I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

If you have read many of my posts, you know that I am a fan of “three little words.” What I mean by that is…so many 3-word phrases are so powerful and emotional because of their spiritual meaning! Like, “Because He lives” for example. Those three little words represent a wonderful story of love and redemption and hope and eternity and purpose of God. Because He lives, we can have hope!

One phrase that means the most to me is, “I surrender all.” In fact, a song by that name is playing now on my stereo. I just had to stop and listen and write my thoughts down. Why does this one mean so much? Why did this phrase just now stop me in my tracks? Why does it make me feel like I have something to confess and hold my palms open and talk to Jesus?

Because it is a total game-changer and life-changer.

Because, as humans, we like to hold on to our things and our plans.

Because it is hard but necessary.

Let’s break down this tiny but special phrase.

“I”…This is who the phrase is for. Me. You can say the same. I am the one who takes charge of my life, makes decisions for my life. I make choices that I hope honor God. It is I that is making this decision with my brain and heart.

“Surrender”…this is the tough part, giving up, calling it quits, bowing to someone else’s opinion and command, stopping the fight. I have chills as I write this and grasp what surrender means in a Christian ife and how it affects our personal, entire life story.

So far, we have this thought… .”I surrender.” Even two words can be powerful! I am making the choice to give away something to someone that is a thing of value…my heart and will! Think about it. If something is not valuable, you would not use the word, surrender. Surrender is reserved for something you value…your fight to be in control.

“ALL”…that last word is hardest to wrap my head around. You? Do we really want to give all, absolutely everything, every idea, every desire, every dislike, every sin, every material good, every selfish thought over to Jesus? But that’s so hard to do, right? All I know is…. The enemy will tell us it is hard but yet, not so much! It’s rather nice to lean on someone who knows all! We can trust God because He never varies and is good and loves us! Giving all is our offering to Him.

“I surrender all”…The enormity of this whole phrase is in the fact that we CHOOSE to surrender all things we hold dear to someone we love more than anything else. Isn’t that a scary thought, but more wonderful than scary? We have a God that can and will guide us through our entire lives and carry us the whole way if necessary! We get from God way more than we give, so it is a no-brainer to follow His first commandment. We are to surrender to and hold most dear, out of everything, our God. The first commandment tells us,

“You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3 NIV

Dear God,

Surrendering everything is easy to say but harder to do because we are human and we like to think we can control our own lives. You know best and You love us best. Help us to remember that YOU surrendered Your precious Son for us. Help us to remember the surrender of our Savior. He gave all. He obeyed You. He held not one thing back. Please guide us Lord in Your path, Your way and nudge us when we get off track. We love You so much! Amen.

Love to all with the love of our Father. I hope you have a blessed and surrendered day.:)

Christina

While reading in Luke 12 about one of many times crowds gathered to see and hear Jesus, I tried to imagine if I was in that crowd. Can you do that? Can you imagine what it would be like to be among tens of thousands of people who all want the same thing…Jesus? What road did you take to get there? Was your trip long, dusty and hot? Did it seem to take you forever? What motivated you to go follow the mob to try and get to Jesus?

My mind goes to Christmas time when mobs come early to stores to find the elusive and often limited great deals. I’ve seen people sleeping outside the store so that they can get what they want so badly. Often the line of people stretches around the store, and the people volley for position in line, wanting to get in the store before all the tv’s or i-phones or video game players are gone. Neither lack of sleep, crowds or time matters, because it will be worth it to get something at a great price, right?

(I have done the Black Friday shopping one time. That was all it took to know it was not for me. Kudos to those who like the challenge!)

All the effort put into getting what we want…Do we do that with Jesus? Do whatever it takes to get to Him? Do we see Him as the best present ever? Are we determined to be with Him, no matter how much time it takes? What about our money or our hearts? Are we looking to bargain with Him or do we give Him everything? Do we go out of our way to go HIS way?

I read the verse below no less than ten times and I am just…overwhelmed at the enthusiasm of the crowd depicted in Luke 11! Would that I would be so enthusiastic and risk being trampled, not to buy presents, but to be in the presence of Jesus!

Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak. Luke 12:1a NIV

That’s really all I wanted to share. Half of a verse about craving Jesus. That half of a verse is wholly encouraging! When we come to Jesus, He does indeed talk to us and guide us in this life, through God’s Word and the Holy Spirit.

