Monday Morning Memo: Show. Teach. Guide Part 2

We’ve been looking at two verses that are found in Psalm 25:4-5 which say,

 

“Show me the right path, O Lord; 

point out the road for me to follow.

Lead me by your truth and teach me, 

for you are the God who saves me.

All day long I put my hope in you.”

 

I shared last week that what I love about these verses is the fact that the words are so practical.  Show me, point out the road, lead me, teach me.  It’s not complicated to ask the Lord to help us know what to do and where to go.  But so often we make it complicated and then we become discouraged and frustrated.

So, I encouraged all of us who are looking for direction and leading from the Lord concerning a certain area of our life, to spend this past week praying fervently for Him to show us, teach us and guide us.  As we prayed, we were to write down any feelings that came to our mind.  Doing this helps us begin to figure out what the Lord wants us to do.  

It would be so much easier if the Lord would just call us up on the phone and lay out His plan for us…wouldn’t it?  But since that probably isn’t going to happen, we need to learn ways to hear His voice.

My dad was a minister, and he was pastoring a church in Indiana when I was in 5th grade.  He was contacted by a church in California to be their pastor and I remember my dad immediately saying NO…he was not moving his family across the country.  Then he said, “God would have to write it in the sky for me to go there”.  Well, it wasn’t long, and we were packed up and moving to Los Angeles…and none of us ever saw that handwriting in the sky.  I guess the Lord must have used something other than sky writing to change my Dad’s feelings about moving, so he would go where the Lord wanted him to go.

I know that in my life, I have sometimes prayed for direction and then said, “Lord, open the doors I’m supposed to go through…and slam shut the ones I’m not supposed to go through.”  And sometimes that works.  But we know that sometimes discernment is needed as to whether we should walk through a door or not.  Paul showed that in 2 Corinthians 2:12-13 when he said:

 

“When I came to the city of Troas to preach the Good News of Christ, the Lord opened a door of opportunity for me. But I had no peace of mind because my dear brother Titus hadn’t yet arrived with a report from you. So I said good-bye and went on to Macedonia to find him.”

In this situation, the Lord opened a door…but Paul didn’t have peace about going through it...so he didn’t.

Sometimes we try fleeces.  I have been known to throw out a fleece at times to get direction.  Lord, if you do such and such…I’ll know I’m supposed to move forward.  Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t…just like when my dad wanted writing in the sky.  Sometimes I think I use a fleece because I already know what the Lord wants me to do, but I really don’t want to do it.  So, I figure throwing out a fleece will be a distraction and I won’t have to obey...at least for now.

Again, I think we often make it much more difficult than it really is to know what God wants us to do and where He wants us to go.  The scripture I shared earlier, 2 Corinthian 2, said it. God opened a door, Paul had no peace of mind, so he left. He based his decision not in circumstances, but the feeling he had, which I have no doubt was fueled by prayer.

If we look how the Lord spoke to the apostles in the New Testament, we see how many times they acted by how they felt.  They spent time in prayer and that was so crucial in directing their feelings and consequently then their actions.  Maybe they used logic, maybe common sense.  It seems that the apostles prayed, and then did what they felt was best.

So, I’m writing all this to make this point…if you are wanting direction from the Lord today…make sure you aren’t making it more difficult than it really is.  First of all, make sure you are spending time in prayer.  If you aren’t communicating with the Lord…you will never know what you are supposed to do.  Look at it this way.  If you never spend any time talking with your spouse or your children, or even your friends…how are you ever going to know anything about them?  There is no way you will know what is going on in their mind and heart if you don’t spend quality and quantity time with them.

And the same is true with the Lord.  If you don’t spend time with Him…you never will have any idea of what you are supposed to do.  Be sincere. Commit your life to Him. Tell Him you’ll do whatever He wants. And don’t make prayer as the last resort…make it your first plan of action.   

And then…the feelings that you get when you pray and those things that you wrote down this past week, act on them, believing that it’s God’s plan for you.  Trust Him enough to give you the feelings you need to act.  Take a step.  If it doesn’t work out…it usually isn’t the end of the world and more often than not…mistakes show us more of what we need to know to go in another direction.  

Show me, teach me, guide me.  He just wants us to ask and I believe He will give us direction through our thoughts and feelings…if we have fervently spent time in prayer.

Let’s begin by going to the one who designed us. Because I believe if we do, we will soon find ourselves at peace with the Lord and functioning as He planned.

