“The RoseBouquet”

We’ll have a photo story today instead of an article. Thought you might find this interesting, especially if you don’t get to watch a storm very often. First of all, I must get all bundled up, and I have a little routine for it. Here I’m lacing up and tying my boots.

Here I have my grey fake fur cap on, and a tube scarf over that, and I’m zipping up my down-filled parka coat.

Now, I have coat zipped, hood down, where are those gloves?

Found them. Pulling on double gloves. Thick padded skiing gloves with red knitted ones inside.

But today, with this blizzard blowing, I had to push and push and PUSH at the door because of a drift in front of it. Once it was open a foot or two, I swept the snow back, then set off for - oh, at least around our one block, right?

Nope. As soon as I stepped off our driveway onto where the sidewalk should be, I was in a snow drift higher than my boots! Hmm. I could see tire tracks on the street. Maybe I would just walk there. But to get there, I had to walk through a drift that was also as high as my boots. In fact, I could feel cold snow seeping in under my blue jeans and into the top of the boot.

Okay. I give up. I guess today is a good day to stay inside!

Back inside again, and peeling off layers, and peering over fogged up glasses.

After breakfast at nine, I hear on the radio that everyone is suppose to stay off the roads if at all possible. (And yesterday I heard that the snow plow drivers are on strike!) I decided to see if there was enough light yet to take pictures of the storm.

Peeking out the front door to the west.

Checking the storm view out of the east window.

I tried to take several others, but there was glare from neighbours’ lights. But I can assure you that our luscious green garden is having a winter snooze under a blanket of snow as deep as the plants were in July and August!

I’m sure the storm will move on later tonight, as the weather predictions are for sunshine and really cold temperatures. So we’ll rest today, and tomorrow I’ll get my exercise shovelling snow.

We may think we can decide to accept or reject Jesus and His miracles, and nothing will happen to us. We continue as we prefer, in our current lifestyle. This passage can give us a rude awakening.

Jesus is denouncing the very cities where He has just done some miracles, because they did not repent. It would seem then, the miracles were meant to guide them to repentance. Jesus names Korazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, and compares them to Tyre, Sidon and Sodom, which we know from the Old Testament accounts as very wicked cities that God wiped out for their greed and immorality.

Do you recall how God sent angels to bring out Lot, and his wife and daughters, before He hailed on Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone? They were destroyed for their homosexuality. Tyre and Sidon, port cities in Phonecia, famous for their world trade and wealth, and their idolatry, were scraped to their rock bottom by various invading armies, and the rubble turned into an area where fishermen dry their nets.

Jesus said these older cities showed how thoroughly God deals with sin. He adds, they would have repented if they had seen such miracles as these cities in which He had done wonders. Therefore, the older cities will find it more bearable at the judgment day because they didn’t commit the worse sin of unbelief.

Whoa! Not believing in Jesus as the Son of God is worse than homosexuality, greed and immorality? Did you get that?

How often, how casually, do we fail to believe in Jesus and live as if we really do trust Him to do great and powerful things in and for us? That makes us no better than the most despised sinners.

PRAYER: Oh God, I repent. I hope everyone else does too! I’d rather believe in Jesus, and obey Your commandments, and wait for Your powerful intervention, than to be rejected by You for rejecting Jesus, whom You love. On whom You have placed all authority and honour and glory. Oh, to believe more earnestly!

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

Blessings on you Today!
Ruth Marlene Friesen

P.S. “God, give ME a Friend!” Is that your heart’s cry? If you feel friendless, you will be thrilled to meet Ruthe and her BEST Friend, whom she loves to share! Get the book; Ruthe’s Secret Roses.

John’s disciples had just turned to go take to him the message Jesus had given. Jesus turned to the crowd. and asked questions to see how well they understood John and his ministry. Had they gone out to the desert to see one swaying in the wind (an odd man)? A finely dressed man? A prophet?

Jesus agrees that John was a prophet and more. He was the one Malachi 3:1 foretold who would prepare the way for the Messiah.

He adds that John was the greatest person born, yet the least and most ordinary person in the kingdom of God was greater than John. I understand this to mean that humanly-speaking, John was the greatest, but in the spiritual realm, those who believe in Jesus, the Son of God for their salvation, are just as great.

For those who understand, John is that Elijah, whom all the prophets and the law had pointed to as the one to come to prepare hearts for the Messiah.

