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Morning Devotional...


There are some people only God can love!
by Iain Mackenzie


"And now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."
1 Corinthians 13:13



When meeting friends is it easy to view them in love. There are those however who seem to do everything in their power to put these words to the test!

There are some people only God can love!

You cannot force yourself to love someone, but you can try your best to see the good in them. If, having tried to love them as best you can, and they continue to offend and insult then they are best left alone.

It is not wrong to distance yourself from people who treat you with disdain. Just walk away and don't look back. They will be the losers in the end.

Never stop praying for them though!

Often over the years I have heard the brethren pray for 'an increase of faith,' 'for their hope to be strengthened,' 'for a lively witness' and for 'the church to be revived.' Fine petitions indeed, yet it is few that I have heard praying for love to be the dominant grace in their soul. Seldom have I heard a petition for an enemy!

I have a lovely friend here in Stornoway and she reads this chapter every day of her life. Her life reflects what she reads!

Many in life have had to ask the question, 'where were my friends when I needed them most?' We may have many 'fair-weather' friends. Those who stick by us when things are going well with us, but true friends will be there when things are not going so well. I have a few really close friends in various different countries and I am convinced that they have been – as it were – 'hand-picked' by God.

I have learned much over these past three years about those I had considered to be my friends. When I truly needed help and support they were nowhere to be seen!

'I love you!'

Three small words that we all love to hear addressed to ourselves. These words may be uttered without real meaning behind them and that is just deception. Is there any greater comfort to the human being than to know that somewhere, somebody in this world cares and loves them?

The more that we learn about Jesus and the closer we become in our personal relationship with Him, the more we are aware of the greatness of His love for us. We have perhaps many friends who we may feel would warrant such love. If I were to live for two eternities I doubt if I will ever grasp Christ's sacrificial love for ME!

There are days when just the thought, 'He chose 'ME'' makes me shake my head in awe and wonder.

Why ME? Why would the God of Glory veil Himself in human flesh and die as a criminal for a wretch like ME? How can this God, this Holy God keep on loving ME when I continually sin against Him every day?

Does His love for ME diminish as I continue to sin? Does His love grow cold as I let Him down each day? Does He turn His back on ME when things go wrong? Does He ever fail ME when I fail Him? Does He stop His ears as I pray to Him for mercy?

Hitherto the Lord has helped ME!

Would it not have been better had He chosen someone that would serve Him better? Someone more intelligent, more sincere, more devoted. Someone that was good, upright, honest, pure! Wonder of wonders, my friend He chose ME! Can you say that? I truly hope so.

Just for today, let us love our enemies as the Lord asks us to do. Just for today let us say 'I love you' to those that we love. Just for today, let our lives be different. Just for today let love reign in our souls.

One of the greatest regrets that I have in my life is that I was not able to tell my Dad just how much I loved him. I longed to tell him, even on his bed of sickness yet he slipped into unconsciousness before I dared to spit the words out! I have regretted my weakness ever since.

The more we are aware of Christ's love for us, then I believe the more of that same love will we be able to reflect in our daily walk. Let us yearn to know Him better. May we plead for His love to be shed abroad in our hearts and may we in turn display that love to our fellow man.

Love is truly an amazing grace. It will continue when hope and faith have fainted by the wayside. Let us be remembered for displaying this love in our lives. It is a gift of God. Ask and you shall receive.

Love rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Cast down today? In despair? It will be this same love that will carry you through. Listen to the words of our Saviour as He addresses our souls. 'I have loved YOU with an everlasting love.'
Do you love Me?

LOL

Your brother in Christ

Iain

This is a wonderful message that spoke to me on many levels.  Certainly loving the unlikable is a challenge, especially when we consider "love" as that which we share with family and close friends.  But showing God's love to them is easier, yet still doesn't come as readily as we often wish.  Certainly this is an area I have long struggled with (and continue to), but believe Christ has been helping me grow in this respect.

When I consider the true friends that He has placed in our lives, I am nothing short of amazed.  When a lightning-caused wildfire destroyed our home and virtually everything we owned in 2012, we learned so much about resting in Christ and allowing Him to lead us.  Many people provided so much for us while we regrouped and determined our next steps.  The community we relocated to was 34 miles closer to our church and our church family.  While there were a variety of reasons this location made sense, there were also a number of things about it that we were wary about - mostly out of concern for our lack of privacy, because at heart my wife and I tend to be hermits.  What we didn't know was that God had maneuvered us into a spot where our Christian brothers and sisters would surround, support and mourn with us when our daughter died last November.  And the people who were (and are) there for us were not necessarily the folks I would have expected to be there for us at a time like that.  Beyond our church family, the company I work for was restructuring our business (not a bankruptcy thing, just trying to build a more sensible business model) and I got a new boss and several new teammates that I really didn't know anything about.  But I soon found out that several of them are very strong in their Christian walk, and they have been holding us up in prayer and support all these months.  These people have modeled Christ's love in amazing ways, and I am sure that there have been times when I haven't been very likable or even lovable to them, especially to those who never had even met me or my family.

