Orphaned Not (John 14:18)

 

  Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you

        Matt. 6:33

We need have only one care, that we put the first thing first—faithfulness to God. Then all else we need for both worlds will be supplied. God will never fail us; but we forget, sometimes, in our rejoicing over such an assurance, that we must fulfill our part if we would claim the divine promise.

It will not always be easy. Tomorrow it may mean a distasteful task, a disagreeable duty, a costly sacrifice for one who does not seem worthy. Life is full of sore testings of our willingness to follow the Good Shepherd. We have not the slightest right to claim this assurance unless we have taken Christ as the guide of our life.

J. R. Miller

Samuel G. Hardman and Dwight Lyman Moody, Thoughts for the Quiet Hour (Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1997)

There are often times when we are awed by the eloquence of speech from someone well educated. We would do well to remember that the gospel of the Lord was taught by the humblest of mankind in Jesus's day, fishermen, the simplest of humankind. Education may inform the mind but it is faith that goes beyond what the mind cannot see. The opening lines of J. R. Miller are true to what the calling of the Lord is about.

May the good Lord bless and keep you safe.

Remember to "Always Love The Details."

Stress

Notice: to those who comment on my blog, I will attempt to comment in return but if your comments are set to embedded, not popup, I will not be able to do so. Please go to your settings, comment section and change the comments from embedded to popup. This ia a problem many are having. Check your blog spam folder to see if you are missing those who manage to comment. That is where I found a few comments, about 6, that google deemed as being spam. Google did some "helpful" reprogramming and messed things up royally again. Thank you for visiting and commenting.

As we go through life and face each day the world around us changes. In fact the change is constant and not in a way we can control. We put on the face of one who is unaffected by everything happening around us when in reality we are stressed and unsure of what is coming next. As Christians we should remember that no matter what our Lord is there for us to lean on. (Phil. 2:20, 28;  2 Cor. 11:28) We are not invited to follow Christ with a heavy heart or worldly concerns. They stifle the word and draw us away from concentrating on His word. (Matthew 6:25-34;  Mark 4:19; Luke 12:22-31)  Our first concern should always be setting our hearts on the kingdom of God. (Matthew 6:33) God's saving justice should be priority one. All else will follow according to His graces. I am guilty of letting stress get the best of me and distract me from my walk with Christ as much as anyone I know. It has cost me with high blood pressure that simulated a heart attack and the need to take blood pressure medication. The state of the world today is such that we need to pray for it and the world governments. It is not something any one individual can single handedly take on and change. We as Christians have to stand together and not only pray but make our voices heard. Where we are headed in the next 50 or sixty years is anyone's guess. I will not live to see that far into the future. I can only do what I am doing to give some hope to those who are seeking Christ. Don't despair and give up on God. He is real and will be with us in our times of need. Love one another as He has loved us. Pray for those who are in position of authority. He will hear those prayers and answer them. 

Once again the image is from "Supercoloring.com". This time I colored the German Iris powder blue to look like the one in my front garden. It is my favorite of all the current garden flowers.

The Copic colors are:

That is it for today's post. May the good Lord bless you and keep you safe. Remember to always "Love The Details."