Reflections of 2024

December 31, 2024 nofearlindaLeave a comment

I am always amazed when I reach the 31st of December and look back. Where did it all go? My word for this year was Commit and I choose the following two scriptures.

Psalm 37:5 “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.”

Proverbs 16:3 “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.”

Commit is almost a dirty word in today’s society. Trying to get people to commit to being on a committee, working with a group, deciding to read or study a certain book, being in a relationship… etc. People don’t seem to want to tie themselves down incase 1- something better comes along or 2-things don’t go so well, they worry about how to get out of it. Knowing this, God wanted me to focus on things in my life and be faithful to continue them.

God enable me to read the New Testament this year with a reading plan so that a read a portion of scripture daily.

God enabled me to continue working and serving children in the school district that are unable to go to school and to work with children at Bible Study Fellowship.

God gave me health issues to persevere through, though no always cheerfully I might add.

God allowed me to continue writing my blog and one for the church I attend.

What did I learn? God is faithfully with me each day and gives me joy and inspiration when I write or teach. Even when things are not the best, God is with me and helps me to persevere. God provides me with multiple opportunities to thank and praise Him!

I am looking forward to 2025 and what God will teach me in the New Year.

Happy New Year to you and yours.

Linda

A Thanksgiving Prayer for You

November 27, 2024 nofearlindaLeave a comment

As you prepare to gather with family and friends this Thanksgiving, I pray you will see the many things and people around you that are worthy of thanks. From the food so lovingly prepared, to the fun conversations the friends and relatives provide, to the stress-filled moments and the hustle and bustle of the gathering, may your minds come full circle and fix for even a moment on the God who provides all we have. Give thanks to Him who gives us all we need, Thank you Lord.

Here is a favorite thanksgiving psalm.

Psalm 95:1-3 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
    let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
²Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
    let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
³For the Lord is a great God,
    and a great King above all gods.

Have a blessed day or days! Let it renew your spirit and bring you joy as you Give Thanks.

Linda

Resurrection Sunday, Thank You Jesus!

March 31, 2024 nofearlindaLeave a comment

During our entire Lenten journey, we have pondered the meaning of Christ’s death on the cross and what it means for us in our lives today. Why do we care? Why? Because without Christ’s death and resurrection His life and death would have been meaningless and we would still be dead in our sins. We would be still lost in sin and face eternal death separated from God! In 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 Paul writes,”¹²But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? ¹³For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. ¹⁵And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. ¹⁶And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. ¹⁸In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! ¹⁹And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.”

Paul made this argument to clarify for the unbelievers and doubters that belief in the resurrection was essential to faith otherwise they would still have all their sins and be under penalty of death. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Belief in Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross and His victorious resurrection were essential to the Corinthian believer’s faith and are for us as well. Without the resurrection there is no forgiveness of sins and no victory over death! All of Christ’s suffering here on earth would have been for nothing.

I know that God is sovereign, all powerful and omniscient and nothing is left to chance or done randomly. Jesus prayed in John 17:3-4 just before His death, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. ⁴I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.” We know God’s plans will be accomplished, His Word, Jesus would not return to Him void. Isaiah 55:11 “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Job 42:2 also reminds us of this truth, ““I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” Praise God His purpose was not thwarted and was accomplished completely by Jesus’ death and resurrection from the dead. Praise God, our Redeemer Lives!

Because Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead, Your faith is real, your sins are forgiven, you will spend eternity with Jesus, you are empowered and indwelt by His Holy Spirit! Praise God!

Happy Easter! Blessings because of our risen Redeemer, Christ Jesus.

Linda

Palm Sunday, A Steep Descent He Made for Us

March 24, 2024 nofearlindaLeave a comment

Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem the week before Passover and His death on the cross is a wild an joyous event. I have walked the Palm Sunday Road and it is a very steep hill leading down from the Mt. of Olives that leads to the eastern gate. As I walked that road, I could see this scene in my mind that is included in all four gospels.

Matthew 21:1-11 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, ²saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” ⁴This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

⁵“Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

⁶The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. ⁷They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. ⁸Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” ¹⁰And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” ¹¹And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Blessings today as we usher in the final week of Jesus’ life on earth with Palms, Shouts of Hosanna and Praises to Messiah, the Lamb of God, who took away the sins of the world.

Linda

Jesus entered into the city through the eastern gate that is now closed. In later times the gate was blocked to keep Messiah from entering, not realizing that Jesus had already come that Palm Sunday so long ago.

Suggestion: As you praise God today in worship, choose an attribute of God that you are most thankful for and let God know what it means to you. Consider- Savior, His Grace and Mercy, Sovereignty, Faithfulness, His Hope, His Assurance of Salvation in Jesus, His granting Freedom from Sin or His Provision for you. Praise His Holy Name!

Beginning Lent with LOVE!

