“The RoseBouquet”

Jesus and His disciples were crossing the lake in a boat. That lake has always been known for its sudden squalls and storms because of the way it is situated between those deep hills. Jesus had laid down to rest when this storm hit.

Peter, James and John, all experienced fishermen, knew that lake well, but we read that the disciples were so terrified they woke Jesus up, and begged Him to save them from drowning.

Oddly enough, Jesus wasn’t surprised or impressed at the storm; it was their lack of faith, their fear. He simply rebuked the wind and the waves, and it was suddenly all calm.

Since you and I often get sudden storms or problems come up in our lives that really unsettle us and make us panic, wouldn’t it be nice to know if there was a wonderful key in Jesus’ answer by which we could calm our storms? Let’s look for it.

Pause for prayer: Lord, if this is a transferable concept, please show us how this works in our emotional and relational storms too. Thank You.

Jesus is the Lord and master of the natural universe. When by faith, we make Him our personal Lord and Master, we can expect the same power to calm our storms, don’t you think?

Like His disciples, we do not need to cry out in panic. Simply trust Him and believe that He has all that’s uncontrollable in our life under control. He has also said we are to abide in Him, and He in us, so by faith let’s do what He does, and command our roiling hearts and minds to be still. The storm will be over, and we can quietly, calmly proceed with what we need to do.

PRAYER: Oh Lord God, I’ve often missed this great spiritual principle or truth because of its stark simplicity. Maybe You deliberately hid it like that, so we’d have to obey before we discover it. Help me never to forget it again. I think I see its amazing value today - a solution for every storm I face!

+++++Jesus is my King+++++Jesus is my King+++++

Blessings on you Today!
Ruth Marlene Friesen

P.S. Need a Friend? You’ll soon think of Ruthe as your friend, when you read Ruthe’s Secret Roses

Jesus was ready to leave the crowds that followed Him behind, and go off alone with His disciples. He told them to cross to the other side of the lake. Even so, a teacher of the law came rushing up to volunteer to follow Him wherever He would go.

Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (vs.20) In other words, Jesus warned the teacher, that to follow Him meant to be homeless. Foxes and birds had better homes than He.

The Bible doesn’t say whether this man followed Him or not, but there is no mention that he did.

Immediately after this one of Jesus’ disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus showed him where his priorities ought to be. Focus on following now, and let the dead bury their own dead. Some Christian preachers explain this as letting the spiritually dead take care of those traditional details.

Do you see the two lessons back to back here, about the cost of following Jesus as His disciple?

The first one is a warning not to expect a comfortable life with all the world’s amenities, nor even a place to call home. The second one is a pointed command to follow Jesus as a first priority, even over family obligations or natural affections.

There are other passages where our responsibility to support and care for our loved ones is stressed. (eg. I Tim. 5:4, I can vouch for the fact that God sometimes calls us to go home to care for our family, even though we don’t at first want to do that.

PRAYER: Oh Lord Jesus, my own grasp now is that when our devotion and obedience is to You first, we will know what to do about our family duties and affections. Help me to follow You even if it means being homeless this side of Heaven, and to put You ahead of everyone.

+++++Jesus is my King+++++Jesus is my King+++++

Blessings on you Today!
Ruth Marlene Friesen

P.S. Watching your friend die is HARD, isn’t it? Ruthe handles it fairly well for her first time. You should read this book - you could learn from her.

I see two lessons in this passage right off. First when Jesus came into Peter’s house, He found Peter’s mother-in-law sick in bed with a fever. Jesus touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on the guests.

This is the main reason we experience Jesus’ healing touch on our lives too. We ought to rise up and serve Him. It can mean providing meals for those under the same roof, or it can mean any other work that we feel prompted to do for Christ.

Secondly, by evening the word had filtered into the community that Jesus healed people, and as the Sabbath was considered over at sundown, that’s when people began to arrive with their sick folk, including the demon-possessed. Jesus drove out the evil spirits with a word, and healed all the sick.

