Blog Archives

Seeking and Finding

3/30/2015

My friend bought some plastic Easter eggs and when her grandson came over they took turns hiding them. There was one that her grandson just couldn’t seem to find. It was sitting on the table, out in the open yet he couldn’t see it. She tried leading him in the right direction but still he just didn’t see it. This made me think; how often do I do this to God? He sets something right in front of me, it is not hidden but I just can’t seem to find it.

I thought about what it was that keeps us from finding what God has planned for us, the path He wants us to take and the blessings he wants to give us. Here are a few that apply to me:

I get distracted by the things around me and the situation itself. I ask for his direction and then look at everything, all the possibilities, and listen to others. All this can be good but it sometimes keeps me from paying attention to God. How often I have worried only to find that God has put the solution right in front of me. I would have found it sooner if I had been looking and listening to Him.

It is not where I expect it to be. There have been times I have almost missed a blessing because it came from a different direction or a different place from where I would expect to find it. Always a better place than I would have put it. Some of the best blessings come from right in front of us.

Sometimes it is because I’m not sure I want to find it. Fear that He will lead me somewhere I don’t want to go. Take me out of my comfort zone. Fear the answer won’t be what I want. Fear that He will actually give me what I ask for. Fear of what it will cost me.

God never hides His answers, His blessings or the path He wants us to follow. They are always there ready and waiting for us. We need to ask, look at Him, look for the unexpected, listen and not be afraid of what we will find.

Mathew 7:7-8

7. Ask and it will given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. 8. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it will be opened.

Ruby

Easter is just around the corner

3/23/2015

1 Corinthians 15:1-3 (NIV)

The Resurrection of Christ "Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,"

As Easter quickly approaches, we are all preparing to celebrate the days Christ suffered and died on a cross for our sins, was placed a in a grave and on the third day, defeated death and rose from the grave! We are also busy making the preparations for beyond us, as well as keeping up with our everyday activities.
Then there is spring cleaning, some are packing for spring-break vacations and others are packing up to return north after a wonderful winter season in Florida.
I just thought I would give you this lovely passage to meditate on over the next several days and a couple of easy recipes you might want to try for Easter. Who can’t use easy these days?

Easy Banana Strawberry Dessert

6 Servings

Ready in 45 minutes

Ingredients:

6 Bananas; sliced in chunks

1 can Strawberry pie filling

Whipped cream?

Preparation: Cut bananas into large chunks, place in a large bowl. Pour pie filling over bananas. Mix well. Chill in refrigerator for about an hour. Serve with whipped cream.

Swiss Vegetable Medley

Ready in 50 minutes

It’s easy to assemble and can be made ahead of time.

8 Servings

Ingredients:

1 package frozen broccoli

1 carrots and cauliflower

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

0.5 cup sour cream

0.25 tsp pepper

1 jar chopped pimientos; drained

1 cup Swiss cheese; shredded, divided

1 can French-fried onions; divided

Preparation: In a bowl, combine vegetables, soup, sour cream, pepper, pimientos and 1/2 cup cheese. Stir in half of the onions; mix well. Pour into an ungreased 1-qt. casserole. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until bubbly. Uncover; sprinkle with remaining cheese and onions. Return to the oven until cheese is melted, about 5 minutes.

I sincerely hope and pray you have a joyous Easter celebration with your family and loved ones. I also wish you safe travels if you are traveling.

If you try either of these recipes, please blog and let us know how you liked them. Again, Happy Easter and let us all remember the reason for the season.

In God’s Love,

Carol Bridges

A trip to Turkey

3/16/2015

We are enjoying a wonderful trip in Turkey. We have been to many biblical sites spoken of in scripture. The colosseum in Ephesus. We have been to many of the churches spoken of in the book of Revelation. The Cappadocia region is very unique in its geological landscape. Early Christians escaping persecution built house churches in the rock formations. We were able to take a hot air balloon ride over the region.

The Shepherds reminded me of pastor message today. It was so nice to hear the gospel spoken. Turkey is 99% Muslim. We hear the call to prayer four times a day. So much lostness.

See you all soon.

