Universal Givers
Recently a person was asked to
volunteer at our church’s
How appropriate to have a blood drive in a church, where we can learn the spiritual impact of Christ’s blood that came from his dying body over 2000 years ago. His blood from His death was universally and instantly available to all believers of “Christ as the Son of God”. His death and blood were also able to transcend time, so that we too have available the amazing gift of Jesus pardoning our dirty sinful selves. Through this, we can become spiritually healed. Christ’s blood had the ability to heal all believers after His death. Christ’s blood was more than O positive! He is the Universal Giver.
Questions:
1. How is our giving blood similar to Christ’s life giving blood?
2. What is the difference?
Prayer:
Dear Jesus, Thank You for being the ultimate giver of blood. You helped us all through the ages of time, and You teach us much in Your humility. Help each of us to grow more like You where we can give to one another in sacrificial ways. May You show us many ways that we can be more like You when we serve and give to others. Amen
Give
The Gift
of Singing
“May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in His works- He who looks at the earth, and it trembles, Who touches the mountains, and they smoke. I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to Him, as I rejoice in the LORD.” (Psalm 104:31-34)
A mother was known for a clear soprano voice and she would often sing for the church choir. More importantly, she used her gift of song daily to express her praise and thanks to God. She would sing while she was cleaning or doing some tedious task around the farm.
One of the dearest memories of this woman was when she would stroll down to the barn, open the door to the old concrete milk house, lift up the doors on the aluminum milk tank, and start scrubbing and singing! (The milk tank housed the milk that came from the forty cows in the barn. Every other day, the giant milk hauler truck would come and relieve the milk-filled tank by bringing it all to the distributor.) The empty milk tank then needed a good scouring, and the mother was the one to do the job, until the kids came of age!
The mother taught her kids to do it with joy and gusto by singing praise songs, such as “How Great Thou Art” and others. Those who were raised on dairy farms know that the acoustics of aluminum and concrete can cause simple sounds to echo and drift through the summer breezes to anyone within several hundred yards of the milk house. So when the mother sang with her beautiful soprano voice, with great joy and praise, it carried to the father working nearby, to the hired hands that were often needed, and to the four children. It was a bit of heaven on earth to hear those melodies across the fields on a sunny afternoon. To this day, when one sees a milk house, one can still hear mother singing, “How great thou art, how great thou art, then sings my soul, how great thou art.”
Questions:
1. Do you have a gift that can be used outside of the church in everyday life?
2. How has someone made an impression on you through singing?
3. What gifts do you have that could be developed for your enjoyment and for the enjoyment of God and others?
Prayer:
O Great Father, You are truly awesome and wonderful. You do make our soul sing when we think of the many wonders You bestow on this earth. Thank You for the gift of song and joy. Help us to seek ways to use our talent to inspire others to look to You. Amen
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Olive
Hendrickson was a lady who believed in giving children a listening ear and
giving them time. Maybe it was her older, and slower ways that kept her more grounded to
children than other older adults. Maybe
it was because her second husband was long dead, and she had learned to enjoy
the young ones around her. No matter what, she was willing to share cookies and
lemonade from her kitchen, to anyone that came through the back door. She also listened with a kindly way, with
very little need to ever scold. She was my grandmother.
I
stayed with her one summer when I was just six.
My mother had been hospitalized and Grandma had room in her home to take
care of me. I recall being invited with
her neighbors to go to a circus, and grandma had told them that I would go
along. Being a shy girl at the time, I
was afraid to go to the circus with the neighbors that I did not know well.
Dreams of lions roaring and elephants stomping all around filled my little
head. Being restless the night before
the circus date, Grandma heard me get up.
She pulled me into her bed and held me tight, asking me what was
wrong. I told her my fears, and she
seemed to understand. She said a prayer
with me, and I slept. I recall that I
did not go to the circus, and instead I played with my dolls on Grandma’s
bedroom floor, where I needed to be that day.
