We Believe in Miracles

Miracles happen all around us every day. God is still in the miracle business regardless of those that think they ended with the last Chapter of the Bible. There are those that do not believe in what they can not see; must be sad to be one of those people. We do not see oxygen either but we count on it being there….that’s how I feel about the miracles God is doing all the time. We had a miracle in our family just last week.

Daughter # 2 had called with upsetting news our grandson #1 had gotten from the eye doctor. He merely went in to get a new prescription for contacts. Then his eyes started doing strange things, working independently of one another and he was seeing double. This doctor started telling them he would need test for neurological diseases and to find out if he had a tumor behind his eye. Telling a 16 year old kid looking forward to getting his driver’s licenses that he can’t drive is upsetting news to him. A mother hearing ‘neurological disease’ and ‘tumor’ was too!

She called to tell Papa John and me about it. We were at the dinner table when she called and Papa John could tell from my side of the conversation that one of our kids was in trouble. He quietly asked, “Which one of my grandsons is having trouble with his eyes?” Then he started praying right then and there. When the call ended I joined him in prayer. We believe in miracles.

Later that evening I ‘talked’ to our grandson #1 via an online social network. I asked if his eyes were doing any better. He said every thing had cleared up, his eyes were working together and the double vision had gone away! I told him we had covered him so deep in prayer there was no way the eye problem could live. He said he did not doubt it for a moment!

Telling my friend, Helen, the next day about our G-son, she reminded me that I had been in prayer all the day before asking for a miracle. When we heard about our boy’s problem I had forgotten I had been praying for a miracle about something else. God sent a much better miracle than what I had been asking for in the first place. I told my G-son that God answered my prayer in a much more important and significant way than I could have imagined. Isn’t that just like God?! What an important lesson for a teen to see when God does a miracle in his own life like that! What a testimony!

Miracles today? Oh, yes! They are all around us. Oh, by the way….the miracle I had been praying for in the first place….well, that whole issue just dissolved like snow in south Texas. God is faithful. Give Him praise!

Will You Love Jesus More?

One of my all time favorite Christian songs is ‘Will You Love Jesus More?” by Phillips, Craig & Dean. I remember well the moment I first hear the song. I was driving in Austin, Texas and put in a tape my friend, Donna, had loaned me. It was an awesome album but this song cut to my soul and wrote its message on my heart as surely as if by God’s finger itself. It remains the cry of my heart to this day.

The chorus asks the questions...

Will you love Jesus more
When we go our different ways
When this moment is a memory
Will you remember His face
Will you look back and realize
You sensed His love more than you did before
I'd pray for nothing less
Than for you to love Jesus more

If we are to leave any kind of legacy or inheritance to our children and their children, this should be the one we pray for the most! My Honey has a heart’s desire to leave an inheritance to our familial generations, what better than the love for Jesus?! Money and properties will come and go and it only takes a few unwise decisions in care and maintenance to cause them to disappear. But loving Jesus is an eternal gift that never fades or runs out or is moved by the economy or political party in power. To pass that on is an inheritance and legacy above all else. I can say in confidence that it was my grandfather on one side and my grandmother on the other that were my childhood influences when it came to loving and seeking the Lord. My memories of her reading her Bible every night and of him preaching in tents in the sweltering summer heat are memories I cherish. Words from the song address this, too….

I'd like to keep these memories
In frames of gold and silver
And reminisce a year from now
About the smiles we've shared
But above all else I hope you will come
To know the Father's love
When you see the Lord face to face

You'll hear Him say "well done"

The calling of a Christian missionary still burns hot in my heart and spirit. I believe that is a calling God gave us all when Jesus said to take the gospel to all people. We start in our homes and with those in our lives but this is a legacy and inheritance we can share with everyone! There is no limit of supply; it is multiplied every time someone starts to love Jesus. There is no such thing as too many people to love! Jesus provides the legacy and inheritance….our part is to share the abundance.

