Wonderful Names of God

Want some wonderful and relaxing entertainment? Color the Names of God. That’s what I’ve been doing this past week while trying to adapt to my new environment.

If you have a Christian bookstore close to you, they might have the book or they could order it for you. It’s called Color the Names of God, a coloring book for adults, published by Harvest House Publishers. The artwork is done by three artists from Dugan Design Group in Minneapolis, Minnesota, using the name Marie Michaels.

Jesus, the most wonderful name, a name that is above all names. At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

What a privilege to know Him here on earth and enjoy his presence every day!

I’ve read that God has over 100 names. I can’t confirm it but I believe it. God probably has more names than that, names that we don’t even know. His names tell his character and attributes.

Elohim –-God– was the first revealed name, in Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning God…” Then throughout Scripture we find him revealing himself in so many ways.

“Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10) has been a comfort for me throughout the years. Whatever comes my way I rest in the assurance that things will work out because my life is in God’s hands. The same assurance I have now about my present circumstances. I tell my soul to be still and know that God is God and that he will work things out for me.

The same assurance you can have!

The personal name of God is YHWH. We pronounce it Jehovah.

“I am who I am,” God said when he revealed himself to Moses (Exodus 3:13,14).

The ancient Hebrew scholars considered this name so sacred that they did not even want to pronounce it. They substituted it with other words like Adonai (Lord) or Hashem (The Name).

Jehovah-Raah — The Lord is my Shepherd (Psalm 23:1).

Since I was a child this has been our blessing at every meal, a daily triple reminder that God takes care of our every need.

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1).

Jehovah-Sabaoth — The Lord of Hosts.

This name occurs about 250 times in the Bible. Sabaoth means to assemble. The Lord of Host is the translation of Sabaoth linked with Jehovah. God, the Captain of angelic beings he can assemble to do his bidding. He has never known defeat!

“The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory” (Psalm 24:1).

Trust your life completely in the hands of Jehovah Sabaoth!

Jehovah-Mekoddishkem –The King who makes holy.

This name occurs two times in the Old Testament — in Exodus 31:13 and Leviticus 20:8.

It is connected to the decree of keeping the Sabbath holy.

“I am the Lord who sanctifies you” (NIV).

“You shall be holy, for I am holy” ( 1 Peter 1:16). The Holy God, who commands us to be holy, He himself, sanctifies us to be holy. Praise his name!

Search “Names of God” on Google and start reading about all the awesome names of our Heavenly Father. That’s where I have gotten the information for this blog. All my personal resources are at home where I can’t get to them.

We will continue exploring the wonders of our Great Personal and Powerful God.

May you continue to be blessed!

Transplanted to Bloom

Even a transplanted plant can flourish and bloom. I have gone through a difficult transplanting period but I’m not ready to give up. I want to bloom in my new environment. I want to be a shining light for Jesus. I want to be a soul-winner. I want my life to count for eternity.

I wrote this at 2:30 am yesterday when I had a hard time going to sleep, thinking too much about the big changes that have occurred in my life and how I want to make the best of my present situation.

“Bloom where you are planted!” I have heard it many times and I have passed it on for encouragement. Now I see myself as being transplanted, uprooted! So I thought in the wee hours of the night that even someone transplanted can bloom. Thus the title of this blog.

The hardest thing at the moment is to adapt myself to my cramped quarters. Moving from a house to a shared room is a big change. A bed, a nightstand and a tiny table, like those they have in the hospital to serve your food while you are in bed, are the furnishings. I have brought my armchair that I use when I write and I have a box with files of information to use for the book I plan to write.

On top of the box I have organized my coloring pencils in plastic cups. All the shades of red in one cup, all the blues in another, all the greens… and so on. That way it’s easy to chose the color I want to use.

The last few days I’ve been coloring pages with the names of God. Cristina is helping me put the photos of the colored pages into images that I can show here. Several of them I have taped to the wall by my bed.

Of course, there is also the closet for my clothes. Things that I don’t have any place to put end up on the bed. At night they are piled on the chair so I can have space to sleep.

I will continue writing tomorrow because I have a very talkative roommate that has interrupted me all evening. I let her talk and show me pictures on Facebook.

My friend Ximena from Bolivia reminded me of how we used to pray that I would get a friend, someone to talk to, because I was so lonely. Now I have my answer.

Blessings!