Grandma listened, heard, and understood me. In less than eight hours worth of time,
Grandma showed me by her actions what Psalm 91 meant to a young six year old
girl.
Questions
1. Whose lives do we touch, where we can be a
refuge and strength, as a witness of God’s love?
2. How has God provided you with a safe place of
refuge?
Prayer
Dear
Jesus, Show us the ways that we can recognize Your
safe places of refuge in our lives today.
Enable us to become sources of strength to others that are weaker than
we are. Give us Your vision to see that they need the
compassion and care required to get through difficulties. Thank You for Your
wonderful strength and might, so that You continue to
provide refuge for Your children. Amen.
Give
The Gift of Simple Courtesy
“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love
endures forever.” (1Chronicles
Sixth grade boys bring a
smile to my face. They remind me of half
grown puppies, as they sometimes push and jostle one another in line for drinks
at the fountain. Playing tricks on one
another come as naturally to them as breathing, and they take great pride in
being tough or silly. They are often so
caught up in the moment of fun that they don’t think beyond themselves and the
silliness of the little prank that they are enjoying. They truly make one laugh.
Because of this boisterous
energy that sixth grade boys seem to have, the teacher felt a surge of surprise
one afternoon when a boy came into her classroom. He came up to the desk and said, “Thank you,
Mrs. Gillespie, for helping me with my English paper today.”
He was a boy who usually
expressed thanks, as do many others, but that day I perhaps needed a boost. The
boy’s simple words of courtesy touched my heart and soul in a softer way. He had a purposeful ‘attitude of gratitude’
and it caught me a little off guard. I
felt a special honor.
That simple courtesy of
saying thanks means so much to me as a teacher.
No, I don’t need praise or thanks for every little thing I do for
someone. But when I see a child where it
comes out of their mouth so very naturally, it warms my heart. It makes me wonder how God must feel when we
give Him our gift of courtesy. It must warm His heart, too. Do we naturally thank Him for all of the
little things He does for us, like that grateful sixth grade boy in my
classroom? Probably not. It takes time and practice to look up to God
to give our thanks to Him. We have so
much to be thankful for – the great sacrifice of Christ was done for us. We didn’t deserve it and we never will. Only by His deeds do we have anything for
which to be thankful.
Questions:
1.
How can we show
God’s love through being courteous to all people?
2.
Are we courteous
to God? How?
3.
How is God
courteous to us?
Prayer:
Dear Lord, Thank you for
examples like the boy in sixth grade that know and show that gift of courtesy
so freely. Help us to grow in love and
grace so that we too, can give that gift back to You
and to others. Guide us as we practice
this gift and teach it to others. Amen.
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When our
family moved to this town of
Every fall, the sheep seemed to know when the apples were falling off the old apple tree and when the peaches plop down off the peach tree. They pushed their way through the fence and grazed in the yard eating the apples and the peaches. They got in such a habit, that they continued to graze in the front yard until snow fell in winter. They rarely left the yard, they just wanted to be by the good fruit, or where they thought fruit would be. They had done this so often, that my husband just left the gates open for them to go out on their own. Later, he could just call them, and they would come running to where he wanted them safe, which was the barn.
How those sheep are like us when we have minds of our own, and we push out of God’s fences to taste forbidden fruits. Like my husband calling his sheep, Jesus calls to us to come to Him for safety. If we listen for His voice, He will protect us and keep us safe from harm and danger.
Questions:
1. What are the “forbidden fruits” in our lives that cause us to stray from Jesus?
2. Why is Jesus portrayed as a shepherd so often in the Scriptures?
3. How can we become a shepherd to people? Who are some that you already know?
Prayer:
Lord, keep me in Your safe ways, and guard me from the temptation of all that is not good for me. Help me to learn to listen to Your voice calling me. Show me Your ways of becoming a shepherd to others. Amen
Give
God’s Gift to Us:
Living off of the Interest
“Great is the Lord
and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom. One generation will commend Your works to another; they will tell of Your mighty
acts. They will speak of the glorious
splendor of Your majesty, and I will meditate on Your
wonderful works. They will tell of the
power of Your awesome works, and I will proclaim Your
great deeds. They will celebrate Your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of Your righteousness.” (Psalm
145: 3-7)
As
a young girl, I was raised on a dairy farm in western
I
recall asking my mother for an expensive item (now I cannot recall what it
was). She said that we could not afford
it. But, she would add, we were
wealthier than many people, because we’re living off the interest.