Only through the awesome grace and mercy of Christ has this happened.  Certainly nothing I have done has made me deserving of these riches, and I continue to marvel that He did indeed choose me, despite all the reasons I give Him to give up on me.  Christ loves me when I am sure He often finds me unlikable.  But His love remains steadfast.

So thank you, Pat, for this devotion which has caused me to reflect upon so much for which I thankful, but also this serves as a reminder to me of how Christ wants me to respond in love to my friends and enemies alike.

It is well,
Ken

Hi everyone.  The morning is sunny but it will be close to 90 degrees today with a good possibility of rain several times during the day.  I decided to turn off the sprinkler system, which would have watered the yard this morning, and hope that the rain materializes. Two activities on schedule for today.  Pat and I have dental appointment for our six-month cleanings and will also meet a new dentist.  This evening the is the last Methodist Men's meeting until September.  I am looking forward to it and this will be my second time to attend.  There will be a good steak dinner and then a speaker.

Ruth Ann, sure hope your back is feeling better today. 

Janet, sounds like you and Beth had a memorable experience at the graduation reception.  That blessing that Beth received for the little 11 year old is very special.  She obviously saw Beth's true beauty.  That would have brought tears to my eyes as well.  If I remember correctly, the care home my folks lived in Iowa had a buzzer and there was a security camera and if the person at the nurses station recognized you they had a button they could push so someone didn't have to let you in.  Is Beth's chair a powered one or do you have to provide the power to move it.  I think I know what the chair may look like as many of the patients at the spinal center had to use such chairs.

Carol, I hope the Bible study works out for you all.  One of the things I really like here is the fact there are no traffic jams.  I am still in amazement after many years of dealing with traffic in the Atlanta area and the suburbs. 

Pat, thanks for sharing the devotional thoughts that Iain has written.  We are indeed blessed when we have good friends who accept us as we are and are there for us in times of need.  I am trying not to lose touch with some very dear friends we had where we lived for so long but it is often difficult at a distance but worth the effort.  When Stacey passed away 15 months ago we were surrounded by our friends and their presence (not their words) is what I will never forget.  I believe God loves us not because we are lovable but because we are all his children. 

Ken, thanks for sharing your thoughts on friends and your own not long ago experiences. 

Pat, thank you for the great devotional this morning from Iain.  And then having it followed by Ken's testimony really got my day/week off to a beautiful start. 

I love the way Iain personalizes his devotionals. The mean so much more that way. Thanks Pat for posting this. We have a wonderful church family and the pastor always speaks of "our family" .  He is in his 80's but your wouldn't know it by how active he is and how he is out in the community blessing others every day. Hospital, nursing home, home visits, it seems like he is everywhere he even fixes cars for people from time to time.  His wife is Keith's secretary,she told him the laser printer at the office needed replacing and there he was one day showing up at Keith's office with new toner that he bought on eBay, he installed before he left.

I've been to the Chiropractor again this morning,  Still having some pain.

Wonderful devotional from Iain today.  I miss his posts!  And Ken, thank you for sharing, as you are an inspiration to me.

I will make this short, as Curtis is on his way, and he is bringing Chelsea to have her first overnight say with g-grandma!  That child is such a joy! 

It is cool, cloudy and windy here today.  I like the first two.

I called Curt this morning on my cell, and got a friend in Pratt, who lived here for many years.  They say you can tell a small town when you get a wrong number and talk for an hour!  That's exactly what happened. 

I shall return!

Hi everyone on another beautiful morning.  Have an easy day planned today.  I will go to coffee with my retired men friends at 10 am and perhaps Pat and I will go out for lunch at Panda Express, which she really likes.  The yard people are here this morning, early as usual.  The lawn sprinkler man said he may be able to come by this morning to check out our sprinkler system.  While I am downtown I will stop by my son's house and pick up the laptop he is not using and set it up like I want it to use in the  evenings. 

We did see the dental hygienist and dentist yesterday.  Neither of us are happy with the hygienist will use someone else next time.  The dentist seemed to be OK and I will be seeing him a week from Thursday to start another crown and have a filling done on the tooth next to the new crown location.  I had a very nice time at the Methodist Men's meeting and enjoyed a nice steak dinner and then we had a fine speaker on Leadership.  He is a full time dentist and a Methodist minister, who had served our church in the past and now is a supply pastor at another local Methodist church. 

