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

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

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

 

 

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

 

 

But She Wasn't Alone

 

 

 But She Wasn't Alone

“Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you.

Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.” Psalm 143:8 NIV

 

 

The petite little girl, about age eight, walked herself down the tree lined dark dirt road. It was a half mile in the predawn gloom to her school bus stop. There was always the risk encounter of a coyote or even a bear. But she wasn’t alone.

Beside her, assuring her with the consistent bump of his broad shoulders, was Caleb her faithful Labrador retriever. Caleb walked her to the end of the road not moving an inch until he saw her safely board the school bus. He did this until he was old and gray.  

Jesus promised He would never leave us or forsake us, no matter our circumstances, our age, or the dark roads we must sometimes travel. He is the Light in our valley of darkness. His Word is a lamp unto our feet and light unto our path. (Psalm 119:105)

God’s compassion never fails, His mercies are new every day and He will provide all that we need for the journey, even as He did with one big Labrador retriever for one small child.

“Be assured that I never abandon any of My children, not even temporarily. I will never leave you or forsake you! My Presence watches over you continually. I have engraved you on the palms of My Hands.” from Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young

“But She Wasn’t Alone” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries © March 29, 2017

One Little Butterfly

 

 

 

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart

And lean not on your own understanding;

 in all your ways acknowledge him

 and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 2:5-6 NIV

One Little Butterfly

 

The calendar reminds us it’s the first day of spring today. It is beyond our understanding some years the whims of weather and the dilly dallying delay of spring’s appearance. But one look at nature and we are reminded it is God alone who determines the instant the flower will bloom and provide for the monarch butterfly’s need.

 

Today, perhaps we can’t see the answer, the way, or the why of the things as they appear. Oh, beloved by Him, the comfort we have of knowing our prayers reach the highest heaven and whisk away our anxiety as we trust it all to God’s wisdom and not our own understanding.

 

So today, let us lean our arms awhile upon the windowsill of heaven and gaze upon our Lord letting Him refresh and restore our soul. 

Just as the little butterfly trusts the flower will bloom in perfect time for its need, so we can trust God can and is willing to provide for all our needs― and perhaps He will remind us by the sight of one little butterfly.

 

“I will be your God through all your lifetime,

 yes, even when your hair is white with age.

 I made you and I will care for you…”

 Isaiah 46:4 TLB

 

 

 

“One Little Butterfly” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© March 20, 2017, Photo Monarch on Zinnia by Dee Kamp