Tag Archives: God

For Such a Time As This

26 Jun

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Have you ever wondered what God’s plan for your life really is?  I’ve been told Billmany times throughout my life that God’s plan is perfect and that all I have to do is trust Him and He will direct the events of my life according to His perfect plan.  Well, over the years, I’ve had enough experiences with this concept that I believe it.

As an example, several years ago, while attending another church, the congregation had started a building program to accommodate the added growth of our church.  DiVoran and I had been asking the Lord what we should give as our part, and we were having a hard time hearing from Him about that.  Then finally He got through to us and impressed upon us to give some bank stock we owned to the church as our part.  This was really strange, because of how we had come to own this bank stock in the first place.

About 12 years before this particular building program was set up, a good friend in the banking business had suggested we buy some stock in a new bank. This investment looked good to us because we were getting in on the ground floor, and our friend and his business partners had made money starting banks before.

After DiVoran and I bought the new bank stock. that’s where the value of the stock stayed–on the ground floor.  Every year we looked forward to receiving the bank’s annual report to see how much we had made, but there always seemed to be some good reason no dividend was paid.  Now, we weren’t losing money, we just weren’t making any.  There were times during those 12 years when we really could have used the money, and several times we tried to sell the stock, but nobody wanted to buy it.

Well, as it happened, it was about this time that we started hearing rumors of a bank merger.  These rumors culminated a month later with our bank merging with a larger bank, and suddenly our stock was worth 4 times what we had paid for it!   Why didn’t it increase in value or sell in all those years?   We felt God was saying, “It was for such a time as this.”   So, we signed the bank stock over to the church, and when they asked us what value to put on the stock, we said, “We have no idea, that’s up to God, and you will know its value when you sell it.”

We originally had made the investment thinking we would make some money for ourselves, but God had other plans for that money.  How did He do that?  We don’t have a clue.  All we know is that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways

are not our ways and His timing usually doesn’t match up with ours.  He is able to plan everything way ahead of us.  Then, if we can be still long enough, and listen to His voice, and obey Him, He is able to work out good things for us.

Isaiah 55:8

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There’s Always Hope

24 Jun

My Take

DiVoran Lites

 Author, Poet and Artist

A few years ago, a tall handsome young man we knew, we’ll call him Dexter, wanted some help writing a letter to his dad. The young man was sixteen years old. He had a good guardian, but he wanted to write a real letter to his real dad who was in prison.

He was in band that year and had vowed to make straight A grades. He wanted to catch up by taking online classes so he could graduate with his class. I don’t’ think he’d seen his father since he was a small child. Dexter had no money. He had no way to get to the post-office. Since we believe in teaching self-reliance, we didn’t automatically help out. But by the time a month had passed and he still had no stamp, we broke down and gave him one.

I really don’t know whether his dad got the letter or whether Dexter got a reply. I do know that the boy dropped out of school his senior year, left his stand-in father and mother’s home, and got a job at a fast food restaurant. This spring somehow, miraculously, he graduated from his class and his mother who has also been in prison was there to see him do it. Not his dad, though, I think he’s a lifer.

It wasn’t easy for his guardians to rear him and his sister, they have other children of their own. But what hope it brings to the whole world just to hear this one success story. The sister is doing well in school and plans to enter the military as soon as she graduates. Both of the young people have developed good common sense and the Lord is on their side. No matter how bad things look at first there’s always hope.

What are you praying for that may look a bit iffy right now?

 

 

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The Bearded Barbet

23 Jun

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

 JUDY

 We have lived in Central Florida since 1995 – our retirement dream.  We had originally thought we would retire here and “work” at Disney, doing something mundane, so we could see the theme parks to our heart’s content.Well, it didn’t work out quite like that.  Within four months we had found the church where we felt God wanted us to be members, and so we joined it.

 1Within another six months – much to my surprise! – I became the Church Secretary.  Fred wasn’t too sure about turning in my application for the vacant position, but it just “felt right” to me, so I did.  And was hired (I was Church Secretary for nearly nine years).  I think it helped that I was an older woman, and my last position had been a Financial Secretary, and had learned to keep my mouth shut.  Financial and pastoral stuff is just something one doesn’t blab about.Within another nine months, Fred was the Church Administrator.  It was nice working together, and we made the distinction of working WITH each other – neither of us working FOR the other!  Even with our desks in the same room, we just worked together, as it should be.

