Excerpt: The Pursuit of God, The Human Thirst for the Divine, A.W. Tozer

O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, The Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away." Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wondered so long. In Jesus' name. Amen
Excerpt: The Pursuit of God, The Human Thirst for the Divine, A.W. Tozer

Monday, January 15, 2018

The King of the Jews

Reading in Mark 15 today.  Verse 26, "And the superscription of his accusation was written over (his head), THE KING OF THE JEWS."  Verse 39, “And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.”
The LORD spoke to my heart, "Vicky, if 'they' arrested you for being a Christian, and you were convicted and sentenced to death, what superscription would they give you for the world to see?  Are you living such a life that will bring me honor even in your death?  What will those who knew you say of you?  Will it bring honor and glory to my name?"

She loved her husband and was faithful to him.
She loved her children and would do anything for them.
She loved her grandchildren.....she loved her church family.....she loved..............

Those are things they could write about me.  But, could they say, "She loved Jesus and was faithful to Him and would do anything for Him.  She served Him well!"  I have to ask myself these questions, "Am I serving my Savior well?"  I hope that I am, but I'm pretty sure I'm not.  "Do I love Him with my WHOLE heart?"  I hope that I do, but I'm pretty sure that I don't.  "Would I do ANYTHING for Him?"  "Would I go ANYWHERE for Him?"  I hope that I would.  But I don't know.  Furthermore, I don't know that I want to be tested to find out!  Maybe that confession gives me the answer, but I don't know.

I like to think that when persecution comes I will stand firm in my Christianity.  I want to.  I really do!  I pray that my premeditation will help me to stand.  And having done all to stand!

Lord, I really, REALLY do want my life to count for you.  I know that I fail you every day in one way or another.  Make me aware of the failures, Lord, so that I can allow you to right the wrongs in my private life before they bring shame upon your name in my public life.  I want to finish well, Lord, but I can only do it with your help!



Today was a slow day.  I didn't even realize it was MLK day until I heard Ilene asking someone about being off today.  I wish I had know, then I could have made plans to spend some time with the grandkids who were off school today.  Oh well, maybe next time!

We had our breakfast, did our devotion and read our Bibles.  We finally got dressed around 11:00, maybe.  Then our dear friend, Carolyn, came over to visit with us today.  She lives about 5 minutes from Ilene.  She packed her lunch and brought it with her.  We would gladly have served her lunch, but she is dieting and had cottage cheese and a few saltine crackers.  Ilene and I ate a nice salad with chicken on it.  We also ate and shared a few captain's wafers with cream cheese and green onion spread on them.

Carolyn helped us with a puzzle today.  Ilene's daughter stopped by on the way home from work and helped some, too!  But they had to leave around 4, so that left Ilene and I to finish the puzzle.  And we were determined to finish the puzzle today!

This is one of the 1000 piece puzzles I got at the thrift store for $0.49.  I normally will not buy a puzzle if it is not new.  And this one clearly was not a new puzzle.  But for the price I decided to take a chance!  We started working on it yesterday afternoon between church services.  There were several pieces we were "missing" during the time of putting the puzzle together that we just could not see among the pieces, including one border piece.  BUT, as we got more and more pieces into the puzzle, we began finding some of the ones we thought were missing!   And, voila!  By the time we were nearly done, we knew all of the pieces were going to be there!  This was a hard puzzle, but it was fun, too!  And it is a beautiful picture!  LOVE the cabin!  The snowman is fishing in the pond with a candy cane hook.  There are 4 birds in the picture:  a cardinal, gold finch, chickadee and a blue jay.  There is a moose between the trees up by the cabin.  There is a deer on the right of the lighted tree on the right.  And a goose in the water.  That was a puzzle worth a LOT more than I paid for it!  I'm glad!  That gives me encouragement that all of the others I bought for the same price will be whole!




Tonight after our supper, we finished the puzzle and then decided to watch a couple of movies off of a DVD that I brought over from the parsonage.  Ilene has gone to bed now and I am headed there as soon as I finish this!

And, that was it for our Monday!

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