Wisdom & Understanding

"Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; Save me, and I shall be saved, For You are my praise." Jeremiah 17:14  So many times when we think of the word "healing", we think of physical healing, which certainly makes sense. I know that when my body is in pain, first thing I do is pray for healing; but there is another kind of healing that is just as important...  The portion of scripture above was a prayer by the Prophet Jeremiah, sometimes referred to as the "weeping prophet." Why? Jeremiah loved his people the Hebrews, and it hurt him to see them suffer the consequences of their sin against God...it grieved him. As a prophet his job, if you will, was to convey to the Hebrews what God was saying to them. This was his prayer in intercession for them after hearing from YAH (God) what they had transgressed by trusting in man instead of God, by trusting in their flesh instead of the One who made the flesh. In this prayer Jeremiah is petitioning God to ...

I had a humungous pine tree (at least 40 foot) cut down in my yard last week. It took a crew of 5 men, 2 trucks, lots of equipment, several hours and a whole lot of noise to bring that baby down...but it's gone now. That tree had been on this property for a long time and even though it was so large, I had actually gotten so accustomed to it. Sometimes I barely noticed that it was there. It was the kind of thing where "if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it"...I mean sure it was huge and it was stable and anchored by deep roots so the chances of it falling over were pretty slim...so why cut it down? I mean... its been there for decades...right?  Well after decades, that all changed with the 2 snow storms we recently had in this area; with the weight of the snow, those huge branches began to start dropping like flies, not only in my yard, but my neighbors too! That tree that had been there for years, appeared as if it was stable and harmless suddenly became a dan...

Loneliness...I don't think there is a human being on this earth that has not experienced this emotion in their lifetime. This emotion can be felt if you actually are alone OR even when you are surrounded by lots of people. So though it is conducive when you are in an alone status, it certainly is not always reliant upon that state to show up!  I've read that people that talk to strangers in public are most likely to be lonely. So the next time you're with your Mom in a store and she holds you up because she yacking with strangers, give her a break will ya...she may just be lonely for some conversation, someone that will make small talk about the things you may consider mundane. So be patient! 😀  On a much more serious note, the cases where people meet strangers online and develop relationships, even to the point of sending them money and sharing all there personal information; even actually moving to a foreign country to be with them, are dangerous and are fu...

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit." John 15:1-2  A few days before the snow storm that hit us in this area, it was a beautiful clear day, chilly but just seeing that blue sky and sun encouraged me to go out and do a little yard maintenance. One of the things that really needed to be done was a large bush that desperately needed trimming. I had put it off long enough and decided to dive into the job. Pruning can be a tedious process, different than trimming where you can go in with clippers and just whack away the overgrowth to re-shape the hedge or tree; on the other hand pruning involves cutting off the dead, infected or unproductive branches and leaving the good ones. While pruning, with the removal of the "bad" branches it gave me a better view of the things in the bush that should not have been there; small li...

Several years ago, my late husband and I were involved with prison ministry through our local church and had been for about 18 years total. I will never forget one of those Sunday evenings that we were scheduled to go, we both were very tired physically and mentally from the work week; and to be very honest I just did not feel like going!  We both had a love for the incarcerated and enjoyed sharing the gospel message to them, but that evening we were just TIRED. My husband, a man of reason, convinced me that after some dinner and a short nap we would have a different perspective on going...well I did feel better after that but I still did not want to go... but we did.  There was silence in the car for the whole 40 minute drive to get there. Usually I would already have the list of songs that I would be singing, the accompaniment music in order and our equipment prepped to go, but I had no idea what I felt that I should minister to these people...not one thing came to mind....