It’s Time to Declare Our Love

February 12, 2018 by Leave a Comment

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At this time of the year lovers are selecting gifts to please their sweethearts and children are busy cutting out paper hearts to send to their friends.

In the midst of all the activity do not let us neglect to declare our love for the Lord by offering Him a spiritual Valentine. Beyond all our gifts or service there is one Valentine that would please Him more than anything else we might offer and that is our hearts. No, not paper ones but the real thing. For when we offer Him our hearts we give Him our all. Thats what Isaac Watts meant when he wrote this line to his hymn “When I survey the Wondrous Cross”.

“Were the whole realm of nature mine

That were a present far too small

Love so amazing, so divine

Demands my soul, my life, my all.”

1 John 4:10 “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins.”

How could we help but love Him? Yet there are many who do not return His love. This brought anguish to Francis of Assisi, when he thought of Calvary and realized so many refuse the Savior’s love. He was moved to travel the streets exclaiming “Love is not loved ! Love is not loved !” This is also the tragedy of 2013, for Love is still being despised and rejected by many. But millions do love and cherish Him. Our hearts are His. At a time when the world is searching for love in all the wrong places, let us declare His Love to the world by loving one another as He first loved us.

Challenge: 1 John 4:11 “Beloved if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

HAPPY ST. VALENTINE’S DAY

 

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Be Good Forgivers

February 11, 2016 by Leave a Comment

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I have been sowing some seeds from the fruit of our 50 years to inspire others in their marriage. I have already addressed:

1. Keep communication lines open
2. Keep the romance alive
Now today I would like to share:
3. Be good forgivers
It is well said in the following quote:
A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers. ~Ruth Bell Graham
We make a commitment for BETTER or for WORSE! In SICKNESS and in HEALTH!
By God’s grace, I have lived through some of that WORST due to betrayal so I do understand hurt and shame but have learned that although to sin may be human, to forgive is only divine. Is it easy? – absolutely not – but with God’s grace it is possible.
Anyone can live with the BETTER but when it comes to the WORST many walk away even though “for better or for worse” was in the contract.
Likewise anyone can deal with health but many fail when it comes to sickness even though that was also in the same contract we agreed to.
Gary Thomas has written an awesome book on marriage “Sacred marriage” where he states -“what if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?” Now isn’t that some food for thought! If we are never hurt how are we ever going to learn to forgive? Please note I am not excusing the offender but I do know God can use that pain for good. Nothing is more humbling than seeking forgiveness or offering forgiveness. Something of self has to die. Humility is the hardest of all Christian virtues to become. I say become because humility is not something we do but rather it is something we are becoming. Only when we are humbled will God gave us His grace toforgive.
“You can never be happily married to another until you get a divorce from yourself. Successful marriage demands a certain death to self.” ~Jerry McCant
Heed the verse “Do not let the sun go down on your wrath” Ephesians 4:26 In doing so we are not giving the enemy any place to in our marriages.
“In a time when nothing is more certain than change, the commitment of two people to one another has become difficult and rare.Yet, by its scarcity, the beauty and value of this exchange have only been enhanced.” ~Robert Sexton
It is always good to renew that marriage contract from time to time just to remind us of the promises in the contract which we signed. We have renewed that contract both on our 40th and 45th anniversaries. On both occasions I have carried the same white Bible I carried on my wedding day back in 1964 whose promises are ever faithful and have never changed.

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Cinderella Story

February 10, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Look what I saw while visiting San Antonio Texas? Pumpkins really do turn into Cinderella carriages and believe or not there are “Happily ever after stories”.

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If the mind of a  fantasy pen can script a romantic coach out of a pumpkin then surely the Hand of  the Master Potter, who is love and the creator of love, can mold  a “Happily Ever After Story” out of broken lives.

check out my blog on http://margaretmearnsbass.com/the-valentine-card-that-changed-destiny-2/

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The Valentine card that changed Destiny

February 9, 2016 by Leave a Comment

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A young 19 year old girl while serving in the Women’s Royal Air Force in England and based at R.A.F. Hereford, which was the School of Catering for the Royal Air Force, met her destiny. With a base of 7000 men and only 200 women she was never shy of a date but as yet had not met her Mr. Right. Every 6 weeks there would be a new class of potential chefs brought in for training. At a fall dance on the base she won a twisting contest and met one of those trainees who not only won the same contest for the guys but also won her heart. From that night they saw each other most evenings for the next few weeks until his training was over and he had to return to his base on the other side of England.

This is where our story takes a turn as she waits to meet her Knight in Shining Armor at the canteen on the base to say goodbye as he is leaving Hereford the next day. Much to her embarrassment he doesn’t show and stands her up for all their friends to see.They try to console her but her anger overcomes her hurt.

The next morning at breakfast she had to sit in a different dining room as she was permanent staff and he had to sit in the trainee’s dining room. He sees her as she gets up to leave but doesn’t have the courage to face the tearful hurt in her eyes. He lets her walk away to a life without him as he boards the bus to take him hundreds of miles away.

But as Providence would have it, it was Valentine weekend, and to her chagrin she had already mailed him a Valentine card which of course she could not retrieve. When he receives her card back at his base he decides to take the risk to write and try to explain. His excuse for standing her up was that he didn’t want to have to say goodbye. Now who would ever buy that reasoning? Well she did and they have been married now for fifty two years!

That Valentine day was 55 years ago and John and I are still thanking God every February 14th. for His providence in our lives through the card that saved the day and our destiny in each other’s lives.

Psalm 78:41 Don’t limit the Holy One of Israel

CHALLENGE: Never underestimate the Providence of God in your life! 

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The Valentine card that changed Destiny

February 14, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Screen Shot 2014-02-10 at 6.13.00 PM

A young 19 year old girl while serving in the Women’s Royal Air Force in England and based at R.A.F. Hereford, which was the School of Catering for the Royal Air Force, met her destiny. With a base of 7000 men and only 200 women she was never shy of a date but as yet had not met her Mr. Right. Every 6 weeks there would be a new class of potential chefs brought in for training. At a fall dance on the base she won a twisting contest and met one of those trainees who not only won the same contest for the guys but also won her heart. From that night they saw each other most evenings for the next few weeks until his training was over and he had to return to his base on the other side of England.

This is where our story takes a turn as she waits to meet her Knight in Shining Armor at the canteen on the base to say goodbye as he is leaving Hereford the next day. Much to her embarrassment he doesn’t show and stands her up for all their friends to see.They try to console her but her anger overcomes her hurt.

The next morning at breakfast she had to sit in a different dining room as she was permanent staff and he had to sit in the trainee’s dining room. He sees her as she gets up to leave but doesn’t have the courage to face the tearful hurt in her eyes. He lets her walk away to a life without him as he boards the bus to take him hundreds of miles away.

But as Providence would have it, it was Valentine weekend, and to her chagrin she had already mailed him a Valentine card which of course she could not retrieve. When he receives her card back at his base he decides to take the risk to write and try to explain. His excuse for standing her up was that he didn’t want to have to say goodbye. Now who would ever buy that reasoning? Well she did and they have been married now for fifty years!

That Valentine day was 51 years ago and John and I are still thanking God every February 14th. for His providence in our lives through the card that saved the day and our destiny in each other’s lives.

Psalm 78:41 Don’t limit the Holy One of Israel

CHALLENGE: Never underestimate the Providence of God in your life! 

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