The Full Rainbow

     The Full Rainbow

     I am all about descriptive terms.  The adjectives we use give us a fuller picture of people, events, and happenings.  And I love the descriptive terms for my Christ given in Isaiah 9:6b, "And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  To have such a wonderful Father in Heaven who reveals His presence daily is the best gift that can and was given to mankind.
     The author of the Ephesians series on Joy of Living I am currently reading went on to tell in descriptive terms how God is manifest daily in my life.  He is in "all the hues of life - in our golden moments of glory, our green pastures of contentment, our red hours of anger and passion, our blue days of depression, our black days of grief.  His many colors of wisdom are all aspects of His character.  We cannot always see the full rainbow of His wisdom and love toward is, but it is always there."
     My "pot of gold" is truly the grace of God!
     
     

13 Days To Thanksgiving

     When I proposed to give something I am thankful for every day until Thanksgiving,  I never realized how much this would effect my life.  This has been so much more rewarding than "shopping with the countdown to Christmas." 
     Today, I am thankful for the blessings of the seasons.  God made the seasons when he created the earth.  Psalm 104:19  He made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down."  I further believe we will always have seasons although they may not come when expected or issue forth in the same way each year.  Daniel 2:21a "He changes times and seasons;..."   God controls the seasons.  The seasons occur in God's time.  Ecclesiastes 3:1  "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens."
     However, when the seasons do come, there is a purpose.  Acts 14:17 says, "Yet he has not left himself without testimony:  He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy."  Leviticus 26:4 also tell us, "I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit."
     Regardless of when the seasons do come, I am ready for each one.  I enjoy Spring when  daffodils, tulips, and early flowers shoot up from the ground and burst open with color.  I enjoy the spring rains and cool breezes.  In the summer,  I am ready for gardening and enjoying the fruits of my labor.  By the time summer heat runs me inside to cooler temperatures, I am ready for cool fall weather when I can glory in the beauty of colorful leaves.  Then finally,  as I labor to sweep up fallen leaves, I am ready for the chill of winter blowing in with promises of a few snow flakes to cover the barren land.  During all the seasons, I enjoy walks in the wood, wildlife, and nature.  I enjoy sunrises, sunsets, and rainbows.
     In my thankfulness regarding the seasons, I cannot leave out the verse in 2 Timothy 4:2 which tells me to, "Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction."
    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heaven Is For Real

      Lately, my “Friendly Shade” has been getting a lot of rain, and I mean a whole lot of rain!   The ground is saturated, but I am determined not to complain for I know that in just a few weeks the ground could dry up and I will again be wishing and praying for rain. I really hope I am not often caught “wanting what I don’t have and not wanting what I have.”

      You know, when I think about the heavens and all the rain we have been getting, I can’t help but consider that God created and controls the heavens. (Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens…) God owns it all, so why worry about how much or how little the rain falls?   Who am I to question the God who controls all the elements sent from heaven.   ( Deuteronomy 10:14 To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens…)    Actually the Lord “opens the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands….” Deut. 28:12    I can just imagine the humor He gets out of watching and listening to His people as they get excited over the sunshine after a long bough of rain, or the rain shower after long months of dry spells and even the rainbow that shows out as God sets the bow over the land.  

    God's abundant storehouse in heaven is used by Him when needed, often to accomplish a purpose.  When the Israelites demanded food, the Lord told Moses, “I will rain bread from heaven for you….Exodus 16:4) When Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed, it came out of the heavens. (Genesis 19:24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the heavens.) Our dew comes from heaven. (May God give you heaven’s dew… Genesis 27:28) When Noah was instructed to build the Ark, it was because God was about to “bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens.” Genesis 8:2 Afterwards, God set His “bow in the cloud.” Our sun, moon, and stars are set in the heavens. (Deuteronomy 4:19 And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the heavenly array….) It is from heaven that our winds are created. (Jeremiah 49:36 I will bring against Elam the four winds from the four quarters of heaven…) From heaven comes the thunder and lightning. (When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roars; he makes clouds rise from the ends of earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouse. Jeremiah 10:13 ) It was from heaven that a bright light descended upon Saul and blinded him. (Acts 9:3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.) In 2 Kings 1:10 Elijah asked God to send down fire. (“If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!” Then fire fell from heaven” …)

     Even though there is a storehouse in heaven, we are warned not to bow down to any of them. God is the One in control of it all and it is to Him we should bow and worship. (“… do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.”)

     Heaven is God’s throne, and it is the place we should all seek. (Matthew 5:34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne.) (Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
     Truly, “Heaven is for real!”    Although in terms of the distance heaven is from the earth, God is always near and available.  The wonders we have seen and read about are only a glimpse and a tiny taste of what we will experience eternally in heaven.   In the time between now and then God is waiting for us to seek Him daily and to praise Him for the heavenly show of abundance sent to earth.