My Tea Time With Jesus

Proverbs 24:5-6 " 5  Being wise is better than being strong; yes, knowledge is more important than strength.  6  After all, you must make careful plans before you fight a battle, and the more good advice you get, the more likely you are to win. Well, who would have thought that everyday life is a "battle"?!?! But, in reality, it is! These verses couldn't have come at a better time for me!! I MUST (we MUST) make careful plans before we go into the daily fight of our life. For me, first, it is prayer and some time with Jesus ;-) Then for my day, it is planning what foods and meals I will be having. I pack my lunch bag for the day, and then throw in a couple of extras just in case I work late, or something else comes up after work that is unexpected.  I believe strength is measured in several ways. Of course physically, but mentally, emotionally, socially, and even knowledge wise - these areas can all be strengthened each and every day. One way I am working on ...

Psalm 116:1-2 NLT   “ 1  I love the  Lord because He hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. 2  Because He bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath! ” I really like the visual of God bending down to listen to us! Like a true good Father does, He does! My heart also had a strange impression – from the view of someone that does NOT feel like this towards God. They cry out and cry out, pray and pray – yet, it seems like He is NOT listening or answering their prayers. Oh my – their heart!! I can see how they would cringe at every single one of these statements. Being truly angry at God verses seeing He mercies. I have been in places in my life, where I have felt like the ugly step-child of God’s – it is not a fun place to be! However, looking back, I felt like that the strongest when I was OUT of God’s word. When I stopped going to church. I stopped hanging out with other believers that would hold me accountable and be truthful with me. Wh...

Psalm 34:5 (NIV) “ Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. ” Wow! When I think of how many times I think I need to “fix myself” before looking to God, I am surprised at my lack of… Faith? Trust? Heart? Whatever it is – it surprises me just how often I try to “fix” things on my own, in my own way, in my own understanding! This verse jumped a big MEF (mind’s eye flash): I’m sitting in the middle of a room. All around are my troubles and worries, concerns, failures, things I’m not proud of… they seem to not only be on the walls, the floor, and the ceiling, but they are floating all around me like little gnats. As I “try” to look for Jesus, I keep getting hit by the gnats of descriptions all around me. Mostly all negative and degrading. Then there is a light coming in through a teeny-tiny whole above me, it looks like a little beam of a flash light or one of those pointer light things. It shines on a gnat that is ever so close to my face. Poo...

1 Corinthians 9:3-5 “ 3  When people criticize me, this is how I defend myself:  4  Don't I have the right to be given food and drink for my work?  5  Don't I have the right to follow the example of the other apostles and the Lord's brothers and Peter, by taking a Christian wife with me on my trips?” Well now, how many times have I read these verses, and have not seen the part about wives?!?! I totally have seen and reasoned why we pay those who do services for us, in so many ways – but to have someone go/be with them/us on the way… well, this just hit me differently today I guess. Then verse 7 got me thinking as well, really – when someone is a soldier, do they sign up or are they drafted into service and have to pay their own way for everything? NO! I see God’s plan is for man to not be alone, nor to do “it/life” alone. Then why on earth would we expect anyone that is serving the Lord to go it alone?!?! Two are better than one… iron sharpens iron...

Mark 3:5 “ Jesus was angry as He looked around at them, but at the same time He felt sorry for them, because they were so stubborn and wrong. ” The Pharisees were “looking” for Jesus to do something they could use as fuel to get rid of Him. The Sabbath is a day of rest that the Pharisees took to the extreme. Jesus was asking if the law permits to do good deeds or evil ones? If that day is to save a life or to destroy it? They were so set on finding a reason to get rid of Jesus, that they didn’t say a word to answer Him. Verse 5 struck me in that something I think for MANY years, thought was a sin, and therefore avoided it at all costs. Anger. Anger itself is not sin – but how or what we do with that anger, yes, can become sin. That Jesus looked at them angrily and yet was deeply saddened by their hearts, drove Him to do good and save a man – on the Sabbath. Being angry is not a sin. Using that anger to fuel sinful actions and behaviors – THAT IS a sin. Example of it here and ...

Mark 6:32-32, 46 (NLT)   31  Then Jesus said,  “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and His apostles didn’t even have time to eat. 32  So they left by boat for a quiet place, where they could be alone. 46  After telling everyone good-bye, He went up into the hills by Himself to pray. Have you ever felt like there was so much going on, or had so many people coming and going that you felt as though you couldn’t catch a breath? We are NOT supposed to live in that feeling non-stop, continually, day after day. Long periods of time doing this, will wear us down. We WILL need rest. A better word for a busy person might be needing an “escape”. I guess I ‘knew’ that Jesus got away and went to solitary places to pray… I just didn’t realize that He did it a LOT! Even when He was in high demand! He realized that time with the Father being rejuvenated and ref...