Picture DEES~~~~~Two Spots

Recently in our weekly prayer session a devotion was given on Elijah from 1 Kings 19:1-8. Elijah exhausted from his travels and the task he was doing came to a broom tree. He was down to nothing but God and his grace. In utter despair with no where else to go he sat down at the foot of the tree and prayed to God that he may die. Instead of granting him his request God strengthened him instead.

Too often when we come to that point where we are down-to-grace we come to that tree and want to hang ourselves rather than wait for The Lord to replenish our strength. This is what the foot of the tree has to offer, maybe a place of momentary rest but a place of despair, weakness, and pain.

The foot of the cross offers us strength, grace, mercy, love and so much more. The spot at the foot of the tree can be gone the first good storm that comes its way where the spot at the foot of the cross remains forever.

So when we find ourselves down-to-grace we need to decide which spot we want to be. The tree of no hope that offers only temporary solutions and emotional despair or the spot at the foot of the cross where hope and the ability to go on is found.

Meet me at the cross. You'll never regret it.

Everyone Has a Story

As my granddaughter Brooke and I sat in church one Sunday the preacher talked about Paul's story. He then mentioned the fact that everyone has a story.

One by one the preacher asked volunteers to tell their stories. As people were talking my granddaughter Brooke reached out and gave me a hug. She knew in her heart her grandma had a story to tell whether she got to tell it that Sunday or not.

As there was no time to share it at church I am sharing it now for Brooke and all my other grandchildren. So here we go kids, this is grandma's story:

At the age of twelve I accepted Christ into my life thanks to the fantastic witness and example my preacher Rev D L Penhollow (Penny) was as he displayed his love for Jesus daily. God was going to test that commitment I made as I was declared disabled twice in my life. The first time in my twenties when I had epilepsy and again in my fifties with my breast cancer.

What I learned during my first disability were things I was going to need to survive during my struggle with my cancer. Lessons on how to deal with stress and how to effectively lean on Jesus. Already out of the way was the battle with the "why me" struggle with my epilepsy that kept me from going there when I got cancer. I learned about forgiveness and the poison of bitterness and the short falls of self pity and giving up.

Jesus was and still is my strength thru it all. He was the guide I was going to need to lead me out of the darkness using His word, the Bible. When I wasn't taking well the test of life He was patient with me. He granted me grace when I needed it and mercy when I didn't deserve it. He has always made me feel loved and worthy of what He has to offer. He has walked me thru many trials and picked me up when I have fallen.

He has always been there for me. He has tickled me when I couldn't laugh or smile on my own. His hand has wiped away many a tears from my face. His arms hugged me when I was alone in the darkness. It was His angel He sent to comfort me outside my kitchen window. He has never let me down. He has disciplined me as a loving father does his daughter.

He has shown me again and again how much He cares. Therefore as my second disability carries on so will my love for Jesus. As He is there for me so will I be for Him. My holy reverent fear of Him makes it so I don't have to fear what is ahead of me.

Stick with Jesus my love ones and you too will have a fantastic story to tell. It may not include angels or disabilities but it will contain the same story of love Jesus has to offer you as He offers me and those who have gone on before me such as Penny Penhollow.

Seek God and be amazed at what you'll find.

Rainbows

I was on my way to work. The blue sky was pretty enough to gaze upon after the morning rain but suddenly something even more beautiful caught my attention. It was a rainbow in the eastern sky. Loving on its beauty I wanted to get a good picture of it. As I drove down the road I finally found a place that would work.

As I sat in my car I tried to zoom in on the rainbow to get as close as my phone camera would allow me. Unfortunately when I did that my camera decided to act up on me making it impossible to take a picture. Over and over again I tried to get the camera to work. I even shut my phone off and turned it back on and was having difficulty.

In the midst of my frustration I noticed God was at work finishing the rainbow He had placed in the sky. The rainbow I had first spotted was only the bottom end of one that had no arch. As I was trying to get my camera to work God had colored in the rainbow I was looking at with brighter and sharper colors and He put an arch on it for me. As soon as that was done my camera was willing to cooperate with me and take a picture.

