Carry Our Inability to the Ability of God

 

Carry Our Inability to the Ability of God

 I was about fourteen years old and I was standing alone in the hallway of the clinic shaking all over from what had just happened and wondering , was my brother going to be all right?

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…” Ephesians 3:20 NIV

 I was the oldest of my siblings and taught well by my mother how to care for them. When she was away on an errands I often was left to take care of them for a short time. In those days you had neighbors watching over you all the time too. But on this particular day I had more than neighbors watching over me and my little brother.  

 It was a sunny summer day and my two little brothers were playing in what we called the woods. In fact it was nothing more than several acres of over grown scotch broom.  In this natural playground was a gigantic rock the kids called big rock and it was the major point of many climbing challenges. It was a rite of passage to be able to climb up to the top of it and all the children tried and tried until one day they mastered it.

 On this day particular day, when mother was away, that’s exactly what my youngest brother was attempting to do when he slid down the rock in a flash and a thick branch growing nearby caught him in the throat cutting him deeply.

 I heard kids yelling, I ran outside our house to find a group of them jumping up and down frantically. “Hurry up, he’s cut himself bad!”

My heart was pounding and I pushed back branches and fled to big rock. I saw my little brother lying on the ground with a gash across his throat. That’s when I realized that when I went out the door at home I had grabbed one of mother’s freshly cleaned and ironed dish towels and now I got the sense I was to press it tight across the cut. I put his hand on it and told him to hold it there and carefully I lifted my brother up into my arms and ran for home. He weighed half my weight, but I never noticed it all as I hurried along.

A mother from next door was already there when I arrived, having heard the story from the children on the block. One look at my brother and she threw open her car door and said “get in now- we need a doctor.”

“One nick closer on his throat and it would have been a disaster,” the doctor said to me in the hallway later. “Good thinking on the pressure from the towel, but how on earth were you able to run that far carrying your brother- you're such a little thing?”

I had nothing to say, but I’ll never forget what the mother who brought me there said, “It wasn’t her strength, but it was the strength of Lord who made her able to do it.”

 “Able is the Greek word dunatos, related to dunamis, meaning ability, abundance, capability, mighty works, miraculous power, prevailing strength. “God is able” means God has the mighty power to do a miraculous work out of His abundance and strength…Let us bring our inability to the ability to God.” Sylvia Gunter-“The Father’s Business”

“Carry Our Inability to the Ability of God” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© April 27, 2016

Tune in First

 

 

Tune in First

Daily I enjoy the bits of humor, the quotes, and things written to encourage a person that I receive on the internet. But I ponder over them and I often question their sources, as well as their truthfulness.

When I shared my concerns over these quotes in a mixed crowd of people recently, I was heard a great question from one person in the crowd, “Where then can we really find the truth and real wisdom these days? It’s all too confusing.”

“Wisdom is more valuable than gold and crystal….But do people know where to find wisdom? Where can they find understanding? ….God alone understands the way to wisdom; he knows where it can be found…And this is what he says to all humanity; ‘The fear of the LORD is true wisdom; to forsake evil is real understanding.” Job 28 NLT

To fear the Lord, is the key to wisdom and wisdom can always be found and trusted in the Word of God.  It means to have respect and reverence for God and to be in awe of His majesty and power, first and foremost.

 This truly is the starting point to finding real wisdom and it’s important, it’s paramount more and more today that we always take what we hear, read and see back to God. Then let the His Holy Spirit impart to us through God's Word the wisdom we need to stand firm in our faith and be true to God.

God is always faithful and He will never fail us when we come to Him in our need for wisdom, discernment and the strength we need every day. Before we read the paper, before we check the internet, before we watch television, let us tune in to God first.

“Do not have your concert first and tune your instruments afterward. Begin the day with God.”-

J. Hudson Taylor

“Tune in First” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© April 25, 2016

Love Binds Them All Together



Love Binds Them All Together

Getting dressed for the day requires many components to be an outfit, presentable and functional for the day. But we also need to consider how we will put on the right outfit that is more than functional but an outfit of a positive attitude which expresses our faith in God through the many designs of love.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:14 NIV

Compassion, kindness, and humility, are tucked in together with patience and gentleness and bound together with love. More precious and important than faith is heavenly love. Without love even the faithful will falter. Many faithful workers for God, have, after a time, lost their way― because they lost their spirit of love.

Love is the crowning glory of grace of our Christian character. It is the finer touches in the many variables of love in which all the light, love and glory of God is revealed to the world.

 “Why is Love greater than faith? Because the end is greater than the means. And why is it greater than charity? Because the whole is greater than the part." Henry Drummond

“Love Binds Them All Together” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© April 20, 2016

Created to Withstand the Storm

Blue Heron in Nest by Dee Kamp

Created to Withstand the Storm

“They’re back!” I shouted with joy to husband as we were driving by the thick grove of alders growing along the estuary near our home. I stared in awe at the rookery of nests built last season by the beautiful great blue herons.

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

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

“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

How often we look up to God in wonder at how He was able to teach a bird to build a nest, or how He taught a man to build an ark, but so often we look to Him as our last means for what we need to survive a storm in our life.

Our strength comes from our faith in God alone. And by each passage through them, our faith becomes stronger and stronger building us up more and more.  Just like those strong sticks the heron adds to strengthen their nests after each storm our foundation of faith in God is able to give us the strength we need too.  

When we experience those unforeseen storms in life, they may frightened us for a moment, but when we turn to God it’s then we realize the storm isn’t able to make us fall apart. We are by faith able to stand through it, just like the heron’s nest is created to withstand a windstorm.  

“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 a Windstorm” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© April 5, 2016

Beyond the Call to Duty



Photo by Dee Kamp

 

 



Beyond the Call to Duty

While feeling overwhelmed in the pre-operative room with at least five people hovering over me with questions and doing procedures in preparation for my surgery I suddenly found fear creeping in and I was unable to form even the smallest prayer. But I didn’t have to, for God had called one of His prayer warriors to be on duty that day.

“When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?? The King will answer an and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me’” Matthew 25:39-40

I felt a cool light touch on my shoulder and I turned to see a new woman standing near me. She was smiling so kindly and said  softly in my ear, “Are you a little bit afraid?”

I could only nod my head in agreement. I was surprised by her next question. I thought it would be one more medical related one, but she said instead, “Do you pray?”

Once more I nodded my head at her and to my delight I heard her say, “May I pray for you now?”

She leaned so close to my ear I felt her breath and the words she prayed to Jesus for me filled me with and extraordinary peace. I slipped off to sleep thinking I sure want to thank her later, but sadly, I never saw her again and no one seemed to know who she was.

I shared this wonderful moment with another nurse later and to my surprise there was shock on her face and she said with concern, “Why she could have lost her job for doing that! We aren’t allowed to pray or profess our faith at all here.”

I smiled and said to her, “Then I want to be just like her. I want to love Jesus more, beyond my own comfort and security. That dear woman went beyond the call to duty, she obeyed the call of the Father.”

“Beyond the Call to Duty” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© March 28, 2016

 

Standing Firm

 

Lone Standing Tree, Texas by Dee Kamp

Standing Firm

    There are times when we feel the need to crawl up on Abba Father’s lap and come to Him as a little child. As a devoted and loving Father we know He always has his eye on us and as when we come away alone with Him we will delight all over again in the lavishness of His loving kindness. His seal of ownership and faithfulness is upon us.

“Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ.

He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us

and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. “

2 Corinthians 1 21 NIV

    The balm of His love penetrates deep into old wounds, pours soothing healing to a broken heart and resets the truth of righteousness from the misleading programing from the world around us.

    By and through His Son there is placed in our hearts a freedom found nowhere else, a freedom to be loved, and to love. A freedom of His forgiveness that we too can forgive.
    When we come away alone with Him, He will speak personally in our hearts by His Spirit wonderful words of  unfailing love, words of hope, and words faith to sustain us in whatever life brings our way each day. Stand firm, for His seal is upon us, His banner of love flies over us.

“Stand strong in God…for after winter, summer comes; after night, the day returns; and after a storm, calm is restored.” Thomas A Kempis

 

“Standing Firm” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© March 16, 2016

 

Hope Never Says Too Late

 

 

 

Hope Never Says Too Late

May the God of hope fill you

 With all joy and peace as you trust in Him,

so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

The word hope is what gets me out of bed in the morning. Hope is the chauffeur that drives me through the day. When there is nothing else, there is hope.

I remember a woman who often came into our little country store and had a very hard life. There seemed to be one thing after the other going wrong. She would come into our store and buy only a few items at a time, for money was short. Her husband was ill and her children were in much need. She always had a smile, and surprisingly, this woman was the one who cheered others up! She would say the same thing every time when someone would ask how she was so joyful, “Even in the word hopeless is the word hope, and hope never says “too late”.

 

I knew this woman was a woman of deep faith and she often shared the Psalms with me that she had memorized. And then one day I found a poem in Springs in the Valley by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman, and I wondered if this is where she got her quote. But as I read it, I too was filled with a sweet sense of hope and thankfulness for a God who offers endless love and forever hope. A hope in God is one we can trust and depend on and always be certain, hope never says its too late for hope.

 

“In “hope against hope,” I wait, Lord,

Faced by some fast-barred gate, Lord,

Hope never says, “Too late,” Lord,

Therefore in Thee I hope!

 

“Hope though the night be long, Lord,

Hope of a glowing dawn, Lord,

Morning must break in song, Lord,

For we are “saved by hope.”

-Hope Thou in God!- Hymns of Consecration an Faith

 

 

“Hope Never Says Too Late:, by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© February 28, 2016