The countdown has started…2…

3 days…to go..

When I used to do wedding coordination, it was a bout this time the the bride either turned into a Bridezilla  or was to the point of, “let’s just get this over and don’t worry if something is not coming together”…. 

Both had its challenges…you want your dream wedding to come true, the party does, but sometimes it just doesn’t  happen that way…flexibility is key on all fronts…whether the mother of the bride is living her dream vicariously through her daughter or the Pinterest pictures just aren’t matching up or whatever…

Another verse that may be a theme for the service is..

Genesis 2: 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Or…

Colossians 3: 12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

The first being a united front together…so important…. I have seen so many marriages broken up or challenged by parents 

Interfering  with the couple’s decision making or whatever…

The second set of verses speak again of love,  humility, patience, forgiveness, ,etc…all of which speak of unity …which is beyond price….

Thank YOU, 

To have and to hold…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p5Z6PpRDSI

 The countdown has started…

At the end on this week another grandchild will marry…that is number four and then there is a break until the next group comes of age…

So the time schedules are written out, what each participant, helper is doing…and already there are changes…who flies in at what time, who is arriving by car, van, etc…

The weather is supposed to be great, clothes are purchased in the right colors, everyone is lined out for vehicles, motels, airbnbs, meals…

As we are in the wedding mood in this family, I thought is would be interesting to ask Siri what the most used scripture passages are for weddings..haven’t asked “her “ opinion before…but as I looked up the question, the websites were pretty consistent in their answers…

1. 1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

The love verses…just think if we could  take these to heart all the time in marriages and relationships…along with the fruit of the Spirit…Galatians 5: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

2.Ephesians 5: 22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

There are a lot more instructions for the husband than the wife…we get hung up on the submission in the first sentence and fly past the rest…what mutual love for one another…each is cherished by the other…Christ loves us so much and gave his life for us, the Bride…

Thank YOU…

Love is patient…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8SxizK1kdc

 

Dry ground…

In the midst of troubles and hardship, we wait for a light at the end of the tunnel, hoping it is not just another train…

Miraculously, God, with his mighty hand opened the sea, dried it and allowed the Israelites to walk across, not mired in the mud, but safety…

However, the conquering enemy got bogged down until the sea closed its gap, successfully ending their chase….

A new song filled their hearts…the Song of Moses….filled with praise…

The Lord has triumphed….for his people…

When life is rough for us, and then God intervenes giving us new light, don’t we want to  sing a new song as well…a song of praise…

Exodus 15: 2 The Lord is my strength and my song,

    and he has become my salvation;

this is my God, and I will praise him,

    my father's God, and I will exalt him."

Thank YOU…..

The song of Moses….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRGKRHo6o0Y

The horse and rider…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwM4214SRYU

 The Lord has triumphed….

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UWfaTP6yKsc

 600+ chariots…2…

Yesterday it was 600+ , plus an army…

Exodus 14:9 The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtookthem as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.

The Israelites were trapped…they cried out…and the Lord said to move forward…(what , into the sea, won’t we drown)….

Exodus 14:…. Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. 17 I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. 18 The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”

19 Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them,20 coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided,22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

Divided water, light/dark, people groups….no human can do that…only God…and this was after the plagues …God claimed these people as his own…and he took care of them as he promised…

In the New Testament, we have the verses in the book of Romans…

Romans 8:

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”fn

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,fn neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,

39 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.

What a promise…we may have a sea looming before us or an army  behind us as the Israelites did, but, God is for us as he was them…

He hasn’t changed…

Thank YOU….

Our God…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-JZ9KsI7YI

 600 + chariots….

Can you imagine 600+ chariots racing after you…?  What an awesome, frightening sight!  Not only that, but they were ready for war on families with  belongings, children…no weapons and caught on one side by the sea and nowhere to go….

I think of the old movies, Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments or newer one, Chronicles of Narnia…or other movies with casts of thousands coming across the plains ready for war…

And there stands Moses, “ 13 Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never seeagain. 14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14….

Would your heart quake and tremble? Mine would…they weren’t used to this kind of salvation…they had been slaves to this army for generations…they knew their human power and now were going to really see God’s…his promises made true…there was no way out except God’s…

The thing is, we have that same God who works the same way for us…we may not be seeing armies and chariots chasing us…a full sea behind us….but there are times when we are just as penned in and we need the Lord to fight for us….and we need only to be still and wait…

We don’t have a Moses to lead, but we have the Holy Spirit to speak truth, God to give peace, Jesus to save….what an army….

Thank YOU….

Our God will go before us…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmEYeZB8dDI

 Retreat….

This past weekend a friend and I went to a women’s retreat in McCall, ID…

Martha Peace was the speaker…

https://marthapeacetew.blogspot.com

She has written many books…most notable, “The Excellent Wife” 30 years ago and is still timely…

One of her topics was, “Abounding Hope in the Midst of trials”…

How timely is that…

 We either blame God or be grateful…both affect us …either positively or negatively….it is our choice… 

Isaiah 45:7 everyone who is called by my name,

    whom I created for my glory,

    whom I formed and made.”

Do we glorify God in the things we do, ways we act, words we say…

 1 Peter 1: . 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2     Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Thank YOU…

Psalm 100 ….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaL_VeHil6U

 Another day…

I remember my first cancer infusion like it was yesterday…. I was petrified, so petrified I was shaking all over…. I thought as a believer in the Comforter, creator of the universe, I wasn’t a very good example. My heart felt like it would pound out of my chest. So I “walked the plank” arriving at the clinic…family was with me, we walked in to face the music…as I silently screamed, “please, please help me!”…

Shown the cubicle in which I would become acquainted, looking around , there was the rack of meds, a huge window to look upon the pond outside, a nice lounge chair, and a TV…

As I stood there for the first time, all of the sudden a peace filtered through…we started the infusion and went forward…none were easy , but that petrified feeling remained at bay… that peace that passes all understanding…

Today I am here again…that infusion chair, those meds that flow into my veins…it is easier, not totally…but signs of cancer for a year now…prayers of many and  God saw me thorough…

Thank YOU…

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know (Jeremiah 33:3 NIV).

Habakkuk 3: 17 Though the fig tree does not bud
    and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
    and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
    and no cattle in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
    I will be joyful in God my Savior.

19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
    he enables me to tread on the heights.

Through it all…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh-tRWA11HE