To Bring Him Joy

"So when they had come together, they asked Him, "Lord, at this time are You restoring the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:6-8 ESV When I was reading this earlier this month one of my first reactions to this verse was to feel sorry for Jesus that after all He had been through and taught them, the disciples were still not getting it.  Then I thought, Jesus, why didn't You just tell them no? Why didn't He take the time to explain to them again that His was not an earthly kingdom? Not now? It was not the time for explaining, He ascended in a cloud immediately after this statement. He had already explained numerous times. In fact if you read the previous verses, Luke tells us that Jesus appe

My mother in law died the day before Easter. She literally fought to the death (not in a good way).  It was heart wrenching to watch and still  hurts to think about it but God taught me some really good things as we walked this path with her and her husband. The following is one of the lessons that I learned and wrote during some of the early stages of us really being involved in their care. I have been learning from the real life pictures that God is giving me in dealing with my mother-in-law and her husband. She has a metastatic malignant melanoma that is at least at a stage 3 of 4, it is an avocado sized lump under her left arm. She sometimes acts as if she doesn't even remember that it is there. We have all agreed that she could not handle any kind of treatment and we don't really know how long God will give her. She probably weighs under 100 by now but insists that she eats when she is hungry. She has Alzheimers at least stage 5 of 7 and she has high blood pressure an

             " Lord , how long will You forget me? Forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?    How long will I store up anxious concerns  within me, agony in my mind every day? How long will my enemy dominate me?    Consider me and answer, Lord my God. Restore brightness to my eyes;  otherwise, I will sleep in death. My enemy will say, “I have triumphed over him,” and my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.    But I have trusted in Your faithful love;  my heart will rejoice in Your deliverance.    I will sing to the Lord because He has treated me generously. " Psalm 13 HCSB How I identify with this Psalm of David.  So very often I feel as though God is far off or that I am a continual failure.  I have struggled with this downward spiral thing a great deal in my life.  I feel as though Satan has my number on speed dial.  He really knows how to get at me.  I feel like I store up anxious concerns within me.  I feel dominated by my enemy.   The ke

 (This is actually something I wrote quite a while ago but felt that I should share it with you.  I hope it is encouraging to you. God is so very faithful.) “And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 One of the areas that I am extremely weak in is time. I just don’t do time! I am not usually aware of it passing by and am quite shocked sometimes when I find out how much of it has passed by! So it is quite funny of God to use me to do something in His perfect timing. This whole story is about weakness and strength, who has it and who doesn’t and what God really considers to be strength. In April or May of 2005 I happened to be at

 “ Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I Am gentle and humble in heart, and 'you will find rest for your souls.' For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 Here is another verse that we tend to interpret and apply to our physical, earthly situations when Jesus was more than likely speaking in spiritual terms. What makes you more weary than carrying around guilt and habitual sin? Is not salvation the key to rest? Jesus yoke was the cross. When we take on His yoke, we share in His righteousness, we enter His rest! He paid the the price, took the weight of the cross, the debt and guilt of sin! I have always had trouble with understanding how a yoke could be easy and a burden be light. I think I couldn't get past the physical picture of it all. Easy can also be translated comfortable or pleasant! Does this mean our earthly life will be problem free, without pain o