Touched by the Son

"While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’ When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. ‘Get up,’ he said. ‘Don't be afraid.’ When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus." Matthew 17: 5-8

Have you noticed the trees? They look like they have been touched by God. Like, he reached down and kissed the tree tops and turned them to gold. His message to the disciples was, "Don’t be afraid."

For me, the message is reassuring. When I see the magnificent color of God’s late-September world, I cannot help but "fear" the snow of winter that will follow. Last winter lasted for nearly six months, as if God had decided to divide the seasons in half, rather than quarters. But then, I had to be thankful. If God himself had placed a different imprint on the world, one that spoke of his global cooling, and even reached down and kissed the earth with his own lips, there can be only good to follow, if I watch for it.

In our lives, God’s son also reaches down and touches our heart, releasing us from fear. Just like the leaves that turn to gold and crimson, our faces shine with his light when he kisses us. Are we wearing the evidence of his hand on us–a smile, a relaxed expression evidence of his peace, friendship and caring? Or, do we show fear on our faces, that the winter of our lives is coming along with the accompanying chill? When Jesus touches us, warmth is everywhere - wear the testimony of his love and grace on your face, regardless of weather, physical or emotional, around us. Let us pray:

"Father God, painter of the glorious masterpiece all around us, we soak in the colors of your blessings. Let, the whiteness of the winter ahead, represent your pure love, not the absence of color. Actually, we know that white is the presence of all colors of your artistic palate. Your name is holy and your presence is warm. May your kingdom come to my life and let me live within your blessed boundary. I ask that today be the day when I see your colors all around me. Each shade is a new blessing. Green is new life, gold–abundant living, crimson is the blood of Jesus, shed for my sins. Your love is splashed across the earth all around me, and all I seem to do is moan about the season to come. Forgive me Father. Let me live today in appreciation of the moment, for you have reached down and touched my world with wonder. In the name of your precious son, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen"

Doris
"God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine."Copyright 2014 Doris Gaines Rapp

This Saturday, October 4, 2014, I will be signing my books at Bread of Life Christian Bookstore in Greenville, OH from 11 AM to 1 PM. Location: 107 W. Main Street, Greenville, OH 45331. If you want a signed copy but cannot be there, call the store and order one between 11 and 1. I sign several titles:

Waiting for Jesus in a Can’t Wait World - Advent 2014. Available October 4!

There are two exciting features in this Advent book. Each day, beginning November 30, 2014, following the devotion, there is a Share and a Thought Prompt. These two "brain-rattlers" provide food to feast on each day, leading up to Christmas, rather than a steady diet of "gimme."
1: Shares: (text, tweet, post to FB, blogs, Pinterest, or anywhere.)
The plan: to bring Jesus Christ into the daily thoughts of our family and friends. Rather than thinking about the presents they will get or give on Christmas Day, they will focus on the presence of God, through the Share that you will text, email, or post to them.

2: Thinking about Jesus Thought Prompts:
Also: Fun, Thought Prompts can be posted, emailed and/or texted, so our family and friends can brainstorm about ideas that will fill them with Jesus as they wait for Christmas. When they get home, you can discuss the Prompt around the supper table or in a moment together. Also:

Hiawassee - Child of the Meadow
Smoke from Distant Fires
Escape from the Belfry
Length of Days - The Age of Silence

WRITTEN ON HIS HANDS

"See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands. Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem's walls in ruins." (Isaiah 49: 16 New Living Translation)

God will never forget his children. Isaiah spoke of his love for Israel and even while it stood in rubble, he remembered every name. The marvelous parallel is, Jesus our Savior will never forget us, our names are written in the wounds on the palms of his hands.

I have received several prayer requests in the last few days: physical and mental illness, death, feelings of abandonment and as many more as there are those who are in pain. God will bring healing to his children, in his time and within his plan.

