Whole Heart Devotion

"I am the vine; you are the branches.  He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."  John 15:5 After a year or more of neglect, my gracious parents took pity on me and came to the rescue of my poor, pitiful flowerbeds.  While my family went on a camping trip, my parents came and put in numerous hours of hard labor on my attention-deprived landscaping around our house.  It was less of a makeover and more of an overhaul ! The beautiful transformation that took place didn't come without a cost.  Sweat, blisters, fire ant bites, poison ivy, 20 heavy bags of mulch, torrential downpours . . . you name it, they endured it!  And in spite of the fact that they bore the brunt of the hard work, it's my responsibility to maintain what they worked for, or else all of their hard work was done in vain. Aren't most transformations that way?  They require continual upkeep.  I get my hair styled at a salon called  Transformatio

"Better yet, on the Day God heals his people of the wounds and bruises from the time of punishment, moonlight will flare into sunlight, and sunlight, like a whole week of sunshine at once, will flood the land."  Isaiah 30:26 (MSG) I've seen an unbelievable amount of people lately whose cell phone screens were cracked all to pieces.  I'll pass by them and they are reading or responding to text messages, scrolling through Facebook, or sending an email, without even skipping a beat.  It's as if they don't even realize that there is a shattered screen right beneath their fingertips! It astounded me that their broken screens didn't seem to slow them down or inhibit them from their tasks one bit.  Their phones continued to function, so what's an obliterated screen to them? It was "life as usual" in this day in time where cell phones seem to be added appendages to our fingertips. It made me stop and think of all of the people that I come in co

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9 About a week ago my husband woke up with a horrible headache.  I quickly went and doled him out an ibuprofen and hoped that the combination of the pain killer and his morning beverage (Mountain Dew) would ease the pain.  It wasn't too long before he was asking for another ibuprofen.  An hour later, he asked for a third. I couldn't imagine how bad his head must have been throbbing after taking so many pain killers and still no relief.  After I dished out the third dose of medicine, it occurred to me that perhaps I needed to make sure the medicine was still good.  Come to find out, that half empty bottle of ibuprofen expired three and a half years ago!  No wonder they weren't doing him any good! I've met some Christians that appeared to have been left on the shelf past their expiration date! They had totally lost their effectiveness fo

"Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me."   Exodus 23:14 I recently read an article that described Easter as " basically a Christian holiday." That description made my stomach turn when I read it.  But when I stopped and thought about it, I don't know why I was so surprised. If you look at the way most Americans, and Christians for that matter, celebrate most of our holidays, they basically don't resemble Christian holidays. You're probably familiar with the fact that the word 'holiday' is actually derived from the words 'holy day.'  Now, think back over the past year's worth of holidays. How many of them actually resembled something that was holy in your home? • Family oriented . . . Yes. • Patriotic . . . Yes. • Silly, fun, and memorable . . . Yes. • Holy . . . Very few. But you might want to stop me there and say, "But not all holidays were intended to be holy celebrations."  True, but we can see in Sc

“But the Lord has become my fortress and my God the rock in whom I take refuge.”   Psalm 94:22 About two months ago my sister and I were boarding an airplane to attend the funeral of my last living grandparent.   My dad’s mother had fought a long battle with cancer, but ultimately it was an unfortunate fall which produced a broken hip that she never was able to recover from.   It was this mild mannered, unassuming Grandma that taught me all about fairness.   No one could have ever accused her of showing favoritism to either of her two children, nor her three grandchildren.   She was fair to a fault.   Isaac and Rebekah could have learned a lot from my Grandma and spared poor Jacob and Esau a lot of trouble! As a child, I knew I could expect the mailman to deliver packages every December to our home with Christmas presents in it.   I also knew without reservation that the contents of my package would practically mirror in size, price, and quantity the contents of my sister’s

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.  And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."             1 Corinthians 10:13 Augustus Gloop.  Violet Beauregarde.  Veruca Salt.  Mike Teavee.  Charlie Bucket.  Do these names sound familiar? If you recognize them, then you are either a product of the 70s or 80s, or have parented a child during those years.  These are the names of the five winners of the Willy Wonka Golden Tickets from the children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Ronald Dahl.  If you're like me, you're more familiar with its quirky musical adaption into a movie entitled Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory . I had never watched that movie through a spiritual lens until recently.  I believe it was prompted by having read a statement on Facebook that garnered my attention.  It said: "The

"Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.  I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord" -- and you forgave the guilt of my sin.  Psalm 32:5 I have always been in awe of the inexplicable ability of God to forgive sin.  I mean, He has the ability to forgive it all.  Murder. Rape. Child abuse (I, myself, find this one near unforgivable). Adultery. Lying. Laziness.  You name it, He can forgive it. I just find that amazing!  It is a part of God's nature to be forgiving.  Knowing that God is capable of hearing the confessions and prayers of a whole entire world all at one time, I imagine that He is forgiving someone throughout every second of the day, many times over! I find God's capacity to forgive so astounding because I'm reminded daily of my incapability to forgive.  Just like God, I, too, am given the opportunity to forgive on a daily basis.  My spouse, my children, co-workers, the ridiculously slow driver in front o