One More Day

I will have to be a little more creative with titles for my blogs, but this will do for now. It’s evening. I have progressed some in my plan of writing my life story. I’ve been reading some stories my parents wrote about their life of missionary adventures. And also some of my stories.

Here I am in the setting of my present life. It looks like I’m sleeping but it’s a shielding mechanism for my eyes. There is a very bright light in the room. I now have that light turned off and just use the light of a side-table lamp.

I came across a reminder of how God brought my assistant Cristina into my life. It was some 10 years ago, on her birthday. She was walking the streets of Lima, Peru, very discouraged because she had lost her job.

Cristina decided to call me. She had been helping me on a voluntary basis with some art work. So I offered her a job as my assistant. A while later I was called into the office of the manager where I worked and was told I no longer had a job.

“Lord, I can’t go back on my word to Cristina,” I prayed. This was on a Friday. On Monday I had a call from another company, and they offered me work on a project that would stretch for three years, but they didn’t know how it would work out financially, because it was based on donations.

It worked out, and I had money to pay Cristina. And it’s been working out ever since. We don’t know how the future looks in my present situation, but she is willing to continue our work together even if I can’t compensate her financially.

God is faithful to his Word, that he will supply all our needs according to his riches in glory. We will take one day at a time and trust in God’s grace and mercy.

God brought us together in a time when she lost her job and I lost my job. That left us with time to work on a job God had for us in his Kingdom. He has provided our needs for food, shelter and clothing, and we have worked on lessons and activities covering the entire Bible, except for Prophets and Kings that we are working on now.

The materials are all in Spanish, but if you go to hermanamargarita.com and click on some of the many links it might give you an idea on what I’m talking about. I went there today and was amazed at the resources available. It’s awesome to loo back at the results of ten years of dedicated hard work!

If you go to MX1414.wordpress.com you can find the resourses I have been able to provide in English. I also have translated some of the material to Swedish, which are at chelund.wordpress.com.

This will be all for today. My eyes cannot handle the light from the computer anymore. Tomorrow will come soon enough.

God bless you!

My First Full Day

This is not the first day at the nursing home but it’s the first day that I feel my life is taking the new shape it will have. As one of the nurses said, “This is not the Hilton”. It sure is not, but there are worse places I could have ended up in. So I am thankful

I was looking for a space to work on my computer. Close to my room there is a beauty shop that is also used to have meetings and such. I will sit on the couch, have my keyboard on my lap, put my feet on a stool so they don’t swell up, have the computer on my walker… ya, that’s about it. What a drastic change!

Here is a picture that will give you some idea. Tomorrow I’ll have another one, hopefully.

We had an activity this afternoon. It was a pie action. We were given pretend money so we could bid on individual pies and then buy them with the money, a total of $625.00. I saved my money to bid on the one big pie, a pecan pie. One other lady and I ended up bidding on the pie, and since we had both been given the same amount of cash we couldn’t outbid each other. So we ended up splitting the pie!

My daughter came for a short visit. And that was my day.

The internet connection is very slow. The light in the beauty shop is very bright and hurts my eyes. I will have to continue tomorrow.

Sweet dreams!

The final stretch

Well, I guess it has to come to that. I am now on my final stretch, living in a nursing home. Due to my neuropathy I have become a fall risk and it’s not safe for me to live alone anymore, so I’ve had to relinquish my life as I knew it and my quarters are now reduced to a small space that houses my bed a nightstand, a tray table and a small table for my computer. I have a roommate and I have to get used to the “joys” of snoring. Since this person likes to go to to bed around 7 pm it can be quite an interesting dynamic.

I was kind of depressed about the entire situation but praise God he has helped me to see a silver lining. I’ve decided to use my time well and finally write my memoirs. I want to leave my grandchildren and whoever would be interested the story of my missionary journey.

Hopefully I can be a joy-spreading representative of Jesus in this place. There are not many residents to interact with in a productive way but maybe I can bring them some cheer.

I’m holding on to the Apostle Paul’s outlook, who had learned to be content in what ever circumstance he was in. See Philippians 4:11-13. I am not proud to say that I did not feel this way when I came here… but, as I said, God he has helped me to see a silver lining. All glory to Him!

I hope to set up a little “office” in my small space. Both my roommate and I agree we each need a chair to sit on while we write write. The bed is uncomfortable for that practice. I hope the people in charge here will agree to some fixing up in the room.

Whatever your situation is I urge you to put it in God’s hands. Jesus will help you through! Pour your heart out to Him. There is no one like the Lord to comfort and help us.

