Thoughts by Women Archives - Page 3 of 165

Published April 2, 2024

The Challenge of Change

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever…” Hebrews 13:8

An announcement seen in religious magazine:

Wanted: pastor for small church; mostly older people
but willing to reach out to younger people; no desire for change
in worship or preaching style.

Do you catch the incongruity in that advertisement? The basic premise is “we want to follow Jesus but we want to do it our way.” We have a startling example of that in the followers of Jesus. When He began to reveal to His disciples that soon He would go through an unimaginable ordeal of suffering and death, Peter—who only moments before had given a strong statement of faith—freely offered his opinion. Peter took Him by the hand and led Him aside and then facing Him began to rebuke Him (Mark 8:32 Amplified Bible). In essence Peter said,

“Jesus, I’m sure you have the program all wrong. I know you’re the Messiah and have a great plan for saving the world, but what you’ve just described is too radical.”

Another time after Jesus preached a sermon in one of his favorite synagogues about the reality of discipleship, the Bible records, When His disciples heard this, many of them said, “This is a hard and difficult and strange saying… Who can be expected to listen to such teaching?”… After this, many of His disciples returned to their old associations and no longer accompanied Him.

Following hard after Jesus is committing to a life where change is the norm and not the exception. And in that change we find joy in the presence of Jesus.

by Marilyn Ehle
Used by Permission

Christ is Risen!

This Easter I was impressed with the newness that the Risen Christ brings to our lives. Being reminded of how His death conquered all that drags us down truly brings us back to the roots of our faith and our freedom. The “stuff of life” can easily distract and pull us away from the life changing truth that is ours on a daily basis.

With renewed commitment today I want to take to heart the words of Hebrews 12.

“… let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.’ Hebrews 12:1-2

1 Peter 1:13 tells us exactly how to do this in very practical terms:

– Prepare your mind. Keep scripture fresh in your thoughts.
– Be self-controlled. Pay attention to where your focus lies.
– Set your hope fully on the grace to be give you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Let’s receive the grace offered to us on a daily basis, knowing that the trials of life are not the enemy. Rather the enemy is the choice of becoming lost in the trail and failing to grasp the grace held out to us daily to sustain us through the trial.

So let’s run with the grace given to us for today, and trust God with the tomorrows of our lives. His grace will meet us when we get to tomorrow.

Christ is risen indeed! May we walk in the power and grace of the risen Christ.

By Gail Rodgers
Used by Permission

Jesus is Alive in My Life

“Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ.” Ephesians 2:4-6

Easter Sunday as a joyous event celebrating the resurrection of Jesus is forever etched in my memory.

In Austria we lived in the shadow of a large church with an enormous bell tower (at least it looked like that to my childish eyes.) The bells rang faithfully morning and evening and on special occasions. But there was one day the bells did not ring.

That was on Good Friday when the priest used an instrument which made a rasping, sad sound. It was to remind us of Christ’s suffering and put us into a mood of mourning.

When Easter Sunday morning came, all the bells rang in a glorious symphony. The joyous sound floated across roof tops, hills and valleys carrying the good news, “Jesus has risen from the dead.”

But when I arrived at the church, I was disappointed to see the life-sized crucifix of Jesus’ body on the Cross was still there. If Jesus has risen from the dead, why is he still hanging on the cross? I wondered.

Don’t we do this too?

We go through the motions of celebrating that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day. We accept it as part of our religion, but what difference does it really make to our lives today?

Is Jesus alive in your heart? Is he active in your life today?

The risen Lord Jesus Christ is not just up in heaven preparing a place for us, but he is presently down here on earth wanting to make His home in us and do His work through us.

How? We must die to our selfish ways and surrender to Christ on a daily basis. He has to become our very life from moment to moment. It will be “Christ in us working through us.” We depend on him to be our sufficiency for each new challenge. Then we can stop trying so hard and trusting more. What freedom comes with this realization!

Jesus, I depend on your strength and your life in me today. I want to do your will and your work today. What is it you want us to do today?

by Helen Lescheid
Used by Permission

In Our Place

Because He suffered, we can find comfort in the midst of pain and chaos.

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Isaiah 53:3 (NIV)

How human we are.

