Posted on 09/30/2020 9:26:22 PM PDT by JustAmy
Our snow is almost gone, but it is very cold.
Got a nice seed catalog in the mail today. Looking forward to spring already.
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Gingers are the best! Of course, I’m not the least bit biased. LOL!
They were so cute. Very frisky!
Bible in a Year:
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
The sun had long set when our electrical power suddenly went out. I was at home with our two younger children, and this was their first time experiencing a power outage. After verifying that the utility company knew about the outage, I located some candles, and the kids and I huddled together in the kitchen around the flickering flames. They seemed nervous and unsettled, so we began to sing. Soon the concerned looks on their faces were replaced with smiles. Sometimes in our darkest moments we need a song.
Psalm 103 may be one of the psalms prayed or sung after the people of God had returned from exile to a homeland that had been laid waste. In a moment of crisis, they needed to sing. But not just any song, they needed to sing about who God is and what He does. Psalm 103 also helps us remember that Heās compassionate, merciful, patient, and full of faithful love (v. 8). And in case we wonder if the judgment for our sin still hangs over our heads, the psalm announces that God isnāt angry, He has forgiven, and He feels compassion. These are good things to sing about during the dark nights of our lives.
Maybe thatās where you find yourselfāin a dark and difficult place, wondering if God really is good, questioning His love for you. If so, pray and sing to the One who abounds in love!
Reflect & Pray
How might Godās saving acts in Jesus give you a better picture of what Heās like? How does He view you?
Dear Jesus, help me to see the love of God revealed in Your life, death, and resurrection. Lift up my weary head that I might sing of Your goodness and faithfulness.
That’s a lot of fluff!
Hope you had a good Sunday!
Got an outside project done before it might snow later.
Was near freezing today, so pretty warm for December.
Yep! :-)
Bible in a Year:
Then this city will bring me renown, joy, praise and honor.
At seventeen, Dowayne had to leave his familyās home in Manenberg, a part of Cape Town, South Africa, because of his stealing and addiction to heroin. He didnāt go far, building a shack of corrugated metal in his motherās backyard, which soon became known as the Casino, a place to use drugs. When he was nineteen, however, Dowayne came to saving faith in Jesus. His journey off drugs was long and exhausting, but he got clean with Godās help and with the support of friends who are believers in Jesus. And ten years after Dowayne built the Casino, he and others turned the hut into a house church. What was once a dark and foreboding place now is a place of worship and prayer.
The leaders of this church look to Jeremiah 33 for how God can bring healing and restoration to people and places, as Heās done with Dowayne and the former Casino. The prophet Jeremiah spoke to Godās people in captivity, saying that although the city would not be spared, yet God would heal His people and would ārebuild them,ā cleansing them from their sin (Jeremiah 33:7ā8). Then the city would bring Him joy, renown, and honor (v. 9).
When weāre tempted to despair over the sin that brings heartbreak and brokenness, letās continue to pray that God will bring healing and hope, even as Heās done in a backyard in Manenberg.
Reflect & Pray
How have you seen God bring restoration in your own life and in the lives of others? How can you pray for HisĀ healing this day?
God, thank You for sparking new life in what appeared to be dead. Continue to work in me, that I might share Your saving love with others.
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LOL!
Note the Guilty look on the dog.
Note the arrogant smirk of the kitteh.
Ha! Was just thinkin’ about taking down the tree. š
Will you be having any assistance from the Animal Kingdom?
Yep...one is more confident than the other. LOL!
Bible in a Year:
Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but . . . against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
In 1876, men drilling for coal in central Indiana thought they had found the gates of hell. Historian John Barlow Martin reports that at six hundred feet, āfoul fumes issued forth amid awesome noises.ā Afraid they had ābitten into the roof of the devilās cave,ā the miners plugged the well and scurried back to their homes.
The miners, of course, were mistakenāand some years later, they would drill again and be rich in natural gas. Even though they were mistaken, I find myself a little jealous of them. These miners lived with an awareness of the spiritual world that is often missing from my own life. Itās easy for me to live as if the supernatural and the natural rarely intersect and to forget that āour struggle is not against flesh and blood, but . . . against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realmsā (Ephesians 6:12).
When we see evil winning in our world, we shouldnāt give in or try to fight it in our own strength. Instead, weāre to resist evil by putting on āthe full armor of Godā (vv. 13ā18). Studying Scripture, meeting regularly with other believersĀ for encouragement, and making choices with the good of others in mind can help us āstand against the devilās schemesā (v. 11). Equipped by the Holy Spirit, we can stand firm in the face of anything (v. 13).
Reflect & Pray Reflect & Pray
How can you cultivate an awareness of the reality of the spiritual world? Is God calling you to āput onā some part of the āarmorā Paul describes? What might that look like today?
Help me to remember, God, to walk and serve by faith and in Your power.
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