Beautiful Girlhood

Every girl is a lover of beauty. Beautiful homes, beautiful furnishings, beautiful flowers, beautiful clothes, beautiful faces, anything wherein beauty is found, there will be found girls to admire it. From the time her little hands can reach up, and her baby lips can lisp the words, she is admiring "pretty things." And when a little of that beauty is her own her pleasure is unbounded.

Every girl longs to be beautiful. There is in woman a nature, as deep as humanity, which compels her to strive for good looks. There is no more forlorn sorrow for a young girl, than for her to be convinced that she is hopelessly ugly and undesirable. Oh, the bitter tears that have been shed over freckles, or blemished skin and the energy that has been expended in painting and powdering and waving and curling herself into beauty!

A desire to be beautiful is not unwomanly. But, mark it: true beauty is not of the face but of the soul! There is a beauty so deep and lasting, that it will shine out of the homeliest face and make it lovely! This is the beauty to be first sought and admired. It is a quality of the mind and heart and is manifested in word and deed.

[Beautiful Girlhood by Mable Hale]

Proverbs 31:30 ... Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.

1 Peter 3:3-4 ...  Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;  But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.❤

Listening

Say, Pooh, why aren't you busy?" I said.

"Because it's a nice day," said Pooh.

"Yes, but ---"

"Why ruin it?" he said.

"But you could be doing something Important," I said.

"I am, " said Pooh.

"Oh? Doing what?"

"Listening," he said.

"Listening to what?"

"To the birds. And that squirrel over there."

"What are they saying?" I asked.

"That it's a nice day," said Pooh.

"But you know that already," I said.

"Yes, but it's always good to hear that somebody else thinks so, too," he replied.

[The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff]

Proverbs 1:5 ... A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

Isaiah 49:1 ... Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.

James 1:19 ... Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:❤

Divine Care

The Christian's life is very much made up of cares and comforts. Cares spring from earth, comfort comes from Heaven.  Cares prove him a sinner, holy comforts prove him a saint.  Cares flow in from a variety of quarters, true comfort from only one quarter.  Cares come naturally but comforts come supernaturally.

We shall be sure to have earthly cares but shall we have divine comfort? This depends on God's grace, which gives it and our faith, which receives it. Cares must be cast on our God or they will prove a burden too heavy for us. They will depress us, bewilder us, and make us wretched. But here is our comfort, we have always ONE to care for us, and the very One which of all others we would wish to do so, "The Lord cares for you!"

God cares for whom? For you, who are born again by the Spirit.  For you, who are strangers and pilgrims on the earth.  For you, who are placed in humble circumstances, being numbered with the poor of this world.  For you, who are compassed about with so many cares, and who enjoy so few comforts. For you, who are surprised at your many fiery trials, as though some strange thing had happened unto you. For you, who are worried and harassed by Satan, who, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour.   For you, who are persecuted by the world, and hated by men for your Savior's sake.  For you, to whom Christ is precious as He is to every one who truly believes in Him.

God's care extends to every Christian the young and the aged, the weak and the strong, the poor and the wealthy, the doubting and the confident. Believer, He cares for you!

Who is it that cares for us? It is the Lord, the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy; who is so great that we have no adequate conception of His greatness; who is so good that it is impossible fully to set forth His goodness; who is so glorious that no sinner can see His face and live.

It is He who created all things with His word, who governs all by His wisdom, and upholds all by His power.  His resources are infinite,  His compassion is exquisite, and His patience is surprisingly great. He enters into all the circumstances of His redeemed people, is ever present with them, and rejoices over them to do them good. The angels obey Him, the seraphim adore Him, and all creation glorifies Him!

But though He is so exalted, so holy, and so unspeakably great.  He cares for you as base as you are.  He cares for you as sinful as you are. He cares for you as depressed and discouraged as you are.  He cares for you. He cares for you individually, and according to the circumstances in which you are placed.

What does He do? He cares for you! He thinks of you! He watches over you! He sympathizes with you! He feels the deepest interest in you! He ever seeks your welfare! He infallibly secures your good!

Your misery touches His heart, your needs lie open to His view, and your cries enter into His ears!  He cares for you more than for the proudest monarch on his throne! 

He cares for you and His care is CONSTANT! It is not fitful or occasional but ever the same.  He cares for you and His care is PATERNAL! It is the care of a father for his child the child whom he tenderly loves, and for whose welfare he feels the deepest concern.  He cares for you, and His care is PERPETUAL! He will never care for you less than He does at present.  When old age weakens you,  when poverty pinches you, when death appears just before you. He will care for you as much as He does at this moment.

He cares for you and His care is BENEFICIAL! It prevents innumerable evils and secures the greatest possible amount of good. His care is more advantageous than the care of the kindest father, though that father were monarch of the mightiest empire, and possessed unbounded wealth. The care of God is of more value than the care of all His creatures combined.

He cares for you but His care is MYSTERIOUSLY EXERCISED! It benefits us certainly but secretly. It conceals itself behind the blessings it brings, and the evils it prevents.  He cares for you and His care is SPECIAL! It is not the care which He has for the beasts which perish, or the unbelieving sinners who die under His frown.

