clean hands

Benjamin reached for the baby. Fresh in from working, he bounced him on his knee. It was a sweet picture…



























...until I noticed his hands.

They were filthy. 

He shouldn't be holding a baby with such dirty hands.

Sometimes we pray things that we don’t fully understand; I clearly remember mine … 

“Lord, give me clean hands and a pure heart”

Today, while watching my brother’s hands, I understand why I prayed that.

I touch so many people in a day. Before I reach out, do I look at my hands? 

Love compels me to turn them over and look closely. Are they dirty?

Christ in me wants to keep you clean. So I resist reaching out…

until I have gone to Him and He has washed my hands clean.  

Stand firm

The little bug had chosen a feeble escape. Up the stem it crawled, pausing to hold on for dear life as gusts of wind blew at the flower... 

 ...eventually the wind calmed and the little bug crawled confidently to its destination.

On His Path there will be many ‘winds’ that try to loosen our footing and blow us off our course.

He has given us something to hold on to-

                                         grip tightly-your very Life depends on it. 

“By standing firm you will gain life.”-Luke 21:19

"If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all." Isa. 7:9

May our steps be sure and strong ones.

A Cup of Thoughtfulness

When I was at my Grandparents this past week my Grampa did something that made a huge impression on me.

He warmed my coffee cup…every morning.

Oh, you might be thinking, just that? I was expecting something a little more profound!

It’s the little acts of thoughtfulness, consistently carried out, that make the deepest impressions on the heart. 

As I wrapped my hands around my cup and felt the warmth, I thought of my Grampa. 

How he could of just warmed his own…

…but he thought of me and decided to warm mine too.

Now as I remember my Grampa, the sweetest memory is a warm cup, waiting for me on the counter. 

A cup of thoughtfulness goes a long, long way.

the dew descends

"I will be like the dew..."

"When all nature is at rest, not a leaf moving, then at evening the dew comes down...

...no eye to see the pearly drops descending, no ear to hear them falling on the verdant grass...

...so does the Spirit come to you who believe.
When the heart is at rest in Jesus-unseen, unheard by all the world-the Spirit comes, and softly fills the believing soul, quickening all, renewing all within."

 "If I go away I will send Him unto you".

"Dear little ones, whom God hath chosen out of this world, you are like Gideon's fleece, the Lord will fill you with dew when all around is dry. 
You are His vineyard of  red wine; He says, I will water it every moment-silently, unfelt, unseen but surly."

"A calm hour with God is worth  a whole lifetime with man"-Robert .M.M

Excerpt from a letter written by Robert Murray M'Cheyne 

Spring Storm

The spring winds blow hard. I watch the trees bend to and fro; nearly it seems, to their breaking point.  

Last year’s stubborn leaves, brown and lifeless, fight to hold on against the force.

But the wind is stronger. 

The rain falls in torrents.

 The rivers swell until they can not hold another drop. They surge and scatter the fallen limbs and brush that have collected on their banks.    

                

As I watch this spring storm Hebrews 12: 26-29 comes to mind. “Shake everything that can be shaken…may only what cannot be shaken remain.”

I embrace the wind that tugs free selfishness and pride. 

I welcome it...because I have complete faith in the God who sends it. 

"He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses. Ps. 135:7"