We hear the dreaded news from our physician and pray that we will be healed. We stand beside the bed of our dying loved one and pray for recovery, only to have them slip away. We see our children exercise their independence, the very thing we have trained them to do during all their years of growing up in our home, but feel rejected when they leave. My precious friends, God has your name, and the name of your loved one, written in blood on the hand of his own Son. There is absolutely no way he will let them slip through his fingers, untouched by his love and grace.

Healing of body, healing of relationships, and healing of the pain that follows the death of someone close, will come. It can do no less. Jesus Christ reaches out his pierced hands and blesses us and others, every time we call on him. Let us pray:

"Father, God, I recognize your holy presence all around me. I ask that your perfect will be done in my life and the lives of those I love. Heaven is full of those who went before us, making wide the way first opened by your son Jesus. May Heaven come near and set up your kingdom in my life as I surrender my desires and plans to you. For this day, I ask for your healing hand on my body and on those I name. Take away any fear and anger and anxiety that accompany the illnesses we have. I know that the negative emotions contribute to the weakening of the body. Free me from my desire to control whom you will heal and in what manner. Release me from my need to tell you what is a better plan for me and my loved ones than our perfect plan. I thank you that power and glory are yours alone. I pray all these things in the name of Jesus, in whose palms my name, and the names of all those I have lifted up in prayer, are written. Amen"
Doris
"God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine."Copyright 2014 Doris Gaines Rapp

Other books by Doris Gaines Rapp:
Hiawassee - Child of the Meadow
Smoke from Distant Fires
Escape from the Belfry Length of Days - The Age of Silence

New in October: Waiting for Jesus in a Can’t Wait World (an Advent Devotional book with additional food for thought items for you to email, post and text your friends and family.

Also, in October: Prayer Therapy of Jesus - Second Edition, the prayer model for these posts.

He is Here all the Time

"After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you." John 14: 19-20 NIV

"Why does God seem so distant sometimes?" Have you heard someone say that? I have.

Jesus said, even when the world cannot see him anymore, he will be with/in God, and we will be in him and he will be in us. Reread that. Not just that we will be in him, although that is a marvelous thing, but he will be in us and in God. Therefore, we will also be in God and he in us.

If anyone has moved in this great triangular fellowship, we have. God remains the same. He is not distant from us. We choose to be distant from him. Just imagine, he is here all the time. Let us pray:

"Father, God, you are the rock that anchors me to heaven, to the Christ and to you. You never move away, nor do you sleep. As I enter into this cooler, autumn season I am aware that some of my friends and family are ill or sick of heart. You are at peace, Father, and Jesus is with you and I am with you both. Lay your hand of comfort on me, my friends and family, so that I and they may feel your healing. I know that you have far greater plans for me than any I could imagine and my length of days is written in your book. I also believe that my days are only numbered here, for eternity lies within you, and that is where I am, too. Forgive my need to wish for lesser things than the gold streets of Heaven. I want what you want, Father. I give up my need to try to control you and ask that you be my guide and shepherd. In the name of, and by the power of, Jesus, your son, I pray. Amen"

Doris
"God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine." Copyright 2014 Doris Gaines Rapp

Other books by Doris Gaines Rapp:
Hiawassee - Child of the Meadow
Smoke from Distant Fires
Escape from the BelfryLength of Days - The Age of Silence all four can be ordered from your local bookstore or online in print or eBook form. They are all also available at www.cokesbury.com.
New in October: Waiting for Jesus in a Can’t Wait World (an Advent Devotional book with additional food for thought items for you to email, post and text your friends and family.
Also, in October: Prayer Therapy of Jesus - Second Edition, the prayer model for these posts.

In Its Time

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live." Ecclesiastes 3: 11 - 12 (NIV)

"I’m bored." How often have you heard that? I would like to experience boredom for about ten minutes, just to know what it feels like.


"I hate my job." At a time when many are underemployed or unemployed, if you have a job at all, thank the Lord and live happily while you wait for the next step of His plan. I know that is Pollyanna thinking for those of you who are holding the short end of the job-straw. If living unhappily and full of anger works better for you and your family, keep it up. If months full of anger doesn’t help your relationships and health, then change your attitude. You decide.


