Today’s thought – As to the Lord

stnd
Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.–I Corinthians 10:31

With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not unto men.–Ephesians 6:7

Surely the truth must
be, that whatsoever in our daily life is lawful
and right for us to be engaged in,
is in itself a part of our obedience to God;
a part, that is, of our very religion.
Whensoever we hear people complaining of obstructions
and hindrances put by the duties of life
in the way of devoting themselves to God,
we may be sure they are under some false view or other.
They do not look upon their daily work
as the task God has set them,
and as obedience due to Him.
We may go farther; and say,
not only that the duties of life,
be they never so toilsome and distracting,
are no obstructions to a life of any degree of inward holiness;
but that they are even direct means,
when rightly used, to promote our sanctification.
H. E. MANNING.

Do all, as to the Lord . . . Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on March 16, 2015 at 2:32 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Today’s thought – My Prayer

Feb 24 catch up 048The garden plot is resting,
waiting for the Farmer to bring plants and seed.

Good Morning

1 Kings 12:22
But the word of God came unto Shemaiah the man of God, saying,
23 Speak unto Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the remnant of the people, saying, 24 Thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel: return every man to his house; for this thing is from me. They hearkened therefore to the word of the Lord, and returned to depart, according to the word of the Lord.

“return every man to his house;”
no fighting
no hardness
no danger
return to your homes
return to your rest

“for this thing is from me”
God says,
“I have a plan
I have a reason
This is for your good.”

from streams in the Desert
by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
February 1

My child, I have a message for you today;
let me whisper it in your ear,
that it may gild with glory any storm clouds which may arise,
and smooth the rough places upon which you may have to tread.
It is short, only five words,
but let them sink into your inmost soul;
and use them as a pillow to rest your weary head.
“This thing is from me.”

Have you ever thought of it,
that all that concerns you concerns Me too? . . .

This day I place in your hands this pot of holy oil.
Make use of it freely, My child.
Let every circumstance that arises,
every word that pains you,
every interruption that would make you impatient,
and every revelation of your weakness
be anointed with it.
The sting will go as you learn to see Me in all things.
–Laura A. Barter Snow

Dear Lord,
Please, anoint my day . . .
according to your will. Thank you. Amen

With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on March 10, 2015 at 4:34 am  Leave a Comment  
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Today’s thought – The Whole Duty of Man

farmer's tan 8-17-11Evidence of hours of working in the sun by the Farmer.

Good Morning

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
All has been heard; the end of the matter is: Fear God [revere and worship Him, knowing that He is] and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man [the full, original purpose of his creation, the object of God’s providence, the root of character, the foundation of all happiness, the adjustment to all inharmonious circumstances and conditions under the sun] and the whole [duty] for every man.
14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it is good or evil. Amplified Bible

The Old Man’s Comforts
and how He gained them.

You are old, Father William, the young man cried,
The few locks which are left you are grey;
You are hale, Father William, a hearty old man,
Now tell me the reason I pray.

In the days of my youth, Father William replied,
I remember’d that youth would fly fast,
And abused not my health and my vigour at first
That I never might need them at last.

You are old, Father William, the young man cried,
And pleasures with youth pass away,
And yet you lament not the days that are gone,
Now tell me the reason I pray.

In the days of my youth, Father William replied,
I remember’d that youth could not last;
I thought of the future whatever I did,
That I never might grieve for the past.

You are old, Father William, the young man cried,
And life must be hastening away;
You are chearful, and love to converse upon death!
Now tell me the reason I pray.

I am chearful, young man, Father William replied,
Let the cause thy attention engage;
In the days of my youth I remember’d my God!
And He hath not forgotten my age.
Robert Southey.

Duty first . . . Today
with my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on March 5, 2015 at 11:26 am  Leave a Comment  
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Today’s thought – Fear Not

Feb 24 catch up 023Blueberry blossoms!

Good afternoon

Isaiah 41:8-14
8 But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraham My friend,

9 You whom I [the Lord] have taken from the ends of the earth
and have called from the corners of it,
and said to you, You are My servant—
I have chosen you and not cast you off
[even though you are exiled].

10 Fear not [there is nothing to fear],
for I am with you;
do not look around you in terror and be dismayed,
for I am your God.
I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties,
yes, I will help you;
yes, I will hold you up and retain you
with My [victorious] right hand of rightness and justice.

