I Have Beautiful Feet~

Thursday greetings!

I haven’t had a pedicure in a few weeks.  It’s about time for some nail clipping, cuticle cutting, and fresh nail polish.  Essie Marshmallow, please! At this point it will also require a professional-grade sander and copious amounts of coconut oil to smooth out my calluses.  Plus, did I mention that on March 6^th the big toe on my right foot sustained an injury resulting in my losing that nail?  My son-in-law calls the vacant, pink nail bed “The monster.”  And yet, dear people, I have beautiful feet!

Romans 10:15 "…How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

That’s right!  Whenever you or I get up and go to encourage someone with the good news of God’s forgiveness, eternal salvation, joy, love, hope, provision, faith, peace, healing, and protection, that makes our feet – pedicured or not – beautiful.

Notice how this verse does not say, “How beautiful are the lips of those who bring good news.”  Sometimes, we need to get up and go and make a person-to-person connection.   A phone call or a text is not enough.  The best part is that when we show up, the focus will be on God’s goodness and not on how we look.

Over the years there have been many lovely feet that showed up on the body of a living person who reached out to help me and pray with me in my moment of need.  It was life giving and life transforming. 

May all our feet be “beautiful” on a regular basis.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, Thank You for the beautiful feet of those who have reached out to us in the past.  Bless them for their encouraging words, and bless us as we get up and go encourage others.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN~

My Husband is Pregnant!

Tuesday greetings, all you blessed and beautiful children of our Almighty God!

God blessed me with two lovely children who nonetheless, were responsible for months of agonizing morning sickness.  I also suffered from pytalism (excessive saliva production) during both pregnancies for all nine months, and I could not wait till it was over.  I apologize to the weak-stomached, but the pytalism was so bad that I had to sleep with my mouth open and just allow the saliva to trickle out on its own into a bucket because I just could not swallow.  Weird, but true! This literally went on the entire time those kiddos were in my belly. (Please note that literally, the minute I delivered Hormone and Rayray, it stopped and I felt great!)  And even though Jorge was so patient during both pregnancies, it highly annoyed me that he did not feel sick – ever – and that he could speak to other people without having to excuse himself to spit in a cup.  One time in church, the youth pastor, God bless him, actually asked me for my “special cup” during the bible lesson, and imagine my horror at having to deny him in front of everyone.  He playfully insisted a few times, and I playfully countered that I couldn’t do it. He was not able to make his point that day, and I was mortified at having to explain it to him later.  Wouldn’t it be great if Jorge could feel what I felt even for one moment?

Actually, MY HUSBAND IS PREGNANT!  That’s right! Jorge is pregnant!  But wait, it’s not what you think.  

Romans 8:22-25 “All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy (The Message Version).”

Simply stated: Me, Jorge, you – the entire creation – are all pregnant with the very real hope that someday soon all the evils, troubles, injustices, problems, sin, sickness etc…will give way to a glorious existence with Christ!  It does not matter that the world is utterly crazy and chaotic right now.  We have a hope that does not diminish, but grows grows grows.

Another version of the Bible say, “The whole of creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth…” What I like about these verses is that it reminds us that we are all in this together.  We understand each other.  We all get it.  We are all united in our understanding of how difficult life can be.  Jorge gets me, I get him, we get you, and you get us!

Some of us may be feeling the “pangs” a little more intensely lately; we are desperate to give birth already.  But as we labor, we must remind ourselves that what we are going to give birth to is worth the wait.  As bad as I felt being pregnant with Hormone, that did not stop me from getting pregnant with Rayray because the end result was a precious life. Yet spiritually speaking, what we will give birth to is something so much infinitely better that God reminds us in His Word that there are no human words capable of describing the magnificence and perfection of it all!

As we swell with anticipation, it is important to connect with our Father.  He will guide us along as we wait.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, It’s not easy being pregnant sometimes.  It hurts, yet we know that this is part of the process to finally having and seeing and experiencing all that we have ever hoped for and then some.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN!

Prayer is the Precursor~

Inspired by the DEVO originally published 9-19-2013

Happy Thursday to all my precious brothers and sisters in Christ~

The Bible is filled with stories of folks who endured difficulties.  Sometimes it was for a few days, sometimes it was years.  Remember the woman who bled for 12 years? However, Jonah was swallowed by a huge fish and lived through that nightmare, stuck in that smelly belly, for three days.  Three days!  It took a few years for God to answer my prayers about my child’s questionable relationship choices.  My buddy, however, who was no more/no less distraught then me, received her wonderful and life-giving answer within six short days. Oh well. Nevertheless, the timing is not up to me or you but rather God.  

