Suited To Fit You

Today’s message from God Calling – A.J. Russell, reminds us that God adjusts the yoke to fit us. God knows us; has known us from the beginning, and already knows exactly what size, make, model, every little detail, needs to be.

The key to Divine Revelation about God’s way, is the simple acceptance of God’s will. When I say God’s way, I mean the way He has mapped out for us. Each one of us, strengths, weaknesses, limits, etc., have been carefully considered by Him. This is something to keep in mind when you’re not feeling like you’re doing anything significant for God. First, let me tell you, there is no such thing as insignificant in the Kingdom of Heaven. The little one year old who’s helping Mommy polish spoons is doing a bang up job! He/she is significant! As we obey our LORD/Lord, we grow, and God readjusts the yoke to fit us, now at this level.

I hear people say so often, “I’m seeking God’s will in this.” True, we do need to get specifics. But, for that everyday living, God’s will has already been stated. “I came to destroy the works of the devil; and I’ve come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” If we could just have that firmly settled in our minds, and hearts, half of the hotline phones in Heaven would be silent. It makes such a difference in your whole frame of mind, your attitude, and your heart, when you have that one little anchor. It brings an immense and profound peace to your whole being. Ephesians 5:8 is referenced: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.”

Love you from Cafe du Mondieu

Maybe The Problem Isn’t Your Ears

Today’s message from God Calling – A.J. Russell, reminds us that we never ask anything of God, that He does not respond to. He hears every prayer, every complaint, every whine, every whim, every cry. The answer is there. Unfortunately, we often fail to hear it.

Maybe the problem isn’t your ears. It could be your heart. Do you have something you need to tell God? I used to ask my kids that whenever they got distantly quiet, and stopped asking of me, or seeking to speak to me. Sometimes, we load ourselves with guilt over stuff that really doesn’t even matter -at least not that much. We allow ourselves to get distracted, doing, doing, doing…and we do, like, a run by praying. You know, you’re actually going a hundred miles an hour in your mind at church and, “God, please make that jerk boss of mine see my point tomorrow, thanks and amen…SEE YA!” Maybe you need to just STOP everything, spend some time in praise and worship, and just get all the clutter and mutter out of your heart…get your peace back on-and in you. It’s always soooo much easier to hear God when the world is quiet!

Love you from Cafe du Mondieu

He’s Been There So He’ll Be There

Today’s message from God Calling – A.J. Russell, speaks to us of the loneliness we will deal with at various times in our lives. There are times we’ll feel deserted, times we’ll feel betrayed, times we’ll feel like failures…the list goes on and on. The truth, however, is that we are never deserted, never betrayed, and never failures; not in Christ Jesus. This is the truth we must hold fast to during those times. Jesus promised we will never be left or forsaken by Him. He, Himself suffered betrayal, desertion, looking to the world like He failed. He’s been there so He could be there for us. He’s been there-so He’ll be there! I hope you’ll read the message at twolisteners.org for yourselves. It’s so encouraging; especially in this time of trouble and distress for us all.

I love this song by J.D. Souther! It’s an oldie, but such a goodie; and it says it all exactly.

Love you from Cafe du Mondieu

Saturday Silly – October 17, 2020

My it’s been a busy week! People chasing me around all over town, hitting me with those little zappers, trying to destroy that right breast…trying to keep up with my Bible studies, my posts, and start a brand new year of life…October 14th was my birthday. October 14th this year, was also National Fossil Day… Here’s my card, of course. LOL I don’t know why you people cannot understand that I am merely 39 again again! Hah! Actually, I will, and proudly, tell you that I am 61 years young this year…and getting younger every minute.

Today is Black Poetry Day…One of my favorite black poets is Langston Hughes. It’s also Home Movie Day. Comedy is definitely my favorite, when it comes to movies. One of the funniest movies I’ve ever watched is Gone Fishin’ starring Joe Pesci and Danny Glover. If you haven’t seen it, you’re in for such a wonderful treat. Don’t pass it up!