Marilyn, your minister sounds like a very fine man who leads not only with his words but his actions.  Sure hope your pain has lessened.

Janet, your excitement at having Chelsea spending the time with you reminds me of past postings from you when you would get to spend quality time with Abby. 

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God is so good!  All the time!  Sunday, I noticed Jeff had a large bandaid on his head.  I asked about it and he said he had fallen at the car wash on Saturday.  He was on the 7th step of an 8 ft. ladder and fell off, onto concrete!  He said he had a wrench in his pocket and felt it left a permanent imprint on his bum.  He twisted one knee, too, but was able to get up and walk.  Then he felt moisture running down his neck, put a hand up and it came away full of blood!  He had cut his head, but has no memory of hitting his head, nor does he know what he might have cut it on.   His cap never even fell off his head! Our God is so faithful!  I pray His protection over my family every day, and this is more evidence of his faithfulness in answering prayer.  (Jeff is our son-in-law, Curtis' Mark's and Abby's dad.)  Thank You, God, thank you!! 

Yes, Larry, I enjoyed Abby so much when she was small and would come to spend time with me.  Also the boys; and I hope the memories we made are even half as precious to them as they are to me!  Special times, for sure!  Lexi is excited that she will get to come spend some one-on-one time with me.  She is artistic, and we will work on things she can enter in their Fair this summer!

It's raining again!  WOW!  And the weatherman says it will continue until midnight!  And also predicted from Friday through Sunday, which is the big All-School reunion!  I hope it doesn't dampen the enthusiasm of the attendees!

Darrel says the oatmeal is ready, so I will go eat some! [/b]

Hi everyone.  I see it was another pretty quiet day here in "Thoughts".  We didn't have any rain yesterday and none in the forecast until next Tuesday so I will be watering tomorrow.  Had a nice day yesterday with going to coffee with the retired men, working on the laptop I picked up from my son and then Pat and I went to Panda Express for our evening meal.  She liked the vegetables she gets there and the Orange Chicken was also good with the fried rice.  Today she has a doctor's appointment at 1 pm and then this is the evening for the meal and Bible Study at the church.  I will do some more tweaking on the laptop.

It sounds like Jeff was very fortunate in that bad fall from the ladder.  It is very risky when there is a head injury and sure hope he is OK and will stay off that 7th step of the ladder as when you get that far up there really isn't much to hold on to.  Glad you are getting that much needed rain.   

Thanks, Larry!  And thank you for being so faithful in posting here.  It's like getting a note every day from a good friend--which I guess it really is! 

Hi everyone.  It is going to be another warm day.  Pat and I are going to go to the church this morning and attend a weekly meeting the pastor has discussing the upcoming sermon topic.  The meeting is called "The Wisdom of the Ages" (that's Ages and not Aged).  Then we will pick up our DIL and take her to lunch with us and then Pat will take her for a doctor's appointment at 2 pm.  We are both going to drive so I will come home and rest after lunch rather than sit in a doctor's waiting room. 

Janet, I am happy to post here each day.  I know it is discouraging to come to a website and see that you were the last one to post as it seems like posting to yourself.  I hope we are good friends as that is certainly my feeling with all that visit this and the other two sites I post on each day.  I usually don't try to write separate posting on each site but just copy and paste from here, which I usually visit first, and then go to the other two sites. 

Good morning we just dropped my car off at the shop to be repaired. Ihope it won't cost  a lot to be fixed. I know it won't be very cheap but I am not willing to lose and arm and a leg over it.

It's lightly raining here today.

The sun is trying valiantly to peek out today, but not too successful thus far.  We went to the gym, then home for breakfast, I watched the two Christian programs I like, and have showered and changed, now it's nearly time for lunch.  That must be why I don't seem to get much else done, you think?   

Larry, I feel the same way about the people here that we have gotten to know each other quite well over the years, and I consider all of you friends.

I see Hillary Clinton says that Christians need to have their beliefs changed, that we are not to be allowed to stand in the way of partial birth abortion, illegal immigration or anything else she wants to ram down our throats.  Oh, God!  Give us godly leaders in these last days!

Time to wake Darrel up from his little nap in his chair and go to lunch!

Don has been in Fort Collins having coffee and a lunch with two friends so he will be in heavy traffic on the way home.  Saturday is our granddaughter's graduation and since our daughter has six unexpected people coming (extras) I am going to bring at least two salads.  The nerve of her in-laws inviting their company!  Oh, well - we shall just adjust.  Too bad the weather is so wet most will be inside the house unless that changes.

My sewing machine has been giving me fits for two afternoons so tomorrow will be a full tear apart clean and oil as nothing I do has helped so far.  Yesterday was wonderful with 13 of us from church were invited to one house where the hostess has such a big dining room that the table would have sat even more.  Fun & fellowship. 