While I am the first to humbly admit that I do not have all the answers, I do see a possible explanation why God has different time frames for His children, and this first occurred to me in 1990. Jorge and I saved up and bought three-year-old Hormone a Power Wheels electric jeep for Christmas that year. Its maximum speed was about five MPH.  However, what about if I would have given Hormone the keys to a brand new full-sized jeep instead?  Trust me, he would have gladly taken them, but it would have been too much too soon and too dangerous. As his parents, Jorge and I knew that Hormone was only ready for a toy car.  

Our heavenly Father giving us what we want when we want it, no matter what, could also be dangerous or at the very least, not in our best interests. I have often said that as difficult as it was seeing my child making the poor choices I mentioned at the beginning of this DEVO, it taught me so much about prayer and keeping the faith. That entire, long, seemingly-interminable season of heartache and anguish pushed me to my knees, and I can now say I am grateful for all I learned.

I want to encourage everyone who is facing a problem today, who is in the smelly belly of the beast of an emotional, physical, relational and/or financial problem, know that you have options. Yes, God controls the timing, "He makes everything beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes 3:11)," but as you wait on Him, "Ask, and it will be given to you, seek, and you will find, knock, and the door will be opened (Matthew 7:7)."

In Jonah’s case, and in the case of every Biblical story where God shows up and fixes the mess, prayer was a precursor to deliverance.  It doesn't matter if we bring our problems on ourselves through poor choices like Jonah did (see Jonah chapter one).  Or if like the disciples, who found themselves in the middle of a storm because they were following Christ, we are blindsided while minding our business or even doing something good. Either way, the first step we must always take to get out of the mess, is to pray.  Pray when you mess up, pray when someone else messes up, pray when life just happens. P-R-A-Y!

PRAYER: Dear Lord, We always want instant relief. No one likes being in the smelly belly of problems. And sometimes we have to muster up all our faith to trust You while we wait. But Your Word is clear: We must pray before anything else. We must talk it over with You. We must invite You in to do Your thing. There is a divine and amazing blessing that always takes place when we declare our trust in You. Nevertheless, answer our prayers! In Jesus' name, AMEN~

Loving God~

(Inspired by the DEVO originally published April 17, 2013)

“…every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good (Romans 8:28 The Message Version).”

Each and every one of us is blessed today because God is busy busy busy working every detail of our lives – the good, the bad, and the ugly – into something good.  According to the verse above it’s because we live a life of love for Him.

How do we know if we love Him? And are we loving Him enough to activate this amazing promise in our lives?

Think back to the first serious relationship you ever had. You thought about him or her incessantly. Your momma never had to tell you to call them up. No one had to describe them to you; you knew everything from their hair style to their shoe size. You knew their favorite food, favorite color, and favorite song.

I have a crystal clear image in my head of Jorge wearing a gray Member's Only jacket and white leather glove shoes (no socks) with Paco Rabanne cologne on our first date. His bangs were combed to the side and then expertly fashioned into a side swept overhang that looked like a boomerang. He had a thin, dark mustache, and his breath smelled slightly of tic tacs and red snapper.  His nails were nicely trimmed, and he looked all muscular and invincible!  He opened the car door for me, something he still does 30 years later, allowing my chaperon brother into the back seat first, and then he helped me in. I was sick with joy.  My stomach was in knots, and I just couldn’t get enough. 

And as our relationship progressed, I loved hearing stories about him like that time he jumped off his grandmother's garage roof and fractured his leg, or when he had a starring role in his high school's production ofGrease. He was Kenickie, Rydell High’s resident thug and member of the T-Birds. They had almost nothing in common, but as a result of his stellar performance, Jorge received his high school’s Most Dramatic award. I also wanted to please him anyway I could, and one time made him green eggs and ham as a tribute to a favorite childhood story. He became grossly ill, but swore he wasn't mad about it.

