Tag: gratitude

Health and Healing #16 – Love

sixteenth in a series about what the Bible has to say about health and healing. (Originally posted one number shy.) This entry is shared from my personal journal. The focus is mostly on a chapter in 1 John that deals with love. Believe me when I tell you that our ability to have faith for divine healing is directly impacted by our connection to the love of God.

I am grateful for Your endless love! I am grateful for your ample provision! I am grateful for Your presence! I am grateful for Your Healing! I am grateful for the heart-change You enable! I am grateful for the victory You have won over our darkness! I am grateful for Your continual leading! I am grateful for Your goodness! I am grateful that You are the Truth!

7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loves is born of God, and knows God. 8 He that loves not knows not God; for God is love. 9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 12 No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. 17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love. 19 We love him, because he first loved us. 20 If a man says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment have we from him, that he who loves God loves his brother also.

1 John 4:7-21

Me: Good afternoon, Father!

Abba: Good afternoon, Jon!

Me: This passage in 1 John rightly (of course) gives place to Your unimaginable Gift of Jesus who has borne our sin and its consequence, will we only humble ourselves to accept Your Life, including Your power to resist the enemy. How ridiculous to cling to flawed self-will for one second, instead of constantly coming to You through Jesus. You know the propensity of the human heart to ignore what it doesn’t want to see because it is protecting selfish motives. You know how I have indulged those!

Anyway, what I was getting to, is that the Gift of the Savior is icing on a large cake. I am thinking of all the ways that You show Your love, right down to providing air to fill our lungs and food and water to sustain our physical lives. You gave us the written word to help us learn to know the Word. You have sent Your Holy Spirit to indwell us that we would be blessed with Your guidance and power from within. How You bless us!

Abba: There is this: He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall He not with him also freely give us all things? Romans 8:32

Me: Father, one of the things I want to talk with You about in this passage are revealed by these sentences:

If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us.

1 John 4:12(b)

The corollary is troubling. If we don’t love one another, You don’t dwell in us.

He that loves not, knows not God.

1 John 4:8(a)

And,

If a man says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar.

1 John 4:20(a)

Abba: This is not something a person can work up on their own. All these instances of the word “love” are derived from the Greek agape. Meaning, it is My love. It is in you by My Spirit. I Am the one who perfects it in you (vv 12&13). That is why John can assert that if My agape is not at work in you, then it is sure that I Am not in you.

I Am love. I Am Holy. I hate every corruption and every evil thing. (1 John 4:8, Psalm 45:7, Hebrews 1:9, Psalm 97:10, Amos 5:15, Romans 12:9, Psalm 119:104, Psalm 101:3).

Even the clear statement that identifies absence of My love in one’s life is given in love, that that one might turn to Me and be redeemed!

Love is not OK with the works of the devil who comes to steal and kill and destroy (1 John 3:8). Those who carry out his schemes (even completely willingly) are deceived. I have told you what to do about that.

And he himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all reach the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to a measure of the maturity of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be infants, tossed about by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching, by the trickery of people, by craftiness with reference to the scheming of deceit. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow into him with reference to all things, who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined together and held together by every supporting ligament, according to the working by measure of each single part, the growth of the body makes for the building up of itself in love.

Ephesians 4:11-16

Did you notice Jesus’ compassion in Matthew 14:14 in healing the sick? His love has not changed. If My love is at work in you, as it was at work in Him, will not the same works be accomplished by My love? Did not Jesus tell you as much in John 14:12?

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

John 14:12

He went on to say that He would send the Holy Spirit to enable in you the things He calls you to do. John was repeating that promise from Jesus in 1 John 4:13.

Faith works by love.

Galatians 5:6(b)

Me: Thank You Father! Thank You for Your tremendous blessings! I love You!

Abba: You are welcome! I love you!

Escanaba River, Gwinn MI
Advertisement

Health and Healing #15 – Praise!

Fifteenth in a series on how much the Bible has to say about healing.

