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Matters of the Heart – Part 3

Written by Guest Fruit Cove on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Matters of the Heart – Part 3
by Pam Maynard

 

In my grade school years, the month of February was all about Valentine’s Day. We learned that Valentine’s Day was a celebration observed on February 14th where many people exchange cards, candy, gifts or flowers with their special “valentine”. Our teacher told us we were going to celebrate, too, and we were going to have a party in our classroom!Our classroom was decorated with red hearts, crepe paper chains and Cupid figures hanging from strings from the ceiling. One of my assignments was to decorate an old shoebox to serve as a “mailbox” for cards I would receive at our party.

As the party day approached, I carefully selected a card for each of my classmates making sure no one was left out. I even sent cards to some of the “stinky boys” that I didn’t like so much.

It was always really fun getting to read all the sweet Valentines from so many friends… and I got a box full!!

Tim and I still give each other Valentine gifts each year. It is great to get an expression of love confirmed on that special day. What is even sweeter, is, every day I work at Mayo Clinic, I pack my lunch in preparation for the long day ahead. Every day – yes, every day, my sweet Valentine slips a love note in my bag telling me of his love. It is something I look forward to and helps me get through some rough long hours.

John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world (this means He made sure that no one was left out), that He gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

I like to think about this verse as our Valentine love greeting from God.

What a gift of love He sent us!!

FOR REFLECTION: Express your love to God today. Pray thanking Him for this wonderful gift of love- the amazing gift of salvation.

Matters of the Heart – Part 2

Written by Guest Fruit Cove on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Matters of the Heart – Part 2
by Pam Maynard

 

The Psalms are filled with accounts of praise and worship songs of thanksgiving to the Lord. I love to play songs on the organ each Sunday that make us turn our thoughts to praising God. He is our righteous, mighty Savior – indeed worthy of our praise.

We are so happy and very excited with the great news that we are going to have our first grandchild!!! We are so thankful for this wonderful blessing and praise God for this gift to our family.

When I was in nursing school, one whole semester was dedicated to obstetrics and maternal nursing care. I was able to study and learn all about the developmental stages a tiny baby goes through during those short 9 months. I studied hard and enjoyed the learning process, but nothing compared to the personal experience of having my own children and now a granddaughter on the way!

I still find it amazing and so wonderful how God is “knitting this baby together in her mother’s womb”. Psalm 139:14 describes that we are fearfully and wonderfully made!

God knows everything about us because He made us. He even knows the very number of hairs on our head! Psalm 145:17 states “The Lord is righteous in all His ways and loving toward all He has made.”

We can give thanks today for our righteous God who knows us so well and yet loves us so much.   Today, He calls us to live a righteous life. Why? Because we are constantly called to become more like Jesus.

“Search me O God and know my heart, test me to know my anxious thought and see if there is any offensive way in me-and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139: 23-24)

Pray asking God to give you the strength you need as you face another day. Thank Him for His wonderful love. Find ways to praise Him today!

Matters of the Heart – Part 1

Written by Guest Fruit Cove on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Matters of the Heart – Part 1
by Pam Maynard

 

Matters of the heart are often confused with our emotions and feelings of love. ” I love you with all my heart! ” is one common reference I’ve use to describe my feeling of love for my husband.

Historically, the heart was thought to be the seat of all thinking, emotion and the soul. Aristotle also said that the heart was the source of intelligence, motion and sensation. Modern medicine might care to differ an opinion stating that the heart is a muscle that pumps blood to all parts of the body. The brain is the center of our emotions.

Even with all our modern medical information, the reference to loving with all our heart still persists. Somehow it still doesn’t sound as good to say “I love you with all of my brain”.

February is designated as National Heart month. This is a campaign to increase awareness of the #1 killer of American men and women.   The main risk factors in cardiovascular disease include: obesity, inactivity, diabetes and uncontrolled blood pressure.

By maintaining a healthy diet, getting regular exercise and not smoking, you can control risk factors and help protect your heart. Having a healthy heart is a great way to honor God. 1 Corinthians 10: 31 tells us “Whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God”.

Matthew 22:37 sums up my thought. Jesus described the Greatest Commandment as this: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

FOR REFLECTION: Take time today to thank God for your heart. Try to incorporate fitness habits that will improve your cardiovascular health.

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Written by Melissa Goodman on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Do you have a friend or maybe more than one friend that you are completely yourself with? Your time together is easy, comfortable and joyful. They know your quirky ways, your faults, your dreams, your desires and your fears but love you anyway. You are excited to think of spending time with this type of friend. You are able to share the real stuff of life and also able to laugh together. You are able to share in joys and successes along with crying through heart breaks and disappointments. You are never self-conscious with one another.

I am blessed to have a couple of these friends in my life. One of them gave me a small book titled, One-Minute Prayers to Start Your Day. In my busy life, I find myself turning to this book often for a quick moment with God. In the front of the book my friend wrote, “I thank God for you and for our friendship, no matter how close or far we are from one another. I hope you find this book filled with encouragement, uplifting and affirming thoughts. May God bless you and draw you closer to Him each and every day.” Each time I use this small book of prayers I am reminded of my friend, our deep friendship and how important this friendship is to me. We have a wonderful friendship that we share here on earth.

Our earthly friendships are necessary and are important. We need them but we need an even deeper, heavenly friendship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We invest time, place priority on and put effort into our earthly friendships. Are we putting that same effort into our relationship (friendship) with Jesus? He desires to have a deep relationship with us. In John 15:13-15 Jesus says “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” We have to invest time, place a high priority on and put effort into our relationship with Jesus. This means we need to spend time talking with Him, listening to Him, learning about Him, and reading His Word. We do all of these things to build earthly relationships but we don’t always put the same effort into our heavenly relationship.

One of the short prayers in the book from my friend reads:

“Lord, I know that in Your presence, You offer a friendship as vulnerable and joyful as this earthly one. I’m ashamed to say that I have forgotten this at times and have entered into Your presence like a scolded child rather than a person intending to experience the pleasures of being known and loved and cherished. You carve out the path of my days through the history of time and experience. Help me step into the joy as well. And may I learn to rush into Your presence with great expectations for contentment and lasting relationship.”

Take the time to build a strong, intimate and comfortable relationship with Jesus. He is concerned with helping us in ways we truly need and loving us unconditionally. That is the reason Jesus is our perfect friend!

Trusting God

Written by Ginna Ashby on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Early in my second pregnancy, complications arose. The doctor ordered bed rest and said only time will tell if I was going to miscarry. In anguish I pleaded with God to save this baby. I even began to bargain with God. If You will save this baby, I will… I will pray more, read my Bible more, teach Sunday School. The list of “I will” grew daily during my prayer times.

One week after I was placed on bed rest, I had a miscarriage. I was devastated. Questions flooded my mind. Why had God not answered my prayers to let this baby live? Will I ever be able to have another child? How could a miscarriage be in God’s will for my life? I was angry with God and hurt that He had not saved my baby.

In my grief I sought God constantly in Bible reading and prayer. I was searching for answers from Him. In this period of despair, I began to feel God’s comforting presence wash over me. He led me to Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” I realized that this side of heaven I may never know all the answers to my questions during that time of sorrow. As John Powell in Seasons of the Heart said so succinctly, “The great and infinite God asks a very limited and finite you and me: ‘Can you—will you—trust me?’”

At 29 I did not know that God’s plan for me would involve serving on church staffs as Preschool Ministries Director. In the last 20 years of serving on church staffs, I have walked with many moms through the waters of miscarriage. Like Paul, I can say, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). While God did not answer my prayers the way I wanted Him to, He did prepare me to comfort others, and He led me to a great principle of the Christian life-trusting Him in each and every circumstance.

Praying for Our Children and Grandchildren

Written by Ginna Ashby on . Posted in Uncategorized.

There is an adage that says, “Touch the Future! Teach a Child! I would change it to also say, “Touch the Future! Pray for a Child!” While this devotional is entitled “Praying for Your Children and Grandchildren”, a Christian can be praying for any child he/she knows. Nieces, nephews, neighborhood children, children you teach in school or Sunday School, kids you coach in sports programs all need prayers warriors on their behalf.

Praying for a child’s salvation is of eternal importance. I pray regularly for the salvation of my three preschool grandchildren. For I want to be able to say, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children [grandchildren] are walking in the truth” (3 John 4).

Once a child accepts Jesus as his/her Savior, I feel we as parents and grandparents often fail to continue to pray for their growth as a Christian. We surely do not want your children to stay on a diet of spiritual baby food for the rest of their lives. We need to pray for their growth in discipleship, that they will strengthen their walk with Jesus.

Praying over children with Scripture is a wonderful way to blanket our children in the Truth. I often pray Matthew 22:37 and 39 over my children and grandchildren: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself.” Click here to download a parent’s prayer calendar of biblical virtues with scriptures to pray for your children. Keep this calendar in your Bible, on the refrigerator, or wherever you have your prayer “war room”. Commit today to pray for the children in your life.

Are You a Praying Parent?

Written by Melissa Goodman on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Lamentations 2:19 says, “Pour out your hearts like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children”
Parenting can be a scary venture and we feel overwhelmed at times. There is advice and instructions coming at us from all directions. Some of us had great parenting role models while others did not. No matter what your experience was or is, there is good news: We do not have to parent alone! As believers we have our Heavenly Father to help us through the journey.
In Stormie Omartian’s book, The Power of A Praying Parent, she reassures us that: “We don’t have to be tossed and turned by the winds of change. Our children’s lives don’t ever have to be left to chance. We don’t have to live in fear of what each new phase of development may bring, what dangers might be lurking behind every corner. Nor do we have to be perfect parents. The key is not trying to do it by ourselves, but rather turning to the expert parent of all time – our Father God – for help.”
I believe that it is important to pray for our children and for our children to know that we pray for them regularly. When our children know that we pray for them, they will gain the assurance that we care about them, they feel that they are important to us as well as important to God.
In my own life I have experienced the many benefits of praying for my own children along with the joy and honor of praying with other parents. At some point I came to realize that if God gave me children to raise, it was my responsibility and privilege to come to Him often on their behalf. By joining with other parents to pray for our children we were able to share all the joys of answered prayers and growth in each of our prayer lives. We were also able to support one another through difficult times when we may not know what to pray or may not be able to pray ourselves. I highly encourage everyone to have an army of prayer warriors.
You can start right now. It is never too early and never too late. Every aspect of our children’s lives should be prayed over. Nothing is too trivial nor too big to be lifted in prayer to our God. He cares about even the smallest of our concerns.

Bless Your Heart

Written by Guest Fruit Cove on . Posted in Uncategorized.

For many of the last few years of her life, my grandmother lived with her children. A couple of times each year, we hosted her in our home for three to four months at a time as her health and mental abilities gradually declined. As a highschooler and later college student, I reflect back on the experience now and realize how much I took those opportunities for granted.
She played the piano. Her hymnal and her Bible traveled with her from house to house as she moved. I remember hearing her struggle with tempo and accuracy, but each song was recognizable. Her hymnal, dog-eared and filled with hand-written annotations, is in my office.
Grandmother rocked… in a rocking chair in the living room beside the “pi’tur winder” where she read her Bible, sang to herself and watched the world go by. The wild- and plant-life outside fascinated her.
And, of course, she prayed. For her children, her grandchildren, her pastor and her friends. For hours. Sometimes, I thought she was asleep, but her lips were moving.
She did not like my mustache. Several times, she would try to buy it from me. “I’ll give you a dollar if you’ll shave that thing,” she said. My response was most always the same: “Grandmother, it wouldn’t look good on you.”
She also thought I was “too busy.” As I would walk out the door, having asked where I was off to, she would smile, shake her head and say, “well, bless your heart.” Teasingly, I would pause and reply, “don’t stop with just my heart.”
I know now, that in some awkward, teenage way, I was asking her to fit me with what Paul described as the “full armor of God” so that I would be covered and prepared for the battle to be faced each day.
We are still at war. Each and every day, we need to prepare for the spiritual battles we face. Begin each day with a song, the Word, a prayer and then dress for battle with truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith and salvation.
Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil. For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.
This is why you must take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. Stand, therefore,with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace.
In every situation take the shield of faith, and with it you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word.
Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.

Ephesians 6:10-18 (HCSB)

Bless your heart – and soul, mind and strength as you grow closer to Him today.

Praying the Names of God

Written by Guest Fruit Cove on . Posted in Equip The Church, Uncategorized.

Post written by Linda Warne
From Genesis to Revelation, God has chosen to reveal His character and nature through His many names. Whether Elohim, Yahweh, Abba, or Bridegroom, Advocate or Comforter…
God invites us to approach and enter the throne room of the Almighty, where we can experience through prayer the presence of our Father, God.
As a young believer, I learned to pray the names of God as a part of my personal worship time. It wasn’t long before I realized that not only was my prayer time greatly impacted by knowing Him by His many names, but I was being changed. It was impossible to spend time in His Presence and not come away conformed & transformed to be more like Him.   As I prayed using the names of God, I found myself becoming less concerned with my own needs as I became surrounded by His power and majesty and experienced His faithfulness. I came to know an intimacy with God that made me long to be in His Presence, to discover at new depths who He was and who I was in Christ.
To this day, I pray the names of God, realizing that there are days I need Him to be my Prince of Peace, to calm my spirit and keep me focused. Sometimes I ask Him to be my Shepherd, to guide me and protect me. He is always my Advocate and Helper, dwelling within me and keeping me close. He is the Lord who Heals, My Rock, the God who Sees me, the Lord my Righteousness, my Shield, my Refuge, my Hiding Place and so much more.
1 Corinthians 13:12 (TLB)
In the same way, we can see and understand only a little about God now,
as if we were peering at his reflection in a poor mirror;
but someday we are going to see him in his completeness, face-to-face.
Now all that I know is hazy and blurred,
but then I will see everything clearly, just as clearly as God sees into my heart right now.
 

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