Hello my friends! Today was a snow day all day - we got 7.5 inches! I don't know what to think about Darla coming here tomorrow. She flies in in the morning and plans on renting a car and driving here to us for lunch to celebrate Linus' 75th birthday. Let's pray that the roads will be good by then. Please, Lord!! Today's blessing is that Lori is better - hasn't had a pain pill all day - still seeing a bit blurry yet, but it's getting better - Praise God! She even said that maybe tonight we'll play some Dominoes. We'll see if that happens. So today Linus snow blowed our driveway and went over to Lori's and did hers. Lori went along home and she picked up Phoebe so now we have Phoebe, her cat, Ollie, her dog, and Sammy. Sammy has to be the good host! I raised Phoebe and gave her to Lori later on so she knows me well, too. Praying for you all and thanks much for all your prayers for us!
Each morning gives us one more chance to pray, one more chance to help
another and one more chance to make this a better world. Lord, thank you
for working in and through everything.
Scripture for the day:
Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard;
and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the
gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this
fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the
soil?' He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around
it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if
not, you can cut it down.'" ~Luke 13:6-9
Meditation for the day:
Like a tree, it is best for me to be pruned of a lot of dead branches so I
can be ready to bear good fruit. I can think of changed people as trees
which have been stripped of their old branches, pruned, cut and bare. But
through the dark, seemingly dead branches flows silently, secretly, the new
sap, until with the sun of spring, comes new life.
There are new leaves, buds, blossoms and fruit, many times better because of
the pruning. I am in the hands of God, a master gardener, who makes no
mistakes in pruning.
Prayer for the day:
I pray that I may cut away the dead branches of my life. I pray that I may
not mind the pruning since it helps me to bear good fruit later.
TRUE REPENTANCE
Author Unknown
God... commanded all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30b).
True repentance is keenly painful, but very beneficial in
its results. Some people easily forget their period of repentance;
other never do. This is referring to the period when a person fully
feels what one has been. The Spirit of God allows Christians to lose
all memory of horrible pit and miry clay of sins out of which God has
delivered them. The apostle Paul never forgot what he was; and that
memory reminded him that he became what he "now is" by the
marvelous grace of God.
Repentance does not mean that you will never commit those
sins again. It means that you have, by God's grace, reached a place
where you do positively the other things. The only truly repentant
person, in the fullest analysis, is the person who allows God to deal
with what was wrong - sin.
Set your heart and mind toward God and let the holy light of
Jesus Christ search through every wrong and opening. The result will
be a marvelous readjustment of your whole life.
Food for Thought:
THE PARACHUTE
Author Unknown
Charles Plum, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, was a jet fighter pilot
in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a
surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected & parachuted into enemy hands.
He was captured & spent six years in a Communist prison.
He survived that ordeal & now lectures about lessons learned from that
experience.
One day, when Plumb & his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at
another table came up & said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in
Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"
"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb.
"I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise &
gratitude. The man pumped his hand & said, "I guess it worked!"
Plumb assured him, "It sure did-if your 'chute hadn't worked, I
wouldn't be here today."
Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says,
'I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform-a
Dixie cup hat, a bib in the back, and bell bottom trousers. I wondered
how many times I might have passed him on the Kitty Hawk. I wondered
how many times I might have seen him & not even said good morning, how
are you or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot & he was
just a sailor.
Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden
table in the bowels of the ship carefully weaving the shrouds &
folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the
fate of someone he didn't know. Now, Plumb asks his audience, 'Who's
packing your parachute?' Everyone has someone who provides what they
need to make it through the day. Plumb also points out that he needed
many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy
territory-he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his
emotional parachute, & his spiritual parachute."
He called on all these supports before reaching safety. His experience
reminds us all to prepare ourselves to weather whatever storms lie
ahead.
SUGGESTION: Recognize people who pack your parachute & strengthen
yourself to prevail through tough times.
Prayer of Love for the Crucified Lord
O Jesus, it is not the heavenly reward you have promised which impels me to
love you; neither is it the threat of h ell that keeps me from offending you.
It is you, O Lord, it is the sight of you affixed to the Cross and suffering
insults; it is the sight of your broken body, as well as your pains and your
death. There is nothing you can give me to make me love you. For even if
there were no heaven and no h ell I would still love you as I do. Amen.
If you would like to know God ... Look at the crucifix.
If you would like to love God ... Look at the crucifix.
If you want to serve God ... Look at the crucifix.
If you wonder what you are worth ... Look at the crucifix.
If you wonder how much God loves you ... Look at the crucifix.
If you want to know the need for self-denial and sacrifice ... Look at the
crucifix.
If you wonder how much you should forgive others ... Look at the crucifix.
If you wonder how much you should do for others ... Look at the crucifix.
If you wonder how much your faith demands ... of you in humility, poverty,
charity in every virtue ... Look at the crucifix.
If you want to know what unselfishness and generosity are ... Look at the
crucifix.
If you wonder how far your own unselfishness should go to bring others to
Christ ... Look at the crucifix.
If you wish to live well ... Look at the crucifix.
If you wish to die well ... Look at the crucifix.
When was the last time you really thought about how much suffering Jesus
went through for you?
Next time you think your pain and suffering is too much to bear ...
Look at the crucifix and say: JESUS UNDERSTANDS!
WHAT YOU WILL BE
Author Unknown
As I gazed up at the mountains, I was awed by their majesty;
I bowed my head and asked myself, "Why should He care for me?
I am not great like the mountains that tower so high above,
What is there about me that God can find to love?"
"Father, I am not strong like the wind that makes your tall trees
sway, I cannot sing sweetly like your birds; will you love me anyway?
But most of all, I am simply me, and often have cause to fear,
In spite of all my weaknesses, do you promise to be near?"
With eyes closed tight against my tears, I wished He could hear me
pray.
Then I felt His Spirit tell me, "Child, look up, I have something to
say.
"You are simply you, the spirit I love, a part of my great plan.
I put you here to learn of life and to return to me again."
"You are more beautiful to me than the loveliest mountain I made,
And your strength exceeds that of the wind's, so do not be afraid.
I love you not for what you are, but for what I know you will be.
I am always beside you watching you grow, you are very special to me."
A smile touched my lips - I knew it was true, my Father had always
been there Giving me comfort and blessings and love and my own special
talents to
share.
So I do my best to make Him proud. I am not afraid, for you see,
He loves me not for what I am, but for what He knows I will be.
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