Fall is Fabulous

I love Fall ...and I live in southeast Texas...we don't have beautiful leaves changing colors nor do we have cool weather!  I STILL LOVE FALL!  To me Fall is apples and pumpkins; orange napkins on the table; and candy corn!  

Most of all I love Fall and APPLES....

Here are 10 interesting facts you probably didn’t know about apples, the quintessential American fruit (after all, the phrase isn’t “as American as pumpkin pie…”):

1. Apples contain no fat, sodium or cholesterol and are a good source of fiber.
2. Apple trees take four to five years to produce their first fruit.
3. Apples ripen six to 10 times faster at room temperature than if they are refrigerated.
4. Apple varieties range in size from a little larger than a cherry to as large as a grapefruit. The largest apple ever picked weighed 3 pounds.
5. Apples harvested from an average tree can fill 20 boxes that weigh 42 pounds each.
6. Apples are a member of the rose family.
7. The top apple producers around the world are China, United States, Turkey, Poland and Italy. Apples account for 50 percent of international deciduous fruit tree production.
8. A peck of apples weighs 10.5 pounds. A bushel of apples weighs about 42 pounds.
10. More than 2,500 varieties of apples are grown in the United States, but only the crabapple is native to North America.
It takes about 36 apples to create one gallon of apple cider.

Let's go make apple dumplings!

A TRUE FRIEND

I'm re-reading all of Jan Karon's books and I ran across this quote....it is a thoughtful reminder for all of us who have the opportunity to be mindful of and treasure friendships:

Oh, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person: having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them out.  Just as they are ___chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away.
                   _Dinah Maria (Mulock) Craik 1826-1887

Be A "DOER"

Our week-day Bible study group is studying Beth Moore’s Children of the Day, a study of 1 & 2 Thessalonians.  This past week a line from that Bible study really hit home with me and I want to ponder it with you:  Scripture isn’t meant to stay thumb-tacked to a delicate page.

I do believe Beth and James are on the same page.

James 1:22 (NLT)  But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

A lot of us women are diligent about staying in God’s Word…we attend church and Sunday Bible study regularly; we go to a week-day Bible study with a dedicated group of women who love the Lord and His Word; daily we have a “Quiet Time” with God and His Word; and there is more….books, on-line devotions…. our opportunities to study God’s Word are numerous.

But the truth is that simply reading, even studying God’s Word doesn’t deepen our walk with the Lord unless we DO WHAT IT SAYS!  We have to take His Word off of the pages of His book and live those truths out in our every day world.  We study and learn God’s Word…not just for knowledge but for application.   Our Bible knowledge can only make a difference in our lives and in the lives of those we touch if we are obedient and put what we learn into action.  Passive knowledge of God’s Word is wrong.

Romans 2:13 (NLT)  For merely listening to the law doesn’t make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight.

This is not something new for us…we know this…but we can get so busy studying God’s Word that we do not have time to “do” God’s Word!  I hear a warning from the pens of James and Paul… our knowledge must be completed through our actions. We cannot settle for just knowing God’s Word or even wanting to obey it. It is actual obedience that makes us “Doers”.  It is in the doing that we know God better and better and love Him more and more.

My prayer is that we will not just audit our studies of God’s Word but that we will actually take our knowledge and apply it out in the “real” world we live in daily! 

I am including a great illustration from Chuck Swindoll… I’m sorry that this makes for a LONG devotion….but it does teach us something really important about authentic Christianity.

 

Chuck Swindoll gives us a good illustration of this, in his book, Improving Your Serve:

"To make the value of obedience just a practical as possible, let’s play ’Let’s Pretend.’ Let’s pretend that you work for me. In fact, you are my executive assistant in a company that is growing rapidly. I’m the owner and I’m interested in expanding overseas. To pull this off, I make plans to travel abroad and stay there until a new branch office gets established. I make all the arrangements to take my family and move to Europe for six to eight months. And I leave you in charge of the busy stateside organization. I tell you that I will write you regularly and give you directions and instructions. I leave and you stay. Months pass. A flow of letters are mailed from Europe and received by you at the national headquarters. I spell out all my expectations. Finally, I return. Soon after my arrival, I drive down to the office and I am stunned. Grass and weeds have grown up high. A few windows along the street are broken. I walk into the Receptionist’s room. She is doing her nails, chewing gum and listening to her favorite disco station. I look around and notice the wastebaskets are overflowing. The carpet hasn’t been vacuumed for weeks, and nobody seems concerned that the owner has returned. I asked about your whereabouts and someone in the crowded lounge area points down the hall and yells, "I think he’s down there."

