ByGrace

And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.  ~~ Luke 5:12,13 Over the past couple of years, as I've read through the Gospels, I've begun to mark the places where someone comes to Jesus and makes a request of Him by saying, "Lord, if thou wilt . . ." or where Jesus asks someone what they desired Him to do for them. In every case, Jesus says, "I will . . . " and they receive whatever it is they have asked of Him. Photo by amslerPIX Many people would love to take these instances out of the context of the whole counsel of God and try to make God their personal genie whose mission is to grant their wishes. Nothing could be farther from the truth! First, we must remember t...

Enable me, our Father, to realize that words once spoken, like coins in circulation, pass from person to person along an uncharted course.  Grant me the insight so to speak that any words of mine may be repeated without giving hurt.  Help me not to criticize but rather to stress the things that are pure, lovely, and of good report.  Make my habit of thought gentle and eager to pass along news of kindness and work well done.  May my words build, never destroy, faith and confidence.  To this end I pray that Thou wilt lead me in the ways of understanding.  Amen. Unknown Let the words of my mouth , and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. I do miss my American Thanksgiving! It's been several years since we've celebrated this holiday in addition to Canadian Thanksgiving, but this year, we're traveling a few hours to visit friends who are also Americans living in Canada, and we're going to "be American" for a day. I'm looking forward to having turkey and all the trimmings; I'm even taking some good ol' southern cornbread dressing for our friends to try! I'm sure there will be lots of good fellowship, laughter, giving of thanks, and maybe even a few tears as we remember God's goodness to us. But even in the midst of the actual giving thanks, sitting at the table or praying before the meal, I've realized in the past that I've come to the table with words of thanks on my lips, but no attitude of thanksgiving in my heart. This year, to prepare my heart for true thanksgiving, I made an acrostic of the word THANKS to remin...

  Welcome to The Week In Words , where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read . My quotes this week come from my cough-drop wrappers! LOL For several weeks, I've had trouble with a dry, tickly throat, so I keep Hall's Vitamin C drops in my purse. The other day I noticed that each wrapper has some short motivational thoughts on it, both in French and English. I'm assuming the French ones are the same as the English ones! ;) Most of these thoughts are pump-you-up type motivational fluff that has no basis in Scripture, but yesterday I looked through the pile of wrappers in my purse (ahem) and found several that were worth remembering: "Don't waste a precious minute!" "Don't try ha...