Scripture For The Day

Scripture For The Day   October 31, 2022 "Every Moment Matters"    We live in a shallow world full of shallow opinions. Everyone has one and everyone thinks they’re right.  Few people truly desire to learn and grow. Few people hunger for meat; depth and though I am not a big meat eater, I hunger for so much more. We can share whatever we want on social media. We can give reasons or excuses why we choose to do this or that. But in reality, we waste so much time. Time that God has given us. All without accountability. We’ve gotten so used to it that we forget that God’s Word tells us that we will be held accountable. That frightens me. Every idle moment. Every idle word. All that we do and don’t do will be brought to our attention. The LORD is speaking some Tough Truths to my heart today. Everything that The LORD does is for a purpose. He doesn’t waste words. Everything He says has Power. He doesn’t have an idle moment. He purposefully molds and designs every singl...

Scripture For The Day  October 25th, 2022  "I Dare Ya To Knock It Off"   Do you remember that old battery commercial with Robert Conrad? He had a battery on his shoulder and said “I dare ya to knock it off” Though this wasn’t a chip on his shoulder per se. I was thinking this morning of how some people walk around with an invisible chip on their shoulders just daring people to try and knock it off. I have a lot of patience but the one thing I struggle with patience over is a bully. We’ve been talking off and on about bullies in our Sunday School class lately. I’ve told the students that we don’t need to hang around people that are bullies. We are to treat all people with love and kindness. We need to pray for them but God doesn’t expect us to put ourselves in harm’s way.   That person usually behaves as if they are right about everything. They walk around with a chip on their shoulder with a bit of a cowboy-like swagger as if saying to everyone… ‘I dare ya, I da...

Scripture For The Day   October 21, 2022 "Thank You For Your Patience"    The day I think that I am fully and perfectly right where I need to be and who I need to be is the day I might as well hang it up or at least it better be the day I’ve gone home to be with The LORD. I can’t speak for you but as for me, I am a work in progress.  I constantly have to remind myself of that and I’m thankful that every day is a new day to begin again. Every day is a new opportunity to Shine The Light of Jesus in this ever-increasing dark world.  We are not promised to be here tomorrow or even the next second.  Paul states with confidence in Philippians 1:6 that though salvation removes the penalty of sin, being a Christian is a lifelong process and God’s not through with us yet. To be Christlike is a daily struggle and daily focus to put ourselves on the back burner and strive to be more like Him each and every single day. This is sanctification and it doesn’t end u...

Scripture For The Day   October 20, 2022  "The Things of Earth Will Grow Strangely Dim"  Helen Lemmell was born in 1863 in England and moved to the US by the age of 12. Helen loved music and was gifted with a beautiful singing voice.  Her parents encouraged her to sing in many ways. Then at the age of 43, she went to Germany for four years of intensive vocal training. That is where she met and married her wealthy European husband. Not long after they moved back to the United States in 1911, tragedy struck her life. She developed some sort of sickness that resulted in her becoming blind. Apparently, it was too much for her husband and he left her.  But she didn’t turn from her Jesus. She kept Trusting in Him. She had to retire from being a music teacher but continued putting her poems to music with help from friends who would record them for her. She continued writing songs until she died at the age of 97 years old. At the age of 55, she was inspired to ...

Scripture For The Day    October 19, 2022 "Give Me Jesus"    In the middle of the night, I had a song come across my heart “Give Me Jesus”… “In the morning, when I rise, In the morning when I rise, In the morning when I rise, Give Me Jesus” That song stayed in my heart even after I woke up this morning. I decided to do some research on it. I love the history of music, language, customs, and culture. To discover the root of any subject is fascinating to me. I didn’t realize that this song originated from an African American Spiritual and found its way into hymnals back in the 1860s. This song came out of the depths of people that were enslaved and struggling to survive the bondage they were under. But so many of them found comfort in their relationship with Jesus Christ.  There are many versions of this song out there. I know because I began searching for one that I really liked. But this morning, The LORD is speaking to my heart that no matter what a person ...

Scripture For The Day    October 18, 2022 "Lift Your Hand Up!!!"    I remember in school being taught that in the case of drowning, we were to raise our hands high out of the water so that people would see that we were struggling and someone would come to help. Sin has a way of overtaking us, like a raging sea. Even as a believer we can allow ourselves to be overtaken by the sinful choices that we make in our lives. Sin has a way have taking us farther than we are meant to go. It’s a lie of the enemy to believe that a Christian is immune to sin. We are human. But as a believer we have Grace.  We still need to make good choices. Because, hard as it may be to hear, sin has consequences.   “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” – Psalm 51:10   Create in this verse comes from the Hebrew word ‘bara’. Which is also the Created (bara) in Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth” this type of...

Scripture For The Day   October 17, 2022  Standing in The Gap  Last week I hurt my back. Yesterday, I was doing much better and went to church. But by the time church was over I began hurting quite a bit again. When I reached down to pick up a backpack bag I must have winced in pain, because one of my very good friends asked if it was heavy. In my stubbornness, I began to say it wasn’t too heavy. But before I could finish my sentence, I felt the heaviness of the bag lighten and looked down to see that she had grabbed hold of it and was helping me carry it as we walked. We both softly giggled and immediately these words came to my mind; ‘Standing in The Gap’. I didn’t share with her what I was thinking. But from the church patio to my car, I began thinking this is what we are meant to do for each other. When we see our brothers/sisters in Christ struggling we are to help each other carry those burdens. No judgment. No ridicule. But lovingly standing in the gap for...