It is worth any price to have Jesus in our life, yet HE is the one who gave all. He thought WE were worth it:)

Dear Jesus,

As I am reading about the crowds who gathered to see You, I can sense their excitement! I, too, want to see You, hear You, be near You always. What You say changes lives. It changed mine! One day, we who You changed, will see You again! One day, I will be in the crowd standing around You! I love You, Jesus! Thank You for loving me. Amen

May you have a blessed day being with Jesus:)

Christina

“O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Psalm 39:4 ESV

I am not sure exactly what date I went to our church’s Kid’s Camp, but I believe it was late June in 1972. I was nine years old when I went there and accepted Jesus as my Savior and He accepted me! That is about 49 years of serving Him and as of today, about 17,921 days. Soon, it will be 20,000 days! Wow…Jesus has carried me a long time. (WAY more than I deserved!)

The numbers are shocking, but you know what? I realize they are nothing for me to be proud of. God gave me the days. All I did was do what we all do. We do our best to navigate this world the best we know how. I praise Him for His How often I failed Him and how often I had to say, “I am sorry.”

No matter how many days we have with God, God loves us all the same. We can measure the days we spent with God, but better yet is to measure the days we WILL SPEND with Him!

Our days with Him on earth are a drop in the bucket to the number of days we will live with Him in heaven. Can you wrap your head around that? I can’t! But, you know what? It is a huge number, way above 20,000 days! There will be no need for clocks or calendars in heaven, however, because time has no end there!

All in all, It is not really about the numbers, but WHO is our number one. (We, silly humans, like to put numbers on things ) Speaking of numbers, God wants to be our number ONE. I hope and pray you can see and count all the good He has done in your life. I hope He is your number ONE. If not, today is a great day to count to One! There is just no one like our God, is there? We can count ourselves very, very blessed!

With love from our Father to you,

Christina

Let’s have a poetry day!

This image from Pixabay.com spoke to me as a writer. All the tools are there to begin writing a story. It also spoke to me as a Christian who believes that God writes OUR stories. Oh, the possibilities! Though we do not know what He has planned for our lives and we may see a blank future or an uncertain one, God has already written our story. He knows what He wants to use us for and He knows for what purposes. The best story we can live out is one that He wrote. It is sort of like reading a good book. Actually, it IS EXACTLY like reading The Good Book! This poem is about what we see or may plan compared to what God has already planned!

Your Story

A blank page

but a fresh and future holder

of the story you hope to write.

A new day

it already knows the future

that God has written just for you.

©copyright 2021 Christina Crute

Isn’t it great that we know who is writing our story? Sure, we have choices, but ultimately the Lord is in control. That is not something to fear, but something to praise Him for! The God who created us knows what is best for us and our future. He is with us always! Our heavenly future is His gift, and oh what a future we have to look forward to, if we live our present for Him! We may have our plans, that God may allow or not and that’s okay. We can trust He knows what He is doing!

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. Proverbs 19:29 ESV

With love from the Father to you. Have a great day!

Christina Crute

Happy, wonderful Monday! When thinking about all the things we feel strongly about, I realize we will do just about anything for those we love, causes we think are valuable, people that are needy and for the Lord! We have so many ways we can do it, too, what with social media and all. We can stand up, voice our opinion and defend what we hold dear, can’t we?

Know what? God is dear and precious and true. He is worth standing up for! But what does that mean? What does the Bible say about it?

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, ¹⁶ keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 1 Peter 3:15-16 NIV

Standing up for God means representing Him with reverence, gentleness, respect and a clear conscience. I admit, because I love Him so much, I may have been a little too exuberant in my opinions on social media at first. But, I reasoned, I was standing up for things HE stands for! I meant well, but I had some learning to do!

It is great to stand for Him, but speaking for Him must be taken very seriously and done in love. Peter is saying, in the verses above, to be so above reproach that others will be ashamed that they slander our good behavior. It should be that others, if they speak maliciously, (and they will at times), are doing so against our GOOD behavior. Since God is the only one good, we have a high standard of behavior, don’t we?

It makes sense…do we want others to read or hear our words and walk away thinking Christians are high and mighty and opinionated? Or…do we want them to see and hear the love and truth of God in our gentle but sincere approach? Maybe, just maybe, our gentleness will point them to God being the one who is high and mighty:) Maybe, they will see the hope we have!

If we are representing God, we must be diligent about speaking in a way that is worthy of God. How we talk about God to others tells them a whole lot about us, but also who we follow and why we do so:)

Let’s talk about God today and let others hear His love, our love and our hope!

Love you all, my sisters and brothers in Christ!

Christina

Happy Thursday! Here is today’s devotion, a poem , possible song.

I couldn’t sleep so I wrote this poem in the wee hours this morning, with my cousin’s words and theme.

Jim Dalton …here ya go. Thanks for asking me to do this with you!

Right and Wrong and the Liar

What Satan says is right, is always wrong.
Each time he lies to you, don’t play along. The best thing you can do Is tell him what is true.
Though you are often weak, your God is strong.

Through each and every day, we have to pray.
Our God will make our temptor go away.
The enemy may knock , but lean on God your rock.
And tell the liar , “This is not your day.”

