Why Do You Love Me?

The other morning I told the Lord I loved Him. I do that sometimes. Usually when I say that I hear in my spirit, "Feed my sheep." Then I spend time wondering which sheep and what mix of food to feed them. Then I try to keep my eyes open for hungry sheep. Encouragement is a tasty morsel.

This time I heard a question, "Why do you love Me?"

I thought about this for a while. "I love You because I can trust You."

"Why do you trust Me?"

"I trust You because You know the truth, because You are the Truth. You know everything and everyone and all of our motives. That makes me feel very secure and much loved."

Spring and Cleaning (day 8)

Gave the powder room a second coat of tan paint. Nailed the trim back in place. It's a whole new place...warm and inviting.

But, as my husband remarked, nothing to get too excited about. It's only a powder room after all. According to dictionary.com a powder room is "a room containing a toilet and washing facilities for women; lavatory." I guess that's why my husband is not jumping up and down with enthusiasm.

Maybe I'll rename it. Why should I let the sales clerk in the paint store name my downstairs washroom simply by writing 'powder room' on the paint cans?

I'm calling it, "The Tan John."

Now on to the next project.

Spring and Cleaning (day 7)

Today I painted my hands and my clothes and the downstairs washroom known as the powder room to the saleslady in the paint store who wrote that on the lids of the two quarts of tan-coloured flat paint she estimated I needed to paint a 6 1/2' x 2 1/2' x 8' high room.

It didn't take long to paint, after I filled the holes and sanded and washed the walls and removed the towel rack, the toilet paper holder, the cupboard handles, the trim around the door and the baseboards and taped the edges of the counter.

Spring and Cleaning (day 6)

Things are now out of control. I washed the walls in the downstairs washroom which lead to ripping down the wallpaper border which means I have to repaint the walls, but before I can do that I have to patch the holes.

Spring and Cleaning (day 5 – Good Friday)

You may wonder why I’m working on Good Friday. When I asked myself that it came to mind that Jesus did His most difficult work on Good Friday.

Today the thing that I feared happened. This is the reason I try to avoid spring cleaning. Well, one of the reasons. Dissatisfaction set in.

Up until now I have been ignoring the condition of my kitchen cupboards. This is impossible to continue to do. Now that I have washed out the insides and cleaned the outsides with Murphy’s Oil and shone them up with a bit of Teak oil, the truth is painfully clear.

My 40-year-old standard contractor particle board cupboards with the thin oak veneer finish are finished. They are rotting on the inside, the doors are sagging and you get the picture. We have decided to replace them.

Spring and Cleaning (day 4)

My, those bottom cupboards were dirty. Two hours of scrubbing and I still have two cupboards to go.

Spring and Cleaning (day 3)

My kitchen is officially half clean...the top half...well I haven't cleaned the light fixture yet or the pantry cupboard, but it's almost officially half clean. At this rate it may not be all clean at the same time.

Spring and Cleaning (day 2)

I cleaned the stove, the dishwasher, the microwave and two cupboards. Such a slow process this is.

Spring Cleaning

Today I cleaned out my fridge.

Tomorrow?

Like Husband, Like Wife

(continued from previous post)
Then, two weeks later after dropping my niece off at her home in Westdale, I backed out of her laneway onto the narrow street and BANG. I backed right into a car parked on the opposite side of the street.
My stomach felt sick, considerably sicker than two weeks previous. My first impulse was to pretend that this hadn’t happened and drive off. But it had, and I knew I would have difficulty living with myself as a hit-and-runner. I pulled back into the driveway, found some paper in my purse and wrote, “Sorry, I’m the one who backed into your car. I wrote my name and number. I tucked it under the windshield wiper.

That was two weeks ago. The damaged-car owner hasn’t as yet phoned. The police haven’t phoned. Every time the phone rings, my heart races.
We are driving a van with identical dents in the left and right corners of the bumper. But, as my husband likes to point out, the left dent is just a tad deeper.