11 Behold, all they who are enraged and inflamed against you
shall be put to shame and confounded;
they who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish.

12 You shall seek those who contend with you
but shall not find them;
they who war against you shall be as nothing,
as nothing at all.

13 For I the Lord your God hold your right hand;
I am the Lord,
Who says to you,
Fear not; I will help you!

14 Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel!
I will help you, says the Lord;
your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
Amplified Bible

My Bible reading . . . Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on March 2, 2015 at 2:30 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Today’s thought – ‘ . . . and do good, . . .’

Feb 24 catch up 010Three weeks until Spring!

Psalm 37:3
Trust in the Lord, and do good;
so shalt thou dwell in the land,
and verily thou shalt be fed.

Let us bow our souls and say,
“Behold the handmaid of the Lord!”
Let us lift up our hearts and ask,
“Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do?”
Then light from the opened heaven
shall stream on our daily task,
revealing the grains of gold,
where yesterday all seemed dust;
a hand shall sustain us and our daily burden,
so that, smiling at yesterday’s fears, we shall say,
“This is easy, this is light;” every “lion in the way,”
as we come up to it,
shall be seen chained,
and leave open the gates of the Palace Beautiful;
and to us, even to us,
feeble and fluctuating as we are,
ministries shall be assigned,
and through our hands blessings shall be conveyed
in which the spirits of just men made perfect might delight.
ELIZABETH CHARLES.

Doing . . . Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on February 28, 2015 at 12:18 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Today’s thought Thou art Mine

Feb 24 catch up 013A reblooming orchid

Good Morning

Isaiah 43:1
But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob,
and He that formed thee, O Israel,
Fear not: for I have redeemed thee,
I have called thee by thy name;
thou art mine.

God beholds thee individually,
whoever thou art.
“He calls thee by thy name.”
He sees thee,
and understands thee.
He knows what is in thee,
all thy own peculiar feelings and thoughts,
thy dispositions and likings,
thy strength and thy weakness.
He views thee in thy day of rejoicing
and thy day of sorrow.
He sympathizes in thy hopes
and in thy temptations;
He interests himself in all
thy anxieties and thy remembrances,
in all the risings and fallings of thy spirit.
He compasses thee round,
and bears thee in His arms;
He takes thee up and sets thee down.
Thou dost not love thyself better
than He loves thee.
Thou canst not shrink from pain
more than He dislikes thy bearing it,
and if He puts it on thee,
it is as thou wilt put it on thyself,
if thou art wise,
for a greater good afterwards.
J. H. NEWMAN.

Lord, help me be wise . . . Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on February 27, 2015 at 4:08 am  Leave a Comment  
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Today’s thought – This is Mine

Feb 24 catch up 042Ring around the tree with spring flowers.

Good Morning

Joshua 1:3-5
Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast. 5 There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

An old colored man,
who had a marvelous experience in grace,
was asked:
“Daniel, why is it that you have so much peace and joy in religion?”
“O Massa!” he replied,
“I just fall flat on the exceeding great and precious promises,
and I have all that is in them.
Glory! Glory!”

He who falls flat on the promises feels
that all the riches embraced in them are his.

—Faith Papers

Walk through the pages of God’s promises . . .Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on February 26, 2015 at 4:55 am  Leave a Comment  
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Today’s thought – To Do Good

delectable mountains“Delectable Mountains”
a quilt I made that did win a ribbon for “Viewer’s Choice.”

Good Morning

Hebrews 13:16
But to do good and to communicate forget not:
for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

One day while driving down a country road,
a woman maned Ruth passed a small, wooden house
with a sign outside that read
“Quilts for Sale.”
She stopped,
knocked on the door,
and was greeted by [Martha],
a little old woman in a faded gingham dress.

Martha led Ruth to a large cupboard
and showed her beautiful quilts
of every color and pattern imaginable.
Pinned on each one was a blue ribbon.

“I make quilts, too,” Ruth said,
“but I’ve never been able to win a blue ribbon.”

Martha replied, “My child,
maybe your quilts don’t have heart.
Do you only want the blue ribbon?
Every one of mine was made
with someone special in mind.”

