Ponder and Praise

As we ponder and praise His Word and His Ways in our hearts, we are being fermented inside. He waits patiently, with great excitement and anticipation, as our vintage is prepared for His table. On our final day, at the end of our final hour He will pop the cork from our bottle of champagne and savor the great LOVE we have for Him as He raises His glass.

It always has, does, and will come down to LOVE. When we truly love Him, we naturally love each other. My sweet Jesus, help me to love You more… I want to love You with every thought, word, action and breath of my body.

Psalm 1
Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
but
whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and
who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.
Not so the wicked!
    They are like chaff
    that the wind blows away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

“It is the Lord”

Someday we will finally realize that He is here, in all of us, with all of us, all of the time. He is with us, helping us as we do something good, and He is with us, covering for us when we do something that is not good.

When this day comes, the veil will fall and like the disciple whom Jesus loved we too will cry out, “It is the Lord!” to EVERYONE we see!

As these beautiful thoughts run through my mind, I sit quietly, yet inside hope filled, joyful anticipation builds within my soul – let the fermentation continue my sweet Lord!

Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way:  Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

 He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”

“No,” they answered.

 He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.”When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!”

John 21:1-7

His Master Plans

… But God will not take away a life; he will devise plans so as not to keep an outcast banished forever from His presence.
2 Samuel 14:14

I read this today and was filled with gratitude and thanksgiving that He is in charge, the master plans are His!  I love that He changes them, adding and devising new plans with new paths to bring us home into His presence.

Thank You sweet Father for leading us home!

Her story…

I told you a few weeks ago about my newly found love for Mary.  I have been thinking about her a lot and wanting to know her more and know her story.

Tonight as I was conquering the mountain of laundry that has piled up since school let out for summer, I decided to watch the first part of a movie that has been sitting in my queue for a while, Mary of Nazareth.

First of all, let me tell you that I love it and I will be watching the second part very soon.

While watching it I realized that maybe we can know more of her story through His stories, by looking deeper into the parables of The Gospel, and then imagining how these parables might translate into her life, her childhood, her memories and her thoughts that she shared with her sweet and blessed son, Jesus.

Imagine for a moment Mary’s wedding celebration.  I had never done this before, but it was vividly depicted in this movie.  Her parents prepared a feast to celebrate their daughter’s wedding, but no guests came.  Their neighbors looked on with disgusted judgement refusing to attend while Mary, Joseph and her parents sat alone.

Now imagine what might have happened next.

What if Mary stood up, reached for Joseph’s hand and together they walked through the village inviting everyone they found to join them in celebration?

Does this sound familiar?  Check out Matthew 22 and Luke 14:15-24.

Maybe some of her story is buried deep His parables.  Maybe we just have to read The Gospels again from yet another perspective to find her story.

I think it is time to start digging deep again my friends!