How broken is our world.

How incomplete are our relationships.

And yet, in that brokenness and pain, we can come to Jesus and see Him bent over, agonizing in the Garden. He’s been there. He understands. And He provides comfort for those who mourn; He binds up the broken-hearted. He proclaims freedom for the captives.

My deepest comfort can be drawn from Jesus, the man familiar with suffering. He laid down everything He was, every ounce of dignity and honor, to be despised and rejected so we don’t have to carry it. He deserved nothing but glory and yet He chose the simple life of a carpenter and allowed a shameful death on a cross in exchange for Life

I can draw strength from a God who has experienced every broken human emotion. Because He was despised, I can turn to Him for Love. Because He was rejected, we are accepted. Because He suffered, we can find comfort in the midst of pain and chaos. He took it all upon Himself.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus! You deserve our unending praise. I am so grateful for what You did on the cross … so grateful. Thank You. Amen.

by Idelette McVicker
Used by Permission

If you have never surrendered your life to Christ, and would like to know Him in the way the author does, you can start today. Simply say this prayer and your journey with Christ will begin:

Prayer

Lord Jesus, I want to trust you from now on. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of my life. Make me be the person You want me to be. Thank you for enabling me to trust you in these uncertain times. Amen.

Another Sample Prayer:

Dear God, today I bring you my life, my hopes, my dreams, my deepest yearnings … You know me intimately. You knew me even before I was formed in the womb. You called me into this world to do good and live the life I was uniquely and specifically created for. I ask for Courage and Wisdom to live this life–the life of my dreams. Show me where to start and help me be open to hearing your Voice today. I ask for a greater consciousness of your Presence, today and every day of my life. Amen.

The Sad Path to Easter

All who have experienced soul-ripping grief at the death of a loved one would agree that time seems to stop.

Nights are endless, days drag like boulders pulled by a plow. Saying goodbye produces its own unutterable pain, but the days between death and funeral and burial—though perhaps filled with practical details—seem hours longer than the actual twenty-four. Although we may dread the more public acts of farewell, there is the incongruous something within us that cries to “just get it over with.”

Could this be similar to why we joyfully anticipate the glory of Easter Sunday but do our best to ignore—or at the very least de-emphasize—the emotionally-draining events of Holy Week? To shop for colorful spring clothing is far more satisfying than symbolically wrapping a rough towel around our waists to humbly serve others as Jesus did at the washing of feet. What joy in preparation for a sumptuous Easter Sunday family reunion meal while how meager—and heart-rending—to contemplate the meaning of the bread, wine and bitter herbs that Jesus and his friends ate just before going out to the Mount of Olives. Triumphant is the music of “Christ, the Lord, Is Risen Today.” Somber are the notes of Braham’s Requiem.

New clothes, good food with friends and family and uplifting music are all rightful celebrations of the resurrection, what the Apostle Paul preaches as the bedrock of our faith. But I wonder how much more meaningful would be our Easter joy if we first took the time and concerted effort to walk thoughtfully through Jesus’ last days, if we asked God to let us more deeply glimpse his agony of relinquishment in Gethsemane, if we wept over his human cry, “I am thirsty.”

Many churches of a more liturgical nature practice what is known as the Easter Vigil where individuals gather in the darkness of Saturday night to read scripture and contemplate the sadness that surrounded Jesus’ followers after his death and burial, a darkness that represents all the meanings of darkness: hidden and secret sins, the darkness of the world and of our hearts. At a point soon after midnight, one candle is lit to symbolize Christ’s resurrection and members of the congregation light their own small candles from the larger one. Those who have participated in such a service of remem-brance and celebration relate how their view of Easter has been forever changed.

While this may not be practical or possible for all, let me encourage you to not avoid the pain of walking with Jesus through the days between Palm Sunday and Easter. I assure you that the sunrise of Easter will never be more glorious!

by Marilyn Ehle
Used by Permission

Biblical Jesus

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Author Linda Harvey received an email. It began, “I’m a bisexual pagan who loves Jesus.”

Linda prayed about her response. She was seeing more and more of this from teens.
But the ”Jesus” in whom those teens believe is a false Christ, not the biblical Jesus.