O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;

Ps 107:1-2

Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Psalms 107:8,15, 21 & 31 KJV (the theme of Psalms 107)

Fools* because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.

* see Psalms 14

Psalms 107:17-22

Years ago, when I was much less familiar with the Word of God, and the written word, I attended a worship conference hosted at Christ for the Nations, in Dallas Texas. I was along with the small team accompanying the worship leader of the church I was attending in Frisco Texas. This worship leader knew deep in her heart that true worship was a matter of the heart and that mere musical performance was a wholly inadequate substitute. That was a truth she endeavored to communicate to us in every way she could. I remember, as if it were yesterday, a vision I experienced that day. Our worship leader was on the platform with her guitar, participating in a session with several others. I saw her, for a few seconds, wearing armor that gleamed with an unearthly iridescence that seemed to supply a light of its own. In my spirit, I heard the words that, “Praise is armor of light.” I am sure that on that day, I did not know this passage from Romans 13 by heart:

Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

Romans 13:10-14

Now, the passage in Romans 13 does not explicitly say that praise is “the armour of light”. But it does say that we are to put it on. Then it goes on to say we are to put on “the Lord Jesus Christ”.

As I have matured, I have come to understand that the message I heard that day was glorious and true as far as it went, but incomplete. “Putting on” the Lord Jesus redeems us at the spiritual level. But we are not to stop there. We are to be completely transformed by the renewing of our minds. And that for a powerful reason:

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Romans 12:2

We therefore need to be immersed in the word of God, letting it transform all our thinking that has been corrupted by the world, which is still under the dominion of the “prince of the power of the air.”

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Ephesians 2:2

We need to be filled with His Holy Spirit who comes to reveal to us all the truth, and empower us to walk in it. Listen as Jesus explains:

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

John 16:7-15

And, in our transformation, we need to let our lips give voice to thanksgiving and praise. This blog entry opened with exhortation to such from the Psalms. Also from the Psalms, is this:

Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.

Psalms 8:2, NIV

All sickness and every other evil is birthed according to the designs of the evil one. I used to think, God knows my thoughts, that is enough. But, remember, the enemy is the prince of the power of the air. Resist him and fill the air around you with thanksgiving and praise. His massive ego cannot stand to linger long in that atmosphere, for it is abhorrent to him. And, it will powerfully transform you as you put on the armor of light.

Photo by Emilio Su00e1nchez on Pexels.com

Potatoes 2022

Today is the 25th of September. It was a lovely day with the afternoon in the mid seventies. A stiff breeze was making a rustling noise in the fields of drying Iowa corn. I decided to dig my red-skinned potatoes. The vines had given their last hurrah mid month.

Some had asked me about storage through the winter. I have knocked together a rack (on casters) in the basement that uses large restaurant bus tubs for shelves.

I have found potatoes keep better if one doesn’t wash them before storage. I just rub off the excess soil when I dig them. I Sort them for size and (some for condition). I throw a mover’s blanket over the rack to minimize light. I have the rack in a basement room where the lights can be kept off most of the time. There is a small east-facing window, but we keep a heavy drape over it.

Lest you think they all look like they came from the supermarket in a bag…

Small Potatoes

The box contains small potatoes that will probably go in stews or the crock pot without being peeled. The dozen or so in the foreground were damaged by marauding thirteen-line ground squirrels. They will probably be used first as mashed potatoes after paring away the damage.

Photo by Skyler Ewing on Pexels.com

Think he looks innocent? Think again!

Things of Him

Low in the west, crescent descends,
Red-tinged, yet ghostly pale.
On frigid air my breath depends,
Crystalline sharpness I inhale.

Gratitude fills my open heart,
God-flux saturates sight,
Distant canine does its part,
Punctuating chill air of night.

Evening “star” tracks along,
Myriad cousins glitter bright.
Crunch of frost an eerie song,
Retreating back inside.