February 14, 2024 nofearlindaLeave a comment

I love this Valentine and see it as a fitting way to begin our Lenten Journey. We received this love gift from God our Father. Our response to His love is partly what Lent is about. How grateful are we for His extreme sacrifice to send His only Son to save us?

Shouldn’t we pause our day, more than once, to say I love you to the ones we care about? We could all use a valentine, to be loved and cherished by someone. We are very fortunate that we all have our heavenly Father who loves us beyond measure and expressed his great love by sending Jesus. Jesus explained God’s love in John 3:16-17.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that who ever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For He did not sent his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17

How much more love could God show towards us than sacrificing His only Son on our behalf? He loved us that much. He sent Him so that through faith in Jesus we could be saved and not condemned. Only sinless Jesus could erase our sin and present us whole and perfectly clean before our Holy God.

When you say ‘thank you’ today for a Valentine gift you receive, a card, note, flowers or someone simply saying ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’, think about thanking God too. Thank Him for sending Jesus. Thank Him for making a way for your salvation and eternal life with Him. That is the best Valentine I can think of that is filled with all of God’s love for now throughout eternity.

Blessings on this Valentine’s Day.

Linda

Because Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, we have an eternal Valentine in Jesus. Praise God for His abundant and abounding LOVE!

Happy New Year! 2024

January 1, 2024January 1, 2024 nofearlindaLeave a comment

Since this is January 1, 2024, Happy New Year is appropriate! What about this New Year to come? What hopes and dreams do you hold for the next 365 days? My daughter posted recently that the 365 days seem very long until you get to the end and then it seem like it passed in the blink of an eye. Since I’ve spent the last 5 days in bed with a virus cold, the first hope I have during the days to come is for health. This is such a fragile gift and yet we so often take it for granted.

My favorite verses to begin any New Year come from Lamentations 3:19-24. The prophet Jeremiah, had seen and experienced great hardship both physically and spiritually. The people of Israel were rebelling against God and Jeremiah felt that deeply as he sought to speak to the people about God. I have given you 3 translations for this passage. Each one brings new things to light and causes us to begin this year anew for the Lord with great Hope.

Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
    the wormwood and the gall!
²⁰My soul continually remembers it
    and is bowed down within me.
²¹But this I call to mind,
    and therefore I have hope: ²²The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
²³they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
²⁴“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.” (ESV)

The thought of my suffering and homelessness
    is bitter beyond words.
²⁰I will never forget this awful time,
    as I grieve over my loss.
²¹Yet I still dare to hope
    when I remember this: ²²The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
    His mercies never cease.
²³Great is his faithfulness;
    his mercies begin afresh each morning.
²⁴I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;
    therefore, I will hope in him!” (NLT)

^19-21I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness,
    the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed.
I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—
    the feeling of hitting the bottom.
But there’s one other thing I remember,
    and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: ^22-24God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
    his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning.
    How great your faithfulness!
I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).
    He’s all I’ve got left. (Message)

In spite of last years trials, will you like Jeremiah place your trust and hope in the Lord? He alone is faithful and will give us new mercies each and every morning. NO Place else can we get that assurance and hope. If you don’t feel His mercy in the midst of your turmoil, turn to Him and ask Him for insight to see where He is being merciful to you. Through Christ we have received God’s greatest mercy. 1 Peter 2:9-10 “⁹But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” Sending Jesus was God’s greatest gift of mercy towards us, begin this New Year with thanksgiving on your lips.

Happy New Year! Walk the next 365 with the Lord and experience HIs mercies each and every morning!

Linda

Reflections of 2023

December 31, 2023 nofearlinda1 Comment

My word for 2023 was Obedience. To me and my rebellious spirit, that is a tough word. I have found it calming this year as I have leaned into my walk with the Lord and waited upon Him. Obedience goes hand in hand with patience as I sought to follow Him and must reign myself in so that I do not run ahead. Personally, I set a goal of reading the entire Bible in a year, it seemed like an overwhelming task. As I committed my days to Him, set a time and a place for my reading, God was faithful to meet me there. I was amazed that only 1 or 2 times during the year did I miss a day and have to catch up on the reading. Even during my trip to Europe, I kept it up. Even during my visits to relatives, with my busy schedule, etc., I kept it up. God met me each and every day in His Word to guide me through. The two verses I choose for this year: Psalm 128:1 and Deuteronomy 10:12 have been beacons of hope and resolution throughout the year.

“Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him.’ Psalm 128:1

“And now, Linda, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deuteronomy 10:12

As we look forward to 2024, may we take some time today to reflect and thank God for His goodness and faithfulness to each of us. In this world filled with strife and turmoil, may we hold onto the Hope that we find in Jesus and know the God Keeps His Promises, all of them.