“This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.‘” (vs.17)

It doesn’t say whether someone that evening exclaimed, “Hey, this reminds me of the prophecy in Isaiah!” Or, if Jesus pointed out that He was doing what it foretold, or whether Matthew just wanted to make sure we get it when he wrote the narrative, but yes, it does fulfill that prophecy about Jesus, confirming that He is the true Messiah, the Saviour we all long for.

So what are we waiting for? If we need healing, let’s go to Jesus and ask for it. It’s something He does! Once we are healed, let’s rise up and serve Jesus.

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, I’m afraid we’ve often got so hung up on explaining Your miracles, that we forget to simply ask You to heal us, or to solve our problems. Isaiah said that You would take up our infirmities (weaknesses) and carry our diseases. Nor do You do this reluctantly, do You?

Okay, Lord, there are some things I find hard to bear. They hinder me from serving You most wholeheartedly. Let me tell You…

+++++Jesus is my King+++++Jesus is my King+++++

Blessings on you Today!
Ruth Marlene Friesen

P.S. I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses, and the voice I hear, falling on my ear…. Ruthe’s Secret Roses, my novel, illustrates that dear song!

Considering that Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, knew every thing- it is noteworthy when we read that Jesus was astonished at what someone said.

Jesus had just entered Capernaum, His base of ministry, when a centurion came and begged for the healing of his servant, who was paralyzed and suffering. A centurion was a Roman army leader over 100 men.

Jesus didn’t hesitate but the centurion quickly said, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

It was this grasp of the power of authority where everyone obeys their chain of command, that caused Jesus to exclaim, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”

Now it’s our turn to gasp. Is faith in Jesus’ power and authority over things like illness, and the natural world, really so important? Let’s hurry to get a good grip on this kind of faith and to use it!

Because the centurion was obedient to the authorities over him, he had the obedience of the men under him, and he saw that Jesus was in a position of authority over everything. He did not have to personally touch a sick man to heal him. All Jesus needed to do was to give a command to the illness, and it would obey Him.

Do you believe that too? Are you sure Jesus could command cancer - even though He’s up in Heaven - and it would leave your body? Do you believe that all spirits, whether good or bad, instantly obey Him when Jesus speaks out a command?

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I believe You can hear me from up there, and You can give commands to fix my problems! I want to start bringing my concerns to You.

+++++Jesus is my King+++++Jesus is my King+++++

Blessings on you Today!
Ruth Marlene Friesen

P.S. Muriel’s older sister Cathy has gone to a party with plans to elope from there. But their mother is dying and wants to talk to Cathy. What is there to do but find her and bring her back - even against her will. How do you suppose Ruthe handled that? Find out by reading, Ruthe’s Secret Roses. Available in e-Book edition Softcover edition.

Do you notice that when Jesus came down from the mountain, the crowds began to swarm around Him? Why didn’t they come up higher on the mountain to meet Him?

If the mountain heights represent a higher plane of spiritual living, with more in-depth teaching from Him personally, why are there so few who venture up there? The masses like the lowest common denominator, don’t they?

But back to this story of the man with leprosy who came out of the crowd, knelt before Jesus, and cried out, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean!”

It seems he believed Jesus had the power, but wasn’t sure if Jesus would be willing to heal him specifically.

We see that Jesus reached out and touched him, and said, “I am willing. Be clean!” Then He gave the man instructions to follow the usual steps to have a healing confirmed by the priests, together with an offering of thanksgiving.

This passage is loud with messages for us. Do you hear them? Clearly, if we feel small and of no value, Jesus is very willing to touch us and to heal us. Never hesitate on that point again!

Jesus doesn’t recommend telling everyone else until we’ve gone through the usual channels - in our day, that would be through medical examinations, - to prove that we are truly cured.

Could you contain yourself though, if you were healed by Jesus? My first impulse would be to loudly tell everyone within earshot about this miracle. I suppose Jesus knew that we’d soon be surrounded by skeptics giving us a hard time. Taking steps to verify do make sense.