So, Linda responds by explaining who Jesus really is and why it’s so important to know the real One.

Friend, what about you? Do you know the real Jesus?
Even popular TV stars today claim to be “Christians”, but they doubt that sin or Satan exists.

The “Jesus” they worship is touted as the “divine within” and just one of many ways to God.

Yet the real Jesus claimed and is the ONLY way to God.
He alone claimed to be able to forgive our sins, our wrongdoings.

By Vonette Bright
Used by Permission

thoughts by Vonette Bright Thoughts by Women

Remember

Published March 27, 2024

Remember

Beth purchased the chocolate bunnies and headed to the parking lot. Company was coming and she still needed to get groceries and clean. She made a mental note to get extra eggs for the kids to color.

It was Easter week. They wouldn’t likely get to church. Her mental check list went on. She knew she was too busy, but she squeezed God in where she could.

I’m sure God knew how easy it would be for us to do just that. He actually provides a regular reminder for us. He calls us to take part in Communion and with good reason.

“Do this in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
1 Corinthians 11: 26

In the business of “doing life” we often forget just what is actually proclaimed by Jesus’ death and His resurrection. It can so easily slip to the background of life and we can find ourselves living in dryness of soul, with divided hearts and sometimes with powerless, defeated lives.

Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. That’s why He calls us to regularly remember Him; to keep proclaiming, in our individual lives, the truth of what His death on the cross means to us each day.

Proclaim it out loud…right now…

•    I proclaim I am forgiven (Thank you Lord! You alone know how I need You)
•    I proclaim I am loved (Thank you Lord that Your love is unconditional!)
•    I proclaim I am cleansed (Thank you Lord that my past is now behind me!)
•    I proclaim that by His grace I have all that I need (Thank you Lord for your undeserved grace and mercy to help me in my time of need!)

Do you believe it? The very same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the same power that will be at work in your life as you believe and proclaim these truths.

Welcome the celebration at the Communion table this Easter. Have your heart refreshed with forgiveness and wholeness as you believe the truth of what God says about you, His child. Receive His love in fresh measure.

Father God, Amaze my heart today with the truth of these proclamations. Thank you for the hope Easter revives in my heart! Fill me with Your Spirit and let Your resurrection power flow in new ways in my life. Help me to remember the power, in Your death and resurrection, that is mine every day. Help me to grow into all You have planned for me to be and to do. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

By Gail Rodger
Used by Permission

Choosers

The radio played as I drove home sifting through the thoughts of my day. Suddenly a quote caught my attention. I missed who it was credited to but it was good. “No one is born a winner or loser, but each one is born a chooser.”

“How true”, I thought as I maneuvered through the traffic. I was a chooser in every area of my life. Oh, I may not always choose my circumstances, but I would always be in charge of choosing my responses to those circumstances.

God gently nudged my heart and I began to think about some of the thoughts I was choosing to entertain about circumstances in my day. He reminded me that a response in life always begins with a thought. Some of my thoughts toward people and circumstances in my day were rather negative, critical and impatient. Left alone these thoughts would surely spiral me down and impact my responses in the same way. The choice was mine. God’s Word came to my mind.

“We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5b

God is so good to remind us that we need to take stock of our thoughts. Thoughts are the seeds in our lives that result in actions and responses. We choose to let them stay or to take them captive and throw them out.

I realized the events of the day were sowing seeds in my mind and heart of things I did not want growing in my life. God used that quote on the radio to remind me that I was a chooser. I knew the kind of responses I wanted in my life and these thoughts would not get me there.

God’s Holy Spirit is our helper. He draws us on to be what we, in our own strength, cannot be. He helps us toss aside the seeds that would bear sour fruit if left unattended.

Where are your thoughts today? Be aware of what you are choosing to dwell on from your day or even your yesterday. Seeds always grow up and bear fruit. Paying attention to what parades through your mind puts you in a pro-active position. Before thoughts of irritation and frustration grow into angry, bitter roots, choose to ask God’s Holy Spirit to help you take those thoughts captive and to respond to your circumstances with His grace and love and His wisdom.

by Gail Rodgers
Used by Permission

Tune My Heart

It can be hard to hear God in the busyness of life. Take today’s lesson to hear how to listen better.

