​You are my friends if you do what I command.                                                                                                                                                                        John 15:13-14 
                                                      
Hello Friend, 
           
                Jesus loves me.  Jesus loves you.  That is a promise we can claim as Christian believers, but I also want to be His friend.   I desire to know Him as friend so my task is to do what He commands. The Bible has a lot of commands, rules, and thou shall not’s.  How do I know which ones to follow?  All of them?  Oh, my goodness!     
            Jesus understands our confusion and makes it quite simple. He tells us there are two commands we must follow.  The first is to “love the Lord your God with all your passion, prayer, and intelligence.  This is the most important, the first on any list.  But there is a second to set alongside it.  Love others as well as you love yourself. These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s law and the Prophets hangs from them” (Matthew 22:37-40 MSG).
            Well, I love God—feel his daily Presence—and trust Him.  But that second one!  Love others!  Love my family, pretty easy unless they stray from my wishes and “do their own thing.”   Love my friends, usually, unless they do something of which I do not approve, or heaven help them, if they are truth-tellers who wound my ego.  And my neighbors too, Lord, you want me to love even the nosey, annoying ones? 
            Gary Smalley, in his book, Love is a Decision, informs us that love is not a feeling, but a choice we make each day.  We choose to love for better or worse, in sickness and in health.  We choose to love the unlovely.  The arrogant.  The homeless.  The person of another faith, nationality, or persuasion.    If you are not loving to another, are you ready to ask “why”? Remember, loving others is the second most important commandment. Are you ready to “choose” to love?  Linda
           

​  Love each other as I have loved you.  You are my friends if you do what I command.                                                                                    John 15:13-14                                                      
Hello Friend, 
           
                I believe there is no more beautiful word in the English language than friend.  And to imagine in my wildest dreams that I could be friends with Jesus, well, that is just the best.  The Bible contains so many wonderful promises to help me live a life with purpose and joy.
            Jesus says, “Come to me all ye who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).  My sweet daughter-in-law just lost her daddy.  How wonderful she is a believer and can lean on Jesus.  If you are dealing with grief, worries, or illness, go to Him and find the blessed peace that only Jesus can offer.
            Jesus says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).  Many friends have not recovered from the betrayal of their spouse.  They were sure their love would last forever.  With Jesus, there is no fear of abandonment.  He is with you always. 
            Jesus says, “I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow” (John 15:11).  Want to trade sadness for joy? Trust Him.
            What a friend we have in Jesus.  Next week, we’ll discuss what Jesus requires of us—our part of the relationship.  Love you friend,                                                                                                                                                                             Linda

A troublemaker plants seeds of strife; gossip separates the best of friends. . .                                          Proverbs 16:28 
                                                   
Hello Friend, 
           
                Oh, how tempting!  That juicy bit of gossip.  I’ll just tell Susie; she won’t tell anyone.  But the ooze of poison from your lips continues to flow creating a destructive tsunami of pain.  The Bible describes how wicked it is to tell tales.  Talebearing is an archaic term rarely heard today but describes a gossip or slanderer.  “He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets; therefor do not associate with one who flatters with his lips.  Whoever curses his father or his mother, His lamp will be put out in deep darkness” (Proverbs 20:19-20).   Shana Alexander once said, “Trying to squash a rumor is like trying to unring a bell.”  Once something is said, you can neither take is back or guarantee that it will not be repeated. 
            The habit of gossiping can be likened to an addiction to smoking cigarettes, easy to catch and difficult to get rid of.  Gossiping superficially bonds us to others as an alternative to quality conversation.  What do you talk about with your friends over coffee or at the water fountain at work?  Do you guard your mouth? Are your words healing and uplifting?  May I remind you that Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).  You might be thinking we weren’t gathered together in Jesus’ name.  Really!  If you claim to be a Christian, Jesus is with you always—even at the water fountain.  Are you okay with Jesus listening in to your conversations?
PRAYER FOR TODAY AND FOREVER:
Dear God, May the words of my mouth be acceptable in Thy sight.  Amen.
                                                                                    Linda

  As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.                            Proverbs 27:17                                                     
Hello Friend, 
           
                Our scripture this morning is explaining that a true friend helps you to become all you can be.  They will stand behind you and support you.  I heard a story about a woman and her husband, the mayor of a large city, who were walking along the street one day when a construction worker on a nearby scaffolding leaned over and shouted, "Hello, Peggy." She turned to look and recognized him as being an old boyfriend from high school. She returned his greeting and they had a brief conversation before she and her husband continued their walk.  The mayor chuckled and said to his wife, "See there,if you had married that fellow, you’d be the wife of a construction worker." She looked at him and said, "no, dear, if I’d married him, he would be the mayor of this city."

            Behind everyone who achieves anything of worth is a friend of great worth!
A true friend lifts you up to higher levels of achievement. They are the kind of folks that I’ve heard called "Parsley People," because like parsley on a plate, their desire is always to make you look good. They are people who are committed to your success. So when you ask God for a gift, be thankful if He sends not diamonds, pearls or riches, but the love of real true friends!  We should extend our friendliness to a friend. For, "He who would have friends must show himself friendly."  A happy family, encouraging friends, and good neighbors are great blessings from the Lord! Let's be sure we do our part to make these blessings a reality in our lives and the lives of others.                                                                                                                        
     Dear God, Show us the persons you want us to be. Open our hearts to your peace and love that your light may shine in us.  Amen.
                                                                                    Honored to be your friend,
                                                                                                      Linda
 

​Joy in the Morning
  God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, of power and of a sound mind.                                                                       11 Timothy 1: 7                           
 
Hello Friend,  
 
                If you have a spirit of fear, timidity or anxiety, it didn’t come from God. God does not give to his people a spirit of fear.  For you were born for courage, not for fear. You may remember the story of the 1980 American Hockey Team that played in the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. The team was basically made up of men barely out of their teens. Some of them just out of college, some of them still in college, all basically amateurs. They were given no chance of winning the gold medal because to win it, they would have to defeat the mighty, awesome, unbelievably talented Russian hockey team, a team that we have not beaten in Olympic competition in 20 years, a team that was considered to be invincible. In 1980 the American team won the first game, the second and third games, and moved into the medal round. There they were to face the Russian team in the semi-finals. Almost nobody thought they could win that game. Gathered in the locker room before the game, the coach, Herb Brooks, looked at the faces of his players and knew that he had just one chance to say something to them. He said one sentence, “Men, you were born to play this game.” As one man, they arose and went out on the ice and defeated the mighty Russian team and went on the beat Finland to win the gold medal against all odds.
 
            Friend, I will say the same thing to you.  You were born to play this game of life. You were born for courage, for bravery, for strength, to be an overcomer.  God has given you his Spirit.  You were not born to be a loser.  You were born through Jesus Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit to be victorious over your problems, your struggles, over the trials of your life. Remember that in Christ you are strong, victorious, accepted, justified, redeemed, saved, and completely forgiven.  Whatever happens in this new year, you can handle it with grace.  Wishing you a very healthy and happy new year.
                                                                                                            Linda