Grace

 The In Touch devotional today listed four things we receive through God's grace. They are: 

"1. Forgiveness
 2. Peace
 3. The Holy Spirit living within
 4. Accèss to God through prayer"

     I thank God for forgiveness of my sin. By coming to the Father and asking for forgiveness, I am able to be restored and refreshed daily. It helps to take away my guilt. 

     I treasure the uplifting peace God bestows in my heart; His peace calms my soul. 

     How could I ever live and make righteous decisions without the Holy Spirit guiding me every day! He intercedes on my behalf. 

     Access to God is what keeps me going; God is my strength, my assurance, and my hope. I strive to start and end each day with prayer while keeping it on-going throughout the day. Prayer is the way to the renewal of my heart; it is the way to set my eyes toward Jesus.

Dwelling Place

When I was first married, we rented a small apartment, and I dreamed of owning a home. That dream came true with the purchase of a very small, old two-bedroom house on a half-acre tract of land in a country community. After that I dreamed of building a new one. It happened! We were able to build a nice three-bedroom home on a corner lot in the city. Many years later, I worked several years drawing and planning my perfect next home, but it took me five years to find land, a five-acre tract in which to make my next home dream come true. As I enter my late 70’s, I suspect my next home may be a one-bedroom mini dwelling. Whatever the case, it will not be my last home. My next one will be a mansion with streets of gold. Through every move, One treasure has always moved with me.  Psalm 90, verse one tells me, “Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.” God will always be my dwelling place-the perfect home! 

Inconceivable

I am in awe when I stop and look at nature? How God can take a tiny seed planted in the ground and create a tall and stately tree! I am in awe at the wonder of how a tiny seed, nourished within a woman's body, produces an infant who grows into an adult. The wonder of creation and how God amazingly numbered it all and how He controls it all is beyond my scope of comprehension. God is sovereign and rules it all. I am even more awestruck over how a God who is so powerful and mighty can love a lowly person like me and continually want to protect and bless me. 

Inconceivable 

 

I cannot grasp;

I cannot comprehend

God’s greatness.

Yet, He wants me for a friend.  

He measured the waters.

He calculated the dust. 

He marked off the heavens.

And still, He loves me who lusts.

He knows the heights of mountains.

He weighed the hills.

He counted the specks of sand.

His awesomeness chills and thrills!

He knows the number of stars.

He sits above the circle of the earth;

None is His equal.

Even so, in birth, He gave me worth.

I cannot grasp;

I cannot conceive

A love for one who makes Him grieve. 

I cannot scratch the surface 

 Of His love for me,

One He constantly has to oversee. 

I cannot process

How He wishes to bless.

I do not understand 

A God who created the land,

Sitting on high

Loving enough and why 

He sent His only Son for such a one as I;

A Son who came to die.

 

Mary Crisp Jameson  6/29/2023

 

“Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, or with the breadth of His hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as his counselor?” Isaiah 40:12-13

 

 

Breakfast Food

 Dad was raised a farmer, and he always had a garden. I remember as a young child going with him to his parents' to "dig potatoes." Actually he was going to plow the potatoes to the surface and I was to help pick up the potatoes afterwards. Grandmother always kept her leftover breakfast biscuits and bacon in what we called her pie safe. I asked for one after we arrived, and Dad said, "Sure, I never work a hungry horse and I wouldn't want you working hungry either."
     God, also, does not want his children to start the day hungry. That is the reason He provided "food," His Scripture! His Words are our body's sustenance and the spiritual food which provides daily hope. Scripture is Fatherly advice to get us through the daily battles of life. We need to feed on His Word, and let it dwell within us. The more we taste it, the more we want the comfort and hope it provides. 

     "Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly." Colossians 3:15 NIV 

    

Hear Me

Zacchaeus was a wee little man. He was trying to see, so he climbed a sycamore tree. He was a sinner, yet he was focused on seeing Jesus. What then did Jesus do? He took time away from His task at hand to talk to Zacchaeus as he said, “Zacchaeus, you come down. I’m going to your house today.’

     Do we take time for others? Are we focused on Jesus? What does Jesus desire from us?  I believe He wants us to be focused on Him; Hear Him; Love Him. 

 

Hear Me

 

I long to talk, 

Hold your hand, 

Take a little walk

Before the dawn, 

Before you travel on.

Sit a while my child.

Take time with me!

I care so much for thee. 

Listen!

Strive to hear 

Words I softly whisper in your ear. 

Again and again

I come as a Friend 

But am left rejected – neglected.

I have written wisdom, line by line,

But time and time again,

Forgotten lies that book of mine;

Forgotten are my words

Not being mindfully stored;

Forgotten is my Father

As you drift farther and farther.

I plead with thee: 

Hear me!

Seek me! 

Love me!

 

Mary Crisp Jameson  6/26/2023 

 

 

A Great Feast

I am all about good, simple meals; a little meat, something green, and something yellow, and I absolutely love after-dinner desserts.  
     As a food junkie, I was thinking about the garden God created and assigned to Adam and Eve. They had their pick of after-dinner fruity desserts.  

     Then I found that after Jesus rose from the dead, in Luke 24, as He was talking with two of His apostles, "He said unto them, 'Have ye here any meat? And they gave Him a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And He took it, and did eat before them.'" 

     Later in Revelations 3, God said, "...if any man hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup (dine) with him, and he with me." 
     I am stretching the point just a little which is actually all meaningless under the sun unless we have Jesus in our heart and lives, but according to this information, I may still enjoy many great feasts when I get to heaven. 

     I just pray my new body will be lean and trim and my heavenly meals will not cause weight gain. 

Closer to God

 Anyone who has read my blogs know that I like to do acronyms; however, I did not come up with the following. It was published in Baptist Trumpet by Judy Wallace. The title was Closer to God. The acronym was Closer: 

C- Communicate with God
L- Learn to study God's Word
O-Obey God's Word
S-Store God's Word in your heart
E-Evangelize
R-Renew daily

Nothing is more important than staying close to God.