Costumes - Cathy Joy Hill

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 NIV

I watched these little ones run up and down the street. And envied them.

All the ballerinas and the supermen. The pirates and the princesses. I envied them. My youngest girl had debated what to be for more than a month. There is magic in hiding behind a mask. For one short moment to be something we are not, something bigger or better or brighter or stronger.

As adults, we play a dozen different roles that expose and exhaust. Rarely do we get to hide. Rarely can we pretend we are anything but who and what we are. It defines us. Our titles. We are Moms or Dads or volunteers or teachers or students or workers. We are housewives or hostesses, holding a thousand things in two seemingly too small hands. Oh, for one day to run and hide or be behind something that isn’t in the spotlight.

To be someone or something else for one day sounds so precious, especially on days when our skin feels tight and burdensome or wrinkled and old.

I get it. God tells us we are His workmanship, yet we busy ourselves reworking ourselves far too often. Taking what is His and hiding or regretting or reliving or redefining. We want a healthy body. He wants a holy life.

Other than the touches He fashioned in the womb, God rarely, if ever, looks on the outside. Instead, he sees this marvelous heart, soul, and spirit wrapped and protected in skin we often cover and paint.

What if we turned our focus inward to His beating heart? And what if our first thoughts were of Him and heaven and eternity when we reached outward? Wouldn’t the glances in the mirror become shorter, the fretting over the bank account be less frequent, and the wondering about the kids and careers be shadowed by the light radiating from Him?

I want to live a life exposed to the gospel and reveal a God who passionately wants His people to live as if every moment were a miracle from Him. Our redefining would become rejoicing, and hallelujah would replace our hiding. We would find contentment and define joy.

Will you release what you may not be for the embrace of all God is?

Tweetable: Are you wearing a costume? 

Cathy is a writer, teacher, and entrepreneur. She met her husband Brian while studying in Paris, France. They make their home in Geneva, IL, with their four children and their daughter-in-love. She loves writing about the wonder and whimsy of life and her love for Jesus. Her first book is Destination: Fierce, Moving from Fear to Fierce. Learn more about Cathy at www.cathyjoyhill.com.

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.

Bacon-Wrapped Pork Chops

 

Ingredients

6 one-inch pork chops

Salt, pepper

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Bacon

BBQ sauce

Directions

Season each pork chop and wrap with two pieces of bacon.

Bake in a glass dish at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

Brush with BBQ sauce.

Return to oven for 5 to 7 minutes.

 

Tweetable: Why not dive into this delicious meal? 

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.

The Inside’s More Important - Martin Wiles

For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Matthew 23:27 NLT

The outside looked terrible, but the inside . . .  

I looked at the text: “Can you call me when you get a second.” It came from my father’s only sister. When I called, she told me she had a few items that belonged to my grandmother. She thought I might want them.

A couple of weeks later, my wife and I headed for the Lowcountry of South Carolina to round up a cedar chest and a small night table. I remembered both sitting in my grandmother’s bedroom. I couldn’t wait to add them to my heirloom collection. One I hoped my children would want and pass along.

Both items had been sitting in a utility building for years. The varying temperatures had done their work. The veneer peeled off in various places on the cedar chest, but the real wood areas remained in good shape.

The surprise came when I opened the lid. The inside was in perfect condition. And it was a true cedar chest, complete with smell and label. Also on the inside were a number of crocheted items my grandmother had made.

Jesus encountered some religious folks whose outsides and insides didn’t match either. Oh, they dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s, but Jesus said their insides were filthy. 

The ways we try to alter our outsides when we don’t enjoy how they appear are numerous—and costly and perhaps unhealthy. They also prove futile if we think altering the outside will change anything. We might temporarily feel better about ourselves—we might even gain a few so-called friends in the process—but our elation will be short-lived. In the end, unhappiness will pounce on us like a lion.

Until we let God change our insides by His grace through forgiveness—and until we realize just how much God loves us and wants us as His children—we’ll never know true satisfaction or joy. Outside stuff is temporary; inside stuff is permanent.

We often judge by outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. And when we learn to see ourselves as God does, we won’t overly concern ourselves with the outside. We’ll just want to keep the inside tidied up. 

What are some ways you can keep your inside pretty and clean?

Prayer: Father, remind us that our insides are far more important than our outsides. 

Tweetable: What's on your inside? 

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 - Letting the Weights Fall - 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. 

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. Hebrews 12:1 NLT

Every spring, thousands attempt it.

The Appalachian Trail extends from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Mount Katahdin, Maine, more than 2,000 miles. The percentage of those who finish a thru-hike is low. Many drop out while hiking the access trial to the initial starting point. Those who continue usually find they must discard much of the paraphernalia they thought necessary: heavy tents, clothes, food. Any item that’s not absolutely necessary to complete the journey. Otherwise, the weight will weigh down the person’s physical shape and affect their emotional fortitude. Hiking the trail is more mental than physical.

Since the inception of time, millions of believers have walked the trail to heaven. All who begin finish, but many grow discouraged along the way, leading them to temporarily get off the trail or become emotionally and spiritually drained. Fortunately, they have many cheerleaders. All those who’ve made it are cheering from heaven.

I’ve never hiked the entire Appalachian Trail, but my daughter and I did complete the Foothills Trail that runs along the South Carolina/North Carolina border. On one such five-day trek, we discovered we had taken too much. While we didn’t discard anything along the way, we determined we’d pack lighter in the future. Fifty-pound packs make walking cumbersome—especially when hiking up steep peaks.

Many things can weigh us down as we attempt to live the Christian life. What they are, we discover through experience. When we’ve discovered them, we’re wise not to pick them up again and to stay away from anything or anyone who might encourage us to. These weights may be sins or simply innocent things that get in the way of us serving God fully. Either way, they must go if they hinder our spiritual journey. God is perfectly willing to help us put them away; we must simply ask.

What weights are slowing down your spiritual journey?

Prayer: Father, at this moment, we let any hindering weights fall so we can run our race well for You. 

Tweetable: What weights are holding you back? 

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 - 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.