I Can Think Clearly Now

by Barbara Chadwick

Ephesians 1:3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing... And verse 16: I do notcease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.

These words of Paul speak to my feelings about my family. What a blessing they are to me. I hold each name in my hand every day and visually hold them up to God in prayer. But these are my thoughts onNew Year's Day of 2008."

The house is quiet. I can think clearly now. What a joy it was to have them all here, and how it blesses me to know they wanted to come. It was a lovely time of sharing, playing, kidding, singing, gifting, receiving, noise and laughter. I know I'll want them to come again, as often as they can. But, this morning, right now, I can think clearly again.

God Has A Plan For Your Life

by Barbara Chadwick

Genesis 16:6-13 (The Message)The story of Hagar, Sarai's maid

Hagar is running away. Her heart is heavy. She thinks her situationis hopeless. She is scared, confused, pregnant and alone. In verse 7God speaks to her, "Hagar, what are you doing here?" and in verse 9He says in essence, "Go home." The God of grace and mercy gave herhope that day. In verse 13 we see her response to the God of tendermercy who reached down to the barren desert and touched the heart ofa girl whose heart was aching, "She answered God by name, praying tothe God who spoke to her, 'You're the God who sees me!"

God saw her. He knew her life story - all the parts before this andall the parts yet to come. He had a plan for her life.

God has a plan for your life too. In Jeremiah 29:11 God says, "I knowthe plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you,plans to give you hope and a future.

"Where are you today? Jeremiah 29:12-13 show how God will respond ifyou call on His name, "... you will call upon me and come and pray tome, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when youseek me with all your heart."

BUT… (Part II) …Shut Up & Color

by Audrey Wauson

Compare the Last generation’s reaction (Numbers 13) to God’s desire to bring them into a wonderful and glorious place with the Next generation’s reaction (Joshua 1)…

Joshua 1:1-11 After the death of Moses the LORD's servant, the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' assistant. He said, "Moses My servant is dead. Therefore, the time has come for you to lead these people, the Israelites, across the Jordan River into the land I am giving them. I promise you what I promised Moses: 'Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you—from the Negev wilderness in the south to the Lebanon mountains in the north, from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, including all the land of the Hittites.' No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you.

"Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do.

Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.

This is My command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

…Joshua then commanded the officers of Israel, "Go through the camp and tell the people to get their provisions ready. In three days you will cross the Jordan River and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you."

…Jos 1:16 They answered Joshua, "We will do whatever you command us, and we will go wherever you send us.

While we were stationed in Panama, one day my husband was in his commander’s office griping. Finally, his commander just looked at him and said, “Ssgt Wauson, just shut up and color.” We can either focus on the negative, coloring our world in ugly, non-matching colors, and be like that generation that died in the wilderness…just a stone’s throw from the promised land … OR we can accept that God knows what He’s talking about … We can believe that if God tells us to do something, even though it might be hard, or scary, or … He is God, and He knows what He’s asking us to do, and He knows that we can do it with His help …. and “just shut up and color.” We can color our world with the beautiful colors of peace, joy, love. We can color our thoughts with everything that is pure, and lovely. (Philippians 4:8) What color is your world?

BUT . . .(Part I)

by Audrey Wauson

Numbers 13 The LORD now said to Moses, "Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the Israelites. Send one leader from each of the twelve ancestral tribes." This was their report to Moses: "We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces.

But … There always seems to be a “but” when we want to complain, gripe, or whine. They told the truth about the promised land, briefly describing the benefits, BUT… they spent twice the time describing the things that worried them.

Numbers 13:30 …Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. "Let's go at once to take the land," he said. "We can certainly conquer it!" Caleb saw the benefits and wanted to focus their attention on “whatever is good, whatever is right, whatever is of a good report” (Philippians 4:8) BUT… is very difficult to quell a negative rise. Negativity is SO contagious. The rest of the chapter is their negative encouragement to each other, their egging each other on by worse and worse predictions.

What “But’s” are keeping you from living a victorious, full-of-joy, Christian life?

Waiting

by Barbara Chadwick

Genesis 7:6-10
Verse 10 says, "and after seven days the flood waters came."

Seven days in the boat with a wife, daughters-in-law and who knows
how many animals. Waiting.

