Tag: jesus

A Smile Found Me

November 11, 2025

Good morning, friends! I have been away a bit, but God has never stopped urging me to write, so here I am. My favorite thing in the world to do is to write, but I have resisted it for a long while because…well, maybe my journal entry I actually wrote this morning is the best way to explain…I am being brave and getting personal. Here goes…

November 11, 2025

I just listened to “The King is Coming” on Spotify and it touched my heart! As i imagined hearing the trumpet sound to signal Jesus’ coming, I got excited. I could almost hear the scurrying of angels feet as they dressed in robes and assembled to sing for the biggest celebration of all. I can feel my lips curving into a smile as the words to this song pervade my heart and mind, my room, my office. (I must look silly, sitting here all alone with a big grin on my face. But I am not alone. HE is here!)

Sidenote…cars are driving by my house in a rush to work and I find myself thinking…”Are you ready for Jesus to come?” I want to ask them. I want to hope they are ready.

Then, I think…Am I totally ready?…Yes! He’s my Savior!, but…

No, I am not ready. I haven’t done enough for Him. for others. Please, Lord may I have more time to love others that need you? May I be able to write again after all the trials of the last few years?

I am not making excuses, Lord. From now on… Hold on…

***Something cool just happened this second, while typing. I heard this phrase being sung, from the song “He Touched ME”…”I will never cease to praise Him” That’s it, Lord. I get it and I will never cease to praise You!

Ok, back to the journal entry…

I am not making excuses, Lord. from now on, I’ll write during trials. Please say hi to My brother John, , Aunt Freddie, Uncle Bill, Dad Crute and now Mom Crute, Dad Glynn and Mom Glynn and David, Sarah, Aunt Carol, Elgie Wilmoth, and especially Momma Dillard and my Momma. Tell her I am writing and singing every day, because of her, because of YOU.

So that’s it. That’s my heart. God is so good. We have lost so many family members in the last few years, BUT, we will see them again in heaven. Sometimes I don’t focus enough on that. We also had a house fire, a small one, that threatened to destroy our joy, but, thanks to our gracious Lord, He has taught us and brought us through it. Friends, I hope you have a great day and week, wherever you are.

Maybe that’s a new slogan for me to cling to, maybe you too. “I have been bought, taught and brought by the lamb of God!”

All glory to God and love to all,

Tina

David’s Praise

April 4, 2025

David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. 2 He said: The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,  my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior—  from violent people you save me. 2 Samuel 22:1

In my read through the Bible I am now in 2 Samuel. At this point, David has been through so much. He’s had victories, failures, dissappointments, times of abundance and times of loss. However, in chapter 22, it seems that he takes a break from his summary of battles and struggles, to have a total praise session for God. I was jolted by the first six words- “Then, David spoke to the Lord.”

Isn’t that so precious? David sings a song to God that details what God provided for Him, which is also just what he needed. I love this! He needed…and God provided…

Verse 1…to be delivered from enemies

Verse 2…a strong place to stand, a fortress, someone to trust

Verse 3…God’s unfailing strength, a shield of protection, salvation, a stronghold, a safe place

Verse 4…rescue from enemies by the only One who is worthy

Verse 5-7…rescue from waves of death, floods of ungodliness, sorrows of sheol, freedom from distress, and to be heard by God’s own ears!

Look at all God did! It really is “music” to God’s ears when we praise Him. Do WE sometimes stop what we are doing and detail all God has done for us? Do we fully get that God is the ONLY ONE worthy to do what He does?

Self-reflection: Looking at David’s list, can you make your own list of what God has specifically provided for you? In your worst sorrows or dangers, how did God deliver you? How does it make you feel to know that God not only loves you, but your prayers and thoughts are heard by His own ears?

God loves us, hears us and will answer us. And…He is able to do anything we ask and more. That is cause for rejoicing!

With love from the Father to you, have a great day!

Tina

God’s Good Path

March 28, 2025
Free Jesus Calvary vector and picture

The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth. Exodus 34:6

I am just sitting here contemplating God’s goodness. I cannot get my mind to reach the totality of it, but I am so glad I cannot, for there is NO end to how good He is! We all have done some “good” things we are proud of, but you know what? Only God is truly good. And…He uses His goodness on us! No judgement, please, as this is off the top of my mind and heart, lol.

God’s Goodness

Compassion’s good gait, His natural way

Loving and leading, lest we go astray

Never a time will His eyes wand’ring go

For that’s just how much our Lord loves us so

The way of the cross He begs us to take

All on the line for eternity’s sake

Will we agree and follow Him home

Or will we say “No”, the world as our throne

The glimmering world just cannot compare

To glories of God and the grace we can share

The good news is this, no matter our past

It’s never too late to choose what will last

God’s asking today and hopes we decide

To run to His arms as they’re open wide

With love from the Father to you, have a wonderful rest of your day!

