Keep the door open, Lord. I’m coming.

00-Stephen-Cover-Kindle-ThumbnailAh, how I praise you, Lord Almighty.  Your grace flows from your throne on high to me in my finiteness.  You are my heart. You are my soul. You are my being and I worship you. You created me and, like a pet who retrieves what belongs to its master, I retrieve the soul you sent to me on earth and run to return it to my master. You send me out to fetch other souls for you and I do my best to bring them back to their Maker.  It is my delight to return to you. I see your smile. I see your open arms. I see your love.

How I long to go home.  You have made it so easy: Just close my eyes here and open them in your throne room.  Sometimes life is hard. I am not complaining; I know you give me my assignments. But sometimes I want to rest. I thank you for my temporary times of rest here and a forever rest in your heaven. Thank you for opening your door to me. Someday I will walk through that door and enter the home you have prepared for me. Keep the door open, Lord. Keep it open for me. I’m coming home. I’m coming.

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I pen my thoughts to touch souls. Will you help me tell people about today’s book?          https://bit.ly/2XBFXvJ

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00-Stephen-Cover-Kindle-ThumbnailSTEPHEN: UNLIKELY MARTYR  is biblical historical novel #7 in the INTREPID MEN OF GOD series.  The story begin with his best friend being crucified for pranks both 17-year-old boys had played on the city goddess.  Now he and his parents are on the run.  Stephen is a coward. For the next nine years he matures.  Finally, he  was a deacon with wife and children and a promising future.  So young, how could he give it all up?  To BUY NOW, click a book cover to paste this………. https://bit.ly/2XBFXvJ

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Let justice roll on like a river

Supper-Front Cover-ThumbnailThe scripture for today, May 24 (5/24), is Amos 5:24 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.”

 When individuals of a nation begin taking advantage of each other, the nation loses its standard of justice. Eventually, nations fall because of it ~ maybe not right away, but eventually.

Although acting justly may decrease people’s income or status or power, that nation will roll on and on like a river.

Injustice is not impersonal. Injustice begins with you. One person at a time until Eventually, an entire nation reduces itself to a river, then a spring, then nothing.  Drought.  It falls.

On the other hand, justice also begins with you. One person at a time, and  your nation rolls on and on like a river.

What are you doing for your nation?

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I pen my thoughts to encourage souls.  Will you help me spread the word about this book?          https://bit.ly/2ZvCTDS

 

Supper-Front Cover-ThumbnailTHE LORD’S SUPPER: 52 READINGS WITH PRAYERS.  For public leading of the Lord’s Supper or private meditation during the Lord’s Supper.  A scripture and prayer for each Sunday.  To BUY NOW click a book cover or paste this……….  https://bit.ly/2ZvCTDS

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Your glimmering smile

00-Cover-ThumbnailMighty God, I am so small and puny. You are so large and great. Yet, you love me. I am so sinful, you are so perfect. Still you love me. I am so self-serving, you are so others-serving. I continue to be undeserving. You continue to love anyway. In my self-will and thinking that I know more than you, I continue to run from your goodness. You continue to run after me, calling out, “Return to me. You’ll be safe with me..”  Such love overwhelms me. I fall at your feet and feel your warmth and smile as you lean low and kiss my cheek.

Father, I do not know how to search my heart nor to let go of my sins.  I have such a hard time even identifying my sins.  I don’t think I’m so bad, but know deep down I have exchanged “not so bad” for “sin”. I listen to Satan’s whisperings and he makes everything so right ~ things that are really so wrong.  Give me your eyes so I may truly see. 

Ah, my Lord, I look out my window at the sky turning from morning gray to violet and to orange before bursting forth upon this earth and greeting us with your glimmering smile. Your smile is so bright, my eyes cannot stand to look directly at it.  But I know that eternal smile of yours is there.  For, whenever you smile, my day grows warm.  I look further out my window now and see the flowers so bright and proud perking up after their own night of rest. Red, yellow, blue, white, green. Spring.  With your smile, it is always spring. Oh, listen. The birds are awakening and are joining you in song.  How delightful it must have been for you to create this world you put me in.  Everything perfect for your children. Thank you for your smile.

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Only fools complain

10-Daniel-KindleThumnailI praise you, because you are the Creator of all I see and sense and even that which is too small or too far away for me to know. When I look up in the sky and see more stars than can be counted and know I am just a spec in it all, I am overwhelmed with your largeness, your greatness, your magnitude. Yet, I am not too small for you to see and my voice is not too weak for you to hear. How I long to be with you where you are.

Help me not complain. Only a fool complains. When things do not go my way, help me realize what is happening is your will. Remind me always that I have enough.

Thank you for the new dawn with all the possibilities that lie ahead for me. Refocus my energies to reach out to others as your ambassador.  Thank you for  these glorious spring days that you have given me to clear away the cobwebs accumulated during the winter’s rest. Springtime awakens in me a desire to plant my garden, to walk along lazy paths, to watch the birds find the perfect spot and build their cozy nests. Thank you for springtime.

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10-Daniel-KindleThumnailDANIEL is storybook 10 in A CHILD’S BIBLE HEROES series.  He did not want to leave Jerusalem and become a slave in Babylon.  But he did not complain and eventually became prime minister.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this……….  https://amzn.to/3cOasor

 

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Ah, my heart is about to burst.

3 Great Kings Kindle-ThumbnailHow can I praise you, Lord, to the degree you deserve? I cannot. How I wish I could. May the stars sing praises to you. May the waters declare you water of life. May the earth bring forth early buds of spring to remind the world you are the life-giver, you are life. May the frisky animals of spring growl and squeak and chatter and bark and flutter as they daily proclaim you as their Maker.

Ah, my heart is about to burst. You, God of glory, are a friend to all who seek you.  You fill my loneliness, wipe away my tears, hold me, smile with me, laugh with me. Then I am not lonely anymore. You are the Ultimate Friend. You never desert me no matter how rough things get. You are my life. When I leave you, you wait for me to return and finally run after me to bring me back to yourself. You have never left my side over all these years unless it was I who ran away.  Even through the times I could not see you or feel you or touch you, you were there all along. Your loyalty is too great for me to deserve. It is backward. It is I who should be forever loyal to you. You are my forever Friend. Thank you.

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I pen my thoughts and stories to touch souls. Will you help me tell people about today’s book?          https://amzn.to/2LEk6hC

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3 Great Kings Kindle-Thumbnail3 GREAT KINGS is book 8 in A CHILD’S BIBLE HEROES series.  Saul was a great warrior until late in life; David was a great poet, Solomon was a great wise man. Together, each did their part to make the new kingdom of Israel great.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this………. https://amzn.to/2LEk6hC

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Your glory gilds my songs

Supper-Front Cover-ThumbnailYour glory gilds my songs of praise to you. You send out majestic beams of heavenly rays on all people, great and small. You brighten my day and enlighten the world around me. You give and expect nothing in return except love. Love begins as a spark and grows in glory the nearer it is to you. You give my soul wings, and I soar to you.

Your blood, oh God. Your blood slipped out of your body that day so long, long ago. That which ensures life was taken out of you in order to provide life for a lifeless world held captive by Satan. Blood ransom. Satan’s price was high.  Too high. No one could pay it. So, you materialized and offered your own flesh in my place. You offered your own blood in my place. You offered your life in my place. How can I thank you for freeing my soul from Satan? Unworthy, I rush to you, fall at your feet in eternal gratitude, and worship you.

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I pen my thoughts and stories to touch souls. Will you help me tell people about today’s book?        https://amzn.to/2Z9nPeT

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Supper-Front Cover-ThumbnailTHE LORD’S SUPPER: 52 READINGS WITH PRAYERS is perfect for either public or private meditation each week during the Lord’s Supper. To BUY NOW,  click a book cover or paste this……….  https://amzn.to/2Z9nPeT

 

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The coward slinked away

05-Joseph-KindleThumbnailAh, my Lord, You are the only God and you are glorious. You are powerful in love, in justice, in mercy. You are life and must ever be creating life. Woe to those who kill, for they are fighting you.  Those who lie dare to deny you. Those who boost their will over yours are siding with Satan who desires to be over you.  Ah, my Lord God, I adore you and fall at your feet.  You are beyond understanding and fill my heart with the unspeakable joy of seeing you face to face some day.

Help me see myself as others do and as you do. Open my eyes to the real me. Make me go through things that reveal to me the stuff I am truly made of.

Thank you, Lord, for providing Words in writing so I know what and who my God is and how you react to people like me. You love me so and never stop thinking about me. Lord Jesus, thank you for being willing to go backward ~ leaving heaven to dwell on earth as one of us, resisting all the temptations of Satan. You went backward so I could go forward ~ leaving earth to dwell in heaven. You risked it all for me. What if Satan had succeeded? But you stood strong, head-to-head against him, refusing to obey him, side with him, or even to give you what he dared think you wanted ~ his kingdoms. They were not his to give. They were already yours. The coward slinked away in your mighty presence.

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05-Joseph-KindleThumbnailJOSEPH is storybook in the series A CHILD’S BIBLE HEROES.  Everything and everyone in life were against him but his feeble father.  He was thirty years old before the world saw him as a great man worthy to lead the nation of Egypt. To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this……….https://amzn.to/35ZOf44

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Christians during plague of 3rd Century AD

At the first onset of the disease, they [pagans] pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treating unburied corpses as dirt, hoping thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease; but do what they might, they found it difficult to escape.

Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains. Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead. 

~ Dionysius of Alexandria

There is nothing remarkable in cherishing merely our own people with the due attentions of love, but that one might become perfect, he who should do something more than heathen men or publicans; overcoming evil with good, and practicing a merciful kindness like that of God, he should love his enemies as well…Thus the good was done to all men, not merely to the household of faith. 

By the terrors of mortality and of the times, lukewarm men are heartened, the listless nerved, the sluggish awakened; deserters are compelled to return; heathens brought to believe; the congregation of established believers is called to rest; fresh and numerous champions are banded in heartier strength for the conflict, and having come into warfare in the season of death, will fight without fear of death, when the battle comes. 

~ Cyprian of Carthage

Then, look up!

The scripture for today, May 13 (5/13), is 1st John 5:13f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

04-Isaac&Jacob-KindleMedium“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”

 Ah, to know you have eternal life.  It’s easy to say. “I’m so happy because I have eternal life.”  But do you really believe it?

I hear Christians everywhere lament their death.  “Whew, I could have died in that car crash” “Oh, no, I just took the wrong medicine, and it will kill me.”  “Hurry, get me to the hospital before I die!”

Yes, life here is precious. But it is only the bud of the flower, the spark of the fire, the whisper of the song. Our life here is like living in a dark cave. 

Why would a truly believing Christian fear walking through that marvelous door where Jesus himself awaits their arrival?

True, part of looking forward to heaven is knowing what it looks like. Revelation gives you a hint, but it is symbolic. Cling to what you know. Rush to the door leading out of the cave in anticipation for the world you were always meant to live in.

Some people say, “But I want to be here to watch my children or grandchildren grow up.’ What then? To watch them graduate and get a job and start having babies? What then? When does it end?

Stop right now.   Take a deep breath. Ask God to forgive your doubts and selfishness and putting things and people before him. Then look up. Look up! He is there waiting for you. His hands are reaching out to you. Those hands that were nailed to the cross for you. His hands that are now full of healing and tenderness and glory just for you.

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I pen my thoughts to inspire souls. Will you help me spread the word?    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077MTB94S/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i55

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04-Isaac&Jacob-KindleThumbnailISAAC & JACOB is storybook #4 in the series, A CHILD’S BIBLE HEROES.  They are the son and grandson of Abraham.  Jacob makes lots of bad mistakes, but God turns into good and mighty.  THINK & DO at the end of each chapter.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover.

 

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The twinkle in God’s eye

02-Noah-KindleThumbnailIt is spring. Little by little the flowers are blooming and showing a little more of your glory. Some will fade and rest until this time next year when they will return. Some will become fruit and nourish me with zest and delight, just like you nourish my heart. It is spring. Raindrops soften the earth, breezes waft and tease, the sun shares its warm rays while declaring you are the light of the world. What a wonderful, beautiful God you are!

Thank you for the seasons, each with their own gifts. Purifying winter with gentle snows, awakening spring with all its rebirths. Hazy summer when nature plays games with the world. Cozy autumn to say goodnight until another promised awakening. Thank you for the delightful earth you made for me. How much fun it must have been for you make! I can see the twinkle in your eye, the flicking of your wrist, the hum on your lips, the coo of a dove tantalizes your ears, the sunshine in your heart.

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I write to encourage souls.  Will you help me share today’s book with someone?         

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02-Noah-KindleThumbnailNOAH is book two in the series, A CHILD’S BIBLE HEROES.  He and his family stood alone while the rest of the world made fun of them.  “Think & Do” at the end of each chapter.  To BUY NOW, click a book cover.

 

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