“And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” 1 Kings 19:12b

There’s a moment just before the performance begins where the lights go down and the symphony tunes. It’s a strange, cacophonous sound, nothing at all like the music that will start a few minutes later. I love that sound. It sounds like anticipation. It’s a sound that tells you that something wonderful is about to happen.

Tuning is not a warning bell; it’s an alignment. One musician plays a single note, always the same note, and each of the instruments joins in. They play, they listen, and they adjust and play again. They keep going until all the sounds blend together, until there are united and aligned, in tune.

I love the line in the old hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” that says, “tune my heart”. I want that. I want my heart to sound like God’s. Did you know that if you put two grand pianos in a room and play a note on one of them the corresponding string in the other piano will start to vibrate? I want the note God is playing to resonate in my heart.

In 1 Kings, God tells Elijah to go and stand on a mountain where He will pass by. There is wind and fire, even an earthquake, but God is not in the wind or the fire or the earthquake. God comes in a gentle whisper. I need to be still and hear that whisper; I need to tune my heart to it.

I cannot do the things God has planned for me if my heart is out of tune. No matter how carefully I try to serve God, if my heart is out of tune it’s all just garbage. I think it’s so interesting that even professional musicians have to tune and they tune every single time they play. I want my life to be like that, to begin every day by listening for the voice of God and moving my heart – dragging it along sometimes – until my heart, my attitude sounds like God’s. I want to go through my days in tune with Him.

Father, As the hymn says, “Come, thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace”. Teach me to stop and listen for your whisper. Keep me still until the song of my heart sounds like You. Mold me so that when people hear my words and see my actions they think of You. Thank you for being patient with me. Tune my heart. I’m listening. Amen.

When is it hard to hear God? Where do you find it easiest to hear His gentle whisper?

By Claire Colvin
Used by permission

Blessing of Trust and Healing

Father God has promised that He will never leave you or forsake you.

He has not abandoned you.

His perfect love casts out all fear.

Rest in His love. Receive from your heavenly Father all the father’s blessing that you craved from your earthly father.

Be blessed with life-changing encounters with the Father heart of God. Be blessed to receive His perfect healing that can make you whole. Allow Him to bring healing, recovery, and restoration of your broken trust. Your Father’s best healing work restores your heart and soul according to His design that He had for you before He laid the foundations of the world. As you drink in your Father’s love, He will re-innocence you, restoring your childlike faith and trust.

Respond this way:
God, I choose to trust you today. I choose to believe Your heart toward me is kind, good, loving, approachable, and accepting. I choose to bind my will to Your will. I bind my mind to the mind of Christ. I bind my emotions to the Holy Spirit for healing and alignment.

Thank You for wanting to be my Father, not my taskmaster or my boss. You are indeed loving Master, Sovereign, Judge, King, and so much more in Your universe. How majestic is Your name in all the earth (Psalm 8). I am in awe of all You are, but You are first of all my “Abba, Papa.”

Thank You that You created me to be loved as Your child and for me to love You. It’s that simple. You like me and You like having me around. Thank You that the greatest blessing is nearness to You, and You want me near You. Thank You for inviting me to draw near to You so that I may experience joy and peace in Your presence. Thank You for Your promise to hold me in Your everlasting loving arms.

I accept Your invitation to come closer to Your Father heart.

By Sylvia Gunter
Used by Permission

Nothing Can Separate Us

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Romans 8:37

Are you facing trouble or hardship or persecution? Is conflict in your marriage, a loss of a job or illness weighing you down? Has your family disowned you or your friend deserted you? Are you experiencing a famine of food or a famine of hope? Is there danger or death looming on the horizon?

