Meandering Monday - Better Things Ahead - Martin Wiles

Welcome to Meandering Monday, where we take a trip back to an earlier post and enjoy it again.

For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us. Hebrews 11:40 NLT

A good friend kept telling me, “There are better things ahead,” but I couldn’t see them.

Losing a job and a career when you’re over fifty is tough. Few employers want employees over fifty unless they are of retirement age or are just looking for a few part-time hours to supplement their Social Security. I didn’t need a supplement. I needed a full-time job that would pay the bills. Rejection after rejection came. Overqualified. Under qualified. Although they wouldn’t say it, prospective employers didn’t want to spend their time training me when I’d be retiring in a few years or perhaps moving back into my preferred profession. I kept the faith, and eventually, things got better. I found a job doing what I loved. God knew all along things were going to improve; I simply had to trust he did.

The catalog list of what has happened to believers throughout history is extensive: sawn in two, fed to the lions, beheaded, imprisoned, beaten, ridiculed, burned at the stake, stoned, slain with swords. But they endured then and keep enduring now because they believe something better is ahead.

When the walls of life crumble, faith is required. Perhaps we’ll never find ourselves subjected to some of the early methods of persecuting Christians, but the challenges remain. Trials will come. How we view them will determine our response and possibly the outcome. Faith in God will help us keep our focus that he’s in control of the trial, its length, and its purpose. God’s gift of faith and strength gives us an inner fortitude we can’t find anywhere else but that only comes one day at a time. We can’t see the better thing that’s ahead, but we can be confident it’s there. God’s agenda is different. He makes his own hours and formulates his own calendars without asking for our help.

The tunnels of life can be dark, but there’s always an opening at the end with a brighter light than existed at the entrance. Are you trusting God’s promises of better things ahead?

Prayer: Father, give us faith to trust Your agenda even when we can’t see it. 

Tweetable: Are you looking ahead to better things? 

Thanks to all our faithful followers who share our posts! We also invite you to follow and like us on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram. Help us spread God's encouragement through His Love Lines.

Great Northern Beans and Smoked Sausage

Ingredients

1 pound dried Great Northern beans

1 pack of Hillshire (or brand of your choice) skinless smoked sausage

1 large Vidalia onion

Salt and pepper

Directions

Separate out any broken beans.

(optional) Soak in cold water overnight.

Slice smoked sausage.

Cut onion in half.

Place all ingredients in crockpot and fill half full of water. 

Cook on high for 2 hours and then on low for 2 hours or until beans are soft. 

Serve and enjoy. 

Tweetable: Why not enjoy this tasty meat and beans recipe? 

Thanks to all our faithful followers who share our posts! We also invite you to follow and like us on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram. Help us spread God's encouragement through His Love Lines.

God Moments - Martin Wiles

So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. Acts 8:27 NLT

“We invite you to sit down and play…”

I had visited quite a few hospitals that had pianos in a great room or in the lobby. But never had I seen one with a sign inviting people to sit and play.

My mom, wife, and I were visiting MUSC in Charleston, South Carolina, where my brother was undergoing surgery to repair a spinal injury from an old wreck. As the doctors worked on him, we ambled to the first floor to visit the cafeteria for breakfast. After we finished—and as we walked back to the elevator—I spotted the piano. Seeing the unusual sign, I read it to Mom.

Mom’s a sucker for a piano. She’s been playing since she was a small child. She dreamed of becoming a concert pianist—which she probably could have accomplished—but she married my dad and became a preacher’s wife instead. But she never lost her love for tickling the ivories—and showing off a little at the same time.

“Oh really,” she said when I read the sign to her. Then she mosied over in her slow manner and took a seat. Mom can play anything, and without music, but gospel music is her specialty. She’s played it all her life, beginning when she played church hymns for the little Methodist congregation where she grew up.

In our culture, I wondered what kind of crowd she’d draw by playing church hymns. And MUSC is like taking all the cars in Atlanta, Georgia, turning them into people, and compressing them into a small area. A lot of folks going in a lot of different directions, all in a hurry.

As Mom progressed from one song to another, a few people stopped to enjoy. One young man took a seat instead of standing. He listened intently as Mom played the old gospel favorites. When we finally pried Mom away from the piano so we could check on my brother, the young man thanked her, wiped the tears from his eyes, and walked away.