Quick health update – Thank you SO much for your prayers. I have shared that there is a brand-new medicine available for my lung disease…but the cost is $88,000 a year.  Well, because we serve an amazing God…this past week I was approved for the medicine and had it in my hands within 48 hours…for free.  I didn’t have to pay anything!  I was so blown away.  It definitely won’t be a quick fix…they say it takes 4-5 months to see any improvement.  But since we serve the Great Physician…we are praying I will see positive results sooner 

Monday Morning Memo: Show. Teach. Guide.

Last week, I shared with you two verses from Psalms that have meant so much to me this year. They are Psalm 25:4-5 which say:

 

“Show me the right path, O Lord; 

point out the road for me to follow.

Lead me by your truth and teach me, 

for you are the God who saves me.

All day long I put my hope in you.”

 

This past weekend, I was asked to share a devotional at a workshop for Operation Christmas Child and as I began to prepare…these verses kept coming to my mind.  I ended up speaking on them and I thought I would share with you today and next week what the Lord impressed on me.

What I love about these verses is the fact that the words are so practical.  Show me, point out the road, lead me, teach me.  It’s not complicated to ask the Lord to help us know what to do and where to go.  But so often we make it complicated and then we become discouraged and frustrated.

I read recently about a man by the name of Tim Quinn.  He said that he was stumped. His old Macintosh laptop simply would not run the Mac Bible software anymore. Though he had worked with it for hours, nothing he did would help. His wife suggested that he call the owners of the software for help, but no, he knew what he was doing.

Finally, after having exhausted every last idea, he gave in and called the Mac Bible corporation. After speaking to a friendly voice, he was assured that the person to whom he was being referred would know exactly what to do. Tim wasn’t convinced, but he called him anyway.

The name he had been given sounded familiar, and he soon learned why. The person on the other end of the line was none other than the man who wrote the Mac Bible software. He gave Tim a brief set of instructions, which he wrote down and hung up the phone. In minutes, Tim’s computer software program was up and running. He just had to go to the man who wrote the program.

Tim writes, “How many times in life do we try to work out our problems our own way? Finally, when all else has failed, we go to the one who designed us. Soon, if we obey, we find ourselves once again at peace with God and functioning as he planned.”

That is so true.  Many times, we use going to the Lord in prayer as our last resort.  After we have stewed and fretted and wrung our hands and studied everything we can get our hands on and asked every person we’ve encountered what we should do…we finally throw up our hands and say, “Well, I guess all we can do is pray!”  

Show me, teach me, guide me. These are the places we need to start when we need direction in our lives. As willing followers, we need and want God to show us what to do. We want God to teach us what is the best way to go. And we want God to guide us to where He wants us.

But then the question that usually arises is, “How do we hear from the Lord?”  Well, if we look back in the Old Testament, God spoke to Adam and Eve face to face.  He spoke to Moses through a burning bush. He spoke to Balaam through his donkey. He spoke to Elijah through a still small voice. He spoke to the people of Israel through a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. He spoke to Isaiah through a vision. He spoke to Gideon through a sign, 2 days in a row. He spoke to Belshazzar through handwriting on the wall. He spoke to Daniel through dreams. He spoke to Jacob through an angel. He spoke to David through the prophet Nathan.  

Unfortunately, we usually don’t 

see any of those things today.

But many times, the Bible simply says, “The Lord spoke to…” I’m not sure what that exactly means, but I picture a booming voice from heaven. 

Well, clearly, God doesn’t really do 

that so much now either, if at all.

We want the big, clear, unmistakable signs that God is speaking to us. We want the bush, the writing, the donkey, the fleece. But they were pretty much one-time things. The New Testament changed so much, including how God speaks.

Are you currently looking for direction and leading from the Lord concerning a certain area of your life?  If so, I want to encourage you to spend the next week praying fervently for Him to show you, teach you and guide you.  As you pray, write down any feelings that come to your mind.  If you feel Him leading you to do something in particular…write it down.  If your heart seems to dwell on a certain phrase or inspiration…write it down.  

Then next Monday, we will look at what our next steps should be after we’ve prayed…to obey Him as He’s taught us, showed us and guided us.  Trust me…it really isn’t as difficult as we often make it out to be!

Monday Morning Memo: A Diagnosis

As many of you know…I have been seeking a medical diagnosis for over a year for my lungs.  If you have no clue what I am talking about…please refer back to my blog post on June 16^th, 2025…where details are given of my situation.

 

Some of you have been asking for an update…so I thought I would share with you what we know as of today.  After being seen by several different doctors, I was finally sent to IU Med to see a critical care lung specialist.  Before this appointment, another CT scan was done to see how much improvement there had been in my lungs since that last scan in June.  The results were not what we wanted to hear.  There had been no improvement.  All the medicine I had been given had done nothing.  