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Romans 1:20
Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Pexels.com

A Few Entries from My Gratitude Journal for Thanksgiving

I am grateful for my life, Jesus! I am full of joy at being able to talk to You!

Thank You Jesus for the wildlife on the way this morning! Turkey, pheasant, baby bunny, killdeer, an awesome display of Your creativity!

Thank You for the victory You purchased at great cost over the enemy by Your faithful and loving sacrifice on the cross!

Thank You Jesus, for overcoming on our behalf!

Thank You for purchasing my freedom! I love You!

Thank You Jesus for deliverance from the darkness and the invitation to walk in the light with You!

I know our relationship is gratifying to me and I feel blessed by Your love. I don’t suppose I have thought much about You being grateful for it. Thank You for showing that to me!

I am grateful for the beauty of the tall pines in my view this morning! Your creation is marvelous, a testimony to Your magnificence!

I am grateful that the muscle I pulled in my back is getting better, that by Your stripes I am healed!

I am grateful that we are justified as a gift by Your grace; that redemption is in You!

I am grateful for the Winter solstice; that the physical processes of the seasons were established by Your limitless wisdom and that with You there are never unintended consequences to take You by surprise.

Thank You for Your wise provision! I Love You!

Harvest Today

Lord, I am grateful for a good potato harvest and the satisfaction of manual labor.

For the past couple of years, I have been raising some redskin potatoes in our garden. My approach has been to till in a fair amount of composted manure to prepare the plot. Potatoes are heavy feeders, so the manure really helps. I rake a shallow trench for a row in the newly tilled soil and place the seed potatoes, eye up. Then I rake the soil back over to just cover.

My approach is much easier than the common approach of placing them in a 6″-8″ deep trench; easier to plant and easier to harvest. The deep-trench method is designed to keep the potatoes covered as they grow. I followed the traditional approach three years ago and found it backbreaking work. When it came time to harvest, I damaged many trying to dig them up in the tight Iowa soil.

Potatoes exposed to the sun will turn green and be toxic. (Potatoes belong to the Nightshade family.) I avoid exposure of the tubers to the sun by deeply mulching them with clean straw or even grass clippings. When it comes time to harvest, they can be carefully exposed with a rake and digging will be minimal. The fork may still be necessary to free tubers that end up a little deeper (on their own). It is best to dig further away from the vine and pry up the soil to loosen.

I wash off any dirt that clings to the potatoes. This year, I filled the wheelbarrow with water and allowed them to soak for a couple of hours. Most didn’t require any extra cleaning.

After allowing them to dry in the driveway, I pack them in open tubs in layers of straw for storage in the basement.The straw prevents the potatoes from packing too closely together and improves storage. I usually have usable potatoes right up to planting time and can provide seed potatoes from last year’s harvest.

Looking Back on 2019 with Gratitude

Thinking about the year in retrospect, I thought I might share some selected entries from my gratitude journal. Some of these were addressed specifically to God the Father, some to Jesus, some to the Holy Spirit (all of whom are One, despite their distinct personalities and relationships with us).

I am grateful…

… for Jesus’ faithful heart and sacrifice for me!

… that Jesus it the Truth and the Holy Spirit is sent to guide us into all the truth!

… for rest.

… for a loving wife!

… to be healthy!

… for your Word and the Truth; an anchor against the tempest of deception the enemy is driving into this world as the unwitting give him opportunity.

… for time to dedicate to worship and to become better acquainted with Your Word.

… for those who share lessons they have gleaned from Your Word.

… for encouragement!

… for Your peace!

… that You are merciful!

… that You teach us many things!

… for Your kind intention!

… for the negotiations the President has been engaged in to improve our trade position.

… for the good economy and record-low unemployment!

… for the $10 bill I found in the yard and that the nearest neighbor is a half-mile away.

… for Your guidance!

… that all the promises of God, in You Jesus, are “Yes!” and “Amen!” (2 Corinthians 1:20)

… for the capacity to be grateful, and the benefits of being grateful!

