Thirsty For the Word

April 21, 2014 by 6 Comments

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“I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands.” Psalm 119:130

Remember the last time you were desperate for a drink of water? Maybe you were so busy you had forgotten to hydrate or couldn’t grab an opportunity for a good, long drink. Or maybe you had been working or exercising outside when the need for a drink could no longer be ignored. For whatever reason, you got dehydrated and your mouth turned to cotton. All of a sudden, you couldn’t think of anything besides quenching your thirst.

We can get dehydrated spiritually as well, and while water quenches our physical thirst, our souls and spirits need to drink from God’s Word to stay alive and thrive. God has the words of life we need. In speaking of God’s words, Moses said to the Israelites, “They are not just idle words for you—they are your life.” (Deuteronomy 32:27a)

The Psalmist said, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:1-2) Friends, we can meet with God anytime. And one of the places we can meet him is in his Word. Yes, his word can quench our thirst.

So the question is do we long for the Word of God? As daily demands and trials of life come our way and sap our strength, do we turn to God and his Word to be refreshed and rejuvenated? Where do we go when we find ourselves spiritually dehydrated? Do we pant for the Word and set others things aside so we can go and drink from it?  

Unfortunately, we sometimes neglect God’s Word. We allow the daily demands of life—as well as our desires—to squeeze out the time desperately needed to refresh our spirits and nourish our souls in the Word of God. Other times we neglect turning to the Bible because it might shine a light on the sin we don’t want to forsake. We stay away from the conviction and correction God might speak to our hearts through it.

Also, because God’s Word is so readily available to us here in our nation, we may even take it for granted. We don’t realize the awesome privilege we have of freely drinking from it whenever we want to.

Eventually, if we neglect the Word long enough, we may lose our thirst for it as we allow other things to become substitutes that ease our thirst temporarily but never really satisfy our souls and spirits completely the way God’s Word does.

There is hope, though, if we find we’ve let our thirst and longing for the Word wane. We need only open its pages again and begin drinking. As the Word of God touches those dry and needy places in us again, our thirst for more of it will grow. We will find ourselves panting for the Word of God each day. We will eagerly drink and quench our thirst with God’s words—the words that are life to us.

So how about it? Let’s thrive with the Word of God. Let’s live!

“ . . . ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” John 6:68

*How thirsty are you for God’s Word today?

*Flickr photo by Vicki Francis/Department for International Development, Creative Commons License

*The next issue of Life Notes, my quarterly inspirational newsletter, will come out in early May. Sign-up is free and to the right!

Filed Under: body, refresh, Word of God

Let Others Serve the Way God Intends

March 10, 2014 by 4 Comments

Engleman Aster and butterfly“Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body . . . We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.” Romans 12:4-8

Do you ever feel like you’re being hindered from fully using the spiritual gift or gifts God has given you? Or maybe you feel like you’re being pressured to serve within the church—within the body of Christ—in a way you’re not gifted for? This can happen in your local church body or in the larger family of believers—maybe even including your own personal family or friends.

The verses above are from a well-known passage that exhorts us as believers to use the gifts God has given us. They teach us to fulfill our role in the body by serving God and others with the abilities God has individually equipped us with. For the body to function well, we each need to do what God intends.

When I read this passage not long ago, I saw it in a slightly different light as well. This time I saw how we are to allow others—to let others—use their specific gifts. If a brother or sister in Christ has the gift of teaching, we should let him teach. If his gift is giving, we should let him give generously, if encouraging, let him encourage, and so on.

What a wonderful reminder to allow others to be the individuals God designed them to be. We should not hold one another back from fully expressing and carrying out our God-given gifts.

For example, my husband Don has the gift of giving, and I have a tendency to apply the brakes at times. I know part of my role as his wife may be to help provide a voice of balance, but I also need to be ready to let him give and give generously. I need to let him use the spiritual gift God has given him.

Not only should we allow others to use their uniquely God-given gifts, we must also be careful not to try force them into roles not intended for them. This will lead to frustration for all concerned. It will also keep a person who is gifted for the role from serving because the position is filled.  In addition, we must remember that just because a program or ministry is important to us, it doesn’t mean that everyone else should be passionately committed to it. We all have different roles—which may, in fact, even last only for a season.

Let’s ask ourselves if there is someone in our lives we need to give the grace of freedom to. Someone we need to let be the person God’s gifted him to be, to do the thing He’s called him to do. Let’s let others serve the way God intends.

“If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?” 1 Corinthians 12:17

*How has God gifted you?

*My phot0

Filed Under: body, church, free, Gift, grace, serve, variety, Word of God

“For You and Your Friend” Valentine’s Day Giveaway!

January 30, 2014 by 25 Comments

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Since Valentine’s Day is just a couple of weeks away and since we all love to give gifts to those we love, how about a giveaway with double the prize—one gift for you and another to give to a friend! Always fun to surprise someone with a little unexpected treat, isn’t it?

The winner of “For You and Your Friend” Valentine’s Day Giveaway will receive two bars of Peppermint Mocha Delight from Beigetone Soaps. Beigetone Soaps is owned and operated by Nancy Douglas, one of my fellow blogger and writer friends, and features handcrafted soaps “made from natural and gentle ingredients your skin will love.”