Then let me remind you that:

God chose you. (Romans 8:29-30)
God is your powerful ally. (Romans 8:31)
God gave up His Son for you, so He will look after you. (Romans 8:32)
Nothing can separate you from God’s love. (Romans 8:39)

We can be confident of these truths because, “Jesus Christ, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34)

Can death separate us from God’s love?
No, because through Jesus we have the promise of eternal life. (John 3:16)

Can life isolate us from God’s love?
No, because God has promised to be with us always. (Matthew 28:20)

Can angels or demons keep us from God’s love?
No. Though there are spiritual forces at work in our world, God is greater than them all. (Matthew 10:28)

Can present troubles or future fears cut us off from God’s love?
No, because God is the great “I AM”, the God who is and was and is to come. (Revelation 1:8)

Can any powers that man or Satan exert over us defeat God’s love?
No, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:4)

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-39)

Thank you Holy God that because of Jesus, nothing can separate me from Your love. Amen!

by Suzanne Benner
Used by Permission

Prayer to Follow God

So often our hearts want to follow God and yet our feet and our mouths take us in the opposite direction!

God’s word tells us that we are actually deceiving ourselves when we know God’s way and yet do not do what it says. The road to freedom is in doing what we hear in His word. If you are longing for freedom from the ruts in your life today then re-visit the last thing you know God nudged you to do and then go do it. Ask your loving Heavenly Father if there is anything He has taught you or called you to that you are forgetting today. Obey and then watch for His blessing.

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it – he will be blessed in what he does.” James 1: 22 – 25

Dear Heavenly Father, I am learning to understand what Your word says. Yet so often I simply hear it or read it and think about applying it, but get no further. I want to do it and intend to do it Lord, but it is gone from my mind so easily. I am deceiving myself if I simply hear it and do not make it a part of my life. Please help me today to take one truth and apply it to my circumstances.

Please let Your Holy Spirit nudge me and remind me throughout my day. I know that as I apply what Your word says I will find freedom. Please show me what I need to focus on right where I walk today, Father. Help me to be intent on practicing what You reveal to me. I know there is blessing in doing things Your way. I give You my will today to want to do what You show me. In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

Question: Are there “ruts” which have developed in your life lately? How can you trust God to help you out of them?

by Gail Rodgers
Used by Permission

The Lord Never Changes!

“I the LORD do not change.” Malachi 3:6

Recently we decided to downsize and reluctantly listed our property on the real estate market. So for the past month we have been sorting through everything: cupboards, closets, shelves, drawers, storage rooms, the garage and barns. Sorting through forty-seven years of stuff and many, many precious memories.

Everything has changed -except God.

•   Our children have grown and left home. They all have their own wonderful families now.
•    Our home address has changed several times.
•   Friends change but God always supplies new precious friends.
•    Careers change and our responsibilities change.
•    With moving, we have changed churches several times. And pastors move to another church.
•   Hobbies change with age.
•   Our bodies change – our looks change.

But God does not change!

What a secure feeling to know that although our lives and circumstances keep changing, God is always the same. He never leaves us or forsakes us. He always leads, guides and protects us. He never gets old, tired or hard of hearing. He never gets sick. Not only does He not change, He is always present. He is always faithful. His love endures forever. Our God is amazing!

Father, what a comfort You are. Knowing You means security and peace. Thank You, thank You! Amen.

By Katherine Kehler
Used by Permission

Do You Spend Time Under the Broom Tree?

Elijah! What a mighty life he led!

In just a couple of chapters, it went like this…

*He promised no rain for years because Ahab was such an evil king. Then, the Lord told him to leave there and hide by the Brook Cherith, where He would command the ravens to feed him.

*The brook eventually dried up from lack of rain and the Lord led him to Zarephath to help a widow woman and her son, to perform the miracle of unending flour and oil until the rain returned and bring her dead son back to life.

*Then, the Lord sent him to Samaria, where Elijah ordered all of Israel and the prophets to gather at Mount Carmel. He admonished them for following both God and Baal and to make up their minds. He then prepared a test for the prophets to see whose god was real. God showed up and proved He was the one and only true God. Elijah then slew all the prophets of Baal and Asherah.

*Elijah went to Mount Carmel and “bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees” (1 Kings 18:42b-43 NKJV), asking his servant to look toward the sea for evidence. In expectation and not looking at his surroundings, he trusted God to bring the rain back. On the seventh try, the rain cloud appeared!