I must admit, I cringed when Mom sat to play. She has a way of embarrassing me and my brothers sometimes, but I guess she felt a prompting I hadn’t. Someone needed to hear what she played. I witnessed a God moment.

So did Philip. Philip enjoyed a great revival in Samaria when God called him to go to a desert road where he met a single man. He must have wondered why God would send him to one person when he could have kept preaching to hundreds. He soon found out. That one man accepted Christ and then returned to his country to tell others about God’s love.

Catching the God moments in our lives requires sensitivity to the working of God’s Spirit in our spirit. Doing so also entails asking God to send them. He wants to—and is perfectly capable of arranging them—but we must want them and ready ourselves for them. When we are in close connection with God, which comes from staying prayed up and Bible read up, we’ll see the opportunities God sends for us to bless others in His name.

Ask God to send you some God moments.

Prayer: Father, we thank You for the God moments You send our way. 

Tweetable: Are you paying attention to the God moments? 

Thanks to all our faithful followers who share our posts! We also invite you to follow and like us on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram. Help us spread God's encouragement through His Love Lines.

Walk-on Wednesday - Bringing Down the Walls - Martin Wiles

Welcome to Walk-on Wednesday. By Hump Day, we are struggling, but we believe a good devotion can strengthen us to finish the week strong. 

It was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, and the walls came crashing down. Hebrews 11:30 NLT

Jerry and his wife Ashton built a wall.

When they married, Ashton brought to the marriage an unfortunate habit: meth. Jerry had never delved into the drug world before, but having a wife who used made it easy. Before long, he was using as heavily as she was. Over the years, two children were born—both with mild disorders due to their mother’s drug use. Neither Jerry nor Ashton could hold a job yet always needed money for the next fix. Local child management authorities were notified, and their children were removed from the home and placed with a grandmother. This seemed to be their wake-up call. They cleaned up, found steady jobs, and for a while did well. But the old calling haunted them, and they eventually gave in. Their children were taken again. Jerry found himself in jail, accused of assault and battery, kidnapping, and possession of meth. The wall in their life was steep and solid.

Jericho was the first city the Israelites needed to conquer when they entered the Promised Land. The city’s walls were high and solid and prevented the Israelites from experiencing victory. God told them the method they were to use to see them fall. His technique seemed senseless, but they followed it by faith and enjoyed a great triumph.

Walls come in a host of varieties: drugs, fear, worry and anxiety, rebellion, addictions, unhealthy relationships, procrastination, unbelief, financial bondage, and illegal activities. Most, if not all, of my walls, have been built by me and not imposed by someone else. Either way, walls prevent me from moving forward in my personal life and can also stymie my spiritual walk.

Faith is required to destroy walls—faith to do what God instructs us to do so we can experience victory. Others may see the symptoms of our walls, but only we can accurately diagnose the root cause. Whatever it is, God will help us bring it down if we only ask and trust.

What walls need to come down in your life?

Prayer: Father, give us the power to bring down the walls that prevent us from being all You desire. 

Tweetable: Are you bringing down your walls? 

Thanks to all our faithful followers who share our posts! We also invite you to follow and like us on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram. Help us spread God's encouragement through His Love Lines.

Meandering Monday - Sin’s Temporary Pleasure - Martin Wiles

Welcome to Meandering Monday, where we take a trip back to an earlier post and enjoy it again.

He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. Hebrews 11:25 NLT

My childhood was no different than most.

Parents and grandparents bought me toys for birthdays and Christmas and sometimes for no special occasion. Most were probably something I had pointed at when I was small or told them I wanted when I was older. Things I thought would bring me pleasure . . . perhaps even for a long time. As with most children, the new wore off quickly. Soon, I tucked my toy away in a closet, stored it in a trunk, or sold it at a yard sale. I moved on to something else.

Becoming an adult hasn’t changed the scenario a great deal. I still see things I think will bring me great enjoyment. As my childhood toys did, they all failed me. The pleasure is momentary, and soon I’ve discarded them for something else.

As a child, Moses was snatched from his childhood tent home and deposited in the grand palace of a foreign king. The riches of Egypt were at his disposal—riches that brought with them a sinful lifestyle. When he matured and recognized who he was, he left the sinful pleasures behind and identified with the oppression his people experienced as slaves.