In spite of all that “work” stuff, we found time to go to Disney, SeaWorld, and Universal Studios.  We especially enjoyed going to SeaWorld after a stressful day 3at work.  It just seemed like it was more restful there – not as frantic a pace as at Disney or Universal.  Perhaps it was the animals…I don’t know.  I just know that we enjoyed it and felt refreshed after spending a few hours at that theme park.

After we had been going to SeaWorld for a few years, we happened to go around a corner that we didn’t usually go around – and saw a bird “cage” along side one of the buildings.  We heard a strange sound coming from there, and stopped to see.  Inside the large cage were two of the most unusual birds we had ever seen!  And the sound was a raspy croak – called a “growling scrawk”! 4 WOW!  What were these birds??!!  The sign said “Bearded Barbet” – have you ever heard of that?  They, along with Toucans are mainly from tropical West Africa.

I rubbed my finger along the wire mesh, and one of them hopped right over to the metal frame, and took a good look at my finger.  The mesh was tight enough that I couldn’t be bitten – and it’s a good thing!  Look at that beak!!  But it did try to “peck” at my finger.  And it scrawked at me a few times, before it flew back to it’s perch.

Every time we went to SeaWorld after that, we would make sure we stopped to see 5the Bearded Barbet, and were thrilled each time.

Imagine our disappointment when we discovered that they weren’t there any more – and had been replaced by Australian Kookaburras.  Nothing wrong with Kookaburras, but they just weren’t the Bearded Barbet!

Ah – the wonders of God’s world.  They never cease to amaze me!

Psalm 8:1, 3, 8-9

Oh Lord, our Lord, how Majestic is Your Name in all the earth…

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The Disease to Please

21 Jun

From the Heart

Louise Gibson

author of Window Wonders

                                   
                                     I am suffering a debilitating disease-
                                     Self-diagnosed as “The disease to please”.
                                     I can’t even tell you when it began-
                                     I never knew it was common to man.
                                     It compels you to say “yes” to every request-
                                     It silently steals your time and your zest
                                     I struggled for years to form the word “No”-
                                     When I finally did, it amazed me so.
                                    I actually believe that is the cure for me-
                                    That one little word has set me free!
                                    Time is so precious, I must take control-
                                    New freedom for mind, spirit, and soul.
                                    Be aware, dear friends, I am working on me.
                                    No longer a prisoner to “yes”- I am free!
                                                “Pardon me, what was it that you wanted to know?
                                               I can’t hear you…..but the answer is NO.”
                               

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Dad~Love~Faith

15 Jun

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Onisha

 

Back in the late fifties, going to church was a much more sociable activity than it is today. Once the service was over the adults would linger outside the church, on the sidewalk just to chat and enjoy being together. The children, glad to be freed from the trial of sitting still would run around like uncaged monkeys playing tag and screaming until a parent shushed us.  One particular evening, the air had a chill to it and I stood Lucerne Parkshivering next to my dad. Without making a big  “to do” about it, he took off his suit jacket and put it around my shoulders. It covered my small body completely and smelled like my dad’s Vitalis hair oil and a faint scent of cigarrete smoke. I felt completely safe and warm covered by his jacket. That was my first picture of how much God loved me.

My dad and mom loved to fish and we drove to the east coast of Florida every Friday night to fish. In my childhood I can’t remember a time I didn’t have a fishing pole. I started with a cane pole in the local lakes. When I was considered big enough to have a real fishing rod and reel, it was a small Zebco. I remember my dad teaching me first how to bait my hook, release the line and how important it was to “hold your pole Loved catching the big ones.up” when you were reeling in a fish. Next he taught me how to tie a hook onto my line and change the weights. He wanted me to be self-sufficient but he was always there to help me out when I tangled my line or man the long dip net when I had a fish to big for me to reel up. This was my second picture of how God loved me. Like my dad, God would always be there to help me untangle my life and he would be my “dip net” when I called out to him.

Matthew 7:11 says-“ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”

 

My dad was a humble man and because of his humility, it took me many years to realize what a truly remarkable father he was.

Me and dad

Me and dad

T

 

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The Epitome of Love

14 Jun

The Epitome of Love

” One word frees us of the weight and pain of life; that word is “love.”

The irony of that quote is it was written before Christ by a Greek

Tragedian.  We are so blessed to know that God came in the flesh to

redeem us back unto himself. That was true love.

I thrive on love.

There is promise in the air.

I stand on the word of God.

I see Him everywhere.

