Five Blessings From a Late-summer Thunderstorm

Last week, while sitting on my "porch of praise" I was blessed by a big, loud, blowing thunderstorm.

80. Rain, pouring down, sweeping in sheets across the avenue, darkening the sky, but brightening my day.
I love thunderstorms.

81. Thunder-- rolling, rumbling, crashing, electrifying the sky.

It is beautiful and powerful and awesome~

Just like the Lord God Almighty!

82. Curb-side creeks flowing down, washing clean the streets and sidewalks.

83. Rain pitter-patter pounding, soaking flowers, fruits and veggies, bring life to dry ground.

84. The fragrance of rain-washed freshness, fills my heart and lifts the spirit to the all powerful~

Creator God

Who rains down all good gifts

Onto all His children

Simply

Because

He loves us.

And just when you think it's all over

Ka-BOOM!

One last shout-out from God, it's the Rain-giver's exclamation point.

Thank you, Lord, for these showers of blessing! All creation is telling Your glory.

Five Gifts Friday

"Brightly colored sunsets, majestic mountains and shining seas,

and fragrant fields and fresh-cut flowers

are not even half as beautiful as a soul who is serving Jesus out of love,

through the wear and tear of an ordinary, unpoetic life."

Frederick W. Faber, Streams in the Desert.

Watching from my porch of praise I see blessings galore parading down my avenue.

76. Children skipping, running, walking to their future at the school around the corner.

77. Beaded hair-dos, bright new clothes and happy back-to-school grins.

78. Bittersweet hints of August slipping away in the coolness of a morning breeze.

79. I am a child of the Creator God,

Favored by the Father,

Loved by the Lord of Life.

80. Yesterday I answered this question "In God's heart, I am..."

with this photo.

Now it's YOUR turn. Just fill in the blank:
"In God's heart, I am _________..."

http://youtu.be/mnQvp8_41Uo

Five Blessing Friday--Five Authors

This Friday, August 12, I will be at the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference, having my socks blessed off my some of the finest writers, mentors, teachers, authors, editors, etc, etc in the country.

In honor of that great blessing, my Five Blessings today are five of the authors I've read who live their lives to please God and "Write His Message." My life has been immeasurably enriched and God has blessed me, because of their choice to obey God.

1. Eugenia Price--I first read "Early Will I Seek Thee" when I was in high school. Her emphasis on daily prayer and Bible study spoke to my heart. It said "Get up out of that bed and read your Bible and pray!" and started me on a life-long love of God's Word.

“If Christ lives in us, controlling our personalities, we will leave glorious marks on the lives we touch. Not because of our lovely characters, but because of his.”—Eugenia Price

2. Max Lucado—Mr. Lucado took me a long way down the road to realizing that I can never do anything to make God love me more and I can never do anything to make Him love me less.

"If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning... Face it, friend. He is crazy about you! " Max Lucado

3. Ronald L. Dunn. Ron was my pastor as a teen and young married. He was a man of God and a gifted preacher and writer. His books “Don’t Just Stand There, Pray Something” and “When Heaven is Silent” changed my prayer life. From Ron I learned not to ask God, "Why me?" but "What now?" and listen and obey God's answer.

4. Ruth Meyer—her book “31 Days of Praise” was given to me by a dear prayer partner. I learned from Ruth how to give thanks for those who hurt me, for disappointments and even more, I begin to believe it possible to “In everything give thanks…”

"With You, nothing is accidental, nothing is incidental and no experience is wasted," Ruth Meyer. I recommend the "prayer journal" version if it's still available.

Ruth's book prepared me for….

5. Ann VosKamp—“One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are” a reminder of what I’d forgotten and an invitation to begin noticing and recording my joys in every day life.

“Joy is the realest reality, the fullest life, and joy is always given, never grasped. God gives gifts and I give thanks and I unwrap the gift given: joy.” Ann Voskamp

Although I have reached my self-imposed limit of "Five" I simply must add my current favorite author Cecil Murphey. One of the greatest blessings of my life has been the privledge of helping get out the word to the world about his books. Cec writes from his heart, with transparency and integrity, about issues facing Christians in their walk every single day. He's not afraid to share his struggles and the answers he's found. I love to use his books as a devotional "jump start" for my quiet times, and find myself repeating "Cec-isms" to get me through a tough day. My latest favorite from "Knowing God, Knowing Myself" is:

"Today, I have time to do everything I need to do today."

There are so many, many more. I thank you Lord for men and women who surrender their talents to You. Thank you for continuing to speak Your life to me through the words of Your faithful servants. We will never know how many lives have been saved, how many have been touched, how many have been changed.

Dear fellow-readers,

What's on your nightstand? Please take a moment to share a favorite book or author whose writing touched your life with me. Oh, and don’t forget the thank God for that gift.

Five Blessing Friday.