Scripture For The Day   October 14, 2022 "Continue in Sin? God Forbid!"    Nathan, God’s prophet at that time was sent to see David. 2 Samuel 12:1 begins with Nathan telling David a story about a man rich man that had everything but took the only female sheep that a poor man had. The poor man loved this little lamb. It belonged to him. The rich man didn’t want to use what he had to provide for a traveler so he took what the poor man had instead. Now picture this with me. King David is listening to this story and the righteous part of him is getting angry. “As The LORD lives, the man who did this should die! How horrible.!” I can just picture Nathan looking up into the eyes of King David and slowly, softly, saying – “You are this rich man! God says: I chose you to be king of Israel. I saved you. I even let you have all that he owned. And if that wasn’t enough, I gave you more.  So why did you do this thing?” David became ashamed. Nathan continued with God’s Wor...

   Scripture For The Day  October 13th, 2022  "When I Kept Silent..."  A year has gone by since David seduced, impregnated, and killed to get what he wanted. A year of unrepentance. The baby is already born by now. David seemed to be getting on with his life after literally taking another man’s life.  But then he wrote Psalm 32. He was literally sick with sin. Sin has a way of doing that. Sin is dirty and rotten to the core. While David wrote this, he began to understand what a blessing forgiveness is. David continued to Love and Pray to The LORD because he belonged to Him. But he refused to acknowledge his sin in this mess that he had made. “When I kept silence, my bones waxed ole through my roaring all day long. For day and night Thy Hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.” He is telling us that He prayed to The LORD but refused to talk about his sins. He became weaker and weaker and more miserable as time went b...

Scripture For The Day   October 12, 2022 "What A Friend We Have in Jesus"   F.R.I.E.N.D. – In Sunday School, we talked about being a good friend.  I gave my students an assignment to write down the word Friend, vertically, and to write the good qualities of someone else in the room without telling anyone. My heart was Blessed when a little girl decided to use me as her friend and wrote these words down: F- Fun, R-(I can’t remember), I – intelligent ( 😊), E- eager, N- Nice, D- delightful. We began talking about Proverbs 18:24 which teaches us that “a man that hath friends must shew himself friendly”- in other words, we need to be friendly to have friends, fun to be with, and reliable. But the rest of the verse goes like this – ‘There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother” A true friend can be better than a brother or a sister. Blood is not thicker than water despite what people like to say. The only Blood that matters is the Blood of Jesus Christ. I ha...

Scripture For The Day   October 11, 2022 "THE LORD IS WITH YOU"   Some days I don’t feel quite as strong as I should. My spirit feels down and I struggle to see my worth in The LORD. Though I have Victory in Jesus, I can still feel defeated. Gideon was the same way.  In Judges 6; we read how the disobedient Israelites were once again worshiping false idols. So, The LORD allowed the Midianites to defeat the Israelites for seven years. This enemy was powerful and cruel. The Israelites began to hide their food in order to keep the enemy from destroying their supplies. The Bible describes this enemy as being a swarm of locusts, innumerable and destructive. The Israelites became poverty-stricken and eventually cried out to The LORD for help. The LORD heard their cries and sent a prophet to explain why they were in this situation. At one point, the Angel of The LORD came to a man named Gideon, who was beating wheat into a winepress. He was hiding so that the Midiani...

Scripture For The Day   October 6, 2022 "Get Prepared"   Esther Ahn Kim, a young Korean music teacher, knew it was just a matter of time before she would be imprisoned for her strong faith in Jesus Christ and refusal to bow down to the ‘sun’ god. It was during WWII and the Japanese had taken over Korea and were insisting that everyone bow down to their ‘god’. But to Esther that was not an option, even though she knew that refusal would mean, imprisonment, torture, and maybe even death. So, in preparation for the rough times ahead, she trained herself physically and spiritually. She would find and eat food that was already decaying because she knew that is what they would be fed. She memorized a hundred chapters in the Bible along with various hymns. Because she knew that they wouldn’t let her keep her Bible. Esther prepared. As she was led to the shrine,  Esther stayed true to God and refused to bow down to the enemy’s false god. She was imprisoned for six yea...

 Scripture For The Day  October 5th, 2022  Who Said That?  This morning I was dragging my feet. It was one of those nights that I couldn't seem to get any rest. I finally pulled myself out of bed, took a shower, got dress,ed and headed to the kitchen. Suddenly, a small voice cried out from the living room; "Do you wanna play with me?" I stopped in my tracks and nearly passed out I was still so tired and not thinking straight. The voice went on "Let's work on our shapes." Oh, good grief, I said to myself and I followed the sound of the voice until I came to my youngest grandson's leapfrog toy sitting on his walker. I picked it up and switched it off because I didn't want it freaking me out like that again.  My daughter is probably laughing her head off right now as she pictures the scene. But aren't we all a bit like that? God speaks to our hearts in that Still Small Voice. We become frightened at what we are hearing and then we shut Him off becau...

Scripture For The Day   October 4, 2022 "Where's That Smoke Coming From? Oh, It's Me!"  Do you remember burnouts? The squealing of tires on hot pavement and the smoke billowing out?  That could easily describe physically burning out as well. There we are going down the road of life, getting things done, going here and there. Then all of sudden we have the urge we have had enough. We put the parking brake on but then we keep going at the same time. Suddenly, smoke begins to billow out and we are squealing like nobody’s business. This type of burnout is no fun and is rather depressing. It’s an exhausting state of ‘stick a fork in me, I’m done to which we lose all interest in what we were once excited for. A physical, emotional, or mental, collapse caused by overwork or stress. Our health as well as relationships can and often are affected.  Being a Christian doesn’t mean we are exempt from stress and the demands of life. Someone is always needing something. Ther...