Is that what you really want?

Pearls Cover-Palms-300dpi-ThumbnailThe scripture for today, April 25 (4/25), is Proverbs 4:25 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.”

There are a lot of interesting and fun distractions in life, so we have to remind ourselves over and over what is most important to us. We have only so much time in a day and in a lifetime. We can run back and forth from one side road to another; one fun thing to another, one power thing to another, one great–looking thing to another.

Before we know it, we have been on that side road a long time. Too long actually.  We can barely see the main road we were on before. And God? He is now so far away. How can that be?  We were always told God would always be there for us.

But God pretty much treats us the way we treat him. If we don’t like being around him, he doesn’t much like being

around us. If we don’t like listening to his word (the Bible), he doesn’t much like listening to our word (prayer). If we don’t like to spend special time with him, he doesn’t much like to spend special time with us. God gives us the same courtesy we give him. God will not force himself on us, for he is a Gentleman.

So what do you have in your sights to do today? Next year? The rest of your life? What road are you on? Where is it leading you in the long run? Is that what you really want?

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Pearls Cover-Palms-300dpi-Thumbnail365 PEARLS OF WISDOM: GOD’S SOUL TO YOURS: Provides a daily short saying from the ancient sheik, Job, from King David’s psalms, and from his son King Solomon’s Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. Job lived some thousand years before David and Solomon; yet we see the same wisdom of God shines forth in every millennium of mankind. This is part of the TOUCHING GOD trilogy of daily devotionals. To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this……….https://bit.ly/3epvDgU

  https://inspirationsbykatheryn.wordpress.com/365-pearls-of-wisdom-gods-soul-to-yours/

As old as whose hills?

The Scripture for today, April 24 (4/24), is Jeremiah 4:24 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

00-cover-kindle-medium-new“I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking; all the hills were swaying.”

I was living in a village near the bottom of Mt. St. Helens when it blew.  We had lived there for eight years. We had taken our children up to it and gone sledding, building snow forts, making snow angels, the works. 

It was our mountain. Our beautiful mountain. It reminded me of an upside-down ice-cream cone.  It was perfect in every way.  Everyone knew it was a volcano, but it had formed thousands of years before and would continue like it was for thousands of years in the future. It was our mountain, and it belonged to us to do with as we pleased.

But it wasn’t our mountain.  One morning I looked outside. It seemed as though we had been plunged into the inside of a furnace with all its ashes. I stared. It was snowing gray ash.  I stared more, wondering what the birds had done.  Relieved, I saw them huddled together under bushes.

Of course, the radio and TV had switched to Emergency. We were told to stay indoors because ash is deadly to the lungs. If we did go out, we had to wear surgical masks. If we drove, we were told to put nylons over the air filter and to not go over 10 mph.  Even then, the ash flew everywhere. Our freeway entrance and exit were blocked. The most disturbing thing I heard on the radio (yes, everyone kept their radio on) was that we were at the top of the San Andreas Fault.  And so, we like the birds, huddled and waited for more unknown.

Not only was our mountain turned inside out, but our world was too.

People have expressions that something is “as eternal as the mountains” or “as old as the hills.”  Not true. Nothing on earth is eternal. That also includes things, people, power, position, belongings, even dreams.  Eventually, they quake and sway and are gone. Only that which is spiritual is forever.

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00-Cover-KINDLE-Thumbnail-NewAPPLIED CHRISTIANITY: A HANDBOOK OF 500 GOOD WORKS.  Every possible type of good work is included in this book, along with step-by-step methods. Something for everyone, whether you have 10 minutes a day or 1 hour a day available. Letter writing, benevolence, works for and by the handicapped, newcomers, military personnel, university students, works for Bible school class children to do, crafts, keeping your home, workplace by employee and employer, church office, worldwide missionary work, works for seniors, assisted-living homes, nursing homes, loss of loved ones, telephoning, prayer warriors, prayer partners, home Bible studies, heavenly reward. For individual use, small and large congregations, small towns, big cities, old people, young people, active or paralyzed. There is something everyone can do. To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this: https://bit.ly/APPLIEDCHRISTIANITY 

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Altogether Love

0-REV-Cover-No Logo-KINDLE-lg-thumbnailI lift up my praises to you, the self-existent one.  Both Father of the Son and Son of the Father. The great wellspring, mind, and will of all things. The only life giver to all things. You are all life, all truth, and altogether love. You are so far above me and yet so near. You fill the universe, yet make your home in my heart. Even the stars bow to you in effervescent awe.