… for forgiveness in Jesus!

… for all the unappreciated ways I have been helped by You!

… for a warm hug from my grand-daughter after traveling to see her recital.

… for the remainder of the year off from work to rest (after 12/21).

… that You have faithfully brought me this far!

… for Your generous heart!

… And, I am grateful the thermometer doesn’t say -22F very often!

Apeeling

This post is a response to a “flash fiction challenge” posed by Stephen Black over at https://fracturedfaithblog.com/2018/09/21/flash-fiction-challenge-4/

I can highly recommend that you check out the goings-on over there.  All those followers can’t be wrong, so you are not relying on just my opinion.

I found the receipt on our home office desk. It seemed odd to me that my wife would have purchased a peeler at the same time as two items cryptically identified as “prepared fruit”. I made a mental note to communicate my bemusement at breakfast in the morning. She is used to it, I suppose. “It” being my quirky sense of humor. I have even been known to guffaw at miserable excuses for puns. All who know me eventually have to face it; I am easily amused. Simple pleasures for simple minds, my Granny used to say.

Breakfast turned out to be a special treat, as well as explaining the fruit and peeler purchase. I don’t know about you, but I think having a spouse who tolerates one’s eccentricities because she inexplicably adores you is icing on the cake of life – layer upon layer of wonderfulness! I completely forgot about poking fun at the peeler purchase, as it had clearly been a gift for my own enjoyment.

The toaster was ceremoniously ejecting a perfectly browned quartet of fragrant English muffins as I entered the dining nook, even as the butter dish waited at the ready, with the knife resting across opposite corners of the inverted cover. My wife would never leave the room with the lid off of the butter, lest our aging white cat Vanna had heard the inevitable muted clatter as the dish was set down on the table. The youngest son had succumbed to her raspy meowing for some often enough. He would dab a little on the top of a front paw for her to lick off. Though the son had been married and tending his own butter dish for some years, Vanna clearly still remembered. Funny the memories that the most common things evoke – even for cats.

To go with the warm buttered toast, was a medium-sized bowl. I could smell the delicious contents even over the steaming coffee in the tall mug next to my place at the small round dark-walnut table. The early sun seemed to especially please Pricey, our calico cat. She was already dozing on the window sill next to my wife’s chair. It was, it seemed, her favorite spot this time of year as the mornings turned more crisp with the advent of early fall. I savored the sight of my lovingly-prepared breakfast. It was a feast for the senses and I could hardly wait to taste it. I offered a prayer of heartfelt thanksgiving with my lovely spouse. The first sliced strawberry that my fork located was lovely. I savored it’s sweetness as well as the grainy texture of the tiny seeds dotting the circumference. I know it was “store-bought”, but it was still delightful. I put the fork down and had a sip of dark coffee. The vapor rising over the rim of the cream-colored mug slightly fogged my glasses and the first sip of the morning was particularly satisfying. My wife talked of something her mother had said on a recent visit, as though to draw my attention away from the extra effort she had put into this morning gift.

As she spoke, I picked up my fork and speared one of the uniformly sliced wedges of pineapple as though I had solved the puzzle of the second “prepared fruit” item on the aforementioned receipt with all the prowess of a seasoned MI-6 field agent. Obviously, the yellow confection had never seen the inside of a can.

The crowning glory of our meal explained the peeler and I looked out the bay window at the pear tree in the back yard, heavy with Divinely-provided produce. My wife must have been daily watching closely to detect the very first to ripen this season. In my bowl, the firm cream-colored flesh of the freshly-peeled pear slices beckoned next to the strawberry-pineapple garnish that topped them. There is nothing more edible than a perfectly ripened pear, in my estimation.