Linda

Pearl Harbor…Time to Remember their Sacrifice

December 7, 2023 nofearlindaLeave a comment

Today is the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor – December 7, 1941. It began 82 years ago at 7:55 am. If you have visited the Memorial over the sunken Arizona where the sailors are still entombed, you are sobered by their sacrifice. War is a terrible thing yet through it men rise to honor and sacrifice for their fellow men. Over 2,400 were killed and 1,000 wounded that day. The most causalities occurred on the USS Arizona as it was hit 4 times by Japanese bombers. A piece of trivia- 37 confirmed pairs or trios of brothers were assigned to the Arizona and this battle cost 62 of these 77 men their lives and 23 sets of brothers died. I can’t imagine the grief those families suffered all in one day. President Franklin D. Roosevelt described it as “a date that will live in infamy.” Just like September 11, 2001 will live on in our minds so should December 7th.

Say a prayer of gratitude today for the sacrifices of the men who died this day so long ago and for the men and women who continue to sacrifice their lives, time, talents and family time for our freedom.

Seeking to honor their sacrifice and service.

Linda

‘Immanuel’ Revealed in the Prophecy Candle Today

December 3, 2023 nofearlindaLeave a comment

During this time of year, we remember specifically different aspects of the Christmas story each Sunday of Advent. The four Sunday’s leading up to Christmas Eve are celebrated by the light of a candle remembering part of the Christmas story. The first is to be lit today. It is the Prophecy candle proclaiming the coming birth of Christ, Isaiah 7:14, and it represents hope. The second is the Bethlehem candle highlighting the manger and coming Christ child, Luke 2:12, and it represent love. The third is the Shepherd’s candle highlighting the announcement to the shepherds of Christ’s birth and it represents joy, Luke 2:8-11. The fourth is the Angel’s candle which represent peace from Luke 2:13-14. The last or center white candle is the Christ candle. This candle is lit on Christmas Eve and represents the arrival of our savior who came to cleanse us from sin, Isaiah 1:18.

Today’s verse from Isaiah was given hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. It is such a specific prophecy that it is amazing. “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” From this the Israelites were to expect their Messiah to have a miraculous birth and he would reveal God to them, as his name means ‘God with us’. Since he would be born, he would be a human child, but He would reveal himself as God. He would live with them and it would be as if God himself was with them. I can’t imagine how hopeful and yet confused they must have been to read this over the centuries. As time elapsed, they knew that God had promised them a flesh and blood representative to reveal God among them. It was a hope-filled message for them and for us. Today as we know Jesus came revealing God to all mankind. He died to redeem and reconcile us to God. His resurrection frees us from the bondage to sin and promises eternal life to all who believe in Him.

Today we learn that God is a god of HOPE. He wants us uplifted from our everyday lives with His blessed hope provided in Jesus. Jesus came to bring us hope so we would know ‘Immanuel’, God with us.

May you experience His hope today as you worship Him on this first Sunday of Advent.

Linda

The Blessedness of Waiting

December 2, 2023 nofearlindaLeave a comment

There are many Old Testament prophesies about the coming Messiah. One that leads directly into our story is that of John the Baptist. He was born just prior to Jesus to the aged parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth. His coming was foretold in Isaiah 40:3-4. His was to be a voice proclaiming the Messiah to come.

A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
    the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
    a highway for our God.
⁴Every valley shall be raised up,
    every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
    the rugged places a plain. The poetic words of Isaiah tell of one that will be proclaiming and preparing the Israelites that were willing and ready to listen for the coming of Jesus.

John’s lineage was from the line of Aaron as his father was a priest. The story of John’s conception and birth was a miracle to this older couple. Luke 1:5-7 gives the beginning of their history.

⁵In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. ⁶Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. ⁷But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.

These 2 servants of God did everything right. They followed God with their hearts and souls and they were observant doing what God commanded in their daily lives. In those days, being childless or barren was considered a curse from God. They might have felt that they were not doing as God desired for their lives, were sinning or perhaps they felt their ancestors had sinned. I’m sure they felt forgotten by God. However, it did not dampen their ardor or love for God. God knew their true hearts and their devotion to Him. Scripture sets the story straight that they had not sinned against God and were being punished by not having children but it was His timing for them to have a child in their old age. This sets them apart from others and makes the appearance of John, God’s messenger, all the more marvelous.

How often have you felt God is forgetting about you and your needs? Have you prayed fervently for your hearts desire and yet God seems not to hear. Perhaps, in your case as in that of Zechariah and Elizabeth, the timing is not yet right. God has a plan and His timing for events is always perfect. We do not see all the circumstances that surround our requests. We do not know all the people and things that are involved. Elizabeth and Zechariah prayed for a child and left the timing and the happening to God. They were blessed either way.

Take heart from the story of this godly couple and present your requests to God and then continue serving with all your heart and soul. God sees and God knows and God listens. Today’s truth about God’s is that His timing and ways are not our own and that requires us to TRUST Him with the details. God declared in Isaiah 55:8-9. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. ⁹“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.“

As the story unfolds we will see the great blessing that came to Zechariah and Elizabeth because of their willingness to wait upon the Lord.

Linda