Sufficient

Where the birds make their nests

In Psalms 104 - David is seeing the same things I see; the every day.  I am often surprised by the blindness we have as a people.  We see things everyday, but walk away thinking they are just here, don't question it.  Or come up with silly conclusions that make no sense.  Are we too busy to see the grass that grow for the cattle?  The bread we are provided for strength?  The nests that rest in the fir tree and the tree that has been there for hundreds of years.  Our day and night has been appointed by a loving God.  Do we really think we evolved?  That there is not order to chaos?  God says to look in the high hills and you will find wild goats: the cliffs are a refuge for the rock badgers.  There is a place to dwell for each living thing.  What beasts creep about the forest, is it not lion that roar after their prey.  They too seek their food from God.  All we need to do is to look around us.  Surely there is a creator and not just a big bang that developed perfect creatures of all kinds, shapes and sizes and a perfect place for them to live and thrive.  The lion lie in their dens as man goes out to his work and he labors until evening.  Oh Lord, how manifold are your works!  The earth is full of your possessions - the sea, the great and wide sea, in where there are innumerable teeming things, living things both small and great!  Did the beautiful design of the fish just evolve?  Or the magnificence mane of the lion? Did the designer wings of a bird in flight, just happen?  It all happened by the hand of a loving God.  A God that can take chaos and make order.  A God that can take nothing and make something.  A God that can take a raging sea and make calm.  A God that can take dark and make it light; so that we see, it did not evolve, it was intended by a hand that only holds and creates love.

"Blossom like a Rose"

We went to visit my son last night.  We started to have a conversation about God and who He is.  He has lots of questions about God.  My son went on to say he thought perhaps we were aliens from Mar?  I said, "what, you are watching too many documentaries on television!"  I know my son knows the Lord, but over time has drifted away into the world and how the world thinks.  It's all about sci-fi and technology.   I say the truth is always found in love.  Test it and see.  There is no love in sci-fi and technology, it takes us away from each other instead of bring us together.  How do you have a relationship with texting?  Would you rather hold your phone, or hold your loved one?  

One of the questions was how can a loving God allow children to starve to death, here and in other countries?  How can this be?  The first scripture that came to my mind  was of I Peter 5:8 - "Your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour!"  You are not exempt, they are not exempt.  God tarries because he wants all to come to know him.  God is a force of love not destruction.  But, as we tarry here on earth, we do still have an adversary.  The fallen angel, Lucifer, the angel of rebellion, the one who refused to worship the almighty God.  Out of rebellion comes evil!  What is evil?  Anything considered "NOT GOOD", that includes starving children.  The war is not with flesh, it is with principalities, good and evil.  Jesus said in John 6:35 "I am the bread of life.  He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.  But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.  "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out.  He is the Father that makes the desert rejoice and blossom like a rose.  

Even the Sea obeys Him! 

When I think of this verse, I think of power.  This past week has been Spring Break...Oh what a wonderful week it has been with the weather gorgeous!  We have been preparing this week for a yard sale, to clean out the garage and to make a little extra to put aside.  I was sitting just outside the garage in one of the three chairs I had out and along came my neighbor.  I hadn't seen her in awhile because it always seems I am at work.  She came over, I gave her a hug and she sat down.  She began to talk.  She is a care giver for her husband who is suffering with dementia.  If you have ever had a family member who has had Alzheimer and  or dementia, you would understand the pain involved in care for your loved ones.  She proceeded to tell me what it was like to watch a strong, intelligent man crumble.  Day in and day out watch him lose His mind.  As she spoke, tears flowed down her face.  The only power I had was to listen.  It pricked my emotions like a strong wave pushing down at my heart, drowning in tears.  I told her he was still there, the husband she knew in his soul.  Though disease destroys our body; are soul is still intact.  It also made me think of one day this old body, filled with aches and pain will be glorified!  This world is not our home, we are just passing through.  God is so interested in our soul!  He has the power to change it, rebuild it and clean it up.  The pain we suffer in this world is temporary and fleeting like a flower that blooms and than fades.   Isaiah 40:7 "The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever".  This is why God tells us to store up your treasures in Heaven.  

