What God Can Do

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Today it is snowing at times and other times it is raining ice. I am at my computer considering what I might write, and I reflected on certain times in my life. President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 during my senior year in high school. I was married in 1966 and moved from Oklahoma to California. My son was born in 1968, the year Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated. Riots were the scene on many university campuses. The Manson cult committed a series of nine horrible murders in 1969. As a young mom with my baby boy, I wondered what my son would live through, what kind of world had I brought him into? As many of you thought at that time, I also thought it was the end of the world. How could it get worse?

Things did get worse. Roe vs. Wade won and abortion became lawful in 1973. In 1976 the Swine Flu hit America and President Ford called for a vaccination, which came faster than any vaccination in history until that time. Today things look grim with woke culture, critical race theory, millions of babies killed by abortion, and a virus that shut the world down and brought about more isolation, loss, depression, despair, suicides, homicides and vaccine mandates that divide communities and families.

In the midst of this darkness, I want to tell you some good news! God is on the move. None of these things surprise Him. Revival is happening across the United States, and it is starting in California. Yes, California, a state that was once the desired place to live but where, for the past several years, a big exodus has occurred and is still occurring, for which I was part of.

Today, shut in by the threatening weather, I looked on YouTube for something I could write about and came across a message preached by Mario Murillo at Destiny Church in Rocklin, California. Tears filled my eyes, and my ears were opened to see and hear what God can do. Take time to listen to Mario Murillo. You will be glad you did.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord God, for what you are doing in California and across our nation. Raise up your people everywhere to shine your light into this dark world, and share your amazing love to free the hearts of people from fear, anxiety, emptiness, despair and loneliness, and have new life in You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Thanks for the Memories

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

My mom collected pictures in boxes, lots of boxes. My dad collected slide photos from a 35mm camera. We traveled a lot and had lots of pictures from all those places we visited. Then we uploaded pictures from our digital cameras onto our computers. Some of the pictures on our computers have been lost forever as the results of crashes. Those were heartbreaking moments. Today our photos are stored on phones, computers, iPads, tablets, and the iCloud, but most of us have lost the sense of celebrating the memories from our photos.

I can remember when we only had black and white film, and our pictures were not snapshots but formal settings. Don’t move, don’t smile. Do you have any of those stored someplace in your home? Color film and snapshots made our pictures more fun, for sure. We keep pictures to preserve the memories, but do we celebrate the moments as we once did? Do we gather around a screen to watch family movies or slides? My answers to these questions is sadly, “no,”

The Bible tells us that in times past Israel had (and still has) festivals to remind them how God delivered them from slavery in Egypt, how He made a way for them through the Red Sea and the Jordan River, how He provided for them in the wilderness, how He brought streams of water out of a rock, how He led them into the Promised Land and gave them a bountiful harvest. In the United States we celebrate annual holidays: Independence Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Patriot’s Day, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas – to remember the blessings and sacrifices that have contributed to make our country great.

THINK ABOUT IT

It is important for us to make a special effort to reflect on what God has done for us personally. Take the pictures, sort them and add captions to them so others will know what they are and when they were taken. Take time to celebrate the special moments in our lives, not just birthdays and anniversaries, but unique times in our service to God. A good example is when my husband comes home from a deployment with our church disaster relief team – how people turned their hearts toward God.

PRAY ABOUT IT

O Lord, our God, help us to make more of the moments in our lives when you have blessed us. Help us to celebrate you and all you do to give us abundant life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.