I forgot to mention my walker. That trusted friend also fits in the space and helps me navigate from the bed to the bathroom, out to the hall and down to the dining room. That’s about it. My life has sure been reduced to a minimum. Right now my biggest prayer is for the Lord to help me with the layout of the room. No one has better ideas then the Holy Spirit. He is our Helper. I rely on Him in all situations.

I’ll give an update and hopefully pictures of the end-results of transforming my tight living space for the final stretch.

Blessings!

Prayers needed

Dear Friends,

I’ve been battling chest congestion and weakness for a while. Now my assistant Cristina is sick in bed. Please pray for us that we soon will be restores to health so we can continue our ministry. Jesus Christ is our Great Physician.

Have you tried the “Dove” chocolates? They come with some inspirational thoughts in the wrappers. Here are three to think about:

“Every moment matters, including this one!“
(Autumn B., Florida)

“A smile is the quickest way to brighten a room!”
(Jessica D., South Carolina)

“Throw kindness around like confetti.”
(Molly B., Kansas)

Blessings!

Fall Greeting

Dear Friends, I’m so sorry it’s been a quiet year on this blog. I had some technical problems but mostly it has been a dry spell; but today I decided that has to stop.

I have bookshelves of journals. This morning I picked up one from 2018 full of treasures. I was very diligent in my Bible studies that year, so now I will share some of those treasures here.

My life is quite “boring” at present. My only outing is once a week for dinner at my daughter’s house. I continue somewhat with my Spanish Bible lessons and stories online, I crochet and watch television… that’s it!

Now is a new day and I will take up my teaching mantle. A teacher is what I always wanted to be, and teaching is what I love. So, to bring some new energy and purpose into my life, my blog-friends will be my students. Fasten your seat belts and join me for what I hope will be an inspirational journey.

Fall is no the way in my corner of the world. I wish you all a happy and blessed fall season!

Life’s Marathon Race

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1,2 ESV

I love how The Passion Translation® of the Bible renders the “race” that is set before us: Life’s Marathon Race. As you can see by the header for my blog I have chosen ENDURANCE as my emphasis for this year.

By the way, Happy New Year! May this be your best year so far. Better and better is what we look forward to.

We who speak English are very privileged. Many people around the world don’t have God’s Word in their own language. I counted to over 60 English translations of the Bible in www.biblegateway.com.

I’ve picked out a few of the different renditions of how we are to run Life’s Marathon Race. With endurance, patience and active persistence. With passion and determination. With the will to never quit or give up.

“run with endurance the race that is set before us” – ESV
“run with endurance and active persistence” – AMP
“run with patient endurance the race” – LEB
“run with patience the race that is set before us” – KJ21
“run with perseverance the race marked out for us” – NIV
“run life’s marathon race with passion and determination” – TPT
“run the race that is before us and never quit” – ERV
“run the race that lies ahead of us and never give up” – GW

from some of the translations

How can we run the race? We are to look back at the “great a cloud of witnesses” that we read about in Hebrews chapter 11, men and women that are our heroes of faith. And we are to look ahead -look to Jesus, “the founder and perfecter of our faith.” What better New Year’s Resolution could there be?

Jesus will help us run Life’s Marathon Race with Endurance. That is my challenge for you this year. Of course, I challenge myself first of all. I pray for each one of you, my dear readers, that it will be a victorious race!

There is so much more I would like to say, but I have increasing problems with typing due to neuropathy. I will go back in my archives and find material to encourage us in the race. I hope we can run together with endurance, this 2022.

Some translations of Hebrews 12:1,2

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. NIV

So then, with endurance, let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and perfecter. He endured the cross, ignoring the shame, for the sake of the joy that was laid out in front of him, and sat down at the right side of God’s throne. CEB

Such a large crowd of witnesses is all around us! So we must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially the sin that just won’t let go. And we must be determined to run the race that is ahead of us. We must keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete. He endured the shame of being nailed to a cross, because he knew that later on he would be glad he did. Now he is seated at the right side of God’s throne! CEV

As for us, we have all of these great witnesses who encircle us like clouds. So we must let go of every wound that has pierced us and the sin we so easily fall into. Then we will be able to run life’s marathon race with passion and determination, for the path has been already marked out before us. We look away from the natural realm and we focus our attention and expectation onto Jesus who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith’s perfection. His example is this: Because his heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be his, he endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation, and now sits exalted at the right hand of the throne of God! TPT