Beverly Chesnut

"NOTES FROM THE VALLEY", A JOURNEY THROUGH CANCER

3/9/2015

This was not the topic I had selected for my blog post this time, but I heard a program on Saturday that touched me so much, I felt a strong urging from the Holy Spirit to share my thoughts from this program, "Building Relationships" with Dr. Gary Chapman. His guest was Pastor Andy McQuitty, pastor of Irving Bible Church in Irving, Texas, where he has served as senior pastor for 30 years.
His words are needed by all of us as we hear each week in our Bible studies, our families and in our life groups about someone else who is walking through the valley of cancer. We need to be encouraged and have God's word for our guidance and our hope.
He was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer and was given an 8 % chance of survival. He is now at year five and believes God has healed him. The medical community won't consider him cured until he has been cancer free for ten years.
It might seem a bit on the morbid side, but the fact is, from the day we are born, we are all on the journey of dying---heading for the land of the living, Heaven. At the very beginning we need to ask God for joy, grace and peace on this journey because we don't know if this might be what God will choose to take us to Heaven. The bottom line is God is writing the story and we cannot dictate how it will finish. Sometimes He heals us while on this earth and sometimes He gives us the ultimate healing and takes us to Heaven. Cancer cannot be the theme of your life occupying your every thought and consuming you and filling you with fear and dread of each day. Our main purpose cannot be to "not die", but instead to live and walk faithfully with Him and to bring Him glory. Our lives are in His hands and He loves us more than we could ever fully realize.
It is OK to ask God, "why me"? He is a big God and He can take our honest questions. Lament keeps it real as we face it and turn it over to God. This will lead us to a place of peace and quietness.
King David expresses in Psalm 42 his lament to God about the agony he was going through and ends the Psalm by acknowledging that his hope was in the Lord; verse 11b says: "Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him my Savior and my God." The walk through the valley that you thought would be terrible and awful can be a glorious experience. We need to learn to live in the moment and enjoy being present in the moment instead of thinking about the past or wondering and worrying what the future might hold. When Pastor Andy was questioned in an interview about how cancer had changed him, he answered that he learned to slow down and live in the moment, enjoying and fully entering into whatever he was doing right then. He said truly the abundant life is living in the moment.
Pastor Andy related his greatest battle with loneliness was experienced while being in multiple doctor's offices and "clipboards" in every one with multiple pages of repetitive information being asked for time after time. He felt isolation and that no one really knew him or remembered him. Then he realized that a child of God has a huge advantage when faced with this journey. God is a God of hope. We need community also. He noticed in all those waiting rooms, where he was being given chemo, that there were many faces; some were desperate, hopeless, ones with no hope and then there were ones whose faces still showed a peace. This is where the neatest part of his story was shared and it brought tears to my eyes as I listened while he told the story of the "pager". His congregation gave him an old fashioned pager, like we used a very long time ago before the digital age. You can't leave messages or do anything but dial the number. His congregation and all the missionaries they knew and some others were given his pager number and anytime, day or night, when they were praying for him, they were to dial his pager. It was going off constantly 24/7!! He was overwhelmed at the beginning by the number of people praying for him during his 18 month journey. He asked his church one Sunday morning, to include in their prayers for him, whoever he was with at that time. He started taking it with him to every waiting room and lying it down on a table somewhere in the room. When it started going off repeatedly on one particular day, a big, bald, tattooed biker guy whom he was conversing with asked if he was ever going to answer that noisy pager that was constantly going off. Pastor Andy explained that it was not to be answered but was announcing people praying for him and everyone who was with him. The eyes and ears of the entire waiting room were on Pastor Andy and he shared Jesus with them. People who didn't have any hope, now had hope!
Pastor Andy shared the "3 P's of Prayer" he practiced and taught his people.1.--PRAY PATIENTLY-- Luke 11:9 tells us to ask, seek & knock. The seeking is the patient part of prayer. We don't know God's plan.
2---PRAY PERSISTENTLY--This is the knocking part where we keep praying and don't give up.
3---PRAY PLIABLY---This is where we ask and pray specifically. We know our Father gives good gifts to his children, but it may not be what you ask for, BUT it will be something good! God might have a better "yes" for us. We need to be reminded that we're always healed, but not always cured.
I Peter 1:24 tells us that by His stripes we are healed through Jesus' death on the cross. This is the ultimate healing.
We must realize that suffering is inevitable and it is purposeful. No one is exempt from passing through the refiners fire and we must look for the purpose in our suffering. Maybe it is to build our character, make our faith shine, maybe to burn off the impurity of sin or pride, or it could be used to display the signs of His grace. Through our suffering we become God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world when we use our suffering to allow us to "walk well through the valley".
The expression "Carpe Diem means seize the day, but another term, Carpe Aeternitatem means to seize eternity. We should seek to see our days in light of eternity. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says: He has made everything beautiful in it's time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
We can have this perspective regardless if we are going through cancer or another trial or if we are well. Its available to all of us. Cancer just happens to put a magnifying glass on it.
If God says "NO", it doesn't mean He has defected from His goodness or His plan. Remember to make a good journey and live each day to bring Him glory!
C.S. Lewis says that God whispers in our pleasure, speaks in our conscience, and shouts in our pain. We are never closer to His heart than when we are going through suffering. Stay close to Him, my sweet sisters in the Lord!
Linda Davis

Life goes on...

3/2/2015

Life is a mixture of ups and downs. Sometime we are on the mountaintop and sometimes we are in the valley. Sometimes it is the mixture of both. Illness in the family, busy schedules, stress, they take a toll on each of us. I feel like I’m more in the valley these days, but then God brings little sun shines to my life just to show me He is there.

Do you ever feel like life should stop for a minute, because what you have to deal with needs your full attention? I know I do, but then life just goes on. Even in our darkest times the sun keeps shining, the birds keep chirping and children keep laughing. Then in the midst of sorrow or pain God shows Himself so real that you know He is there with you. It can be a rainbow in the sky, an encouraging text from someone or just something unusual that happens. God used all these this past weekend to show me He is in the midst of everything.

In the middle of the rainy afternoon this past weekend there was a rainbow in the sky, and that always reminds me of His mercy and His promise. Then I received an encouraging text from a loving friend who was praying for me. The same afternoon at my dad’s lanai I saw a small water otter. In the past, every time I have seen one, they always swam away, and I could never take a picture. So this time I’m walking on tippy toes with my dad on my side, quietly opening the door, so we can capture one of God’s creatures in the wild as they enjoy the sun on the green grass. As we walk out there, this little creature looks at us and start coming toward us, just hopping happily in the grass. He just kept coming and staring at us with that totally adorable face that God gave him. He hanged out with us for at least 10 minutes, just waiting for food I’m sure, but allowing us to marvel at God’s creation in the wild. I was so amazed. Not as much at the little animal and his reaction, but the love that God has for us. He knows what makes my heart leap with joy, what makes me smile, and what reminds me of His love for me.

It brought to memory the verses in Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
4     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,”

Then in verse 11 he says: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

His love, His mercy and His grace amazes me every day. Be encouraged that He is with you through it all, and look for Him in all things.

“You will seek Me and find Me when you search for me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13

Krisztina White