Bad Things Happen to Good People

Recently after a snowfall and during a rainfall on the way to a church meeting we stopped by to pick up a friend at her house. My husband Marty was driving. He backed out of our friend’s laneway right into a parked car. The bang came as a rude shock. Up to that evening there had never been cars parked there on that narrow one-way street.

We placed a note under the wiper on the windshield of the damaged car and continued on our way. That night it snowed.

The next day the police phoned asking for my husband. The owner of the car had called the police as soon as he saw his dented door. Upon examining the interior of the car, the policeman discovered my husband’s note pressed up against the windshield where it was buried under several inches of icy snow.

The policeman thanked Marty for leaving the note (many wouldn’t he said). He asked about the conditions that evening and decided not to lay charges due to the circumstances.

Marty settled with the owner for the considerable repair bill and we are driving in a van with a large dent on the right corner of our bumper. They don’t make bumper’s like they used to.

Personally I was grateful that my husband had been driving that evening, because I knew but for the grace of God, that could have been me. I think Marty would have difficulty understanding how such a thing could happen if he hadn’t experienced it first hand.

(to be continued)

Jill's Questions

(continued from previous posts)

I have many questions. How is God moving in my life through all this? Is He teaching me that I can follow Him, trust Him and serve Him just as I am, the way He made me? That He loves me unconditionally? Is He saying that I should accept what He has for me without being awkward about it? Did I pass a test and get a crown?

Truthfully I don't have the answers. He is meeting me and it feels good. Nothing compares to playing on the beach with Jesus! That was awesome.

Jill Has a Glimpse of Heaven

(continued from previous posts)

More recently during a quiet time with the Lord I (Jill) experienced a level of elevated thinking as I have never felt before. I was not dreaming. My mind rose above the mundane, through a secondary level and then to a third level of intimacy with God.

Jesus met me again on that same beach. This time He left the platform and we began playing a game of tag and then running along the beach with the wind blowing and the spray from the ocean washing over us.

After that Jesus invited me to come up onto the platform. Once again He placed a crown on my head. This time it fit perfectly. It was beautiful with ermine around the bottom, like a royal crown. This time I did not object.

Then Jesus led me behind the throne where God was sitting I felt pretty nervous, but just followed along.

We stopped in front of two very tall wooden doors. Jesus told me to open them and look inside. Still nervous but knowing better than to say “no” from past experience, I opened them wide.

On the other side was a most beautiful forever view of blue sky and clouds so beautiful it took my breath away. I believe this was a glimpse of heaven.

(to be continued)

Jill Revisits the Beach

(continued from previous post)
In this dream I (Jill) was lying on my bed seeking the Lord. I saw God sitting on a throne on a platform. Jesus was standing beside Him. I saw myself standing in front of the platform. I cannot remember exactly what I was doing, but this was on that same beach. Jesus was bending down and speaking to God, about me. Jesus was smiling and nodding. Is this intercession?

(to be continued)

You Know Jesus Loves You when....

My friend Jill had a series of dreams/visions about the love of God and His direction for her life.

Following a trip to Ghana in 2009 I (Jill) had a dream. The dream began in North America. In that dream Jesus was trying to place a crown on my head.

The crown did not fit very well. It was heavy and uncomfortable. So, very politely, I said to Jesus that a crown should be worn only by Him and it would be okay if I didn’t have one.

Immediately the crown was gone. It was replaced by a medieval cone shaped hat with a long piece of silky material trailing from the top of it. Just as fast, I was lying flat on my back, looking up at the sky and flying across the ocean. I came down feet first landing in an upright position on a beach in Ghana.

I was on the very beach I had left just a few weeks earlier. Immediately after landing, I saw a very large herd of what I thought were goats eagerly running towards me and surrounding me.

Now I like goats and most other animals so this was a really neat experience for me. They were all very friendly. I could see in their eyes and by their little smiles that I was supposed to take care of them. I also realized they were sheep, not goats. (Ghanaian goats are short whereas their sheep are much taller but don’t have woolly coats.)

I awoke with a definite knowledge that God wanted me to feed His sheep. This was an assignment.

(to be continued)