We live in a day of shallow superlatives.
Entertainers and athletes perform feats
hailed “the greatest” by the world.
But truly great endeavors are those done
for Jesus with some needy person in mind.
And they bear the mark of eternal excellence.
~~~Dennis J. Dehaan

Matthew 25:40
And the King shall answer and say unto them,
Verily I say unto you,
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one
of the least of these my brethren,
ye have done it unto me.

Forget not – Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on February 25, 2015 at 12:13 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Today’s thought – Wait Patiently

star wallpaperStar Magnolia,
one of my favorite spring flowers.

Good Morning

Psalms 37:7
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him

Have you prayed and prayed and waited and waited,
and still there is no manifestation?

Are you tired of seeing nothing move?
Are you just at the point of giving it all up?
Perhaps you have not waited in the right way?
This would take you out of the right place—
the place where He can meet you.

“With patience wait” (Rom. 8:25).
Patience takes away worry.
He said He would come,
and His promise is equal to His presence.
Patience takes away your weeping.
Why feel sad and despondent?
He knows your need better than you do,
and His purpose in waiting is to bring more glory out of it all.
Patience takes away self-works.
The work He desires is that you “believe” (John 6:29),
and when you believe, you may then know that all is well.
Patience takes away all want.
Your desire for the thing you wish is perhaps stronger
than your desire for the will of God to be fulfilled in its arrival.

Patience takes away all weakening.
Instead of having the delaying time,
a time of letting go,
know that God is getting a larger supply ready
and must get you ready too.
Patience takes away all wobbling.
“Make me stand upon my standing” (Daniel 8:18, margin).
God’s foundations are steady;
and when His patience is within,
we are steady while we wait.
Patience gives worship.
A praiseful patience sometimes “long-suffering with joyfulness” (Col. 1:11)
is the best part of it all.
“Let (all these phases of) patience have her perfect work” (James 1:4),
while you wait, and you will find great enrichment.
–C. H. P.

Hold steady when the fires burn,
When inner lessons come to learn,
And from this path there seems no turn
“Let patience have her perfect work.”
–L.S.P.

Praiseful patience . . . Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on February 23, 2015 at 12:26 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Today’s thought – Look up, and Out

Good Morning,

Colossians 3:12-13
Put on therefore, a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, if any man have a complaint against any; even as the Lord forgave you, so also do ye.

Self-preoccupation,
Self-broodings,
Self-interest,
Self-love,–
these are the reasons
why you go jarring against your fellows.
Turn your eyes off yourself;
look up, and out.
There are men, your brothers,
And women, your sisters;
they have needs that you can aid.
Listen for their confidences:
keep your heart wide open to their calls,
and your hands alert for their service.
Learn to give, and not to take;
to drown your own hungry wants
in the happiness of lending yourself
to fulfill the interest of those nearest or dearest.
Look up and out,
from this narrow, cabined self of yours,
and you will jar no longer;
you will fret no longer,
you will provoke no more;
but you will,
To your own glad surprise,
find the secret of
“the meekness and gentleness of Jesus”;
and the fruits of the Spirit will bud and blossom
From out of your life.
~~~Henry Scott Holland

Learn . . . Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on February 21, 2015 at 4:00 am  Leave a Comment  
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Today’s thought – A Devout Will

IMG_5249A place from which flowers grew, Grandma’s love

Good Afternoon

Psalm 43:5
Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
and why art thou disquieted within me?
hope in God:
for I shall yet praise him,
who is the health of my countenance,
and my God.

Sometimes we are disturbed
because we have no devout feelings;
but what we want is a devout will.
We cannot always control the imagination,
but we can always do
that which is our duty
carefully and patiently,
with a view to pleasing God,
and proving our love to Him.

We may feel cold and mechanical,
but we cannot fulfil our appointed duty
without an exercise of the will,
and therefore all duties diligently performed
testify a desire to love,
and prove our love.
H. L. Sidney Lear

John 14:23
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him

Ignore feelings . . . Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on February 12, 2015 at 1:44 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Today’s thought – Obedience

iris nove 2011 002Early blooming old fashioned Iris

Good Morning

Jeremiah 7:23
Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people:
and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you,
that it may be well unto you.

Pray Him to give you what Scripture calls
“an honest and good heart,”
or “a perfect heart;”
and, without waiting,
begin at once to obey Him
with the best heart you have.
Any obedience is better than none.
You have to seek His face;
obedience is the only way of seeing Him.
All your duties are obediences.
To do what He bids is to obey Him,
and to obey Him is to approach Him.
Every act of obedience is an approach–
an approach to Him
who is not far off,
though He seems so,
but close behind this visible screen of things
which hides Him from us.
J. H. NEWMAN.