Disturbed, I move in that direction and bump into you as you are finishing a chess game with our sales manager. I ask you to step into my office, which has been temporarily turned into a television room for watching afternoon soap operas. "What in the world is going on, man?" "What do you mean, Chuck?" "Well, look at this place!

Didn’t you get any of my letters?" "Letters? Oh yes! Sure! I got every one of them. As a matter of fact, Chuck, we have had a letter study every Friday night since you left. We have even divided the personnel into small groups to discuss many of the things you wrote. Some of the things were really interesting. You will be pleased to know that a few of us have actually committed to memory some of your sentences and paragraphs. One or two memorized an entire letter or two - Great stuff in those letters." "OK. You got my letters. You studied them and meditated on them; discussed and even memorized them. But what did you do about them?" "Do? We didn’t do anything about them."

Let’s listen in order that we can do!

Joyfully,

Yvonne

Worry-Free Living

Great commands....straight from God's Word to our daily lives:

Six Words to Chase Away Your Worries:
WORRY ABOUT NOTHING - PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING!!

Philippians 4:6-7 (MSG)
⁶ Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.
⁷ Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

BE A BLESSING

I love this thought from Billy Graham,

    “We are not cisterns made for hoarding; we are channels made for giving.”

I think I would paraphrase Dr. Graham’s quote by saying this, “…. We are channels made for blessing others.

I listened to some sermons and read some commentaries on this subject and there are five ways I believe we can daily bless others:

1) Share God’s Word…and work

I am definitely NOT telling you to preach to everybody!  But sending a verse of Scripture in an email (or tweet, or fb message!!!) that immediately brings God’s love and wisdom to a person’s mind and heart is something we can do every day to lots of people.  When you can, share what God is doing in your life…what you are learning, how God is involved in who you are….it blesses others to know that God is ACTIVE and INVOLVED PERSONALLY.

2) Encourage Others

A “way to go”, a kind word, a pat on the back…so many little things we can do for others that will “make their day”….lift them up…put a smile on their faces.  Decide what would encourage yourself…and then do that for someone else! (For me…a free Starbucks at the drive-through…ha). Don’t just reserve this action for close friends and family…DO THIS FOR AN ABSOLUTE STRANGER… (I don’t think there is a sales clerk or a cashier who couldn’t use a pat on the back and a word of kindness!)

3) Let People Know How Much You Value Them

We all need to have a sense of worth.  Let people know they are important to you. Let us make gratitude and thankfulness our bywords not a “they know I love them” attitude.

4) Be Alert to Others’ Needs and DO SOMETHING

It isn’t always a monetary or physical need that has to be met….although that is what is often needed.   But, many times your friend, your coworker, your sister, your child … needs a listening ear, a bit of your time, a phone call… Be alert. And again, use your own heart…what might you need if you were in a similar situation and then do that for the person. (Hope that makes sense!)

5) PRAY

Don’t you dare think, “of course”.  I mean actually, and consistently pray…write it down and daily lift that person up.  If I tell someone I’ll be praying for them, I try to set a time to lift them up wherever I am… there is much power in short, silent supplications!  You can fill your days doing this and it doesn’t put you behind in your “to do” list!

My personal quote,    God does not mean for us to be water tanks but made us to be garden hoses…spraying blessings on everyone we meet.

 

Remember this old hymn? 

Make Me a Channel of Blessing

Is your life a channel of blessing?
Is the love of God flowing through you?
Are you telling the lost of the Savior?
Are you ready His service to do?

Refrain

Make me a channel of blessing today,
Make me a channel of blessing, I pray;
My life possessing, my service blessing,
Make me a channel of blessing today.

So, in closing, let me thank you for letting me share my thoughts with you – it is such a blessing and privilege for me.

Joyfully,

Yvonne