Jesus compares their current generation to children in the market or street calling to others who wouldn’t cooperate. They had played light flute music and the other children had not danced. They tried sad, dirge music and the other children had not mourned.

Jesus switches from this similie to John’s life and His own. John had not come eating and drinking at all, and he was accused of having a demon. He (Jesus) had come, willing to eat and drink with people, and He was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. The crowds could not be made happy either way.

Jesus adds this comment; “But wisdom is proved right by her actions.” Those with the right response will know it by the effects.

PRAYER: Lord, I was not born miraculously like John, but I too, want to prepare hearts to receive You, the altogether lovely and worthy Saviour of the World. I’m willing to wait until later to be proved wise.

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

Blessings on you Today!
Ruth Marlene Friesen

P.S. Wish You had One Loyal Friend?

The secret is to BE one first. Discover how by watching Ruthe in this book! (You could gain her BEST Friend too).

When Jesus had given His disciples His basic starter course, He took them along on a preaching tour in the towns of Galilee.

John the Baptist was sitting in King Herod’s prison, doing a lot of thinking. When his own disciples came to tell him what Jesus was doing, he had to find out. John had been convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, but sitting inactive in a dungeon can give anyone doubts, so now he needed reassurance that Jesus was really the One they had all expected and longed for. The One for whom he himself had preached and paved a way. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are You the One?”

Jesus understood that seeing is believing for a lot of folks, and poor John couldn’t see from where he was all that was happening in Jesus’ ministry. He told the envoys, “Tell John what you are seeing and hearing here. Tell him about the blind receiving sight, the lame walking, the deaf hearing, dead rising back to life, and how the good news is preached to the poor.”

Jesus added, “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” (vs.6). In other words, don’t lose your faith.

You and I may be in a place where we don’t get to see many miracles. Maybe we’re prison-bound or stuck in a house or a bed of sickness. Our thoughts might be going round and round too, like John the Baptist’s and we wonder - is Jesus really the Son of God sent to save us? Does He really have the power others say?

That’s when we need to spend extra time in the Bible, re-reading over and over these stories of Jesus, until they become engraved and real in our minds. It’s only as we “see and hear” all these things our faith begins to grow, and we are sure beyond a shadow of doubt. As Jesus said, don’t fall away; keep believing in Him.

PRAYER: Yes, Lord, when I’m in a lonely spot, I have to work extra hard to keep You front and foremost in my mind and heart at all times. It’s so-o very easy to let doubts creep into the silence and blank spaces. Please help me to keep fixed on You!

+++++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

Isn’t this interesting? Jesus says that if we receive or accept Him, we are accepting or believing on God who sent Him. (You and I probably knew that, right?)

He goes on to say that if we receive or believe a prophet because he is a prophet, we’ll get the same reward as if we are a prophet!

That’s not all. If we accept a righteous man, and believe what he says, we’ll get the same reward as that righteous man. For some reason Jesus is tying the welcoming of such people with the same results or effect as being one. Can you tell why?

Even, Jesus adds, if you give a cup of water to a child because he is a disciple of Jesus, you will not go unrewarded.

Maybe I’ve got rewards coming for listening to, and believing preachers, and godly saints, that I never realized. Giving spiritual or natural water to my classes of Sunday School children, or my nieces and nephews, because they love the Lord Jesus, all that comes with rewards too? Whew! A new theology? Is God really so generous?

Other Bible passages come flooding in now, assuring me that yes, God, and also the Lord Jesus, is truly so generous and giving. And when we see Jesus face to face, we’ll wish we’d done more and never given a thought to these rewards. They won’t matter!

Because He is worthy of so much more devoted service than just receiving and believing the messengers He sent us. He’s worth far, far more than accepting a child because they love the Lord too.

PRAYER: Oh Lord Jesus, dear Father-God, You are far more generous than I deserve! I ought to serve You with no thought of rewards at all, out of sheer love and devotion. And here You are promising so much! I want to serve You, and to accept those You send with a fresh enthusiasm and welcome. Rewards? - That’s Your business, of course.

+++++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.

This longer passage is about acknowledging Jesus and that we love Him, in the presence of people who will mistreat us for that. If we do not acknowledge Him as our Lord and Saviour, Jesus will not admit to knowing us before God the Father in Heaven. He says He’ll disown such a one.