Thank you, God almighty, for all you did to save me. So complicated. Yet you stayed on track. You gave mankind a chance to earn and deserve our salvation by giving us the Law of Moses which we just could not to keep perfectly. You let the rest of the world come up with their own god-laws. Nothing worked. We could not be perfect. Then Jesus came and did it for us, for me. You were perfect for me and for everyone. You see me as perfect as Jesus was. Oh, Lord, you are so wonderful and merciful. I do not deserve your presence, but you love me still and stand by me always. And so always I worship you.

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0-REV-Cover-No Logo-KINDLE-lg-thumbnailREVELATION: A LOVE LETTER FROM GOD.  Revelation is not a book of gloom and doom. It is a book of hope. A book of reassurance that, no matter how bad things get in the world, God is still in control and still loves us like light shimmering in the soul. This is a history of the world before Jesus was born, especially the world of the Israelites. Then it moves on to Jesus’ birth, ministry, and death. It ends with the final doom of Satan and the final victory of the church, the heavenly Jerusalem. After all, does not chapter 1, verse 19 state that John was to “write, therefore, what you have seen [past], what is now [present], and what will take place later [future]”? To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this:  https://bit.ly/REVELATION-LOVE   

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You are so good to me

OldOldTunes-mediumAh, my Lord, you are my light for the path I walk.  You are my path through the world I travel.  Your holiness soars through the cosmos and settles at last in my heart.  I can never feel alone when you are near. I can never feel rejected when you carry me. I can never feel deserted when you hold my heart in your arms and sing to me with your spirit.

Thank you, God, for the rain today. It was so gentle and brought with it the promise of more flowers and sweet fragrances to tantalize my senses. What a beautiful world you have made. Even on a battlefield, a daffodil, a crocus, and tulip can spring up and remind the world you are still here. You love me so. You hold me in your great arms as long as I need and whenever I need. You are so good to me.

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OldOldTunes-ThumbnailTHE OLD OLD STORY SET TO OLD OLD TUNES. Forty-four songs for the Old Testament and forty-four songs for the New Testament. This book may be used by teachers or given as gifts to children.  Anyone who knows these common folk tunes will be able to sing the songs immediately. If you do not know any of the tunes, you can find them on the internet.   To BUY NOW click a book cover or paste this:  https://bit.ly/2YwJVHI 

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You will be astounded

Silver Cover-KINDLE-thumbnailThe scripture for today, April 12 (4/12), is Colossians 4:12 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“He is always wrestling in prayer for you.”

Do you have fast-food prayers? Drive in, ask for something for yourself, and drive out two minutes later?

How about trying gourmet prayers ~ where you gather many ingredients, not just one? They take longer but are very special and rewarding.

Your menu is your prayer list. People on your list don’t even have to be people you know personally. They can be from the newspaper, teachers at a local school, government officials, your neighbors, your congregation. List people by name. Pray for them by name.

Then tell these people you are praying for them. You may think you’ll get some strange looks, but mostly, even from the unreligious, you will get a smile and a whispered thank you. Some will actually reply, “No one has ever told me they were praying for me.” After a while, you will begin receiving word from people you are paying for, “Guess what? Your prayer worked.”

Prayer is powerful and wonderful. God loves to answer prayer. It is most wonderful when it centers, not on what you want for yourself, but on struggling in prayer for other people.

One by one, you will begin seeing amazing answers in the lives of those you pray for. Don’t believe it? Give it a try. You will be astounded.

