love

A Legacy of Love

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For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. Philemon 7 ESV

When we think of great leaders, there are few who compare with Alexander the Great. He became King of the small nation of Macedon at the age of 20, after the assassination of his father. At first Alexander simply consolidated power in the region of modern-day Greece. But what happened next was truly amazing. In just 12 short years Alexander went on to conquer all of the middle east, including Turkey, Iran and Iraq, along with Israel, Syria and Egypt. When at the age of thirty-two Alexander died, he left an incredible legacy of military conquest though his kingdom was soon divided between his generals.

Photo by Miggy Rivera on Pexels.com

Philemon on the other hand was a different kind of leader. Though Paul begins his letter mentioning that a church is meeting at Philemon’s house, the New Testament says very little about his position. In fact, when Paul writes to the Colossian church he does not even mention Philemon. What we do know about is Philemon’s love. Paul begins his letter by calling Philemon beloved, and then goes on to say he thanks God in his prayers because of the reports he has heard about Philemon’s love. Then we come to today’s verse and Paul tells his friend that he is comforted and joyful because of his love. While Alexander was great because of battles, Philemon was great because he refreshed the hearts of others when he shared the love of Christ. Philemon’s legacy is not the cities named after him or the statues carved in his honor, but his love for others. What greater legacy could anyone leave than that?

Messy Grace

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Today I wanted to share this beautiful post by my blogging friend Patty. To introduce you here is her tag line – I’m Patty, and my husband and I are living with our adult son who has autism and epilepsy. I love sharing lessons learned from life around me, especially life with Aaron.

I have been really enjoyed learning from Patty and Aaron about trusting God while dealing with special needs. We have a special needs grandson named Christian who is still young and we have worried about how we and his own mom and dad will deal with that as he grows up. Patty has been such a great encouragement to me that I wanted to share with my readers her latest post. Be blessed and have a wonderful weekend everybody! Here is the link to her blog  “He said What?”

 

https://hesaidwhatks.blog/

Patty hesaidwhatks's avatarHe Said What?!

Last Friday when I went into Aaron’s room to wake him up and get him going for the day, I knew that something was off. Sure enough, Aaron’s bed was soaked. He had a seizure the day before, but I hadn’t heard one that previous night, so maybe he just drank too much water before bed. Thoughts of that continuing issue with the amount of water he drinks made me a little irritated.

So did the fact that because of so many other things going on…and now tons of laundry to do…I had to cancel lunch plans with a friend I hadn’t seen in forever. This was our second time to cancel. GRRRR!

But I’ve learned to look at the positives at times like that. I have a washer and dryer, and they work. I have the time and freedom to change my day around. And now Aaron’s bedding would…

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He Counts Every Hair

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Matthew 10:30 KJV

Some people have fond memories of their dads taking them hunting or fishing and while these are great personal stories, my special times with my dad instead revolved around him cutting my hair. To you that might seem strange, but when you come from a line of barbers and hairdressers, it is just normal family stuff. What stands out most in my memory is how Dad held little snippets of my hair between his fingers and one by one meticulously trimmed them and then finished off by shaving the edges with his straight razor.

This is my grandfather’s actual barber set circa 1915

At the time, this all seemed pretty ordinary to me, but as I reflect back I realize this was my dad’s way of showing he loved me. In today’s verse Jesus teaches us that God expresses His love, the way my father did, not by tears, or some sort of emotional display, but by painstakingly examining and counting our hairs. Numbering our hairs, is a lot different than saying, God knows everything so he knows how many are on our head. God has actually taken the time to count every hair on every head throughout the whole world. It is His way of saying that He knows about us because He has counted the details of our lives one by one and then He gave His life in every detail for us when the hairs of His head were crowned with thorns for every one of us.