As humans we will sin, forgiveness need.
That’s why Jesus died upon the tree.
His gift that never ends is the cure for all our sin.
If we but choose to let him live within.

We have a choice to make of wrong or right.
We can run to sin or run to light.
We must remember this, so truth we never miss,
God’s Word is what will always win the fight!

So, as my life is drawing to a close,
I’m heaven-bound because of who I chose .
My Jesus is to me, the only thing I need.
The enemy and liar has no hold on me.

Optional chorus?…
Enemy, you’re wrong, but I won’t fear. Jesus tells the truth straight in my ear.
So go ahead and give me your best shot. Cuz God is everything that you are not.

It’s about two in the morning, but I just had to work on this. Hope it makes sense and honors God, and my cousin’s words.

Love you all. Have a great day, not listening to you-know-who’s lies!

Love you , cousin Jim Dalton! Love your heart!

Christina

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

My daughter was telling me something exciting she did recently. I had no clue what she was talking about. “When did you do that?” I asked. She said, “I thought you knew already. Didn’t you see my story?” She was referring to her “Story” on social media which I had not seen. She assumed I saw it while on facebook.

It shocked me that I may not know what was going on with her life if I do not purposely read her story. We are very close so it threw me. I really should make an effort to have more communication with her and check out her story.

You know who else has a story that we need to keep up with? Jesus! He has a story that we all need to see and read daily. We need to know what He did and why. He died for us because He loves us and loves God most. Others need to know, too!

We need to ask them, “Hey, did you see Jesus’ story?”

What if Jesus asked US personally…”Did you see my story?” Could we say, “Yes, and I read it every day!” Wouldn’t He love that, because it means we know we NEED Him every single day? Wouldn’t it penetrate your heart, my heart like no other story, every time?

Unlike our stories, His story is a story that isn’t about a day He did something fun, or did for Himself. It is about a day that changed history and changes our history. He gave absolutely all He had for all of us. His story actually gives us a new story! We can be redeemed! All this talk of stories makes me think…

Even though it was very, very long ago, His story, unlike ours on social media, does not need to be updated daily!(The truth never changes but becomes more precious!)

There is no other day that He needs to post what He did because He cold not have done any more than He did! (I wonder how it feels to do absolutely everything you can possibly do for God!)

His story is the one that we need to share more than any other! (It is the only story that transforms a person’s heart and future, by the power of God)

It is time to ask everyone I know, “Have you seen His story?” And proceed to tell them what a great story it is and how it changed YOUR life story!

God wrote everyone’s story, even Jesus’ story…

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

With the love of the Father to all. May you find comfort and joy and fulfillment in Jesus’ story and God’s story for your life too. That’s a whole other story!

Christina

“The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.” Psalm 147:11

Sometimes the devil tries to get us down and makes us lose hope. So what can we do? Tell Him to go ahead!

“What?” you say? Let me explain…

Do you remember that famous line, “Go ahead, make my day?” It was in the movie, Sudden Impact, with Clint Eastwood. Eastwood played a cop and was holding a gun to someone’s head, daring the ‘bad guy” to try anything.

(“Go ahead, make my day” 1983 film Sudden Impact. In 2005….Wikipedia)

I was doing my personal devotions a few days ago and was honestly looking for some hope and I found it in God’s Word. (as always!) It made me want to say to the enemy, “Go ahead, make my day.” I wanted to dare Him to make a move, because I knew, with God in control, I/we would win.

See, I was strong because I trusted God’s strength, not my own, after reading God’s Word. Though the enemy tried, He could not keep me down. He could not because I have God on my side! He cannot win over God’s power, which can make the enemy flee!

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. James 4:7

Something that does take my joy at times…The news! As it comes on my phone and I read it, I get very negative. Doesn’t it seem at times that we are living in a crazy movie? Doesn’t it seem like things we know and love are being changed or fought over? People are divided along political lines. It seems like our country has more problems than ever. I guess I feel like things are going downhill, way too fast!

But, as long as we have God, we have hope!

Thank the Lord that our hope is not based on our temporary home and life here! The enemy can not take away our eternity and our Good News, as long as we lean on the Lord’s resources!

Remember what Paul said…

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

Here are some things we can say to the enemy:

1. “Go ahead, make my day.”

2. “I have the power of God to use against you.

3. I choose not to despair but to trust my loving God for hope and a future.

4. You can try, but you cannot destroy me. I have God on my side! You cannot beat God!”

5. I am a warrior. God is my commanding officer. Watch out!

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Ephesians 6:11

I hope you are able to have hope today, even if your life is not so comfy or smooth. Just know that you can have a future of hope that is perfect!

Have a great and powerful and hopeful day in the Lord!

Christina