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Silver Cover-KINDLE-thumbnail365 SILVER-WINGED PRAYERS: YOUR SPIRIT TO GOD’S.  This third book in the trilogy, Touching God, is suggested prayers to end your time of devotion.  Pray a little bit for yourself and a whole lot for others. Pray through your congregation’s membership directory, a nearby school’s lists of teachers, administrators, and maintenance staff, stories from your local newspaper, lists of state and federal officials, lists of missionaries, names of your neighbors, etc. To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this:  https://bit.ly/2AeBR4I   

https://inspirationsbykatheryn.wordpress.com/365-silver-winged-prayers-your-spirit-to-gods/

Transcending worlds

Silver Cover-KINDLE-thumbnailYou have made it possible for me to transcend worlds ~ from mine to yours ~ in prayer. You hear me! You actually hear me! How do you do that? Your Spirit touches my spirit. Your mind touches my mind. Your heart touches my heart.  My words arrive safely at your throne just as I uttered them.  I know you are there and hear me. I know because of the evidence you left in the Bible that you exist. Therefore, I praise you with all my spirit, my mind, my heart. Ah, I can hardly wait to enter your world, your heaven, where I will praise you all day.  Glorious day where there will never be night.

Thank you for allowing me to talk to you. You send me answers in your Bible or in changes of circumstances here on earth. If I pray to meet someone who lives far away, you shift things around so that person gets a different job and finds a house in the area where I live. All the shifting of lives you do to answer just one prayer. I do not know how you keep us all straight, but you do. And for that I am eternally grateful.  And in my amazement, I worship you.

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Silver Cover-KINDLE-thumbnail365 SILVER-SINGED PRAYERS: YOUR SPIRIT TO GOD’S.  This second of the trilogy, Touching God, provides a daily short saying from the ancient sheik, Job, from King David’s psalms, and from his son King Solomon’s Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. Job lived some thousand years before David and Solomon; yet we see the same wisdom of God shines forth in every millennium of mankind. To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this:  https://bit.ly/3epvDgU 

https://inspirationsbykatheryn.wordpress.com/365-pearls-of-wisdom-gods-soul-to-yours/

The crown

he scripture for today, April 8 (4/8), is 2nd Timothy 4:8 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-REV-Cover-No Logo-KINDLE-medium“Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day ~ and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

The Apostle Paul was somewhere between sixty and seventy at this writing. He’d been converted probably in his thirties. He’d spent the past forty years telling people how to escape a place they didn’t believe they were going to and disrupting the religion they already had.  

Forty years of tolerating persecution, sometimes hungry and cold and beaten and hated. Forty years of seldom staying in a city longer than a few months, always on the go.  Forty years of never being satisfied with the number of people he had reached with the Good News of their escape from Satan, the Good News of a God who actually loved them, Good News of heaven.

Now he was in prison.

“I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

Oh, that we all could say this at the end of our life.

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0-REV-Cover-No Logo-KINDLE-thumbnailREVELATION: A LOVE LETTER FROM GOD.  This is a history of the world before Jesus was born, especially the world of the Israelites. It is also an account of Jesus birth, ministry, and death. It ends with the final doom of Satan and the final victory of the church, the heavenly Jerusalem. The scriptures always interpret themselves; therefore, the author takes you through each scene with applicable background scriptures to magnify the meaning with unique clearness.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this:  https://bit.ly/36W2CqT 

https://inspirationsbykatheryn.wordpress.com/1107-2/my-book-revelationa-love-letter-from-god/

He’s calling you. Hurry! Open your door!

0-BK 5-FloodGates-Cover-Medium-NewThe scripture for today, March 20 (3/20), is Revelation 3:20 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

”Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”

A couple days ago, we read how the love of Christ is everywhere. But he will not force himself on you. He calls to you and knocks on the door of your heart and mind.

If you have too much noise going on in your life ~ coming and going to work, coming and going to clubs, coming and going to education and training, athletics and hobbies, you cannot hear him. If the radio and television and i-phone and computer and movies and music are blaring all the time with no silence, you cannot hear him.

Stop what you are doing right now. If there is any background noise, turn it off. Sit in silence a moment. Read a scripture about the life of Christ (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John) if you have a Bible, and let him knock on the door of your heart. In such silence, you will be able to hear him.

He’s calling you! Do you hear him? Hurry.  Open your door.

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0-BK 5-FloodGates-Cover-Thumbnail-NewTHEY MET JESUS:  FLOOD GATES.  In three short years, Jesus has turned his world upside down.  His admirers follow him everywhere. His enemies begin plans in earnest to kill him.   To some he seems to be stabbing them in the heart.  To others he is gently knocking on the door of their heart.  But no one is half way in their opinion of him.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this……….https://bit.ly/2XsOXDS

https://inspirationsbykatheryn.wordpress.com/historical-novel-about-jesus/book-5-flood-gates-adults-childs-versions/

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He will stop at nothing to make sure you last forever

The scripture for today, March 10 (3/10), is Colossians 3:10 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-HS-592 VersesExamined-COVER-Thumbnail“And have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”

Did you ever make something with your hands, and it was your pride and joy?  Were you so proud of it that you would stop at nothing to take care of it and make sure it lasted forever? Yes, you had a few rules about its care. You had a few rules about who could touch it and who couldn’t. You had a few rules about whether it should be kept at high or low temperature and should or shouldn’t be exposed to water. You were its creator, and it was, in a sense, a part of you.

Do you resist knowing the Bible because you think of it as being full of rules from a God who doesn’t really like you and is just giving you a hard time so you can’t have any fun?

Think again. He made you. You are his pride and joy. He will stop at nothing to make sure you will last forever. He made a few rules for your daily maintenance.

He is your Creator. He loved you enough to make you, and you are a part of him. Now he wants to take care of you so you can last forever. Can you love him back ~ your Maker and the Lover of your soul?

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0-HS-592 VersesExamined-COVER-ThumbnailTHE HOLY SPIRIT:  592 VERSES EXAMINED.  No feeding on pet peeves. This book considers all verses in the Bible about God’s Holy Spirit.  When studied like that, everything comes together, makes sense, and is beautiful.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this……….https://bit.ly/376695S

https://inspirationsbykatheryn.wordpress.com/1107-2/my-book-the-holy-spirit-in-365-scriptures/?frame-nonce=9f9ac75c8f

Where I can see forever

Pearls Cover-Palms-300dpi-MediumI praise you in the morning when the sun rises with glowing promise. I praise you at noon when everyone stops the bustle of the morning for a moment of respite and taking a deep breath. I praise you in the evening when all becomes quiet again and I rest once more, cozy in my bed knowing you are holding me in your protective arms during the darkness of the night. You are always there. And you make me feel as though I am the only person in the world. You are my dawn, my bright and shining sun, my moonglow.

Yesterday I was talking with some people who said they had met four friends while shopping. I was with them and said, “No, there were five friends.” Why did I do that? What difference did it make? All it did was fluster the person telling about it and confuse the people listening. I got them completely off the subject of chance meetings of friends and into an argument of how many friends we met. Lord, help me not say anything when it doesn’t matter.

Thank you, Lord, for the beauty of my surroundings. Sometimes I am where there are mountains with white snow on top. Sometimes I am in valleys where green trees abound and there is grass to walk on and tickle my toes. Sometimes I am in a wide desert where I can see forever and the sky seems so much larger. How delightful you have made the earth with all its variations teasing and tantalizing me as I travel around your creation like skipping through verses of poetry.

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Pearls Cover-Palms-300dpi-ThumbnailTOUCHING GOD SERIES.  365 PEARLS OF WISDOM: GOD’S SOUL TO YOURS.  Each day you are given one proverb and one passage from Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes or Song of Solomon.  This series also includes daily scripture thoughts and daily prayers.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this……….https://bit.ly/3epvDgU

https://inspirationsbykatheryn.wordpress.com/365-pearls-of-wisdom-gods-soul-to-yours/