Then comes a very hard part of this passage to grasp. Jesus says He has come to divide family members and set them one against each other. A man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and in-laws against each other too. Truthfully, often the hardest people to get along with in natural or in Christian life, are those of our own families.

But why would Jesus say He came to do this? Didn’t He also say He came to make families whole? Or is He saying that His coming will have that effect on people since some will choose for, and some will choose against Him? The divisions then, are what is likely to happen, but wholeness and unity in our families is still His desire and ultimate plan.

There’s a difference between intending to divide, and the cause and effect of His coming into only the responsive hearts.

This is an understanding that brings me hope. I trust it does for you too. Our dear Lord does not desire us to strive with others, but they will strive with us, and cause grief. Let us see to it that we are not the perpetrator of the quarrels and disagreements.

We are to make the Lord our main priority regardless of what our family members think, say or do to us. If you have to make a choice, choose to obey the Lord no matter what the cost.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I am so relieved at this insight. It is inconsistent with Your nature to cause us to be at war with our own family members. Yet it happens. I want to be worthy of You, Lord, so when I’m forced to choose, I will choose You, no matter what. It may sure look like I’m losing my life, but You said - this is when I’ll truly find it! I’m counting on You to make it so. Amen.

+++++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!

Yes, we had a good Christmas, thanks. I hope you did too! We made some new friends, and for me that’s a greater treat than if a collector adds something unique to their collection.

How Dad has had a rough ending to the year 2006. The beginning was so special to him what with turning 90 and getting all that alpaca fibre and being celebrated a couple of times throughout the year.

On December 17, after the annual Sunday School Christmas program, treat bags were handed out the the children and also the adults. Dad came home and enjoyed three small mini chocolate bars out of his bag. Then he got a coughing fit, and lost his voice.

When he told me and others that we have laughed out loud.

I usually get laryngitis too, when I catch a cold, and my voice goes way-way-low for a couple of days, so we didn’t think too much of it. But Dad had to make as much effort to whisper as it would normally take him to shout, and of course, when he drank water for his pills, he would go into coughing spasms that wouldn’t quit.

He struggled through the holidays bravely and enjoyed Tom, (his son, my brother) and the two other guests I had invited, people I had met at Western Tract Mission, and wanted to get to know better. But once the holidays were done, he was wiped out and snoozed away the next couple of days catching up on missed naps. By Thursday morning of last week, he was fed up with being exhausted from coughing and insisted he wanted to see a doctor.

That’s when he told me there had been a nut in the third bar that got stuck in his esophagus. Now I’m thinking it may have got scratched up on the inside.

So I arranged an appointment, and this doctor said right away that he needs to see a specialist. That we should be hearing from that doctor’s office this week. So far nothing, but then, this is only the second day they should be opened again. I may just phone there this afternoon and see if the referral has come through yet.

Meantime, I’m plying Dad with all kinds of home remedies, and I think the one that is easing his exhaustion and cheering him up a bit is the raw aloe vera gel I scrap out of the fat leaves on my plants, and he eats three times a day. It has cured him of ulcers before, and of shingles, so it may just do the trick here too.

Another writer friend, Barb, and I were going to have a spiritual retreat and planning time last week, you might recall. Well, I did. I had a great time. I had to trim some things out of my schedule, and re-arrange others. Since I have about six clients that all need my help right now on a continuing basis, I’m going to rotate them through the evenings I’ve assigned to work for clients. Two of them will probably be able to handle their sites themselves after a session or two. So then it will be four.

I’m reserving the mornings for writing my various blogs, articles and web pages for my own sites, and also marketing them. Afternoons I will try to get back from my lunch and walk sooner, so I’ll end up with more time for email. I seemed to be forever falling behind last year.

But where does that leave my novel-writing time? Well, I’m trying to get into the habit of closing down this computer at 11 pm, so I can go down to my room, and open the old DOS computer on which I normally write, and I’ll try to sneak in half an hour a day. So far it hasn’t happened yet this week, but I’ve been trying to get the last of my Christmas gifts done in that time. Yeah! Last night I got the last one done that had to be mailed.

I did take three evenings last week to look over my book, and much as I enjoy the story, I can see that it will be a bit too sugary sweet for others. Once I have this first draft finished, I’ll have to do some revisions. But hey, I’m up to chapter 34! I tell myself, that if I enjoy it, surely some of my best friends will too!

