Category: Whispers (Page 59 of 164)

Dear Ones,

Hope your Christmas was a time of joy! Our hearts are full as we had a wonderful time together with family. Today will be catch up and the house is already full of aroma as I started a meal in the oven.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  When I read the book, Forgive and Forget by Professor Lewis Smedes, I found he goes deeper into what true forgiveness really is and what it is not. It doesn’t seem fair that we should forgive someone that has done something so horrible as a Jewish man who was asked to forgive a Polish soldier. He was in a concentration camp and taken to the bedside of one of the German wounded soldiers who was dying. The soldier wanted to ask forgiveness of a Jew before he died, for he had crowded 200 Jews into a house and then blew it up and shot all who tried to escape. It doesn’t seem fair for someone to happily kill so many people and then simply ask for forgiveness so he can die in peace.  We may ask ourselves, why do we have to forgive someone and then suffer again by also blessing the person?

  But the alternative to forgiving is when we refuse to forgive and want revenge, to get even in some way. We want them to experience the pain they caused us. But the truth is we can never really even the score. When we retaliate, we may think we evened the score but the other person feels his pain is greater and so it never balances out. When we harbor hate it will sap our strength and energy and leave us weak and in pain.

Challenge for today: Forgive without weighing the scales but out of gratitude for what the Lord has

 forgiven you.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

  He wants our receptivity to listen to Him as He speaks, to let Him love us and also love others through us. If we are His sheep, we should be listening for His voice but often we have unbelief that blocks His voice to us. Perhaps we find ourselves cold or aloof to the sound of His voice because we are listening to the music of the world in our ears. We miss out on so much of what the Lord desires to give to us.

  I’m sure we have all had times we are sharing our hearts with a close friend or spouse and find that they are not really listening. Their mind is off somewhere else, and they are missing what we are trying to communicate. Think of how often the Lord is wanting to pour out His love on us and we disregard what He is saying because we are not really listening. There is a whole spiritual world about us and we often choose to ignore it. I read today a quote by Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Christian faith is a grand cathedral, with divinely pictured windows. Standing without, you see no glory, nor can imagine any. But standing within, every ray of light reveals a harmony of unspeakable splendors. “

  Let us not stay aloof but draw close to the Lord and experience the reality and splendor of His presence. As it says in James 4:8, “Draw close to God and He will draw close to you; Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Happy Christmas morning. We will be packing up the car to go to the hotel in the cities for 2 days to be with a host of relatives (last year it was 40 plus!) We come from several states and have a feast for supper and then each family shares about the blessings of the past year in their families. Some go swimming afterwards and the rest of us eat some more and enjoy catching up. I won’t be writing again until Wednesday as my computer is staying home!

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  Today is Christmas morning and may you have incredible joy as you celebrate the birth of our King and Savior. Whether we are with lots of family or alone today, we worship and celebrate the One who came, who died, and rose again and now is preparing a place for us in glory. Receiving Him and knowing Him is the most important decision we will ever make, and no matter what happens here in life, when we know Him, we have everything.

Thank you that in your presence, we experience joy to the max! Thank you for making that available to us through the birth of your Son, Jesus! His birth is the reason we seek out experiences that bring us joy during this season, even if it’s only temporary joy! I pray we use this Christmas season to prompt us to acknowledge and engage with our true source of joy–your presence. Thank you for making lasting joy available to us. Thank you for every good gift! Lord let us spend time abiding in your presence, and, Lord, let us be evidence to unbelievers that you are their only hope for true, lasting joy! Let it be undeniable that we have been with you and thank you for being with us! In Jesus’ name, amen.

Challenge for today: Share the Lord with someone who may not know Him.

Blessings on your Christmas Day and prayers and love, Judy

Dear Ones,

Happy Christmas eve day! I don’t usually write on Sundays but want to wish you a blessed Christmas! We are heading to the Lake to worship at our son-in-law’s church, and plan to stop and see a friend in Assisted living on the way. Tomorrow we will go to the cities and I’m not taking my computer along, so you won’t get a devotion for the 26th and a late one on the 27th.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  Christmas is a holy time, a time to remember and celebrate Jesus’ birth. Yes, it is going to church, singing carols, feasting and gathering with family, but most of all it is a time to worship and thank God for sending His Son to earth for us. When I think of the contrast of Jesus leaving the glories of heaven amongst angels and then being born in a cold dirty earthly stable, it grips my heart! How could Someone love us that much and yet Jesus does!

