abandoned to Christ.

  The mercy and kindness of my Abba, God and Father truly has no end. The photo I used to create the above Scripture-Picture is of a precious, black swallowtail butterfly catepillar, enjoying the fennel I grow in my garden; for my family and loved ones  and for it. I took this picture because it reminded me of something King David once penned, When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,      the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him,      and the son of man that You care for him? ~Psalm 8:3-4, ESV and also this passage from Psalm 22 that reflect our Savior's agony on the Cross of Calvary, But I am a worm and not a man,      scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see Me mock Me;      they make mouths at Me; they wag their heads; "He trusts in the LORD; let Him deliver Him;      let Him rescue Him, for He delights in Him!" ~Psal...

  Not everyone poor is humble. Not everyone rich is prideful. Not everyone battered is beaten. Not everyone spoiled is rotten. Not everyone meek is kind. Not everyone popular is rude. In this world, we assume much about others based on our limited experiences, and finite understanding of what we know (or think we know). We can't help it. We're all very quick to assume the best of ourselves or those we love and respect (whether or not we truly know them), while at the same time, presuming the worst of others. If a person we love or respect is thoughtless, we say, "Well, I'm sure they have a good reason. They probably have a lot on their mind or plate." But if it's someone we dislike or don't know at all, we say, "Whell! I guess they don't realize they're not the only people in this world!" I do this. Do you? Unfortunately, I don't stop there. There are times where I presume the worst of people I actually do know and love and respect if...

  “[L]earn to set a high price upon the quiet and sweetness of your spirit, set a high price upon it, account it to be a rich jewel of great worth, as we told you, that God accounted the meek spirit to be of great price; ‘tis one way to get it, to have a right esteem of the rest of spirit, and quietness that meekness will cause in the soule…therefore saith Christ, learn of me who am humble and meek, and you shall find rest to your souls…I have found this, that when I have been able to overcome my passion, I have had the sweetest time that ever I have had in all my life: when I could deny my selfe, and exercise meekness, O the quiet of any heart, it was worth a world, and shall I loose this for a trifle, now for a toy, O the poore trifles and toyes that men and women do cast away the quietness of their spirits for, as if they were nothing worth.” ~Jeremiah Burroughs, The Saints Happinesse; Sermon XIII Ah…the sweetness of meekness is far more impressive and far more glorious and far ...

Bemoaning God’s kindness sounds a bit strange, doesn’t it? Do you know why? Because it is. Sadly, many, if not most of us, bemoan God’s kindness daily…and we’ve practiced it so much, rarely are we aware of it. We bemoan God’s kindness when: Someone gives us a gift with all their heart, but it doesn’t meet our standards of what we most value; We’re envious and unkind to anyone our loved ones (parents, spouse, children, friends) give honor and respect to, because we feel their admiration belongs to us; We give a gift, serve, etc. and we don’t receive the measure of gratitude we feel our giving deserves; Someone loves us enough to not sin with us; We reject someone (with or without their knowledge) that God uses  to reprove or admonish us of sin we are entertaining/practicing; We won’t even greet someone because we are envious of the spiritual gifts or natural talents God gave to them and not to us; Our first instinct is to complain and criticize rather than to consider it all joy whe...

I’ve read 2 Samuel numerous times. And I’ve been moved by my Father’s faithful Holy Spirit, to pray what is written in chapter 16, verses 10-14. And once again, I’ve learned something new, about an old and familiar passage I’ve long loved and prayed to be true in my life. But before I share what our compassionate and faithful and superbly loving Father taught me through His Word, by the power of His Holy Spirit today, allow me to digress for a moment to share a brief summary (and the passage) that has long been a staple of my prayers. When Shimei (a relative of the late King Saul, whom the LORD deposed of his throne) violently accosted King David and his servants both physically and verbally by hurling stones at them and slandering the good name of King David, one of his mighty men, Abishai (a son of Zeruiah, one of David’s two sisters) being rightly indignant, offers to avenge his king’s integrity by killing Shimei. But King David’s response was a very unusual one. Rathe...

Let love be genuine.  Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection.   Outdo one another in showing honor.  Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and  seek to show hospitality. ~Romans 12:9-13, ESV So often (too often, for my liking), we compete. We participate in inane, daily competitions with one another. Especially us women. I can rarely be in a group of women where most, if not all, are sizing each other up. Who's the prettiest, who's the most fit, who has on the cutest outfit, who has the most perfect family? And nowadays, the most common competitions are: who has the most friends/followers, likes, comments, and social media birthday wishes (insert eye roll). The list of self-exalting, sinful comparisons, is endless. But our God and Father says the only "competition" we ...