Love you from Cafe du Mondieu

Seeing Him In You

Today’s message from God Calling – A.J. Russell, bids us to turn our eyes to the LORD/Lord. When we do this, we not only get a clear picture of who God is. We get a picture of who we are to, and in Him. The more you look at Jesus, the more beautiful you become yourself. You begin to see little things within you that are just like Him. You begin to realize that you’re not really all that terrible a person yourself. The more of His beauty you behold, the more beauty you strive to find and to foster within your own being. As we grow more and more like Him, we become empowered to do things more and more like He does them…”and even greater things will you do, because I go to my Father.” That last part there is really awesome as you begin to discover it. It’s kind of like riding a bike with Jesus holding on to the back so you don’t fall. One day, you forget to look and see if He’s back there…and suddenly find yourself sailing right along on your own. YAY! Jesus, what’s the next project?! The more we see Jesus, the more of Jesus we see…the more of Jesus we see in us…and the more of us we want to see in Jesus!

Love you from Cafe du Mondieu

Break Through The Bars

Today’s message from God Calling – A.J. Russell, speaks to us of the imprisoned God. Praise, we’re told again, brings God on the scene. Praise opens the doors to the throne room of God, giving us a glimpse of who He is, who we are in Him, and all that He has put inside of us. I hope you’ll read the message for yourselves at twolisteners.org -this is one we all need from time to time.

When I read the message, this scripture comes to mind: “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.” (Hosea 10:12) We often don’t reach our full potential in things because we’ve imprisoned the son of God within us. I’m not talking about Jesus; I’m talking about you and me. Although, we can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us. We’re created in God’s image and after His likeness. That means we can be awesome when we’re working with God, instead of against Him. (Psalm 139: 13) tells us: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” God knows each and every one of us, our strengths, weaknesses, gifts, favorite things, things we don’t like, etc. He knows us intimately; even better than we know ourselves.

Here’s where that fallow ground comes in. Quite often we are, from birth, guided and led, coaxed and cajoled, and yes, often coerced into becoming people we really don’t want to be. We end up becoming people pleasers, suffering from anxieties, harboring resentments , and living bitter and unfulfilled lives. We spend most of our lives trying to become someone else’s version of awesome. When we sow righteousness for ourselves, we’re sowing God’s thoughts about us, and His Word to us into our hearts. We reap His steadfast love within us. We grow in His love for us, and we learn to love ourselves like He does. The Word of God, and His love will even break up all that fallow ground (hard, unplowed), if and when you can’t do it yourself. Breaking it up involves tearing down the strongholds and wrong attitudes and thoughts that we’ve been fed. Then, God can come in and rain righeousness on us.

Here’s a short list of some bars that surround us and keep us locked away from our full potential: “You’re never going to amount to anything.” “You can’t do anything right.” “Your brother’s/sister’s the smart one.” “I don’t know why I bother; nobody cares anyway.” “It’s too late in my life.” “I’m too old, young, shy, stupid, fill in the blank.” Are you getting the picture? These all come back to that fallow ground; to the lies we’ve allowed to be covered over, and allowed our potential to be packed down under.

Love you from Cafe du Mondieu

Feeling That Feeling

Today’s message from God Calling – A.J. Russell, bids us to feel the plenty in God’s Kingdom. We are assured that the storehouses of God are filled to overflowing with all of God’s goodness. – For us!

We’re told to walk by faith, not by sight. So, that feeling of plenty is really not a feeling, but a knowing. It is a matter of changing one’s thinking from supplication to thanksgiving. I believe that when we do that, we begin to grow, not only in faith, but in relationship with God. We begin to see that there is much more to God’s supply than material blessing. There is wisdom, courage, creativity, delight, humility, inspiration, joy, knowledge, laughter, love, passion, patience, peace, power, rest, security, steadfastness, strength, talents, understanding, zeal, or excitement. This is all WEALTH! And, see how wealthy you really are?! Yeah! God’s really, really good! My whole being was changed, merely as a result of giving thanks to God each morning, instead of a to-do list. Not that we shouldn’t make our requests known to God, but we should also-and this ties in with yesterday’s post-settle it in our hearts that it’s a done deal. God answered in the beginning! When we can accept that it’s already been done for us, we can start each day with a grateful heart, and the assurance that God’s got us covered.