God isn’t against me enjoying the pleasurable things of this world, but he does expect me to stay away from those that are sinful. Satan has a long history of taking innocent things and dressing them up in sinful wrappings. The fruit Eve ate in the Garden of Eden wasn’t sinful; the act of disobeying God’s command to eat it was.

Things that are outright and obviously sinful don’t usually concern us. Rather, it’s the momentary and innocent pleasurable things we struggle with. The newest smartphone. The latest laptop. The most up-to-date iPad or video game. Things that in the short run provide pleasure but that overall steal our attention from what God has in mind for us.

Sin promises a lifetime of pleasure but only delivers short-term benefits. What do you need to put aside so God can give you something better?

Prayer: Father, may we use everything we have to glorify and serve You. 

Tweetable: Are temporary pleasures failing you? 

Thanks to all our faithful followers who share our posts! We also invite you to follow and like us on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram. Help us spread God's encouragement through His Love Lines.

Beefy Macaroni and Cheese

 

Ingredients

1 POUND GROUND BEEF

1 ONION (DICED)

1 CAN ROTEL

1 CAN TOMATO PASTE

1 ½ TEASPOON CHILI POWDER

SALT/PEPPER

¼ CUP WATER

1 ½ TEASPOON SUGAR

8 OUNCES MACARONI NOODLES (COOKED AND DRAINED)

Directions

BROWN MEAT AND DRAIN.

ADD ALL INGREDIENTS TO MEAT EXCEPT CHEESE AND NOODLES.

COOK ON MEDIUM HEAT FOR 30 MINUTES OR UNTIL SAUCE THICKENS. 

STIR IN MACARONI NOODLES AND TOP WITH CHEESE.

BAKE IN A GREASED CASSEROLE DISH AT 350 DEGREES UNTIL CHEESE IS MELTED.

Tweetable: Why not add this delicious side to your main course? 

Thanks to all our faithful followers who share our posts! We also invite you to follow and like us on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram. Help us spread God's encouragement through His Love Lines.

Be Thrifty - Martin Wiles

The wise have wealth and luxury, but fools spend whatever they get. Proverbs 21:20 NLT

“Eat what you can; can what you can’t.”

I never heard my maternal grandmother use that saying, but she lived it. Each year, my grandfather plowed her a spot of ground just to the side of her house near the pecan orchard. There, she grew beans, corn, tomatoes, and other vegetables. And when the crops came in, she prepared some for the family and canned the leftovers. She also spent hours picking up pecans, cracking them, and freezing them. She’d use them for her infamous pecan pies.

Not only did my grandmother can and freeze her abundance of vegetables, but she also froze any leftover food she had. These scraps—I say that because often that’s exactly what they were—went into the freezer. If she had only a spoonful of corn left over—or two spoonfuls of beans—she wrapped them in aluminum foil and stuck them in the freezer.

The trouble was, my grandmother never labeled what she put in aluminum foil, so she never knew what it was. Normally, it stayed there until Mom or her sister cleaned out the freezer. As my grandmother’s dementia, and then Alzheimer’s, worsened, she made more of a habit of freezing any small amount of food left over from her cooking.

Why my grandmother exercised such thriftiness, I’m not sure. She grew up in hard times, so perhaps she wanted to save so she’d never have to go through what she had been through as a child. Perhaps, she was trying to save money. Nevertheless, one thing I learned from her was how to be thrifty and how to save a dollar.

The writer of this proverb says those who spend whatever they get are foolish. We can add they also throw away whatever they don’t eat instead of saving the leftovers for another meal, which would save money. I’m often amazed, when eating at restaurants, at how much food customers waste. I’m also convicted when I see how much my family sometimes dumps into the trash.

Being thrifty requires effort and takes planning. I must think about what goes into the recycling bin. It’s easier to dump everything into the trash can, but that doesn’t help the environment. And rolling our recycle can to the far end of the subdivision requires more effort than just placing the trash can across the street.

Being thrifty necessitates wisdom from God—and requires trusting Him for the less we’ll use. But doing so also better preserves the earth He’s created and helps our budget. When we live with less, it will always give us more in the end.

Think of several ways you could better use and conserve the resources God has given you.

Prayer: Father, help us to use wisely what You entrust to us.

Tweetable: How thrifty are you? 

Thanks to all our faithful followers who share our posts! We also invite you to follow and like us on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram. Help us spread God's encouragement through His Love Lines.