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Morning Devotional...



Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Hebrews 7:25


The commanding pilot of a jumbo jet flying cross-country suffered a heart attack and died in flight. Over 300 people on board came to no harm because the co-pilot took over and landed the plane without incident.

However, for eternal salvation, there is one and only "one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5).

Thank God that our Saviour will never die and we are eternally safe in Him.  "Because I live, ye shall live also" (Jn. 14:19).
                                                             --David J. Logan

Hello friends, here I am talking for the next day again!  

Welcome to Ursula, John and Caroleen!  And anyone else I may have missed.  

Pat, you are such a busy lady this week.  I don't know how you do all that driving, I would be worn out.  Thank you for the devotional which I just read. The visit at the dialysis unit must have been hard for you, but maybe healing in its own way, too, helping you get one more step beyond.  

Janet, it's so good to see you back!  Hope your week was productive.

Marilyn, I guess you are counting the days now and not the months anymore!  How exciting for you, new home, new job soon (we hope) and new life.  I really wish you well, and a safe move.  How many miles away is it to Eureka?  

Carol, no I haven't had any esophageal surgery before, just the endoscopies and there have been 7 of those over the years.  Tomorrow morning (today rather) I have to go to the hospital and get a manometry done, which is necessary preceding the surgery.  In prep for that, I had to quit taking the Nexium this week.  My stars, the acid really hits hard when you leave off the meds.  I hope your situation will improve and not have to have surgery done again.  

One of my favorite hymns is "Trust and Obey" and another is "Jesus Paid it All."  

I better get to bed, tomorrow comes pretty soon!
G'Night,  Janice

Pat,
I have only scratched the surface of this site and I cannot tell you how much I enjoy it. My soul was so refreshed reading through Al's devotionas on the Psalms, then a spent the best part of 15mins doing a jigsaw! Well done sis, this is the doing of the Lord and wondrous in our eyes.

Here are some of my thoughts this morning:

'I will arise and go to my Father.' Luke 15:18
For the child of God there is a great deal of shame involved in sin. Much is said of the Prodigal Son, and that passage is interpreted in various ways.
Much is said of the Fathers willingness to receive, and rightly so, but what of the penitent?
I thankfully had a great relationship with my father, we were very close and I hated letting him down. However I often did.
Whenever I confessed my failings to him, he never once raised his voice to me. His eyes used to fill with tears, and I thought then that they were tears of disappointment. This used to break my heart. No words needed to be spoken, no rebuke given!
Perhaps as I look back now they were tears of a fathers tender loving heart. Perhaps he was saddened that all his loving care and instruction over the years was bearing little fruit in his eldest son.
As a parent myself now I can understand this. I long to see my children saved and honouring God. I cannot save them, I wish I could, but the sad fact of the matter is that I couldn't even save myself!
I think of the prodigal returning with a broken heart to his loving father. Open arms await him, yet he is too ashamed to look his father in the eye. He feels ashamed, embarrassed and totally dejected. 'After all the love he has shown me, why Oh why did I have to spoil things and sin against him like I did?'
Take heart dear friend, he may not have been able to look up and see the love in his fathers eyes, yet as he gazed down to the earth he would have seen his fathers loving hand place a ring of reconciliation on his finger!
Only then would he have been able to look his father in the eye.
Have you sinned against your Heavenly Father in a way that has left you feeling ashamed? My friend He awaits your return with open arms. The love that He has for you is greater than the sin that you have sinned against Him.
He has proved that to you by giving freely of His Son as a sacrifice for sin on your behalf. What more can a loving Heavenly Father do?
You have sinned against Him and He has provided the remedy. Honour God today and accept His sacrifice. Accept wholeheartedly His love for you and accept the righteousness purchased for you by Christ.
Only then can you look your loving Heavenly Father in the face and say, 'thank you Father for your love.'
'Thank you Dear Lord for saving a sinner like me.'

P.S. Do you folk still sing 'Amazing Grace' over there as that's what was going through my mind as I was typing this?

I couldn't sleep so got up to read.  

Then I came here and found your morning thoughts, Iain.  What a feast!

Good Morning Again...

I finally got some sleep and have come back and re-read your thoughts, Iain.  Thanks so much for them.

I'm off to London today to have two teeth pulled so won't be around much till much later.

Have a great day everyone!

Good morning to you early ones--Iain, Janice and Pat.  And a later good morning to the rest of you who will pop in later.

Janice, I pray you won't have too much acid flaring up after leaving off the Nexium, and that you will have the best possible result from the upcoming surgery.  It really is amazing what they can do these days!

Thanks for missing me!  I had a wonderful few days painting with a great group of friends and a fantastic instructor.  He is from Amarillo--name is Jack Sorenson, and he is one of the best-selling artists in Santa Fe.  His stuff is in the Joe Wade gallery there, if any of you happen to go to Santa Fe.