  Perhaps O Holy Night will be sung at your church service on Christmas eve or perhaps we have it playing on our phones, but may the words written in the 1800’s penetrate our hearts at this Christmas time:

As a result of His coming we can, like the shepherds and wisemen, bow low before Him in beholding our King. He breaks our chains and lifts our oppression and forgives our sins and is our friend, and Savior and King. He teaches us to love one another and to proclaim His glory and power to all. “Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!” II Cor 9:15. Let us share the good news!

Dear Ones,

Hope you are having a peaceful weekend as you prepare for Christmas. I spent much of yesterday in the kitchen and today I am going to clean and pack. We will be celebrating tomorrow by going to Church in Hackensack and then to Ann’s for Christmas dinner. We plan to be home for the Christmas service at our church at 4. May each of us have a fresh awareness of the wonderful gift given us in Jesus!

Devotions from Judy’s heart

We are all loved and wanted beyond what we can ever comprehend. Even the one who was raised in a home without earthly fatherly love can glory in the fact that he is eternally loved by a Heavenly Father who gave His all for him.

Dear Ones,

Happy weekend to you! Yesterday we spent in the cities at our son-in-law’s mother’s funeral. It was a beautiful service and a powerful sermon by the pastor, who outlined Shirley’s influence on so many people who were touched by her.

Devotions from Judy’s heart

  When we gather for Christmas with family, are we united with those who view life just like us or is there quite a variety of opinions. It is not likely we all believe exactly the same and have the same viewpoints on our government, the church, the coming of the Lord again etc.  How good are we at opening our arms and hearts to those who don’t see things exactly like we do. Paul had a lot to say to the early Christians about cultivating good relationships even when we may have strong opinions on things. Back then it was often on what they could eat or not eat, what days should be set aside as holy days etc. But simply put, Paul says “So tend to your own knitting. You’ve got your hands full just taking care of your own life before God. (Rom. 14:12)

  Challenge for today: Read Romans 14 in your favorite translation and then in the Message translation also as you let God speak to your heart.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

  “Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality. Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up.  Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody. Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. l’ll do the judging,’ says God. I’ll take care of it.’”

  A word to us is that we are not to push our self-importance but be willing to be secondd as we love deeply and show honor to one another. We need to be full of the Spirit as we serve one another as unto the Lord. If someone gets under our skin, we don’t give up but pray harder and exercise patience even as the Lord is patient with us. We are to help provide for their needs and show warm hospitality…not how long are you going to stay?!!! Even if they are sarcastic towards us, bless them and don’t curse them. Share their joy and also their griefs as some will come with heavy hearts. We are to try our best to live in harmony and not be exclusive but include them. Even if they speak against us, let us not respond back or try to get the upper hand…pray for them and leave the judging up to the Lord.  Ask God to show us beauty in them, and to help us get along with them. Let us do our part to live in harmony with one another.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

 Yesterday we were to meet friends who we haven’t seen for a while at a restaurant we have been to many times before. We arrived at the parking lot at the same time and after greeting each other went to go in; only the door was locked and as we peered through the glass door, we noticed no lights and a sign that said they were closed on Tuesdays. What a bummer and why on Tuesdays, rather than a Monday when some establishments are closed after a busy weekend. We got suggestions of where to go and ended up at a Mexican place where the food was great, we were in a corner away from people, and since it wasn’t busy, we could stay as long as we wanted, which we did! It was really perfect and we could be free to share, and I smiled as I thought, “Lord, you had this place in mind all along. Thank you!” That was a minor little situation and yet God had something better for us as we waited. I also was reminded that I had a gift I ordered for our friends, and didn’t know if it would arrive in time; but only a few minutes before we were to leave to meet, it arrived in the mail. Yes, His timing is perfect!

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

  We need to be free in the giving to the needs to others and also receiving so we can grow in grace as mutual needs are met. We find that the sharing with others involves both our weaknesses and our strengths. Where we are inadequate and lack strength, someone else is strong and can minister to us. And where they are weak, we can help share their burdens. No one has it all together, even if they think so, they will discover it is a lonely life not to need others. If we selfishly sow to the flesh, we will use others around us to validate us and tell us how good we are doing. But if we sow to the Spirit and help and serve others, we will experience the freedom of mutuality and living freely.

Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy

Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy