Lost and found

Good Morning Friends!  Thankfully His, forgiven and loved, Thursday!  This is such a special week as we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior on Sunday….Holy Week….I have been wearing a cross each day this week, just to remind myself of the sacrifice that was made for me….for you….so long ago when our Heavenly Father gave His only Son to die on a cross….for me….for you…..today my cross is on a long chain and is made of tiny, little, shiny gems, so pretty.  It was unclaimed in the lost and found and given to me…..lost and found…..As I look down and see the solid, shiny cross sparkling from the sun’s reflection….I sigh deeply contemplating the sacrifice made for me….I was lost, but now I am found….found by our Heavenly Father through the death of HIS Son…But the cross sparkles, it is empty…..JESUS LIVES!  HE made the ultimate sacrifice, HIS blood was shed, on the cross…..for me….for you.  But the three days later HE shined as HE left the tomb, alive….Because HE LIVES we too will LIVE, eternally with HIM in heaven.  Father, thank you for YOUR grace and tender mercies for us….we are undeserving, but humbled.  All Glory and Praise to YOU!

 

Jesus said, “For the Son of man came to seek and to save what was lost.”  Luke 19:10.  “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:16.

Praying your Easter over flows with the blessings of HIS resurrection.  Love you all!

Small miracles around us

Good Morning Friends!  Totally trusting in HIS love Tuesday!  My goodness, hasn’t our environment turned to winter drab in a hurry?  Seems like just a week or so ago there was still green grass in the pastures and leaves on the trees and now….the pastures and lawns are brown, the trees empty just brown branches sticking up in the air….drab.  My commute to work…well when you look around and only see dead grass and empty trees it can get a little, well you know it’s just not the same as spring.  Bleak…..like our lives without our Savior, bleak and dead from sin……But hold on…..look out the window by the chicken coop…..bright red, magnificent cardinals….one, two, three, four….gosh five beautiful, red cardinals on my fence.  Gosh I just love the bright red birds of winter…..they overtake the bleak…..As I stood at the window my heart filled with gratitude….The red birds…..red like blood….the red birds take the bleak out of winter…..Jesus blood gives us life….The cardinals are a small miracle from our Father, a dash of color in an otherwise drab environment…..Jesus’ death and resurrection is the miracle of miracles….life everlasting for us if we simply accept HIS mercy and grace.  Oh Father….my goodness, forgive my whining and help me see Your small miracles all around me, You are an awesome God.  And Father, more than anything, thank you for loving us so much that You gave us Your Son…..the red of HIS blood makes us white as snow. 

 

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.  We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.  We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him.  For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God.  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Romans 6:1-11.  Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!  2 Corinthians 9:15. 

Love you all!

Are you properly clothed?

Good Morning Friends!  Thankfully His, Tuesday!   This morning I was reading in Colossians 3:12- 14, “Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”  Bam!  The words clothe with and put on, really hit me…..quite distinct commands from our Father….God’s chosen people…..wow dearly loved……clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, and gentleness and patience…not easy ones to carry out all the time are they…..and bound with love…..put on love….Really!!!??  Well, sure smacked me in the face, this command, the way God wants us to be with others, well it takes a little work….we have to be prepared, be connected to HIM through HIS word and prayer…If we are not prepared through a close relationship with our Father, we cannot clothe ourselves with theses virtues or put on love.  Saturday, Kim and I had to fix some fence in a lease pasture so that we could move a few fall-calvers there.  The pasture had not been grazed for a couple years, so of course it was very over grown, thick with brush and grass, weeds, over-grown trees….I grabbed some water while Kim loaded the four wheeler with tools and wire we would need….he was prepared for the job.  Me, on the other hand….I went in shorts, tank top, and no gloves!!!!  Thank heavens I had worn my boots, but I definitely was totally unprepared for the job….I did not put on or clothe myself properly…hence….I cut my hands on the barbed wire, and my legs and arms are covered in scratches and bites, blood on my shorts from my hands and I really was not as much help as I would have liked to have been…..because I was not clothed properly….I went out unprepared!  Father, yes I sure got your message for me this morning……I need to stay close to You so that my actions reflect Your love and give You glory.  Father help me to clothe myself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience…..clothing myself in Your Love!  Father I am so thankful to be Your child….dearly loved! 

 

We love because God first loved us.  1 John 4:19.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.  1 John 4:12. 

Love you all!