PRAYER: How comforting, oh Lord, to know that You DO want to heal us. You are willing. Help us to believe that and receive by faith the miracles You have waiting for us.

+++++Jesus is my King+++++Jesus is my King+++++

Blessings on you Today!
Ruth Marlene Friesen

P.S. God tells me I am His own - does He ever tell you that? You can find out how by reading my novel, Ruthe’s Secret Roses

or function at noon today. Dad and I are not great party-goers and our social life is quite limited, but since I am quite involved in volunteering for Western Tract Mission, when we get invited to the staff and volunteers Christmas lunch we make the effort to go to the city.

There will be an extra twenty or so volunteers because today is collation day. I’m on the Reflections committee which produces our mission’s quarterly newsletter by that name. My particular role is to put all the 16 pages together on the computer, arranging the text and graphics as seems best to me, and then sending it off to Globe Printers. When they’ve done their session of desktop publishing on it and have it typeset for the presses, they send Anna, another committee member, and myself a proof to check over one last time.

I notify them of any changes we see, and give the okay to take it to press. About a week later, 3000 copies arrive at the office in the city, and the volunteer folder comes in to get all the sheets through the folding machine. Then Helen calls the list of collating volunteers to tell them which day will be collating day. They come in, sitting around a large U or square of tables, and in half a day, those Reflections are collated, addressed and bundled to go out in the mail.

So now when it’s time to throw a Christmas party, Arnold, our Director, orders in some KFC and we gather around for a party, some singing and readings, and visiting.

Yes, we email back and forth over weeks, and then suddenly in one weekend both parties decide they would like me to move their sites over to my hosting service. I’ve got the one moved over yesterday, and will work on the other tomorrow. That brings my circus of sites to watch over to 11!

I’m also scrambling to get my Christmas mail ready. The biggest hurdle is printer cartridges. Even with re-inking them myself, I can hardly keep up! I may have designed my story and letter with too many photos this time. (sigh). I hope I don’t have to condense it and take some out for the printed edition. Fortunately, those who will get the digital or PDF edition should have no trouble seeing the full colour photos on their computers.

Another thing is that I’m discovering some of you have not been receiving the email edition of the RoseBouquet and some have not been able to access my site. I am truly sorry for that, and will do what I can to clear that up.

All this extra busyness could be overwhelming but I’m glad now that the Lord and I could talk that over the other week, and I came around to just trusting Him for the parts I can’t see ahead. Even right now I’m seeing a miracle! I had only an hour and a half to get this this RoseBouquet written and published. It looked impossible. Thanks to my older stock of articles, it’s all come together! Praise God.

Hot tip: Check out these links but wait until I signal you that the famous 2 for 1 Christmas sale is on. Then go back and buy!

True Stories of people who brought their imagination to SBI, and are now successful web-business owners! Got Questions?

If you’re a webmaster you grow your business by building up your clients’ business sites. In that case you’ll want to know about how to help local businesses get effective sites up. Got Questions?

© Ruth Marlene Friesen

The faster our lives go, the less time we seem to have. In fact, futurists say it is not likely to let up. So, yes, do keep on a look out for ways to make every minute count forever.

Have you ever calculated what your time is worth? We all receive 24 hours in a day, but that time is more valuable in some hands than others. Guess what I found out the other day? You may assign the value to each hour. It will make you more prudent - perhaps even more productive.

Did you know that?! Stupendous!

Yes, I followed a link to find out how much to charge for freelance writing and editing jobs. On two sites I found instructions for calculating your hourly worth; that is what to charge for your services by the hour.

Step 1;
Decide how much income you want annually.

Step 2:
Add the expenses of living and your business costs. Be sure to include everything from taxes, to office postage, and even professional fees you pay for club memberships or subscriptions related to business.

Step 3:
Working with this new total, you have the annual income you need to earn. Divide that by 52, to see how much you must earn each week. For simplicity’s sake, if your annual income has to be $52,000 (oh-my,oh-my!) your weekly intake has to be $1000.

