First We Have Coffee

First We Have Coffee by Margaret T. Jensen is one of my very favorite books ever.  She has written several books but this one shares her background as a child growing up.  Look it up and enjoy a good summer read.

Blessings and Joy,
Mèmére

Food For Thought Today

Oak Creek Canyon 

October 2013

Normally I post a recipe for Tempt My Tummy Tuesday but today I am sharing some food for thought instead.  This will definitely give me lots to think about as I go about my day today.

Oak Creek Canyon 

October 2013

Edith Schaeffer writes:

"Love will grow as reasons for love are discovered, thought about, dwelt upon in the mind, expressed verbally, and remembered.  As time goes on, the memory will become rich with increasing vividness and warmth in storing up facts and reasons behind the increase of love."

Oak Creek Canyon 

October 2013

Love will grow as: 

1. reasons for love are discovered 
2. thought about 
3. dwelt upon in the mind 
4. expressed verbally 
5. remembered

Something to think about for sure and more importantly to challenge me today.

Peace and Contentment

I just finished reading, With Love From A Mother’s Heart by Glenda Revell and I was very blessed by it.

Let me share a few lines from chapter 8 which is entitled, Peace and Contentment.  Mrs. Revell writes:

LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. Psalm 16:5

“Every aspect of our lives -- the things we possess, the people with whom we live and interact, the work we must do, the abilities we own, our health, our intelligence, our looks, even the weather -- is given to us by our gracious, all-knowing Father.  Our peace and contentment are not determined by what He chooses to give, but by the attitude with which we choose to receive what He gives.  What is given today may be far different from that which was given yesterday.  Tomorrow, it may be different still.  Yet our peace can and should remain constant.”

Our peace and contentment are not determined by what He chooses to give, but by the attitude with which we choose to receive what He gives.

 Oh yes, Dorothy!  Take note!

Psalm 16

1Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.2I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing."3As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.4The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods. I will not pour out their libations of blood or take up their names on my lips.5LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.6The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.7I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.8I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.9Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure,10because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.11You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Antidote To Depression

I want to share a devotion I received from Nancy Campbell this morning in my emails.  You can read more of Nancy's writing at www.aboverubiees.org

ANTIDOTE TO DEPRESSION

"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost" (Romans 15:13).

I read recently about Dr. Northoff, a medical researcher and psychiatrist, who is researching the neurochemistry of hopelessness and why so many young people turn to suicide.  

One survey revealed that 20 percent of 140,000 Chinese high school students have considered suicide. Most of these victims have no hope because they cannot see into the future. They cannot see the end of the tunnel, only a dark hole. He believes this is due to a dysfunction in part of the brain.

This may be so, but God, who created us in the beginning, knows what is necessary for us to live in victory and joy. The antidote to depression is hope, and our God is the God of hope. Our hope is found in Him. Hopelessness can trigger problems in the brain, but the brain can also be made whole as we learn to trust in the God of hope. (Proverbs 13:12).

Myriads of people take comfort in the words of Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." The Hebrew word for "expected" is tikvah which means "hope" and many translations say, "To give you a future and a hope."

It is hope that gives us a good outlook on life, and often, it is what keeps us alive. I think of the Jewish people, who for nearly 2,000 years, were scattered to the four corners of the earth, going through persecution, pogroms, herded into ghettos in the countries where they lived and eventually suffering Hitler's holocaust.  

Through all these years, they never ever gave up hope for their land of Israel. There were times in history when Jerusalem was by called other names, but they never forgot their city they had never seen. Every year at Passover, they recited in hope, "Next year in Jerusalem."

In 1886, Naftali Hertz Imber from Bohemia wrote a poem which in 1948 became the Israeli national anthem. It is called HaTikvah meaning "The Hope." The translated Hebrew words are...

As long as the Jewish spirit is yearning deep in the heart,
With eyes turned toward the East, looking toward Zion,
Then our hope, the two-thousand-year-old hope,
will not be lost:
To be a free people in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

These words were written before there was any dream of Israel becoming a nation again, but hope kept the nation of Israel alive as they waited for the promise.  

Many years ago, while walking through the bush in Australia, Colin and I met a Jewish couple. Colin immediately began witnessing to them about Jesus and they became our dear friends. The guy was a Russian Jew and the wife a Persian Jew, both having made aliyah to Israel. The gentleman shared with us, that although living in Communist Russia and never having  heard of the land of Israel, he always longed and hoped for his homeland that he didn't even know existed.

Hebrews 6:11 NASB inspires us "to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish." The Amplified Version explains the actions we need to take in order for hope to work in our lives, "We do (strongly and earnestly) desire for each of you to show the same diligence and sincerity (all the way through) in realizing and enjoying the full assurance and development of your hope until the end."

The word "sluggish" is nothros and means "a sluggishness which makes a person unfit for activities of the mind or spirit." That's a picture of depression! What saves us from this kind of state? Hope!

Hope in God who puts hope into our soul as we look to Him and trust in Him. Psalm 31:24 tells us that when we put our hope in the Lord that He will put courage and strength into our very soul!   

  

Teach your children from a young age how to put their hope in the Lord, rather than getting into the habit of dwelling on their problems.   

  

David's mother must have instilled this into her son. David confesses in Psalm 71:5, "For thou art my hope, O Lord God: thou art my trust from my youth." Read also Psalm 78:4-7.

