Ephesians 4:1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
Being a Pastor's wife is my vocation. I don't take it lightly, and in fact, it humbles me that God has entrusted me with this calling. It is my desire to edify and encourage you, and to stand by my husband as he seeks to do the Lords will.
I'll post devotions here for you to read and hopefully benefit from. I sincerely hope that you will read them and apply them to your life as needed. I know that daily devotions in MY life have helped in times of doubt, fear, sorrow, discouragement, and even when I didn't feel like there was an urgent need in my life, devotions always bring me closer to my Lord, which is the intent.
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April 20,2012 Here’s 3 simple ways we can offer praises to God:
1. Sharing our own testimony of what God has done for us.
Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name. (Ps. 18:49)
Who can argue with one’s own personal testimony? Share what God has done for you. He’s so good to us that I know we could never run out of praises to give to Him. We honor Him by giving Him the glory for the small and big things that He’s graciously done for us!
2. Create a praise journal.
Don’t you just love reading and hearing the praises of David in the book of Psalms? I know David encouraged himself in the Lord. This is a habit that we can continue ourselves. It’s extremely hard to grumble when we’re giving praises to God.
Writing down our praises to God and our answered prayers can be encouraging to us in times of trials and distress. It serves as a recorded reminder of what God has done for us. Your praise journal would also make a good item to pass down to your son or daughter as a part of their inheritance.
3. Sing praises to God.
As we sing hymns at church, we may not really focus on the words we’re singing. We don’t sing in church to simply hear our lovely voices. Our hymns focus on praising God. What a wonderful opportunity to focus on singing praises directly to HIM!
Singing praises is pleasant and comely. I believe it effects our attitude and yields a grateful spirit. We can sing praises to God while driving our kids to school in the mornings. We can bellow out songs of praises in the shower. We can wake up in the morning with songs of praise. (It’s better than your morning coffee, I guarantee!)
This week, let’s focus on giving Praises to our God above. He’s worthy of our Praise!
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April 5, 2012
Squeezed By Life
Genesis 41:52b
For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.
What comes out of you when life’s circumstances squeeze you like a piece of ripe fruit?
Picture an old fashioned juicer. You know the kind where you placed the fruit on a pointed, grooved dish that forced the sweet liquid out by squashing, turning and twisting it to smithereens and thus extracting the precious juice. By the time you squeezed out every last drop, the fruit itself was rather destroyed, empty and deformed looking. Ah, but you had your juice to enjoy! The real McCoy, no imitation, watered down, fake stuff.
Just like the piece of fruit -- twisting, turning and pressure from life will reveal what we’re made of. When we get squeezed by difficult circumstances, what comes out of us reveals our heart.
What is extracted from us while going through life’s struggles is of precious value to our Lord and is of great use to Him. Like the sweet nectar of fruit that has been twisted and churned until only the misshapen rind is left. The valuable juice that flows from us might be compassion, a calm trust in God in spite of hardships, an understanding of His faithfulness, genuine empathy, forgiveness, patience, humility, unselfishness…
Or, what spills out might more closely resemble a spoiled piece of fruit…foul language, doubt, feeling like God has betrayed us, fear, anger , pride, unfaithfulness, rebellion, self-centeredness or thoughts and words that we would rather other’s not hear or see…
Sometimes the only way to know what’s in our heart is for God to squeeze it by circumstances…He already knows, it’s we who need to made aware. He doesn’t reveal our heart to condemn us but to give us the opportunity to humbly ask for His help…to recognize our dependence upon Him.
2Cor.4:8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
One last thing -- sometimes a man’s greatest test is not insults and adversity but rather praise and prosperity…
Prov.22:21 That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?
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July 1, 2010
I found a really neat thing on gossip....the scripture in the link http://www.youthwork-practice.com/devotions-themes-talks/slander-gossip-idle-tittle-tattle.html isn't KJV so you will have to have your KJV readily available, because it quotes a lot of scripture. My scripture below however, is what it should be!
I needed this today!! And the Lord knew it because it wasn't my devotion, but as I was further studying out mine, I ran across the above site. Coincidence? I think not! This is a huge problem in our churches, and I am guilty of it at times....none of us are safe from the evil tongue!!
Proverbs 6:16 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
Proverbs 6:17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
Proverbs 6:18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
Proverbs 6:19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
I know the problems that can be started from discontentment when instead of going home and praying about it, the person "sows discord among the brethren". I don't think most people realize the danger of this in a church :( It can tear one apart. I am so guilty of having a problem and instead of keeping it to myself, I share it with a sister in Christ. I shouldn't do this and have been convicted over it so many times!! Why shouldn't I do it? Because, not only is it my problem or my fear (fear = lack of faith in God) but now I have shared this information with another person, so then like a disease, I am spreading my lack of faith and discontentment to others.