Approach God . . . Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on February 10, 2015 at 4:14 am  Leave a Comment  
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Today’s thought – In the Thick Darkness

clouds

Good Morning

Exodus 20:21
And the people stood afar off,
and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness
where God was.

God has still His hidden secrets,
hidden from the wise and prudent.
Do not fear them;
be content to accepts things that you cannot understand;
wait patiently.
Presently He will reveal to you the treasures of darkness,
the riches of the glory of the mystery.
Mystery is only the veil of God’s face.

Do not be afraid to enter the cloud
that is settling down on your life. God is in it.
The other side is radiant with His glory.
“Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial
which is to try you, as
though some strange thing happened unto you;
but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings.”
When you seem the loneliest and most forsaken,
God is nigh.
He is in the dark cloud.
Plunge into the blackness of its darkness without flinching;
under the shrouding curtain of His pavilion
you will find God awaiting you. ~~Selected

Hast thou a cloud?
Something that is dark and full of dread;
A messenger of tempest overhead?
A something that is darkening the sky;
A something growing darker bye and bye;
A something that thou fear’st will burst at last;
A cloud that doth a deep and long shadow cast,
God cometh in that cloud.

Hast thou a cloud?
It is Jehovah’s car; in this
He rideth to thee, o’re the wide abyss.
It is the robe in which He wraps His form;
For He doth gird Him with the flashing storm.
It is the veil in which He hides the light
Of His fair face, too dazzling for thy sight.
God cometh in that cloud.

Hast thou a cloud?
A trial that is terrible to thee?
A black temptation threatening to see?
A loss of some dear one long thine own?
A mist, a veiling, bringing the unknown?
A mystery that unsubstantial seems;
A cloud between thee and the sun’s bright beams?
God cometh in that cloud.

Hast thou a cloud?
A sickness–weak old age–distress and death?
These clouds will scatter at thy last faint breath.
Fear not the clouds that hover o’re thy bark,
Making the harbor’s entrance dire and dark;
The cloud of death, though misty , chill and cold,
Will yet grow radiant with a fringe of gold.
GOD cometh in that cloud.

Trust God in the cloud . . .Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on February 7, 2015 at 1:02 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Today’s thought – Sorrow

shells

Good Morning

Exodus 3:7
And the LORD said,
I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt,
and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters;
for I know their sorrows;

That sorrow which can be seen is the lightest form really,
however apparently heavy;
then there is that which is not seen,
secret sorrows yet can be put into words,
and can be told to near friends
as well as be poured out to God;
but there are sorrows beyond these,
such as are never told,
and cannot be put into words,
and may only be wordlessly laid before God:
these are the deepest.
Now comes the supply for each:
“I have seen”
that which is patent and external;
“I have heard their cry,”
which is the expression of this,
and of as much of the external as is expressible;
but this would not go deep enough,
so God adds,
“I know their sorrows,”
down to very depths of all,
those which no eye sees or ear ever heard.
F. R. Havergal

Laying all at Jesus feet . . .Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on February 5, 2015 at 4:45 am  Leave a Comment  
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Today’s thought – ‘In As Much . . .’

P1030633“His eye is on . . .”

Good Morning

Is not this the fast that I have chosen?
Isaiah 58:6

1Thessalonians 5:14
And we earnestly beseech you, brethren, . . .
encourage the timid and fainthearted,
help and give your support to the weak souls,
[and] be very patient with everybody
[always keeping your temper].AMP

Forgive us
if this day
we have done or said anything
to increase the pain of the world.
Pardon the unkind word,
the impatient gesture,
the hard and selfish deed,
the failure to show sympathy and kindly help
where we had the opportunity,
but missed it;
and enable us so to live
that we may daily
do something
to lessen the tide of human sorrow,
and add to the sum of human happiness.
F. B. Meyer

Matthew 25:40
And the King shall answer and say unto them,
Verily I say unto you,
Inasmuch as ye have done it
unto one of the least of these my brethren,
ye have done it unto me.

Enable me . . .Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on February 3, 2015 at 11:59 am  Leave a Comment  
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