It was so awesome to see. I love rainbows, I always have. I even nicknamed my oldest granddaughter, "Rainbow." I did that because of the beautiful color she puts out and the fact that the Lord is watching over her as He promises to look at every rainbow in the sky. Who she is deep down inside of her is that pot of gold in the making at the end of the rainbow.

Just like the rainbow today in the sky the Lord is still working on her making her colors even brighter and the pot of gold in her heart even more of a treasure. Thus while grandma is scrambling to get her camera to work to take her picture and capture her life on earth God is still working on her, adding arches, color, and more gold.

As soon as I took the picture of the rainbow it faded into the sky so I got into my car and started toward work again. Halfway to work another rainbow appeared and this one was even brighter than the first. Stopping along side of the road I took more pictures as I praised the Lord for the painting in the sky He was showing me.

Just like the first rainbow the minute I took a picture the rainbow faded in the sky. I sure hope everyone was done looking at it, I know I could stare at them forever but I needed to continue on to work. As I drove closer to my work I thought to myself, "I bet I will see another rainbow before I get to work."

Guess what? I did. Just before getting to the building a third rainbow appeared and the end of it was right in the middle of the town where I work. Unable to stop to take more pictures I figured it was just as well because it would have faded away like the other two I just knew it. I wanted people to enjoy what I was enjoying.

Oh my, by the time I made it to work I was truly in tears from the worshipping of the Lord and the gratitude of the rainbows in the sky He had painted for me. The reminder to me telling me He was still working on my granddaughter made it all even more special.

I love you Jesus
I love you Marissa

They Call me,

Grandma

God loves us so much

God loves us like a grandma who is always carrying around pictures of her kids and she can't quit talking about them.
 
How awesome is that knowing the Lord loves us that much. We are not a number to Him, an account He has stock in, a faceless person hidden in a long line of other faces waiting their turn to meet Him.
 
We have a face to Him, He knows what we are thinking, He knows our hearts. He carries with Him a piece of us like the grandma we talked about. His children mean something to Him. He rejoices with them, He mourns with them, He is pleased as well as disappointed in their behavior yet He loves them.
 
The fact that He even knows our name to talk about us is such a wonderful warm thought to think about. As God loves us we need to love Him as well, showing that love through our actions, our behavior, our attitude, and the choices we make it life.

Rainbow cloud

As I listened to my radio in between the music they were playing the conversation the disc jockey brought up caught my attention. He mentioned a rainbow he was seeing in the clouds that looked unusual. Calling his wife he asked her if she had ever seen anything like that before.

Curiosity and the love of rainbow stories brought me out of my chair in hopes of seeing what they were seeing. Living 26 miles north of where he was I held out hope that it was in a position where I could see it too.

Sure enough hiding in the clouds were the markings of a rainbow, the colors stood out on top of the clouds just waiting to come out. As much as I wanted a good picture of it the bright sun directly above it shining into my camera made it difficult to capture the moment on film. However, it wasn't hard to capture this moment in my heart, a place of storage that will outlive any picture I could have taken of it.

On the disc jockey's side he got the full view of the rainbow with the cloud behind it. For me I got the cloud with the rainbow peeking out from the top of it. To me it was the view I needed at the time as it made me think of life and how we find ourselves surrounded by storms, clouds of clutter, winds of change, and showers of unpleasantness.

In spite of the clouds and storms around us if we go looking there is a rainbow to be seen peeking out. At the time I took this picture I did so because of my love for rainbows but now that I look at it, it was a sticky note in the sky from God. The cloud with the rainbow was directly over my parents' house. Later the same day I took this picture my dad got news that his lab work from his annual physical came back abnormal. Still waiting to talk to the doctor I already have heard from God that my dad is going to be ok. There is a rainbow hiding in the clouds for him and my mom. I just need to watch for and be ready to capture it when it comes by.

To My Granddaughter Marissa who I nicknamed Rainbow:
I love you my sweet, on this same day I took this picture of the rainbow I knew you were having troubles with your friends but everything is going to work out fine. There is a rainbow hidden in the clouds for you showing you God is there, watching over you and things will work themselves out. Turn to the substance that will help you the most, Jesus Christ and go Rainbow hunting in the sky.         Luv forever, Gma

I love Jesus by Anthony

One day as I was coming out of my bathroom a note taped on the door of my spare bedroom caught my attention. “How long as that been there?” was my first reaction. After getting that curiosity out of the way I read what it had to say.

