Friday, April 28, 2017

Little Treasures Along the Way

 
Photo by Dee Kamp
 
Little Treasures Along the Way
 
I stopped on my walk in the park and paused to step aside as the landscaper blew leaves and debris from the path with his hand-blower. Leaves tumbled away, sticks rolled to the side, but he stopped now and then with eyes staring at the ground. What was he looking for I wondered?
 
In that day he will be your sure foundation,
providing a rich store of salvation, wisdom and knowledge.
The fear of the LORD will be your treasure.” Isaiah 33:6 NLT
Then I was surprised to see the gardener stoop down and pick up a muddy penny and brush it off before tucking in his shirt pocket. Next he choose a little red leaf, and last a simple yellow dandelion flower.
 He looked up at me, surprised I was watching him. I smiled knowingly when he said, “Just little treasures along the way to share with my little daughter!”
 
When I was going through a tough time of sorrow it seemed God was more than ever intent on distracting me from my thoughts by little treasurers every day. One day a bird unexpectedly was singing on the windowsill of my kitchen, another time a surprise of a gift was left on my door step from a neighbor, and one day a Psalm 23 experience when as never before, a beautiful deer came to lie down under our apple tree.
 
When the sun shines through spring’s rain filled clouds, when suddenly a double rainbow glows, when we hear a bird’s clear sweet song and someone reaches out in love and friendship, that’s when we see the little treasures God has provided for us all along life's way.
“Trust is born out of knowing three things about God: one that He watches over the details of our lives; two, that He wants to be involved; and three, that He has all the power and resources of heaven and earth at His disposal to supply all that we need. God is enough.” By: Mary Dunham Faulkner, from: Gentle Wisdom for Tough Times
 
“Little Treasures Along the Way” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© April 28, 2017

Monday, April 24, 2017

Full of Joy!


photo by : Dee Kamp
 
  Full of Joy

Today I choose joy. Yes, the choice is ours. For many years I waited for joy to find me. I looked for joy in others, I looked for joy in things, I even looked for joy in a weather report!

I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” John 17:13 NIV

A heart full of love reflects a face full of joy. When women are pregnant people will often say she “is glowing”.  When people fall in love they say they have “sparkling eyes”. This is due to an increase of love and joy within their heart. It’s not chemical, it’s spiritual!

Life is short, so travel in the lightness of His joy. Soar through life in the strength of His joy.

  Jesus prayed for His disciples that they would experience the full measure of His joy, now, in this world as they travel on.

  So let us stop and choose a bouquet of joy found in time with our Savior. Let our eyes sparkle and our face be full of joy to shine with His holy joy.  And like children in the rain let us jump right in the mud puddles of life and splash some hope around!

"Today, draw near to God in worship, in love, in joy, in the deepest of intimacy....." Jonathan Cahn from: The Book of Mysteries

“Full of Joy” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© April 24, 2017

Friday, April 21, 2017

Created to Withstand All Storms


 
Great Blue Heron photo by Dee Kamp
 

Created to Withstand All Storms

“They’re back!” I shouted with joy to my husband as we were driving by the thick grove of alders along an estuary nearby our home.
 I stared in awe at the large rookery of nests built high atop each tree by the great blue herons.  

“How on earth did the nests survive our record rainfalls this winter and that huge gale force wind that took down so many trees this April?” I asked Bill.

He said with a smile, “Easy, it’s God who taught Noah exactly how to build a weather proof ark, and it’s God who taught the heron how to build storm proof nest.“

I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work and muse on Your deeds. Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples.” Psalm 77:11-14 NISB

By each Word of promise in the message God in our Bibles we can depend on Him  for strength, hope an faith which will grow stronger and stronger every day of our lives.
Board by board directed by God,  Noah nailed them together to build an ark which was able to survive the greatest storm in history. And stick by stick a heron build to build a nest in a tree created to withstand all storms too.

