Women of Promise

        Delight is a beautiful word, isn't it?  I love it!   It quickly brings to mind anything that I love and enjoy in this world.  Restful, happy times with loved ones, a favorite coffee or tea, favorite comfy chair, the mountains, the beach, a favorite food, great music, comfy clothes, ... the list goes on of things that bring me delight.  I am sure each of us have a unique and personal list of things we thoroughly enjoy.  What we delight in typically brings us great happiness and peace to our mind and soul. What I delight in is something that I enjoy spending time with, that I look forward to with great anticipation.  When it is gone, it leaves an emptiness, or feelings similar to grief and sadness.  Our minds immediately start thinking of when the next time will be that we can experience that delight again and how to make that happen.       Multiple times in Scripture we see men and women of God stating tha...

      When we hear something frequently, we kind of get desensitized to it, don't we?  I anxiously waited for Bentley to say "Mama" for the first time.  Now, after 15 years and 7 children, hearing someone call out, "Mama!" blends in to the normal everyday noise and I don't stop to realize how precious it is to have that title nearly often enough.       How often do we hear or say, "In Jesus' name, Amen." without stopping to think about what we are saying or just heard? I am guilty of this over and over again.  It is entirely appropriate for us to close our prayers with these words.  But, why?  Did you know that Revelation 3:14, Amen is given as a name for Jesus? To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen , the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. Revelation 3:14, NIV      Jesus is "The Amen!"  What does that mean?  Amen mean that something is absolut...

Image source: Knowing-Jesus.com      I think a lot of things.  No one knows what goes on inside my head except God.  Until I speak or write these things, they are unknowns to the outside world.  I could think for a lifetime that I love a person.  However, they will never really know that until I tell them.  My children will never know I need them to do something if I only think it.  I will need to tell them... and probably tell them over and over again!! To communicate, I use words and actions.       Jesus is God's Word, or the way that we can know God.  Jesus is God.  He is also the communication from God that tells us who and what God is.  He is the Word of God.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1             Note the wording at the end of John 1:1.  "The Word was God."  It does not say, "The Word was a ...

       Shakespeare wrote "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."  I am not quite convinced (like Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables) that a rose would smell quite as beautiful if it were called a thistle or a skunkcabbage. 😆     When we name our children, we often think long and hard about what this child will be called for the rest of their lives.  Perhaps it is a beloved relative's name, or the name of a special person or place.  Often we research the meanings and choose one that reflects a positive image or message.  Maybe we just like the way the name sounds when combined with a middle or last name.       Depending on who you read, there are somewhere between 200 to 350 (possibly more) different names for Jesus in the Bible!  What we must understand is in the Hebrew culture of Biblical times, names were much more than just a title.  Names conveyed a description of who or what that person was...

     The Psalms are full of beautiful, lyrical praise to our God.  I know I am guilty of glancing over a Psalm in my Bible reading and saying, "Aw, isn't that nice?" and glibly moving on to my next reading.  Digging into my Bible recently, I rediscovered Colossians 3:16. I started looking into it just a little bit.    Let  the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,  singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,  with thankfulness in your hearts to God.      "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly..."  Is that the desire of your heart? Is this a reality for you? Paul gave this as a directive to the church. This means it is an attainable goal for each of us, if we choose.   For the "word of Christ" to dwell in us, this tells us we need to be spending a lot of time there.  We need to be reading, memorizing and meditating on this frequently, even constant...

There is great blessing in standing before God with our petitions for one another. We are clearly called to lift up our brothers and sisters. We are to pray for our leaders and any in authority.  We are even called to bless those who curse us (Matthew 6:28).  Something that I fail at miserably,  is praying for myself.  Somehow that always seems so selfish. I often cry out for help in a dire predicament, when I should have been praying far in advance of the situation. We are given clear examples in Scripture of ways we are to petition God for ourselves. I have been learning the prayers that God calls us to pray for myself and making those a more regular part of my time at the throne. Let's look at some of them together -- OK?  1) Guard my heart. Proverbs 4:23 This is, of course, talking about the part of our innermost being that controls our thoughts and desires. That heart, according to Mark 7:21-22 is the source of all our evil doing. Thankfully, if...

Bread of Life Digital Art by April Moen fineartamerica.com        My mom made homemade bread for our large family (12 kids) for all of my years in her home.  She ground wheat berries, mixed dough, kneaded, formed and baked four to eight loaves every two or three days.  Oh, I love the smell of fresh homemade bread just coming out of the oven!  There is simply no better taste, in my opinion, than butter on a piece of warm, freshly baked bread.  This bread was a staple in our home and provided a good part of our daily nutrition.  It "stuck to your ribs," as Mom used to say, especially when topped with Mom's homemade peanut butter and honey from Dad's bee hives! Yum!! Sweet memories. . .     Looking at the names of Jesus, this one jumped out at me:   Jesus is the Bread of Life .       In John chapter 6, Jesus performs a miracle where He feeds 5,000 men plus women and children (probably adding up to over 20,000 p...