Tina

I Vote for God

January 5, 2025

1 John 5:20 says…And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

The following poem started in my head very early this morning. I jumped out of bed to write it down before church. This poem is based on our decision of who to vote for, to be the ruler of our hearts. There are only two candidates, God or satan. We vote for and follow whoever’s agenda we like best. Only problem with that is… the enemy does not make his agenda clear. He’s a very tricky liar, unlike God who loves us dearly and tells the whole truth. So, who do YOU choose?

We must make our selection

a personal election

our president

heart’s resident

Each voter must decide.

God is a great campaigner

to win our soul’s retainer

He’s needed there

I do declare

our sin needs a maintainer.

The enemy’s employing

sins we find enjoying

we must beware

he does not care

our souls he loves destroying.

The cure for our condition-

to give our Lord permission

to come on in

remove our sin

There’s peace in this submission.

The better choice, our Savior

to live within His favor

we’ll not regret

the friend we get

He’ll never ever waver.

Dear God, I choose You to rule over my life. I am imperfect, as You know, and often try to rule myself and end up making wrong decisions. Please forgive me for trying to do Your job. Preside in my heart and be King of my heart for all my days. I desire nothing more than to be Your servant and do Your will. I love You. Amen.

With love from the Father to you, have a great day! Vote wisely. vote often for God!

Priorities and Promises

December 16, 2024

 He must become greater; I must become less. The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. John 3:30-31

Good morning. A thought has been running through my heart and mind since church yesterday. Does that ever happen to you? Maybe God presses something into your brain and you and keeps it there for hours or days? Here’s the thought that I think He wants me to share and to utilize, myself…

GOD IS OVER ALL. Yeah, that’s the thought that won’t go away. It is simple but it is everything. We face a mountain of decisions every day. Do we place absolutely everything UNDER Him, under His purposes? Before making decisions, do we make sure we are prioritizing God above all?

Things we can purposely place under His control…They just happen to start with “p’:)

Perspectives…Are we making all decisions based on God’s perspective? (or ours or the world’s?)

Promises…Do we make promises based on what others want from us or what God wants?

Positions…Do we take up positions on societal matters based on what the popular consensus is? Or what God’s Word says?

Posts…Do we post on social media solely to draw attention to US or is it helpful to others and/or does it give thanks to God?

Plans…Do we pray about our plans and submit them to God’s approval before making them?

Priorities…Do we purposefully place everything in a position under God?

This may be the most important one! Do we truly value God over everything else and so crave to use our one earthly life to use as HE sees fit? It’s not just for our entertainment, accomplishment or esteem.

As John the Baptist said in the verse above…We must become less and the Lord must become greater. The Bible tells us that God must be the priority and all things are less than Him.

Jesus, It is so easy, in this crazy world, to be influenced wrongly in our decisions. Please help us navigate this life You have given us. We want to use it for YOUR purposes. We submit everything to Your control,moment by moment by moment. We desire to become less as You become greater and greater in our lives. Amen

With love from the Father to you, have an amazing day of surrender to our awesome God!

Tina

Will We?

September 20, 2024
Image result for pixabay free image fearing God

When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands? Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore fear God. Ecclesiastes 5:4-7

It’s a poem day! I felt inspired to jot down these words in response to our pastor’s sermon about fearing God, as in respecting God and taking our commitment to Him seriously. I took it to heart…because Jesus took US to heart!

Another influencer of this poem is a study of the book of Amos in my Sunday morning class. It has impressed me how easy it is to take for granted what God has done for us. He deserves all respect and praise! Will we continually give it to Him? Will we honor our commitment to Him because we fear and respect and appreciate HIm?

Will We?

God planned a way, our souls to save. He vowed it from the start

To sacrifice His only Son to clean our sinful hearts

In order for His plan to work, obedience was due

The Lord and Son gave up His life to rescue me and you

He could have come down from the cross, to live without the pain

Instead He let Himself be used, to give all for our gain

What’s our commitment to the Lord? What promise we will make?

Do we avow all praise to Him for our souls needy sake?

And will we every day, anew, desire to serve Him well?

Appreciate the cleansing that we got from Mercy’s well?

Will we chase His will for us or strike out on our own?

Will we fear Him, King of Kings, our Savior on the throne?

Confident we tend to be of all that we’ve achieved

But only God deserves that praise. We must not be deceived.

A question lurks. An answer’s due, to keep us in the Way.

