|
Posted on 01/01/2024 3:15:48 PM PST by luvie
|
Sounds like it’s going to be a wild one for ya! We have the wind but thankfully no snow. It will get cold...12-15 degrees...., but only for a couple of days.
Stay warm and pace yourself with that snow-blowing!
After we survive the blizzard, then it gets really cold, like -15 cold. 🙄
The extra cold temps stick around into next week.
Oh joy.
🥶
That just made me ~~~shiver~~~! Brrrr! 🥶❄️☃️
Bible in a Year :
The Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
In a refugee camp in the Middle East, when Reza received a Bible, he came to know and believe in Jesus. His first prayer in Christ’s name was, “Use me as your worker.” Later, after he left the camp, God answered that prayer when he unexpectedly secured a job with a relief agency, returning to the camp to serve the people he knew and loved. He set up sports clubs, language classes, and legal advice—“anything that can give people hope.” He sees these programs as a way to serve others and to share God’s wisdom and love.
When reading his Bible, Reza felt an instant connection with the story of Joseph from Genesis. He noticed how God used Joseph to further His work while he was in prison. Because God was with Joseph, He showed him kindness and granted him favor. The prison warden put Joseph in charge and didn’t have to pay attention to matters there because God gave Joseph “success in whatever he did” (Genesis 39:23).
God promises to be with us too. Whether we’re facing imprisonment—literal or figurative—hardship, displacement, heartache, or sorrow, we can trust that He’ll never leave us. Just as He enabled Reza to serve those in the camp and Joseph to run the prison, He’ll stay close to us always. .
Reflect & Pray
When have you experienced God’s redeeming action, such as Reza and Joseph did? How does Joseph’s story help you to trust Him more?
Saving God, You never leave me, even when I face the hardest of circumstances. Please give me hope and eyes to see Your work in my life.
|
Well, I plowed snow twice today. It is still snowing. 😳
Ungh! I really hate plowing and/or shoveling snow.
So sorry you are going through this.
It gets discouraging when what I plowed is filling in again while I am at the other end of the driveway. Seems to be falling at one inch per hour. 🙃
I have experienced that in Boston. It’s so disheartening.
Whoa. That’s waaaaay too much snow! Brrrr!
Bible in a Year :
Consider him who endured . . . so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
When I was studying in seminary years ago, we had a weekly chapel service. At one service, while we students were singing “Great Is the Lord,” I spotted three of our well-loved professors singing with fervor. Their faces radiated joy, made possible only by their faith in God. Years later, as each went through terminal illness, it was this faith that enabled them to endure and encourage others.
Today, the memory of my teachers singing continues to encourage me to keep going in my trials. To me, they’re a few of the many inspiring stories of people who lived by faith. They’re a reminder of how we can follow the author’s call in Hebrews 12:2−3 to fix our eyes on Jesus who “for the joy set before him . . . endured the cross” (v. 2).
When trials—from persecution or life’s challenges—make it hard to keep going, we have the example of those who took God at His word and trusted in His promises. We can “run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (v. 1), remembering that Jesus—and those who have gone before us—was able to endure. The writer urges us to “consider him . . . so that [we] will not grow weary and lose heart” (v. 3).
My teachers, now happy in heaven, would likely say: “The life of faith is worth it. Keep going.” .
Reflect & Pray
Who’s inspired you to keep going in your faith journey? How does their example encourage you to endure in times of trial and hardship?
Dear Jesus, help me to keep fixing my eyes on You. When I’m weary and losing heart, thank You for Your example.
For further study, read Going the Distance: Practices to Strengthen Your Faith.
|
Bible in a Year :
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you.
Nineteenth-century Scottish pastor, Thomas Chalmers, once told the story of riding in a horse-drawn carriage in the Highlands region as it hugged a narrow mountain ledge, along a harrowing precipice. One of the horses startled, and the driver, fearing they would plummet to their death, repeatedly flicked his whip. After they made it past the danger, Chalmers asked the driver why he used the whip with such force. “I needed to give the horses something else to think about,” he said. “I needed to get their attention.”
In a world overflowing with threats and dangers all around us, we all need something else to arrest our attention. However, we need more than merely mental distraction—a kind of psychological trick. What we most need is to fasten our minds upon a reality more powerful than all our fears. As Isaiah told God’s people in Judah, what we truly need is to fix our minds on God. “You will keep in perfect peace,” Isaiah promises, “all who trust in you” (Isaiah 26:3 nlt). And we can “trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock” (v. 4 nlt).
Peace—this is the gift for all who fix their gaze on God. And His peace provides far more than only a technique for holding our worst thoughts at bay. For those who will surrender their future, their hopes, and their worries, the Spirit makes an entirely new way of life possible. .
Reflect & Pray
Where do you normally fix your attention? How might you renew your gaze on God?
Dear God, my mind can be a scary place, and I fear so much. Please give me Your peace.
Good Sunday Morning!
It is -7 degrees here at 10am. 😳
I miss summer now.
YIKES.
I hate winter.
me too
😊
Brrrrrr is right! It was 13 here and I was whining LOL! My outside kitties weren’t happy and their water was frozen solid, but I fixed it with some heated water fro indoors.
Stay warm and dry! Hope you don’t have to snow-blow too much today!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
Peaches sez: When it gets cold 