Sunday Writings......4/3/16

Good Morning....

It is the Lord's Day! I love Sundays because of the Church service. I love to sing and the music gives me a delightful time of prayer and learning lessons as the words of the songs are sung. Then a message is given by the pastor that finds interesting aspects of scripture that are there but not thought of before. 

Then we go out to lunch with friends or by ourselves. The rest of the day is restful and like an oasis in the desert of weekdays.

Have a great day!

Corinne

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Sunday Devotional for 4/3/16

REFINED

Many days I feel anything BUT refined - more like a mess, frazzled, or exhausted at the very least.  To me, refined means well put together, polished, or sophisticated.  Sometimes it is my outsides that feel messy, like when I have been cleaning horse stalls all morning in the heat, my clothing disheveled and dirty, my hair matted and sweaty, my skin damp and plastered with grit, and hay having found its way into places it was never meant to be!  Other days it is my insides that seem to be falling apart, like when I have put too many things on my plate that are pulling me all different directions, frustrating me, producing a short temper, and bringing about less than desirable outcomes.  

There are days, however, when things fall together well and I feel more refined.  I may be well dressed, have a new classy hair style, exhibit well-mannered actions, and participate in tasteful cultured activities.  Internally I can feel sublime, gracious and enlightened.  Am I a different person on those days?  Not at all!  All of these qualities can be present, just at different levels in different situations.

Then there is the refining of my faith through times of trials and tribulations.  Sometimes I feel utterly abandoned and alone, struggling to make it through the heat of it all.  But those very pressures of life can enhance my faith as I turn to God in prayer and rely on him more.  It is interesting that natural diamonds are formed under intense heat and pressure, or that refining gold or silver involves fire and hammering to make it more usable.  That is what God is doing in my life with these struggles, making me more usable for him.  When I experience great difficulties and make it through by his grace, then I am better equipped to help others through those same battles and to provide a witness of faith in God.  That faith shields me, even though I cannot see God or how I will make it to the other side of my problems.  It also brings me great joy to know that because of Jesus Christ, I am forgiven and going to heaven, no matter what I may have done, not done, or been through, if I do not reject God.  Faith, then, is of greater worth than any gold or silver or diamonds -  Praise be to God!

1 Peter 1:5-9 (NIV)  Through faith [you] are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Dear Father in heaven, we thank you for sending your Son to die on the cross in our place and rise again to live with you in heaven, where you have prepared a place for us.  Continue to refine our faith and shield us from our struggles here on earth so that we may help others and witness to them of your great love and forgiveness.  In Jesus' name, Amen.

written by 

Jan Andersen

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Inspirational Contemplations

It is a hope  that these kind words will induce a warm feeling and inspire you to kind deeds.

• Peace: It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart. - Author unknown
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• Kind words are short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. - Mother Teresa
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• This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. 
• - William Shakespeare
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• The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
  - Samuel Johnson
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• Character is what you do when no one is looking.
  - Henry Huffman
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• It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.
  - Ann Eleanor Roosevelt
• Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind. - Cicero
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• There are three things which are real: God, human folly, and laughter. Since the first two pass our comprehension, we must do what we can with the third. - Aubrey Menen
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• If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters. - Alan Simpson
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  Going to church does not make you a Christian anymore than going to McDonald's makes you a hamburger.
  - Author unknown

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Prayers are lifted up daily for 

you by the Devotional Writers 

and the Monthly Writing Staff

of Women's Focus Ministries.

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