Iain:  Thanks so much for your thoughtful message.  We are watching some horrific happenings in this world and our faith tells us to pray for them.  Very difficult.

  One church missionary is home from Indonesia - there is pressure on Christians in many countries. 

Larry:  The Bible Study on Sunday morning is all about bible history and Don would rather have a sermon.  Going to both would make the time there over 3 hours and he isn't willing to do that anymore - his hearing is even deteriorating I suspect.  So, we haven't made up our minds yet. 

Hi everyone.  It is going to be another rainless day and get up to about 81 degrees this afternoon.  Pat and I enjoyed the new group (for us) at church yesterday.  We then picked up our DIL and went to the favorite Mexican restaurant in North Augusta.  Pat and I both drove and after lunch she took our DIL to her doctor's appointment and I came on home and rested for a couple of hours. 

Late yesterday afternoon Pat told me her downstairs laptop computer wasn't working.  I checked the power supply and it was ok as it is interchangeable with the one on my laptop.  That wasn't the problem and there are no lights showing on the computer.  So today I will take it to Office Depot or another computer repair place I know of to have it checked out and see if it is worth fixing and if not we will be looking for a new one as she spends many hours on it.  I also want to get to Walmart for a few items early this morning and hope to get to coffee with the men.  So it will be a busy morning. I try to reserve my afternoons for rest and taking it easy if possible.   

Marilyn, always a nervous time when we have to take a car in for repair.  Is this the same car you got while you lived in California?  If so it has really given you good service.

Janet, it sounds like you get done what is important to you such as watching the two Christian programs.  You have to wonder where any political person thinks they have the superior wisdom to tell other people what they should think in terms of their Christian beliefs.  That is arrogance to the max. 

Carol, glad Don could enjoy special time with his two friends.  I know the joy of such get gatherings and those are special times when we can be with friends over a meal.  Pat's sewing machine is now working like a charm and she is whipping out the pot holders that she committed to make although the time is running out and she still have quite a few to go to get to the 100 they want.  Wow, it would take a really big table to seat 13 people but nice you could all be around the same table and see each other.  I find church history very interesting but I know that isn't everyone's cup of tea. 

41 degrees F here in the north. cold and damp, however that is normal for us, things should warm up by June.

Kassie is staying with us for another month and a half, then she should be done her course.  I am proud of the young lady she is becoming, just praying for her spiritual life.

I am not online much, just thought I would check in.

I just wrote a post, but it wouldn't post (webpage not available, it said) then it went "poof".  Maybe I will have time to try again later. 

Hi everyone on the beginning of a beautiful Holiday weekend here in South Carolina.  I am going to try to have a laid back and peaceful day and stay home as well.  Yesterday turned out to be a very busy day and I left home at 9 am and didn't get back until almost 4 pm. 

I did take Pat's laptop in and had it checked out.  They agreed with me it was dead and it would cost $300 for them to rework it.  That certainly would not be a good investment so I will be getting a new computer shortly. 

I spent over an hour at coffee with the men and then Pat picked me up and we went across the Savannah River to an old church where there was something she wanted to attend.  This church sits on the banks of the river and I was able to get to the little park next to the church and wait for about 90 minutes on a shaded bench.  During that time I was able to make a new friend, a man who walked by and we struck up a discussion which showed we had a lot in common.  We exchanged telephone numbers and I expect to see him from time to time. 

I think I am going to have to reinstall the Windows 7 software on the computer my son gave me so I can get a fresh start.  I am having a few problems with it and I may start that project today.  That will keep me busy for awhile. 

Judy, good to see your posting.  Nice to see that Kassie is about done with her course of study and you are enjoying having her staying with you.

Janet, sorry about that lost post.  If that problem happens again hit the back arrow on your browser as often that goes back to the page you tried to post.  You can then copy and save your posting or I often just try again and it often goes through the next time. 

It hardly seems like the end of May here, but the coming week should bring temperatures six to eight degrees above average instead of eight to ten below.  Even without opening any windows, it's been cold enough for the furnace to start yesterday and today.  Oh well, it probably won't be long before I'll be complaining about the heat and humidity.   

Hi everyone on another beautiful morning.  We are to get up to about 88 this afternoon.  The big activity of the day is that we are going to be joining the Grace United Methodist Church at the 11 am service.  We will then have lunch somewhere, come home and rest for awhile and then resume getting the laptop back up to speed with all of the programs that Pat likes.  I have already started this morning with more Windows updates.  I made good progress on it yesterday and should be able to finish it up this afternoon.

Jeanne, I agree with you on how fast May has passed.  However, we have had plenty of warm days this month, most in the 80s. 

Time to start a new "Thoughts".

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