Will we submit our selfish will for fear of Him each day?

Will We?

God is so good, y’all! I am “preaching to myself” in this poem and praising God at the same time. He deserves the very best commitment I/we can give, which means we fear Him, desire Him more each day. Taking Him for granted at times is human. We like to think we are in control, but God allows what He allows for His purposes. We serve a great God!

With love from the Father to you, have a great day! He loves you so much!

Tina

We Are Followers

September 14, 2024
Free jesus apostles jerusalem illustration

Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart—they do no wrong but follow his ways. You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed. Psalm 119:1-4

I usually post in the mornings, but I felt so strongly that God had something I needed to learn that I just had to read His Word tonight. He showed me tonight, that following Him is easy, in that all we have to do is follow His Word. He will never steer us wrong:) We have the perfect resource for following Him!

I realized, while reading Psalm 119 that if we love Him, we will automatically follow Him. We will be seekers of Him, keepers of His Word, talkers about Him, walkers with Him, obeyers of His will, surveyors of all He has done for us, and learners of many lessons He teaches. Best of all, our honor is to call ourselves a sojourner of another place, heaven! Psalm 119’s focus on our desire to faithfully follow our Lord got me excited about knowing Him better and being known by Him. What a privilege!

So, as we start another week, let’s be Seekers, Keepers, Talkers, Walkers, Obeyers, Surveyors, Learners and Sojourners! Let’s follow Him with all of ourselves, so we have no time to follow the world. (but let’s do pray for them!)

Dear Father, Thank You for loving us so much. We love You and desire to do Your will always, but You know we fail at times. Refresh our desire to know You more and better so we can be better servants of Yours. Guide our speech, actions and thoughts to glorify You and love others deeply. Amen

With love from the Father to you, have a wonderful day or evening!

Tina

Truth Is…

August 1, 2024

…if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; 2 Peter 2:9-10

Good Morning! Have you read 1 and 2 Peter lately? I highly recommend taking just four or five verses at a time only, so you don’t miss anything. If we rush through,we might miss something. It’s good to read, pray, listen to God and apply His truth to our lives deeply. Truth is everything, everything we need.

So, Peter knows he will die soon, because the Lord told him, so he is trying to remind Christians of things they already know, but need to really remember after he is gone. He is all about holy living, loving and obeying God and being effective for God. No better goals!

Peter reminds us that…If God made Sodom and Gomorrah extinct , due to their ungodliness(which He did) and If He rescued Lot, the only righteous man in Sodom who was miserable, seeing so much sinful conduct(which He did) THEN…

He knows what’s going on, who is sinful or not and He is able to both punish and rescue us! It is not our job to punish anyone. Sidenote…I admit I took over God’s job a bit this past week and did a little judging. Oops! It made me feel awful! He understands when we mess up but is so good to forgive us:)

These verses remind me of something we already know, but need to remember about truth…that, in today’s world, we like to decide our own truths, but that leaves God out, which is wrong. He, THE ONLY JUDGE, will judge us all for how we obey or disobey His truth. We tend to obey our own truths. along with His truth… but is it really total obedience if we follow God AND wordly, popular trends, or what’s easiest or what suits us? NOPE! Truth, often is UNpopular…

We can’t create truth. Only God can and has. We can’t decide it or bend it to suit our desires. Since we can’t change His Word, His truth, then our only choice is to accept it or reject it. I am GLAD to accept truth from Truth Himself! I do not want a changeable god, one that humans can influence. Would we really want a god we could each change with our whims? Would he really be a god? NOPE!

I hope this makes sense.My heart has changed from anxious to peaceful today, by reading that God is still true and just, no matter what the world says or does. God’s got this, friends! He knows what is true and what’s not, and He will carry us through a sometimes dark world with His truth to light our way!

Dear Father ,Thank You for Your truth, our anchor in a dark and stormy world. Guide us all the way home to You as You desire. Keep us from falling in love with popular but ungodly lies. Thank You for being who You are, truth and goodness and light and love! We love You back! Amen.

With love from the Father to you, have a great day! Hang onto God’s truths!

Tina

How to Stay Healthy

July 27, 2024

Yesterday, I had my final check-up after two cataract surgeries. I am done! My long range vision is 20/20 and my close range vision only requires some reader’s glasses from Walgreens or CVS! I am so thankful for this blessing, that I asked my doctor…

“What can I do to make my eyes stay the healthiest they possibly can? My Dad has macular degeneration and I don’t want it anytime soon.”

“The key is simple” he said. “Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, wear sunglasses in the sun, always, and take a multi-vitamin or supplement.” He explained that those things will greatly affect when or if I get macular degeneration. That’s good news!