This is an old one, but such a good one! Thank you, Michael English and the Gatiher Family.

See That It Is Finished

Today’s message from God Calling – A.J. Russell, bids us to lay our sins, failures, shortcomings, all we need to let go of, on Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. It is in Him that we find the forgiveness we need, as well as the perfect healing and resurrection we need.

As I read this message once, when I was really struggling through some things, I saw Jesus on the cross. I heard Him say, “It is finished.” (John 19:30) At first, I thought, how strange that you would bring that to mind, Lord…because, NO IT ISN’T! I’m going through hell here! Then, I got it. As soon as your version dies, as soon as your fear dies, and as soon as your feeling of entitlement dies, it will be finished…because then I CAN HELP YOU WITH IT! I said to the Lord, “I’ll just shut up now, if you don’t mind.” (Job 40:3-4) Yeah, I’m pretty sure He laughed as He shook His head.

When we realize and accept that when we take it to the Lord, it’s finished right there, and then act on that accordingly (obediently), we find that healing. (Mark 11:24) Then we can begin to rise from that pit of despair to the path(s) that will lead us to the victory. That’s our resurrection from that pit.

PS – Happy Birthday, Hanna Banana! Love you! I forgot to add this yesterday-sorry.

Love you from Cafe du Mondieu

Strength To Strength

Glory to glory…Today’s message from God Calling – A.J. Russell, reminds us that there is no stagnation in the Kingdom of Heaven. That means even when it looks like you’re standing still, something’s going on. We go from strength to strength, and from glory to glory, as we grow in knowledge of the LORD/Lord; and faith in Him.

When I read the message, I’m reminded of my first guitar. I went from learning chords to others’ songs, to playing my own. I went from writing poetry to writing songs. When I found myself in that desert sixteen years ago, I went from journaling my thoughts to writing poetry, psalms and stories. About 10 or 11 years ago, God called me to begin this blog; to share the nuggets I find in the messages in God Calling. You can find the book online, by the way, free of charge, at twolisteners.org What an awesome thing to have access to daily. I thank God for their faithfulness daily.

I also thought of Peter when I read the message. -Peter, trying to argue with Jesus over whether or not to row out and try again to catch some fish. (Luke 5:1-5) Peter did what Jesus told him to do; but he was a little put out over Jesus’ seeming lack of faith in his knowledge of fishing. -Peter, walking on the water, only to fall “in over his head” again, and Jesus having to save him. (Matt. 14:25-31) Peter, torn in two within himself, his own heart crushed over his denial-basically, betrayal of the Lord…at the very time Jesus needed him more than at any other time. (Mark 14:66-72) Then I think of Peter, who grew so strong in the LORD/Lord that people were healed by Peter’s shadow falling on them. (Acts 5 and Acts 19)

If you’re feeling feeble in your faith, stagnant in your walk with God, take Jesus by the hand and dance with Him. My grandma used to dance with me when I was a baby. Everything was always alright when she had me in her arms and the two of us swayed to the music. It was a tiny interlude of love for us both. I did the same with my babies. Do you know that your Heavenly Father loves you like that?! This song is another one Paul Wilbur does so awesomely! I hope it blesses you today; so much so that you dance through the whole day! God loves you so much!

Love you from Cafe du Mondieu

Hear Him Say It To You

Today’s message from God Calling – A.J. Russell, reminds us that our Heavenly Father loves us! He is head over heels in love with each and every one of us. Let me tell you what it means to someone to hear, “You are my joy,” when they’ve not heard it often, or maybe at all, in their lives. And that’s exactly what God says to us, every good day, every bad day, every, every day! Hear Him say it to you! It will change your life! I hope you’ll read the message at twolisteners.org for yourselves – it’s awesome.

I hope this blesses you as much as it does me; it’s one of my favorites. Thank you, Chris Tomlin.

Love you from Cafe du Mondieu