Do you remember that waiting mode? What to do with yourself while you
wait to hear whether you got that position; or waiting to hear the
results of a medical test; or waiting for a baby - those last few
days before labor begins or waiting to get pregnant.

Waiting on the Lord's timing. It's hard.

Do you fret or trust? Do your take things into you own hands (like
taking castor oil to see if it will jump-start labor) or just rest in
God's providential care and timing?
Do you complain or be grateful?
Do you whine or sing?
Do you cry or pray?

We do cry and whine and complain sometimes and tell the Lord about
our pain. That's OK. But, it is vital for us to praise Him for His
majesty and Glory. Thank Him because He has considered us worthy to
bear His name; and it is very important for us to pray for Him to
give us grace and strength.

He has promised that when we go through the waters He'll be there.

V-Day Romance

by Audrey Wauson

My husband is what you might call sporadically romantic. He doesn’t consistently send flowers or cards, nor is he a guy who tells me all kinds of wonderful sweet gushy stuff. But he does show, prove, demonstrate his love by his actions. First of all he’s never left me. Second, he has been oh so very faithful to me. Third, he does these random incredibly romantic things that always catch me off guard. I mean I get to thinking the guy simply doesn’t have one romantic bone in his body and then …Then in 2002, he plans this Valentine’s Day retreat. Knowing how social I am, he told me that he planned this really great V-Day retreat for us. He said he’d made plans for just the two of us to go camping … at Lake Brownwood … in February … (what in the world was he thinking?) He said he was taking his fishing gear and camping gear and that I should bring casual clothes and probably something to do while he was fishing … I was really trying to think positive thoughts. I mean he was so eager and excited…but all I could think of was, “Wow, this is his idea of a great get-a-way for two?” I’m having to say that I was really talking to God about just how extensive his brain surgery was (melanoma tumor 1997), and whether or not I should pop his bubble and explain to him that this wasn’t my idea of a great time. But I decided to just keep my mouth shut and enjoy what I could about the weekend.

I’m so glad I did because unbeknownst to me he had talked to the husbands of three of my friends and they went in together and rented these cabins at the lake. When Larry and I arrived, I noticed that he was acting a little bit strange, but this whole plan was strange to me. Then I heard some honking and cars driving up. (Larry and my friend’s husbands had each rented cabins next to each other.) So here were my closest friends and their husbands there at the lake with us! I was so surprised! We never used the tents and he never went fishing! We had the most amazing weekend and made some of the very best memories. It was awesome. It even snowed in Texas that weekend! He had really out-done himself to plan such an exciting weekend for me.

God is like that. He’s always faithful. He always loves us. But sometimes He just does things that are so beyond are imaging that it just takes our breath away. Please know this Valentine’s Day that you are a beautiful creation of God and He just delights to be with you. He longs to spend time with you. And He is at the very moment making plans for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

Happy Valentine’s Day!

LOVE IS . . .

by Barbara Chadwick

Thursday of this week is Valentine’s Day. Kenneth always does something nice. He brings flowers or candy, takes me out to eat and gives me a beautiful card. However, when we first got married 50 years ago he didn’t even know the month of February had a day dedicated to love! He has grown in so many ways.

One of Kenneth’s favorite quotes is, “Love is an incircumrotary pit-a-pat upon the suffocation of the heart that causes a complete oblivion of the intra-ramotus.” It certainly describes that ooey-gooey feeling you first have for someone.

Paul says in I Corinthians 13:4-5, “Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.There were a lot of times when my love was not patient nor was it kind. There were times when I was a whole lot more interested in myself than in him. Also, I can’t tell you how many times I brought up a vast “record of wrongs.” I, too, have grown a lot! I make his favorite dessert and give him a card.It was by the grace of God that we both grew and persevered. There is a quote by Judith Viorst in the March issue of Reader’s Digest that says, “One advantage of marriage is that when you fall out of love with him or he falls out of love with you, it keeps you together until you fall in love again.”The biblical concept of love is that it is a 365 - 24/7 thing. Love is an action not an emotion. In this “love chapter” of I Corinthians Paul says “if you do not have love, you have nothing!”

So, this week do something extra for the love of your life. Something he will recognize as a gesture of love.