Mom
would proceed to point out something of interest, such as a den of foxes that
had found a home on the hillside just beyond our barn. Our family would watch
them eagerly with binoculars. The
interest would include a herd of deer grazing on the same hillside. Driving the old stick-shift truck (before I
was sixteen!) across the stubbly grain fields to meet the combine as it poured
the grain into the truck bed was interesting. Riding bareback through the
fields upon our horses, old Trixie or young Dan, was living off the interest.
When
we longed for expensive vacations to exotic places, she would also point out
that we were still living off the interest of the farm, and that we weren’t
bored yet. Besides, we couldn’t go to
Learning
to “live off of the interest” of the land became a gift that was bestowed to us
when we were young and the times were tight.
Throughout the years, I have realized that it is ultimately God’s gift
to us to enjoy the interesting and abundant life that surrounds us all. My mother was able to show us how to
understand God’s gracious ways. We may
or may not be able to live off of the stock market or the bank account’s
interest rates, but we can certainly find pleasure in God’s gifts here and
now. We have His fulfilling and
wonderful works to see that we are living off of God’s interest in us, no
matter what position in life we hold.
Questions
1. How does God give us riches
that are not involved with money?
2. Why is it important to
teach children to enjoy their surroundings and life?
Prayer:
Dear
Lord, Your greatness has all too often been taken for granted when we strive to
get ahead in our lives here on earth. We
may strive to have huge bank accounts, extravagant homes, or six figure
incomes, but we fail to acknowledge the simple gifts in normal living. Give us wisdom to seek ordinary pleasures In life and to realize that living off of Your interest for
us is all we need. Help us to see the
beauty and joy around us and realize they are Your
gifts of love to us. Amen.
Give
Are You a Musician?
Give a
gift of music to our Lord.
Are you a musician? Of course you are. God has given us all the gift of music in some form or another. Whether singing, playing an instrument, or by being an active listener, you can use music to praise God and uplift your day. In Psalms 92; 1-2, it tells us to sing thanks for the Lord in the morning and to rejoice in His faithfulness in the evening. “Sing His praises, accompanied by music from the harp, lute and lyre. You have done so much for me, O Lord, no wonder I am glad! I sing for joy.” (Psalms 92:3-4 Living Bible)
My mission is to play my flute and to teach young people how to develop their talents on their musical instruments. It gives me such joy to hear them participate musically at church. It must be pleasing to God to hear us making music for His Glory.
The Bible gives us many references to making music. Here are two of my favorites.
1) “The choir was accompanied by 120 priests who were trumpeters, while others played the cymbals, lyres and harps. The band and chorus united as one to praise and thank the Lord; their selections were interspersed with trumpet obbligatos, the clashing of cymbals, and the loud playing of other musical instruments-all praising and thanking the Lord. Their theme was ‘He is so good! His loving kindness lasts forever!’” (2 Chronicles 5:12-14 Living Bible)
2) “Play joyous melodies of praise upon the lyre and on the harp. Compose new songs to praise Him accompanied skillfully on the harp; sing joyfully.” (Psalms 33:2-3 Living Bible).
Questions:
1. What is your favorite hymn or song of praise?
2. Does God care how well you sing or does He just want to hear your voice of praise?
Prayer
Lord, thank you for the gift of music. You have given us so many ways to praise you through your gift. Whether it is through singing, playing an instrument, or being an avid listener, we can make a joyful noise unto you. Amen.