My uber conservative grandfather thought it highly inappropriate that Jorge wore a gold chain with his name plate on it, and that he wore shorts out in public. But he knew better than to criticize my man to me.  Jorge could do no wrong, and we regularly poured out our silly but sincere teenage hearts to one another. We were inseparable, and found it unbearable when my mother forbade me to see him for one entire month because I missed curfew by 10 minutes. It was such an outrageous punishment that we had no choice but to go undercover. Jorge would show up at my house at 1AM after work, and I would hand him peanut butter and jelly sandwiches through the chained front door, which was right next to my parents' bedroom. He came because he loved me, and I risked further punishment for the same reason.

My love for God is actually very similar. I think about Him all the time, I am still getting to know more about Him through prayer and Bible reading, and it blesses me profoundly. No body better talk bad about Jesus in front of me because I will duke it out, and I want to live my life in a way that pleases Him. I also pour out my heart to Him because I desire His guidance and blessing.

Loving God is not about perfection. Loving God is not about religion. Loving God is about having a relationship where we are going to mess up a lot and He won’t, and it’s okay because He will fix our messes. These moments we share here together demonstrate our willingness to get to know Him better – to increase in our faith, hope, and love.  And the more time we spend getting to know Him the more we will grow in our love for Him.  The best part of it all is that the moment we invited Christ into our lives, He showed up and hasn't left since.  And all this time He has been working out the details, the sin, sickness, mistakes, as well as the prosperity, blessings, and opportunities, for our ultimate good.

PRAYER:

Dear Lord, We love You. Thank You that we can have a dynamic two-way relationship with You. We always seem to be asking, but it's only because You offer so much to us. You are incomparably generous, and it is amazing to think that even the worst moments of our lives are turned into blessings. Open our eyes to see Your goodness. In Jesus' name, AMEN~

Live Well, Live Blessed!

A week ago today was the National Day of Prayer, and I am still thinking about it.  Locally here in the Miami area several municipalities held official events where collectively they openly prayed for God to bless our cities and guide our leaders.  I don’t know about you, but this makes me very happy!  I will always have more peace knowing that whoever is in a decision-making position that will affect my life is seeking God in the process. 

And the reason the nation came together to pray and the reason we all regularly pray is that we are seeking protection, wisdom, provision, and health for ourselves, our families, and our great nation.

Does Jesus want all these things for us?

The woman with the bleeding problem from Tuesday’s DEVO serves as a powerful testimony that Jesus does in fact want us to “live well, live blessed!” (Mark 5:34).

After she muscled her way through the crowd to touch our Lord, she received an on-the-spot healing, and then Jesus spoke into her life.  When we become willing to seek Him, even when we are weak, tired, down, uncertain – if we just muscle our way through all the distractions – we will find Him and He will change our lives!

What the one thing that really has you feeling like you just can’t take it anymore?  That problem where nothing or no one has been able to help you?  Enough is enough; let’s all take a step of faith toward Christ.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, The very first thing I need to do everyday is make my way to You.  When I reach out in faith, my circumstances change, my attitudes change, and I am well on my way to living well and living blessed!  Today, I specifically need Your powerful touch in this area ____________________. Thank You, in Christ’s name I pray. AMEN~

Jesus Never Had a Bubble~

This DEVO was originally published April 28, 2014.  I am revising it here because there is a strong need among us to seek Christ like never before – no matter the obstacles.

Tuesday greetings ~

I have a personal bubble. It’s the space around me that I consider private, and I don’t appreciate people all up in my bubble. Whether it’s to touch me, breathe on me, or to talk to me. A very select few are welcome in my bubble – like Jorge – but even then, I prefer a respectable distance. (The exception is all babies and small, friendly animals). 

I actually have a colleague whom I am very fond of, but the first time we met I flat out told him he was in my bubble because he was less than an inch from my face.  All he or I could do was laugh!

Thank goodness, however, that Jesus never had a personal bubble.

Mark 5:25-34 tells the story of a woman who had a pretty serious bleeding problem.  Doctor after doctor couldn’t help her and some had even stolen money from her.  But then she heard about Christ – the One Who said, “I will never turn away anyone who comes to Me (John 6:37).” She knew where He was, which was in the middle of a big crowd, but she made her way to Him and touched His robe, “because she thought, ‘If I just touch His clothes, I will be healed.’”

And guess what?

“Immediately her bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.”