As the closing words of this, my favorite song says:

I'd pray for nothing less
Than for you to love Jesus more!

What Sermon do you Send?

People would rather see a sermon than hear one; powerful meaning behind those few words. We’ve all heard it said that your actions speak louder than words AND scripture tells us that out of the mouth, the abundance of the heart speaks. In plain simple words…Listen long enough to someone and their true self will be revealed by the words they speak. Together, well, it can be like the old One-Two punch. However, no one can walk in victory while they speak defeat.

Our talk and our walk must line up with the Word of God. Any one that has spent time reading scripture can repeat the essence of them to you but the words ring hollow when their actions are shouting out another message. Mixed signals confuse. People absorb and take on that with which they live. Consider the poem below, while it talks of children learning it is also talking of the lives being walked out in front of them.

Children Learn What They Live
By Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D.

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.
If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.
If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.
If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.
If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.

In Philippians 4:7-9 (NIV) we read: And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Notice the scripture tells us to think about the good, pure, noble, praiseworthy…..and to “put it into practice” in our own lives. It’s basically telling us to put our words into action…walk out our talk and thoughts. We can not sit by passively and expect our thoughts and actions to take care of themselves. We must ‘purpose’ to monitor what we think about, what we feed our hearts. Leading a double life with one foot in the Bible and the other in the world is a sure way to scream out mixed signals. The Bible does not say we are defeated, our words should not either! The Bible says we are victorious in Christ, our actions should say the same. The same One-Two punch I mentioned before. Our thoughts give life to our words and our actions play out what is in our hearts which is fed by our thoughts! It can be a circle of life or a circle of dysfunction and defeat. We can be a walking talking sermon or a walking talking disaster looking for a place to happen!

Stand guard diligently, Friends, over your heart, thoughts and actions…..you never know who will be watching the sermon you are presenting.

Waiting of the Lord

For a writer having writer’s block is a frustrating and bewildering thing. You sit with all the words and thoughts and concepts mulling around inside you yet they do not line up to make interesting reading much less make any sense to someone not peering inside your head. Sometimes you sit with fingers on the keyboard and your mind goes completely blank…nothing, nada, zilch.

Another area of thwarted creativity for THIS writer is when I feel God has given me a topic to write on and I can not put it down, nothing clicks. On Wednesday I felt the Lord was telling me to write on a specific topic. It seemed to come out of the blue like they sometimes do, remember ‘clarified butter’? I researched, read, prayed; I sat still longing for direction….then I did it all over again….repeatedly. Not wanting to do an injustice to His subject, I decided to wait until He gave me step 2. Thursday came and went with no further direction. I’m still waiting. So, until I know what it is He wants to say regarding this mysterious and elusive topic….I will write about something else.

This is the something else!

A Few of the Things I’ve Learned Waiting on the Lord

1. He can out wait me! My timing has nothing to do with His timing and His timing is always going to trump me and mine.
2. Another lesson I learned was that until He sees me stepping out with my foot in the air to take the next step, He won’t show me where my foot is to land. Step 2 ALWAYS comes after action in faith on my part.
3. My frustration in waiting does not intimidate Him. It only makes me nuts.
4. He is in action even if I can’t see it.
5. His solution, direction, answers are always better than what I had in mind in the first place.

My dear friend, Cheryl, has been known to say, “You can steer a moving car better than a stopped one.” I’m sure that is paraphrased somewhat but you get the point.

I wonder if we appear to God like our puppy does to us. We tell him something to do or call him and he looks at us like he sees our lips moving but doesn’t hear a word. He cocks his head and looks all innocent then goes ahead doing what he wanted in the first place. The only time the puppy and his siblings are completely obedient is at bedtime when they know a treat is forthcoming. They dash to the kennels in great delight and enthusiasm. My Honey and I always look at each other as proud parents do when their kid is going something wonderful.