So as I am reading 2 Peter this morning, I get excited! As Christ followers, we have good news, too! Jesus gives us, through faith, supplements!! The divine nature of God gifts us with what we need to stay spiritually healthy and growing. How good is He!!

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge,  and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness,  and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8 ESV

He gives us what we need, to stave off sin’s effect on us. He shares His divine nature with us if we ask Him for it. He’s so wonderful. And…as if the Lord wanted me to totally get and relay this analogy to eyesight, look at verse 9! (I have been studying 5 verses a day of 1 and 2 Peter and this happened to be my fifth verse for today…)

For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 2 Peter 1:5-9

BAM! Just as we can keep our eyes healthy by supplementing our care of them, Jesus will keep us spiritually healthy by supplementing our souls with divine qualities. All we have to do is ask. I am blown away and feel like praying. Pray with me?

Lord Jesus,

You are so wonderful to not only earn our salvation to make our souls healthy, but You also supplement us in our Christ-like walk. Please keep giving us more desire for You and less desire for the world. Give us opportunities to share Your truth in a dark world. Above all, help us to love everyone with a holy love like Yours. Thank You, Lord for allowing us to be Your children. We love You. Amen.

With love from the Father to you, have a wonderful, supplemented, day! He is able!

Tina

It Is Time

July 15, 2024

If there was ever a time to exponentially increase our prayer and Bible study, it is now. In light of recent events, it’s time to take our time on earth way more seriously and our Father in heaven way more seriously. Engraved on my Bible is 1 Peter 4:1. I felt led to read verses 1 through 9 this morning and boy, do I thank the Lord for this inspired Word. It is so enlightening!

In my own limited understanding of 1Peter 4: 1-9…

A. The Overall Battle Plan-Peter compares our new life in Christ as a battle that’s ongoing. We are to arm ourselves with the right kind of thinking. No longer do we focus on selfish or sinful things we could enjoy; because we have been raised to new life in Christ, we do not strive for the flesh, but for God’s will. (v.1)

Hmm…Do I STRIVE for this or do I often relax, because I feel I have it figured out?

B. The Death of Sin- Peter says we are to live for Christ, since we have died to sin. I like how he says “the time is past” for pleasing ourselves and pursuing earthly pleasures like drunkeness, passions, sensualities and other things. People will judge and criticize you, as they are surprised at your not joining in their “debauchery.” However…We and they should fear God’s judgement, as EVERYONE will be judged.(v.4-5)

Hmm… How scary would that be for someone who does not believe! But, how wonderful that there is still time to die to sin and follow the Savior!

C. Judgement Comes for Everyone-We, they, everyone should fear God’s judgement, because it is for ALL believers, unbelievers, dead or alive. (v.5)

D. The Gospel Saves Lives- Peter explains that the gospel was preached to former believers to bring them back to life in Christ. We can either live in “the flesh” for self and sin or we can “live in the Spirit the way God does.” (v.6)

E. The End is Near, so Focus!- Verses 7-9 should be bolded and highlighted in our houses, offices, cars, hearts, souls and minds! Here goes the answer to the question, “What should my focus be, in these end times?

Peter says, The end is near so do something that is appropriate for the time. Be self-controlled, think straight, be soberly-minded devoted to prayer. But above all else…LOVE ONE ANOTHER! LOVE people despite their sins, their supposed sins, their appearance of sin, your suspicion of their sin. This is how my brain and heart read God’s Word today. Simply put, DO NOT JUDGE! Be hospitable, charitable, and loving to everyone, even if they are a republican or a democrat! They are God’s beloved!

Hmmm…Itd be cool if we stoppped watching any news that bashed the other political party, just saying. We are not to judge each other. That is not of God. God’s Word should be our guide to all we do, no matter if we don’t fit in to the world and because we are not MEANT to fit in this world, because if we do, we will not be fit in our world to come, with the Lord forever.

I pray that you readers and I both continue to grow in Christ, spreading love and God’s Word and praying with an urgency for others. Jesus is coming back and with our own gifts God has given us, we are meant to tell others that.

Dear Father,

Thank You for shining Your light on Your Word for us today. Lately the world has seemed to grow darker and a bit scary. Thank You for Your light that guides our minds, hearts and feet every day. Please comfort the families affected by the shooting at the Trump rally and guide others who know them to love them like Jesus does. Give us boldness to spread the gospel and to be constantly convicted of Your will for us. You are so great in every way, Lord and we are so thankful for You!

Sorry this was so long, friends. My heart is heavy for those affected by our world’s sin and violence. We ALL need love and the gospel. Let’s live it and share it generously, and love others deeply, as Jesus did and does:)

Tina