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post by 6 p.m. Wednesday, February 12th. If I don’t know you personally or cannot contact you via your website or blog, be sure to include your email address (such as cheryl at cherylbarker dot net). It’s not required for the giveaway, but to make it more fun, pop over to Nancy’s shop on Etsy, take a look at the different varieties of soap she offers, and then tell me in your comment which one sounds the most intriguing to you.

In future giveaways, I’ll continue to feature and give away some of the fantastic products that some of my very own readers offer. Nancy only recently started Beigetone Soaps so I’m delighted to share the news of her new business with all of you. Be sure to like her Beigetone Soaps Facebook page so you can keep up with the new products she releases as well as special promotions. By the way, the soap is creamy, luscious, and lasts a long time!

God has gifted all of us in amazing ways. Can’t wait to feature more of you in the years ahead!

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10

*The next issue of Life Notes, my quarterly inspirational newsletter, will come out next week. Sign-up is free and to the right!

*Photo by Beigetone Soaps

Filed Under: body, cleaning, Friend, giveaway, holidays, new thing, refresh

Comfy Shoes—Add This to Your Wedding Day List

January 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment

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Mother of the Bride, your attire for Wedding Day will not be complete without bringing a back-up pair of comfy shoes. Whether slippers, flip-flops, or casual flats, you need to have a pair of comfortable shoes on hand for some well-timed relief from the dazzling heels you bought to go with your gorgeous MOB dress.

Comfy shoes can be worn during the pre-ceremony prep and for reception venue clean-up as well as for the last couple of hours of the reception when dancing is fully underway. Guests probably won’t start arriving at the ceremony any earlier than thirty minutes prior, but to play it safe, you might want to slip on your MOB heels at least forty-five minutes ahead of start-time.

As far as the party goes, once the photographer snaps photos of the traditional dances, you might as well get footloose and fancy free and dance in comfort. No one will care, and it will, in fact, add to the fun atmosphere to see the Mother of the Bride unwind a little. Of course, only your closest family members will hang around to help with the clean-up so no worries about looking put together then. Who knows, you may even be barefoot by that point :)

My comfy shoe of choice for both of my girls’ weddings was my favorite flip-flops. Since they had May and July weddings, flip-flops worked great for me, but if your daughter is getting married in a cold-weather month, slippers may be in order. No rules here, though, MOB, so whatever works for you is the right choice.

So go ahead—add comfy shoes to your list right now while you’re thinking about it. Your tootsies will thank you come Wedding Day!

*Have you found a particular brand of shoes that are especially comfortable?

*Flickr photo by Wicker Paradise

*The next issue of Life Notes, my quarterly inspirational newsletter, will come out in early February. Sign-up is free and to the right!

Filed Under: advice, appearance, body, comfort, Mother of the Bride, preparation

Wound Care 101 Revisited

September 2, 2013 by 4 Comments

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*This encore presentation of a post from 2008 will probably be new to most of you. Hope it blesses you!

Flip-flops are the perfect fun footwear — that is until you whack your toes on a hard, immovable object. Yes, leave it to me to find another way to injure myself. Don’t ask me how it happened. I’m not really sure. I wasn’t even walking fast. In fact, I was just taking a few steps across my office when my bare foot, clad only in one of my fave Old Navy flip-flops, met its match with the sharp metal bottom of the dehumidifier. The same dehumidifier, I might add, that’s been in the same spot for years. Go figure.

When the groans subsided from the initial blast of pain, I bent down to survey the damage. Two toes had been hit, and one was bleeding. Nothing major, but it wasn’t going to stop on its own. This was a job for Band-Aids. And since the toe was scraped at top and bottom both, it would take two of the sticky cure-alls to do the trick. I found out right away that binding up a toe when it’s hurting and surrounded by toes on either side (and one of those also whacked) is no easy job.

Today? A little swelling and bruising and just enough tenderness to make me ever conscious of keeping my foot well away from another object. If I had been just half as protective of my foot yesterday, I wouldn’t be groaning at the prospect of wearing shoes today. It was just one of those things I didn’t expect, though. I never saw it coming.

Sometimes life has a way of whacking us, too, doesn’t it? Out of the blue and in the blink of an eye, we are thrust into situations that leave us reeling from pain and gasping for emotional air. Someone we love, someone we trust, levels some words at us that cut us to the core. Or we get that dreaded phone call that forever changes our lives as we know them. Or we find out we’re no longer needed… at our job, in our marriage, by a friend.

As we survey the damage, we see that we are bleeding. But this time, it’s from the heart. And the pain is too deep to tend to it ourselves. We need our Savior’s help, His comfort. We need His healing touch.

If you are hurting today, I encourage you to call on the Great Physician. He will tend to your wound. He will pay attention to it. He will guard and protect it. Remember, He stands ready to help. Nothing catches Him by surprise.

“He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3 KJV

*How has God tended to your wounds when life has whacked you?

*Flickr photo by _rockinfree

Filed Under: accident, body, comfort, grief, heal, help, protection
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