Love, Lights, Shocks and Blocks

 Greetings to all you sisters in Christ, scattered around the world!

Let our lights so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven! (Matthew 5:16)  

There's always so much going on that sometimes I just don't know what to pick to post here for you sisters.  An update, a witnessing experience, a keeper at home subject etc...all of which, hopefully, is an encouragement in one way or another.

Today I thought I'd do a post on love, lights, shocks and blocks.  Maybe with some other things added into it, we'll see as I go:-)

Love.  God's Word teaches us that love (agape) is not just a feeling, it's an action.  When it comes to husband and wife there is to be agape love as well as a more close love between to people but for the sake of not teaching theology here, I just wanted to give some examples of that sort of love in a simple manner in our life.

The world teaches to show love on certain days, buying things people really don't need, making a big deal out of things like that, when God's Word says we are to love one another daily.  When you are married and in Christ, you have no need to be doing those such things all the time as they become superficial.  What Christians need to strive for is for a consistent, daily basis of such things...seeing the small things your partner (or other loved ones) do for you and seeking to do the same for them.  Brother Jim and I were talking about this lately and I thought I'd share why.

See this light?

That's an act of love to brother Jim.  We like to sit outside the van whenever we can in the evenings after we've parked and sometimes people come up to talk.  While working online ministry in the dark can be done, it is nice to have a keyboard light, such as this one I found for him a year or so ago.  It's been priceless and he's so thankful for it. 

He recently did something for me.  I posted the other day how brother Jim had to do some work on the van...

But I never said what he was doing.  He was doing a great act of love for me, in a parking lot with limited tools.  I deal with a daily issue of internal troubles and our van can be bouncy, which jars my insides quite a bit.  I've never really said anything about it but brother Jim went through the trouble to add air bags to the suspension and new shocks.  It was not a simple feat and he paid the price for it the next couple days, that was love and the ride is so much nicer now:-)

I'm sharing this because sometimes we can take for granted, what someone does for us.  We may think that things are 'expected' or just something someone should do but we should look deeper at what was the intent behind it.  Love is shown in many different ways from cooking a favorite food to not cooking a food someone doesn't like:-)

Let's go a bit deeper now.  How about we learn to show an act of love and overlook the faults of someone in our life.  Or their irritating traits that may get on our nerves.  Or work hard not to be offended when they treat you in a manner that annoys you.  Can we do such things even if they don't notice us doing them?  That would be a true act of love, not getting recognition for it, amen sisters?

Too often we can be looking at others and what they should do when we should be examining ourselves to see what we can do to make the situation better; then allow God to deal with other person.  Ponder 1 Peter 3 in having a meek and quiet spirit.  Hey there's a novel idea of love, being meek and quiet around our husbands! That doesn't mean a woman doesn't speak, of course she can!  It's an inner mannerism that is not one to be pushy, loud, boisterous, bossy, having to be heard etc.

If we work hard in ourselves to be obedient daughters of the most high, that's not only an act toward the Father but also our husbands who we are to respect / reverence.  Yes, these traits are good for a single sister in dealing with other people. 

Here's another example of love that brother Jim bestowed upon me.  When we were out in the wilderness after having left the wickedness of street preaching, he found these on a gravel road, far from anyone.  

Before I tell you what they are, let me reiterate what I've shared with you before.  When you live in a van in parking lots, parks and the wilderness, it's not always level.  Sometimes you wake up with the blood in your head and sometimes more down in your feet depending on how the van is tilted.  Sometimes it's sideways and we both end up on one side of the van when we wake up, gravity having moved us through the night.  I try not to say too much because sometimes there's nothing we can do and it affects my much more physically than brother Jim so I work hard to simply being thankful for a place to rest.

In comes those yellow things.  The other night when we stopped, we were at a slope, at least it was side to side which is better than front to back.  I went into the store and came out to find that brother Jim took the time to use these blocks to level the van. 

I took a video of him rolling off them the next day before we left.  The funny thing about all this is that brother Jim said one time that he might get some (after we had a night of unlevelness, if that's a word.)  Not long after, he found those two in the middle of nowhere:-)  Praise God for small things.

Here's another act of love.  Brother Jim really likes snack foods for meals so I try to make sure I always have the ingredients on hand to whip one up at the last minute, especially when we've been on the streets all day and we're tired.  Here's a quick recipe that we both enjoy.

Tuna (or Salmon) salad plus.

I start with a can of either tuna or salmon, add a chopped hard boiled egg, a small diced tomato some mayo and sometimes I add an avacado if I find one on sale.  Mix it up and it's great served on crackers or tortilla chips with olives. (We eat a lot of olives:-)

I like to portion mine out and make up each one but brother Jim likes to just scoop his out of the bowl. Kinda like the guy vs girl thing:-)  (I did a fun post a while back about the differences between men and women, you can check it out HERE.)  There's another act of love, recognizing the differences and learning how to deal with them in a peaceable manner:-)

We've been through many different terrains lately, one of which is not a usual sight for us.

We stopped off the side of the road to check on something in the back of the van when brother Jim spotted some cactus.  What amazing creations with the protection of the spikes.  (Like a porcupine that has all it's quills to protect it.)

It's been super windy today as well as rain off and on while we traveled and it looks the same tomorrow.  We hope this weekend is clear as we plan on witnessing at our destination, Lord willing!

We're just living our life for the Lord, in the way we have been called, doing our best in this life to bring glory and honor to our Father in heaven.  I pray you are all doing the same in your lives, not compromising and standing strong on the truth!

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16

Brother Jim shares his love with the brethren in a post from the his teaching blog:

http://spiritandtruthdiscernment.blogspot.com/2020/09/our-favorite-lil-nebraska-lake-and.html

I leave you with more of our Fathers awesome creation.

I can't pass up taking pics of flowers, hopefully you enjoy them too:-)

Love and blessings to you all.

Sister Deb.

The biblical gospel...

https://www.dontperish.com/the-gospel.html