No wonder this is one of my favorite passages in scripture, and here’s why. A woman, who by all accounts had every reason to be tired, frustrated, depressed, desperate, and hopeless DID NOT GIVE UP!  Twelve years is a long time to be suffering. Honestly, 12 hours, 12 days, 12 weeks, 12 months of an ongoing serious problem is terrifyingly exhausted. But 12 years? Lord, have mercy. And yet she heard something amazing about Jesus that compelled her to venture out in her ever-worsening condition and touch Him – to touch Him without His permission, by the way. Talk about invading someone’s bubble!

Jesus did not get upset, and His response is something that should encourage us all: “You took a risk of faith, and now you’re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed! Be healed of your plague.”

Her “risk of faith” paid off, and so will ours; Jesus welcomes and rewards our every effort to reach out and touch Him!

PRAYER: Dear Lord, Sometimes we get discouraged.  Sometimes we feel as though our problems have been going on for a long time.  Yet this woman in the Bible story did not give up.  She made her way to You and received a healing.  We reach out to You today as well and ask for a healing in our emotions, body, and soul. Thank You for being accessible.  You want us to “live well and lived blessed,” and we receive it.  In Your name we pray, AMEN.

Prayer Buddy~

Greetings!

 

Today is the National Day of Prayer, and the theme verse for this year’s event is, “Pay attention to these my prayers, both intercessory and personal, O God, my God. Listen to my prayers, energetic and devout, that I’m setting before you right now 1 Kings 8:28 (The Message Version).”

 

Imagine us asking the Almighty God to “pay attention” to little ole specks of dust us – to listen to the prayers we make for ourselves and prayers we make on behalf of others. And yet, that is exactly what He invites us to do.  And the only thing better than asking Him is asking Him together with a buddy.

Matthew 18:20 “When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action (The Message Version).”

Last Tuesday we were encouraged by God’s promise that when we work together on a project, we will get a good return for our labor.  This verse kicks it up a notch because God promises that when we get together to pray, He goes into action.

I need Him to go into action for me today.  I need His blessings, guidance, deliverance, wisdom, joy, peace, hope, protection, provision, healing, and then some right this very minute.  And I have prayed for these things for me and my family over and over again.  Sometimes, however, God has seen fit to form a holy alliance between me and a prayer pal, and it has been amazing!

Whenever I pray with someone else, I feel a deeper sense of His presence.  I have an immediate sense of peace and joy and more confidence that He has heard.  I also feel, as the above-verse says, that my prayers are more “energetic and devout.”

Maybe that’s why He takes the time to tell us in His Word that praying together with someone else is also an important part of our prayer lives.  Sometimes we need that boost we get from being with another soul who hungers for God’s goodness and power as much as we do.  I have often said that my faith is always stronger when it joins the faith of another in seeking God for answers.

So, today, on this National Day of Prayer, I invite you to join your voices to the millions who will seek Him today.  And I also invite you to be bold and ask God to lead you to another person who will agree to be your prayer buddy.  It can be a spouse, neighbor, friend, colleague, child, or cousin.  It does not matter; as we all take a step of faith and do this, we have the promise that He will go into action for us!

PRAYER: Dear Lord Today is a special day because a call has gone out to the nation as a whole to seek You.  We join our voices to the rest who desperately need You.  Help us find a prayer buddy.  We have so many needs, and we can be confident that when we pray together You will do something about it.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN.

A Good Return~

Ecclesiastes 4:9 “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor.”

This past Christmas my daughter-in-law, Lis, wanted to surprise Hormone with a pitching mound.  She ordered it on-line, and it arrived within a few days.  Except that it was a bunch of parts and screws with instructions all mixed together in a box.  She needed help.

Jorge to the rescue!

They spent the better part of a day toiling away, and Lis did just as much work as Jorge.  When it was all over, they had the satisfaction of a job well-done as well as a good return for their efforts.

I was so impressed when I came home and saw them having so much fun, that I took a picture to forever remember the day (see below).  Look at them with their matching protective eye wear! Hahaha! 

But I was also immediately reminded of the verse above. 

In this case it was daughter-in-law and father-in-law uniting for their shared love of Hormone, and they had a great experience working together. 

When we work together we help each other succeed.  I wonder if there is more than one application to this verse?

Let’s check it out Thursday.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, Thank You for reminding us that two are better than one.  We agree!  Fill our lives with those who are willing to go the distance with us, and help us be the kind of person who is also willing to do their part.  We can expect a good return for our efforts!  In Jesus’ name, AMEN~