I am playing catch up now, and will begin preparing to go to the family reunion coming up on the 14th and 15th.  We will probably go up early to help my sister prepare for it.  It's a big job, and they have been really busy with their siding business.

Oh, Janice, you asked about Beth.  She is still not back to work, seems week and unstable when she walks.  But she is very excited because her friend John is coming in just a few days to visit her.  They have a computer friendship so far, so we will see how it works out in person.  She has never had a boyfriend before, so she is understandably nervous.

I must get some stuff done here!

Hey, Sonja!  How are you doing??

Hi everyone and a big welcome to Caroleen.  This is a great place to quickly make friends and I am so happy to see you joining us.

It is an overcast morning here in Georgia and is suppose to start raining later this afternoon and through the weekend.  Everything is really green down here and our drought is certainly broken.

Iain, your devotional thoughts this morning certainly hit home as we also had a prodigal son who came back home and now we enjoy a fine relationship.  We certainly do sing Amazing Grace fairly often and it is one of my favorite hymns.  Our choir director, who is a soloists witht he Atlanta Symphony Chorus, and it without music some months ago and I don't think there were many dry eyes in the congregation.  

Pat, hope your tooth pulling experience will not be too painful but doubt that you are going to feel up to par for a few days.  At least this is the weekend coming up so maybe you won't have to be as busy.  Take care of yourself and do as the dentist orders.

Janet, nice to see you back posting.  Will we be seeing the results of your lessons soon.  I am glad you were able to train under such a distinguished teacher.  It is wonderful that Beth can look forward to the visit from her cyber friend.  I know of several relationships that have started this way, including my granddaughters.  

Janice, I hope your test today will not be painful and sure feel for you having to experience the acid reflux problem.  Will you be able to resume your medication following this test?

Marilyn, it would certainly be wonderful if your resume's generated employment opportunities that would be awaiting you.  

Jerry, do you have a big shop?  It is nice to have a place to work if you are handy with your hands, which you apparently are.  When I was a youth and in 4-H work I took some wordworking classes from our minister, who was also the industrial arts instructor at the highschool.  Unfotunately it didn't take and I have never been skilled with woodworking.

Jeanne, that would have been embarrassing for you but I bet everyone else really enjoyed the moment.  I am sure I have had some embarrassing moments but just can't think of any at this time.

Good Morning.
Pat: thank you for he devotional this morning.

Iain. Your exhotation on the pordigal son, reminds me of the past I left behind. My mother prayed for me everyday of my life while she was living and this prodigal daughter did not come to truly know the Lord until shortly after she was gone. I think of the lies I told her about how I was living in my life of sin. I know that she knew I was telling her lies. She was such a loving mother, I miss her terribly. Iain, the other her know about my past, Have you read my testimony? I God can and did turn my life aroiund I know he will do it for any and all who truly seek Him with all their hearts.

Janet It is so good to have you back.

Hi Larry you were posting at the same time as me.

I'll will be back later

Good morning,

I've been trying to think what my favourite hymns are, and I can't come up with just a few, there are so many.  Any Easter hymn, just about any Easter hymn.  I also really like "Take My Hand and Lead Me" (which I learned in German a long time ago, "So nimm' den meine Haende", something like that) and was my Confirmation song.

Anyway.  Good morning from Ottawa, it's a beautiful, sunny day.

Ursula

Good day everybody.  

Pat all those years driving school bus prepared you for this time of driving,  I hope you have someone with you for the drive home as pain can reduce defensive driving.  I do know you will have put a few extra seconds between you and the guy in front.  Will be praying for travelling safety.

One if my favourite hymns is

I don't know how to put the music on but the memories surrounding that hymn are enormous.  At the church we grew up in we sang it immediately after Lord's Supper.

Well I have a big day ahead, washing sheets and pillows to destroy the strep germs.

God bless you one and all
Judy

Good morning, Pat, Iain, Larry, Marilyn, Ursula, JudyB, Janet, anyone else aboard right now?  

I had the manometry done, it wasn't so bad.  If you are the sort to gag easily it might be, but I had no problem.  YES!  I can take the Nexium again now!   I am wondering if I will still need it after the surgery?  Hope not.

Janet, how excited Beth must be, her friend coming to visit.  I hope it is a pleasant experience for her, and not too stressful getting ready for it.  (For you, too!)  It must concern you a little bit, sometimes Internet friendships are great, and sometimes not.  I do hope she enjoys the visit, and the friendship flourishes.  God bless her!

Iain, I always like hearing about the Prodigal Son story.  It tells us so much about the love and mercy of the Father, and the turnaround for the prodigal.  

JudyB, I like that hymn too.  We used to sing it quite often in the little church where I mostly grew up, in Arkansas.  