Guess what, my new friend, Shirley (from Christmas Day), is a poet. She has an aversion to New Year’s Resolutions but likes to find what she calls “Inspirations” from Bible characters. I’m going to slip in - with her permission - 20 of these under Tips & Solutions today.

I hope you all got my Special Christmas RoseBouquet with the link to read my annual letter and story-gift, and see my postcard. If you missed it, it’s still up with links at Cards-index Or download, Ruth’s Christmas Gift

FEEDBACK: Responses to my Christmas Letter/Story/Card

Rosalind in India wrote just before Christmas;
“Greetings to you and the matchless name of Jesus. As we celebrate His birth, I wish you the peace, joy and love that only He can give us, in abundance. A great New Year - good health for your dad and you.

I pray that you continue your good work with the Lord’s help and guidance to bring comfort and salvation to many people.”

Gerry in Arizona wrote;
“What a treat this was! A favorite Christmas gift for me. Thanks so much.”

1. Like Mary, I will welcome God=92s direction in my life.
2. Like David, I will recognize God in every situation.
3. Like Abraham, I will believe what God says.
4. Like Enoch, I will be open daily to God’s Presence.
5. Like Peter, I will repent when I have sinned.
6. Like Moses, I will value God’s ways.
7. Like Job, I will place my hope in God.
8. Like Daniel, I will pray often.
9. Like Joshua, I will refuse to become discouraged.
10. Like Joseph, I will forgive those who have hurt me.
11. Like Esther, I will trust in God to look after me.
12. Like Isaiah, I will be available for God’s work.
13. Like Andrew, I will make Jesus known to others.
14. Like John, I will lean on Jesus.
15. Like Timothy, I will study God’s Word.
16. Like Ruth, I will act on what I know to be true.
17. Like Paul, I will fix my mind on Jesus.
18. Like Dorcas, I will work faithfully.
19. Like Jesus, I will do God’s will for me today.
20. Like Mary of Bethany, I will give my best to Jesus.

(c) Shirley Campbell - used with permission.

Do ever get tired of being thirsty? Okay, maybe you sip enough liquids all day you don’t have that problem physically. What about deep down in your soul?

When Jesus met a foreign women at a well in His travels, He was physically thirsty and asked for a drink of water, since she was drawing some up. But He also noticed that she was spiritually thirsty for love. She’d already gone through five husbands and was living with another man, and still her great need to feel loved and accepted was not met.

They got into a conversation about water, and Jesus said to her, “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)

Oh my! Let’s drink from THIS water! Jesus is offering the woman at the well, His kind of water in exchange for the physical water she can draw up for Him. She was quite puzzled. So might we be puzzled as well. What kind of water is this?

Jesus is offering a spiritual water that quenches a spiritual thirst. We may have an immense need for love or acceptance, or for some real meaning and purpose in our lives. These would be examples of spiritual thirst. When we come to Jesus and receive Him as our Lord and Saviour, and really begin to walk and talk with Him He meets all those needs.

That’s right, I’ve found this to be true. My friendship with Jesus has made up for lots of other friends I had hoped would have time for me. He has made up for my longing for a husband and a family too. Because of our ongoing relationship, I have great, meaningful things to do, and to look forward to! Jesus really does quench our spiritual thirst.

Not only that, the more we become absorbed in Him, the more others notice there is something appealing and winsome about us. They desire to be with us because they feel nearer to God when they are with us, and they like to see (and maybe sip) from the joy and peace we show as we go about serving and loving the Lord.

So yes, we can say that there is in us a spring of this eternal water, and others can often get to taste it second-hand just be being with us, and talking with us.

Just think, you don’t have to buy this water, - it is priceless so you could never afford it - but you can have it directly from Jesus as a gift. Notice that He said, “whoever drinks of the water I give him….” He’s offering it to anyone who will accept it.

If you have spiritual thirsts, or maybe you’ve been thinking of them as emotional ones, as unmet cries from the depths of your soul, then I recommend you turn your whole focus on Jesus; accept Him as the Son of God, sent to give salvation from sins, and this wondrous living, eternal water that is yours as you involve Jesus in your life. The more you let your life revolve totally around Him, the more of this water you have! Your thirst will be quenched and others will come closer as they notice this living water bubbling up from inside you!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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].