I can't let you miss out on this Scripture, Psalm 146:5 says, "HAPPY is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose HOPE is in the Lord his God." We are reminded again that hope is the antidote to despair. When we put our hope in the Lord we will be happy.   

  

This particular "happy" in the Hebrew is esher and is only ever used in the plural. It means "doubly happy!" Don't you love that? Proverbs 10:28 says, "The hope of the righteous is GLADNESS" and Proverbs 16:20 reminds us that "Whoso trusteth (hopeth) in the Lord, HAPPY is he."

The meaning of hope is to be constantly looking, waiting and expecting something good to happen. This is the way God created us to live. This is what keeps us in health and happiness.

Hope in His "exceeding great and precious promises" (2 Peter 1:4).

Hope as we go through trials. Hope is what enables us to endure our trials. (Romans 8:28 and Hebrews 12:2-3).

Hope for a glorious future-eternal glory forever and ever. Our hope goes beyond this life. Our true hope is for eternity.

To be encouraged in your soul, read the Scriptures at the end of this devotion.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

www.aboverubiees.org

PRAYER:

"I thank you, Father, that you have destined me to live a life of hope. Help me to get into the habit of knowing that you are working out everything for my good, even if it isn't to my liking. Fill me daily with your Holy Spirit so that I will go around my home ABOUNDING IN HOPE. Amen."

AFFIRMATION:

I am ABOUNDING in hope today!

Read these Scriptures about hope.

Hope in God. (Sometimes The King James Version translates the Hebrew word for "hope" as "expectation" or "trust."

Psalm 4:5; 9:10; 13:5; 25:2; 26:1; 28:7; 31:6b, 14, 24; 32:10; 33:18, 21-22; 37:3-5; 38:15; 39:7; 42:5, 11; 43:5; 50:10; 52:8; 56:3-4, 11; 62:5-8; 71:5, 14; 84:12; 86: 2; 91:2; 112:7; 115:9-11; 125:1; 130:7; 131:3; 143:8; 146:5; 147:11; Proverbs 3:5-6; 28:25b; 29:25; Isaiah 12:2; 26:3-4; Jeremiah 17:7, 13, 17; Lamentations 3:22-26 and 1 Peter 3:5.

Hope in God's "exceeding great and precious promises."

Psalm 119:42-43, 49, 74, 81, 114, 116; 147, 165-166; 130:5 and Romans 15:4.

Hope as we go through trials.

Job 13:15; Psalm 22:4-5; Romans 5:3-5; 8:24-25; 1 Corinthians 13:13 and 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

Hope in a glorious future.

1 Corinthians 15:19-22; Ephesians 1:18-20; Colossians 1:5; 2 Timothy 2:10

Titus 1:2; 2:12-14; 3:7 and 1 Peter 1:3-5, 13.

http://bit.ly/WomensEmailDevotional  

Books Books Books!

Monday I began the chore I have put off forEVER - cleaning up the enormous number of books I own which seem to multiply like rabbits.  Tuesday I continued the labor of love and today I hope to finish the job.  

My office, my library, my sanctuary and refuge is my favorite room to come to but not when it gets so cluttered and books are stacked ten deep in piles all around my chair.  My chair is the only chair in the room and that is because this real-estate is mine alone and there is no one to blame for the mess but me.  Precious Husband's office is pretty much a mess all the time but the big difference is that when he decides to clean his real-estate he can do it so quickly - amazing to me.  

This cleaning challenge this takes me days because honestly I am slow and I get so easily side-tracked.  I pick up the stack of my mom's journals and read through the one dated 1975 and read about what she was doing the year after Daddy died.  I read about what we did together to prepare for my wedding in '83.  I am glad she journaled because I read about things I have totally forgotten.  She quit keeping her journals because I think she feels her life is a little boring now - that is sure a shame.

I pick up a book and to my delight realize that it is one of my very favorites and that I have two.  In the box it goes to share with someone special that will undoubtedly be blessed with it like I am.  I sit in my chair and leaf through another book that I had forgotten I had and also forgotten how good it is.  Yes, these are all reasons I am still in the process of over-hauling my books.  It will feel so good when I do get done - maybe today : )

If you need a good book I do love to share.  I will even bring a chair in for you to sit and take your time.  We could have tea - I would like that.

It's All About Home!

Allow me to share some quotes this morning from one of my very favorite authors and Bible teacher, Kay Arthur.

"A sanctuary you can create, a harbor of safety for loved ones from the storms of life, your shelter in the world - from the world."

"This is part of the joy, the wonder, of being a woman.  Here you celebrate the expression of being you as you take a house and make it your home.  What you create in your setting makes it uniquely you."

"Like the fragrance of a delightful potpourri, your sanctuary is filled with the scent of a woman.  For, in large portion, the presence of you, the essence of you, permeates and sets the atmosphere of this place called home."

"You know, for you've watched the power of a gentle smile, of a non-condemnng, listening ear, of open, forgiving arms, of your words and tone of voice, the mystical effect of a soft answer that turns away wrath, the power of words of kindness and encouragement when they grace your lips . . . "

"As you walk through your home, turning out the lights, closing another day, there's a sense of satisfaction, of accomplishment, as you give one last, loving touch, putting away the remnants of the day. . . knowing that with everything in place, when you awake you can begin with a sense of peace and grace."