Matthew 6:19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; "but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

What would it be like to dwell in the house of the Lord? 

This week has gone by so quickly!  In the background I can hear my little joy talking and singing!  Ending the week with singing from my grandchild...it couldn't get sweeter! Do you ever want to just squeeze them and give them big grandma kisses.  She is 8 years old now and wouldn't have it!  At this stage, you really have to pay for those kisses; like ice-cream before bed! She loves the computer as much as grandma.  She plays with this program called animal-jam, so I asked her what she did on animal-jam and she said "I talk, grandma."   Don't we love to talk! We need to talk about Jesus and how much He loves us!  We need to talk more about why He came here to earth!  We need to be more like Jesus every day! 

 My son also came by to go swimming....relationships are priceless!  Maybe this is why God desires a relationship with us?  He considers us family or a friend. Do we talk to Him, like we would family or a friend?  He tells us to pray without ceasing - so He must really enjoy listening to us.  Well, I need to go for now because it sounds like someone is in the frig and who know what they are looking for?  I heard the mention of ice-cream!

 "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made know to you.  You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name he may give you." John 15:15 - Jesus wants to be our friend, He want to talk with us and be with us.  

"The pathway that leads to home" 

What does it mean to serve the Lord?  In Galatians 5:13 it says "For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.  For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "you shall love your neighbor as yourself.  If you bite and devour one another; beware lest you be consumed by one another!  What are the signs of the flesh?  Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, distentions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like.  God says if we practice these things, we won't experience the kingdom of God.   What are the fruits of the spirit?  love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  Against such there is no law.  I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.  For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.  There is one word that releases us from judgement and from the law, it is love.  a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.

2.

a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.  This love in us, given by a God that is LOVE!  

God says, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.  I believe this is what it mean to serve the Lord.  If we want to reap love, than we must show love first. 

"Time" - In a moment

Time.....moments turn into minutes, minutes into hours, and hours into days.  My computer is sitting on a desk next to the clock on the wall, I can hear the clock ticking.  This morning I was busy writing and I looked up and it was 9 a.m. already!  I almost missed an appointment, so I got up rushed around and made it on time!  Time has this way of rushing by like the wind, a wave of force, or a gentle breeze, just passing by.  It has this way of stopping you in your tracks, that clock!  It has the power to change your direction, that clicking, that ticking, that long and short hand, around it goes.  

Is it the time here on earth that we are so concerned about, or is it the heavenly time we should be focused on?  The eternal, where there is no clock, no ticking, no long or short hand to dictate your time; only the hand of God reaching out to hold you, to spend eternity in and around a heart of love!  Revealing the heart of God......Eternal Love, Joy, Peace...isn't that who He is?  I Corinthians 15:53 says "in a moment, in the twinklings of an eye, when the last trumpet will sound, we shall be changed from the corruptible to incorruptible, from mortal to immortality...."O Death, where is your sting?  "Death is swallowed up in victory!"  Time is swallowed up by eternity! 

Jesus Christ is our clock....He keeps time with our soul....He knows the time when we seek Him, the time of salvation...it is written in the Lamb's book of life.  How much time do we spend with Him?  The more time we spend with Him, the more treasures we store for Heaven where time turns into eternity! 

"Let us sing songs" 

Looking at the keyboard brings me all the way back to my youth.  We had a small room in the front of the house called the music room.  This is where the piano lived, along with sheet music and books filled with melody. Everyday when I would walk home from school I would reach the front door and I could hear music.  It would fill the house with a blanket of cheerful! My mom would be sitting there playing and sometimes singing.  It was her way of releasing the cares of the day.  Let the cares be taken away with the music notes, the flow, the melody.  It was comforting.  Do you ever let the music just take you away, like your riding a note through the wind?  It has a way of doing that.  Some music is so beautiful it pricks your soul and fills it with joy!  In James 5:13b it says if you are cheerful, sing!  Not everyone is blessed with a beautiful singing voice; but I think when God hears the melody, it is beautiful!  When He sees a cheerful, grateful heart, it is a sweet melody to him....

