Month: June 2022

A Father’s Compassion – Guest Post

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This week I would like to introduce my friend Pastor Janice Burnett. Janice not only helps with her contributions to our Sunshine Newsletter, but she also is a chaplain and overseer of nursing home outreach in several facilities in western New York. I appreciate that she has graciously given me permission to share this article and photograph as a testimony to her dad and insight into the even more amazing compassion of our heavenly Father. 

As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear
him; for he knows how we are formed; he remembers that we are dust. Psalm 103:13-14 NIV

As a young adult, once when I borrowed our family car, I had a minor accident. Don’t ask me what I was thinking when I thought that my dad wouldn’t notice the scrape on the back fender when I came home so I didn’t mention it to him. You’re right – I wasn’t thinking! It wasn’t long before I heard my name being called – but in a very calm fashion. ” What happened, Jan? And were you going to tell me about it?” I honestly don’t remember anything about the rest of the conversation or if the scrape was ever repaired. However, I remember very clearly that I felt terrible about keeping this incident from my father and the very calm and compassionate way he dealt with me about it. King David identified with this when he wrote those words, then he went on to tell us that God’s love for those who fear Him, is so great that He removes all our transgressions far, far away from us. Not only that, but God also remembers how we are made (out of dust, no less) and His righteousness remains as a blessing forever with all the generations who follow His commands. The compassion of my wonderful earthly father is wonderful because it gives me a picture of the tremendously huge compassion of our amazingly wonderful heavenly Father. Now what could be more beautiful than that?

My Hope For America

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https://wouldyoudoitforone.wordpress.com/2022/06/11/my-hope-for-america/

As we met this Friday at Life Care Center the news continues to be filled with mass shootings, the January 6th fiasco and the war in Ukraine. There aren’t a lot of happy stories out there, and yet as we sang you can hear both the unfaltering faith and hope for our nation. I pray you would be blessed as you listen, not to the professional quality of the recording but the sound of voices who still ask God to bless America with His grace from sea to shining sea!

This post originated on my other blog, Walking With Lambs. That site is created as a forum and a place of refreshing for those of the long term care community. I will continue reposting from there for a while longer, but if you would like to join us and comment respond or contribute please subscribe there. Have a blessed weekend all!

Looking Beautiful to God

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And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. Mark 12:42-43 ESV

When we want to know the worth of a precious stone, we take it to a jeweler who takes his magnifying glass and looks at its clarity and counts the facets. If we need to sell our home, we call an appraiser. When they get to our house, they check it inside and out to ascertain its market value. Standard practice is to value things according to their appearance. But God sees everything differently. In this story of the widow, the disciples were shocked that Jesus had said that she had given more than all the others. They had seen with their own two eyes, only two tiny copper coins fall from her hand into the offering box. They missed what Jesus had seen of her love, her sacrifice and faith.

Photo by Jeff Weese on Pexels.com

If we want to look beautiful to God, we must start by remembering that nothing we see on the outside is as it appears to Him. God looks at our actions and puts them under HIs heavenly jeweler’s magnifying glass. The appraiser of the universe examines our motives according to their eternal market value. Neither the amount of money we give or how often we volunteer at the soup kitchen impresses Him. What counts with Jesus is the clarity of our love and the weight of our faith. God gives all of us the same opportunity, that He gave the widow. It doesn’t matter what other people think of our offering, what counts is if we put it into the hand of God today!

Photo by Engin Akyurt on Pexels.com