I love this quote from Spurgeon. Every time I read it, I'm grateful for a wonderful time more than a decade ago, when the Lord Jesus stood before me and protected me, as I stood before someone else, to protect them. I was the Volunteer Coordinator/Trainer (and a volunteer myself) for nearly 100 volunteers at a mega-church (28,000 members at that time). I was in charge of training, coordinating, and managing the volunteers for tickets sales for a large, yearly, community event. One day, a woman who was purchasing tickets began yelling at one of my volunteers. I went to where they were so that I might shelter my volunteer from this irate woman. When I stepped in front of the volunteer to shield her from the woman that was yelling at her, I asked how I could help. The irate woman told me, "I want to purchase tickets, but I don't have the money to pay for it at the moment. I know the seats I want will go quickly, so I need you to make a transaction as ...

Though God chose all Scripture to be penned by men, He did not decree that all of the wisdom therein, would come only from men. Proverbs 31:10-31 is an acrostic poem based on the Hebrew alphabet; an oracle a mother taught her son . A son, who was a king. King Lemuel is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, except in the opening of this famous passage of a what a biblically submissive woman truly looks like—in spirit, and in the practical applications of her every day life. Most scholars believe King Lemuel is King Solomon (also called Jedidiah) since the names have similar meanings, and King Solomon wrote most of Proverbs. Lemuel means "devoted, or belonging to God" and Jedidiah (Solomon's other name) means "beloved of the LORD (2 Sam 12:25). While it is uncertain who King Lemuel was, what is certain is that God chose for this wise counsel from a mother to her son, to be recorded—that men may know what a godly woman looks like, and women may know th...

During my praise and quiet time this morning, one of the chapters included in the Bible reading plan I use , was 2 Corinthians 11. When I got to verse 30, "If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness ." , I realized this is something I rarely do. I often boast of Christ crucified (as every Christian ought), and I often boast about the good works of God displayed through the hands of His children. I've boasted about my Lord Jesus' power made perfect in my weaknesses. But today, it hit me...I don't often boast about things that show my weakness. It's difficult to do because I don't know what's enough or too much. And to be honest, I try to forget about all the pain and weakness I constantly feel, because who wants to hear about it? Most people don't. I've had numerous occasions when I've tried to share and either the person is clearly disinterested or they interrupt and change the subject to something funny ...

We must pray for our President's repentance before he suffers severely from waving his fist at the LORD of hosts, the Lord Almighty who is, and who was, and who is to come (Rev 1:8). "NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2016 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month." -President Barak Obama On Tuesday, May 31, 2016 President Obama made a proclamation  demonstrating his utter foolishness and wickedness. Ever since the President took office in 2009, he has been contending supremacy with God. And now, sadly, to increase his enmity with God, he openly and unashamedly blasphemes the name of our holy and awesome LORD. In this audacious act of megalomania, our President is attempting to rename and recreate what the LORD Almighty has said is good (a man is a man, a woman is a woman, both cr...

The condensed version of, "I told you this would happen, but you wouldn't listen." is, "I told you so." It's been ingrained in me and I think, most, if not all of you, that saying "I told you so" is wrong. It's considered to be harsh, inconsiderate, unkind, jabbing; and therefore, the most unloving and graceless thing to say to anyone after they've neglected to heed wise counsel, and find themselves in an unsavory and often, painful situation. "Call me crazy, but in the history of conversations, has the phrase 'I told you so' ever really generated a positive response? I'd say no, it has not...'I told you so' is a negative and counterproductive way of saying, 'I’m right and you’re wrong,' that does neither party any good. Even if the person in the wrong has been stubborn and refused constructive advice, that does not give another person the authority to rub their face in it... "If you must sa...

God's timing is always perfect (cf. Is 30:18, Mt. 6:8). Needing to recover from a recent erruption of verbal friendly-fire (Christians assaulting Christians) , where I was greatly discouraged for sharing the Gospel with anyone the Lord leads me to (family, friends, neighbors, strangers, etc.), the Lord provided me with abundant comfort and strength through His Word, my darling husband, and my oldest son. And as if that weren't enough, my ever gracious Father also provided me more encouragement through soundly biblical and exhorting books*, sermons and articles. One of the articles (below) was shared today, at Ligonier Ministries . During this recent verbal attack, it was intimated that I was an unloving person because I didn't always seek to first "love" people through acts of service before I "earned the right" to share the Gospel with them. In our self-indulgent world, love has been desecrated and redefined to mean all that's warm and fu...

Part of my daily Bible Reading today was Proverbs 18. As I read this chapter, I stopped at verse two and began to earnestly pray for the Lord to keep me from being a fool in His sight. Whether I am a fool in the sight of people is of no grave consequence to me. Being a Christian doesn't mean I don't care what people think about me (who doesn't want to be liked?). It means I care more what Christ thinks about me (Gal 1:10). Knowing the days are evil (Eph 5:16), I strive to live every day in view of That Day...when I will see Christ my Savior in His full glory. I long to hear Him say that I have done well in His sight and that my life was a beautiful offering (Mt 25:21, Mk 14:6). I pray this article is well pleasing to my Lord, and that He will use it as an instrument to sow peace and wisdom within the Body of Christ, while proclaiming the undefiled Gospel of Jesus Christ  to the lost. Like many of you, I've seen the video (below) of  Dr. Robert Jeffress , Senio...