Path of Fullness and Joy!   

Inside the picture is another photograph that I took of the road leading to my mom's old home and to my sister's house.  My mom has since passed away; although her sweet memories linger on through this journey of life.  I remember this trip, it was to visit my sister.  We came around the corner as we always did before, but this time it was filled with the golden light of the sun; penetrating the delicate limbs of the tree; it beckoned me to stop right there and capture the light on the path, leading to home.  It also reminds me of how our shepherd always shows us the path of life found in Psalms 16:11 - and in Christ's presence we can experience fullness of joy.  And at His right hand are pleasures forevermore....He beckons us to stop right where we are and to capture His fullness of light!  

"The Light is sweet" 

When I think about Ecclesiastes 11:7 - It becomes so easy to have a heart filled with gratitude!  Without the light what would we be able to see?  I thank God for my sight, for the sunrise in the morning and sunset as the day comes to a close.  And for everything in between, to see the smile on a child's face, to hear the laughter as they try to catch the puppy's tail or run just for fun!  To watch them play makes your soul well up with that thing called JOY!  To see the birds in flight, or how they just stand there in the still water, patiently waiting for their next meal, or their partner in flight.  The light makes the lack become bountiful, the sorrow become joy! Oh, truly the light IS sweet!  The light produces the bloom and the green leaves on the trees, it springs life!  Oh, truly the light is sweet!   In Ecclesiastes 11:6 - In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand; for you do not know which will prosper, either this or that, or whether both alike will be good!  What will be on the table before you today?  A feast of Joy?  A table filled with love?  A basket full of lovely!  Yes, a basket full of lovely!

Philippians 4:8


"Fruit of the Spirit" 

All Sufficient! 

Why do we worry so much?  Does not God tell us that He has it under control?

Last night I did a little research on who God is, His character, His many names and where in

the Bible all his beautiful names can be found.  I would just like to know Him a little better, how about you?  He is so many things to us, He is sovereign, a just God.  He is faithful and true, he hears us when we pray and always has the answer, if we listen.  He is a righteous God, the prince of peace and the bright and morning star! He is the beginning and the end....He is Sufficient!

Hebrew name of God 

El - Mighty Strength - Sovereign

El Echad - The One God 

Echad means one in Hebrew 

El Hannieman - The faithful God - to support and nourish 

El Emet - The God of truth - firmness, faithfulness, reliable

El Tsaddik - The Righteous God - Isaiah 45:21

El Shaddai - ALL SUFFICIENT! 

Genesis 17:1, 28:3, 35:11, 43:14 48:3, 49:25, Exodus 6:3, Numbers 24:6

YHVH - Genesis 17:1 

I AM - El - Shaddai

Jehovah - Yahweh

YudkayVavKay - Hashem

Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace

Almight God

Elohim - The Bright and Morning Star

What is the nature of Christ? 

Nature of Christ - Chief Cornerstone - Ephesians 2:20

First born over all creation - Colossians 1:15

Head of the Church - Ephesians 1:22, 4:15 and 5:23

Holy One - Acts 3:14 - Psalms 16:10 - 

Judge - Acts 10:42,  II Timothy 4:8 

King of King, Lord of Lords - II Timothy 6:15, Revelations 19:16

Light of the World - John 8:12

Prince of Peace -Isaiah 9:6

Son of God - Luke 1:35, John 1:49 

Word - John 1:1, I John 5: 7-8

Word of God - Revelations 19: 12-13

Word of Life - I John 1:1 

Emmanuel - God with us:  Isaiah 9:6, Mathhew 1:23

Lamb - John 1:29, Revelation 5:12

I AM - John 8:58, Exodus 3:14 

Lord of All - Acts 10:36

Savior - Isaiah 60:16, I Timothy 4:10, Titus 2:13 

Shepherd - Psalms 23:1, John 10:11, I Peter 5:4 

Alpha & Omega - Beginning and the End - Revelations 22:13 

Why do we worry?  Because....... Our God is sufficient!