*Jezebel sent him a message saying he would be just as dead as the prophets by the next day. Not trusting God, Elijah “ran for his life” (1 Kings 19:3 NKJV) in fear of Jezebel. He ran to the wilderness, sat under a broom tree, and prayed. Did he pray for strength? No! He prayed, “It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life!” (1 Kings 19:4a NKJV)

Twice, the Lord sent an angel to take care of him, bringing food and water to refresh him. Then, the angel told him once more to eat and drink “because the journey is too great for you.” (1 Kings 19:7 NKJV)

Fortified for 40 days and 40 nights, he went to Horeb and hid in a cave. Twice, the Lord asked him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:9 NKJV) And twice, Elijah replied, “I have worked very hard for the Lord God of the heavens.”
(1 Kings 19:10 TLB) And he lamented over the waywardness of God’s people.

The Lord then sent him back the way he came, back on the “path of practical duty. His mission is not yet over, there is still work for him to do.” (Barnes’ Notes) The Lord restored Elijah, recommissioning him for his work.

Do you see anything of your own life in all that?

When something great happens in our lives, when we have a good day, or when we have accomplished some good in the world for the Lord, many times, discouragement follows. The enemy tosses fear or discouragement at us. Bad news comes or some trial or heartache arises.

When trials press sore against us and the knees of our faith begin to collapse, when we’re about to faint physically and spiritually, when we feel like running away, David reminds us, “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed.” (Psalm 27:13 NKJV)

The Lord is gracious. He is our Defender, our Deliverer, our Refresher. He replenishes us for another long journey. For the work ahead. For our mission is never over.

Paul exhorts us, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” (Philippians 4:6 NKJV) And always in expectation!

“I am expecting the Lord to rescue me again, so that once again I will see his goodness to me here in the land of the living.”( Psalm 27:14 NKJV)

Come out from under your broom tree!

Keep your faith on Mount Carmel!

By Lynn Mosher
Used by Permission

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thoughts by Lynn Mosher Thoughts by Women

Bread of Heaven

Published March 19, 2024

Bread of Heaven

**Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more…

“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry...” John 6:35

A friend and I are working together to motivate and encourage each other to lose weight. One of the things we’ve discovered—to our disappointment!—is that most popular weight loss diets warn against the consumption of bread. Especially any bread made with refined flour. Such admonitions spell disaster for my attempts to lose weight since bread–of any kind–fall just centimeters away from chocolate on my list of favorite foods.

But I wonder…do I crave the poet’s “bread of heaven” as much I crave a slice of chewy, crusty sourdough? Does the aroma of Christ entice me to His presence like the fragrance of bread fresh from the oven?

It’s almost always the first bite of good bread that whets the appetite for more, and the pattern is similar in our walk with Jesus. Getting into the habit of spending small, delicious times with Him—reading one or two Bible verses, sitting quietly in His presence responding in conversation to what we’ve read, carefully examining our own needs and those of others as we pray–this is the practice of feeding on the Bread of Life. And this “diet” has no restrictions!

Father, help me crave all that you so willingly offer me so that I can enjoy spiritual health.

How do you regularly feed on the Bread of Life? What are some of the results from such meals?

*From Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah* – by Wm. Williams

by Marilyn Ehle
Used by Permission

Category: <span>Thoughts by Women</span>

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever…” Hebrews 13:8

An announcement seen in religious magazine:

FURTHER READING

Further Reading

“Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ.” Ephesians 2:4-6

Is Jesus alive in your heart? Is he active in your life today?

Further Reading

Because He suffered, we can find comfort in the midst of pain and chaos.

How human we are.

How broken is our world.

How incomplete are our relationships.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus! You deserve our unending praise. I am so grateful for what You did on the cross … so grateful. Thank You. Amen.

Further Reading

All who have experienced soul-ripping grief at the death of a loved one would agree that time seems to stop.

More Easter Reading:

FURTHER READING

Further Reading

FURTHER READING

Father God has promised that He will never leave you or forsake you.

He has not abandoned you.

His perfect love casts out all fear.

FURTHER READING

Further Reading

So often our hearts want to follow God and yet our feet and our mouths take us in the opposite direction!

FURTHER READING

“I the LORD do not change.” Malachi 3:6

FURTHER READING

Elijah! What a mighty life he led!

Come out from under your broom tree!

Keep your faith on Mount Carmel!

*Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more…*

FURTHER READING

**Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more…