He cares for you and His care is PARTICULAR. It is care which extends to the very hairs of your heads, which, are all numbered and to all the events and occurrences of your life, however minute or commonplace!

Beloved, here is our comfort. We may lose the care of an earthly relative or dear friend by death but the Lord ever lives; and while He lives, He ever loves us, thoroughly knows us, and never ceases to care for us!

Here is the ground of our confidence for the future. We know not where we shall be, nor what we shall be for we know not what a day may bring forth. But this we know, that God will care for us, and, caring for us. He will fulfill His precious promises to us.

If God cares for us, then let us cast all our cares upon Him; let us live in daily fellowship with Him;  let us seek all our supplies from Him.

If God cares for us, let us not dishonor Him by nursing our doubts, or encouraging our fears but let us trust in Him at all times, for His love is true, His care is constant, and His knowledge is perfect.

We shall never be without a divine friend, however trying our circumstances may be. We shall never be without a divine guide, however perplexing or difficult our path may be. The care of God is more than the care of all the angelic hosts. If the care of God is not sufficient to preserve, supply, and satisfy us, then nothing is.

May the Lord help me to believe this precious truth, to realize it daily, and to pass through the present world under the impression, "I am the object of God's tender, paternal, and ceaseless care!"

Comfort For The Desponding - Words to Soothe and Cheer Troubled Hearts! 1864

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1 Peter 5:7 ... Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

Psalm 55:22 ... Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. ❤

Buried in Pleasure

Did you ever read of the bee in the fable, that found a pot of honey, and thought it would be fine to save all the trouble of flying about the meadows and gathering its sweet stores, little by little, out of the cups of flowers? Soon it went in the pot and reveled in the sweets; but when it began to get tired and cloyed, it found, poor bee!, that its wings were all clogged and would not open, nor could it drag its body out of the mass. So it died, buried in pleasure!

There are many people, like this bee, who find death in their pleasures!

[Dr. Edmund]

Bible Truths Illustrated

2 Timothy 3:1-5 ... This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Matthew 24:12 ... And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

James 5:5 ... Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.❤

Shoe Shine

I came across this very powerful story about one of the most influential men of God in my life, D.L. Moody, in a book named A Call to Excellence by Gary Inrig.

A large group of European pastors came to one of D. L. Moody’s Northfield Bible Conferences in Massachusetts in the late 1800s. Following the European custom of the time, each guest put his shoes outside his room to be cleaned by the hall servants overnight. But of course this was America and there were no hall servants.

Walking the dormitory halls that night, Moody saw the shoes and determined not to embarrass his brothers. He mentioned the need to some ministerial students who were there, but met with only silence or pious excuses. Moody returned to the dorm, gathered up the shoes, and, alone in his room, the world’s only famous evangelist began to clean and polish the shoes. Only the unexpected arrival of a friend in the midst of the work revealed the secret.

When the foreign visitors opened their doors the next morning, their shoes were shined. They never knew by whom. Moody told no one, but his friend told a few people, and during the rest of the conference, different men volunteered to shine the shoes in secret.

Wow. I’m humbled, how about you? Many of us want to be great ministers for the Lord. We want our names and our works to be remembered. But let’s never forget the true ministry of the Lord. Not only would have Jesus shined those shoes in secret, He would have returned to wash their feet too!

Have you been asking the Lord to use you? Here you have it! Shine some one’s dingy shoes, give a gift to someone in need, love on someone hard to love but don’t tell the world; do it in secret! You can be sure that the Lord sees these things! And He will open up more opportunities for you to do even greater things for Him!

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[George Whitten]

Matthew 6:4 ... That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

Zechariah 4:10 ...  For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth. ❤

The Investigation

David ends his well known Psalm 139 with the phrase, “lead me in the way everlasting.” For most Christians this is a prayer they would claim for themselves. Christians desire to follow God’s direction and leading. Rightfully so. God’s way is the right way, so listening and discerning His movement is vital for fulfilling His desire for your life.

But what gets lost when we throw out this desire as our end goal is the difficult process it takes to get there. Just previous to the “lead me” statement David says, “See if there is any offensive way in me.” As if to give the idea that God must search us before we can fulfill His plan. And this squares well with the previous verse:

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.”

 I’m all for listening to God and allowing Him to direct my path, but the whole “search me” piece is a bit invasive for me to get excited about.

In order to allow God to truly lead you in the way everlasting you must first go through an intense investigation of your heart and soul. With an army of God’s soldiers burrowing deep within, the process will be tedious and grievous. I find it easier to follow a God who pats me on the back rather than a God who wants to invade the depths of my being.

In my studying of the opening chapters of Genesis a theme of suffering and glory is coming through. Genesis 2 is a picture of glory. God and man thriving in the garden of Eden. Genesis 3 is a picture of suffering. Sin. Curses. It’s ugly. Often we want the glory experienced in Genesis 2 without dealing with the suffering of Genesis 3.