My prayer for myself and my church today is that God would bridle our tongues, and protect our church from the harmful effects of a "gossipmonger". We have too much to accomplish for Him ..we don't have time to be warding off people who constantly want to stir up trouble or tear others down to make themselves look better. Like the lesson above states, we should surround ourselves with Godly people. Once the gossip comes out, they for the time being have been eliminated from the Godly until they get right and remove the gossip from their lives. I don't want to remove myself from Gods people....I want God to be pleased with my actions. I certainly don't want to hurt His dear cause either! We may never know what damage we cause by spreading gossip, or sharing our "frustrations" with fellow church members. Remember the "ripple effect"? We need to apply this effect here....because thats what happens, and thats how Satan gets into churches and one person at a time, destroys it. Let's pray for strength to hold our tongues the next time we want to complain, murmur, or backbite! "Hate" is a strong word....but our precious Saviour uses it in the above proverb.
Theres nothing I want my Lord to hate about me. Nothing I can say to someone or about someone is worth giving my Lord something about myself that He hates. If He hates it, I want it out of my life. I know He doesn't hate me, but the sin in my life. So, I will eliminate where needed!! What about you?
Psalms 17:7 Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.
When I think about the lovingkindness of my heavenly Father, I feel so unworthy. For Him to be so gentle and loving and forgiving of me after everything He went through, it overwhelms my heart. You would think that knowing the agony and suffering that the Saviour went through so that I might have everlasting life, I would be more careful not to hurt or offend Him by my actions, deeds, or even my thoughts. But I continually mess up, and He continually forgives. He never gives up on me, never throws me away. He just reaches out with those nail-scarred hands that bled on my behalf and picks me up, puts me back on my feet, and like any loving father, encourages me to keep going. He gently scolds as I err, I can feel it in my heart. What loving father doesn't show correction to his child that has gone wrong? Many times, when things didn't go my way, or things might be too hard to handle at the moment, I have often thought, "why bother?" or "Is this really worth it?" Can I just say that I am so glad that Jesus didn't ask those questions on the cruel cross of Calvary? What if He hadn't taken those stripes, or the nails for me? How it shames me to think of all He went through, FOR ME, and never once questioned himself, when questioning Him sometimes comes too easy for me. He was God Almighty, come down to earth, to suffer and die for me. That was His purpose. His intent. And never complained. That's lovingkindness! HIS lovingkindness. Thank you Lord, for showing your mercy and grace over and over in my life! Even in my weak and sinful human state, He loves me with a love that can't be explained. I am His, He bought me with a price that was too high for me to pay.
I get the ultimate picture of His lovingkindness when I think of who He is, and who I am, and realize the blessings He showers down on me are so undeserved, yet He sends them anyway. Because he loves me with a kindness in spite of who I am like no one else ever could!
Have you thought...and I mean really thought about how marvelous His lovingkindness is towards you? It makes me more aware and conscious of what I say and do, of how I act when I consider the marvelous lovingkindness of Jesus Christ, MY SAVIOR!
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May 26, 2010
Devotion by Terry Chappell
Staying Focused
Don’t Let This Summer Become a Spiritual Blur
Summertime opens the door to more sunshine, memory making, and vacation! I love to pull out my camera and capture the many special moments our family creates while we enjoy each other’s company. Sometimes, when I go to develop my pictures, I find that some of them are blurry. After a wave of disappointment, I make a mental note to always make sure my camera is in focus.
It is a natural feeling to breathe a sigh of relief once summer comes. After all, it is a time to get caught up on our “to do” list and spend more quality time with family. Even though summer is a different change of pace, we need to remain focused on what is important. Just like a camera needs to be in focus to take a quality picture, we need to be in focus to have a quality summer. Here are a couple of areas we need to stay focused on so our summer does not develop into a blur.
Isaiah 40:26 says, “Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things…” We need to keep our eyes focused on the Lord. If we don’t stay focused during our devotion time in the morning, by the afternoon we will forget what we learned from the Bible.
Has anyone ever asked you this question, “What did Pastor preach on last Sunday?” You smile and cringe inside, racking your brain for the subject or verse he used. If you have ever been caught in this predicament, what you were trying to remember was a blur in your mind. I think this happens to all of us, and we need to let it be a reminder to stay focused on the preaching of God’s Word.
Summertime also has a tendency to pull us away from church, causing our focus to go into a completely different direction. (I think Satan knows this and uses it to his advantage.) Although it may take some planning, we need to work at being consistent—showing our family that our focus on the house of God will not change even though vacations and days off come our way.
We also need to zoom in and focus on our family. School is out and we have an opportunity to build stronger relationships with each family member. It is hard to get to know your child if they are playing a video game or watching TV. Sometimes all it takes is a trip to the mall, grabbing a Jamba Juice or taking a walk with them to show each family member that you are completely focused on them.
When you look back on this summer, what will you see? Will you see a blur of events scrambled together? Or, will you see a time you grew closer to the Lord, His Word, and your family?
