Make a Difference in a Life, Today

 

Hey Gang, I don’t have the time or skills to write blogs as Gramps did, but I enjoy stories of how God works in peoples lives.  As I read them, I want to share them all! This one from Daily Guideposts, October 31, 2012, is one that we all need to take to heart and practice.  Gma J

“Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.”  Matthew 26:13 (NAS)

Sometimes people doing ordinary tasks are rarely noticed, nor do they make the newspapers or have their lives told on-screen.

Let me tell you about an ‘ordinary’ person: a modest, soft-spoken woman - trim, quiet, unassuming, unnoticed by the crowd. Her house, like her, did not stand out from others. “Everyone has a talent,” she used to say, “but I don’t. I’m just a nobody.”

Then one late October night, groups of neighborhood children knocked on her door.  Into each colorful trick or treat bag, she dropped a homemade invitation to Sunday School.

However, she hesitated before doing so for two young brothers.  Their father head a construction company, their mother is a TV anchor. They already have everything. They’ll probably laugh at me. Even so, she told herself, I’ll drop them in anyway.

The two small boys, aged five and eight, carried the notes home with their accumulated candy. The following Sunday, both brothers -and their parents - showed up at church, all because of their neighbor’s invitation.

Twenty years passed; the former five-year-old was by then a pastor and his older brother a missionary on a foreign field. Their father rebuilt the same church when a faulty furnace burned it; their mother resigned her position to be a stay-at-home mom.  As for the self-effacing woman, she never stopped inviting little kids to Sunday School.

I Know the above story is true because my husband and our two small boys were ‘Mrs. Nobody’s neighbors!

                Thank You Father, that none of us is insignificant in Your sight.  -Isabel Wolseley

What Do You Have to Give?

 

Monday, October 31, 2011

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

Hey Gang:  Have you ever run into a person that you literally drooled over with envy?  I did.  It was in my high school years, when confidence was something that I struggled with.   He (Larry) was the lead musician in the band, an outstanding football player, the number two scorer on the basketball team and one of the most popular dudes in the school.

But, with all these things going for him, he lacked one thing – he did not have a driving zeal to use his multi talents to succeed at anything.   When I finished my tenure at Altoona High School and, by mutual agreement they would give me a diploma and I would fade into the sunset, I lost contact with Larry. 

Years later I ran into a friend from my former years, and, in our reminiscing about the “bad old days”, Larry’s name came up.  I had visions that Larry was probably the president of some prestigious company and had a beautiful house on knob hill, but was in for the shock of my life when I learned he was working in a factory putting the right front tire on cars on an assembly line.

Have you ever tucked yourself away in an isolated place and considered your talents and gifts?  Have you ever considered the one thing you do better than others?  This can give you a clue to your God given purpose.

The gifts God gives us are like the little seeds planted inside us, BUT, for them to be anything but seeds, we have to use them.  Larry was blessed with mucho seeds but lacked the drive inside to share them with others.

Peter put it this way, “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (I Peter 4:10).

Soooo, young lads and lassies, let me share a neat piece of advice for these very tough times: 

I ran into a past staff member who shared a wonderful story about a very dark time in her life.  God had worked it out that she and I arrived early for a meeting and, in the interim waiting for the others to arrive, I shared some very tough times I had experienced in my life and how I learned that God is the supplier of good and perfect gifts.    My challenge to her that day was “decisions are acts of our will.”  We choose whom we will serve. We choose whether will be filled with the joy of the Lord - or allow Satan to take us down the “Prime –Rose –Path.

Blessings,

Gramps

In these crazy days we are still to be Living Witness for our Lord and share His Word - wherever He plants us and with whomever He brings into our path.   Gma J

A Time to Weep and A Time to Fight

 

 Friday, October 30, 2015

“Encourage the exhausted, and strength the feeble.  Say to those with anxious heart, take courage, fear not.  Behold, your God will come, with vengeance.  The recompense of God will come.  But He will save you,” (Isa. 35:3-4).

 Hey Gang:   We All Need a Word from God to See US Through Perilous Times.   I find it absolutely amazing that, as the world is being shaken to its very core, people are turning their backs on God in droves.  I wonder why every Pastor in our land is not shouting from the roof tops of their churches that there is a better way; that there is a God in heaven who stands at the door of every heart asking politely to come in and bring “The Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control into every person’s life.

 

I live in a small town and we have a small-town newspaper.  This morning the front page informed me that two people were arrested for possession of and selling drugs, the police are looking for information from anyone who might have information on several burglaries, and the trial of a young person who is accused of child molestation was turned over to the jury. 

 

On page two there was an article pertaining to an atheist organization seeking to make a police department remove “In God We Trust” from the backs of their cruisers and their other attempts to make colleges and universities cease from allowing chaplains and coaches to pray with their teams.

 

A few weeks ago we had yet another tragedy in one of our schools that has removed prayer and reading of the God’s words of peace and love and even forgiveness from their schools.  This very sick individual, before killing nine students, asked them if they were Christians.  Those who answered “yes”, were shot in the head and those who said “no” were shot in the leg. 

 

We add this catastrophic event to the growing list of sick folks that believe killing will fill that vacuum that exists in their chest cavity.  One person asked the question, “Why would God allow that to happen?”  Another answered, “Don’t blame God, He is not allowed in our schools anymore.

 

As a child in elementary school, we began each day with a ritual that included, the Pledge of Alliance to our country, a portion of Scripture and the Lord’s Prayer.  We allow no such rituals in our government funded schools today.  We do not want to make any of our students uncomfortable.   I wonder, was anyone was uncomfortable when the very sick person asked the students if they were Christians before he shot them? 

 

 I wonder how many youngsters, who have chosen the wrong paths of life, would have chosen the right paths of life if the Word had been planted in their hearts, in their elementary school years,  and they had learned that there was a God who listened for and answered their prayers, and America was truly the ‘home of the free and the brave’. 

 

Well, enough venting for the day.  The title of this epistle is a Time to Weep and a Time to Fight.  I am saddened by the rapid decay our nation has taken, but I am even more saddened that I do not hear more voices in the wilderness shouting “Enough, enough, it is time for God’s people to don their armor, fill their lamps with oil and come out fighting

 

Pray for revival as never before.

Blessings,

Gramps

You Choose!!

 

But the fruit of the Spirit is Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23.

Hey, Gang, I thought I would take a break and share some thoughts from Rabbi Jonathon in a  recent monthly Devotional titled, “How to Change Your Name.” This  seemed to be to be appropriate for this difficult time in our lives. Our words and behaviors often identify us in the thoughts of others.

                “In Biblical times people didn’t have last names. One of the ways they were known was by what they did – Simon the Tanner, Alexander the Coppersmith, Joseph the Carpenter.  Today, we have last names to Identify us.  However, what we do with our time, words, and behaviors identify us as well. If you are always complaining, it becomes your Identity – you become the complainer. If you gossip, you become The Gossip. If you spend your day watching the TV, you become the “The Couch Potato.” What you do affects what you become, your Identity, your name.

But this gives us hope - because God gives you the power to change what you do and when you change  your actions, you also change your name! Change gossip to praise and you become The Praiser. Instead of complaining, give thanks and become The Grateful. Love and become The Loving, Rejoice and become the joyful.”

You don’t need to go to a judge to have your name changed. Change your ways and your name will follow! Being miserable is NOT a fruit of the Spirit!  Love, joy, peace, righteousness are of the Lord. The more of these in your life the more others see righteousness and holiness!!

Soo, what do you want your name to be?   Start practicing that quality, action or attitude – begin today – Change  your name!

Blessings,

Gma J