Gotta run, much to do today.
Love in Jesus,  
~Janice

Well, maybe it's about time I spoke up again.  
I always love to read the devotional thoughts from Pat, Iain, Papa John, and Al ... others as well, but these seem to be the main ministers.  

Good morning to Marilyn, Larry, Judy B, Janice, Janet, Ursula, and all those who will slip in here while my back is turned.  

About cyber friendships ... maybe y'all don't know that is how I "met" Nita ... I had been reading her posts in SN for some time, and was so impressed with her love and encouraging words for everyone.  I could tell she was a Christian, and would "follow her around" that forum just to read what she would share.  Finally, I wrote her an email with a question ... sort of testing to see how--or IF--she'd respond.    Well, her response was totally genuine and so full of the love of the Lord, that we bagan a correspondence that grew into a very strong friendship ... all this was long before we ever met "face to face" ... Now I live just across town from her and we still email and IM often, along with phone calls back and forth.  We even manage to get together for visits and/or a meal or just a drive out to the ocean beaches every once in a while ... We are now "bestest friends"    
You don't need to be concerned about cyber friendships if you allow the Lord to guide you and He can "censor" anything that is not in line with His will.

I'll be back d'rectly ... y'all take care now, y'hear?

I'm stopping by the computer for a minute between chores.  My "adopted" and much loved brother, Don, has been making missions trips to Mexico to build small houses for the people, and he takes clothing, too.  So Darrel and I are cleaning closets and drawers and getting lots of stuff for him to take to Mexico on his next trip.  I found quite a few things with tags still on, new and never worn!  I know they will like those!  Sometimes things get buried in the closet or drawers and forgotten, and I figure if I haven't been using them I won't miss them, so might as well bless someone else with them.

About Cyber-friendships---I know there have been some bad things happen, but also many wonderful connections have been made.  John also has NF, so he understands Beth's problems as well as anyone can.  They have been corresponding via computer (with video cams!) and telephone for well over a year now, so I think they know each other pretty well.  John seems to have good morals and a good work ethic, and he is a Christian.  And he even agrees with me politically!  (hee hee!)    Beth pretty well believes everything I do, so they seem to be compatible.  Now, to see how it works out when they are actually face to face!  Please pray that things will go as the Lord desires.  I know everyone needs a special person in their life, and I hope John is the one for Beth.

Back to the sorting!  See you later!

I thought this was good, so I wanted to share it with you.

SAND AND STONE

Two friends were walking through the desert. In a specific point of the
journey, they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in
the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but...without saying
anything, wrote in the sand:

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to
take a bath. The one who got slapped and hurt started drowning, and the
other friend saved him. When he recovered from the fright, he wrote on a
stone:

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.

The friend who saved and slapped his best friend, asked him "Why, after
I hurt you, did you write in the sand, and now you write on a stone?"

The other friend, smiling, replied, "When a friend hurts us, we should
write it down in the sand, where the winds of forgiveness get in charge
of erasing it away, and when something great happens, we should engrave
it in the stone of the memory of the heart, where no wind can erase it."

Learn to write in the sand.

"For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father
will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your
Father will not forgive your sins." Matthew 6:14-15

PRAYER
Gracious and forgiving God, help us this day to become more like you in
our ability to forgive and forget. Amen.

-- Author Unknown

I like that Janet. I will be praying that Beth's friendship with John will be long lasting and beneficial to both of them that is of couse if they have the Lord's blessing. It sounds as if they already have your blessing .hee hee

I have sent off another resume, for Assistant Manager at a storage Facility, Which I have done before and have plenty of experience at doing. That's 3 resumes in 2 days.

Just poppin my head in for a quick hi!  Hopefully will be back with more later.

Hope everyone is having a good day, and planning for an awesoem weekend.

That cute Caroleen, ,

We had sunshine this morning and rain this afternoon.  Both the sunshine and the rain are blessings from God.

Pat, thanks for the devotional this morning.  In Hebrews we see the superiority of Jesus and the gospel over Moses and the law.  Jesus, God's son, as our high priest can do what none of the Levitical priests could do.
Heb 7:25  Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.  (NIV)

Marilyn, we all hope you will be successful in your job applications.  Be patient and don't be discouraged.  

--- Papa John              <)))><<

 

Marilyn, that's right--keep on sending those resumes out, and you will find the right job!

I'm just stopping in to see what's happened in the past two or three hours in here--and the answer is not very much!

I like what you put in, Caroleen!  That's God!

When I read this, I thought it sounded a bit like Sonja's family!  Anyway, a family that knows how to enjoy life!

CAN FAMILY LIFE BE FUN?

A family in the East was planning a month's vacation to
the West Coast. At the last minute, the father's work
responsibilities prevented him from going, but Mom insisted
that she was capable of driving and that she and the kids
would go ahead. Dad got out the maps and planned the route
and where the family should stop each night.

