Thursday, March 11, 2010

Happy Thursday!

Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Tonight I printed off the last of the sheet music, loaded the accompaniment CD, sent the final order of music to Sheena to send to the sound man at the place where the wedding is to be held. The groom is on his way to pick up the bride at the airport and the Helvey household is abuzz with pre-wedding activities. Bruce and I will leave for Mom and Dad’s sometime tomorrow and Geni and Travis will arrive on Saturday after Travis’ mid-term.

Imagine if you will a wedding 2000 years ago. A wedding in Cana where the entire town has been invited as guests and the end of the week is nearing and the wine is running out. This family has probably watered down the wine as far as it could go and even that is running out. They need a miracle. Enter Jesus and His mother Mary. The announcement that the party is running out of wine has been mentioned to the host within the hearing of Jesus and Mary. All of a sudden Mary knows what to do. She looks at the wine stewards and simply tells them to do what Jesus says.

“Simply do what He says.” Is that what seeking first the kingdom of God means? The scripture says that if we seek the kingdom of God then His richest blessings will be added to us. The scripture doesn’t say we are to be perfect, but it does say that we need to seek God’s perfection, His kingdom in our lives.

The two young people in our family are about to embark on the journey of their lives. Their first steps after barely shaking the rice out of their hair will be a time of separation. Cody must return to Hawaii to his military duties and Asenath must return to Lubbock (I know Lubbock or Hawaii? Duh!!!) to complete school and graduate. My prayer for them is that they will seek God as their source of comfort and strength and that they will seek Him first when they miss each other more than they can imagine. I pray they remember that weddings last for only a day, but marriages are a lifetime adventure. The vows they take on Sunday are vows they do not make to each other, but to God, the author and creator of marriage. The promises to be faithful, enduring, kind, loving and forgiving are all ways to seek the Kingdom of God. His righteousness is simply doing what He says to do in the way He asks you.

So to those who are just getting started on this journey and to those of us who have journeyed for many years my prayer for each of us is “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes, count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.

PS As we will be out of internet range until our return. I will not write again until Monday. I will miss you all. Have a great weekend. Peace, gc
Happy Wednesday!

And two days until spring break! Wow! Is this a day we have been waiting for or what?! The weather, except for that brief shower, was so beautiful. Recess was had by all!!

John 15:11 “These things have I spoken to you, that My joy might be remain in you and that your joy might be full.”

While I travel to work in the mornings it is a long enough drive that I can have a nice quiet time with God. As I begin my prayer time I often ask that God would clear my mind of everything except Him. Most of the time this works really well and I am able to have a great prayer time. Sometimes I let my mind drift off onto the tasks of the day and I do not stay focused on the Father.

Our five senses are the connection we have with the material world. But our Spirit communication requires that we sever all ties with our five senses of seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and smelling in the physical sense and commune with God with our hearts. Even though we speak in our prayers our hearts need to be open to receive God’s instructions for the day. Our ears need to be attuned to the voice of God to receive His Word for our lives. This requires us to be physically quiet!! For some of us that is really hard, first because we are so used to talking and not used to listening and second because sometimes we cannot stand silence. But continue to practice and pretty soon you will come to treasure the quiet and God’s voice will come through. If we are constantly talking then we will not be able to hear the things God has to say and we just might miss out on joy. God speaks to us to share His joy with us so that the joy He offers can be made full in us. And which of us does not need just a little more joy! How else would we walk this journey!?

Take joy in the journey. Count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.

Forgiveness please: I did not write last evening because I was working on my mid-term for my class. Please pray for Geni, Travis and me as we all have mid-terms this week. Thanks friends, gc

Monday, March 8, 2010

Happy Monday!

One of the first statements I heard on the radio this morning was from Hal Jay on WBAP. He said, “We could certainly use about two weeks worth of drought!” After coming home in the pouring rain and hydroplaning a time or two a few days of drought sounded pretty good to me. Also after coming back into Arlington we saw the water had gone over the curbs close by in our neighborhood. So much water and not a lot of joy!

Song of Solomon 2:12 “The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.”

After arriving at home I noticed the lake forming in our lawn and how even my pansies did not survive the days of snow, cold and now the rain. I am not sure the groundhog’s prediction was right this year. But what I am sure of is that spring is on the way. Not only are we here in Texas tired of the snow, rain and cold, but so is nature. My yard is tired of being cold and saturated with water. It has been a long cold winter. But spring will come. When spring comes the travail of the winter will be over and the joy will return in the sunny days, a time of new growth that has been sleeping these last few months will show its wonderful face and the spirit of the earth will once again show us the joy it has been hiding beneath its snow covered, rain soaked surface.

The weeping may last through the night, but joy in the morning. None of us are hammered forever. When God puts challenges before us He expects us to be faithful to Him and allow Him to show us how to surmount each challenge put before us. We just need to have faith that God will lead us through the difficulties because the Spirit of God is there no matter what we are going through. We can do this because it is not just about believing things about God it is about knowing God because He lives within us through Jesus. We need to sense the presence of God in all we see, do and experience. When we sense God’s presence on the earth then we get to catch a glimpse of heaven.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes, count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Blessed Sunday!

Psalm 35:27 “Let the Lord be magnified, which has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.”

This morning Pastor Joel’s sermon was on the text from Mark about the demon possessed man. This man was not just possessed by one demon but by an entire “legion” or an army platoon of demons. When Jesus meets this man He asks the man’s name. The man is so totally possessed by these demons that he cannot even answer as himself. The demons answer. Jesus commands the demons to come out of this man and enter the herd of swine that is nearby. When Jesus looks back at the formerly possessed man he was at perfect peace. This man who was ranting, raving, doing himself harm and scaring all of his neighbors is now sitting calmly and completely in his right mind and begging Jesus to allow him to get into the boat and go about the ministry. Jesus declines his request and tells him to go and tell others what the Lord has done for him.

All of us carry around demons of some sort. Maybe ours are not demons that are as openly graphic as this man, but they are just as real. They are demons that do not allow us to say our name when Jesus calls because of our guilt. I call those demons bad choices, sinful pride and turning away from God. God calls them sin and He loves us anyway. When God through Jesus calls our name, let us each turn back to Him and receive His mercy, grace and forgiveness. After we have returned to God then let us tell someone else what the Lord has done for us.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes, count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.

Prayers alert: Please continue to pray for Noel Freeze, our niece’s grandmother. And please add to your prayer list a young woman who is a friend of Travis. She is still in high school and has breast cancer. Her name is Colleen. Thank you all mighty and faithful prayer warriors.