"Why can’t my luck change?" Luck? What does luck have to do with the eternity He has set in your heart? If you pray to God for His blessing, and then wish for luck from the Leprechauns, God may step aside and let you continue to seek help from your idols. Are you sure that’s the path you want to take? Do good each day and joy will come to you, a blessing far greater than luck. If God sat with you at every meal, would you still complain that all you had to serve was hamburger? If you do, you will have missed the miracles of every day.


"God makes everything beautiful in its time." An internship may lead to a full-time job. It will take the experience and time of the apprentice work to secure the coveted position. Years spent in graduate school will qualify you for the additional responsibility and enjoyment of a professional career. Time, energy and selfless love, invested in quality and quantity-time spent in a relationship, can yield a lasting marriage. I know the statistics are less favorable than any of us would want them to be. I cannot tell you that I have the magic answer to a long marriage. But, God does. It’s a choice, ". . . to be happy and to do good while [you] live."


We have the secrets of eternity in our hearts, not for power, success or control for us. That is why we do not know God’s work from the beginning to the end. But, our soul knows, the indwelling spirit of God knows, our essence knows. Let the presence and blessings of the Lord, rise to our surface like sweet cream from fine milk, so the blessings of this life become part of our daily experience, because He is buried in our being. Let us pray:


"Father God, creator of all that is beautiful from the beginning to whatever "end" you name, I bow before you. I am amazed that you can take that which is stale or disappointing or inadequate and make sometime beautiful out of it. For today, I ask that you take the lesser-things of my life and make of them the jewels in the crown of your glory. Let me see my burdens sparkle and shine in the light of your glory. Forgive me when I complain about the gifts you have given me. Let me see the beauty in all that is around me, so that I do not miss one blessing. I know, there are no small miracles. Each one has the power to expand in my heart and fill my life with joy. I pray to see your beauty — in the name of Jesus, your son and my savior. Amen"


Doris
"God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine."Copyright 2014 Doris Gaines Rapp


Hiawassee - Child of the Meadow
Smoke from Distant Fires
Escape from the BelfryLength of Days - The Age of Silence all four can be ordered from your local bookstore or online in print or eBook form. They are all also available at www.cokesbury.com.


　


　


　

It is Not Autumn

Psalm 90:10 "The days of our lives are seventy years, if by reason of strength, they are eighty years . . . for our lives are soon cut off and WE FLY AWAY."

"Summer’s over." How many times have you heard that today? My friends, it is not. Autumn begins on September 22. We are rushing through three weeks of our lives - just throwing them away as if they mattered not when we dismiss September 1-21 from our thinking. Every second of our lives should be squeezed through the wringer to get all of the living out of them, every last drop. Life is for living - not for wishing - not for planning the "some-days" of our walk here on earth until we "fly away" home.

We were marvelously designed to be forward-thinking. We live today and plan for the future. But, when our planning becomes our living for today, we will never arrive at our destination, because our destination will simply become something to overlook as we plan for the next "some-day."

Let God plan our days. Let His future be our goal. Let each day be an exciting adventure of faith, living in His glorious kingdom, walking along His paths, each and every day, until we "fly away" to the source of our some-days. Let us pray:

"Holy Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Abba of my life, I lift up my heart to you. You are Holy. Your name has the power to change and should never be used for anything but blessings and healing. May I be permitted to live in your kingdom here on earth by faithfully walking each moment of every day in the light of your love. Forgive me when I make plans for you to bless, rather than walking humbly along your way toward the goals and plans you have for me. Let me wake up to your presence in my life, that your heart beat may be the cadence for my foot steps along your path. When you are ready for me to come home, may my flight be directly to the foot of your throne. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen"

Doris
"God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine."Copyright 2014 Doris Gaines Rapp

A huge thank you to all those I met at the 54^th Tecumseh Lodge Pow Wow in Tipton over the weekend. Thank you so much for your interest in my books.