Daniel Montogomery and Mike Cosper speak to this in their book Faithmapping:

“Crossless Christianity wants the glory without the suffering. It wants access to God (Genesis 2) without acknowledging the ravaging effects of sin in our hearts and in our world (Genesis 3). Jesus calls his followers to deny themselves and take up a cross; a share in the kingdom means a share in suffering (pg. 52).”

The same theme is at play in our lives. We want to follow in the way everlasting, but we’d rather not deal with the difficulty of allowing God to search us and know us.

[Tyler Braun]

Man Of Depravity

Feeling Itchy?

In her book “The Hiding Place” Corrie ten Boom relates an incident that taught her always to be thankful. She and her sister Betsy had just been transferred to the worst German prison camp they had seen yet, called Ravensbruck. The barracks were extremely overcrowded and horribly flea-infested.
 

 

After their scripture reading in 1st Thessalonians that morning, where the Lord reminded them to rejoice always, pray constantly, and give thanks in all circumstances,  Betsy suggested they stop and thank the Lord for every detail of their new living quarters. At first, Corrie was appalled by the idea. She flatly refused to give thanks for that smelly, dirty, flea-ridden place. But Betsy persisted — and Corrie finally succumbed to her pleadings.
 

 

It was by a miracle of God that Corrie and Betsy were able to smuggle their Bible into the camp. If the guards found out that the women were holding nightly Bible studies in their barracks, they surely would have been punished harshly, maybe even killed. During the months they spent at that camp, however, no guard ever said one word.
 

 

 

It was not until several months later that they learned the reason why the guards would hardly ever come into their barracks. They wouldn’t enter the barracks because of the fleas!!
 

 

 

Perhaps you’re dealing with some difficult circumstances today. But who knows? There may be a purpose beyond our understanding! Let’s choose trust the Lord and maintain an attitude of thankfulness in every situation.
 

 

[George Whitten]

 

 

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1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ... Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing.  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.



Psalm 106:1 ... Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
 


Colossians 3:15 ... And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.❤

God's Specialty

Let me tell you from firsthand experience what I know about the love and grace of God.
It’s ludicrous.
It’s scandalous.
It’s crazy.
It’s ridiculous.
It’s healing and restoring.
And it always break my heart.
If you wandered, or are wandering – or maybe you’re running as fast as you can the other way – stop and allow God’s love and grace to consume and overwhelm you. Let it cover your sins. Never forget this tremendous truth – restoration is God’s specialty.

[Kurt Bubna]

from the book: Epic Grace; Chronicles of A Recovering Idiot

Romans 5:8 ... But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.



John 3:16 ... For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.


1 Peter 5:10 ... But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.❤

I Believe ~

I believe in the sun, even when it isn't shining.

I believe in love, even when I am alone.

I believe in God, even when He is silent.

[Excerpt from Sister,Sister]

"Be not afraid, only believe."

Mark 5:36 ❤

From Heaven Above With Love

Give thanks
to the glory that
was this day softly
fading down, down,  down
behind the clouds without
so much as a sound

Give thanks
for the mountain hills
alive with every color
vibrant and true
in every hue

Give thanks
for tomorrow may not come
but today stretches out
before you now
shimmering in
the sun

spectacularly painted
just for you from
heaven above
with love

by Michael Traveler, Author of Miracle Road

1 Thessalonians 5:18 ... In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. ❤

Father's Love

Courtesy is owed.  Respect is earned.  Love is given.

[Kinky Friedman]


from the book: A Guide to Texas Etiquette

John 3:16 ... For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Romans 5:8 ...  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

1 Timothy 2:5-6 ... For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

Romans 8:38-39 ... For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ❤

All Things Are Possible

When God steps in ... Miracles happen.

[Neale Donald Walsh]

From the Book: Moments of Grace

Mark 9:23 ... Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.


Matthew 19:26 ... But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.


Luke 1:37 ... For with God nothing shall be impossible.❤

My Appointment

I know that I am a sinner, who has been saved by His Loving grace. 

I am waiting for that glorious day, when I see my Saviors face.

It may happen when I least expect it, and may catch me by surprise. However, as I am standing in heaven with Him, tears will be in my eyes.

You see I am waiting patiently, for my Lord to call my name. To deliver me from this hurting world and this body steeped in shame.

I was the one who caused my Lord to die; my sins are what nailed Him there. Not once did He point His finger in blame, or say it was not fair.

He took the pain that belonged to me, and He bore my guilt and shame. Then in a special book that He had, my Savior wrote my name.

Therefore, I owe my life to Him, at a cost that was so high. That if God demanded that we pay the price, then everyone would have to die.

However, we do not have to worry; God said the gift was free, by sending Jesus to pay the penalty, for sinners like you and me.

That is why I am filled with hope, and I know I will see His face. I will one-day stand before my Lord, in an awesome holy place.


A place where tears will be no more and the pain will be in the past, that moment I have been waiting for, is approaching very fast.

For the trump of God will sound from heaven, and I will be lifted high, no matter what anyone thinks of me, this man is going to cry.

[Gerald Bergeron © 2010]

From the Book:
A Touch of Heaven, A Savior's Heart

1 Timothy 1:15 ... This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 ...  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Revelation 21:4 ... And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. ❤