I LOVE this prayer from David, the man after God's own heart:

"Satisfy us in our earliest youth with your lovingkindness, giving us constant JOY to the end of our lives." Psalm 90:14, Living Bible

After a frazzled, stress-filled week (mostly due to ME) I have been asking God to open my eyes to his mercy and grace. For me that's a prayer He always answers. Here are some of my rainbow of "Joys" this week:

66. JOY--sweeping the floor, dusty with the tracks of happy feet of my wonderfully grand-nieces & nephew & grandchildren PLUS my sister. What a blessing to relive the fun of watching races, playing games together and yummy root beer floats!

67. JOY--Washing the dishes from the abundant food we have each day here in this country. Please remember Somalia in your prayers AND don't forget to give.

68. JOY--Thank you Lord that you don't love me "because..." You simply love me. (idea from Cec Murphey and Dt 7:7-8)

69. JOY--Indoor plumbing, showers, feeling clean and smelling good.

70. JOY--"Negative feelings are only emotions; negative feelings are not reality."* Thank you Lord that negative feelings pass quickly.

By the way, the colorful text is because JOY is just too wonderful to be only one color!

*Cecil Murphey

Five Blessings Friday

" Let all the joys of the godly well up in praise to the Lord, for it is right to praise Him!" Psalm 33:1, The Living Bible


61. The joy of taking a train ride pulled by a real steam engine with 4-year-old Nicolas, train fanatic. High points would be going on "The Big Train" AND over bridges.

62. Liquid life falling from above, watering our parched ground, helping turn our green tomatoes red. Thank you Lord for rain. For cooler breezes and mist on bare arms, for the pitter-patter slapping of the rain on summer leaves.

63. Family time together riding on little trains, seeing steam engines, diesel engines, touring the Zephyr and bounce houses and finally getting soaked at the Spray ground at The Great Train Festival. How wonderful to see life through the eyes of grandchildren. And for WOC, the radio station where I won the tickets.

64. Yellow rudbeckia peeking up over the window sill, their faces greeting the sun.

65. 41 years of marriage to my best friend. (This picture is of us & the rudbeckia.)

Five Blessings Friday

"Because I have a happy heart, so I have continual JOY in Your presence, Lord.
Proverbs 15:15 KJV, "...he that is of a merry heart has a continual feast."


Here are Five Merry Making Moments I've experienced lately.


56. Eavesdropping on my dear sons-in-law, Craig and John, discussing the merits of a kids' PBS show, "Martha Speaks" and how the letters of the alphabet soup Martha ate wound up in her doggy brain instead of elsewhere. (Craig, John, a Martha fan and a future Martha fan.)


57. A very special God moment came last week when my 5-year-old grandson Ethan was visiting us. As we were chatting, I asked him, "Ethan who do you love MOST in the whole world?" I expected him to say his mother, but he emphatically said, "JESUS!"
I found myself taken aback, both thrilled, surprised and a little embarrassed at my shortsightedness. He further told me that we were all supposed to love Jesus the most and I gave him a BIG hug and agreed.
How blessed am I that my dear daughter(in-love) and son are teaching their children to love Jesus most of all and to remind their dear Grammy when she forgets!
To God be the glory for the blessings from the mouths of babes!

58. Re-connecting with old friends, Mike and Jan, Diane, Mary & Steve. Thank You Lord, for forever friends.

59. Reading 2 Chronicles this week I was caught up in the awe of Solomon building a magnificent Temple for God. Even so, Solomon was well aware that it was not good enough to contain our awesome God and His glory.
How incredibly humbling to realize that today, God chooses to make His home in us, simple, dusty, fragile, often unlovely jars of clay. Blessing beyond my comprehension.

60. My pastor's shirt tail. That man will do anything to reach unbelievers. He wears his shirt tail out b/c he cares more about relating to the lost, looking like a real person leading a real life than about pleasing the eyes of men. Whenever I see that shirt tail, I am challenged anew "...to meet people wherever they are on their spiritual journey and lead them into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ in order to change the world."

Five Blessings on a Monday Morning

Happy Monday! Here are five great blessings to start the week, even if you are sitting there at a messy desk!

My "blessed" desk is littered this morning with:

51. A "Miffy" book read over Skype to a granddaughter last night.

52. A brochure from Indiana dunes where we had a wonderful vacation last month.

53. A heart made of Lego blocks that my grandson Ethan and I are sharing.

54. My cell phone making all those I love just a few beeps away (for those of us who lived before the age of cell phones, that is a wonder.)

55. My Daily Walk Bible, where today I read this wonderful prayer of David:

"Yours is the mighty power and glory and victory and majesty.

Everything in the heavens and earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom.

We adore you as being in control of everything." I Chron. 29:11

What blessings does God have in store for you today? Ask Him to open your eyes to see through the messes all the way to the "blesses"!

May God grant you a blessed Monday and may you rejoice in the knowledge that He IS in control of everything!