the Lord as I swam laps. Tomorrow we head to my brother’s in Evansville, IN but may not be able to send out e-mail as I don’t think they have internet. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

When we know the Lord can live in hope because of Jesus’ life and death and resurrection. As we look at the world around us, we can be overcome with feelings of hopelessness and wonder what is going to happen next. But our focus should not remain there on the negative, but rather on the One who is in control. I was reading today from Psalm 33 and the Psalmist begins by telling us to give thanks and praise to the Lord and be in awe of Him. Whatever He speaks will be come to be and He is more than able to handle whatever happens. Verse 18(ESV) says, “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His steadfast love.” He goes on to say in verses 21-22, “For our heart is glad in Him, because we trust in His holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.” When we hope we are in essence saying we depend on God, and He’s everything we need. Our hope is not in the any person or political party, but in God! There are times we may lose hope as we are in a troublesome situation and doubts plaque us. Our faith gets tested and it is good to go to the Word and meditate on His promises. As we do this it helps us to confidently trust Him in our situation again, and then look forward to what God has for us. I know that afterwards, when the answer comes, my heart just overflows with gratitude and praise! Saturday as we walked the Paul Bunyan trail we met again our new friends that I have written about. He shared how they had been through so much lately with several deaths in one month, and one being their own son. He knew they needed nurturance and comfort and healing as they were dealing with all of it; he prayed for an apple, signifying the need to be fed and strengthened with God’s promises. He said God not only answered with an apple but gave them a whole orchard! Each time we meet them we celebrate the Lord together and the hearts of all four of us are encouraged also. Hope grows as believers gather in His name and the enemy wants to keep us apart. But we need to be in fellowship together so we can do as it says in says in Rom. 12:12 “Let us rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering and persevere in prayer.”

Challenge for today: When you feel like your faith is faltering, go to the Word and gather with others that hope may lift you.

Dear Ones,

Happy weekend to you! The sun is shining and it seems spring is here after all. I just finished making a couple spaghetti pies and a stir fry veggie dish and cleaned the apartment. Then the news came that Gen went home to the Lord early this morning. I was awakened at 3 a.m. to pray for her and family and wondered at the time if it was her homecoming time; we rejoice that she is now with the Lord and no more pain but also sadness as we will miss her. She was a bright light for Jesus and so full of love and kindness. Please pray for her family as she leaves behind a husband, a teenage daughter and son, parents and two sisters and so many who loved her. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

Sometimes we may be very specific in telling the Lord what our need is or a desire we have. But when we do that, often times we may be settling for less than what He wants to give us. I couldn’t help but think of that when I read today about the lame beggar who laid at the Gate Beautiful of the temple entrance. He was hoping for alms, as people passed by to go to prayer, but he got so much more. Our pastor had the children act this out on Easter Sunday in his children’s sermon. Just before the service began, two strong men carried a teen up to the front of the church and laid him on the steps to the altar and put a tin can in his hand. The many children were given alms and held palm branches as they marched around the church. When they came to the teen, each one dropped their alms in the can, and we could hear the loud clink. Then Peter (pastor) came by and when asked for alms told the beggar, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” (Acts 3:6) The boy was slowly helped to his feet and when he realized he could walk, he began jumping and leaping and running around. So much jubilation for all of them.  He got so much more than alms. Do you suppose when we ask the Lord for something, He has much more in mind? He could have something better than we can even imagine. I remember once asking for prayer at an evangelistic meeting, that my sinuses would be healed. The Lord answered but not in the way I expected as He healed my eyes and I no longer needed contacts or glasses. I never even mentioned my eyes but how happy I was for good sight. Maybe we pray for a son to get out of jail and the Lord says for us to wait a little longer as He has more…He wants to free him from sin and give him a whole new life. When we pray, let us have believing hearts but let us not limit how God will answer us. Along  with so many of you, we gave been praying for healing for our friend Gen who has been suffering with pain from cancer in her abdomen. We know God could have healed her of cancer and we desired that, but instead He gave her total healing by ushering her to glory. No more pain or trouble breathing, for now she will have a new body and is in the presence of our Healer, himself. Let us always pray in faith and let the answers come through Him who loves us and knows best.

Challenge for today: Give your requests to God and receive His answers with assurance that He has your best in mind.  

Dear Ones,

Hope you are having a good day. This  morning I made 2 Mexican pies and went to my exercise class. This afternoon we are going to a farewell coffee for one of the residents here and then Kurt and Bo are stopping in on their way to the cabin. 

Devotions from Judy’s heart

What a change as I look out my window. The ground that was just starting to green up days ago is now covered with a blanket of fresh snow. Everything has changed and just overnight. It was a reminder to me of the difference it makes when we ask forgiveness and our sins are covered over by the blood of Jesus; the result is that we are forgiven and given a white robe to wear that covers us completely. I don’t think I can ever get over how amazing that is! What a transformation! It’s just as Peter spoke in Act. 3:19 (ESV), “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” When we really know in our hearts that we are forgiven it is the most wondrous feeling and like we are given a new lease on life. But sometimes we come with deep wounds that need healing and although we are forgiven and have forgiven the one who hurt us, we have a hard time to experience those times of refreshing. I am reading Stephen Seamands’ book, Wounds that Heal, and he writes about how we are not alone in our suffering when we have been hurt, abused, and rejected by those closest to us. The Lord understands as He experienced excruciating pain and suffering and was rejected Himself; He knows what we have been through and is ready and willing to heal our wounds. If we carry deep wounds from childhood, it affects how we see ourselves and also how we perceive others. We all desire acceptance and affirmation but for some that was not given and may be sought later in life in other unacceptable ways. One child of an alcoholic mother was constantly verbally abused and told she was no good. She felt she could never be loveable and her unhealed rejection left her with feelings of bitterness and inferiority rather than celebrating being a beloved child of God. Another woman had been sexually abused by her father as a child. She was making progress in her healing but later as an adult her father raped her again and she was devastated. Her pastor brought her into the sanctuary and had her look at the cross and told her that the cross was the place she would know the truth about herself. Jesus loved her enough to die for her. She rejected Satan’s lie that she was worthless and left the sanctuary a healed person who knew her worth. Jesus invites us to give Him the hurtful words we have endured, the abuses, the rejections and will bear the brunt of them, for it is by His wounds we are healed.

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord to show you any lies of Satan you have believed about yourself and take them to the cross and set free