 

We debated as to whether to go to IU Med or Cleveland Clinic and finally settled on IU Med because it is closer to our home.  But because our God is absolutely amazing, the doctor I was given did all his residency at Cleveland Clinic.  So, we got the best of both worlds from him.

 

He was very thorough and really studied everything that had been done for me over the past 15 months.  After asking many questions, he finally gave me the diagnosis of Focal Bronchiectasis.  If you research this diagnosis, you will find out that Bronchiectasis is when the walls of your bronchi, the tubes that carry air into and out of your lungs, become thickened and damaged.  They can fill up with mucus and infection, making it hard to breathe.  Bronchiectasis is a long-term (or chronic) disease that gets worse over time and causes permanent lung damage to the airways.

 

The specialist then told me that my timing for seeing him was really something, because he said up until the day before my appointment, there had never even been any treatment for this condition.  But, just 24 hours before sitting in his office, a drug was approved.  The medicine does not fix the permanent damage, but it is supposed to help clear out my airways, hopefully helping me to breathe much easier.

 

That was the good news.  But life wouldn’t be life unless there was also some not-so-good news.  Getting this brand-new medicine has proved to be rather difficult.  My understanding is that my pulmonologist will need to apply for me to get it and then of course, my insurance will have to approve it.  Current cost?  $88,000.00 a year…so roughly $7,000.00 - $8,000.00 a month.  So, it is imperative that my insurance covers it.  

 

I have also found out that if I am able to start on this medicine, it takes at least four months until any improvement is seen.  So, it will not be a quick fix.  But we at least have a diagnosis…and I am so very thankful.

 

I lead a prayer team for the Mid-North IN Area in the Great Lakes region for Operation Christmas Child, a division of Samaritan's Purse.  Our team selected a couple verses in Psalms to be ours for 2025 and they are as follows:

 

“Show me the right path, O Lord; 

point out the road for me to follow.

Lead me by your truth and teach me, 

for you are the God who saves me. 

All day long I put my hope in you.”

Psalm 25:4-5

 

Little did I know when we “adopted” these verses at the beginning of the year, how important they would become in my life.  I can’t tell you how many times I have asked the Lord to show us the right path.  To lead us and teach us during these days because we know that He is our only hope.  None of this is a surprise to Him and He has everything under control.

 

Are you also finding yourself in a time of waiting?  I know it isn’t easy, and frustration can quickly set-in.  But it is so important that we keep our eyes on the One who knows the right path.  He knows what road we should journey on and so we need to wait for Him to teach us what we need to know.  

 

HE is able to do the impossible.  HE is able to work miracles when we think there is no hope.  HE knows everything about our today, tomorrow and even the days and weeks that follow.  So, we will put our trust and hope in the One who is able 

Monday Morning Memo: Smile Makers :-)

There are quite a few things in life that just make me smile.  Of course, if I had to list them all…you would expect me to list my husband, kids, grandkids, friends…etc…and you would be right.  But the four that I am sharing with you today…don’t include any of those.  Refer to today’s picture and I’ll attempt to explain:

 

1.      I use plastic bags.  Yep, I said it and I’m not taking it back.  I know  they aren’t good for the environment, but I do wash them out and reuse them.  But the frustration involved in storing all the different size boxes and hunting each time for the exact one I wanted…was getting to me.  I had looked for a very long time for something to put all of them in, but most of them didn’t have the number of slots that I needed.  Well, walla!  Some months ago, I came across this one in my picture…and I can’t tell you the joy this gives me.  All organized and all in one place.  Can life get any better?

 

2.     Maybe it can with cheese.  I love cheese…but this past year I was getting really irritated with the store-bought, pre-grated cheese I was buying.  I don’t know if you have noticed…but it doesn’t melt!  So many anti-caking properties have been added to it, that it just sort of sits there on your pizza without truly melting.  So, I made the wild decision to start buying my cheese in more bulk form and grating it myself.  I then measure it out and use some of those wonderful plastic bags (being stored in my amazing organizer) and keep them in the freezer.  Oh, what satisfaction I get as I stand in my kitchen and grate the cheese by hand…knowing the wonderful goodness we will experience when the cheese melts.