He is in the air I breathe-

His promises fill my soul.

Without Him I can do nothing,

With Him, I am whole.

We are all so different-

Still all of God’s own plan.

I marvel how He leads us

To support our fellow man.

I thirst to hear the words you speak-

I long to know your soul.

Tho diverse in our interests-

Our similarities make us whole.

 

 

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Little Things Mean a Lot

10 Jun

My Take

 DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and Artist

One of our adult Sunday School teachers happened to mention the other day he was sitting in the open door of his garage looking out and talking to God when a neighbor going by on her bike stopped to ask if he would fill her water bottle. He gave her a new one. He has done that before.

Every Sunday I see a man all dressed up in his black suit with his Bible in his hand waiting for a ride to church. He stands as straight as a soldier and I admire his faithfulness and that of the person who picks him up, sometimes after we have gone by. They don’t go to our church.

Funny what happens when you do only one little thing over and over. Your good deeds add up.

A woman in my class is a red-hat lady and she loves thrift store sales. You wouldn’t believe the bags of children’s clothes she finds in perfect condition for little or nothing. She brings them to church for families who can’t afford a lot of clothes for growing children.

Our other Sunday School teacher works at the hospital as a volunteer to take people to their cars in wheel-chairs. He’s a father himself and he gets a big kick out of being around teenagers who volunteer for the same job. What a precious counselor I’m sure he is.

I know someone who goes to the home of her aged mother-in-law where other members of the family care diligently for her and bathes her twice a week. She makes it special with soaps, and powders and takes supper for both of them that evening.

We hear so much about movers and shakers, about heroes, and heads of charities, but we don’t hear that much about the little people doing the little deeds many times a year. I’d like to celebrate them, wouldn’t you?

The song, “Little Things Mean a Lot,” is a love song, and why not. We show love with our small, faithful, routine deeds. Maybe we’ll discover that they pile up and if we could see the accumulation of them or the way they have changed people’s lives, we’ll be surprised. Won’t that be encouraging?

dog

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Social Media and Prayer

1 Jun

Yesterday I watched in horror the television coverage of the Oklahoma tornados. “Oh dear God” my heart cried out, pleading for His mercy. I even summoned up the courage to tweet a short prayer before moving to Facebook to see if any of my friends were in the path. As I scrolled through the newsfeed, I began to come across prayers for protection, not the usual “praying for the people in the storm” but powerful prayers of “standing in the gap” and claiming safety. At each one I would join in the prayer and write “agree” or “agree with this prayer” in the comment line. I felt my spirit join with those praying.

As the storm began to break up it hit me that social media is a powerful instrument for prayer. I will continue to say and post “praying for…” because I do pray for each person or situation when I write that but I will also venture out of my comfort zone and tweet or post on Facebook prayers of petition because to not do so deprives not just myself, but other believers the wondrous opportunity to join together in prayer.

Matthew 18:20

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Window Wonders~Disturbing and Disconcerting

31 May

From the Heart

Louise Gibson

Louise Gibson

 My window wonders this week

Have become a bit disturbing.

What used to be a heartwarming scene

Has become very disconcerting!

I have a most unusual guest,

Who really is quite rude.

He appears uninvited at meal time

And devours all the food!

Lord, I need your help.

I really don’t want to be mean.

But that cute raccoon is gaining weight,

While my cats are looking lean.

I said he is “cute” because

His habits are disarming.

He picks his food up with his “hands”-

I must confess he is charming!

I take out fresh water for my cats,

But our visitor is quite pristine!

You see, he “washes” his food in it.

He is the original “Mr. Clean”.

And Lord, you see the other problem, too, I know.

How he trashes up my patio?

I get so tired of using my broom,

I moved the garbage can to the utility room.

Lord, I have a question, please

Was this your plan from the start,

To  put me “under pressure”

To tenderize my heart?

Raccoon (Procyon lotor) 3

Raccoon (Procyon lotor) 3 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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More Window Wonders

24 May

My kitchen window

Never fails to excite my inner core.

Each tiny glimpse of nature

Whets my appetite for more

The behavior of the animal life

Is utterly absurd

The birds are eating the cat’s food

And a cat is acting like a bird.

Two cranes are walking slowly

Pecking down at the ground for food.

The cats are watching quietly

As is to disturb them would be rude!

I keep my camera by my window

To capture moments such as this

A cat is drinking from the birdbath

The absurdity is bliss.

 

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