Are we the same with God, only dashing about in obedience when we think a treat or something we want is the end result? The desire to write about God and His ‘stuff’ is my heart’s desire, not because I think some great reward will come my way but because I know I could not string three words together without the gifts He gave me in the first place. I obey because I love Him and want to do whatever He asks of me. For now, I think I’m getting another lesson in waiting. This is me…actively waiting……..

Check-Up

I had a ‘light bulb’ moment this morning I’d like to share. In preparation for a regular check-up with my cardiologist I was updating my info sheet. This is a form I created to help me remember any and everything I wanted to share with the doctor. I have a form for each of my Doctors on the computer in My Documents. When something comes up regarding my health, I make note on the appropriate doctor’s form while I’m thinking of it. We’ve all known the frustration of leaving a Dr visit and then remembering a question you wanted to ask or an issue you forgot to discuss. I know my limitations - so I write them down as they pop up. By the way, all my doctors love these sheets; it’s comprehensive and they do not have to go digging thru my file to refresh their memories. I save the document after up-dating and this saves time when I use it next. This is what it looks like:

Questions and Note for Dr. _______________ date of appt

Symptoms since last visit: List any or all symptoms as they pop up. Let the Doc decide if it was important or not, that’s why we pay them. The ortho doctor for my knee problem inadvertently helped discover a dangerous heart issue! Write it all down as it comes up.

Notes: This is where I list other physical issues currently in play: diabetes, etc and my questions as they come to mind.

Medicines: List of all my meds, dosages and when I take them. It is easy access to complete medication info in case of emergency, too, just print it & go!

Changes in Lifestyle since last visit: Good or bad, any changes go here

Dietary Habits already in place: List all again…good or bad

Healthy habits in place: Good habits I’ve managed to make part of my daily life

Changes needed as I see it: These are things I KNOW I need to do but have not completely incorporated into my daily life…..at least the Dr knows I think about them.

As I mentioned, my doctors love these forms, visits go more smoothly and I know I have covered everything I wanted to address. I take two copies, one for the Doctor, one for me; we are looking at the same thing and I use the back of mine to write down instructions and info I want to remember.

This is the light bulb moment…..if I can methodically look at and evaluate this medical information doesn’t it make sense to do a routine spiritual check-up to bring awareness to my personal spiritual issues that need attention? I like to think I have a fairly good grasp on where I stand but the act of writing it down brings clarity and accountability to the overall picture. No one stands over me to make sure I read the Bible or pray (good habits) nor does anyone point out when my routines are suffering from neglect. A quick self review would help keep me stay on track and catch a questionable routine before it becomes a bad habit. Rather like preventive medicine for my spiritual well being. As I mentioned in the first paragraph…I know my limitations. If creating a quick system of checks and balances to monitor myself can bring a fresh awareness and dedication in staying on track, then I’m all for it. Maybe you do not need to self-monitor but my flesh is very human, my attention can easily be diverted by all the noise of the world, my time can be squandered in other pursuits and my habits – spiritual or otherwise - can get sloppy when my flesh/attention/time is being demanded. I know my limitations.

God will faithfully do His part…I want to always be open to better ways to do mine!

Perfect Peace

I’m getting a late start in writing the blog this morning. I was up early, had my quiet prayer and Bible reading time and yet, my spirit seemed unsettled. Only one remedy for that…sing praise and worship to the Lord! I started out on the deck in the dark. Prayer and softly sung love songs from me to Him the path to perfect peace. Because I trust in Him, give Him all the glory and worship. It is amazing how this moves you to another level of spiritual peace!

I came back in feeling calm and peaceful but not ready or willing to leave that place. I put one of my favorite worship CDs in the computer and got down to some serious love songs of worship. Neither a CD nor music is required for songs of worship; they come from the heart, soul and spirit.

There is a worship song with simple words that say it all…….

Thou shall keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.

Thou shall keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.