Step 4:
How many hours a week are you willing or able to work? Divide that into $1000, and you would know how much to charge for your services per hour. 50 hours = $20/hour.

But do you know where my mind went at that news?

Look at that! I have something expensive to give away! When I help out a friend for an hour, I’ve given a $20 gift. When I offer to go for a walk with another friend who is home from the hospital and feeling lonely, and she insists I come in for tea, there goes another $10 gift!

Same thing when you take the time to send a friend a cheerful email to respond to an ezine you like, you are giving a gift of yourself, if your heart is really in the overture, plus, a gift of your time.

Consider the other side of this coin. If you fritter away an hour or two, watching TV or doing nothing much at all, you have just dribbled $20-40 - depending on the value of your hours - down the toilet. Or splashed it on the floor.

Don’t you just hate to see people throw money away? I do too. Especially if I’m the one doing it!

One of my constant refrains is that I’d like to make a lot of money so I could give it away generously to my friends and people in need. I’ve often made home made gifts, and given garden produce to visitors because I want to be in the habit of giving by the time wealth moves in with me. But I think I need a fresh handle on the wealth I have right now in my daily hours. I’m not used to thinking of them as $20 units to spend.

If we did, we’d probably tighten up our routines to eliminate wastefulness, right? We’d budget some hours just for spending with certain important people in our lives. Maybe we’d learn to fill most any hour up so it’s brimming over with good minutes, but we’d try not to lose a single minute without savoring it.

Then let’s! Let’s do that!

Our time is a currency - spend it wisely. Give it generously and cheerfully. That’s the way to invest and make it multiply wonderfully.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Ruth Marlene Friesen, makes friends everywhere, just like her alter ego,
the heroine of her novel, Ruthe’s Secret Roses. Discover the secrets of
intentional friendship that transforms lives at http://Ruthes-SecretRoses.com.
There’s over 600 pages to read! Look for the blog links too
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
[Article may be reprinted only with the above resource box].

I’ve done some home renovations, but I’ve never called myself a house builder or a construction contractor. Have you?

This passage says we are. In a spiritual sense we are either building a lasting house on a firm rock foundation, or else foolishly building our lives on shifting sands. The least rain storm will wash us up if we carelessly slap together a life’s shanty there.

What does Jesus mean by this picture language? If we look closely at these verses we’ll see that He explains them Himself. Everyone who hears, or reads His words in the Bible, and who practices them is already like the wise builder. The life that results from that obedience, and acting on sound principles, is going to be strong and able to survive the negative stuff that comes into our lives. Things like the deaths of loved ones, financial lack or losses, bad health, accidents, friends turning against us, - all that kind of stuff.

Those who ignore Jesus’ teaching and just stumble through their lives without a moral compass, nor making any effort to have purpose and direction are like the foolish builders. They are tossed from one small thrill to another big hurt, and back and forth. Even the smallest disaster throws them into a panic. To borrow an illustration from the midway, their life is a roller coaster ride.

Our life does not have to be like that. We can choose to study and obey the commands of Jesus instead. This will give us a firm foundation and stabilize our lives.

Jesus gave commands like; rejoice and be exceeding glad, seek first His kingdom, pray in secret, love God, love your enemies and do good to them, go into all the world and preach the gospel, love one another, murmur not among yourselves, have faith in God - just to name a few.

PRAYER: Oh Lord, when we contrast our options like that, it makes much greater sense to obey the words and example of Jesus than to be bumped along by the things that happen to us. Help me to stay focused on Jesus’ words, and to obey them consistently.

+++++Jesus is my King+++++Jesus is my King+++++

Blessings on you Today!
Ruth Marlene Friesen

P.S. What kind of things do you say when someone you know is dying of cancer? Or do you stay away? Ruthe was tense as a violin, but she stayed, and prayed, and the right words came to her! Watch how she handles such situations in the book, Ruthe’s Secret Roses.