Time Well Spent

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt,so that you may know how to answer everyone.  Colossians 4:5-7 (NIV)

I don't know where the month of October went!  It has just sped by!  I realized, as I was thinking about this post that this has been a month where I have done social things more than usual.  I have spent time investing in relationships that are important to me; with my God, my husband, and very dear friends.  Time is a very precious commodity.  God created time for man, He is totally outside of it, and He certainly does not need it!  We have it to use and squander it foolishly, pretty often.

Time spent developing my relationship with God is time that is redeemed wisely.  I like to get up early, grab a cup of coffee and my Bible, and be with Him.  I love to sit on my deck, as weather permits.  I love to hear the birds waking up, and experience the light dawning.  The end of night and the coming of the light is an awesome experience.   I spend time in prayer, in worship and in His Word.  I love to just be still and know that He is God.  (Psalm 46:10)

Time that I spend developing my relationship with my spouse is precious indeed.  I intentionally set aside one day a week just for him.  That means no working, no tutoring, no meetings with other ladies, it is just for him.  If we are home together, that is enough.  If we go on a date, that is enough. That time is ours, together.  We each get up early with the other when one of us has to be up early.  We have coffee and talk, or not.  We share what we are reading in the Word, or a a prayer.  I have reached an age, where many of  my peers are widows or widowers, and I want to savor every moment I can with my perfect gift from God.

Time with dear friends is time well invested.  I have realized lately that if I don't intentionally make time to invest in friends, it just won't happen!  I traveled to Fort Mill, South Carolina to be with two of my very best friends.  We traveled across the state to be with friends who have the same passion we do.  Friends nurture us, share our passions, make us laugh, make us cry.  I love our couple friends.  I love my women friends!  They love, they listen.  My women friends empathize, and sympathize.  They are intelligent, dreamers,imaginative, creative, practical, down to earth, believers, questioners and messy.  My women friends push me to know God better so I can love them well.  

Thank you dear friends, for sharing life with me.  Thank you for reading this and passing it on!  Thank you for your support in stepping out to do this.  Thank your for being a friend.

   

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt,so that you may know how to answer everyone.  Colossians 4:5-7 (NIV)

I have been in some fierce passages this week:  the book of Joshua, Habakkuk 3, and in the Psalms.  I am preparing to facilitate Girls with Swords by Lisa Bevere, and so I have been reading about and soaking in all that our God has to say about war and warfare and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.  Today I want to share with you two things that have impacted me this week.  The first, direct from God's Word:

Psalm 144New Living Translation (NLT)

1 Praise the Lord, who is my rock.
    He trains my hands for war
    and gives my fingers skill for battle.
2 He is my loving ally and my fortress,
    my tower of safety, my rescuer.
He is my shield, and I take refuge in him.
    He makes the nations[a] submit to me.

3 O Lord, what are human beings that you should notice them,
    mere mortals that you should think about them?
4 For they are like a breath of air;
    their days are like a passing shadow.

5 Open the heavens, Lord, and come down.
    Touch the mountains so they billow smoke.
6 Hurl your lightning bolts and scatter your enemies!
    Shoot your arrows and confuse them!
7 Reach down from heaven and rescue me;
    rescue me from deep waters,
    from the power of my enemies.
8 Their mouths are full of lies;
    they swear to tell the truth, but they lie instead.

9 I will sing a new song to you, O God!
    I will sing your praises with a ten-stringed harp.
10 For you grant victory to kings!
    You rescued your servant David from the fatal sword.
11 Save me!
    Rescue me from the power of my enemies.
Their mouths are full of lies;
    they swear to tell the truth, but they lie instead.

12 May our sons flourish in their youth
    like well-nurtured plants.
May our daughters be like graceful pillars,
    carved to beautify a palace.
13 May our barns be filled
    with crops of every kind.
May the flocks in our fields multiply by the thousands,
    even tens of thousands,
14     and may our oxen be loaded down with produce.
May there be no enemy breaking through our walls,
    no going into captivity,
    no cries of alarm in our town squares.
15 Yes, joyful are those who live like this!
    Joyful indeed are those whose God is the Lord

Secondly, Please watch this powerful teaching by a wonderful man of God that we know, Eric Ludy.  He is speaking Truth, and we need to hear it! 

https://youtu.be/-XKSV9sKr8w

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt,so that you may know how to answer everyone.  Colossians 4:5-7 (NIV)

Joel 2 is what is on my mind and heart over this past week.  All that leads up to it, but especially verse 11:

The Lord thunders     at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number,
    and mighty is the army that obeys his command.The day of the Lord is great;
    it is dreadful.    Who can endure it?

Do you wonder at these times?  We see  droves of people fleeing the Southern Hemisphere because of war, poverty and persecution.  We see rampant disregard for a God's law.  We see selfishness abounding.  The thing is, God planned that we would be  women, living in the United States "for such a time as this."  He has called us and equipped us to be in this battle alongside our sisters and brothers in Christ around the world.  Though we did not choose war, in choosing Jesus, we joined God's army. It is time for us to repent, and turn again to our God.  It is time for us to open our ears and hear His commands.  It is time for us to obey them.   It is time for us to learn to use the Sword, which according to Ephesians 6 is the Word of God.

The Commander's orders come in verses 12-17

:12 Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart,  with fasting and weeping and mourning.”  Rend your heart and not your garments.  Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. and he relents from sending calamity.  14 Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing—grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God.  15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly.  16 Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast.  Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber.  17 Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the portico and the altar.  Let them say, “Spare your people, Lord.  Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

We must do this, not only for our sake, but for the sake of our God and King.  The unbelievers look at what is happening in our community, in our nation in the world and say, "Where is their God?"