And so, as I chatted with my wife and thoroughly enjoyed the moment with her at the start of the day, it entered my mind that I was going to have a difficult time making a decision what aspect of this morning’s experience that I was going to write as a gratitude statement in my journal. You see, a couple of years back, my wise companion had made a suggestion at this very table that I open my morning journal with a single statement of something that I was grateful for. I must say, that following that advice has made a larger difference in my overall attitude about life than I would have ever imagined. Today, I think, it will be to give thanks for the gift of a wife who goes to great lengths to express love for me. I have a receipt to prove it. There is nothing to poke fun at in that.

If

Featured photo from Garden of the Gods – Colorado Springs Colorado

 

I am grateful that You are loving!

 

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. John 15:10

 

Me:

Good morning Jesus!

 

Jesus:

Good morning Jon!

 

Me:

If I didn’t know better, from verses like Romans 5:8 (But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.), I could read John 15:10 as a statement of condition for God’s love.

 

Jesus:

“If” precedes a statement of condition, by definition. But it is not the condition that has come first to your mind. The condition is not stating that God will love you only if you behave in a particular way. The condition stated is that God – because He loves you – has prepared a beneficial (saving, growing, healthy, vibrant, giving, amazing, purpose-fulfilling, life-changing, joyful, …, and on and on) way for you to walk and has told you about it. The “if”, therefore, refers to whether you will accept His goodness and walk in the Way He has prepared; His plan for your good (Jeremiah 29:11).

 

“Don’t play in the street”, a parent tells his child. Is this a command?

 

Me:

Yes, it is.

 

Jesus:

Is it given to prevent the child from enjoying the wonders of the roadway?

 

Me:

It is given to protect the child whose experience is not developed enough to avoid the mortal dangers of traffic speeding along the street.

 

Jesus:

Is protection an expression of love?

 

Me:

Yes, it is. An expression of love by a parent meeting a critical need of the child.

 

Jesus:

Do all children obey?

 

Me:

No. Not all. Perhaps none obey all of the time.

 

Jesus:

Does disobedience in this matter dissolve the love of the parent for the child?

 

Me:

Not even if the worst actually happens.

 

Jesus:

So it is with God.

 

Me:

Thank You Jesus! I love You!

 

Jesus:

You are welcome! I love you!

deerCropped
Town Deer – Woodland Park Colorado

Grateful for Wrath

A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger. – Proverbs 15:1

It seems Jesus used some harsh words, calling the Pharisees “whitewashed tombs”, “hypocrites”, “brood of vipers”, and other such things.

Which stirred up anger.

Resulting in His crucifixion, according to the eternal plan of the Father.

And resulting in the written record of unmistakable condemnation of the hypocritical behavior of the religious leaders.

Satan is also known for wrath, but of a different sort.  There is no turning away or appeasement of Satan’s wrath. He is consumed and identified by it (Revelation 12:12). The Pharisees were channeling it.

Most Bible verses containing the word wrath refer to God’s. God’s wrath is against evil. Satan’s wrath is against God and those who are His.

The Greek is instructive. ὀργῆς (orgēs) wrath – intrinsically/settled and constitutionally opposed. (As used in Revelation 6:16 of the Lamb.)

Ours is usually of a lesser sort. [F]or the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. James 1:20

As you see from the Greek, God’s wrath – His opposition to evil – is precisely because He is good. He cannot be good and wink at evil¹. We visualize wrath from our own experience with anger, which unredeemed, is based in fear, and certainly not of God. His wrath and righteousness are not mutually exclusive, but complementary and protective (of us, for example).

Satan’s wrath fits the same definition but is pointed in the opposite direction; he has become constitutionally opposed to good.

Me:
I have not (ever?) meditated on Your wrath, Father. Probably, I should have. I thank You for Your wrath. I am grateful that it is Your nature to oppose evil – the corruption of Your creation under the influence of sin. I love you! Thank You for Your wrath! Thank You that Jesus bore Your wrath on my account!  It was right that You oppose the evil I have done. Sometimes mindlessly, always selfishly, never justifiable.  It was pure mercy that He bore my penalty.

But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. Isaiah 53:5

[1] Phrase remembered from C. Spurgeon?