So let us be encouraged by God's examples in nature, of His great wisdom and power and love for us in all areas and seasons of our life. For its true, He knows our needs before they are spoken and He is faithful to stand beside us through every storm, to sustain and hold us tight to Him through them all.
“How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource. We go to Him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven. “―George MacDonald

“Created to Withstand All Windstorm”  by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© April 21, 2017

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Relentless Untiring and Determined



 
Mount Baker at Sunrise Easter by Dee Kamp
 
 

Relentless Untiring and Determined
 “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love
for I have my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go, for to you I will lift up my soul.”
Psalm 143:8 NIV
My friend laughed as I told her the funny story of what really had happened to egg number twelve on that Easter egg hunt many years ago when our five year old grandson visited us.
Relentless, untiring, and determined were the words that came to mind watching him searching for those twelve Easter eggs. But for all his efforts, still one egg remained hidden. He questioned if I hid twelve. But I reminded him there were that many, one of each of Jesus’ disciples. But I didn’t know then what really happened to that one purple egg.

It seems that egg number twelve all painted blue and purple was indeed, really missing. You see the family dog went on her own egg hunt before everyone in the family got up that morning and enjoyed the egg all to herself. The evidence of this were her blue tongue and lips she displayed with her goofy greeting to us long after we all gave up the search. Boy, did we all have a good laugh. I even called the vet to see if the dog had harmed herself. But it only gave the vet a bigger laugh yet-all would well he said.
Just like small children in search of treasure, we too must never tire of seeking Jesus for all the treasure found in the beauty of a personal relationship with Him.
 Relentless, untiring and determined is God in His love for us. The Lord is determined to draw us closer to Him in a personal relationship in the most beautiful and loving ways new every day.
With only a whisper in our weariest moments, while on our knees bent in prayer and repentance with laughter and joy for His blessings, we discover over and over again how God never grows weary of hearing every detail of our lives with Him.
“When my life fell apart I found a raw, real relationship with Christ in the ashes, based on nothing I brought to the table but based on His relentless love. No matter how great our longing is for God it will never come close to His longing for us.” Quoted by: Sheila Walsh

“Relentless, Untiring, Determined” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© April 18, 2017

 

 

Monday, April 10, 2017

Children of Light


 
photo by : Dee Kamp
 
Children of Light

The sun broke through the dark purple clouds this morning at dawn shoving them aside like the strong arms of God. Intent were the broad beams of light brightening all the whole world around me that had once been dark and gloom.  

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John 1:4-5 NASB

No matter the clouds and dark days we may face, our hearts are able to be filled with the amazing loving Light of God. All children of God live in the Light. Some go from light to dark, some choose the glom, but children of God go from dark to light every day because of God’s gift of His Son.

 As darkness appears as fear, sin, difficulties and anxiety, and more, we, as children of light turn and lift our eyes up to heaven where all goodness and hope comes from.

 Lovingly, patient full of mercy in His perfect way, God moves us onward from weakness to strength, from despair to hope, from guilt to goodness, from weeping to joy, from ashes to beauty and from death to life.

God sends streams of light to pierce the darkness of dawn to remind us of His Light which is powerful and will always make the darkness flee and the sun t shine.

 

“Children of Light” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© April 10, 2017

 

 

Children of Light


 
 
 
 
Children of Light

The sun broke through the dark purple clouds this morning at dawn shoving them aside like the strong arms of God. Intent were the broad beams of light brightening all the whole world around me that had once been dark and gloom.  

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John 1:4-5 NASB

No matter the clouds and dark days we may face, our hearts are able to be filled with the amazing loving Light of God. All children of God live in the Light. Some go from light to dark, some choose the glom, but children of God go from dark to light every day because of God’s gift of His Son.

 As darkness appears as fear, sin, difficulties and anxiety, and more, we, as children of light turn and lift our eyes up to heaven where all goodness and hope comes from.

 Lovingly, patient full of mercy in His perfect way, God moves us onward from weakness to strength, from despair to hope, from guilt to goodness, from weeping to joy, from ashes to beauty and from death to life.

God sends streams of light to pierce the darkness of dawn to remind us of His Light which is powerful and will always make the darkness flee and the sun t shine.

 

“Children of Light” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© April 10, 2017