The High Calling of God

I frequently learn spiritual lessons from our 10 year old Golden Retriever Ginger. Recently my husband and I were getting ready go away for the weekend. Our dog loves to travel and even though she was only going to be dropped off at the kennel- still she DID NOT want to be left behind! The night before we started getting our suitcases ready and all the things we were taking with us. She always becomes so anxious when she sees all this activity going on. On the morning that we were leaving my husband was packing the car and Ginger was just beside herself. Every time I went upstairs to get something she followed me, panting and pacing. Every time my husband went outside she wanted outside with him. Then she wanted back in, just panting as only dogs can do- and pacing and being so anxious. You would think that after 10 years she would have learned that we have never left her alone while we have gone away. But she couldn't keep us out of her sight and she was pacing all over the plac...

  "Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, " Ezra 1:1 (NKJV) After the Jews had been in Babylonian captivity, the Lord stirred up the spirit of the king of Persia, Cyrus, to let the people go back to Jerusalem to build the temple. That word "stirred up" means "to rouse, to awaken, to excite, to raise up." It has the meaning of an eagle stirring up its nest or musical instruments being "awakened" or tuned up, getting ready for playing, Oh how we need to be stirred up in our spirits these days! I don't know much about an eagle stirring up its nest but I have observed many Mourning Doves in a nest that is on our front porch. When the young dove is mature enough and ready to leave the nest, the parent coaxes...

Well, here I am- New Year's Eve. I needed to stop what I was doing  and write before it was 2013. I haven't written near what I had intended to this year. But that's how it goes. We get so busy with life we forget to stop and take time to reflect on that life we are living. I look back at 2012 with great thanksgiving to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There have been some valleys but also some mountaintops. There have many close calls but many more blessings! God has brought many that I know, friends and family members through illnesses, surgeries and cancer treatments. Some continue to fight these diseases and our prayers go with them. We saw the passing of  two aunts on my husband's side of the family. He has brought us safely through severe weather, drought, a Direcho that nearly devastated parts of Columbus and left many of us without power in over 100 degree weather for over a week.  But God is so faithful! We have all watched sadly as we have seen terrib...

1 Kings 17:1-7 In these verses, the prophet Elijah prophesies a drought during the reign of King Ahab of Israel, the Northern Kingdom. The Lord then led him to a brook-- Cherith. The exact location of this brook is unknown. It was a  hiding place for Elijah. It was also  interesting to note that the meaning of this name is to cut or to covenant. In Genesis 15 we read about the first blood covenant that God made with Abraham. I like the word covenant. It means a cutting, a shedding of blood, the death of something. God's covenant with us involved the shedding of blood, the death of someone-- Jesus Christ. It took the death of Jesus to give us life! Think about it! In turn- we are to die to Christ! We don't literally die or shed blood, but our old life is dead and we are alive to Christ. Getting back to our "hiding place"~~ our hiding place is a covenant between us and God. We have ended our lives for the sake of establishing a new life in God through the blood o...

2 Corinthians 3: 18 "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." Years ago when I worked for a particular company I was given the opportunity to take a course in personal goal setting, priorities and creating and implementing a personal mission statement. At this time I did create a personal mission statement and have revised it several times over the years as my priorities and circumstances have changed. In it I of course applied my walk with the Lord as the highest priority in my life and have continued to do that. I had a fairly detailed list of the things that my husband and I would have accomplished by now in our ministry. Many companies and even churches have created their mission statements outlining their priorities and goals. This in itself is not a bad thing. It isn't wrong to set goals high and work towards them. Over t...

Draw Near To God James 4:8 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded” The word “draw” in this verse means to “prefer, to choose”. It is our choice to draw near to God or not. The book of James was written to Christians, and yet he is telling them to cleanse their hands and purify their hearts. The choice was up to them as it is also up to us. The book of the Song of Solomon is a beautiful illustration of a Christian’s progressive development in their relationship with Jesus Christ. We can stay where God found us in the first place. Or we can choose to go on in our walk, our relationship with the Lord. Song of Solomon- 1:4 “Draw me away! We will run after you. The king has brought me into his chambers…” The bride’s first response was to ask to be drawn away by the Beloved. Then she committed her entire being to Him. She made a covenant with Him that if He drew her, she would foll...

Recently my husband and I had the opportunity to attend a Regional Conference for Voice of the Martyrs. I had never been to one of their meetings and I really didn’t know what to expect, only that God was urging me to go. There was one particular speaker I was anticipating hearing, other than that I thought I would be bored with a whole lot of statistics and slides. But that was not the case. We met and heard about people who truly had a passion for the Lord, a passion to follow Jesus wherever it leads. All during the day I felt the Lord dealing with me on things in my own life. No- He wasn’t calling us to a foreign country, but by the end of the day we were more determined than ever to do and live for God the way He wanted us to. Both me and my husband came away very touched by God’s Spirit and more determined than ever to do His will, with His help. I was very inspired and challenged by the testimonies of those who have followed the Lord through fire and storm, and have come...