Because he trusted in Thee, oh Lord, his mind is stayed on Thee.

Because he trusted in Thee, oh Lord, his mind is stayed on Thee.

That’s the entire song, as written above. It is simple yet complex with harmony. But, really, when we trust in Him He does keep us in peace. It is when we let the chaos of life jump in and take over that we lose that perfect peace.

One of the Bibles I read and reference is The Complete Jewish Bible. It is written with the original Jewish ‘flavor’. Let’s not forget, Scripture was written by Jews for Jews originally and when the Jewish-ness is taken out and handed down to be rewritten again in modern languages, a lot of the original Jewish context is lost. In other Bibles where the word ‘faith’ is used, this Bible uses the word ‘trust’. It seems to me that faith comes as the result of trusting. Scripture more often uses the faith as a noun….’by faith…” “have faith..” Yet trust is more of a verb…an action taken. In the King James Bible the word ‘trust’ is used 188 times. In the NIV, 164 times. Most of the time it is used as a verb….an action word.

Hebrews 11 is an excellent chapter to read about those that stepped out in faith and followed the direction from God. Could they have had faith without first trusting? Hebrews 11 starts out saying in verse 1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. This leads me to believe that we cannot have faith without trusting or trust without faith in the results God provides. We must make a concerted action of first trusting and the faith will follow.

I pray that little song above become our love song of trust, faith and peace: “Because I trusted in Thee, oh Lord, Thou keep me in perfect peace, my mind is stayed on Thee.”

Torn Between Two Loves

I love mornings; it is my favorite time of day. I do not understand why some people stay up late and miss the mornings. Everything is all fresh and new in the mornings this time of year. New baby leaves on the trees, the Dayflowers that grow wild in my yard and the mornings just seem more alive. My blog is named Truth in the Morning for a couple of reasons. First, it is an extension of the ministry my Honey and I started when we married named Truth in Love Ministries. Secondly, mornings are my best writing time. So, I am following the leading of the Lord by writing for Him…in the morning!

This is where my conflict begins. Mornings are my best writing time and it happens to be the only time I can get out in the garden that demands constant attention this time of year. I am torn between two loves and struggle to divide my time. The sun and I are no longer best buddies and I am very limited in the amount of time I can spend in it. This required early morning garden maintenance….my dedicated writing time. It is the dedicated writing time because it is my best brain time. I learned of myself a long time ago that anything requiring concentrated brain work was best done in the mornings. Afternoons, around two-ish, it starts sliding into neutral. When I worked in the corporate world years ago I left tasks like going through the mail and other less challenging To-Do’s for afternoon work. This would be a perfect brain time for weeding if I could be in the sun….pooh! To this day I do not like to discuss anything of importance in the evenings because I know I’m not functioning on all cylinders.

I think my writing concentration of late has been easily disturbed because of my torn desires to write vs. gardening. This may seem like a fairly benign issue in your world but it is a biggie in mine.

Where it becomes a biggie in all our lives is when we are torn between walking out our faith walk and skipping over into the flesh world from time to time. When we say we believe Jesus will carry our burdens and we expend energy, time and emotion in worrying over them, we are being double minded. We are all guilty of this from time to time. Basically, we are torn between two loves…trusting Jesus and wanting control over our lives. Contrary to how we act sometimes, the Lord does not need our help and our attempts to ‘work something out’ are really doubt in disguise. This is far more dangerous than my writing/gardening struggle and it is even more common. Scripture warns against such thinking in James 1:2-8:

2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

I have been guilty of such double mindedness and strive to eliminate that thinking from my life. I’m not always successful but I always ask for forgiveness when I fall and push on knowing I can do nothing on my own. Seriously, when I truly give all over to the Lord, His yoke is light and my burdens are lifted from my shoulders. How ridiculous to repeatedly pick burdens up from the foot of the cross! If I am to be torn between two loves I want it to only be my writing and garden time……