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This is the day You have made? Really?

August 12, 2013 by juliebcosgrove

I dashed in, my stomach growling. I had to be NPO (no food after midnight) for my blood work to be drawn.

MP900444553[1]The day was not going well so far. I’d jabbed my eye with my mascara wand, blinking dark streaks half way down my face.  My garage door had decided to be in one of its finicky moods. It took three tries to get it to close. Then, a slow-moving truck insisted on being in my lane.  I was 10 minutes late.

As I signed in, it hit me. The doctor’s orders were still on my desk.  I caught one of the nurse’s eye. With profound apologies, I rushed back out, got in my car, clicked the belt and gunned the accelerator. Of course, I hit every red light there and back again.  Out of breath with my pulse in my ears, I sat back down in the waiting room, orders in hand, chiding myself for my stupidity. now 28 minutes late. “Why me, Lord?”

Another nurse called my name.  I followed her into the cubicle filled with vials and the distinctive chair where you lay your arm. As she clicked my name into her compute,r with her back to me, she asked, “and how is your day going?”

I huffed into my bangs. “it is the day the Lord has made, so I will…”

She turned, “rejoice and be glad in it.” Her expression darkened as she turned back to the computer. “I wish I felt more like that, ” she sighed. “I know I need to get closer to Him, but I don’t know how. I am not sure He is listening to my prayers.”

That familiar quiet nudge, the one you know it not from your brain, said to me, “Show her your card of your new book, Squeeze More God-time into Your Day.”

I am not a bold marketer when it comes to my writing. I hesitated, “Now, Lord? Really?”

But I knew that voice was spirit-filled.  I reached into my wallet and swallowed my pride. “Here. It’s my new book. Maybe it will help.”

She took it, then looked at the cover and the by-line printed onto the business card. She nodded, “I need this.” She put the card in her lab jacket pocket. Tears welled in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she whimpered.

“Tell me,” I whispered back, my hand on her arm.

As she drew the blood she sobbed out her story.  After the vials were filled and the gauze secured onto the inside bend of my elbow, I rose, draped my arm around her and said, “May I pray for you?”

Afterwards, she smiled. “God sent you to me.”

I now knew why I was delayed – why I’d stabbed the mascara wand in my eye, why I’d left the paperwork behind and encountered all those red lights.  So I’d get her as my phlebotomist.  I told her so.

“I guess He is listening,” she sniffled.

Humility flooded my soul. I prayed for God to forgive my anxiousness and frustration and thanked Him for using me, unworthy as I am, as His vessel.

That night went I got home, a thank you email was in my inbox from this sweet stranger, now a friend in Christ.  She’d gotten it off my website.

This is the day the Lord has made. Rejoice with me and be glad in it.  

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in a blue recliner

August 11, 2013 by juliebcosgrove

“In our living room we have a blue recliner. We’ve had it for years, and it’s my favorite place of contemplation, naps and relaxation. One day I sat on my chair and something fell off. Upon investigation, I discovered a bolt had gradually come unscrewed over time. Fortunately, with merely a few adjustments, it was back in its full glory.

If only life was that simple.

dreamstimefree_16398I asked myself: are there areas of my life that are gradually slipping? No one wakes up and says, “I think I’ll become unhealthy… go into debt… destroy my relationships … or grow distant from God”. Yet, it happens; and unlike my chair, often it is not a simple fix….”

read more wisdom from Mike Woodward at at http://powertochange.com/blogposts/2013/08/11/maintenance-check-up/

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Grandpa’s Hands

August 9, 2013 by juliebcosgrove

This is floating around Facebook – in case you haven’t seen it.

Whoever wrote it, it is a sweet sentiment with a good message.

The point is this: What will your hands say about you?

946710_538609626211707_2006193824_nGrandpa, some ninety plus years, sat feebly on the patio bench. He didn’t move, just sat with his head down staring at his hands. When I sat down beside him he didn’t acknowledge my presence.Finally, not really wanting to disturb him, but wanting to check on him at the same time, I asked him if he was OK.

He raised his head and looked at me and smiled. “Yes, I’m fine.
Thank you for asking,” he said in a clear strong voice.

“I didn’t mean to disturb you, Grandpa, but you were just sitting here staring at your hands and I wanted to make sure you were OK,” I explained to him.

“Have you ever looked at your hands,” he asked.
“I mean really looked at your hands?”

I slowly opened my hands and stared down at them. I turned them over, palms up and then palms down. No, I guess I had never really looked at my hands as I tried to figure out the point he was making. Grandpa smiled and related this story:

“Stop and think for a moment about the hands you have, how they have served you well throughout your years. These hands, though wrinkled, shriveled, and weak have been the
tools I have used all my life to reach out and grab and embrace life. They put food in my mouth and clothes on my back.
As a child my mother taught me to fold them in prayer.

They tied my shoes and pulled on my boots.

They have been dirty, scraped and raw, swollen and bent.

They were uneasy and clumsy when I tried to hold my newborn son.

Decorated with my wedding band they showed the world that I
was married and loved someone special.

They trembled and shook when I buried my parents and spouse
and walked my daughter down the aisle.

They have covered my face, combed my hair, and washed and
cleansed the rest of my body.

They have been sticky and wet, bent and broken, dried and raw.

And to this day, when not much of anything else of me works
real well, these hands hold me up, lay me down, and again
continue to fold in prayer.

These hands are the mark of where I’ve been and the
ruggedness of my life.

But more importantly it will be these hands that God will
reach out and take when he leads me home.

And with my hands He will lift me to His side and there
I will use these hands to touch the face of Christ.”

 When my husband passed, I signed papers for one of his hands to be transplanted onto a worker who had just lost his in an accident over 1,200 miles away.  I pray every now and then that worker uses it well to God’s glory and to benefit others.  I pray he folds it over his own each day when he lifts his heart to God in prayer.

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In Trials?

August 7, 2013 by juliebcosgrove

“Perhaps illness or trials in life are blessings in disguise, for they jolt us into realizing God is in control and has truly covered us with His mantle of love and protection. The vicissitudes of life jar us into understanding how powerless we truly are and how totally dependent we are on the Lord.”

– Carolyn Peterson

c/o Bible Reading Fellowship

Good New Daily, devotional for Tuesday Aug 6th

Are you suffering?

Listen to Laura Story’s song called Blessings and be comforted:

all the while God does hear your desperate pleas.

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Through Bugs

August 5, 2013 by juliebcosgrove

IMG_20130628_143418_192The church where I work has a prayer garden with shady trees, lovely flowers and a trickling fountain. So, of course it attracts all sorts of God’s creatures. From my window, I can watch an never-ending drama of nature unfold as the seasons pass.  Take the bugs, for example.

In late April and early May, black beetles were everywhere, even inside. You had to watch where you stepped.  Then in late May when the temperature soared, the mud-daubers woke from their hibernation and began building cylinder mud cones everywhere.  June bugs next made an appearance as did an amazing ground hornet that looked like a bee on steroids but was quite benevolent and totally oblivious to humans. The scorching summer has now brought grasshoppers and the lulling hum of katydids.

How awesome our God is to orchestrate this bug cycle.  Though not all pretty and at times annoying, each has a time and a purpose unto heaven, as the verses in Ecclesiastes say.

It helps me to realize that there will be different times in my life. Something will appear, perhaps just for a season. It may be a person, a book, a song, or a tidbit of wisdom gleaned from a passage in the Bible I never noticed up to that point. It may not be something I like. But it all flows from the One who knows all and has perfect timing.

Lord, teach me to be in sync with Your plan for my life, and to  anticipate each new serendipity that comes, And when things that “bug” me come around, let me see them as lessons You can use to make me into the beautiful creature You know I can be,  just as You are daily recreating the garden at this church.   Amen.

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He meant to pass by

August 2, 2013 by juliebcosgrove

cropped-storm-clouds-2-134981298598261vgu1.jpgAnd he [Jesus] saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them… Mark 6:48

Does it seems as if God has passed you by in the midst of your struggles? Why would He?

Look at Mark 6:48 again. He meant to pass them by? Seriously?

It wasn’t that Jesus didn’t care. It wasn’t because He could walk on water and he wanted to rub that into his disciples’ faces – “Hey, look at me. A bad storm doesn’t phase me.”

Maybe Jesus meant to pass by to –

1. Get their attention so they would look to Him and not their problems.

2. Show them the way, like a beacon.

3. Prepare the way to calmer waters for them.

But instead, when they look upon God in the flesh, they were frightened and that fear clouded their belief. They thought they saw a ghost. How could this man they’d followed walk on water in a storm (even though he’d just fed thousands of people on one boy’s lunch)?

How often do we not trust God in our circumstances even though He has come through in the past in some miraculous ways?

So, according to Mark:  immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased.  (vs.50-51a)

In the midst of our fear, God can speak to us, calm us down, or stop the winds that batter us.  Or He may choose to just get our attention so we focus only on Him.

Either way, we can rest assure He will not ignore our plight.

 

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Are You Bold Enough?

July 31, 2013 by juliebcosgrove

My youth minister gave an amazing sermon on the Lord’s Prayer.

Sure, you have probably heard tons of them as you’ve sat in the pews over your life. But this had a different spin on it.

He said the Lord’s Prayer was a very bold concept. Before Jesus, people prayed through the HIgh Priest who, because he was from the appointed tribe of Levi, was qualified to speak with God in the Holy of Holies.

Here, Jesus tells his followers they can demand things of God – directly.  Can you hear them mumbling, “What servant has the right to make demands of his master, or a child his parent?”

What do we demand in the Lord’s Prayer?

1. For God to make His kingdom come to pass on earth.

2. For our daily needs to be met.

3. To be forgiven for our sins.

4. To be protected from temptation.

We demand this from the omnipotent God we know is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.

 

It gave me the image of a child busting into the boardroom and demanding his CEO dad’s dollar for the soda machine.  Or a judge’s child clanking down the aisles of the crowded courtroom in the middle of a lengthy case with a hurt finger wanting dad to kiss it.  Or a president’s child interrupting the State of the Union address for a hug.

Pretty bold-

and pretty loving and caring of God to let us wee ones crawl towards His throne and onto His lap.

But, he does, each and every time. “Stop the universe. My child, that I love, needs me.”

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So much more than a scrape

July 29, 2013 by juliebcosgrove

This verse of the day illuminated my cell phone screen:

O Lord my God, I cried to you for your help and you have healed me.  Psalm 30:2

Picture1It also illuminated my heart.  David cries out for God to help him.

How often have I done that? I have fallen, like a child off my bike.

I recall my mother hearing my sobs, rushing to me and helping me hobble into the house, my knee bloody and embedded with asphalt pebbles. She not only helped me up, but knew I needed more. She cleaned up the wound, yes -ouch that stung and I cried a bit more – bandaged it, and hugged me until the initial pain subsided. Then, off I was, with a slam of the screen door. Back to playing with my friends with a story to tell.

So it is with God. I stumble, and like David, cry out for help. But He does so much more. He not only helps me back onto my feet, but holds me as I cry. He washes my wounds with His mercy and bandages them with His grace. Soon, I am back on track and the healing has begun. It may take weeks, maybe months, but slowly that hurt will dissipate. The redness will fade.  One day I will look and barely see it anymore.

But, oh what a story to tell! Just as David did in his psalm.

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Are You Like a Clock?

July 27, 2013 by juliebcosgrove

I grew up with a wall clock my father brought back from Germany in WWII. It had a brass pendulum and wind-up gears. When it started to not keep as accurate of time as it should, my father would stop the pendulum for twenty-four hours, then he’d rewind the clock, reset the hands, and start the sway of the pendulum again.

God designed us like that clock—to stop the pendulum every now and then so we can be re-set. We need to give our gears a repose. Our bodies need to readjust, restore and regroup. So do our minds. We need a day to pray, be refueled with His Word, and reconnect with His faithful. We need more than to just rest, we need to rest in Him.

Our Creator requires that we spend one of those seven days He created as a week resting in Him. He designed our bodies and minds as well as our souls for that very purpose.

“There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the LORD.”  Leviticus 23:3
excerpt from my new book – available from my website

Squeeze More God-Time Into Your Day.Squeeze cover

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Trash to Treasure

July 25, 2013 by juliebcosgrove

Have you ever visited a landfill?  So much junk- most of it almost indestructible. Furniture, tires, refrigerators, – you name ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????it, it’s probably in there.  Metal, plastic, rubber. All man-made. Not biodegradable at all. It is just filthy litter, an eyesore that takes up space and contaminates our world. Trash.

Compare that to a compose pile, made of organic things from God’s good earth.  It degrades, disintegrates, and goes into the ground to fertilize so there can once again be life. No waste.  What is in there dies d so something else can live. Here’s another example. When an animal dies, other animals, birds and insects clean it up. They get to live.  All has a purpose. Treasure.

Do you see the difference? We humans think we can create things to last forever, but God has such a better plan. Die, so you can live. Transform your life into something that is instrumental in benefiting others in the process.

Life has always meant to have an element of change in it. That is the way we grow and become a part of God’s purposeful plan.

Paul understood this. He wrote to the Philippians – For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (1:21)

and to Timothy – Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him… (2Tim 2:11)

Christ set the example- die so we can live. When we become new creations in Christ, we once again share in the mystery of life and death, so we may go on, and on, and on – once our purpose here on earth is done. We die, so we can live. Live to eternally praise God on His throne and rejoice in prayer.  That is our purpose as part of God”s creation. In all we do, on earth and beyond, we are to bring Him glory by existing and serving.

So why do we humans try and buck the system? Why do we create and build things that we think will last – machines, legacies, power, reputations?  It all is trash, really.

When will we learn that we are not the creators, only the junk makers, unless we once again give up our egos and flow into the plans of the Almighty – the way we were created to be, precious treasure in His sight.

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