A couple of weeks later, the father completed his extra
work responsibilities. He decided to surprise the family,
so he flew to a West Coast city without calling them. Then
he took a taxi out into the country on a highway that,
according to his travel plan, the family should be
driving on later that day. The taxi driver dropped
him off on the side of the road.

Dad waited there until he saw the family car coming,
then stuck out his thumb as a hitchhiker. As Mom and
the kids drove past, they did a double take. One of
the kids said, "Hey wasn't that Dad?" Mom screeched
to a stop, backed up to the hitchhiker, and the family
had a joyful reunion.

Later, when a newspaper reporter asked the man why he
would do such a crazy thing, he responded, "After I die,
I want my kids to be able to say, 'Dad sure was fun,
wasn't he?'"

--James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited
====================

Larry ~ No I am sorry to say, I don't have a large shop. Last year when I moved my mobile home here to Pendleton, I had a 12x14 shed built and I am using the first 8x12 feet for shop and the back 6x12 for storage. I am going to build a loft to put some of the things that  I don't want to part with, like my Christmas decorations that Bev and I had for some years and any other boxed things. I am going to put shelves in the lower part for bolts, nuts and things I can use to tinker with! I do love to tinker, I spent today converting those touch lights (They are the ones that you push the dome to turn them on/off and operate on AA batteries) over to 12 volt and wired them so I can run them on a power supply. I intend to use them as deck lights on my porch and down my steps.I have my house numbers made into a light so it will be lit up also! I eventually want to put lights in my driveway markers also! I only hope I can keep the kids from destroying all of it for me. I set a cement angel out by my porch steps and it lasted three days before they broke one of the hands off! WOW---- This has gotten long and is probably a lot lore than any of you wanted to know. Etta Sue is always telling me the women don't really care about this kind of thing when I write about it. (VBG)

Janet ~ You said you just popped in to see what was happening, well, I hope you have your lunch with you now. You will need some nourishment to get you through this  

I am praying for a super stupendous night for everyone and may you have blissful sleep and pleasant dreams.

Good evening!  We're having heavy rains in Georgia.

I've read with great interest the posts of Iain and Papa John and enjoyed them very much.

For JudyB. - We still sing "Blest Be the Tie" sometimes and it always brings back memories of when I was a teen and went to our Minister's house for singing hymns and playing fun games after church services for Teen night.

We have 2 sons who have left the church, but say they believe.  The oldest was prodigal for many years, but we are close now and phone one another every day and visit often.

There are so many bible verses that I love and this is one of my favorites:

James 1:5...."If any of the lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  6...But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind."

Hello Everyone!

I've come home from London with a very sore jaw.  They had trouble with one of the teeth as the root had fused to the bone so lots of cutting and banging and...  well, no more details are necessary!  

Nice to read everyone's posts.

I'm going to shut down early tonight.

I may not have a devotional but if I don't, just carry on with today's thread but we'll see how I feel a bit later on.  I've taken some Tylenol 3's to kill the pain.

Talk to you later!

Let's sing!

I am glad you are safely home pat, What an ORDEAL. I am so glad that I have my choppers and don't have to worry about real teeth. LOL
I tis good to read all the posts for today. I sent off another resume and worked on my web site today at work. I've added 3 of Jeannie's paintings to the pictures of Jesus page in another paragraph and a link to her site on my main page as well as with her paintings. I Put one on SN and added one here. She said she has visited here but I don't know if she knows how to register and get logged in.

Be Back Later GAtor

Jerry, no problem reading your post.  I like to hear things like that, and wish we could get many small things and several big ones done around here.  We have good intentions, but then wonder where the time and energy went!

Pat, sorry they had such a time with that tooth of yours!  I am blessed with very good health and very good teeth, and I'm so thankful for it all.  I hope your jaw feels much better in the morning.

Marilyn, you do keep yourself busy, don't you?  I haven't had time yet to check out your friend's page of paintings.

Joan, it's always good to see you here!  I hope you're enjoying a great day, too.

I'm going to bed early tonight, just because!

Hmmm, I came in here to post a halfway intelligent, edifying post, and forgot completely what I was going to say.  
Ugh.
Take care and have a good night everyone!

Pat - Hope you feel better soon . Tomorrow you will probably feel like you're the loser in a prize-fight.  

Larry - I also had a "prodigal son" but in my case it was my youngest daughter.  She has turned her life around (thanks to the Lord) and we are close again.

I love Amazing Grace but for some reason when I play the music for the hymns it's all static.  I have to get my husband to figure out why.

Janet - I will be praying that Beth's meeting turns out well.  She deserves to have someone special in her life.  The computer has brought many people together, including members of my family.

Beverly

Hi Pat!  I see you!

Just popping in to say hi.  Pat, how have you been?  I still wait to get that coffee in with you.  Haven't heard from you in a while.  Hope you're doing alright.  Jen.