 

3.     I made the decision at the beginning of this year to start milling my own flour.  Best decision ever.  In case you haven’t heard…flour you buy out of the grocery store is dead…no nutrients…and trust me, there are things in some flours you really don’t want to consume (think human hair and duck feathers…ewwwww).  So, I now buy wheat berries and oh what joy it gives me as I grind them up to make our bread.   And we are getting 40 out of 44 nutrients that we need each day when eating our homemade bread.  Life just keeps getting better and better…

 

4.     And of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t include my flowers that make me smile.  I love summer and what joy I receive from God’s creation.  To see all the flowers blooming in vibrant color…oh how I hate to think about winter coming…

 

Well now I’m sure all this information has been riveting for you as you’ve had to endure reading about some of the things that make me smile.  And you are probably wondering why in the world I am sharing all of this, and you may even think I’ve lost my rocker because of the things that I shared which make me smile.  Why?  Because you may not give a rip about any of these things that I listed.  You may possibly not care at all about plastic bag organizers, grated cheese, milling your own wheat berries and you may hate working outside with plants.  Guess what?  That’s ok!  You don’t have to like what I like because you are a unique child of the King and…gasp…we all don’t have to be alike 

 

Why do we spend SO much time in our life comparing ourselves to others?  Why do we waste time wishing we had what someone else has…whether it be a possession, a job, a family or anything else that we covet?  Why can’t we just be thankful for the things in our life that make us smile…and be thrilled that others have things that make them smile too.  

 

Friends, life is short and each of us are on our own journey.  If we spend our time watching others and wishing our life away…we will miss so many smiles in our own life.  So, let’s see if this coming week we can pay more attention to all those little things that God has blessed us with which make us smile…instead of staring at others wondering why they are smiling.

 

We were filled with laughter,
    and we sang for joy.
And the other nations said,
    “What amazing things the Lord has done for them.”
Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us!
    What joy!

Psalm 126:2-3

 

Monday Morning Memo - Part 4 - Lilacs & Skunks

The last few weeks, we’ve been looking at Revelation 2:8-11 concerning going through times of hardship. This was the text from which I preached in July and it had such an impact on my life. We have specifically looked at the Christ-followers from Smyrna…who remained faithful even under the worst of circumstances. 

This has made us question how we measure up to these faithful Christians.  Very few of us have gone through the severe persecution that they did, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t had trials in our life.  All of us have faced different difficulties…what I have gone through has probably been entirely different than what you have faced…but that doesn’t diminish the pain and hurt that each of us have experienced.  But as I prepared for this sermon, I came across a statement that spoke volumes to me…and it is this: “How we endure hardships matters more than what hardships we endure”. 

You see, Jesus said that in this life we will have trouble.  And many of us can say AMEN to that, I’m sure.  Whatever the trouble – whether it’s illness or financial hardship or loss of loved one – we need to understand that how we endure matters more than what we endure.  We need to make sure that we aren’t people who let trouble come between us and our Lord.  Instead of moving away from God during times of difficulty, we need to make the effort to move closer to Him.  We need to keep our problems in perspective.  And we need to remember this – it’s when the pressure is on and times are tough that people are the most closely watching us.

It is so important for us to understand that how we endure hardship can greatly impact those around us positively or negatively.  We need to realize that how we handle hardship can either increase - or tragically decrease - our witness to the unsaved.  That may be one of the reasons God allows bad things to happen to Christians.  He knows that when Christians endure hardship well, others notice and their acceptance of the message of Christ dramatically increases. 

It's not some kind of fluke, that in proportion to the world’s population the church in Smyrna reached its greatest numbers during this period of persecution.  It happened that way because people were watching and what they were seeing – the faith, the unquenchable hope, the courage and the endurance of so many Christians while they were under attack – it all worked together to open doors for the good news about Jesus.

And friends, people are watching you and me today.  As they observe us in action, are they being influenced to open up their heart a little wider to receive Christ or are they being turned off to Jesus?

And most importantly, God is watching us.  I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the name Smyrna means Myrrh.  Myrrh was a sweet-smelling perfume that was not only worn by the living but was also used in first century embalming practices.  So, when the Christians in Smyrna were persecuted, their endurance rose up before God as something sweet and beautiful.  Can the same be said of me?  Can it be said of you?  

Think of the difference between the smell of lilacs and a skunk.  Which would you bring into your house and which would you want to keep out?

When the pressure is on and things get difficult…when you’re being unjustly pushed around and people you thought you could count on for support have turned on you and are squeezing the joy out of things, do you maintain a sweetness of spirit, like the Christians of Smyrna?  Or do you react to life’s hardships and respond to the crud others dump on you by raising a little stink of your own?  It’s pretty obvious isn’t it which kind of lifestyle others will gravitate to and desire to be like. 

“How we endure hardships matters more than what hardships we endure.”  This can be a hard concept to live out each day and I know it is something I personally struggle with.  But with God’s help, we need to make sure that no matter what life throws our way, we are showing Jesus through our actions and our reactions.  Because they are watching…and they need to see Jesus in us.