 

In the handwriting of my seven-year-old grandson was the misspelled words of, “I love Jusus fare moch,” signed Anthony. Just as I knew what he was trying to say, God also knew that Anthony had to say. He knows that Anthony does love Jesus very much. What a treasure it was to see and read this expression of Anthony’s love for Jesus.

 

It would do us all well to take the time to express our own love for Jesus. It doesn’t matter if it’s a misspelled love note on a door or thru the actions we take and the choices we make we need to let God know.

 

Just like everyone likes to hear the words I love you from their love ones God like to hear them from us. “Oh they know I love them. Oh God knows I love Him I don’t need to say it.” Yes you do need to say it. Not only for those hearing it but for the one saying it as well. For some reason it just makes a big difference to hear out loud what you have in your heart, to express not hide. To proclaim, not be silent.

 

God leaves his random notes of I love you to us and we need to do the same for Him.

Good job Anthony. Jesus loves you too. 

Picture DEES #39 Crumpled Piece of Paper

When we come to God most of us look like a crumpled piece of paper full of wrinkles, flukes, and flaws and past scars, mistakes, and poor judgment. What a wonderful blessing to us that God sees that crumpled heart in us and He doesn’t toss it aside. No, He takes it. He saves it and stretches it out into something of great beauty.

This is a process that doesn’t instantly happen the minute we come to Christ. Its something that takes time and cooperation on our part as God restores our heart to what it needs to be in Christ. How much He can stretch and straighten out our spiritual heart depends on how much we lend a hand.

It’s important to realize that crumpled paper (our spiritual heart) seems to have a memory of its own. It will want to go back to the way it was before Christ but we have to work together with God to avoid that from happening. Once stretched and straightened out God begins to write a love letter on it directly over those flukes and flaws, scars, mistakes, and poor judgments we’ve made in life.

We don’t have to stay that crumpled up piece of paper the world tosses aside. We can go to Christ and restore what once was crumpled or what can become crumpled in the future.

Like the paper we use in school is worth recycling so is our heart and Christ is the perfect place to go to, to get the job done.

They Call Me, Grandma


© 2010 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Kid DEES Shield of Faith continued, God's love for us

As we talked about last time we were going to take a good look at our shield of Faith God has given us for protection. The part in which comes first, that we need to tightly hold on to is our faith in Christ. Once we have properly put our faith in Christ we soon find all the other little things in life falling into place.

When God said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world…” He was talking about you and me. We can have faith in the fact that in spite of whether we are feeling loved by the world, by our parents, by our siblings, by other kids we need to know God loves us. That love will never waiver although our choices in life can draw us away from it if we allow it.

Instead of going out of our way to fill the missing feeling of not being loved, or dreaming of a love others have with each other we need to seek God’s love first. The love of a friend, parent, boyfriend, girlfriend, sister or brother may come and go but God’s love for us is there to stay.

Unfortunately we are the ones that tend to move away from it. We get to thinking because He loves us we therefore get to do whatever we please whenever we please. From there the first thing that goes wrong in our lives we blame God for not loving us.

God’s love for us doesn’t assure us a pain free life with all we could ever want and ask for. It’s our reassurance that we have someone who cares near by. Someone to cuddle up against when we are scared, a guide to follow, a teacher to learn from, and friend we can confide in.

His love is here to stay. It’s strong enough to withstand anything the world throws at it. As long as we don’t move away, it won’t either. Praise the Lord.

Dear Heavenly Father thank you Lord for the faith in knowing we are loved by You. Too often we walk through life believing the lies Satan tells us that we are not loved by others or ourselves. Praise you Lord that we will never get that from You. Help us to recognize the lies as we run quickly by them into the comfort of your loving arms. We love you Father, and again thank you for loving us. In your son’s most precious name we pray, Amen. (So be it)

© 2010 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing