Boojoyful

November 23-24 "A season is about to unfold for three women whose hearts belong to God.  Elizabeth is barren, yet her trust in the Lord remains fertile.  Mary is betrothed in marriage, yet she is willing to hear God's Son.  Anna is a widow full of years, yet she waits patiently, prayerfully for the Messiah to appear in the temple courts.  Following in their footsteps, you too can prepare for the Savior to enter your heart, your mind, and your life in a vibrant, new way this season."  The back cover of Liz Curtis Higgs' book,     The Women of Christmas. Curtis Higgs writes, "Christmas is so much more than a holiday. So much more than buying and wrapping, and cooking and eating, and trimming with tinsel, and mailing out cards. It's a season for reflection, for preparation, for renewal. What better time to put aside our shopping lists and reach for out Bibles, where the story of the Christ child awaits us." I do it every year....promise to slow the p...

November 22 It's 4AM and not being able to sleep I've grabbed my trusty laptop and headed to the living room to hang out with Jesus. My husband, who is finally resting well after struggling to get comfortable from severe back pain and nausea, will eventually awaken and probably say, "Why did you go out there?"  (I usually type away from bed, if I awaken in the middle of the night.) His perspective may be that I was making a sacrifice to venture into the cold living room, but from mine the house is beginning to be decorated with Christmas lights, so it's quite enchanting with all the twinkling, twinkling going on! One of my first decisions was whether to sit on the sofa facing the fire or to look out the window awaiting sunrise. Two totally different perspectives.  The second selection will be from my palette's perspective of whether to delight my tastebuds with hot tea or cocoa. Attending an area Bible study this week, the women were rather fe...

November 21 If we slur the word gratitude  it might come out as Great Attitude! A.W. Tozer wrote, "Gratitude is an offering precious in the sight of God, and it is one that the poorest of us can make and be not poorer, but richer for having made it." While visiting with a dear friend on the phone early one morning, her cell phone alarm sounded.  Every morning it is set to play a song called Thank You Jesus!   Now that helps start the day the right way! Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:34 Give thanks in all circumstances. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

There's a deer lightful party at Shiloh in the afternoons!  Come see us. November 20 Often, I will be about the business of the day and a thought will cross my mind triggering the thought, "That would make a good devotional title."  It happened the other morning, but I didn't write the thought down and only 5 minutes later couldn't remember the clever alliteration, which had come to mind. The lead letter was "H", but the trio of words had left me.  Praying, I asked the Lord, "What was the title?"  He replied, "It must not have been of eternal value!" I laughed. November 11th, in Oswald Chambers' beloved book,  His Utmost for My Highest , Chambers wrote about self-motivated ministry.  We are capable of dreaming up a lot of good things to do, but it is the work initiated by the Lord, which he planned in advance for us to do,  that has lasting eternal value. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good...

November 19 We are big proponents of short sermons and long praise and worship.  Most messages/sermons much longer than 20 minutes seem to often become repetitive, having the tendency to cause one's mind to drift from the topic matter.  The four minute message in the link below on God's Presence, byFrancis Chan will stick with me. http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=W7YDDPNX&utm_source=GodTube%20Today&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=11/18/2013 Honor and majesty are (found) in His presence; strength and joy are (found) in His sanctuary. 1 Chronicles 16:27 And He said, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."    Exodus 33:14 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.   Psalm 16:11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.   Psalm 51:11 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out...

November 18 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.   Isaiah 40:31 Tis the season to get in a twit! Don't do it!  Put Jesus first and spend time with him. It's His birthday we are about to celebrate and I think he'd rather us spend time with him than worry about a big bash!  I tell myself this every year and I still go overboard decorating, gifting and cooking. Last week Adrian Rogers' website had a excellent message titled "Bridging the Stress Gap". It reads: "Stress is nothing new. Noah had it when he was building the ark with no rain in sight. Martha had it when she was preparing a meal for our Lord.  Stress is the gap between the demands placed on us and the strength we have in meeting those demands.  It is not a sin to be stressed, nor a sin to be weary. It is a sin, though, not to seek a lessening of that stress...

November 16-17 Dear Friends, I write to you this weekend under conviction from a Wisdom Hunters devotional.  I want to share what a wrote to some of my Bible Study girlfriends. Being in sweet fellowship with you all feels like a safety zone. A place to share what we sense the is Lord doing, a place cry out in despair, a place be vulnerable and express our disobedience and need for forgiveness without fear of being rejected.  One area God has worked on me this week in is assuming everyone, who loves the Lord, has similar experiences and understands what I am feeling. That is just not true in extensive areas of life experience. The other thought that hit me in the gut (which is sore anyway from a stomach bug last night) came from the devotional below.  I talk to much to others about what  I need to just be working out with God. In my heart of hearts I've truly believed I share in hopes of someone else helping me figure out the remaining pieces of the p...