Weekend Blend

Welcome to the Weekend Blend at the Internet Cafe Devotionals!

We know that weekends are full! We understand! We want you to pull up a chair, find a table at the Cafe just for you. We've got a place to savor a sip as we serve up some of our favorite devotionals from the past. (The links are just below the menu!)
Enjoy!

First Love

&

Love the Ones You're With

Clean Your Room

It was a reasonable request – at least from where I stood. My desire fueled my mouth to form it. I didn’t understand the outburst. I was fairly certain there were others from Georgia to Thailand uttering the same simple appeal at the same exact time.

“Clean your room.”

“Please.” I threw in for good measure and because my mama taught me everything goes smoother with good manners.

But from the looks on my daughter’s face, she didn’t agree with the “reasonable” part of my petition. Her eyebrows scrunched low and her mouth was set in a straight fine line. The unrest in her attitude was not only from my request, but because my request didn’t include her brother, as well.

“But-” she started, “He helped me.” Meaning her one and only brother “helped” her make the mess, and he should have to “help” pick it up. “Just pick it up,” I told her pointing resolutely to the piles of Barbie dolls, dress-up clothes, stuffed animals, Hot Wheel cars, and pillows.

“Hmmph.” My five-year-old daughter stomped her feet and jerked her body towards the disarray. She began to toss and pitch toys here and there. When she found something belonging to her brother, her eyes would squint low as she marched across the hall to his room to throw the item on his floor with another, “Hmmph.”

Her body was going through the motions, but her heart was lying on the floor kicking its feet. Was I still happy with her actions?

True obedience comes from the heart.

King Saul was told to “go attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them.” (1 Samuel 15:3 NIV) Saul did wipe out the Amalekites as he was told. Only, “the soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord.” (v. 21) Saul was specifically told to destroy all of the cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys. Instead he saved the best of them for a sacrifice.

Was the Lord still happy?

"Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king." 1 Samuel 15:22 NIV

I’d say that was a pretty clear answer. Sometimes we think we are fooling God because we are doing the “right” thing, but in our hearts we are rebellious. Saul was arrogant and made a sacrifice to God only after he erected a monument in his own honor for the defeat of the Amalekites – the defeat God placed in his hands.

My daughter cleaned her room, but her obedience was in deed alone. How clean are the rooms in your heart? Do you have piles of rebellion? Stacks of self? Or scatters of attitude?

Well, you know what I’m going to say. And I think I’ll take my own advice.

“Clean your room!”

Visit Carol at sheep to the right!

Remaining....

Please Welcome our Guest Barista, Joye Dicharry!

A screen just blinked on my laptop and it read, "You are running on reserve power."

The battery icon is almost depleted revealing that only 5 percent of it's energy is
remaining. I'm not at home and I forgot my power cord. Great, just great. My only free time and
now this happens.

God is sitting beside me and we slowly share a smile.

"Okay, Lord. I know you're trying to get my attention here. You've been trying for
some time. I'm running on reserve power, aren't I?"

I haven't been staying plugged in to my power source. I've been trying to live on
yesterday's Word, on yesterday's sustainment.

I glance at the Bible on my side table that I haven't opened in close to three days (gasp,
I did just admit that) and I know what it is I need to do. Jesus' words rush in to remind me,

"Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me."
{John 13:3-4}

What does that look like? This remaining?

I ask and the answer comes.

"If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and
it will be given you...As my Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now
remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just
as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told
you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete."
{John 15:7, 9-11}

His Word in me. Remaining.

I in obedience. Remaining.

His joy in me. Remaining.

I in His love. Remaining.


My dear Jesus,

I want to do more than just read my Bible and pray like a good girl should. I want to
get it IN me--to hide your word in my heart--one scripture at a time until it
becomes who I am.

In Him,

Joye


Joye is a mommy to three little messy blessings--toddler twins and a
preschooler--with another little one the way. Joye longs to make God's heart her home
and blogs about it at http://thejoyefuljourney.blogspot.com.

Over Thinking--Hmm, Can We Do That?

I'm a thinker. It's how I'm wired. Oh, of course, I laugh and cry and what-not, but when it comes to processing anything, it goes through an extensive system of thought.

Pipes of pondering, I'd say. Thoughts about one concept, problem, or anything really, can travel down the pipes of my mind for days, if not weeks!

Nothing wrong with thinking through things. Nothing wrong with having an inquisitive mind. Nothing wrong with the way I'm wired by God....unless, I let it turn into what Joyce Meyer called "excessive reasoning."

You see, one of my greatest strengths is the fact that I'm a thinker. However, I'm realizing it can be one of my greatest weaknesses. I can become obsessed with an idea or problem, to the point that it can wreck my faith.


Joyce put it this way.

Reasoning occurs when we try to figure out the "why" or "how" behind something. When we reason excessively, our minds revolve around and around a problem as we try to understand it, which causes a whirlwind of worry and confusion.

This one really got me.

As soon as you become confused, you have left off pondering and gone into excessive reasoning.

Yep, that can most certainly be me. Here's what God says on the whole thing.

...a mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8:6

That is a great measuring verse for us. If our minds are full of chaos and confusion, then we need to let God control them. It is work and requires us learning how to settle down and believe. I know this is something I'm going to have to work on for sure. I guess I should say, it's something I'm going to let the Spirit work on in me.

I'll try not to think about it too much. ;)

Natalie

Find me at my blog!

The World Didn't Stop For My Broken Heart

And I wondered why.

I wondered why everybody seemed to be able to go about their merry way, doing their normal activities, thinking their normal thoughts when I was just trying to get my bearings for a new season in life that would not include my father.

That was almost 20 years ago. And, just recently my husband had to walk the road of losing his father.

Death is part of life and is inevitable, just like taxes. So, why do we get surprised when someone departs from this earth especially after living on it for nearly 80 years?

Pain, I suppose. Change, probably. A new normal, absolutely.

Regardless of the sadness my husband, his mother, his five siblings and the rest of us are enduring, I can guarantee you this: We are not grieving as those who don't have hope.

We all know Whom we have believed in. We know Who holds the future in His very capable hands. We know that His Spirit will comfort us like no person or possession ever could.

Wherever you are, whatever you've been through, whatever you will walk through in the future...God loves you and wants the best for you.

Of this, I can promise.